chawkins99

I almost went there in the last post. Still not ZERO gravity though. There is always some gravitational effect from other bodies.

I love the idea that an object can orbit an empty point in space. See NASAs WMAP mission.

steveq

Ya got me.
Its an intrinsic property of mass, so we're stuck with it.

SultanOfSwing

In 1,000 years, out of nowhere, Ron Howard's voice will say: "we weren't. "

I openly wanted them to get stuck up there and I don't care how bad a person that makes me.

You don't get to make dummy thicc piles of cash off the backs of the working class without being an utter ****ing sociopath.

That's 0.005% of his net worth, before you all start casting bronze icons of the smug little twat.

I've unironically handed twice that percentage of my own (estimated) in cash to a homeless guy in a grocery store parking lot because I felt awful about walking past him on the way in. And I'd do it all the time if I ever carried cash, without needing to tell everyone. Except this one time I told all you.

Branson might have given Mike Oldfield his break but they can all suck it.

Lion in Winter

I'm so glad you're back.

SultanOfSwing

The only thing we can ethically consume under capitalism is the flesh of the bourgeoisie.

Lion in Winter

I think I've just become a vegetarian.

caretaker

SultanOfSwing

That's the thing though, this is obscene levels of wealth hoarding and they're being hailed as people to look up to and emulate. In reality that would, within reason, be millionaires and not billionaires.

The difference between $1 million and $1 billion is in effect, $1 billion. Millionaires are, by and large, ostensibly working class. They are doctors who spend all day helping people, who then got lucky investing in a market that's rigged for people like them to fail in, and are sitting on a few million at 50. They still earned it all themselves, and incurred a sizable amount of debt to get where they are. Even actors, singers and footballers are still working class. They made their money with their own labor, and didn't exploit other working people (directly) in doing so. I might even be worth six figures when I retire, but I'm in debt about a quarter of a million after a refinance and a few new cars.

To make that 10^3 jump from million to billion, you are crossing lines that very few people with millions have. There is no morally arguable reason why one person should have $1 billion, let alone $200 billion.

Still glad I'm back ...

SultanOfSwing

This is based and Leninpilled.

Shard

Fair comment on billion vs million, and many do not quite appreciate the difference of scale. Tens of millions though (so called multi-millionaire) seems ok for those that can obtain it. Apart from sports stars, I'd cap them at $10 million (it's just a game).

Shard

Interesting that there seem to be very few pictures/videos from the window of Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic. Spacewoman Wally Funk remarked that it wasn't really high enough, and maybe that is the case. Some ISS photos (altitude 400km, 4X that of the Blue/Virgin) just barely show the earth's curvature and thin blue atmosphere, so perhaps these joy flights are not what they are promoted to be.

SultanOfSwing

Sports might pay astronomically high, but ignoring any extra money made through sponsorship and advertising for now, the players themselves are still providing their labor, and they are entitled to be paid at the market rate for that labor. That the market rate has been so inflated, is another thing entirely.

The type of lens being used will affect to what degree the curvature of the earth is shown in photographs as well.

I suppose if one wanted to be pedantic about it, one could point out that they didn't really make it into space at all (15km short, wasn't it?).

Shard

[

The type of lens being used will affect to what degree the curvature of the earth is shown in photographs as well.

I suppose if one wanted to be pedantic about it, one could point out that they didn't really make it into space at all (15km short, wasn't it?).[/QUOTE]

Indeed. But there really have been very few photos of any type issued. Shouldn't they have all had GoPros strapped on or something.

SultanOfSwing

Since it was all a massive, tone-deaf publicity stunt that does nothing to benefit us as a species in any way, I too am surprised they didn't take more photos.

Maybe they were scared of pissing off the flat earthers. Or they saw aliens.

Shard

I thought Bezos was an alien