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Perhaps too provocative of a question for this forum:

Assuming that this plant (and potentially others) ends up substantially reproducing the capabilities that are currently available only in Taiwan, how much would that fact change the US'/the west's response to a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan?


It enhances the Taiwan plant's blowupability.

> To remove inequality requires a totalitarian government. Be careful what you wish for.

Are a lot of people actively and actually suggesting the full removal of inequality? Finding ways to reduce it is a very different thing.


Every step towards forcible equality is a step towards totalitarianism.

Instead, examine government policies that hold people back from being free. For example, making it difficult for a business to employ people.


Avoiding totalitarianism means recognizing the need for both public and private power structures counteracting each other, not going all-in on one of them alone.

Also progressive taxation (a moderate position) which avoids the authoritarian measures of both left and right while counteracting the cancerous effects of exponential growth.


This discussion needs to distinguish equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome. People don't mind playing games, but if they perceive the games' rules to be tilted (or some players to be cheating), then they will want to flip the board.

There will always be people who want to "flip the board".

The communists had equal opportunity. It didn't work out so well.

The magic ingredients are:

1. equality under the law

2. freedom


This is an outstanding analysis, thank you, and very succinctly summarizes my own views.

> ... I remember I did the same when I was in 10 people startups and it required A LOT of work to keep all these things running...

Honest question: how long ago was that? I stepped away from that ecosystem four or so years ago. Perhaps ease of use has substantially improved?


I think this author is effectively saying that the devices that are widely known as 'heat pumps' tend to be more efficient than devices that are widely known as 'air conditioners'.

If so, that does not sound like a correct claim.

Why do something annoying once when you can do it twice for twice the outrage?

Last night, just before full darkness, I was walking through the woods around our home in rural western Washington state and quite suddenly I'm looking at a surprised black bear. It was perhaps 4 meters away and immediately stood up and started huffing. I shouted at it and calmly walked away.

We don't live in a true old-growth forest, but it's pretty close. There are definitely many hundred year old trees.

We manage our five acres very, very minimally, and we're actively re-foresting most of the ~1ac of yards that were mowed prior to us moving here in 2020.

As another commenter said, this is the most beautiful natural environment I've ever seen, and we're extremely grateful that this has become our forever home.


Thank you for sharing this encounter and for re-foresting the land.

Wow, can you expand on that? Thanks!

I’d also like to know more about what you do.

See my above comments

Also seegull.org


See my other comments above, but basically were creating alternative infrastructure to the existing capitalist infrstructure starting with residential waste handling services in northern Virginia

Does anyone have a sense of how practically difficult it would be to detect an active Starlink installation?

Neat, do you have a quick reference handy? Thanks!


This is outstanding, thank you.

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