Because he’s not. He literally fucking rewrote the history of Tesla, because he could. He is the classic less-than-mediocre rich white dude steamrolling in to take credit for other people’s work and ideas.
Someone recently described him as the Donald Trump of tech. The main difference between them is that he inherited more money, so it’s a lot harder to burn through it. But neither one is who they claim to be.
Elon Musk and his words and actions well before this current meltdown of his had single-handedly made me disinterested in anything related to human spaceflight and space travel. It became clear to me that space was going to become a commercialized and commoditized playground for the rich, where people like Musk would own everything, down to the very air you’d breathe.
I’m very glad that this current spate of irrational, egotistical and greed-motivated actions are showing Elon Musk for who he truly is to a wider swath of people.
We have had a leaf, and now have a Tesla3. The wife’s commute was 25 miles. In the spring and fall the leaf’s 106 mile range got her three days of use, with top-off charging at home. But she had to go to a dedicated charger twice per week. In winter the heater cut the range in half (the batteries need heat). She would spend a half hour at the charger every day. It wasnt working for her at all. In the summer running the AC also cut range, but not as badly as the long cold winters did.
With the Tesla3 and its 270 mile range she can top-off charge at home all week long. No need to go to the charger unless she takes a longer trip on the weekend.
So it’s fair to say VHS wound up on top?
Land of the free-eee-eee
very true. Betamax held at most 90 minutes of porn, while VHS held up to two hours-- six hours if you had a fetish for bluriness.
It shouldn’t. Don’t let assholes turn you off to things that are inherently cool, that can be done right, and can have major benefits for humanity. Don’t let assholes who want to wring every last penny they can out of the world turn you off. Then they win and they get what they want.
It also ruins the lovely little tale, which I know is untrue, but still great
“The Americans spent millions to make a pen that would work in zero gravity. The Russians used a pencil”
When those assholes are the only ones with the resources to make those inherently cool things a reality, it kills my interest in them. Bezos and Musk essentially owning the means of human spaceflight and having everyone’s attention front & center on them doesn’t get me enthusiastic.
The particular version of humanity in space that these guys want? It doesn’t have major benefits for humanity. Hell, it’s not even inherently cool; they want to build their own Galt’s Gulches on Mars. But it’s the version that sadly has, far and away, the most eyes and ears and money on it, as far as I know.
I brought this up a few weeks ago in the Space thread. Nobody answered the questions that I had asked, and that just plain bummed me out even further. I’m still open to someone to reply to me over there in that thread, cause I do want something to look forward to.
Back to the topic of electric cars, the companies that make them, and so forth: My options for electric cars done right are far and wide. I’m glad that I have an embarrassment of choices in that sector to pick from, and that Tesla doesn’t have a monopoly on it. But as others have stated, not just in this thread but in others revolving around Tesla and Musk, the best thing that we can do as a society is invest in efficient public transport measures. I’d like to add on that we also need to cut down on urban sprawl and try to get various cities to build up rather than out.
Make it so that people don’t necessarily have to own a vehicle, or if they want to, they don’t have to drive it as often, or as far in order to get their shopping or other errands done. Elon “Subway Stalinists” Musk ain’t gonna be part of that. Or, if he is, he’s gonna have to swallow his pride and play nice with a team rather than be the lone genius who solves the problem singlehandedly. Like you said, this stuff is impossible for an individual to tackle.
The Sacramento Bee had a good op-ed on this today; unfortunately, it won’t onebox:
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article242692026.html#storylink=bignews_related
They are not. They were not the ones who got humanity into space in the first place. That “only private industry can do it” is a lie they tell to further their goal of eating NASA’s lunch. NASA and other state space agencies continue to do good work and move forward. NASA has been defunded because we have had a neo-liberal government that seeks to move public projects to the private sector.
I agree. The only way forward on space travel is an international effort.
Yes, some don’t seem to believe that, even though it’s a fact.
But to be fair, individual vehicles aren’t the core solution we should focus on. Robust public transit needs to be part of the equation.
This is why we make governments and other institutions, to work on collective long-standing problems. But we must get out of the mindset that only corporations can work on our problems, because that is entirely untrue.
Wait. What?
The US currently has three crewed spacecraft about to come on line - the commercial CST-100, (built by Boeing and launched by a ULA Atlas rocket); the commercial Dragon 2 (launched on the Falcon 9, both built by SpaceX); and the government-sponsored Orion space capsule (built by Lockheed for NASA, launching aboard the SLS, built by Boeing, also for NASA.).
Sierra Nevada is currently bidding its commercial DreamChaser space plane( launched by ULA 's new Vulcan rocket.) for the next round of Commercial Crew missions to the ISS. (It’s already contracted for uncrewed cargo in the second round of the Commercial Cargo program, but it was originally designed as a crewed vehicle, and stands a very good chance of winning a second-round Commercial Crew contract.)
Russia has been flying its government-sponsored Soyuz vehicle & rocket (currently the only fully operational crew vehicle) since forever. China just finished the first uncrewed test flight of its second-generation government-sponsored crew capsule.
India is making slow but steady progress toward a crewed vehicle, but they’re in no rush.
How all that adds up to Musk and Bezos “essentially owning the means of human spaceflight” (especially when Bezos hasn’t even put anything in orbit yet, and has no plans for an orbital crew vehicle at present) I’m not sure.
He isn’t that now, it’s just that billions can buy you propaganda that says so.
I really do want to see NASA, alongside other state space agencies, serve as a countervailing international group whose missions prove that the private sector isn’t the only sector that’s able to develop space for humans in this modern era. But when I read articles that talk about (and this answers your question, Glen) how this upcoming Artemis program will have NASA merely serving as customers to Blue Origin/SpaceX/Dynetics rather than owning the landers outright, that makes me lose hope all over again. Like… even if we start funding NASA for real in the next 4-8 years, I don’t see any route from where we are now to space travel being a true international endeavor that’s not owned part and parcel by corporations who make the rockets and landers we plan to use.
I get that, but how things are now isn’t how they have to be in the future. Vote for pro-science officials, push on this issue, write letters, etc, and let them know how you feel. Get others to do the same. Like other political issues, it’s not just a ballot box issue, it’s a public pressure issue.
I think at one time the idea of the stock market was a great idea and a useful tool for many companies, large and small. But in this day and age it’s nothing more than a way to create wealth from nothing. If you made investors actually invest and force them to keep a stock for even a week the market fluctuations would dramatically decrease. I’m not saying I wouldn’t play day trader if I had the cash…but I still think it’s a horrible system.
Even worse, the practice of short-selling also makes it a way to create wealth by betting on other peoples’ failure.
It’s become nothing more than a gambling hall, where some players are actually incentivized to try to CAUSE failures.
That’s TSLAQ is all about. They’re a group of Tesla short-sellers, and they promote anti-Tesla rumors, engage in industrial espionage, promote black oil-co/Koch Bros propaganda, and continually predict Tesla’s imminent demise.
All in hopes of profiting from its failure.
There’s a whole lot of money being poured into telling lies about Tesla in hopes of its failure.
(And judging from some of the overheated commentary here, it works pretty well.)
Still, I feel the need to point out:
Isn’t graphite a conductor? One broken pencil lead in the wrong place and you have a problem that makes Apollo 13 look like a minor hiccup.
