Elon Musk Is In Bed With Crooks

[MSimon]

[williatw]

MSimon....a certain amount of corruption is practically unavoidable as I am sure you know. Musk has to function in the real world and know how to work the levers of power to get what he wants. Look at all the corruption/bribes/etc. that was going on during the construction of the Trans Continental Railroad in the US for instance. But the railroads got built, that's what most important. Even my hypothetical "Bank of Mars" would likely particularly in the early years have elements of a Ponzi scheme; as large amounts of new cash flows in from earth for instance it would doubtlessly effect the share prices of people with existing accounts. The difference is that the mars colonists would have a very strong incentive to make sure there were actually legitimate returns being generated by investments back on earth (& other places) in order to show profitabilty. Otherwise people would eventually get wise and stop investing; no money for our mars colony is more than just bankruptcy (or even prison) it could be literal death for the colonists.

Addendum: Haven't said much at all about some of the potential sources of the mars bank's "donations"; I.e. perhaps unsavory sources interested in a way to launder ill gotten gains. They would love and off-planet bank where funds could be deposited to get around their governments back home. A bank still connected with the earth's economy via electronic transfer but not subject to any countries laws A "bank" owned by sovereign people who can't be extradited or forced to open their records. Like the old numbered accounts in Swiss banks supposedly were only more so. I seemed to recall reading that back in the day the bank of New York (& other American banks) was used that way by people wanting to hide their money/gold from the tax man back at home in Europe; sure lots of things in America got funded that way. That's another reason why I don't think a global embargo of the mars colony would happen; just too many folks would like a way to hide money from their respective governments. The US wants it say (the embargo) but China & Russia don't; could see them under the table fronting their own "private" mars colony and starting the Bank of China on mars or something. Helping themselves to American money indirectly while claiming to be "respecting" their mars colonies sovereignty

[MSimon]

[williatw]

[MSimon]

[williatw]

[choff]

Tesla battery production creates as much CO2 as 8 years gasoline powered driving.

http://www.nyteknik.se/fordon/stora-uts ... er-6851761

[paperburn1]

[mvanwink5]

I am a Musk fan also, but solar is a scam, pure and simple. Even without Polywell, TriAlpha is nearly there. Solar is a niche power solution. Electric cars is a solution looking for a problem. Batteries is also a niche solution.

Musk is counting on the government to fund his Mars project. He acts like he will self fund, but watch for the switch. And we will have commercial fusion by the time Mars is real.

[NotAPhysicist]

[mvanwink5]

[krenshala]

At least initially, solar was subsidized to encourage development and adoption of solar electricity generation. It has definitely become much more widely used that it was 10 or 20 years ago, not to mention the improvements in efficiency and price.

I've never heard of base load power being required for solar to function. If it was, you'd have to plug your solar powered calculator into the wall outlet to use it. With enough panels and proper storage it could be used for base load, but I agree that other solutions (hydro, fission, fusion, hydrocarbon) are much better in that role.

CO2 is included as a 'major factor' because "everyone" "knows" its the amount of CO2 created that matters. /s Solar panel providers/manufacturers tout CO2 output in manufacturing/usage because that is the going thing to do when discussion power generation today. If the makers didn't talk about it, the detractors would.

And even with fully functional, in production pB11 plants solar electric generation would still be a thing. I doubt it would be a growing percentage of power generation like it is now, but it would most definitely still be useful : satellites, small (or not so small) remote locations, homes, covered parking lots (i wish this would catch on here in Texas, where it would be useful), and probably a number of other things.

[NotAPhysicist]

[NotAPhysicist]

[hanelyp]

Popular Mechanics comes from a publisher known for pushing FAKE science.