Technique could be practical enough to scale.

Source: Splitting water for fuel while removing CO₂ from the air | Ars Technica

RIP to the moderately-reusable Falcon 9.

Source: SpaceX Is About to Launch Its Final Block 4 Falcon | WIRED

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/upshot/california-banning-soda-taxes-a-new-industry-strategy-is-stunning-some-lawmakers.html

Technical problems, rise of SpaceX are contributing factors.

Source: Russia’s Proton rocket, which predates Apollo, will finally stop flying | Ars Technica

Hypergolics = bad news

“I want to thank the Air Force for certifying Falcon Heavy.”

Source: Air Force certifies Falcon Heavy, orders satellite launch for 2020 | Ars Technica

Word on the street is that ULA bid Atlas 5 551, *not* Delta 4 Heavy. In other words, this was a payload that single stick F9 could launch if they expended the first stage. If block 5 can be reused >3 times, it ought to be cheaper than single stick expendable and AIUI they’re pricing them accordingly.

Amid all the digital wealth, the big cities of the West are racked with the destitute. We know how to solve this problem, so what’s stopping us?

Source: Big Tech Isn’t the Problem With Homelessness. It’s All of Us | WIRED

There was a great quote in another recent piece about the SF Mayor’s Race:

Laura Clark, executive director of YIMBY Action, a nonprofit that endorsed Breed, says more ordinary workers at tech companies, including sales, marketing, and customer-service employees, are also hurt by the housing crunch. “They’re largely renters who are extremely bitter about the fact that they moved here for what looked like an amazing job and are spending 50 percent of their income on rent and feel like they are displacing residents,” she says. “The level of alienation is palpable, the guilt, to some degree the self-loathing.”

He added that small businesses will face new burdens in trying to comply with a tangle of tax laws, giving examples.“Texas taxes sales of plain deodorant at 6.25 percent but imposes no tax on deodorant with antiperspirant,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “Illinois categorizes Twix and Snickers bars — chocolate-and-caramel confections usually displayed side-by-side in the candy aisle — as food and candy, respectively (Twix have flour; Snickers don’t), and taxes them differently.”

Source: Supreme Court Clears Way to Collect Sales Tax From Online Retailers – The New York Times

I suppose in practice you’ll have an API that is (upc, zip code)→(tax jurisdiction, rate)

Farming Simulator 19 finally has John Deere tractors.

Source: Penny Arcade – News – IDK

Make sure to click through to the previous post about Bus Simulator.

Remember that total no-brainer proposal in Sacramento to make it easier to prosecute car break-in suspects? You know, the one that would count a smashed window as evidence that the car was, indeed, broken into? Well, in the land of brainless politicians, even no-brainer pieces of legislation sometimes go nowhere. This bill — as obviously worthy as it was — failed. California law now states that smashing a window and stealing items from inside a car can be charged as felony burglary only if prosecutors can prove that the car’s doors were locked. If not, it’s misdemeanor theft.

Source: Car break-in crackdown bill made perfect sense. California lawmakers killed it – SFChronicle.com

Video: OA-X project’s second phase tests Super Tucano, Beechcraft Wolverine.

Source: Air Force tests two turboprops as potential A-10 “replacements” | Ars Technica

Pando/War Nerd piece from 2014 about this topic.