CurlyWurlies4All @ CurlyWurlies4All @slrpnk.net

If I can't share a Curly Wurly then it's not a revolution.

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2 yr. ago

I agree. But as outsider it really is baffling.

Blame Garland

Should he have stayed and made them fire him?

I hear you but I think you're missing my point. His wealth and privilege started in South Africa. He could not have achieved what he did without the opportunity to migrate from South Africa to Canada and then to America.

As for his business prowess here's just a few key points from the book:

• Musk is cuckoo taking advantage of other people's talent to elevate himself.
• Musk’s funding was critical to x.com's early development, but many of the key decisions that made its merge with PayPal successful were credited to Levchin, Thiel, and others.
• Tesla was co-founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk did not like his position being confined to financier so conspired to have the original founders removed and himself listed as founder instead.
• Tesla has consistently faces financial instability, often operating on the brink of bankruptcy.
• Both Tesla and SpaceX were rescued by massive government contracts from Federal Governmentd desperate to pull itself out of the global financial crisis or a failing oil economy. Not by Musk's talent as a business manager.
• A hamster wheel of investor hype to raise capital driven by false promises is the only thing keeping Tesla afloat. Even their government loans are based on the same high hopes and false promises.
• Musk’s infamous “funding secured” tweet is proof of his success being driven by lies. He was willing to break the law of it meant he could outrun the consequences of his poor management

Or a space elevator perhaps

Very fair point. But the biggest barrier is always going to be fuel spent vs potential payload.

Trains an incredibly efficient once built, able to move huge payloads for very low ongoing fuel use.

Throwback to an ancient thread on Reddit by AdmiralPelleon

It takes 6 BFR launches to put a fully fueled BFS in orbit, going for $7 million/launch. I'll be generous, and pretend that the BFS making the trip to the asteroid doesn't lose value along the way (hint: it does).

So let's plug in the Rocket Equation for a fully-fueled BFS in orbit, let's see how much fuel we must expend to get the BFS to the asteroid to pick up it's cargo:

Delta-v to Ryugu (a near-earth asteroid) has $95 billion of minerals on it = Raptor Engine ISP * ln( (start fuel mass + empty mass)/ (start fuel mass - fuel used + empty mass) )

OR: 4666 = 3759.81ln((1100+85)/(1100-fuel used + 85))

fuel used = 851.67

So just getting the BFS to the closest near earth object takes up 851,000 kg of fuel! This is before we've loaded any minerals on board. To calculate how much payload we can bring back do earth, it's the same equation except:

Delta-v to Earth = Raptor Engine ISP * ln( (start fuel mass + payload + empty mass)/ (payload + empty mass) )

OR: 4666 = 3759.81ln((1100-852+p+85)/(p + 85))

payload = 28.893 metric tons

So that sucks! We go all that way, launch 6 rockets, spend probably years in outer space, and all we get are 29 metric tons of cobalt!?! At current prices, that's worth ~$899,000. Compare that to the "best case" cost of 6 BFR launches or $42 million.

BUT WAIT!

It's commonly agreed that some sort of ISRU (creating fuel out of the asteroid itself) will be required for space mining. The asteroid Ryugu probably has water, and while I don't think it has carbon, amateur scientists like us need not be constrained by such petty laws of chemistry! Let's assume that, once the ship arrives, it is fully refueled at zero cost. Now our return-payload looks like:

Delta-v to Earth = Raptor Engine ISP * ln( (start fuel mass + payload + empty mass)/ (payload + empty mass) )

OR: 4666 = 3759.81ln((1100+p+85)/(p+ 85))

payload = 345.5 metric tons

The good news is we've increased our revenues by an order of magnitude (~$ 10,710,500)! The bad news is we are now at just over 25% of our fixed, "best case" costs. (I'm actually not sure if the BFS could land with that much payload, but at this point it doesn't really matter does it?)

These numbers can be made to work for elements like Helium 3 and Platinum, due to their super-high cost-per-kg (345.5 metric tons of Platinum is technically worth over $10 billion). However, the world's yearly supply of platinum is roughly just 243 metric tons, and increasing this significantly would serve to quickly crater the price.

All this is to say that no, asteroid mining is not, and may never be, feasible>

When 90% of your countrymen are born into a world where they cannot legally hold the same jobs as you. You are born into extreme privilege.

After reading the book Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors by Edward Niedermeyer I came away with the feeling he really wasn't a pretty good self-made businessman.

I agree that people tend to overstate his income due to misunderstanding his relationship with his father. And the story about him keeping emeralds in his pockets is murky at best.

But his wealth compared to the average income of any black person in South Africa in 1971, still makes him vastly better off than any 'colored' child born in the same country, making him institutionally old money by grace of being born white.

Would go well with my Zenit 11 SLR camera

They're everywhere at Gariwerd Halls Gap

You think modern houses — more glue and plastic than solid timber — aren't going to explode into flames? Modern suburbs are tinderboxes.

I like old tech

Do not forget me user4616250

Look down, look down You'll always be a slave Look down, look down You're standing in your grave

I absolutely don't agree with your perspective.

AI is just another way to ensure control of the means of production stays in the hands of capitalists.

It empowers the techno-feudalist monopolies to put further pressure on more industries. Not content to own a portion of every retail purchase, every digital payment, every house, and every entertainment property. They now get to own a portion of every act of creation, every communication that could possibly challenge their power.

They can subvert any act of independent impactful art by copying it and remanufacturing lesser versions over and over until the original's impact is lost. And they can do it faster than ever before, cashing in on the original creative's effort and syphoning returns away from creators into their own pockets.

You might think it's inevitable and inescapable, but that's what people once thought of the divine right of kings.

Has anyone ever fucked up the political battle following an attempted coup as badly as Biden and Merrick Garland?

"can't give this thing away unless I lower the price to probably $79k. Sucks."

A brand new AWD CT from Tesla is $79,990.

Headline is clickbait. Seller is a whinger. Trash all round. Saved you a click.