Ah, the untrammeled grandeur of the universe, until someone in pursuit of personal aggrandisement and commercial advantage decided to spend a children's hospital's worth of money to put ****ing car up there.
What a ****ing statement. No, not a block of concrete, not and old clunker from a wrecker's yard, he put one of his own products up there! Biggest ****ing advertisement of all time and you lot are swallowing it whole.
Humanity just sent a product placement across the universe. Typical.
Does nobody else see the parallels of a benevolent billionaire planing to help humanity with his genius. History shows that similar rich people such as Lex Luthor & Elliot Carver have more sinister motives. My theory is that James Bond is now the driver of a certain Tesla Roadster.
Select to expand quoteShifu said..
Ah, the untrammeled grandeur of the universe, until someone in pursuit of personal aggrandisement and commercial advantage decided to spend a children's hospital's worth of money to put ****ing car up there.
What a ****ing statement. No, not a block of concrete, not and old clunker from a wrecker's yard, he put one of his own products up there! Biggest ****ing advertisement of all time and you lot are swallowing it whole.
Humanity just sent a product placement across the universe. Typical.
I think people that buy Teslas are already going to or have already bought one. They appear to be a status symbol in their own right amongst some people. My neighbour had one, but I would have thought it was a Mazda if no one told me otherwise. It can self park? Yeah, I think I can just manage that in my Falcon. It uses no petrol, well, I think I can afford a bit of fuel for the cost of your car.
So, putting his Tesla up there is a cool thing to do. It may or may not help his product sales, but it is a cool thing to do and generates far more interest that a concrete block or a junker.
I think these launches are impressive, but I think some people forget that a lot of the pre-work has been done by the governments that have spent billions of dollars working out what works and what doesn't. He has come along to develop it further, but he didn't invent space travel.
I agree with Shifu
Putting something in space is not "visionary" as somebody said above - its been done
Pimping one's own product- done.
Then "humanity star" - a nice oooh ahhh name that evokes feelings of oneness for all of us, but really its a temporary useless thing falling to earth same as a firework does.
This is like if the richest man in Ethiopia put on a fireworks display, with his logo spread all over the show, instead of helping his fellow countrymen. It is a show of wealth and self aggrandisement for no perceivable benefit to the world, whatsoever.
He is not alone there, most filthy rich do the same to some degree. But to ascribe some sort of sainthood to him, as if he is doing something remarkable, is really weird. If he painted Mt Everest, or coloured the ocean pink, or brought every grain of sand on the moon back to earth we would mock him (I hope) - but he puts something in space with his enormous fortune and we act like he's the saviour? WTF>
(as an aside, make electric car and call it Tesla - after a famous scientist - and that is an achievement too? OK I will make an electric plane and call it Voltaire. That will make me crazy famous? Now the first SIX pages plus of Google results for "Tesla" show all links about his crap, not the man who should rightly be at the top. Nikola Tesla. Dumb interwebs, stoopid social media overwriting history.)
Guess what our richest lady is going to send in her rocket to outer space to great aliens?
O wait, Maybe she should send one small African American baby so there will be less hungry people here on Earth?
Maybe we should do a quiz and check what our greatest billionaires on the planet spending money for? Actually ( my, money, your money, our money) as I don't believe that somebody is worth more than several million dollars - the rest is just huge mistake of the inefficient social system in the distribution of the wealth.
BTW Nikola Tesla died from hunger and starvation. Which mean that human race does not really appreciate those that contribute the most.
For those of you who haven't created a business from scratch...
What Elon is doing, is hard.
I have, and I know it's hard. Very ****** hard. And he's done this many times over. Purely from the business perspective, he's a genius. I think he'll be remembered for a long time to come, probably more so in a hundred years than currently.
I think there are some grump old farts on here that even if they witnessed first hand a man climb Everest would be like "Pfff, been done before, look at the flag/rubbish he left, what a waste of money"
Even if he hasn't got the worlds interest at heart and did it as a promotional stunt I don't care,.. The man threw a car into space, how cool is that!!! Without people like these the world would never advance and would be a boring place.
Select to expand quotesausage said..You're such a miserable bastard Adriano....does it come naturally or have you worked hard at it.Adriano said..
Agreed. A genius would see that sending a car into space with a very expensive rocket is near pointless.
A genius would reinvent extra-gravitational propulsion.
PS -With your superior intellect I'm surprised you don't have your own space programme....
Why thanks for the compliment. So kind, gracious and thoughtful. (I'd suggest the person who decided to make this personal might be the miserable one.)
Come on man, Musk is a very smart businessman and technician - not a genius. I have an issue with people who loosely throw around that word.
