Whoa. Greenhouse on mars as a photo op to get people interested in space again?
Elon Musk is probably the most amazing entrepreneur of the modern day. Electronic payments. Electric cars (which might prevent the next middle eastern war), and solar power. Space.
What's funny though is the Middle East is a sunny place which is perfect for generating power from solar, if electric takes over from oil it may still be in the energy business.
Add to that oil is used for more than just fuel for vehicles so electric power and oil both in the Middle East, but I'm sure other sunny countries will generate their own.
Violent places governed by dictators and religious genocidal death cults aren't my favorite places to make large capital investments in physical plant, though. It's also rather far from consumers. I'd prefer Nevada...
Those are some pretty strong words (religious genocidial death cults), who says they are governed by them ? And for the fighting that goes on in some of these countries, the term civil war would be more appropriate
> Honestly, I think it's pretty obvious that Islam is religious, genocidal, and anti-life (i.e., flourishing human life on this earth).
Religious yes, the other parts you are wrong.
You are mistaking what some people do in the name of religion to rally support. Islam's goal isn't to kill people, in fact the basic tenants of the religion are to live a life of peace & spirituality and live in harmony with one's neighbours. Of course this doesn't apply if your neighbours are attacking you, but you should note that what you see is the actions of a few form a religious base of well over 1 billion people.
You also have to understand that the terrorism that you see didn't just arise from a vacuum, people don't just decide to kill other people for no reason, a major part of it has to do with revenge and retribution for past acts committed against them. Not that I am condoning their actions, I just think that you should understand there is more to the media portrayal that goes on, almost every action committed is put in the spotlight of religion even if many of the people involved (such as governments) are not religious, yet no one would think the same of the United States.
Note, I am not going to pursue this further since I don't feel the need to start a religious war in HN. On the other hand if you have something interesting to say about SpaceX, I am all ears.
No, I'm not making any mistake. Religion is anti-mind, anti-life, and it is evil. There is no excuse for it. Saying "not all Muslims are are bad, violent people" is precisely like saying "Not all slave owners mistreated their slaves." In other words, completely true, but doesn't excuse supporting an outmoded, false, anti-life way of thinking.
I don't enjoy making these arguments, but people have to start speaking up about this kind of thing if it's ever going to change - again, analogous to the slavery case.
The US is not a Christian nation, if that's what you mean. It was founded on a basis of individual rights. Sure, we are getting further from that every year, but at this particular moment, there are very few religion-based laws (marriage laws are the big exception).
The US doesn't own Christianity. I'm pretty sure that rdl was referring to the abrahamic religions. Two of the major three and the problems associated with them are pretty much defining characteristics of that region.
Whatever the excuse in the form of 'religious purposes', there is still a lot of industry in America devoted to one thing, and one thing only: the delivery of death.
I absolutely do not disagree. In fact, I could not agree more. I'm just objecting to the possessive "its own" if the death cult in question is Christianity.
Same way we use geothermal in or hydro in inconvenient locations today -- make aluminum there, or other energy intensive products. Also water desalination for local use. Maybe synthetic fuels, like hydrogen, or using waste to fuel conversion (which uses energy). Saudi has ok port infrastructure although it is at risk to Iran and Somalia.
Build there a factory that produces a fuel like methane from something like atmospheric CO2 and water, using only solar energy. Ship the fuel around the world.
Elon Musk is probably the most amazing entrepreneur of the modern day. Electronic payments. Electric cars (which might prevent the next middle eastern war), and solar power. Space.