Elon Musk: Humans Must Colonize Mars To Survive WW3 But AI Is More Dangerous Than Nukes

Elon Musk, the founder of Space X, says humanity must colonize Mars so that our survival is insured after the onslaught of a third world war. Amid rising nuclear tension, humans must make the colonization of Mars a priority, says Musk.

According to The Guardian, Musk believes getting to the Red Planet should be at the top of humanity’s to do list. “If there’s a third world war we want to make sure there’s enough of a seed of human civilization somewhere else to bring it back and shorten the length of the dark ages,” Musk said, responding to questions from his friend Jonah Nolan, co-creator of TV show Westworld. “It’s important to get a self-sustaining base on Mars because it’s far enough away from Earth that [in the event of a war] it’s more likely to survive than a moon base,” Musk said on stage at SXSW, just days after Donald Trump announced plans to meet the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, in an attempt to defuse rising nuclear tension.

Space X is currently working on a vehicle that will take humans to Mars in a 100-meter ship codenamed the BFR (Big F**king Rocket). But building a colony would require “tremendous entrepreneurial resources”, Musk said.  He also suggested that Mars may be an “escape hatch for rich people.”He said, “It will be like Shackleton’s ad for Antarctic explorers: ‘Difficult, dangerous, a good chance you’ll die, excitement for those who survive.’ That kind of thing.”

He also said those risks may outweigh the rewards. “There’s not many people who will want to go in the beginning,” he said, adding that over time the Red Planet colony would be hospitable and have “great bars. The Mars Bar! I love dad jokes, I’m a dad!”

The BFR will fly for the first time in the first half of 2019, Musk said, acknowledging that his “timelines historically have been optimistic”.  Musk said he initially gave SpaceX and Tesla an estimated likelihood of success of just 10 %. “I wouldn’t let my friends invest because I didn’t want them to lose their money,” he said of SpaceX. Instead, he funneled his own money, from the sale of PayPal, into the businesses. “SpaceX is alive by the skin of its teeth. So is Tesla. If things had gone a little bit the other way, both companies would be dead.”

But Musk also had a warning for humanity. “Mark my words,” he said, “AI is much more dangerous than nukes.”

Scientists Just Found ‘Limitless’ Clean Water Reserves All Over Mars

(ANTIMEDIA) — The fanciful notion of human beings living on Mars grew one step closer to becoming a reality this week, as newly published images taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show that thick deposits of clean water ice — more than 300 feet deep in some cases — are buried just below the Red Planet’s surface.

The images, part of a study published Thursday in the journal Science, reveal that erosion has formed steep cliffs at several locations along Mars’ equator, where temperatures are warmer. The layers of ice are exposed on the cliff slopes, allowing researchers to judge the deposits’ size and purity.

“It’s like having one of those ant farms where you can see through the glass on the side to learn about what’s usually hidden beneath the ground,” Shane Byrne, one of the study’s authors, told NBC News.

However, that water ice exists on Mars is no great revelation in itself. Scientists have long speculated as much, as National Geographic explained:

“In 2002, the NASA Odyssey mission scanned the planet from orbit and detected signs of shallow ground ice at high latitudes. In 2008, the NASA Phoenix mission dug up water ice at its landing site near the Martian north pole.

“And in late 2016, scientists using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) found a buried ice sheet at Mars’s mid-latitudes that holds about as much water as Lake Superior.”

The truly exciting part of the discovery is that these relatively pure layers of ice are so close to the planet’s surface. In some instances, they are just a few feet down, which makes the almost limitless water very accessible to human beings.

“Astronauts could essentially just go there with a bucket and a shovel and get all the water they need,” said Byrne, who works out of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona.

As to where the ice originated, Colin Dundas, a planetary geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey and lead author of the study, says it has been hypothesized that “snow could have fallen within the last several million years during periods when Mars’ axis was more tilted than it is now.”

In addition to the discovery further opening the door to the idea of humans having access to a steady supply of water on Mars, study authors say analyzing the sediment trapped within the ice layers can offer insights into the Red Planet’s climate record.

“We’ve learned a lot about the ancient history in other ways,” Dundas said. “This is preserving a record of what conditions have been like in relatively recent times — which is still quite interesting. It’s a different aspect of Mars science.”

There are, of course, issues to consider before rushing into celebration, as WIRED pointed out:

“The eight sites Dundas and his colleagues observed were all located at upper mid-latitudes, between 55 and 60 degrees north or south of the equator, where temperatures can drop extremely low. Most Mars missions, though, restrict their landing sites to within 30 degrees of the equator — as would future crewed missions to the planet’s surface, most likely.”

Speaking to WIRED, one NASA scientist put it another way. “If you wanna stay warm, it’s better to be in Hawaii than Alaska,” said Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Richard Zurek, who was not involved in the research.

Still, study authors write that the discovery of such vast sheets of ice so close to Mars’ surface has given the scientific community a lot more to work with in unraveling the mysteries of the Red Planet:

“This ice is a critical target for science and exploration: it affects modern geomorphology, is expected to preserve a record of climate history, influences the planet’s habitability, and may be a potential resource for future exploration.”

Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

Uninvestable Tesla

Tesla is an uninvestable stock for me, not just because of its high valuation but also because it fails our fairly basic quality test, which I shamelessly borrowed from Warren Buffett: Would I still buy this stock if right after the purchase the stock market were to close for ten years? If you are a big Tesla car and stock fan, before you start throwing rocks at me, pause and wait till you finish this article – the rocks and I will still be there.

Think about the next ten years. But before you start mentally drawing upward-sloping lines from the current environment into the next decade and drooling over the rosy vision of Tesla’s future that Elon Musk has painted – produce half a million model 3s and bunches of semis and roadsters, and then send a roadster to Mars (I kid you not; that is in his 2018 plan – I’d like you to think about another version of the next ten years: higher (maybe much higher) interest rates, a recession in the US and around the globe, and a less promiscuous bond market where Tesla would have pay a substantial premium to US Treasuries (as would any other company that loses over a billion dollars a year in a highly cyclical industry). And now answer this question: Would Tesla survive this change in economic weather if it happened next year or even three years out? And the answer is … a weak “maybe” at best, and “unlikely” at worst.

The counterargument I’d get: Yes, but we are not going into a recession. Actually, we are. I (and nobody else, for that matter) just don’t know when. After nine years of appreciating stock markets and tepid economic growth, we tend to forget that recessions are a regular  economic fact of life, usually arriving every four to five years (so we are overdue for one). Most Millennials have yet to experience adulthood (have a job and a family) through a recession. They have also never had to borrow at high interest rates – but that is liable to happen, too.