Musk is highly admirable, exciting, does difficult and challenging work; is thrilling, visionary, pioneering and inspiring, but not a genius by a long shot.
Here's a list of things he didn't invent but adapts to drive his business growth:
The Tesla induction motor. Thank you Tesla - you were a real genius.
Solar Panels
Lithium batteries
Self-driving vehicles
Electric cars
Rockets
GPS Satellites
Wi-Fi
The Internet
AI
Robotic mass production
Propaganda
Sounds like many people have swallowed the last adaptation perfectly.
Select to expand quoteGazuki said..
I think there are some grump old farts on here that even if they witnessed first hand a man climb Everest would be like "Pfff, been done before, look at the flag/rubbish he left, what a waste of money"
Even if he hasn't got the worlds interest at heart and did it as a promotional stunt I don't care,.. The man threw a car into space, how cool is that!!! Without people like these the world would never advance and would be a boring place.
Sir Richard Branson (started his business from scrach..enyone remember this guy ?) did some cool stants. He was called eccentric by the media.
I like what Elon Musk is doing, but he's always called a "billionaire entrepreneur". Looking at his wikipedia entry I can only see him earning around $100 million. He has had small percentages of big things, but I don't see the mega-billions you would expect. Where does the money come from for all this?
Before SpaceX, the USA's space program was NASA, which was funded by the government (the tax payers), so it became inevitable that they would run out of money, (not being the USSR at the time, not caring how much money they spent) then the Shuttle program ran them dry.
SpaceX is not funded by the government, but Musk needs to keep the money flowing so that he can achieve all he wants to do. If putting a Tesla into space as opposed to a big block of concrete, helps in that endeavor, more power to him.
NASA could have done something similar but they chose not to. All they had to do was to sell ad space on the sides of their rockets, along with logos of all the contributing companies that helped, but they didn't. Keeping those rockets and shuttles all clean and white was more important to them, but it ended up costing them in the long run.
You can call Musk a genius or not, but one thing he is, is a brilliant business man.
^^^^ asset rich with not necessarily too much of an income for himself officially
You never know how much is based of borrowing to the max too..... (EDIT this part replying to Gorgo I just type slow)
Nebs I agree with how hard the business world is..... but we also need to acknowledge a large amount of luck for these uber successful types. When Mr Rich risks it all on a new venture and loses everything, we decry him for wasting the shareholders money, ripping off investors, whatever. Nothing but criticism.
But when Mr Rich risks it all and pulls it off, some skill some luck, who knows - hes an astute visionary blah blah on and on.
Not saying they don't work hard, but so did the first guy who lost it all
Does anyone here seriously think they could not do this also if they had all the money and will? If everyone in Oz gives me and macroscien $100 we will put a windsurfer in space.
He owns space ex or part of it the USA government pay him for his rockets etc etc I think the guys a bloody champion.
every single visionary is always shot down, have you seen his vacuum subway ? He is putting renewable energy first, yes he makes money from it all. If you read up on him Wikipedia he was in on PayPal or some thing as well, everything he has touched has made him ten trillion billion dollars.
I don't know why people think he is a dick, he even tried to give south oz electricity something they have never had before.
elon musk is a visionary.
I sense some extreme jealousy/personal inadequacy from some people.
his rocket is bigger than mine
We can now observe that outer Space becomes the new playground for the richest.
Bronson is building Virgin Galactic, Bezoff- owner of Amazon - Big Glen rocket to directly compete with Elon,
Only Russian oligarchs are oldfashioned still buying the biggest motor yachts and sports clubs. Our richest invest in the land on Earth, not Moon or Mars taking ownership of the half of Australia.That will be an interesting graph to see: how much land the 1% the richest/biggest landowners/holders) own in Australia ( I guess that this one percent may own as much as 90 % of the land in total.
Select to expand quoteseanhogan said..
I like the name of his rocket !
FALCON got killed by the "visionary" globalists 
The best car in entire universe !
Select to expand quotedmitri said..seanhogan said..
I like the name of his rocket !
FALCON got killed by the "visionary" globalists
The best car in entire universe !
LOL I was thinking of this one :
Select to expand quoteGorgo said..
I like what Elon Musk is doing, but he's always called a "billionaire entrepreneur". Looking at his wikipedia entry I can only see him earning around $100 million. He has had small percentages of big things, but I don't see the mega-billions you would expect. Where does the money come from for all this?
The money is debt, debt is create by government bonds and/or fractional reserve banking which is essentially the same thing.
since decoupling from the gold standard money has gone fiat, the value ascribed to money is an indication of the confidence of the market in the medium of exchange, the rate of return on debt.
Elon is spruiking his investments in order to siphon of a proportion as the 'inventor' of the investment opportunity.
