Billionaires' Toys
(ggersh highlighted this in Friday's Evening Blues, but an expansion might be of interest.) The jumping off point is Gordog's essay at MOA: The Space Race Technical Facts ... While I have little interest in space travel matters, Gordog's clear explication made this interesting to me. It also compelled me to take a look at the news that I had been avoiding. Specifically, Branson Vs. Bezos: Who Really Wins This Space Race?
(Does anyone really care?) Sure seems like a really expensive super-duper thrill ride. Going up really high and coming back down. What Gordog's essay made clear to me is that Branson and Bezo aren't taking spaceflights. They're doing a modern tech (and presumably much safer) version of what NASA and Alan Shepard did in 1961 which was a few years behind the USSR space rockets. Or did I get that wrong because Gordog hadn't pointed that out or even mentioned the billionaires' race to space?
So, it was back to the comments that I had originally skipped. And yes, Gordog chimed in that Branson and Bezos aren't taking spaceflights. (Gordog does plan on writing more on this.) There was also stuff on the third billionaire space investor, Elon Musk. In particular links to three videos that pull the mask off this guy.
(There's more at this youtube site. Will have to make time to dive into the Solar City mess.)
As for Musk's claim that “tunnel boring” is “really easy,” he should tell that to WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation and the Seattle Tunnel Partners (One of the J/V partners, Tutor Perini Corporation is a very good heavy engineering contractor with decades of experience.) Musk's The Boring Company is finally getting some professional pushback.
Tunnelling Journal, an industry publication, dismissed Musk’s Vegas tunnels as a mere “vanity project.” In February, Martin Herrenknecht, the CEO of Herrenknecht, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tunnel boring machines, dismissed Musk as being “full of hot air" in an interview with a German business magazine.
Jian Zhao, a professor of civil engineering and a tunnel boring expert at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, said that he didn't see how the Boring Co., given their current approach, would be "able to do things as they promised. I don’t see any new technology being mentioned.”
Buyers beware!
Sunday: -Branson taking his victory lap. Can now begin selling tickets to his greatest carnival ride ever. Might be a while before the concept can be developed into the fastest air travel.
Comments
Schaumschläger Musk
is like soft ice cream dripping off your fingers. What an idiot and how idiotic to think he is not an idiot.
I can only hope
they crash and burn. That's the best outcome for our billionaires.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Unfortunately, not many suffer that fate.
Most are set for several generations. At great wealth for several centuries for the families is less common.
I'm good with eliminating them
one at a time, . You gotta start somewhere.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Eliminating them one by one
doesn't do much good as there or plenty in the wings ready to replace them. Controlling them throughout their companies life cycle is totally feasible. How nutso was waiving sales tax for internet sales? It reduced state sales tax revenue which in turn required increases in state sales tax rates. What consumers got in the bargain was fewer local retail sales jobs whose income would have cycled through the local economy and saving a few pennies on purchases, much of which they didn't need at all. (A niece's notion of saving is taking advantage of the "buy 2 and get 1 free" hypes. It didn't compute for her when I pointed out without that bargain she wouldn't have purchased more then one and often none. So, instead of 'saving,' she was losing. Many years later she still doesn't get why she's always broke and has no savings in a bank.)
The lower the average American's purchasing power, the greater the need for retailers to offer lower priced goods and that required offshoring. Which in turn meant fewer US manufacturing jobs and lower income, etc. a vicious downward cycle for low and medium wage workers. (Buy less. Buy local, and shun Walmart, Amazon, QVC, etc. isn't the strategy most consumers adopted.)
From what I understand at this point, SpaceX would quickly crash and burn without NASA contracts. So, the public is subsidizing this immigrant. Perhaps NASA should buy less. When's the last time anything good resulted as a by product of the manned space operations?
Recced for your analysis of outsourcing
I've always thought of it as greed-based but I do see that's not entirely true. It starts that way and then inevitably accelerates. Like a cane balanced on end. Push the top once and an accelerating fall is inevitable.
Most economic activity is unstable in the mathematical sense.
An intriguing insight.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Thanks -- but it's only
the briefest of summaries. Not possible to articulate a dynamic economic model that develops over several decades in a couple of paragraphs.
Trust that you, your wife, and sister saint are all well.
Well still alive anyway
Thanks for asking.
As I was telling someone recently, my mother's family had bad cardiovascular systems, my fther's family had bad lungs. I often wondered which I would have. The answer is both. But my sister, while older has neither! Heart and lungs like a teenager!
My present two worries are losing my eyesight totally to macular degeneration and shaky knees.
Hope you are in better shape.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I've always had lousy knees --
and eyesight still only needs some magnification.
Karma needs to start showing up doesn't it?
