Chris

Nothing to see here. Just a ledger of the stuff I'm keeping track of on X.

[Peter H. Diamandis, MD @PeterDiamandis]

We are the first generation that can credibly plan to become a multi-planetary species, and possibly the last that gets to decide whether we will. No pressure.

[Sam @DigitalSamIAm]

Can we debunk this nonsense?

Elon Musk was awarded (note: not given) cost-per-result contracts to perform a service for the US government. The total of those for SpaceX specifically is ~$22B, which includes repaid loans, state tax incentives, etc.

The deal was simple: put stuff into LEO at or below a set cost. If SpaceX does it below the set cost, SpaceX keeps the difference. If it doesn’t, the company is responsible for the overrun.

End result? SpaceX & Elon lowered the cost of getting 1 kg into LEO by 95-97% vs what NASA was paying previously.

And for the record, every other company around at the time was offered the same opportunity to bid on the contract - Musk/SpaceX just took it.

The handout narrative implies the taxpayer is the patron and SpaceX the dependent. The cost data shows the opposite: before SpaceX, NASA paid Russia’s Soyuz $80-86M per seat; SpaceX delivered at ~$55 million. SpaceX saved the US taxpayer $300M-$465M each year on that alone (the US sends 12-15 astronauts to space each year)

On the lunar lander, NASA estimated SpaceX’s fixed-price bid saved $20B-$30B vs the Boeing-preferred cost-plus approach.

So: SpaceX saved the US taxpayer more than the total value of contracts it earned on a single project, PLUS provided the US government with the requested services (put stuff in LEO) at the best possible price.

[Dean @DeanCFC_]

The Digwa family knew that Henry Nowak had been stabbed multiple times, and while he lay there dying, they allowed police officers to handcuff him, and continued to lie as he died in front of them.

Every member of that family who played a role should be in prison. The police officers should face criminal prosecution.

I genuinely can’t believe what I’ve just watched. It’s horrifying.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 BREAKING: Bodycam footage of the arrest of Henry Nowak, who had been stabbed moments prior by Vickrum Digwa

[Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase]

Absolutely not . There is no way they could possibly rebuild faster than SpaceX rebuilt Massey’s. Keep in mind SpaceX had the remarkable luck of having a brand new team dedicated to mass producing launch pads when that incident happened. No one else in the industry has a team like that. Not even close.

Even with that massive advantage, it took 8 months to get that test stand operational again. And that test stand that doesn’t feature the tallest launch tower and water tower in the world.

Expecting anything less than 1 year is far too optimistic. I’d be shocked if they accomplish it in less than 18 months.

I’m not betting against them, in fact I hope I’m wrong…but we should try to be more realistic with these expectations.

[Mike Solana @micsolana]

look, they had a nice run, killed hundreds of millions of people, but it's time to gene drive mosquitoes out of existence. fuck it, ticks too.

[Remnicore @Remnicore_]

20 mins into Reckless Ben’s new video on the Bricks & Minifigs situation and had to turn it off because my blood is boiling. It is beyond infuriating watching how the police interact with them and handle things.

[Marcus Pittman @ImKingGinger]

The internet is not talking about "Reckless Ben" and the situation regarding Bricks and Minifigs at all.

So let me help bring some attention to this thing.

Ben Schneider is a comedic YouTube journalist in the same vain as Nathan For You/Nathan Felder.

His work into the abuse of Russ McKamey and McKamey Manor resulted in a Hulu Documentary, and prompted the Tennessee attorney general to open an investigation.

His first major video he infiltrated Scientology wearing spyglasses.

Now he is investigating the theft of a families' heirloom Star Wars LEGO collection, and he's looking at FIVE YEARS in prison for doing so.

The story involves Bricks and Minifigs placing the families prized LEGO collection on consignment and then just stealing the $200,000 worth of inventory, never giving the family the inventory or the money for the product. It's an incredible act of theft, brazenly admitted to on camera. But because it is technically a civil matter, and Bricks and Minifigs are a 400M dollar company their response was simply "Take us to Court."

Doing so would cost more money than the family has.

So Reckless Ben comes in, spends three months exposing all the corruption from the franchise down to the corporate offices.

Did I mention that Bricks and Minifig is a very valuable Mormon owned company in Utah and run by BYU graduates? That's important information. Ben explains the collusion with the LDS church in his video.

The latest video, which has not been made public yet results in Ben being harassed by the Mormon police department in American Fork, illegally redacting bodycam audio, swatted at gun point and his entire team being taken to jail for "starting a GoFundMe."

Ben spent days in jail.

I am not making this up. The police tell him that is the reason. Then the police raid his home in Los Angeles and issue a warrant for his arrest.

He is facing FIVE YEARS in prison. For simply doing journalism, and trying to bring attention to this family who had their sick grandfathers Lego collection stolen from them.