He has managed to convert a substantial proportion of manufactured debt into personal worth by leveraging the feel good factor associated with sustainability.
Which seems to mean, use everything today before it runs out, or before the investors understand that debt, created through fractional reserves, is a ponzi.
mind you, while Elon's companies have 30 plus billion in debt he has managed to siphon a few hundred million for his own pocket.
genius, sure, but not nearly as genius as the banks that make the housing serfs pay to invest in their debt.
So I should buy more Bitcoin.
They already hit the moon. They crashed, and now they gonna do it again.
Screw Space X with their "real" rockets and their future. It's just FUD.
I want my Lambo
How about....
"We do things because we can, instead of making
a select few richer beyond their dreams"
Just DO it!.
And now I'm being sued FFS.
If only we could all work together, instead of a pissing contest.
Select to expand quoteRazzonater said..
I don't know why people think he is a dick, he even tried to give south oz electricity something they have never had before.
ROFL!
Select to expand quoteseanhogan said..
I like the name of his rocket !
I like the name of his drone ships, Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You. Iain Banks Culture just a bit?
Select to expand quoteI like the name of his drone ships, Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You. Iain Banks Culture just a bit?
Yes, he's obviously well read.
Select to expand quoteMastbender said..
but one thing he is, is a brilliant business man.
And what exactly is your definittion of a "brilliant business man"?
I hope that does not include generating profit -
www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2018/02/07/after-stellar-rocket-launch-teslas-675-million-loss-pulls-upbeat-musk-back-to-earth/#40af8ea661ba
www.statista.com/statistics/272130/net-loss-of-tesla/
But seriously- is he a great business man? Only the time will tell. Is he good at motivating people and getting them onboard with his ideas - absolutelly! I'm just not sure if that's what I would call brilliant business man...
Select to expand quotedecrepit said..I like the name of his drone ships, Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You. Iain Banks Culture just a bit?
Yes, he's obviously well read.
Iain Banks
Jose Saramago
Albert Camus
Google
Hemingway, and by the way this is not in any order and am not really sure that Hamsun was that bad, still.
The 52 or so guys that wrote the bible. But since we don't know the true authors of these works I will count the bible and various other religious works as one. And because I consider the works only marginally more important than Hamsun.
Ibsen er nok bedre?
Bob Dylan wrote a book
Gabriel Scott
Walden
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Giangjang (sic), Xio although almost impossible to understand until you figure out he is talking to himself.
Dante, although that could be religious.
In the same vein some philosophers can only possibly count as one, Plato, Ari, Copernicus, HG Wells, JD Salinger (while we are into initials), AA Clarke, Isaac Asimov, PD James, James Herriot, Enid Blyton.
The lord of the rings and affiliated works, JRR Tolkien, Stephen King, Jack Higgins, Loen Uris, The bolke who wrote the navy stories, starts with a C? Clive Cussler! Aldous Huxley, Carl Jung, and other boys own tales.
I'd like to include some text-books but I never remember the names of their author. Darwin I haven't read. Owen sin "What is Ecology".
"Just the place for a snark the bellman exclaimed as he landed his crew with care. William Lewis Carrol, Shakespeare of course although not more than half of his works, and now we reap the rewards of a humble strategy because the half counts as one.
T.S Eliot, Harper Lee, Ben Elton,
Frederick Nietzsche would have to be a great waste of time, Mein Kampf was on my shelf for a while. In the same vein a whole bunch of Russians whose names seem such a demanding exercise in concentration. Dosteovsky(Sic), Lenin, Solszhenitsyn, Alexandre(sic) was a good man. En god del fra Nabokov, the story about eggs, the dog man? Who invented Ivan Illich and with him a literary example of nihilism? Anna Karenininin..a.
Billy Brighton, Banjo Patterson, Henry Lawson who was also of Norwegian aner
George Orwell, his, pigs, his tvs and his Flying Apodistria(sic), His Essays are among the best I have read. Giancomo Leopardi(sic) "Moralske sm?stykker". I.Kant "Den evige fred". Jack London has also written more than "the call of the wild". Some of his essays are golden. "A way of being free" Ben someone. Machiavelli(sic). Marque de sade. The german bloke that wrote 'daniel' and "Peter cama.". Who would love to google?
Erich(?), the mountain climber that got stuck in Tibet. Whympers' travels and some of those of Thor Heyerdahl, Rudyard Kipling and
Marin Sorescu must be the greatest of poets. Virgils "The Aeneid". Homers bible which I am not even going to bother to spell.
The "state of the world" from 1996 onwards. Ayn Rand(sic).
Just to name a few..
Elon probably hasn't read
