[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 7:27 pm

Saying Musk invented Hyper-Loop is super bold words. The concept behind it has been invented literally a century ago. The actual implementation hasn't been done by anyone including Musk due to its apparent physical impossibility.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 7:59 pm

This seems relevant

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:23 pm

Musk said yesterday that there was a 70% chance that he was moving to Mars. For all his alleged brilliance, he's an idiot.

Pseudo Stupidity · Post by **Pseudo Stupidity** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:39 pm

The best idea Musk ever had was stealing emeralds from his dad to make some money. It taught him the valuable lesson that being so rich you literally don't know what to do with your money means you can do virtually anything with no repercussions.

He was never brilliant, he was always rich.

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:01 pm

"Space Travel" is still an absolutely worthwile goal to pursue, because right now we're a single planet species and that sucks.

It's insane that we're seemingly funding this by rich private investors instead of public agencies. Still, I'll take SpaceX over NASA's ever shrinking budget.

But SpaceX apart, Musk's entire thing is pretty well summed by the not-a-flamethrower case.

erik · Post by **erik** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:07 pm

My one dream for space funding is that the US uses space force military as a pretext to shift resources of our obscene military spending into space exploration.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:39 pm

There will be no shifting.
It will be an added cost.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:47 pm

nockermensch wrote:"Space Travel" is still an absolutely worthwile goal to pursue, because right now we're a single planet species and that sucks.

It's insane that we're seemingly funding this by rich private investors instead of public agencies. Still, I'll take SpaceX over NASA's ever shrinking budget.

But SpaceX apart, Musk's entire thing is pretty well summed by the not-a-flamethrower case.

SpaceX is literally state funded. It doesn't fucking have private funding for shit.

But also, it's EXPLICITLY so that he can not have to deal with stinky proles, which is... a bad sign.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:36 pm

The entirety of Musk's modern empire is state-funded. Tesla exists, and can only exist, because by making electric cars and nothing but electric cars they can massively game the ecology subsidies and sell their eco credits to normal car manufacturers.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Wed Nov 28, 2018 5:24 am

Let's not forget calling someone a child abuser because they rescued kids while he was failing to get people to take his rescue submarine seriously.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Nov 28, 2018 5:30 am

Musk is no Nikola Tesla, no matter how much he might want to be. First off, Telsa was constantly broke, because he literally had no idea how money worked. Westinghouse had to basically pay for his home and food and such. Further, Tesla was not just a genius, but also utterly batshit insane, had no want for personal fame or glory, and had zero interest in woman. All in all, the perfect human being.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Wed Nov 28, 2018 9:25 am

Shrapnel wrote:Musk is no Nikola Tesla, no matter how much he might want to be. First off, Telsa was constantly broke, because he literally had no idea how money worked. Westinghouse had to basically pay for his home and food and such. Further, Tesla was not just a genius, but also utterly batshit insane, had no want for personal fame or glory, and had zero interest in woman. All in all, the perfect human being.

Tesla, for all his genius and many accomplishments, kind of had Musk's problem of promising a whole lot before he actually did anything. But in Tesla's case, it definitely helps that what he did do was genuinely revolutionary.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:19 am

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... es-lawsuit
US news, but since we are talking about Musk here

Pseudo Stupidity · Post by **Pseudo Stupidity** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:12 pm

Wait...

The Guardian wrote:The tunnels are Musk’s solution to “soul-destroying traffic”, a way to make roads “go 3D”, according to the company’s website.

Make roads go 3D? Has Musk never heard of bridges?

Iduno · Post by **Iduno** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:39 pm

Pseudo Stupidity wrote:Wait...

The Guardian wrote:The tunnels are Musk’s solution to “soul-destroying traffic”, a way to make roads “go 3D”, according to the company’s website.
Make roads go 3D? Has Musk never heard of bridges?

Some other assholes from California invented the bus not that long ago, so we shouldn't be surprised. Disappointed in humanity, sure, but not surprised.

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:25 pm

Sometimes going underground is better.

