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Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

cnbc.com

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Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#81

Post by tamaharbor »

_Microft wrote: post #23

I was a bit shocked how Jeff Bezos looked in the video [0] in which he invited his brother to go with him. He does not look healthy, even a bit bloated. Does anyone know if he is having health issues? [0] https://www.instagram.com/p/CP0MSOqnYEo/

He’s getting older.

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#82

Post by reissbaker »

nextstep wrote: post #67
blendergeek wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oligarch tend to need outsized control over the government in addition to billions of dollars. I don't know if Elon and Jeff have that yet.

This seems like an oligarchy to me https://theintercept.com/2021/05/25/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-s...

Redundancy for NASA funded projects makes sense, and it's how we regained the ability to launch human crewed rockets from US soil: Boeing wanted to be the sole contract, and has bungled their launch projects, and it was due to NASA also contracting SpaceX that we've had any successful launches. When SpaceX was recently awarded a sole contract, plenty of people — including here on HN — howled that NASA was letting SpaceX turn into a monopolist like Boeing tried to become. NASA has historically chosen multiple providers for redundancy, and the SpaceX sole contract was a unique departure due to NASA lacking sufficient funding. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/16/nasa-lu...

The Intercept isn't exactly known for... neutral... reporting.

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#83

Post by sschueller »

_Microft wrote: post #23

I was a bit shocked how Jeff Bezos looked in the video [0] in which he invited his brother to go with him. He does not look healthy, even a bit bloated. Does anyone know if he is having health issues? [0] https://www.instagram.com/p/CP0MSOqnYEo/

The facial bloating could be from medication such as corticosteroids or ACE inhibitors.

Taking the flight this early before more testing may also indicate that he is not well. It might also explain him leaving Amazon.

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#84

Post by dalbasal »

jonplackett wrote: post #70
cdmckay wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference between an American oligarch and a Russian oligarch? Aside from the nationality.

Oligarchs were basically given large existing monopolies and then just sit on them and make money with no reason to innovate. While it’s a fun jibe to throw at them it’s a completely different thing to just being insanely wealthy through actually doing something effectively (if sometimes immorally)

Is that what makes an oligarch? The way I use it, oligarch implies political power. You could, in theory, be a poor oligarch.

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#85

Post by bryanlarsen »

blululu wrote: post #40
bryanlarsen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've done 14 successful launches. It's probably considerably safer than mountain climbing etc. On the other hand, Blue Origin's competitor Virgin Galactic isn't automated and looks a lot more dangerous.

14 trials is nothing - especially when even a 5% risk would be considered too high. For reference, the 95 % confidence interval on a distribution with a 1 in 5 accident risk would include this result: https://epitools.ausvet.com.au/ciproportion

A 0.1% risk is probably considered too high for tourist flights that have no other useful purpose. They can't do enough flights to verify that experimentally, they'll calculate the risk via simulation and then validate the simulations with the test flights.

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#86

Post by lotsofpulp »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #68
_Microft wrote: post #23

I was a bit shocked how Jeff Bezos looked in the video [0] in which he invited his brother to go with him. He does not look healthy, even a bit bloated. Does anyone know if he is having health issues? [0] https://www.instagram.com/p/CP0MSOqnYEo/

It looks like he had some face procedures done

That’s what I thought. It doesn’t move as I would expect it to, and I usually see that with Botox or whatever other plastic surgeries there are.

Also looks like he gained weight, at least in the face.

PS: It is disappointing when people use services that don’t let you skip back and forth in video.

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#87

Post by tenpies »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #68
_Microft wrote: post #23

I was a bit shocked how Jeff Bezos looked in the video [0] in which he invited his brother to go with him. He does not look healthy, even a bit bloated. Does anyone know if he is having health issues? [0] https://www.instagram.com/p/CP0MSOqnYEo/

It looks like he had some face procedures done

This was my thought too. Looks like some typical swelling from some sort of cosmetic procedure.

Would not be surprising given the divorce.

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#88

Post by qwaxys »

anonymouse008 wrote: post #78
_Microft wrote: post #23

I was a bit shocked how Jeff Bezos looked in the video [0] in which he invited his brother to go with him. He does not look healthy, even a bit bloated. Does anyone know if he is having health issues? [0] https://www.instagram.com/p/CP0MSOqnYEo/

There’s an interesting trend I’ve seen where a lot of folks who were previously super health conscious, put on weight when they are in a relationship they enjoy. Anyone have a study or article of this phenomenon?

Stress reduces weight, so that could be a factor.

Enjoying life with a partner includes fine dining and relaxing more (less sport).

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#89

Post by nabla9 »

relativ575 wrote: post #53
nextstep wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you’re being sarcastic, but surely taxpayers subsidizing billionaires’ rocket testing and allowing the gains to be privatized is a net loss for society, no?

Can you be specific on the subsidizing? Loaded comments without backed sources are intellectually lazy.

'google: "SpaceX subsidies"

SpaceX gets almost $900 million in federal subsidies to deliver broadband to rural America https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/tech/spacex-starlink-subsidie...

SpaceX just won $885 million in federal subsidies to expand Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite-internet project https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/spacex-just-won-do...

In addition to that SpaceX is government contractor.

SpaceX and Blue Origin are the next Boeing/Lockheed. Government gives them both money to R&D so that they don't have just one innovative supplier.

Tesla is a great example of government project. Tesla has received $3-4 billion in subsidies.

edit:

SpaceX has received other direct subsidies. NASA has given seed money and development funding for Dragon, Falcon 9, engines and demonstration launches ($248M at least) https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/453605main_Commercial_Space_Minutes...

Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July

#90

Post by sschueller »

peteretep wrote: post #13

An Elon / Jeff space willy-waving contest about who gets to be Space Bro Alpha seems like a net win for humanity

"net win for humanity" can be taken two ways. Elon / Jeff not making it back could also be considered a "win" even if dark. For the good they have done they have done a lot of damage to humanity on their way to become billionaires.
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