Recessions are usually caused by expansions. Recessions are like the hangover that comes after the wild college party (economic expansion). It’s hard to have a good, fun college party with lots of booze and then not experience a hangover. (I am not speaking from recent personal experience but rather am trying to communicate in language to which Millennials can relate). During the expansion party, companies may build up too much inventory or erect too many factories, and consumers may overconsume.

If you own high-quality companies, ones that meet Buffett’s “ten-year stock market closed rule” (as we do), you don’t have to spend a lot of time and energy thinking about when the recession will hit (we don’t). However, if you own Tesla you’d better have a very clear, shiny crystal ball that will reveal lots of detail about the direction of interest rates and the global economy.

Recessions are tough for deeply cyclical companies: The bulk of their costs are fixed, and thus lower sales usually result in significant declines in net income and often lead to losses. This is why car companies and their deeply cyclical brethren don’t trade at high price-to-earnings levels when the economy is doing well. That is when their earnings are high. The market doesn’t usually take these high earnings at face value, knowing full well that there are lower earnings (or losses) around the corner when recession comes. Tesla, however, doesn’t have to worry about this low price-to-earnings problem, because in spite of its $50 billion market valuation, it has no earnings, just losses. It trades at whatever price-to-future Elon Musk tells you it does.

If you own Tesla stock and you only see one rosy (Musk) version of the future, you are ignoring the very real risk that the benign economic environment of today will not persist indefinitely into the future . Good luck – you’ll need plenty.

One additional but very important point. In the past I was dismissive of traditional automakers’ ability to compete with Tesla. I felt their hundred-year past of producing internal combustion engine (ICE) cars was going to hold them back, the same way Nokia’s dumb-phone past prevented it from effectively competing against Apple’s iPhone. Nokia tried to take the dumb-phone operating system Symbian and turn it into a smartphone operating system. It had a lot of engineers who knew the Symbian operating system, and thus it seemed a logical path at the time. The right approach would have been the more difficult one: Hire new engineers and create a brand new operating system. There was absolutely no reason why Nokia could not have developed its own Android-like OS, even if doing so would have required either retraining or, more likely, laying off Symbian engineers.

For a while it looked like I was right about cars, as the Big Three took a hybrid (Symbian-like) approach to electric cars – they were having a hard time saying goodbye to ICE. However, as we look at the future lines of electric cars coming from  US and German automakers, we now see them severing the connection to their ICE past and embracing electric.

Disclosure: I am an unsecured lender to Tesla through my $1,000 deposit on a Model 3. 

So, how does one invest in this overvalued stock market? Our strategy is spelled out in this fairly lengthy article.

Vitaliy Katsenelson is chief investment officer at  Investment Management Associates  in Denver, Colo. He is the author of “Active Value Investing” (Wiley) and “The Little Book of Sideways Markets” (Wiley). Read more on Katsenelson’s  Contrarian Edge  blog.

Matrix Glitch: NASA Reveals Distorted Image Of Martian Surface

An image released by NASA revealing a strange and distorted landscape on the surface of Mars is being dubbed a “matrix glitch.”  The odd image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows intriguing clean breaks in the planet’s surface deposits.

The new view shows the different effects of fault activity on the Martian surface, giving rise to everything from clean breaks to ‘stretched out’ distortions.  This is likely an indication that the faults formed at different times when the layers were at various stages of hardening.

NASA explains the “glitchy” image in a second photo, using arrows.

In a second image offering a closer look at some of the features that look strange, NASA has pointed out where the faults have displaced individual beds. These areas, as noted by the yellow arrow, are where the faults produced a clean break. In other regions, as noted by the green arrow, the layers appear stretched out as they span the fault.

“These observations suggest that some of the faultings occurred while the layered deposits were still soft and could undergo deformation, whereas other faults formed later when the layers must have been solidified and produced a clean break,” NASA explained. 

Speckling the surface of one of Mars’ oldest impact basins, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently spotted a sprawling expanse of ‘honeycomb’ landforms, with individual cells of up to 6 miles wide.

The origin of these textured features has long remained a mystery, as scientists debate which type of natural process could be responsible, from glacial events to wind erosion. But it is still possible that multiple processes are at play, according to NASA. There is evidence suggesting the honeycombs and the surrounding landscape in Mars northwestern Hellas Planitia may still be undergoing activity today.

According to NASA, “the lack of impact craters suggest that the landscape, along with these features, have been recently reshaped by a process, or number of processes that may even be active today. Scientists have been debating how these honeycombed features are created, theorized from glacial events, lake formation, volcanic activity, and tectonic activity, to wind erosion.”

Connection? President Trump Authorizes NASA To Return Americans To The Moon As Experts Investigate “Alien Comet” That Recently Sailed Past Earth

President Donald Trump recently signed a new directive that reauthorizes NASA to return American astronauts to the moon in a move that directly countered the Obama administrations push to privatize space exploration.

Complete with multiple astronauts in attendance, Trump made “Space Policy Directive 1” official which not only allows the country to once again put man on the moon, it also lays the groundwork for an eventual mission to Mars.

“This marks an important step in returning American astronauts to the Moon for long term exploration,” said Trump, while also implying that there may eventually be a base built on the moon as well as “potential” mining activities.

“We’re about to begin new journeys of exploration and discovery and once again imagine possibilities awaiting in those big, beautiful stars, and dare to dream big,” Trump continued.

Gizmodo reported:

In addition to “reclaiming our proud destiny in space,” Trump said the new directive will spur innovation—including the development of technologies that can be leveraged for military applications.

The mission to the Moon, it’s clear, is more than just about restoring American pride—it’s also about making sure the US continues to be a part of the 21st century space race.

Vice President Mike Pence, who’s the chairman of the National Space Council, spoke after Trump, saying it’s a “momentous occasion in the history of American space exploration”—one that will ensure Americans “lead in space once again.”

Pence said the recommendations made by the re-launched National Space Council were unanimously approved. The plan, said Pence, will “provide for the common defense of the United States,” and “spur innovation…and see jobs created that we couldn’t even imagine will be created today.”

Interestingly, the news that we will once again be putting man on the moon came as a team of astronomers announced that a comet that recently sailed past the earth may have been extraterrestrial in origin.

The cigar shaped asteroid, ‘Oumuamua, was the first interstellar object seen in the solar system after it was discovered by scientists who now plan to scan it in the hopes that they find radio signals coming from the comet itself.

The Daily Mail reported:

The alien-hunting project will use the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia for its investigation, with the campaign set to begin at 3:00pm ET (8:00pm GMT) on Wednesday.

The telescopes sensitive equipment would would take less than a minute to pick up something as faint as the radio waves from a smartphone, according to the Atlantic.

Milner, the business mogul behind Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million (£75m) search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, received an email about the object last week from one of his chief scientists.

