I feel really happy for you! I’ve got two older daughters who are both into their performing arts and nothing will reduce me to tears quicker than seeing them blossoming during a performance, doing things that have taken years and years of practice and which I could never hope to achieve.

I’m going to try to keep the SpaceBaby’s name out of this, but I am genuinely excited for the step change the next generation of lift vehicles will bring to space exploration.

I’ve become thoroughly depressed with how we are mishandling our own planet, and I know there are huge risks in believing that finding new places to fuck up will solve anything (also, it’s a pipe dream - terraforming isn’t something we could really hope to achieve and anything outside our solar system is just too far away) … but, dammit, my 12-year old self dreamed of spaceships refuelling in orbit, resupplying permanent missions on other planets/moons, and now it might actually happen.

Totally. Blows my mind that people can’t seem to understand that if it’s hotter outside than inside, the inside won’t get any cooler by opening windows.

Last summer in London (42 C!!) we became a box of shadows during the day. Keep the cool inside.

Houses are built differently in hot areas. Very few windows facing south. Shutters on all windows. All windows deeply recessed. Channel the wind, ie have a deep through channel that spans across the house so any pressure differential causes air to exchange. Tiled floors. No/low insulation.

In Northern Europe, we live in sweat boxes designed for letting in maximum light and keeping heat inside the house.

Got an older brother. We were very close growing up, sharing hobbies and friends, and it’s been our foundation for keeping in touch since then. We don’t see each other as often as I would like, but I would say our relationship remains strong. We’ve both kept in touch with the same group of friends. “Life”, however, has imposed on us both; we live in different countries, both with family (mine is large, his is small but his lovely son unfortunately has a set of issues) so finding time to both talk and meet is very, very difficult. I’m definitely the one keeping in touch (can’t remember the last time he called me, other than a few times where he needs IT support) but that’s understandable given what’s going ok with his son.

Quite literally bumped into Jacob Rees-Mogg in Chelsea. He looked terrified without his nanny around.

Baldur’s Gate. That game blew me away.

I think you’ve written a good, neutral summary critique that increases our common ability to debate this. Thank you.

I would argue, however, that your example makes it sound especially egregious as the profit margin in your example is 95%. The advantage of capitalism, according the people who support it (like I do), is that other sprocket making companies exist and together they bring the profit margins down and down and down (due to competition), forcing continual innovation to bring it back up. Thus, not only is the profit margins typically much, much smaller (1-10%), but society collectively advances, which benefits the workers too as the produce they need to acquire increases in quality and lowers in price.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

So I agree with you when arguing against monopolies.

Ahh the old whataboutisms come out.

Ok.

Let’s be real about this for a second.

You are implying that the media in the US is as state controlled and state supporting as the media in China and therefore that neither is more true than the other, merely a viewpoint. Is that actually what you’re saying?