Food deserts also exist in urban areas, particularly poor and historically disadvantaged communities. No magic to capitalism - the local communities don't get a grocery because they can't pay (and, of course, other reasons), even if the population density is high.

"Food deserts" are a demand problem, not a supply problem. https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2019/decemb...

Not in the traditional sense - they simply demand the same things they normally eat, sans the hour+ of commuting to get it.

Those bushes not attracting many pollinators doesn't make them less invasive or noxious.

True, but they aren’t invasive here (NorCal, they are “potentially invasive” because they are invasive elsewhere, but do not spread) and native butterflies can use them as a host species here.

If this is of interest, be sure to check out https://www.spudfiles.com/ - multiple types and versions of cannons, including very clever single inlet piston style ones that shoot incredibly far. Here's an example: https://nighthawkinlight.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-powerfu...

A direct use of work like this is to detect and stop illegal fishing, an enormous environmental problem and human trafficking contributor.

For example: https://www.skylight.global/

To add, it is more "to move heavily" - it has a negative correlation to agility and speed.

Cars don't trundle, overloaded trucks do.

Yes, and most of the robots I've seen tend to have a certain heavyweight chunkiness to them. I assume to keep them firmly planted and stable when around humans, lest they be knocked down and left unable to move.

Trundle seemed appropriate.

And beds!

Something much like this is used for wells - both simple and effective. I wonder why it wouldn't work here (or if just hasn't been tried).

Cryogenic temperatures make most materials more brittle, hard to get a material that works at a wide enough range of temperatures to make a balloon to work correctly.

If you go for a narrower range of temperatures (ie. not structurally stable above 0C), it would need to be manufactured, transported, stored, tested and installed at seriously low temps which probably negates the possible advantage with the added technical complexity.

Morning Star is an example that takes it even further - there are no bosses and all pay is peer based. They do about $1B a year and have 10% of the tomato ingredient market.

I lived in Woodland for a time and I really wish I had heard about them back then so I could arrange a plant tour.

Another anecdote - I sold a technical book through one of the big publishers, never heard back post advances, and found out that the international edition wasn't considered to be part of my royalty agreement. This was bad for my coauthors and I as the international edition became part of the curriculum for several universities for several years.

Live and learn.

I don't get the Economist, but I'm wondering how bimodal the distribution is - are we seeing a small cohort run away with the game or is everyone better off?

With where I am compared to family, that's my bet - people doing absurdly well in tech are screwing up the numbers. And I'm not even close to what some people casually toss out on here.

These are medians.

Given large scale laser cuts I've seen - they require less cleanup, but still some. You spatter molten metal everywhere.

I have a CNC plasma cutter which I use for making robots, and have also worked with laser cut metal. The laser cutter is so, so much more precise. On the plasma I cut some gear teeth with 5mm pitch and they’re okay for a coarse positioning system that doesn’t rotate continuously. On a laser you could cleanly cut 1mm pitch gears for continuous rotation I would think.

Oh, absolutely! I was more speaking to the clean up. Lasers are a big step up.