> you can fire a THAAD at a Starlink satellite as well.

You can fire a THAAD at one Starlink satellite, but probably not at 8000 of them.

For comparison we’re currently producing THAAD interceptors at a rate of 96 a year (though Lockheed is aiming to increase it to 400).

Exactly; it's a limited and very expensive capability. Nobody would want to spend it on a $100k stratospheric flying vehicle, if the latter existed. It does not exist though, if you do not count weather balloons.

I mean, it’s not quite that simple, is it? Did they do everything they could to make drivers and passengers safe? Or did they put profits over people’s safety?

From the article:

> internal company documents […] showing that Uber had flagged her ride as a higher risk for a serious safety incident moments before she was picked up. Uber never warned her […]

Uber actually had a whole project that produced systems that determine the risk of incidents happening. Could they make rides safer but chose not to? That’s at the core of these lawsuits.

Interesting. When it's the state I think the overwhelming opinion is that predictive policing is dangerous but when it's a private company we actually want it to enforce it?

They could not be held accountable to warn her if they had not done the analysis. They did. Their organizational conclusion was that it was potentially an unsafe trip. Shit, they could have just cancelled the ride dynamically and re-assigned her. Why wouldn’t they do that? It’d probably be more expensive. Maybe they’d get more cancelled rides. Maybe this woman wouldn’t have been raped by an agent of Uber selected for and sent to her by them.

Wouldn't they then expose themselves to discrimination and loss of revenue lawsuits from targeted drivers?

It depends. Are the inputs to the algorithm themselves discriminatory? If so, then yes that would be appropriate. But that is a different conversation. They determined the passenger may be unsafe and did nothing.

Mind you, these companies work very hard for us to not know how they match A to B, usually so we don’t notice things like their disregard for safety.

The inputs wouldn’t even matter; the inputs could even be above reproach but if there were disparate impacts in terms of outcomes, the case for liability could be made.

Maybe, but they’re clearly liable for not using the information.

Oof, this sounds like a case where executives/management who knew about this tool and didn't act upon it should be charged with accessory-to-crime. There has got to be a moral imperative to act upon tools like this.

If Uber knew but did not warn her, then it's certainly correct that they were convicted.

I agree. I wish it would tell me the password, there is a good chance I could identify the service that it came from based on the password. This way it doesn’t feel that useful.

> but a leading member of the parliament

I think ‘a leading member’ is underselling it a little. He is the “Fraktionsvorsitzender”, which is comparable to the majority leader in the US Senate.

> which is comparable to the majority leader in the US Senate.

Not really. First of all, Jens Spahn doesn't lead a majority, he merely leads his party's parliamentary group, which has 208 of 630 seats. Second, he has already proven this year that he doesn't have the members of his own parliamentary group under control, so his stance on a matter should not be taken for more than it is.

> it's sold in pill sheets (is that the name?)

They are often referred to as Blister Packs.

Thanks!

> Made of polystyrene and with an internal steel skeleton,

They weight 1.2 tons total. If they are made of polystyrene and steel, it stands to reason that a significant part of the 1.2 tons is contributed by the steel.

The Air Force never had a space shuttle, though NASA flew missions for the Air Force and the NRO.

But at this point none of the remaining shuttles are in an operational state.

Maybe you are thinking of the X-37 which is operated by the space force?

They’re called Coffman engine starters [1].

Random fact: Those starters are a plot point in the 1965 film The Flight of the Phoenix, where the protagonists are trying to start a plane that’s stranded in the Sahara, but only have a small supply of starter cartridges left.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffman_engine_starter

Love that movie!

There was also that 4k block of memory at $C000. It was in between the ROM blocks, and by default it was totally unused.

Basic couldn't utilize it, but in assembly it was a great area of extra memory, and you could use it without even switching the ROMs off.

Yep! For those reasons, it was more or less the "default" target for assembly programs without special requirements. So much so that even as a child I knew "SYS49152" ($C000 in decimal) by heart.

Basic interpreter used $a000 to $c000 if I remember correctly, and screen buffer characters was at $400. If you didn’t need to display anything you could use it for something else.

It stands for "Cover Your Ass".

Wikipedia explains it as "an activity done by individuals to protect themselves from possible subsequent criticism, legal penalties, or other repercussions, usually in a work-related or bureaucratic context."[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_your_ass