EDIT: Earth and humanity deserve it.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
As Musk/Bezos/Branson claim greatness
never forget what ameriKKKa truly has become in every way, total crap
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
thanks for dropping by
and weighing in. Hope I gave you proper credit for directing our attention to the MOA essay. (Had it open to read later, but your rec got me there sooner.)
Thanks for the essay that it deserved Marie
and thanks for the mention. MOA and Gordog gave us much to think about.
Whenever I see a SpaceX launch all I see is a fake video, but that's just me.
As for Musk/Bezos they are 2 human beings who do nothing for humanity, how'd
they ever get so rich let alone idolized, rhetorical
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Yes -- much to think through
Back in the late 1990s I had an opportunity to do a walk through of a few areas of Vandenberg (AFB then and space launch now). Having only seen pictures and videos of NASA launches, I had no concept of the magnitude of a launch platform. They're huge!!
Branson and Musk sell "cool." As did Jobs. Branson has been doing it for nearly four decades. However and outside the expensive and flashy e-cars, Musk's apparent market is investors and governmental agencies. If either or both take a hike, Musk will soon not be nearly so wealthy.
Love the quote.
Except governments always destroy freedom. revolutions may provide freedom but afterward it starts to decline again.
Because governments accumulate power. If they begin to lose power (more freedom) the result is no government. In actual practice, a new government, because anarchy is unstable, a new Man On A White Horse appears and starts accumulating power. The Fall of the Roman Empire did not result in more freedom (not counting the transitory freedom to loot loot, enslave, and rape), but the rise of multi-centric power.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
My take is the ameriKKKa claims to be the land of the free
that's a sham, always was always is
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Oh goody
After Sir Richard splashed down he gave a speech and said that all of humanity now has access to space. I kid you not…I guess experiencing weightlessness means you are in space. Funny my uncle could do it in his tiny 152 Cessna.
Bezos says that Richard didn’t actually get to space, but neither will Bezos. Meanwhile 11 million people are at risk of eviction in a few weeks. Lots of empty homes available for anyone that wants them. And just saw how China dealt with their homelessness. They built lots of apartments for them and recently lifted 800 million people out of poverty. How many did congress create since they closed the country?
I’m going to highlight this article. Either Joe posted it last night or I saw it from her tweet. After the ruling class got rid of Trump they have taken the mask off and shown us how they will rule us going forward and congress has shown that they only exist to fulfill the orders that the ruling class gives them.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-how-billionaires-rule They had no problem letting millions die from Covid so what’s a few more million or 2 or 10? Billion?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
You wouldn't expect Branson
not to take full advantage of all that free media marketing time would you? He's got ride tickets to sell.
Twenty years ago, Bezos was selling books on-line and the corporate net worth was a large deficit. Musk was writing bad code and fighting with people. And Zuckerberg was still in high school, but at least he was excelling in his coursework. There's a bit of a revolving door with the "ruling class"; some drop down in wealth or die and are quickly replaced by previously unknown others.
Except for a few periods of time, the masses have always been poor and struggling. Yet, in the US anyway, the masses identify with the wealthy and not the crap place they're stuck in. It will take real hunger (as in no surplus fat storage) for the masses in the US to get a big enough clue, but the elites know that and will always respond with more food stamps and food banks before that level of starvation sets in.
Another Musk fantasy
[video:https://youtu.be/56862W24HK8]
EXCEPT he takes actual orders with cash deposits from customers.
Carnival ride indeed!
I can’t imagine the carbon footprint, from drawing board through cheap thrill rides, is anything but profoundly polluting. Using such intrinsically energy intensive means of conveyance is absurd on its face. I have to conclude that it is actually nothing more than entertainment, a perverted and malevolent entertainment meant to distract the masses from their steadily declining prospects for a hopeful future.
Only fully developed sociopaths could conceive of, no less carry out such an egoistic and wasteful performance even as millions go without basic food, clothing and shelter and the planet hurtles toward a profound extinction event.
Rot in hell, assholes!
“What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do.”
-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Virgin Galactic ticket price
is $250,000. A wee bit outside the means of the 99%. But a mere 1% of the reported cost to the ISS.
From Caitlin Johnstone
From Caitlin Johnstone
Cuba, Space Billionaires, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
I read that a pundit said that Musk's rockets are Russian rockets designed with a flat screen.
Good one from Johnstone
like this:
Her lede is good --
A common voter lament: Presidential campaigns focus on domestic issues and public policies. Presidents then focus on foreign affairs. Why?
Because the latter is much easier and less amenable to voter analysis of the President's performance. Hence, Obama could publicly state that he was pretty good at killing without Democrats trashing him into the historical dung heap.