Makes me wonder if China isn’t pushing the whole thing. Get Mexico to just do the final manufacturing step so they can get around American tariffs on Chinese imports while still being the source for 98% of the parts.

I don’t actually know if that’s how any of that works. It’s just a thought.

Dogs are also as accurate as a coin toss. Essentially, it all comes down to what the officer thinks and their personal motivations, which is terrifying.

What a buffoon.

Yes, Trump did set in motion our plan to return to the moon – Project Artemis. But with the same order he ended the program that had us landing on asteroids, which was far more valuable in terms of learning about deep space, researching ways to harvest minerals, and testing ways we could intercept a large asteroid heading towards earth.

Did he do this for his love of space flight? No. He did it because the billionaires whispering in his ear want a shot at the commercial contracts.

Did he appoint an apolitical scientist or former astronaut to head NASA as has been standard protocol for ages? No, he appointed Jim Bridenstine, a Republican congressman from Oklahoma who has struggled to get funding approved because he won’t produce a detailed budget – only ballpark figures that would give him more flexibility to shift how funds are spent without approval.

Of course NASA doesn’t have any of the things it needs to get to the moon, so it’s almost all having to be built from scratch. A totally new lunar lander is needed for instance, and as you’d expect, Bridenstine is pushing for it to be completely outsourced. NASA (your taxes) will help fund the development, but the private companies will get to retain ownership of product. A bill to ensure NASA retained ownership of the hardware it’s paying to build was introduced and promptly went nowhere. Bridenstine ended up getting his way, of course, with initial contracts handed out to both Musk and Bezos.

Bridenstine hasn’t been TOO bad – he certainly could have done worse, but we deserve someone better.

So yes, on the bright side, more money is flowing into NASA and toward space exploration. On the other side, that money is going right into the hands of billionaires who create the products that they will then sell back to us.

The idea that Trump cares about space exploration is laughable. But what about Harris? Aldrin’s statement didn’t mention anything about her. Well, we don’t know about Harris because she’s never been president.

What we do know is that Biden appointed yet another politician to the top spot. Yay! But he also appointed a climate scientist to second-in-command, which is consistent with the party line that, at this time, the NASA budget should be focused on climate research over space exploration — not that anyone is listening to their warnings about the climate anyway. Biden has endorsed the Artemis program to return to the moon. However, Biden also “initiated an internal review” of the program in order to get an actual, realistic budget and timeline for completion. In summary, he really hasn’t helped or hurt NASA.

Neither candidate (or their parties) has shown significant care for NASA over the last eight years. With so many critical issues in the country right now, love for NASA has taken a back seat. That’s unlikely to change under a Harris administration.

That said, I’m voting for the person (and party) who believes in science, and who recognizes that the disastrous consequences of climate change are nigh, and who embraces concepts like “equity” and “inclusion”. Because at the end of the day, exploring space and protecting our planet are pursuits that affect our entire species, and the tools needed to ensure the long term survival of our species should belong to the people and not someone whose net worths is greater than some nations’. I’m voting for Kamala Harris.

Exactly, because if land determines votes, it gives them all the power.

Incite

That’s when you have inside knowledge about the person who said a quote. 😜

… after standing in line for four hours.

And how many of those won’t be able to get that time off work again or be able to get a babysitter again.

When Kris Kobach was able to go through Kansas voter rolls and remove “foreign sounding” names with no real consequences, I knew it would start a trend. Here we are.

Given this ruling I wonder what other voter registration purges we will see this week.

I’m tired.

Republicans banning birth control and criminalizing abortion actually seems worse than the door-to-door inquiries to me. Both are pretty disgusting.

American Sign Language?

“Cyber” 🙄

I have to admit you got me with that first sentence.

I believe that brings the number of women to 27.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations

Better headline here: https://lemmy.world/post/21263675

Friendly reminder that under Obama internet service providers we were classified as utilities under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.

Trump appointed Shit Pie, who reversed that rule as well as the net neutrality rule.

People, if you haven’t already, please vote.

That’s actually a very insightful theory.

But if I had to bet on it, I’d still put my money on outright stupidity.

A little of column A; a little of column B.

We all have those words that drive us crazy. Mine is when people pronounce associate as asso-SHE-ate.

It’s petty. Like really, really petty. But for some reason it grates on my nerves.

Also there’s an Reddit, user named random_commas or something like that. They leave legitimately good comments but with a few, extra commas in places that really fuck up the flow while reading. It gets me every single, time! I get all frazzled until I notice, the username and realize i’ve been had. Respect to that, person for having such a harmlessly evil schtick.

Men definitely use fashion to demonstrate opulence. The range of available styles is far more limited than what women get, but there’s still plenty of variation in that range to send social signals of one’s wealth. In fact it creates a more apples-to-apples point of comparison. I can’t personally look at two dresses and know which one costs more, but I can easily spot the expensive suit.

And don’t forget that sometimes casual clothing can be used as a status symbol too. In a conference room full of Armani suits, it’s not unheard of for the 26 year old at the head of the table wearing a hoodie and chucks to be the one calling the shots. <Insert Silicon Valley reference here>

By that logic every company would just run on linux. Free to use ≠ free to implement and support.

Who could you even trust to send the drive to? Anyone who could read it could take the money and just claim it couldn’t be recovered.