Seeing all this, I’m obviously tickled by the thought of Bacon Double Cheeseburgers ending the world, but I’m honestly disappointed. Raider pales in comparison to several of the options. Honestly, it doesn’t even really convey what the thing is designed for. It’s a “break glass in case of World War III” button. …

Software engineers

I’ve not seen it, but several of my coworkers rave about great it is. So.. Probably?

Humans crashed down to at minimum 10k individuals. Odds are, 40% weren't siblings.

Not really. I was just using it as an example of something hypothetical that if it did function would work in this case. Would it be awesome if they worked? Sure, but then it would also be awesome if I had telekinesis and I’m not “holding out” for that. Just a pop culture reference.

That ebooks will haven’t conquered haven’t conquered physical ones doesn’t surprise me, but not for the reason you might suspect. For me at least, ebooks have come to fill the niche formerly occupied by mass market paperbacks. For my favorites, I still want physical copies to decorate my shelf, but if I’m just trying…

While it’s almost certainly not aliens, suppose that it was. What would that mean? We’ll have to assume it’s not an isotropic beacon because you can’t really draw anything from that. So I’ll assume it’s a directional signal pointed right at us.

I wonder... Suppose in fifty million years we’re an interstellar civilization. I can’t help but wonder at what they’ll think of earth and the first worlds we visited at that time. They’ll definitely be able to tell we evolved here because of the fossil record, but I suspect that there will be a fair amount of debate…

With an ion engine? Thousands of years.

Cars are aerodynamic (-ish). Buildings aren’t. It’s not uncommon for wooden buildings to be pancaked by tornados but the cars to be totally fine.

The building the video was shot from was in the mall’s wind shadow whereas the Starbucks was not. The two buildings were also facing different directions and angled differently and the Starbucks had prior structural damage. All that together, the building at large never stood a chance, though the bathrooms where…

The Chile’s was in the mall’s wind shadow. The Starbucks wasn’t, not to mention the two buildings were facing different directions and were angled differently in that parking lot.

The Starbucks was a remodeled Wendy’s that had previous structural damage. Also note the Chile’s from which the video is shot is in the mall’s wind shadow. The Starbucks was not.

Well, a state of emergency was more or less what ended up happening. I had to call my parents (they both work in Kokomo) and they said that the power company shut off the grid to the city for fear of the electricity causing ruptured gas lines to explode.

They had twenty minutes of warning so the manage made the call to have everyone hunker in the bathrooms. Tornados are actually quite survivable so long as you’re in something that is closed to the outside wind.

Dang... I grew up there... I’ve sat in that Starbucks...

Major selection bias going on here. People usually won’t report crashing a drone of it's their fault.

Time passes more slowly in the presence of country music.

Personal flying cars are never going to happen largely for the reason you mentioned: without proper maintenance, they’re going to fall out of the sky, let alone the risks of human error at flight speeds and the effect of falling. But that’s not going to be what happens (provided it ever does). You won’t be flying your…

Very interesting. As for being the vanguard of terraforming, I wonder how they compare to bacteria at breaking down martian soil. Still, if the prices can drop enough that this competes with existing building materials, that would be great.