571–580 of 641 posts
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Yes, we know a slave economy is not a free market. > you could sell fraudulent investments Fraud is against the law in a free market.
Then I don't understand how you can say "The US was much more economically free in the 1800s than now".
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Did you watch the video? This person didn't say it was impossible to launch enough satellites for Starlink. He said the Falcon 1 launch price of $5MM was unrealistic, which ended up being correct. At the time, Falcon 1 was supposed to launch 600kg for $5MM. It ended up launching 420kg for $9MM. $8k/kg to $21k/kg. Now obviously there's always a lot of doubt and skepticism around SpaceX, but you can just say "people sa…
>Did you watch the video? Yes, thus my posting it. His underlying tone is that reusability is "a dream" (his words). Without reusability, Starlink as a network of tens of thousands of satellites would not be practical. He said this in 2013, two years before the first Falcon 9 booster landing.
You can try to read the tea leaves on tone and some creative interpretation of implicature (despite Starlink actually needing fewer than 1000 satellites for its public launch), but they're different claims.
Not sure why there's a need to exaggerate the victimhood of SpaceX lol, super strange.
The Ariane guy was quite clear about what he thought was practical and not. He said $5MM launch won't happen (it didn't). He said reusability is a dream (he was wrong). He said nothing about the impossibility of Starlink, either implicitly or explicitly.
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There's a lot to criticize, but this argument seems extremely misleading to me. The government wants to put things into space. SpaceX says "this is how much we're willing to take to do so" and bids on the government contract to do so. Notably, this is drastically cheaper launch pricing than the Space Shuttle and whatever other venues NASA had. These weren't R&D grants which are more arguable.
We the people owned the space shuttle after we paid to have it built. Do "we the people" own any of those spacex rockets?
It’s rent vs build and I’m not so sure the government benefits so much from owning space shuttles. But arguing that the government purchasing launch volume is the same as them buying the R&D for the shuttles is not a logical coherent and consistent position.
For what it’s worth a common refrain I’ve heard from people who hold your position is that government patents are also the property of the people. So not only does the government spend a lot on R&D, in such a model it’s incapable of monetizing this R&D as a way to recoup those expenses.
I used to be interested in SpaceX development. Then I came to the realization that SpaceX is going to be used primarily for the militarization of space: hauling space based weaponry, weaponry drop ships, surveillance satellites, etc. I still feel glad for the SpaceX engineers and scientists who succeed and doing new and innovative stuff. But their employer is just like every other military contractor sucking on the u…
what's the alternative
Unless you're a total pacifist, it's a genuinely stupid and unserious position that warrants invective ridicule and mockery.
I mentioned this in another comment, but was downvoted rather than greeted with pushback from people volunteering to become my personal slaves. If that sounds ridiculous, please understand that's exactly what these retards (or bots) desire. That's what their position invites to happen.
(I also can't change their mind, so might as well get some morally clean slaves out of it. I might even let them free if they realize the error of their ways, which is something a conquering force would never do.)
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This sums up my and many others timeline of his understanding of engineering diciplines: https://mastodon.social/@rodhilton/109572674700288958
Posts like this is why HN is made fun of now in circles where real engineering happens. In reality you would not be able to follow what he's talking about because it would be well over your head.
Musk, Twitter, 2022
This is, on its face, an utterly idiotic and untrue statement. Look at the subways in NYC anytime it rains
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> Gulf of America Do people actually use that name when Trump can't force them to on pain of job loss? I'm pretty sure nobody outside the US does, at the very least.
And for good reason. It’s an insult to the rest of the world.
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"imaginitive" is a more contentious adjective but The Martian, Project Hail Mary, and the Expanse seem on the optimistic side of the spectrum to me.
Andy Weir's stuff is great, the exception to the rule. I hadn't heard that about the Expanse, I guess I should check it out.
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No it's not. It was the most sold during March, but that's it. Local sources ( https://www.autohome.com.cn/hangye/showroom/ ) tend to show that it's Xiaomi / Geely that's leading the race in 2026. Additionally, sales numbers doesn't correlate with the brand image of Tesla : it is a luxury brand, no matter how you put it.
> It was the most sold during March, but that's it. Also June, and a better link for monthly sales by model from your source is https://www.autohome.com.cn/rank/1 . Basically Model Y has been consistently in top 3 by monthly sales of EV in China so far in 2026. If you count by 3-month or 6-month periods, it is only next to Geely EX2 at 1/3 of its price as pointed out by another comment. Part of the fluctuation is due…
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No it's not. It was the most sold during March, but that's it. Local sources ( https://www.autohome.com.cn/hangye/showroom/ ) tend to show that it's Xiaomi / Geely that's leading the race in 2026. Additionally, sales numbers doesn't correlate with the brand image of Tesla : it is a luxury brand, no matter how you put it.
So you're technically correct, but IIUC Tesla is still the most delivered (customers taking delivery) EV brand in China. Draw what conclusions you will from that fun fact
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Indeed, if you don't push back and reject it, it just encourages him to repeat the same - see Lake Ontario > Lake America.
I wholeheartedly stand behind pushing back on & rejecting these kinds of decisions and policies. Please don't mistake "not wanting the comments here to jump straight to name calling" as "wanting people who disagree with Trump to instead say nothing here".
You elected a bully to be your leader.
A bully who calls women “piggy”, and everyone lets him get away with it.