The second video has not been released from his Patreon yet, but I suspect it will soon.

It is one of the most unbelievable stories I have ever seen, and better than any crime documentary you will watch on Netflix this year.

If you are not aware of what is going on let me ask you to spread the word. The entire internet needs to come to the support of Reckless Ben and Bricks and Minifigs should be completely shut down forever and investigated by the DOJ.

[Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers @UnderSecPD]

Policymakers worried about the rise of the so-called “far right” should avoid criminalizing accurate, data-driven political speech about mass migration — as this ruling appears to explicitly contemplate.

Doing so means that people willing to be convicted of “racism” get a monopoly on making arguments that strike large segments of the public as important and true.

[Arthur MacWaters @ArthurMacwaters]

I called my engineer friend at SpaceX the other day.

1am Pacific. 3am in Starbase.

He was still in the office and not going home any time soon.

And he was happy. Energized. Because he's directly influencing the course of a multi-planetary future for humanity.

On a fundamental level, this is why Elon companies win. Young, high-competence people are given exceptional individual agency and semi-impossible problems.

And they know that their contribution is essential.

Any company that does this is much more likely to succeed. Elon does this without fail.

Inspires me a lot.

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

During a news conference today NASA's Shawn Quinn confirmed that a stop work order has been issued for the second Mobile Launch tower at Kennedy Space Center. This was a massively mismanaged program completely unnecessary for landing on the Moon, and richly deserved this fate.

[I,Hypocrite @lporiginalg]

This is fine.

[Joshua Charles🇻🇦 @JoshuaTCharles]

No they don’t, Josh. These are different orders and rites of mass within the one Catholic Church, subject to the authority of their local bishops/leaders, and under the authority of the Pope. The Church is universal, and as such has plenty of room for different types of spiritualities, etc. which are nonetheless united by faith, worship, and government.

As Catholic convert G.K. Chesterton observed, the Church “is larger on the inside than it is on the outside.”

There are reasonable arguments you can have with the Catholic Church. But this is really basic stuff. And that you get basics like this so incorrect is very revealing indeed.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Starship V3 first flight in about 4 weeks

[X Freeze @XFreeze]

When Elon Musk started SpaceX, his closest friends showed him a compilation of rocket failures to talk him out of it

The industry joke was brutal: "How do you make a small fortune in the rocket business? Start with a large one”

If he had stopped after seeing those failures, we wouldn’t have reusable rockets, Starship, and the multi-planetary dream. All these would be dead in the water

humanity would remain a single-planet
species forever. Instead, we are on the doorstep of Mars

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

The non-space press missed the key elements of Isaacman’s revamp of Artemis. They perceived it as some sort of delay, which is wrong. Technically it was Sean Duffy who moved the lunar landing to 2028 last year. But in reality, under his plans, there was no chance of an Artemis landing this decade. The dates were all fiction. Isaacman is changing things to make a 2028 or 2029 landing possible. That nuance may be hard for some to grasp, but it is reality.

[Chris Cappy @Cappyarmy]

topple Iran and Venezuela and that's 20% of China's oil energy supply. China will have to turn more to Russia for cheap oil. Remove El Mencho cartel leader in Mexico and you get rid of the criminals taxing 15% off the top of US-Mexico trade. That is all critical to US plan to decouple from China. The actions we're seeing over the past week are connected.

The US is implementing a grand strategy designed to weaken China's position. The goal is, If China moves on Taiwan in the next two years they will do so without support in the middle east, without proxy cartels in Mexico and without a Russia able to launch any attacks on NATO. The US goal is to focus 100% on the pacific in the next two years.

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

President Trump gave the world the Artemis Program, and NASA and our partners have the plan to deliver. We will standardize architecture where possible, add missions and accelerate flight rate, execute in an evolutionary way, and safely return American astronauts to the Moon, this time to stay.

This is the NASA that once changed the world. This is the NASA that will do it again.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

So let me get this straight. You support the Khamanei regime that killed 38,000+ protesters and maimed hundreds of thousands more. A regime that has repeatedly called for Death to America and has killed thousands of our servicemen and citizens. One that has taken away women’s rights and freedoms for the Iranian people.

And then you call our efforts to destroy the evildoers a catastrophic escalation.

You also support those who attack our police force. You take the side of the criminals rather than the victims of violent actors in our city.

How is it that you can’t differentiate between good and evil?

Why is this so hard for you?

[Mike P @mikepat711]

Ahahahaha. Elon fucking cooked up self driving and still most don’t believe it’s real. I love this shit. I thought it was trash 2 years ago but now I’m sitting here laughing, shaking my head daily.

That crazy son of a bitch did it, man.

Just got through the DC gauntlet. Still haven’t touched the steering wheel or pedals today. Started in Raleigh. Multiple downpours, daytime, night time. Doesn’t matter.

It just cooks through everything