Amazingly, one of the chief scientists for “Breakthrough Listen” noted that the more he studied the object the more he came to believe that it might be artificially created.

‘The more I study this object, the more unusual it appears, making me wonder whether it might be an artificially made probe which was sent by an alien civilisation,’ Professor Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department and one of Milner’s advisers on Breakthrough Listen, wrote in the email.

Professor Loeb said the space rock’s peculiar elongated shape is odd for a common space rock but ideal for a ship flying between star systems.

While we obviously do not have proof that there is a connection here, it does make one wonder, especially when you consider that Trump’s decision was a complete reversal from former President Obama’s with the decision seemingly coming out of no where.

Regardless, I think it is safe to say that the country as a whole is much better off having NASA send Americans into space rather than using private companies who are trying to make money while at the same time attempt to explore space.

There simply is no reason that NASA should not be sending astronauts to the moon.

Elon Musk"s First Payload To Mars: His "Midnight Cherry Tesla Roadster Playing Space Oddity"

In late November, we reported on Elon Musk’s desperate attempt to boost market confidence with a shock and awe performance unveiling Tesla’s new semi-truck and roadster. While the event was a thriller, it appears the laws of physics may have finally caught up with Tesla’s stock - now in a bear-market from September highs.

Musk is undeniably the greatest snake oil salesman modern financial markets have ever seen, and that is why he is planning the next spectacular event before a further correction.

On Friday evening, Musk tweeted what the payload of the Falcon Heavy would be— his “midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity”.

But the story gets better, because the powerful Falcon Heavy rocket will launch his Tesla into the orbit around Mars. Musk added, the Tesla “will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.”

Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017

As Musk would say, the show must go on with the Falcon Heavy launch expected “next month” (January 2018) from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. According to ARS Techinca, “a static fire test of the rocket’s three cores, and 27 engines, on the launch pad this month.”

Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape. Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017

In simplest terms, the Falcon Heavy is three of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets strapped together. It will then create enough lift as proposed by Musk to propel his Tesla out of low Earth orbit onto a trajectory to Mars. When it comes to timing— don’t take the company seriously. Musk has pushed back Falcon Heavy’s maiden flight more than once: it was originally planned for a summer launch but moved to November and now to January 2018.

Musk said, at a press conference in July, that the Falcon Heavy might not even make it to orbit on its first attempt to leave the atmosphere. That means the upcoming event could turn into a very expensive firework showing.

While the practical use for a Tesla roadster on Mars is still unknown, it would buy Musk some time to keep the stock elevated for perhaps a few more secondly offerings. If Musk is successful in this latest endeavor, it would signal that NASA’s ambitions to Mars could be fulfilled by a Falcon Heavy. So far, no private company has launched a rocket beyond low-Earth orbit, nevertheless to another plant.

Phil Larson, an assistant dean at the University of Colorado, and a former SpaceX official said, “the launch of the biggest rocket since the U.S. Moon booster is a game changer for our country’s space exploration future and for national security. The fact that development of such a capability is coming from U.S. industry is a very positive sign for our economic competitiveness.”

As we have highlighted before, the short thesis for Tesla (see: Jim Chanos Adds To Tesla Short, Sees Musk Stepping Down) explains the financial circumstances of why Musk is attempting to conduct the great show ever known to man through SpaceX, as it means the cross promotion would keep his scheme alive. In the mean time, the short theses build:

1. Negative Cash Flows

“If you can’t make money selling a $100,000 car to rich people, how are you going to make money selling a $45,000 car to normal people?” Rocker told The Times. He was referring to the upcoming mass-market Model 3. “I’m saying they’re going to lose money on every Model 3 they build and sell,” Spiegel said. Based on Tesla’s Q4 2016 earnings report, he figured the combined average selling price for non-leased Model S and X is about $104,000 and the combined average cost of building them about $82,000.

 

2. Competition from the Big Guys

Electric vehicles are still only a tiny fraction of total new vehicle sales in the US. Tesla sold about half of them. In March, according to Autodata, Tesla sold 4,050 vehicles in the US, similar to Porsche. All automakers combined sold 1.56 million new vehicles. This gave Tesla a market share of 0.26%. “Tesla faces a formidable set of competitors, and they’re coming in with guns blazing,” Wahlman told The Times. “Once the market is flooded with electric vehicles from manufacturers who can cross-subsidize them with profits from their conventional cars, somewhere around 2020 or 2021, Tesla will be driven into bankruptcy,” Spiegel said.

 

3. Tesla’s vanishing tax credits

The federal tax credit of $7,500 that EV buyers currently get is limited to 200,000 vehicles for each automaker. Once that automaker hits that point, tax credits are reduced and then phased out. Of all automakers, Tesla is closest to the 200,000 mark. Under its current production goals, the tax credits for its cars could start declining in 2018. This would give competitors, whose customers still get the full tax credit, a major advantage. About 370,000 folks put down a refundable $1,000 deposit on Tesla’s Model 3, perhaps figuring they’d get the $7,500 tax credit. But as it stands, many won’t. Rocker thinks that this is going to be an issue. The refundable deposit “commits them to nothing,” he said. Those that don’t get the tax credit may just ask for their money back and buy an EV that is still eligible for the credit.

 

4. The Question of patent protection

Tesla has made its patents available to all comers, thus lowering its patent protections against competitors. Also, the key part of an EV, the battery, is produced by suppliers; they, and not Tesla, own the intellectual property. This is true for all automakers. But Tesla might still be closely guarding crucial trade secrets that are not patented.

 

5. Musk’s distractions from his day job

Musk has a lot of irons in the fire: Tesla, SpaceX (with which he wants to build a colony on Mars or something), solar-panel installer SolarCity which Tesla bailed out last year; projects ranging from artificial intelligence to tunnel digging; venture capital activities…. “He’s all over the map, from tunneling to flights to Mars to solar roof tiles,” Rocker said. These announcements have the effect of boosting Tesla’s stock: “It’s ‘Let’s get the acolytes excited. Implant in the brain! Let’s buy Tesla stock!’”

 

6. Execution risk

“Investing is all about possibility and probability,” Yusko said. “Is it possible that Tesla will produce 500,000 cars in the next two or three years? Yes. Is it probable? No.” Tesla has missed many deadlines and goals, and quality problems cropped up in early production models. As Tesla is trying to make the transition to a mass-market automaker, execution risk will grow since mass-market customers are less forgiving.

 

7. Investor fatigue

Having lost money in every one of its 10 years of existence, Tesla asks investors regularly for more money to fill the new holes. In March, it got $1.2 billion. In May last year, it got $1.5 billion. Tesla will need many more billions to scale up production and to digest the losses. Tesla has been ingenious in this department. But when will investors get tired of it? “We’re awfully close to the point where people wake up and realize these guys are seriously diluting our equity” with new stock and convertible bond issues, Yusko said. According to The Times, Yusko “is looking for the moment when the true believers begin to lose faith.”

