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I'd imagine something as important as docking would go more like USB-C adoption. There will be a standard, but a powerful holdout will insist on their proprietary solution because it's "safer" or something. Meanwhile everyone is shouting at them to just use the standard, until it's finally enforced by legislation.

The difference is something like phone ports and docking are things which end users readily benefit from having interoperability, so it's a selling point and there's market pressure to conform. Factories are bespoke installations and they often run without major changes for many years at a time. There's less pressure for them to have interchangeability when they don't move and don't interact with each other.


There is an international docking standard

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Docking_System_Standard
But if ever (hopefully) colonize space, would there be a single government to legislate standards? I'm less optimistic here: a feudal model seems more likely with widely spread, isolated communities.


I watched one of his videos and quit pretty early because it was boring. Thinking back on what I remember, it seems very weird.

It was the one where he "gave away" a chocolate factory, after he did the Willy Wonka thing with his chocolate bars where you could win a chance to be on the show. I clicked because I was curious what he was actually "giving away", if it was actual chocolate factory property, shares in his snack brand, or some disused industrial building. They had a "candy room" with plants supposedly made of real sweets but it looked like a cheap imitation of the Willy Wonka movie, the walls were mostly white and it seemed like it could have used more set dressing. The actual content was a game show (seems to be a lot of his videos) but it didn't make good use of the space they built, I think it was a basic scavenger hunt. Then the contestants had to throw a giant Mento into a giant Coke bottle, it was impressively large but the game wasn't exciting at all, they just threw the disc at the bottle over and over without any drama. MrBeast even said something like "we're going to be here a while" so he started their ad read, that's when I turned it off.

Unlike a TV game show or reality show the contestants had no characterization, they didn't play up any rivalries or reactions or drama. It seemed like they were there doing the most basic challenges so MrBeast could talk about what they made and give away something expensive at the end. I found it all very odd and it reinforced that I am very far from the median viewer since I found none of it interesting.


This is the last line of the linked article:

"Canadian news outlets have also reported on cases where people with disabilities have considered assisted dying due to lack of housing or disability benefits."


Okay, they have considered assisted dying. People consider things all the time. That's a very far cry from getting anywhere close to approved for assisted dying.


This woman was approved: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-chemical-sensitivit...

Edit: fixed link, was looking at two very similar ones and got them mixed up.


What right do you have to say this woman shouldn't be allowed to end her life though?

She spoke to two different doctors and they both agreed to sign off on her death. Do you think the doctors are the ones pushing people to off themselves because they can't live a normal life?

Forcing someone who wants to take the state sanctioned approach to suicide (as opposed to a 9mm sandwich) to talk to two medical professionals seems fine to me. Maybe there's some infinitesimal chance both those two doctors want as many people to die as possible, but eh.

Or, you know, they agreed that she deserved the ability to end her life on her terms. Most people do not take a year to plan and carry out their suicide. Speaking to a doctor is usually the only intervention necessary to help someone looking to suicide for temporary reasons.

When I was suicidal, having to get paperwork done would have stopped me from seeking out this method. Why would I want to interact with a doctor, another doctor, some bureaucracy, and now the news, when instead I could go to Walmart and walk out with a helium cylinder, a plastic bag, a hose, and some tape for $50?

A government doesn't HAVE to legalize euthanasia to push sad, lonely, poor, hurting individuals to kill themselves, they just have to continue defunding medical care and saying "Nope, nothing we can do here, you just have to suffer, can't afford to do better than that".


> What right do you have to say this woman shouldn't be allowed to end her life though?

Read the article. She really wanted appropriate housing, which was the care she needed for her condition. She tried for years, and they wouldn't give it to her.

So she chose assisted suicide instead.

That contradicts the claim "there haven't been such cases."


Her approval was based on an untreatable medical condition, and the suffering that ensued. That medical condition was made worse by the housing she had, but was not the cause of it.

You can't apply for MAID due to social conditions on their own, it has to be medically justified first and foremost.

It is an interesting case, but at the end of the day it was a medical decision made by doctors, and a completely separate housing decision made by social services. Neither can talk about the case publicly. It is entirely possible that her chemical sensitivity was so non-specific that it wasn't feasible to provide her with any housing.

The flip side of this is you don't want people to be able to use MAID as some sort of weird blackmail. This woman's stance was "I want a better place to live, or my only other option is MAID".


