Engineering Death Commando
Joined December 2020
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space superstructures cometh
BREAKING: A robot developed by Caltech and funded by DARPA has successfully built part of a structure in orbit without astronauts, marking what researchers describe as the first autonomous construction of a structure in space.
The experiment, called ASTRA, uses a robotic arm to retrieve individual structural tubes and connecting joints, then assemble them into sections of a larger framework directly in orbit.
Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 in March, the system has spent approximately six months in space testing the technology.
The robot successfully constructed a new section of a truss structure, demonstrating that spacecraft could eventually assemble large structures from smaller components rather than launching them fully assembled.
The experiment is part of DARPA's NOM4D program, which aims to enable construction of enormous structures in orbit, potentially hundreds of meters or even kilometers across.
Potential applications include:
> Giant space telescopes
> Large satellite communications antennas
> Orbital solar power stations
>Future space infrastructure too large to fit inside conventional rockets
The demonstration did not complete the full planned antenna, but establishes an important proof of concept for autonomous orbital construction.
The technology could eventually allow the size of structures built in space to exceed the physical limits of the rockets used to launch their components.
Link to official report submitted by Caltech: sciencedaily.com/releases/20…
ALT Concept art showing how a NOM4D-inspired device might one day autonomously construct a truss structure in space. Credit: DARPA, Colie Wertz
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I’ll see you at the laser fish rave
Norway now has more than 2,000 underwater AI laser robots shooting lice off its salmon
they're made by a company called Stingray, and they already guard more than 50 million salmon and trout 24/7
the reason is sea lice, tiny parasites that latch onto salmon and feed on them
as few as 11 can kill a small fish, and one pen can hold 150,000 salmon
the usual fix is pumping the fish out and blasting them with warm water or water jets to knock the lice off
but the handling is so rough that Norway's fish health report ranks it the top cause of death in full-grown farmed salmon
so instead, Stingray puts a robot inside the pen that hunts lice one at a time, all day:
> two cameras watch every salmon that swims past
> AI checks two frames to make sure it's really a louse
> then a green laser fires from up to 2 meters away
> the salmon's scales reflect the beam, so the fish swims off fine and the louse is dead
we now live in a world where AI lasers do pest control on your dinner lmao
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Fire an admin, feed 400 kids
My somewhat warm take (given my ideology) is I don’t have a problem with free school lunches since kids are compelled to be there. I just don’t think we need to raise taxes to do it. The education sector wastes an extraordinary amount of money as educational quality declines.
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breakfast for dessert.
dinner was pork belly with celery root puree and I still can’t believe I like the celery root. but I’m making twice aa much next time
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youtu.be/GOWFlp0M7QM?is=gyQ9…
anything this man posts is absolute gold
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laura ⚔️ retweeted
It's astonishingly frequent for rich dentists to load up their entire family in a private plane and wipe out their entire bloodline. This isn't what happened today - Learjets are a whole new price tier *and* required skills tier. The pilot was 55-year old Jeff Gregory, and the co-pilot was 20 year old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras. Thus they were professional charter pilots, and as one would expect, the young newbie was flying as co-pilot, with the very experienced older pilot being pilot-in-command.
Pilot-in-command means "pilot in command." The co-pilot does not make decisions for navigation or anything else; they may be instructed to assist the pilot in those things; such as making radio calls to ATC to route around storms and such, but the pilot in command is the one flying the plane and making the decisions. The buck stops with him.
I've said this before when the usual shitbags come slithering out of their holes after a disaster like this, but the shameless blood libel has never been more egregious or disgusting.
Fuck all of you shameless grifting bastards. God damn you all to hell.
nypost.com/2026/11/02/us-new…
laura ⚔️ retweeted
"...we should be actively goading more billionaires into spending on irrational, high-variance projects that might actually advance civilization. No one cares about your Loro Piana. If you've built an empire, the best possible use of it is to burn its capital like a torch and light up a corner of the future. Fund the ugly middle. Pay for the iteration loops. Build the cathedrals. This is how we advance civilization..."
the first adult chapter book I read was when I was 10, ‘The Client’ by John Grisham. Tore through most of Stephen King at 11.
You can just ignore categories, they aren’t important.
A lot of the problem with YA is that it's just not really necessary. 16-year-olds can read almost all fiction--they certainly won't understand everything, but they don't have to. We don't need teenager-specific literature.
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laura ⚔️ retweeted
For a more formal reason why ranked choice voting is flawed and bad, you can look up Arrow’s theorem. @grok what does Arrow’s theorem imply about the manipulative possibilities with ranked choice voting?
Vance is actually correct here. While the rules of rank choice voting are clear (to most people) it also creates room for game theorizing the average voter doesn't engage in.
For example, to maximize the chances of your preferred candidate winning, you shouldn't rank anyone else. But this isn't obvious to most voters.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
In ranked choice voting, ranking anyone beyond your first choice does not change your first choice's chances of winning. Any choices made past the first choice only are counted once the top choice has been eliminated.
elections.alaska.gov/election-infor…
Rare that I feel this much at a celebrity’s death. I was 5 in 1990, watching TNG on the couch with my dad.
Picard was foundational. I don’t know what to say. Thank you, Patrick Stewart.
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