 

*Update

8. Emerging solid-state battery technology

Musk has invested a lot into his Gigafactory and technology producing lithium-ion batteries. The EV game is all about the best battery technology and a new threat has emerged using solid-state technology. If Tesla does not adopt to these new battery trends consumers would likely gravitate to EVs who posses such technology, because of the longer distance and shorter charge time.

 

Carpetbagger Paradise - by James McShirley

The term carpetbagger originally referred to post-Civil War Northerners who

moved to the South during reconstruction for either economic gain, political

gain, or both. They frequently arrived with hastily sewn suitcases made of

carpet remnants, hence the moniker “carpetbaggers.” Carpetbagging has

subsequently also become a popular description for non-native politicians who

for expediency and opportunity establish political roots in some newfound

territory. (Think: The Bush family in Texas or Hillary Clinton in New York.)

Carpetbagging has now evolved to describe virtually any unscrupulous, or

opportunistic outsider seeking financial gain. In the context of this last

definition there has never been a time when carpetbagging has experienced such a

renaissance as it has in modern finance. It’s the golden era of carpetbagging.

You could say, in fact,

we are living in a veritable carpetbagger’s paradise.

They Should have called it “Carpetbanking”

Of course, by definition

all

bankers are in the business of carpetbagging. The very nature of owning the

pieces of paper we exchange for real goods and services means there’s a constant

source of outside profiteering, at the expense of local people in useful

society. You can’t buy, sell, lease, or conduct a single transaction without a

carpetbanker somewhere getting his cut. Maybe though in the case of bankers we

need to update the term carpetbagger to “Guccibagger.” Unscrupulous outsiders

plying their trade elsewhere has been a Fed tradition since 1913.

We’re no longer in Bedford Falls, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Potter’s heirs are alive, and

prospering all over the planet.

National Pastime

Carpetbagging has indeed become so fashionable as to be a National pastime.

Fully aided and abetted by the (not) Federal (and not) Reserve, with full

cooperation from the Federal government it has morphed to new dimensions. Things

like ZIRP, stock market bubbles, housing bubbles, and everything bubblelicious

in between are all fully sanctioned events. By “sanctioned” I mean, heavily

subsidized; ultimately by YOU, dear taxpayer. Carpetbaggers thrive on OPM and

implicit guarantees of success. Why reinvent the con when you can merely pack up

your magic carpetbag and climb on the carpetbagging hypersonic loop? All aboard!

The (Dis)information Super Highway

The carpetbagging highway is in fact a 10-lane super interstate stretching all

the way from Silicon Valley to Washington DC. Buy Tesla? Of course, that Musk

chap is working on a hyper-speed of light gismo which will transport you to Mars

in the morning and still have you back by 8 PM to watch

American Idol.

With that in mind how can TSLA stock not hit $5,000? Amazon? It’s a foregone

conclusion that the Bezos machine will eventually sell

everything

to

everybody.

He’s not only going to sell everything to everybody, he’s going to be able to

read your mind and deliver it while you are still thinking of it! Gone are the

days of even having to bother with those pesky keystrokes. Yessirree, in the

land of Amazon there will be no exertion, no jobs, and no profits, yet somehow,

it’s all going to work out. Who cares about social chaos and starvation when you

can load the boat on AMZN

now

and get rich! Living in a carpetbagger’s paradise is like watching perpetual

Brady Bunch reruns. Everything works out, and it always ends with a happy song.

Vegas Hotel, or a Tree in Southern Greece?

Gold and silver owners know full well the carpetbagging nature of derivatives,

and how they are used to suppress and manipulate the underlying product. You in

fact don’t need to know a damn thing about mining, precious metals, or even

what

gold and silver are, to profit handsomely from them. Does gold come from the

ground, or does it grow on trees in southern Greece and Italy? Isn’t a golden

nugget some hotel in Vegas where Elvis hung out? Who cares, why bother, just

know that you will make money playing the cartel game. Short gold on 1% rallies,

NFP Fridays, option expirations, and other key no-no times and you will come out

like a Northern carpetbagger in 1868 Biloxi. The name of the game is take what

they give you, and it’s obvious TPTB are fully quiescent in facilitating paper

profits derived from suppressing precious metals, and in doing so ruin an entire

industry.

Hard Times (At least for Now)

These are no doubt hard times for precious metal investors. The discouragement

is understandable, the unfairness of it all hard to swallow. The Bitcoin, Tesla,

and FAANG carpetbaggers have been partying like it’s 1999, a most recent

investing mania era, in addition to the Prince song. Carpetbaggers rarely see

the violent upper cuts that hit them out of nowhere. Like a few Northerners who

got tossed out on their ear into a muddy street in the South it wouldn’t take

much to turn this carpetbagger’s paradise into a 1-way muddy street to hell.

Tesla, Amazon, and other Uber-bubbly delights can become the latest incarnation

of 1990’s dot.com stocks, which never made money and fell back their intrinsic

values: zero, or near-zero. Pack your (non-carpet) bags, we’re traveling back to

the world of real

money;

which is always gold and silver. It’s been a long journey from 2011. The return

trip should be far more pleasant, even if it isn’t on a Mars hyper-light-speed

gismo.

James McShirley
November 30, 2017

Stephen Hawking: Earth Will Become A Flaming Ball Of Fire By 2600

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Physicist and professor Stephen Hawking is warning that earth will become a flaming ball of fire by the year 2600.

He also warns that if humans want to avoid permanent extinction, we should be making plans to evacuate the earth.

Hawking claims that mankind will destroy the earth making it a fireball within the next 600 years. The renowned physicist believes soaring population sizes and consequential increasing demands for energy and food will lead to the catastrophe. Hawking also says that humanity should begin looking to the stars to avoid this fate, with our nearest neighbor Alpha Centauri the best candidate for our escape. Hawking also urged financial backers to put funds behind a project that would send probes to the star system.

The Alpha Centauri system is the closest star system to our sun and consists of three stars. Of those three stars, Proxima is the closest to our sun. At a mere 4.367 light years away, on our sky’s dome, we see this multiple star system as a single star – the third-brightest star visible from Earth. And it’s this system that Hawking has his eye on.

Stephen Hawking

Hawking made the comments while speaking via video link at the Tencent Web Summit, held in Beijing. The British cosmologist, who was diagnosed with motor neuron disease at age 21, is backing the Breakthrough Starshot project. That project will likely see a probe sent to Alpha Centauri in the very near future; 20 years or so.

