tunetardis

Thanks for the clarification. ULA it is then.

But wow, that's so cool that you got to work on Vulcan! Must be a huge relief that it aced its inaugural launch given all the new tech in there. I hope you're out celebrating someplace. You've earned it! :)

Ok, I am interested in anyone with specific knowledge on this topic indicating whether the first order mental image I have of battery tech is correct?

The way I understand it is that the highest energy density batteries are your non-rechargeable lithium cells like watch batteries. Rechargeable lithium-ion cells have perhaps half the capacity due to the fact that they need to add measures that prevent these dendrites, as mentioned in the article, from forming. So the Holy Grail here is to develop a rechargeable technology that prevents the dendrite problem without sacrificing capacity so that you can get the best of both worlds? And that is what they are working on here with the solid state design. Am I close to the mark?

I've been reading up on this a bit. Apparently, the Vulcan Centaur is the ULA's new rocket which replaces Russian RD-180 engines with BE-4s they sourced from Blue Origin. Blue Origin themselves are working on their New Glenn rocket which will use these engines. It's interesting that the ULA (United Launch Alliance: Boeing and Lockheed's rocket company) got to try them out first.

It's also interesting that they are powered by methane. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first successful launch of a methane rocket? SpaceX's Starship also uses methane engines. Apparently, they have a number of advantages over the more traditional kerosene. For example, they don't leave any residue that can gunk up the works and affect reusability. I am not an expert on any of this, however, so feel free to correct me.

I remember being in the bathroom with my aunt when I was a little shy of turning 4.

She had been staying with us to help my mom with the kids, but had to leave the country as her temporary visa was expiring. I had grown quite attached to her, and the morning she left, she took pity on me and let me follow her around everywhere. Even into the bathroom. I also remember being at the airport and watching her plane take off. But my mom said it took weeks for me to accept that she was really gone and I kept looking for her around the apartment. I don't remember that part.

Today, she lives a few hours away from me at nursing home. I plan to visit her around the new year.

If you have the time, I recommend Adam Conover's podcast interview of Corey Robin about What Liberals Get Wrong about the Right. It answered a lot of questions like this for me.

Flipboard. That's a news reader for phone/tablet right? I think I used to use it a number of years ago.

Then I started wanting finer control over my newsfeeds and got into RSS clients. But this is an interesting development in that it provides a lower-level way to access Flipboard content that might suit me better?

I wish Apple News would do something like this. I subscribe to it to get around certain paywalls, but it seems pretty unscriptable.

Anything you see on LockPickingLawyer.

"And then not only are EVs more expensive, but their own salespeople are untrained. They don't even know how to answer most of the questions they get. A lot of them have 100–200 percent turnover of their sales staff in a given year," Reigersman told me.

This seems not good. I might have been slightly more sympathetic to the dealers before reading this?

That's a lot of good info. Thanks!

I hadn't considered the noise issue. I often wear noise-cancelling ear cans while I'm working. I wonder if they might help?

That's great! Good to know. I remember staying at a hotel in rural Mexico where they had a cistern on the roof. Basically just a big metal tank, and even that thing heated enough that it was comfortable to shower when I'd come back from the beach in the afternoon. So it doesn't surprise me that a purpose-built water heater could do quite well.

I've been considering replacing the central a/c in my house with a heat pump to handle home heating as well, but never thought about heating water that way also. That's interesting. Can you get a single heat pump system that does both?

Where water heating is concerned, I do know a guy who set up a solar water heater, and he made some compelling arguments for it. Like he considered rooftop solar panels initially to generate electricity, but opted for water heating instead. He pointed out that while electric panels are maybe 20% efficient, water heating is nearly 100% efficient, and his system works so well that it even needs to shut off every now and then to prevent overheating. Anyway, I'm not vouching for this personally since I have no experience with it, but I'm just throwing it out there another possible approach?

As a software developer, some problem I was working on during the day occasionally pops back into my head at night, usually around bedtime like that meme with brain talking to the girl. I used to fight it, thinking hey they're not paying me for this. This is my personal time.

But over the years, I've realized it's best to follow through on the train of thought until it resolves somehow and I know what to do tomorrow. Then I get a good night's sleep. I think of it as kind of an occupational hazard at this point.