261–270 of 569 posts
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What a great book, just finished listening to it. Afterwards I heard a lot of people thought it had a pro military/war bent; I don't think they read the book
Fantastic book. And I'm pretty sure it's a staunch anti-war critique.
Just check the wiki page, he wrote it himself (under Major Themes, Militarism): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers
"If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost, just as many volunteers turn out. Poor arithmetic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature—a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price. Weakness? It might be the unique strength that w…
Yet who shows up for the 3.1 million children who die of malnutrition every year? Every 3 minutes we lose more children then were in the cave. We can comprehend 13 people and the struggle against nature, while the scope of world hunger is far too complex and emotionally incomprehensible to mobilize enough people.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad society found a way to save them, I just wish we took the every day threats to human life more seriously.
I feel like we all really needed this story. For once, there's nothing political or divisive. There's no one to be mad at. It's not "us or them". The world's top experts came together, volunteered for a dangerous mission, sacrificed, and pulled it off. Ra! Ra! Humanity! Feels like a brief moment of redemption.
Except at the soccer coach who thought it was a good idea to endanger 12 children by going into a cave during monsoon season which also led to the death of an innocent person?
I'm more surprised by the fact that they went that far into the cave in the first place! The coach should be in prison now for putting so many kids in danger and be the cause of a rescue diver death!
A blame mentality is a dangerous and self-defeating road to travel. It is only a matter of time before the blamer makes a mistake. Punishments are for the discouragement of others. How long before everyone is too paralysed by fear to make any movement at all? I have recently (within the last few years) heard stories like "I won't help that person because their relatives will sue me if they die".
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I didn't do anything to help- I don't think saving 12 people in a Thailand cave means a lot, globally speaking. Why do you say he was asked to do something? He offered to help. More realistically, however, he should have chosen to stay out of the way- he didn't get his device to the site until the rescue operation was already half completed. It wouldn't have worked anyway- it wasn't fit for the purpose. Getting a bun…
Here https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015105500105412610 Yes it was not an official call for help, but someone asked. He even acknowledged that experts were already on the field, and his first reaction was to just send goods there before advancing with engineering ideas. Following your idea why were there so many civilian divers? Why not let the Thai military do the job? That's just PR. Those attention-seeking ba…
Not a hint of irony, huh?
There it is, the crazy Musk fans going full out ad-hominem, just like they did on the BI journalist. Careful OP, these people are nuts.
"If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost, just as many volunteers turn out. Poor arithmetic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature—a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price. Weakness? It might be the unique strength that w…
Yet who shows up for the 3.1 million children who die of malnutrition every year? Every 3 minutes we lose more children then were in the cave. We can comprehend 13 people and the struggle against nature, while the scope of world hunger is far too complex and emotionally incomprehensible to mobilize enough people.
These are different disasters. The cave impacted 13 random children. Hunger impacts millions of poor children. One is random, the other more predictable.
There are utilitarian arguments for numbing oneself to tragedy which predictably strikes those without resources while defending those visited by random misfortune. (Note: I am not arguing for this utilitarian calculus. Just describing it.)
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I see, I was probably not paying attention to the story at the time. I still find it odd that these summary articles after the fact seem to be ignoring the fact that one person died during the rescue attempt. I'd have expected more "heroic efforts on the part of Thai divers, including one who gave his life,..." kind of lines in the first three paragraphs. Edit: the NYT online front page now mentions him, so maybe it…
Are you basing this merely on one NYT article you read announcing their rescue a week after a diver died? I not only got notified by multiple newspapers on my phone, I later saw pictures and a video of the funeral completely surrounded by cameras, which I learn the Thai royalty entirely paid for.
For the record, I didn't see any of this coverage a week ago but have already admitted that it happened and I'm sure it was extremely significant. I'm still surprised that he's not mentioned in every recap article's opening and wasn't praised by, for example, Trump and other celebrities reacting to the event.
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The difference between the divers and Musk is that the divers did it without announcing their plans on Twitter. They just when there and helped. I think it's good that Musk tried to help, but the publicity he got with it makes me question his motivations. There is also no need for personal attacks
He was asked to help. https://twitter.com/MabzMagz/status/1014251869760249856
Have you looked at Tweets directed at him? People ask him for all kinds of things.
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>I'm awaiting for the unavoidable book/movie. Hollywood producers are already on the ground http://www.newsweek.com/hollywood-producers-head-thai-cave-r...
The coach then will be an american living in Thailand, half the team will be girls, the sport will be american football instead of soccer, one of the rescuers will be a woman who happens to be an ex-girlfriend of the coach, there will be a bad guy from the government or some company that wants to leave them in the cave because it's cheaper... and Elon Musk's device will save the day.
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He was asked to help. https://twitter.com/MabzMagz/status/1014251869760249856
Is that the official Thai government, or some random person on Twitter? Just wondering. Have you looked at Tweets directed at him? People ask him for all kinds of things.
The later stages were coordinated with the local Thai rescue team. As proven by email exchange Elon published.