“The idea behind this innovation is to have the nano craft on the light beam. Such a system could reach Mars in less than an hour, or reach Pluto in days, pass Voyager in under a week and reach Alpha Centauri in just over 20 years,” Hawking said praising the Breakthrough Starshot project. Astronomers feel that there is a reasonable chance that an Earth-like planet exists in one of the habitable zones within the star system too.

Right now, the fastest spacecraft would take 30,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri. But Hawking also threw another doomsday prediction on the table.  At the 2017 Web Summit, held in Lisbon and attended by around 60,000 people, he warns that AI (artificial intelligence) is on the verge of replacing people.

 According to Hawking, humanity must be prepared to tackle artificial intelligence to stop robots replacing people. Hawking said the technology could transform every aspect of life in some good ways, but cautioned that intelligent machines pose new challenges. He said robots are already threatening millions of jobs but that this new revolution could be used to help society and for the good of the world, including alleviating poverty and disease.

“The rise of AI could be the worst or the best thing that has happened for humanity,” Hawking said via video link at the opening night of the summit on Monday.

 

“We simply need to be aware of the dangers, identify them, employ the best possible practice and management and prepare for its consequences well in advance.”

When Will The Tesla Stock-Promote Finally Fail

Via AdventuresInCapitalism.com,

The history of industry leading consumer tech products has not been kind to investors who overstay their welcome. You need look no further than all the hundreds of notable recent failures, to realize that these companies almost always flame out. The list below (in no particular order) is a nice trip down memory lane of former favorites, that are now either bankrupt or shells of their former selves—often consumed by some other entity that fortunately put them out of their misery. Of course, the list below, is just from the past decade or two;

Palm, Gateway, Research In Motion, GoPro, FitBit, Heelys, Handspring, Compaq, BlueRay, Garmin, Delorean, Casio, Sega, Tamaguchi, TiVo, Betamax, AOL, Walkman (Sony), Set Top Boxes (Scientific American), Kodak, Atari, Napster, Netscape, Polaroid, etc.

Let’s just say, it’s hard at the top. You must guess each change in technology, each generation of improvement and design it for fickle consumers, while constantly outlaying capital for research and development that may never go anywhere. All the time, others are constantly trying to overtake you.

If you look at the lifecycles of these companies, they often follow a similar trajectory from ingenious creation with huge margins, to a few generations of new products with smaller margins, to massive competition as deep pocketed competitors and venture capitalists try and emulate your product, to missing a product cycle, to becoming obsolete. These consumer product companies rarely last more than a decade; often just a few years. In the end, consumer focused tech is vicious and Darwinian, with very few long-term competitive advantages.

Of course, Tesla (TSLA – USA) is something of an anomaly here. While the companies in the above list, all produced prodigious cash while they were industry leaders, Tesla seems to incinerate cash while in the lead—using repeated equity and now debt offerings to plug the hole. While other companies had a huge stash of cash to fall back on when others overtook them, Tesla’s cash balance leaves it only a few quarters from insolvency. Add in a host of questionable related party transactions, convoluted financial statements (what the hell is pro-forma revenue?), the inability to ever hit company guidance, deceptive disclosures and a business that seems to lose more money with each vehicle it produces, is it any wonder that Tesla is one of the most shorted large-cap stocks today? If I had to choose the most obvious pending bankruptcy of a large-cap stock, it is clearly Tesla.

At the same time, I have to give Elon Musk credit. He has created a company that is a rather successful cult, even if it is still a failing auto company. Every time that skeptics ask real questions, he deflects them with futuristic sci-fi pronouncements. What other automobile CEO is obsessed with Mars while his assembly line fumbles along? What other CEO talks of hyperloops, while his main product on auto-pilot will kill you if used as currently designed. This “visionary “status has deferred timelines and made all logical financial metrics meaningless to investors—which may be the point of all his hubristic talk in the first place. Extend, pretend, blatantly mislead investors, raise more capital. It’s the junior mining model—applied to auto production—on a scale that would make anyone in Vancouver blush.

Automobile production is a decidedly unsexy industry, with massive capital outlays, high fixed costs, huge cyclicality and low returns on invested capital throughout the cycle—the technical definition of an awful business. The leading players produce millions of vehicles a year, yet trade at mid-single digit cash flow multiples, due to how awful the industry is. Why is Tesla valued like a high-tech growth stock, where investors ignore accelerating operating losses; if the best-case outcome is that it becomes a cyclical auto manufacturer with depressing returns on capital? A new technology like electronic vehicles (EV) sounds cutting edge, but so was automatic transmission, air conditioning, power steering, fuel injection, etc. All the other auto makers copied these technologies and caught up within a few years—much like what is now happening in EV. So, how has Tesla become such an epic bubble, if it is competing (poorly) in an industry that is notorious for destroying capital? It is clearly the promotional genius of Elon Musk. Naturally, he won’t be the first or last “visionary” to have a comeuppance.

So, going back to my question, which is the genesis of this article; when will the Tesla stock promote finally implode?

Long-time readers of this site know that I no longer short companies. This was a hard-learned lesson from when I was short Research in Motion, about two years too soon and watched as it went up 3-fold on me—before ultimately collapsing as I had predicted. Unfortunately, I was not short much by the time of the collapse as a small position had mushroomed into something pretty large and I was forced to keep covering at accelerating losses—lest I be forced to sell good longs to fund the repeated margin requirements of the short. While my thesis had been right, my timing was wrong. As long as investors believed in Blackberry, it didn’t matter that Apple and Samsung were building competing products that were likely to be better. It didn’t matter that Chinese players were producing low-end models that were likely to be almost as good, but at a fraction of the cost. It didn’t matter that competition from cash rich competitors grabbing for market share would crush margins. No one on Wall Street cared—until the iPhone finally showed up and people realized it was better. Then the Research in Motion collapse began.

For the past year, Tesla was a bet on pending mass production of affordable EV cars. Earlier this summer, we saw the first of the Tesla Model 3s to be produced. Even the normally ebullient journalists struggled to hide their disappointment with the product. This is understandable, dozens of competing EV models are coming, starting as soon as 2018. Will they be better than the Model 3? Based on what we know thus far, they’re unlikely to be worse. As they continue to advance EV technology, auto companies with far greater resources than Tesla, will eventually surpass it—much like with Blackberry. Then again, Research in Motion was coining money while at the top of its game—Tesla consumes money, while racking up debt. This won’t be a game of margins and profits—all the incumbents need to do is show that they can break even producing a comparable vehicle. At that point, the funding for Tesla will subside and its debt will bury it.

I was too early with RIMM and I don’t want to be too early with TSLA. So, I’ve been patient. I’ve been waiting for the competitors to show up. They’re now coming. The Tesla Model 3 is a dud—competing products will begin showing up in 2018 and they look much better. However, I’m not going to short TSLA. I’m going to use long-dated puts—much like I’ve played all subsequent dead-man-walking companies with an uncertain mortality date.