Mord · Post by **Mord** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:00 pm

Space exploration? Great, fantastic. Landing people on Mars as a technological and engineering challenge? Sure, whatever. Space colonization, on the other hand, is the dumbest fucking idea anyone has ever put forth as a serious public goal.

Something Bruce Sterling said, as quoted by Charles Stross in an excellent blog post on space travel and colonization:
"I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach. Nobody ever writes "Gobi Desert Opera" because, well, it's just kind of plonkingly obvious that there's no good reason to go there and live. It's ugly, it's inhospitable and there's no way to make it pay. Mars is just the same, really. We just romanticize it because it's so hard to reach."

There is literally no resource available in the universe that cannot be more cheaply and efficiently extracted on Earth. I don't care how low your price per kilogram up the gravity well gets and how much rocket fuel you can synthesize at the colony, it cannot conceivably be cheaper than just mining, or even recycling, the materials already available on Earth.

IMO, Elon Musk is delusional or a charlatan or both.

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:12 pm

That's why I like to advocate terraforming Venus. Not only is learning how to reverse global warming likely to be helpful here at home, everything about Venus makes it a better choice. For example, your weight on Venus is 91% of your Earth weight; Mars it is only 38%.

But I am all for nudging all the asteroids (4% mass of the moon) into Mars. Not only will it add a lot of heat, it'll add a little mass, and all the pieces will be much easier to pick up (assuming that asteroid mining makes sense). It may also add significant amounts of water.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 11:01 pm

Mord wrote:Space exploration? Great, fantastic. Landing people on Mars as a technological and engineering challenge? Sure, whatever. Space colonization, on the other hand, is the dumbest fucking idea anyone has ever put forth as a serious public goal.

Something Bruce Sterling said, as quoted by Charles Stross in an excellent blog post on space travel and colonization:
"I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach. Nobody ever writes "Gobi Desert Opera" because, well, it's just kind of plonkingly obvious that there's no good reason to go there and live. It's ugly, it's inhospitable and there's no way to make it pay. Mars is just the same, really. We just romanticize it because it's so hard to reach."

There is literally no resource available in the universe that cannot be more cheaply and efficiently extracted on Earth. I don't care how low your price per kilogram up the gravity well gets and how much rocket fuel you can synthesize at the colony, it cannot conceivably be cheaper than just mining, or even recycling, the materials already available on Earth.

IMO, Elon Musk is delusional or a charlatan or both.

He doesn't want to do it because it's efficient, he wants to do it because he has a fundamental hatred of humanity and a visceral felt urge to be working to get as far away from them as possible, and into a position where he can murder anyone who bothers him.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 3:06 am

Maj wrote:Musk said yesterday that there was a 70% chance that he was moving to Mars. For all his alleged brilliance, he's an idiot.

I mean, even if he actually got a colony up and running, it's internet will be shit. And the social isolation would be worse than living in Antarctica.

Longes wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... es-lawsuit
US news, but since we are talking about Musk here

Isn't that literally just a subway?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:37 am

hyzmarca wrote:Isn't that literally just a subway?

Nah. Subways are communist trains that quickly carry large numbers of people to and from defined locations. Elon Musk wants to build underpasses for people to drive in. Because as you are doubtless aware, what people really want is the self empowerment to get stuck in traffic while enclosed in an idling motor vehicle in a smoggy carbon monoxide infused tunnel.

-Username17

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:57 am

https://www.businessinsider.de/elon-mus ... ld-2018-11

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 9:22 am

Wow. It's been proved time and again that overwork reduces overall productivity and increases costly mistakes, accidents, and illness. But at least it's possible that he's not a malignant robber baron, maybe he's just insane from sleep deprivation.

Working 80+ hours/week will 'change the world,' though; in the same way that the Scarecrow's compound will 'take you places.'

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 11:59 am

I seem to remember Trump saying much the same thing, he only sleeps like 4 hours a night or something. Maybe when you're a rich person pretending you're going to fix everything and obviously lying you aren't allowed to sleep.

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 2:18 pm

I'd feel slightly better knowing that people who SHOULDN'T be able to sleep at night actually can't. I figured they snuggled down not caring that they're literally murdering children without any discomfort at all.