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Cake day: July 17th, 2023

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  • You are talking about Sea Launch, a subsidiary of Boeing (I think). They repurposed an old oil rig to launch rockets from the equator and had a cruise ship to take rockets and crew to the launch site and back to mainland.

    The issue was the logistics of getting everything/everyone out to the oil rig. It isn’t enough to just launch from the equator; you also have to launch far away enough from land that any mishaps won’t rain debris all over people. So you have to put that floating pad REALLY far away from land (plus however far your host country is from the equator). Additionally, rockets require a bunch of consumables to even get ready to fly. Liquid Helium, Nitrogen, Oxygen, fuel, etc. Those have to be shipped out to replenish them, and they can’t be easily replenished if you have too many launch scrubs. Plus the cost of paying/feeding the crew being on a cruise ship for weeks on end.



  • It depends on what they want to launch. It is poorly located for a geostationary satellite, yes. It is actually really good for a GPS launch, though. Nova Scotia is at 45 deg latitude with a coast line facing East/Southeast. That allows them to launch into orbits that are medium Inclination very cheaply, since Inclination changes are way more expensive than adding the extra speed launching at the equator adds. GPS is a 55 deg inclination. Starlink is between 43 and 70 deg inclination. Proliferated LEO constellations are the new hotness, and those will all be inclined, so this isn’t a terrible location.


  • It’s not necessary, just cheaper. It also depends on what orbit you want the satellite to go to and what direction the coast is facing. The extra speed you get from spinning slightly faster at the equator than at 45 deg latitude is not significant (500mph vs 25,000mph). Inclination of the orbit is way more important, since Inclination changes are VERY VERY expensive. So if you are launching geostationary satellites, like DirecTV or some other regional capability, then you want very close to the equator. If you are launching an inclined orbit, like GPS or LEO satellites like Starlink, then you can choose a location that is close in latitude to the inclination you want to hit. Or you can choose a location that has a coastal direction that allows you to aim your rocket over water at the inclination angle you want to hit.








  • That is only if this is called a war. It can be called a million other things that Republicans say are not the same thing as war. They’ve done it before, and the Dems know they will do it again. This will be a series of targeted strikes that are not retaliated against by Iran in any way that actually hurts Congress-people. Vietnam War wasn’t even actually a war. Congress approved troop deployments one time, but that’s about it.

    Additionally, Republicans have the majority in both houses. The only reason the shutdowns have occurred is because they needed more than a simple majority to get the budget passed. Declaration of War does not have any documented rules for whether it is simple majority or 2/3 vote or whatever. In the past, a simple majority was assumed since the votes were never close enough for it to matter.



  • No, this is poorly framed information. They don’t “require” on average 300% more fuel to run. The drivers choose to charge their cars 300% less often than manufactures suggest. This is skewed by rental and fleet cars whose users never charge the car, and by owners who treat their car as a normal hybrid instead of charging it. I was once given a plug-in hybrid van as a rental car but never told it was a PHEV. I didn’t figure it out until the next morning when I was walking up to it and saw the charging cover. My hotel didn’t have a charger, so I couldn’t really do anything about it; but if I were a normal person and not someone who has owned multiple EVs then I wouldn’t have even thought to charge it.

    Also, the Porsche one makes total sense. The car is going to burn through battery charge and then hit the gas engine faster when, as expected, Porsche drivers drive them like a Porsche.


  • OK, let’s talk facts, since that is what you are using to justify your casual racism.

    CA has a much larger population of Asian and Indian people than TX, with 17% Asian (including Indian) versus 6.4%. Based on your “factual” data, that would mean that CA should have more traffic accidents, right? Then why does TX have a 20% higher fatal accident rate than CA? Let’s say it is because they drive faster out there on the open roads than we do in crowded cities. Then why does TX have a 40% higher overall accident rate than CA? These are statistics adjusted by population, so it isn’t just because CA has a higher population. We drive in high traffic more often and should have more accidents. Yet we don’t.

    OK, let’s just say TX is its own crazy ass world, since it is. Let’s look at Santa Clara County versus Los Angeles County. Both are high population cities with high Asian populations and mild weather. Santa Clara County is 43% Asian, while LA County is 16.4% Asian. Based on your “factual” analysis, we should expect a MUCH higher traffic accident rate in Santa Clara County. Then why does LA County have a 30% higher accident rate than Santa Clara County?

    Look, it’s OK to be a little bit racist. We all are. Just recognize it and learn more about yourself and the world around you.