The problem with puts, is that long-dated puts are expensive. Fortunately, there’s a way to offset this cost, the bear put spread. This is the purchase of a put and the sale of a put at a lower price. By doing this, your gains are capped by the price of the put you’ve sold, but since your cost is much lower, you get to play with many more of them. Besides, you don’t need Tesla at zero to win with these, you just need Tesla’s share price to drop materially from here. If my timing is wrong, my losses are small and I can reload when they expire. Besides, I don’t expect TSLA to be a zero immediately. It is much more likely to limp towards zero, as opposed to imploding towards zero—making the bear put spread even more attractive than straight puts. Let’s just say that for the past few months, I’ve been adding to this position. The net cost of the spread is cheap and the timing now seems increasingly pregnant.

When will Tesla’s stock promote finally implode? When people realize that it’s a cash incinerating vanity project for Elon Musk, at a time when new, better products are coming to the market. That point is coming soon. Very soon.

5 Things You’re Missing While the Media Obsesses Over Paul Manafort

(ANTIMEDIA) — Though according to a recent poll a majority of the American public believes the Russia investigations are hurting the country, another media feeding frenzy began over the weekend when it was revealed that an indictment would be issued Monday. Sure enough, on Monday, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were charged with a slew of different offenses, and corporate media heads have been spinning.

Considering the FBI is corrupt, the Trump administration is corrupt, and the whole of the federal government has failed to contain this corruption, the Russia story amounts to more of the same distractions. Here are five other relevant developments the media is failing to adequately cover:

1) Congress moves forward with Trump’s military-industrial appointments to the Pentagon:

At this point, it is well-known that Trump has done little to drain the swamp, instead filling it with a variety of special interests. This week, Congress will move to approve more swamp appointments, including Mark Esper, a Raytheon lobbyist, for Army Secretary, John Rood, a senior executive at Lockheed Martin, for undersecretary of defense policy, Joseph Kernan, who works as senior vice president of corporate development for SAP National Security Services, which spent over $2 million on lobbying in 2017 and has also been awarded multi-million dollar contracts from the Department of Defense in recent years. Another appointee, Robert Wilkie, made a name for himself during the Bush administration while working as an attorney for the Pentagon, where he drafted guidelines to broadly restrict testimony to congressional committees. Trump has chosen him to for the position of undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

2) Your Halloween candy is probably made by child laborers subject to “slave-like” conditions:

For years, candy giants Nestle, Mars, and Hershey have relied on the labor of children in West Africa to source their cocoa beans. Victims have filed lawsuits in the heavily documented abuse, but despite pledges from the candy companies to reduce their reliance on the harsh practices, the number of child laborers had actually increased by 2014, according to a report from Tulane University. Americans will spend roughly $2.7 billion on candy this year, yet few are aware much of it was produced under brutal conditions.

3) Tony Podesta resigns from lobbying firm amid Mueller investigation: 

Though Manafort is dominating the headlines, Tony Podesta, brother of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, stepped down from his own firm. Politico reported that that the “investigation into Podesta and his firm grew out of investigators’ examination of Manafort’s finances. Manafort organized a PR campaign on behalf of a nonprofit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. Podesta Group was one of several firms that were paid to do work on the PR campaign to promote Ukraine in the U.S.” In April, the Podesta Group filed paperwork with the Department of Justice admitting it had worked for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine that “had also benefitted the same Ukrainian political party that Manafort had once advised,” Politico noted.

4) Once again, authorities find Iran is complying with nuclear deal:

Despite President Trump’s saber-rattling against Iran and his threats to pull the United States out of the Obama-era nuclear agreement, his own administration has acknowledged the Iranian government is adhering to the terms. This week, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency also verified the Middle Eastern nation’s compliance. Iran has indicated its intent to honor the deal and the other participating governments — Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China, and the E.U. — continue to support it despite Trump’s ongoing condemnations.

5) Sexual harassment allegations continue to surface across industries:

Since the Harvey Weinstein story broke earlier this month, a wave of assault allegations have surfaced, and not just in Hollywood. On Monday, Democratic candidate for Miami-Dade city commission Rafael Velasquez lost support from his party over two separate allegations of harassment, including exposing himself to one woman and groping another. Also this week, 500 female members of the art community, including writers, artists, curators, and directors, issued a letter condemning sexual harassment in response to the resignation of ArtForum magazine publisher Knight Landesman. The women said in the letter that they “have been groped, undermined, harassed, infantilized, scorned, threatened, and intimidated by those in positions of power who control access to resources and opportunities,” adding that they “have held our tongues, threatened by power wielded over us and promises of institutional access and career advancement.” A fresh batch of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein also surfaced this week, detailing incidents all the way back to the 1970s.

Though the media will almost certainly continue to focus on the Russia scandal, far more important developments will certainly continue to unfold.

Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

DoD Plans Solar-Storm-Based National Blackout Drill During Antifa Protests In November

Via StockBoardAsset.com,

According to The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL), elements of the US Department of Defense (DOD) will simulate a  “communications interoperability” training exercise across the United States on November 04-06. The announcement released on October 24 has not been widely distributed to the media, because the drill is simulating a total grid collapse and could spark public fear.

Explained by Army MARS Program Manager Paul English,

“This exercise will begin with a national massive coronal mass ejection event which will impact the national power grid as well as all forms of traditional communication, including landline telephone, cellphone, satellite, and Internet connectivity,”

In July, we warned about the US government quietly preparing for a massive coronal mass ejection with the passage of an Executive Order - “Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events”.

Here is snippet of section 1 of the executive order:   

Space weather events, in the form of solar flares, solar energetic particles, and geomagnetic disturbances, occur regularly, some with measurable effects on critical infrastructure systems and technologies, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), satellite operations and communication, aviation, and the electrical power grid. Extreme space weather events — those that could significantly degrade critical infrastructure — could disable large portions of the electrical power grid, resulting in cascading failures that would affect key services such as water supply, healthcare, and transportation. Space weather has the potential to simultaneously affect and disrupt health and safety across entire continents. Successfully preparing for space weather events is an all-of-nation endeavor that requires partnerships across governments, emergency managers, academia, the media, the insurance industry, non-profits, and the private sector.

Back in April 2017, we wrote an article titled ‘Yesterday’s Broad Power Outage Likely Caused By Geomagnetic Storm‘. While everyone thought terrorism was to blame, we correctly pointed out that large power failures in major US cities was due to an intense geomagnetic storm registering 8-10 on K-Planetary Index.