We had a saw with a mechanism that was non destructive and SawStop sued them out of the country (Bosch REAXX). It's why my feelings on SawStop are complicated, they say they're all about safety and willing to work with others but stomped out the only one that tried.


This would be great in engineering for specifications and such. We have product lifecycle management software to track document revisions and handle approvals but it doesn't integrate with .docx files, it just stores them. You have to download files manually and diff them in Word or Beyond Compare for redlines.


Don't be daft. Animals certainly interfered with awnings when they were common, but there weren't alternatives then.


The prestige of these schools is a significant, if not the main part of their appeal. Admitting too many students would cheapen their name. It's an open secret that the admissions processes for the elite US schools is far from meritocratic. They do admit many top performers, since it's part of their image, but also prioritize children of the wealthy and powerful, children of alumni, and other prospects with traits good for their image. For example there was a recent scandal where these schools were found guilty of handicapping Asian applicants because there were so many who were high performing. If they admitted all of those who qualified academically they would become "the school for Asians" and that's not the image they want.


I don't know where you're getting your data from, you're probably referring to the Harvard lawsuit.

Caltech in particular is race-blind, and the majority of people attending Caltech are Asian.


Hypothetically, if a situation like this were happening where self driving cars are causing a disruption in a particular area, could someone place traffic cones around the cars to prevent them from moving (and in the case in the article they'd presumably stop honking)?


Wouldn't a better solution be for Waymo to fix their logic instead of having to hack a workaround?


Well yeah of course, but there are going to be more bugs and they can't roll out fixes instantly.


How much is the subscription for the Garmin device? I'm curious because I bought my parents a personal locator beacon, since they are retired and hike constantly. It costs more up front but has no subscription, and I didn't want to gift something with a high recurring cost. There's no communication option, it's all or nothing - if it's activated they send the helicopters. On the plus side, it has a fixed 7 year battery life, so no need to worry about charging or it dying when you need it (if you remember the expiration date). I'm curious what Google will charge for their SOS feature and how it will compare to PLV or a satellite communicator.


It's $120 per year or $15 per month. That covers the SOS, 10 text messages and unlimited check-in messages.

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/837461/pn/010-06003-SU


One thing to bear in mind is that the iPhone based satellite connection is highly directional, meaning whoever is using it needs to be conscious and able to follow the on-screen instructions to align the phone with a certain point in the sky (within a few angular degrees.)

Whereas, in contrast, the Garmin inReach devices need "only" a clear sky view.


It's not cheap, about $12/month is cheapest plan, https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/837461. Pay 0.10c for tracking points, you have 10 text messages a month.

If you use it a lot, you'll start to increase your fees, I'm on the next higher plan which I think is $35/m. I should revisit that, it's a lot over a year ;-)

They have the basic devices (connect with phone, or emergency button), I have the one with maps built in. That one is awesome, it has worldwide city and trail maps. Maps works without a subscription, but I do use it for trips where there is no phone service more to get text messages.


They also charge you for time spent with service suspended. We finally canceled ours when my wife got an iphone with satellite SOS - it was pretty expensive for something we would typically use (activate, not actually use - we've never had to SOS) one or two months per year.


I assume you meant 10c and not 0.1c.

(See https://verizonmath.blogspot.com/)


yes, sorry


Which device did you choose for them?


I bought the Ocean Signal RescueME PLB1. It was the cheapest model I could find at REI. Not what I would necessarily choose for myself, but since it was a gift I wanted to buy it from a major retailer. I also got a basic model since all PLBs work in the same way and have similar capabilities. Higher price models only add features like strobe lights or additional test functions.


Thanks!


PLBs are not all or nothing.

You are supposed to register it with the local government org. In the US, that is the NOAA. When the PLB activates, the receiver which is either the Coast Guard or Air Force will attempt to contact you before they send the distress call to whatever local S&R there is. Obviously if they can't reach you, they will send help anyway.


I'm aware they will attempt to call you, I still think it is fair to call it all or nothing because the only reasonable response to a PLB activation with no response from the phone call is to assume someone is in mortal peril. If you do respond to the call, why did you activate the PLB when you could have called?


I recognize "A Court of Thorns and Roses" because my wife likes to complain about it. To hear her tell it, they're middling fantasy novels that are popular because they include graphic sex, but otherwise have a stereotypical plot and flat main heroine who is nevertheless irresistible to all the male characters. Sounds similar to how "Fifty Shades of Grey" captured the attention of an audience who wasn't previously familiar with that sort of content.


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