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I heard some new guys were running it federal bureau of something

I believe Amazon impose a whole bunch of conditions on people publishing on their platform. Along the lines of exclusivity and controlling where else if at all you can sell it. I'm pretty sure Corey Doctorow extensively covered this.

Yes they do. One particularly annoying one is about pricing: price can't be zero. If you write as a hobby and don't care about making a dollar, then Amazon gets in the way. Sure, you can publish in Amazon and charge 1 USD, but then you can't publish your book on your own website for free because it goes against Amazon's TOS.

There are other peeves. Covers for example: it's against the TOS to have a cover that shows female nipples, but it's okay to show male nipples. Beyond the sexism of the rule, I'm worried that the way to enforce this is to have some ML system checking all the covers and making judgements about nipples. Which means you have to ask your cover artist to not draw anything that may accidentally look like the wrong kind of nipple \o/ .


Reminds me of happy memories of traveling ca.2001 with an ebook on my visor edge


It's going to be one helluva show. Which ever way it goes. Best of luck to SpaceX


I don't follow these things often: How is this different than the four before?


First attempt to catch the booster back at the launch site.

The "mechazilla" launch tower has two "chopstick" arms which are used to pick up and stack both stages and which are intended to be able to catch the returning booster and maybe also the returning Starship upper stage.


> has two "chopstick" arms ... which are intended to be able to catch the returning booster

Do you mean this literally? As in something like Mr. Miyagi catching a fly with chopsticks in the orig Karate Kid?


Yes. The booster has two pins that stick out at the top that are designed to hold the weight of the entire booster when empty. The plan is for the booster to return to the launch tower, position itself between the arms which will close on it and then the pins will “land” on the arms, completing the catch.


I’d say the main difference, then, is that the booster will be supported by those pins resting on top of the arms. Chopsticks use friction to hold up their load.


yes the booster’s structure is very strong vertically but not nearly as strong horizontally. There may be some “squeezing” forces from the chopsticks but this is effectively for fine positioning only. It will not support the weight. The booster will “land” by getting its pins (which stick out a bit) on the top rail of the arms.


The arms are also used to lift the rocket onto the pad, so can carry the full weight, not "just" the empty.


The rocket is not filled until the last minute, by fueling arms on the tower. And the weight is like 90% fuel, so it makes a pretty big difference.


Thanks for the explanation! That makes it much more interesting than simply another launch


Main difference (besides scale) is that the booster is cooperating with the chopsticks, navigating to hover at a point between the arms.


Yes, literally, but the arms are massive and not directly controlled by humans.


It should be better described as having the booster land on the arms. The arms will probably be able to adjust a little to assist in alignment, but the booster is doing most of the work to be 'caught'.


They do have to be wide open and close pretty fast once the end on the booster had passed them.


How could it possibly be meant literally? Do you consider it possible for a rocket to be caught by a literal person with literal wooden sticks?

I guess I don't really understand what you are asking. There's a tower with some huge metal arms that is meant to catch the rocket. They call them chopsticks in a joking manner. Obviously, I would have thought.


>How could it possibly be meant literally? Do you consider it possible for a rocket to be caught by a literal person with literal wooden sticks?

in ordinary English there are many degrees of "literally".


In ordinary English literally is a synonym of figuratively since 2013



Yeah I totally envisioned a person holding wooden chopsticks trying to catch a booster /s

You missed the quoted part about > which are intended to be able to catch

Which would be the unique thing to clarify. As in "something like" the "chopsticks" moving to > catch < the thing -- Like Mr. Miyagi moving the chopsticks to > catch < the thing


What benefit does catching the booster provide? (Or, what's a good written guide to that system?)


It allows removing the landing gears on the booster, which saves wheight, which saves fuel, which increases efficiency and reduces costs. It also avoid having to fetch the booster from wherever it would have landed.


What others said is true, but I think the endgame is also to literally land on the launchpad, allowing for a quick turnaround.


Don’t need landing legs/gear on the ship. Saves weight


Given that a lot of the landing failures we've seen started with a near perfect landing followed by the rocket tipping over, I suspect one benefit is that the contact point is now above the center of gravity and thus it can't really tip over.

Of course, it can't tip over unless something fails or the rocket ends up in the wrong spot (and fails to get caught) and the previous tip-overs also had to involve failures (of the landing strut, in the latest loss) or landing in some way that isn't perfectly aligned.


This is the first time they are going to attempt to catch the booster using their launchpad.

Either you'll see one of the most impressive technical achievements in human history, or a very cool explosion.


Their launch license requires them to initially aim at the water, and only shift to aiming at their tower if both the booster internally judges it's in perfect health, and they send the signal from their control system.

I think there is a reasonable possibility that something goes wrong enough at some point for the booster to go in the drink. But if that happens, maybe it'll be close enough to the shore that we'll get some nice video of it?


This is also standard procedure for Falcon 9 landings. They would do it this way even if the launch license didn't require it, because they know the probability of some sort of failure of the booster is high, and they don't want to destroy the launch tower if they can help it.


At the moment of landing burn ignition the booster will already target the beach near the tower.


Elon has pissed me off beyond all reason these last few years but when he says “excitement guaranteed”, it’s the truth.


They're going to try to catch the first stage on part of its own launch tower.


"According to the National Fire Prevention Agency, if an EV ever catches fire while you’re behind the wheel, immediately find a safe way to pull over and get the car away from the main road. Then, turn off the engine and make sure everyone leaves the vehicle immediately."

Which engine should I be turning off?


They should have written turn the ignition off ("ignition" also being a misnomer for EVs!). That will disconnect the battery, which won't stop the fire but will make firefighting slightly safer.


Presumably a reference to PHEVs.


I added a hotkeys for change subtitles scale...well worth it


This isn't about posting, it's really about controlling access and accountability. The SIM issue is the one that should be causing the concern.


I don't think so. If I pour hot water into a mug from the kettle, it sounds different with cold water with all the same equipment, room etc


That's my feeling as well. I can hear when the hot water has reached my shower.


I hear the same with my shower, but I'd wager most of the change in sound would be to do with pressure change between the hot and cold source.


That was what I thought at first too. However if it were pressure change, the sound would change when you move the knob, not when the hot water reaches the shower.


Also it's more-or-less the same pressure. It's the cold supply pressure pushing water out of your tank or through your tankless water heater.


Yes, the thermostatic mixing valve is worth understanding- it’s pretty neat.


In most plumbing (at least in the US), there is no difference in pressure between hot and cold because the hot input is the same cold water source.


I turn on the tap in the sink in the bathroom, when waiting for the hot water coming from the cistern. The water in the pipes have cooled down over night. I can hear the difference in the sound when it splashes in the sink, when it is hot. So yeah.


That doesn't surprise me at all. I can tell hot water from cold by how it looks when you pour it, (steam aside).


Your previous employer never bought AutoCAD, they licenced its use, paying a subscription. When you start working for them that licence was no longer available to you. So you would be unable to subsequently use it.


Unable legally, but I may find illegal ways. And the reason it is illegal to copy is copyright at the end. The license is only (legally) required because of copyright.


This...exactly


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