Earthsky.org provides an easy understanding of what is a cornoal mass ejection…

A CME can launch a billion tons of plasma from the sun’s surface into space, at speeds of over a million miles per hour. Every so often, the sun burps.  But, unlike myself, when the sun burps, it does so with the power of 20 million nuclear bombs.  These hiccups are known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs)—powerful eruptions near the surface of the sun driven by kinks in the solar magnetic field.  The resulting shocks ripple through the solar system and can interrupt satellites and power grids on Earth.

 Back to the exercise on November 04-06,  the US Department of Defense headquarters entity will work with the US Army and US Air-Force MARS organizations and the Amateur Radio community to request status reports for 3,143 US counties. During the exercise, communication frequencies will use HF NVIS, VHF, UHF, and non-internet linked Amateur Radio repeaters.

In addition, Army MARS Program Manager Paul English said,

We want to continue building on the outstanding cooperative working relationship with the ARRL and the Amateur Radio community,” English said. “We want to expand the use of the 60-meter interop channels between the military and amateur community for emergency communications, and we hope the Amateur Radio community will give us some good feedback on the use of both the 5-MHz interop and the new 13-MHz broadcast channels as a means of information dissemination during a very bad day scenario. 

Full Report from The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL):

Bizarrely enough, this was first reported by Rob Dew of InfoWars, the US Department of Defense (DOD) training exercise will occur on ANTIFA’s day of rage across the United States.

On refusefascism.org, a post titled: November 4 It Begins: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! has more than 33,000 shares on Facebook…. The post explains what the group’s intentions are during the day of rage.

The bottom line: The United States government is quietly preparing for a major space-weather event to paralyze communication systems and energy grids across the entire country. As a citizen, you’re not allowed to know this knowledge and frankly you will not be prepared—only the government will be. The writing is on the wall of what is coming through an executive order and DOD drills.

No wonder public trust with government is at historic lows, because you’re not allowed to know the truth.

Simultaneously, the wealthiest families who own mega corporations in the United States are plowing millions into their proxy armies called community organizing groups. Let’s just hope, a coronal mass ejection doesn’t occur when these severely misguided folks are protesting.

*  *  *

Here is the curve ball: Is the United States really preparing for a North Korean EMP attack?

 

 

FBI Reportedly Investigating Harvey Weinstein

The FBI has opened an investigation into Harvey Weinstein for alleged sex crimes, the DailyMail reported on Wednesday evening, a move that reportedly came at the behest of the DOJ which instructed the bureau to investigate the mounting allegations leveled at the movie mogul. The move comes amid rumors that Weinstein plans to head to Europe for sex rehab – leading to fears that Weinstein could attempt to pull a "Roman Polanski" where he lands in some non-extradition country in Europe to dodge U.S. prosecution.

The FBI can both look at whether he has committed any federal crimes in the U.S. and prepare extradition proceedings if he remains in Europe.

The Mail writes that while it is unknown whether the DOJ order came directly from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the probe will likely be seen in a political light given Weinstein"s friendship with Trump foe Hillary Clinton. Additionally, it is not yet known if Sessions gave the direct order or if Trump requested the investigation, however the president has previously said he wasn"t surprised by the sexual harassment and assault claims made against Weinstein.

Trump said shortly after news of the shock report on Thursday: "I"ve known him for years. I"m not surprised."

Among the allegations against Weinstein, which the FBI is expected to examine, is that he forced Lucia Evans, a student who wanted to be an actress, to perform oral sex on him in New York in 2004. And since New York State has no statute of limitations on rape and criminal sexual acts - its legal term for forced oral or anal intercourse - Weinstein may be out of luck if Evans, or any other number of women who have stepped up in recent days, decides to press charges.

Ironically, even escaping to Europe may not help the scandalous former movie exec: So far five accusers have given accounts of attacks in France, while allegations of attacks in London have also surfaced – any of which could lead to charges there. Additionally, the FBI has field offices in both countries and could assist prosecutors there with their cases.

Weinstein was a big donor for Hillary Clinton, who kept silent for five days after the accusations emerged, before finally denouncing her longtime friend in a statement on Tuesday;

"I was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior."

She has, however, remained silent on the crucial issue of the vast amount of cash Weinstein donated directly to her and her family.  The move by the DOJ comes as it emerged the movie mogul has taken on top criminal defense lawyers Blair Berk and David Chesnoff. Berk has represented A-listers like, Mel Gibson, Johnny Depp, Britney Spears, Kiefer Sutherland, and Lindsay Lohan, while Chesnoff’s clients have included Vince Neil, Bruno Mars, Paris Hilton, Leonardo DiCaprio and the family of Michael Jackson.   The pair will join his expanding legal team following an article in the New Yorker, which alleged three women were sexually assaulted by him.

Up to 30 women have now come forward to make allegations of sexual misconduct

Terraforming 101: How To Make Mars A Habitable Planet

Before we can journey to the stars, we must first go to Mars.

That’s Elon Musk’s philosophy, anyways – and as Visual Capitalist"s Jeff Desjardins reports, just days ago he revealed new details on his ambitions to colonize the Red Planet, including sending two cargo rockets by 2022 and four rockets (two manned, two cargo) by 2024.

In 40 to 100 years, Musk suggested that up to a million people could live there.

CHANGE OF SEASONS

As Elton John wisely noted, “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids”.

Indeed, the average temperature on Mars is −55 °C (−67 °F), dust storms are frequent and potentially deadly, and the planet has extremely low atmospheric pressure (about 1% of Earth). Because of the atmosphere and temperature swings, meaningful occurrences of liquid water on the planet’s surface are almost impossible. And while Mars is thought to have plenty of frozen water at its poles and in underground deposits, the logistics of tapping into these resources could be quite difficult.

In other words, for any meaningful and long-lasting human presence on Mars, we would likely want to alter the planet and its atmosphere to make it more habitable for human life. And while the exact mechanisms we would use to accomplish this are still up for debate, the basics behind what’s needed to achieve Earth-like conditions are actually pretty straightforward.

TERRAFORMING 101

Today’s infographic comes to us from Futurism, and it details what might need to happen on Mars to make it more accommodating to human life.

Here are two steps we could take to get Mars into the “Goldilocks Zone”, where water is liquid – and harmful ionizing radiation like x-rays, UV rays, and gamma rays are not problematic.

Greenhouse Gases
One way to ward off harmful ionizing radiation is to add a thicker layer of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere of Mars. Such an atmosphere would also allows less heat to escape, meaning warmer temperatures on the planet.

Magnetic Field
A strong magnetic field on Earth is something else that makes life easier. Earth’s solid inner core, composed primarily of iron, creates this field when the planet spins – and it deflects cosmic rays and other harmful types of radiation.

One interesting solution to solve this problem on Mars would to have a magnetic field generator in front of the planet at all times, deflecting any such rays coming from the sun.

THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY

While terraforming is still a mixture of theory and science fiction at this point, we do know some of the major problems that have to be solved for attaining a habitable environment – and it will be interesting to see how plans around Mars develop as the prospect of colonization becomes more real.

You need to live in a dome initially but over time you could terraform Mars to look like Earth and eventually walk around outside without anything on.

… So it’s a fixer-upper of a planet.

– Elon Musk

Visualizing The Many Failures Of Elon Musk

Elon Musk is having a rough week.

After confessing to investors and Tesla’s customers that the company had only managed to build 260 of the 1,500 Model 3 Sedans that it had promised to deliver by the end of the third quarter, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the Tesla had not yet finished building the Model 3 assembly line at its Fremont, Calif, factory. Instead, factory employees have been assembling cars by hand – a highly unusual method. As one source who spoke to WSJ confirmed: “that’s not how mass production vehicles are made.”

In a tweet published just before the storm, Musk said that the Tesla semi unveil had been pushed back until November as the company diverts resources to the Model 3 and to Puerto Rico, a transparent attempt to cover his flank should the company’s “production bottlenecks” persist for longer than anticipated.

Despite effectively being caught concealing material information from investors, Musk will in all likelihood soldier on from this latest scandal, bolstered by credulous investors (and generous government subsidies). Even if Tesla continues to miss increasingly ambitious production targets that have proven to be little more than a sop to investors, Musk – already one of Silicon Valley’s most durable figures – will continue to burnish his credibility as a “tech visionary” as he mesmerizes investors with his high-minded monologues about colonizing Mars.    

But you’ve got to give the man credit – he’s overcome a not-insignificant amount of adversity during his career. Like Travis Kalanick, he’s been fired as CEO of a company he founded. He’s also survived near fatal illnesses, and famously married – and divorced – the same woman twice.

In a colorful series of infographics, MarketWatch traces the tragedies and obstacles that have befallen Musk in career spanning more than two decades.

In 2000, Musk almost died after contracting malaria while traveling to Brazil and South Africa, prompting the famous quip “Vacation will kill you.”

He’s overseen not one, but three, failed rocket launches at SpaceX.

In December 2008, both Tesla and SpaceX were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Some other more recent setbacks for Musk have included an unexpected downgrade by Morgan Stanley, and Consumer Reports lowering its ratings on Tesla’s Model S and Model X.

Of course, Musk isn’t the only tech CEO who’s faced adversity. Steve Jobs was famously ousted from Apple in 1985 and later said of that time that he was a “very public failure.”

But even when his company caught up in another scandal, we imagine Elon – shielded by the fact that Tesla shares are trading north of $350 - has developed an appreciation for taking the long view.
 

Russia And The US Work Together To Build A Space Station In The Lunar Orbit

 Maybe all is finally forgiven in the ongoing battle to constantly turn the narrative back to the Russian election meddling, as the former Soviet Union and the United States attempt to work together to build a manned space station which orbits the moon.

Part of this long-term project to send humans to Mars, the NASA-led program will see the two countries working together to create a crewed spaceport in lunar orbit. The proposed crew-tended spaceport will orbit the moon and serve as a “gateway to deep space and the lunar surface.”

Russian and the US have agreed to put their heads together to make the new mission possible. The US space agency said earlier this year that it was exploring a program called the Deep Space Gateway, a multi-stage project to push further into the solar system.

While George W. Bush wanted to see humans on the moon again by 2020, Barack Obama scrapped that plan and focused his intention on plans to visit Mars, including a mission to test the necessary technology by capturing a boulder from the surface of an asteroid and bringing it into lunar orbit. Now with the Donald Trump at the helm, asteroid missions are no longer a top priority. The Trump administration wants to see a spaceport orbiting the moon, crewed visits to the lunar surface are once again on the menu.

Plans to return to the moon have waxed and waned depending on the US administration. NASA, however, has even bigger plans. The organization has ambitious intentions to send humans to orbit Mars by the 2030s, and subsequent plans to colonize the red planet.

On Wednesday the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that a cooperation agreement had been signed at an astronautical congress in Adelaide.“The partners intend to develop international technical standards which will be used later, in particular to create a space station in lunar orbit,” the Russian agency said in a statement. The Russians and Americans would cooperate to build the systems needed to organise scientific missions in lunar orbit and to the surface of the moon, the agency added. “Roscosmos and Nasa have already agreed on standards for a docking unit of the future station. Taking into account the country’s extensive experience in developing docking units, the station’s future elements will be created using Russian designs.” –The Guardian

“To avoid future problems over technical cooperation, part of the standards should be unified – for a possibility for various countries to work on their craft and dock to the international lunar station,” Igor Komarov, Roscosmos’ general director was quoted as saying in the statement.

Russia and the United States also discussed using Moscow’s Proton-M and Angara rockets to help create the infrastructure of the lunar spaceport, the statement said, adding that the main works were scheduled to begin in the mid-2020s.

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Author: Mac Slavo
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Date: September 27th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

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Who's The Richest Person In Your State?

The United States is known to have many millionaires and billionaires. But, as HowMuch.net details, it turns out that not all states are equal when it comes to the rich and powerful.

Where does your state fall? Take a look at the map below to see the richest person in every state.

Source: HowMuch.net

A photo of the richest person in any given state is superimposed on each state in the map, along with the person’s name and net worth. States are color coded based upon how the richest person in that state attained his or her wealth: red for self-made, blue for inherited and purple for inherited and growing. There is a total of 52 wealthy individuals on the map because there was a tie in two states. The data were collected from Forbes.

An outright majority of the richest people in the states are self-made. Nearly all of the wealthiest people in Western states are self-made, while a more mixed group is found among the richest individuals in Northeastern states. There is also a small trend found in familial ties. The wealthiest person in both Texas and Arkansas – Jim and Alice Walton - are from the family that founded retail giant Wal-Mart. The Mars family, the founders of the Mars candy company, also appears twice on the map; John and Jacqueline Mars in Wyoming and Virginia.

Although the individuals found on the map represent the wealthiest person in each state, the net worth of each person varies to a significant degree. The West Coast – California, Oregon and Washington – is home to some of the wealthiest people in the country. This includes Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in not only the U.S. but the world. The wealthiest person in states with a small population, like Midwestern America states, tend to have a relatively lower net worth compared to larger states. But there are a few notable exceptions, including the world’s third wealthiest man Warren Buffet in sparsely-populated Nebraska.

There are many millionaires and billionaires found throughout the United States. But some states, particularly highly populated states, are home to the ultra-rich, while other states with smaller populations tend to be home to individuals with relatively lower net worth. It appears that the further you go West, the more you find wealthy individuals that are self-made, rather than inheritors of large fortunes.