This country allows people to buy more power than our elected officials have.
Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
721–730 of 879 posts
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#722Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is an argument that advancing orbital launch capacity can help with the scientific research and geo-engineering needed to control global warming. There is even an argument that the technology needed to make living on Mars feasible could be beneficial in combating the adverse effecta of global warming and the resulting ecological collapses. I don't think that working to towards colonization of mars and working t…
I mean, the scale of a sun-shield is insane but not impossible. You need to block about 0.3% of the sunlight hitting the Earth to counteract global warming. About 80,000 km of mylar at L1 would do it. On Amazon, that much mylar would cost you on the order of $100B and weigh 7 million metric tons; SpaceX would charge around $40T at today's prices to lift it to orbit. Obviously it's more complicated than that, and that…
The scales of most (if not all) geoenineering solutions to global warming are pretty mind boggling.
There are all sorts of ways that the resources and energy available in space can make the scale of these challenges more feasible. I don't expect that is we will see those benefits for several decades at a minimum as we are a long way from industrializing space at the scale necessary for it to matter.
In the short term the only practical benefits we can expect to see is cheaper satellites that will help use understand how the planet is changing as it heats up.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#723Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you can deliver a warhead, chances are you can deliver a satellite. Some of the space launchers today either started life as an ICBM turned dedicated launch vehicle (Proton) or are decommissioned ICBMs turned launch vehicles (Minotaur) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(rocket_family) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minotaur_(rocket_family)
Makes sense that former-ICBMs that can reach orbital velocity have utility. (Are they still ICBMs if the goal isn't to reach another continent?) I think the deltaV's needed to place a warhead on the surface are significantly less than those needed to put a satellite into low-earth orbit.
If you can lob your warheads into orbit with enough propellant left to accurately deorbit and aim them, you've then 1) got the capability of dropping them anywhere on the planet you choose, and 2) no longer have them sitting vulnerable in the silos and can sit back and choose your retargeting strategy without worrying about whether all your launch facilities will get nuked before you chose which cities to retaliate on...
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#724Is there some reason to believe the work of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic will stop at tourism? Couldnt their designs progress to offering sub orbital flights across the world in record times?
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#725Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Bezos and especially Branson's ventures feel much more like personal vanity projects than something that will actually push space exploration. I'm not sure why people feel this need to draw this weird line in the sand and say that SpaceX is okay because Musk built a business, but Blue Origin and Virgin are bad because... reasons? Technology advances for all sorts of reasons. Lamborghinis exist because a farmer was…
Even Bezos and Branson stopped right now, they've still proven that it's possible for a company other than SpaceX to put a man in orbit and dumped billions of dollars back into the economy. False. I hate to be "that guy" but neither Bezos or Branson made it to orbit. Those were sub-orbital flights with parabolic trajectories. To use your analogies: If Tesla were the Ferrari, then Virgin Galactic and friends would be…
Frankly it would be more accurate to say they are go-karts dressed up like a sports car.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#726Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you die, your heirs get the stock with "step up basis", meaning the cost basis used to calculate capital gains resets to the market price at time of death. So if they sell right after you die, they pay no capital gains tax.
Heirs in the United States don't pay capital gains tax, but doesn't the estate of the super rich guy have to pay up to 40% in estate taxes on all his assests (with an exemption on the first ~$5M)? Jeff Bezos is worth $200B. If he died, his estate would have to pay 40% estate tax on $195B in assets (first ~$5M being exempt), which is $78B in tax. That's still a hell of a lot tax. I know there were some loopholes used…
> 40% estate tax on $195B in assets (first ~$5M being exempt)
I think you mean $199.995B, but doesn't change the outcome much anyway.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#727Earlier quoted context omitted.
Salk said: "It's brought me enormous gratification" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk
Salk got funding for his lab from the billionaire Mellon family. The Polio vaccine is a prime example of how billionaires can help push civilization forward. > Sarah Scaife's causes were family planning, the poor and the disabled, hospitals, environmental causes and various good works in and around Pittsburgh. Her most famous gifts, in the late 1940s, were to the University of Pittsburgh – $35,000 to equip a virus re…
How how far the Salk family has fallen. Weren’t they implicated in the opiate crisis?
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#728Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They made billions from excellent businesses Bezos is not 1 million times more productive than other human beings. He just managed to create a system that exploits people in a massive scale. That's not what I call excellent business.
> Bezos is not 1 million times more productive Bezos has unambiguously produced 1m times more than what most humans have.
No he hasn't produced anything. The people making all the things his platform sells and his employees do. He sits on high in his ivory tower, never has that been more apparent.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#729Anyone curious why those two got 100mil each?
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#730Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's a parasite because the company (which hired 100K new workers during COVID) that he started and owns a shit-ton of equity in went up in the past year because of lockdowns?
Yes. By reasons I expounded in another comment I believe a percentage of any enterprises's shares (in the order of at least 20%) should be owned by the public and pay out an equal dividend to every citizen.
I would also like free money