In case you've been under a rock (or in a cave), a group of 12 Thai kiddos and their soccer coach went into a cave and then got stuck. Specifically, they got flooded in from an unexpected early monsoon season. It took 10 days just to find them. Fortunately, the entire team was found alive. Unfortunately, rescue conditions are less than ideal. The kids are about 6 miles deep in a flooded cave now, and they can't swim. The narrowest part of the cave is the width of two #2 pencils end-to-end. One Thai navy seal diver has already died in the rescue attempt. 4 of them have recently been brought out alive. But now things are getting desperate as the rain is coming down fast (and could potentially drown them alive). Someone is attempting to create an inflatable nylon canvas tube thing to crawl through. TiB will likely circlejerk knowing that Elon Musk is trying to get a mini-sub into action. Meanwhile, mother nature is trying to fuck it all up by pouring in water faster than they can pump it out and oxygen levels inside the cave are depleting. Hopefully no one ate Thai food before the hike. Focus: Just like the Chilean Miners thread, what the fuck do you think is going to happen? Alt. Focus: Modern marvels you didn't think were possible. Reading through the chilean miners thread now, the predictions are laughable (except the needing therapy part -- those guys still need a fuck ton of therapy). Human ingenuity never ceases to amaze me, and the ability to survive through these "non-survivable" situations is simply beyond words.
Some Thai hooker sticks her giant dildo down there and uses it as a tow line to bring everyone to safety.
If you haven't already, the movie made about those Chilean miners is a must-see. It's about two years old I think, but it's still one of my favorite movies from a cinematography and writing standpoint.
So on the way to work this morning I heard that all the kids have been rescued. Good for the kids, but beyond that this makes me happy because it means my world cup news won't constantly be interrupted by sports pundits ridiculously speculating on the best way to extract them.
So, they're all out now... well done humanity! I saw an AMA on Reddit a couple of days ago where there was an on-site emergency worker laughing/crying at the news coverage and how bad it was. I think that's where the whole "4 months to get them out" thing was coming from. There were a ton of plans and timelines, and that was just the absolute worst case one, to the point of absurdity, so of course that's the one the MSM pick up on and use for headlines. Then there was the "They're going to use explosives to get them out" headline. No, they're not... there were just warning signs placed around the camp to remind people that with all the liquid oxygen tanks around that there was the potential for explosions, so keep the sparks down and don't smoke. What a joke. If you haven't seen it yet, this is the "mini-sub" that the engineers from SpaceX and The Boring Company built to try and help out: From Elon's Twitter feed, "According to divers who have made the journey, this is capable of manoeuvring through all passages". https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016097753963941890 Not only did they fly it over there for use, should they need it, but Elon went as well. He was on-site doing what he could to help. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016443130017505280 While they never used it for the rescue, he ended up leaving the mini-sub there in case they ever needed something like that in the future. As to people shitting on Elon for trying to help, fuck that... if that were one of my kids in there, I sure as hell would want the closest thing to Tony Stark helping out, in person. Everyone else is sitting on their couch Tweeting their cynicism, and can go fuck themselves.
Personally, I just love the people who are SO unqualified to discuss the technical side of the mission, but insist on rambling like experts. Then, there's the mouth frothers who insist on comparing stories like this to whatever random shit they're currently angry about. "It's just like Mexican families being separated at the border." Ummm... no. No, it's not.
Musk is well intentioned, but I dont blame the Thai government for hesitating on accepting his help. Hes great at selling the lofty goals, but not exactly great on delivering them.
How so? They gladly accepted his help, and he had what he promised there and ready to use, if it needed to be. It turns out that it wasn't needed. The co-lead of the rescue unit was saying, "thanks, good idea, please keep going". An ex government official was spouting off to the press about shit he knew nothing about, and it got reported. If you look at what he's done with SpaceX, or the Giga-Factory, he absolutely has delivered a shit-ton of what he said he would. People were talking shit about him when he said he'd deliver reusable rockets... "never happen". Today he just signed his first Falcon Heavy contracts with the Air Force. Take a look at what he's doing and done for power in Australia... he delivered the Giant Battery in under 100 days, and it's working like a charm... and that was just the start. The dude even provided emergency power and communications to Costa Rica when the US government was (and still is) too busy shoving it's thumb up its ass. Tesla has a few big issues, granted, but I think a lot of that is just the spin and focus that the media is putting on it. I think the guy is a dreamer... and he dreams big. As a result he sometimes comes in under his goal, and I think people get wrapped up in the minutia as a result. "He failed to reach his goal"... yeah, but that goal was so far out there that what he accomplished was still impressive. Personally, I'm willing to cut the guy some serious fucking slack, seeing what he has actually accomplished over the past 10 years. In this case, it was a very small scoped technical problem on a tight timeline, and his companies' resources are probably the best positioned to solve it as quickly and effectively as they did. I think the dude did a good job of delivering and helping, even if the help wasn't eventually used in the end.
People have really hated on SpaceX and I don't really understand why. The main criticism is that "it hasn't delivered anything" which is complete bullshit. Tesla really does have some serious problems. It's not just spin. They're a financial train wreck right now. It's really cool if it works out, but that's a very big if. I think the main reason people hate Elon Musk though is for political reasons. "Trying to create solutions for sustainable development? Well, fuck you!!!" That sort of thing.... They perceive an over investment in green energies, which wouldn't really be something to get angry about anyway, it's not their money, but you know how that goes.
Tesla has more than a few big issues. They struggle to keep their head above water financially on a quarter-by-quarter basis. He makes lofty goals that analysts no longer look at as serious milestones. A large part of Tesla’s cash is borrowed from Solar City and they need frequent cash infusions just to cover overhead. The new model 3 is under-produced and overpriced and cant fill initial demand. They operate as if they have a monopoly on the EV market, which they don’t. By 2020, all major car manufacturers will have at least one EV in development, if not production. How does Tesla stay profitable in that market when they aren’t now? It’s one of the most shorted stocks on the market. That’s just skimming the surface, but he’s the captain of that ship. I like Musk a lot, he just sucks at running a company.
The Australian cave diver, who was also the anesthesiologist in charge of sedating the boys for their rescue, was finally leaving the cave as his father died. So he was doing all that work while his father was in the hospital and terminally ill, knowing there was the potential to not make it back in time to see him again. Reports are also now coming out that the pumps failed and water started to rise again as the last people were leaving the cave.
I agree with everything you said about Tesla here, but think this whole rescue sub thing is more up his alley of competence.