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You are here: Home / Politics / Glibertarianism / Open Thread: Do We Have to Let Them Come Back?

Open Thread: Do We Have to Let Them Come Back?

by Anne Laurie|  March 5, 201410:45 pm| 30 Comments

This post is in: Glibertarianism, Open Threads, Assholes

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bitcoin piggy bank anderson

(Nick Anderson via GoComics.com)

.

Oh, like you could’ve resisted. Kevin Roose, at NYMag:

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the former Facebook foils turned Gandhi-quoting Bitcoin enthusiasts, are spending some of their crypto-currency stash on space travel.

The strong-jawlined twins announced today that they’re booking trips on Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which allows normal people to pay for the privilege of becoming astronauts. Their trips, which normally cost $250,000 apiece, will be paid for in Bitcoin, naturally. They describe their decision to go to space as “seed capital supporting a new technology that may forever change the way we travel, purchased with a new technology that may forever change the way we transact.”…

Yesterday, I compared the Bitcoin faithful to a mid-20th-century cult that predicted that a natural disaster on Earth would be followed by the arrival of a spacecraft that would carry them to safety. I didn’t mean the comparison literally, but here we are.

Roose shared a link to the Winklevii’s post extolling bitcoin; it is, as he says “incredible”. (Or maybe I mean ‘incredulous’?) The “doomsday cult” post is worth reading, too — thought about sharing it yesterday, but Life Happened.
***********
Speaking of which, what Life is Happening this evening, in your neighborhoods?

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30Comments

  1. 1.

    debit

    March 5, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    Speaking of which, what Life is Happening this evening, in your neighborhoods?

    I’m having a great time! Last week my car died and I can’t afford to replace it. Today I had a relative of a client screech at me for a half an hour because I wouldn’t drop everything and do shit for her. I came home to a notice from my insurance that they won’t cover my doctor visit for the flu. And to cap it all off, USbank just canceled my debit card (thanks, Target!) without bothering to send me a new one first. Oh, I’ll get a new one, eventually. I’ll just have to live without money until then.

    Fucking Calgon take me away.

  2. 2.

    TheMightyTrowel

    March 5, 2014 at 11:02 pm

    OT ranting: I don’t know who I want to cook down into stew first: the two profs who expect me to write their grant app despite the fact that I have my own stuff to do as well as teaching; the prof who had his fellowship bid rejected and reacted by hiring 1st year phd students to teach all his courses without running this plan past the rest of the faculty but using connections in HR to get them hired without us leaving us HUGE problems with our budget, contracts and students or my MA student who wrote brilliant essays as an UG but apparently cannot do independent research and thinks this is my fault.

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    March 5, 2014 at 11:04 pm

    I wonder if the Bitcoin crash has put any sort of damper on the Winklevi’s plan to go astronauting. If it has, I suppose they could always get jobs writing corporate press releases. Tyler seems to have a particular knack for it. That writing sample of his is full of high-grade “visionary” BS.

  4. 4.

    LeftCoastTom

    March 5, 2014 at 11:08 pm

    Assuming that “spending bitcoin” really means paying the ‘bitcoin’ equivalent of a price actually denominated in a real currency…I’d spend it, too, if I had it. It doesn’t seem like bitcoin will be around for much longer.

  5. 5.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 5, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    what Life is Happening this evening, in your neighborhoods?

    Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m A Supervillain is outselling Wrinkle In Time. So, basically, I’m freaking out.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    March 5, 2014 at 11:12 pm

    @TheMightyTrowel:
    Start with the one who looks like the easiest to ambush and kill, then work your way up to the most difficult. Finally, invite the Aussies among the Balloon Juice commentariat over for a big dinner.

  7. 7.

    chopper

    March 5, 2014 at 11:13 pm

    So bitcoins are going to launch the winklevii into space? If they don’t come back, I’ll finally have some grudging respect for the currency.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    March 5, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    For no particular reason –

    Devo: Space Junk

    Modest Mouse: Space Travel Is Boring

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    March 5, 2014 at 11:22 pm

    Anyone following the Etihad Airlines flap?

    Israel missing from Etihad’s flight map

    U.A.E Airline Erases Israel From Inflight Map

    Etihad owns portions of Virgin Australia, Aer Lingus, Air Berlin and also other airlines (don’t have a full list at the fingertips), so it is something which can be pursued locally through their partners.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    March 5, 2014 at 11:22 pm

    Also for no reason:
    Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Stayin’ Alive.

  11. 11.

    ShadeTail

    March 5, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    I’ve been posting my picture of the bitcoin billboard near my house to every bitcoin article here just because I’m so amused by the stupid thing.

  12. 12.

    TheMightyTrowel

    March 5, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    @Amir Khalid: The MA student is twiggy and the Profs are fatheads. I don’t think the stew would be tasty enough for the snootty tastebuds here at BJ. I’d probably just leave it out for the possums and feral cats.

  13. 13.

    LeftCoastTom

    March 5, 2014 at 11:26 pm

    @ShadeTail: OK, I’d not been following that link…and I really should have.

    Is it just me, or does that ‘honey badger’ look more like a striped skunk?

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    March 5, 2014 at 11:29 pm

    @ShadeTail:
    Bitcoin doesn’t care if it’s been stolen. Bitcoin doesn’t give a fuck.

  15. 15.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 5, 2014 at 11:42 pm

    @LeftCoastTom:
    No, that’s a honey badger. Shape of the tail and the flattened, broad shouldered body is distinctive. Skunks are more catlike. They are closely related, of course.

  16. 16.

    ruemara

    March 5, 2014 at 11:43 pm

    Found a spate of things to apply for, and heading to the bay tomorrow to touch base with some old agencies and have a bit of a networking brunch. Waiting to hear back from a local fan con who was looking for a videographer for this weekend. Can’t say it pays beyond good feelings, free attendance, rubbing elbows with the star types and the gratitude of fellow mom’s basement dwellers, but that is something.

    Thanks to Felonius, I’m rather liking that drobo mini, not sure if I can stretch things to nearly 400, but I do like it a lot.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    March 5, 2014 at 11:50 pm

    I somehow managed to screw up my back and re-activate my sciatica that rears its ugly head from time to time. Argh. It’s not so bad while I’m sitting down, but walking is painful.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    March 5, 2014 at 11:51 pm

    @Mnemosyne

    Dang, that Oscar really is heavy.

    Take it slow, take it easy.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    March 6, 2014 at 12:01 am

    @NotMax:

    It probably has a little something to do with a 12-pound cat sleeping on my back every night, but if I try to push her off, she just waits until I fall asleep and climbs back on.

    Also, too, the Oscar. We’re all still pretty giddy about that.

  20. 20.

    ruemara

    March 6, 2014 at 12:04 am

    @Mnemosyne: no at office masseuse? doesn’t giant evil corp know how to seduce to the dark side?

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    March 6, 2014 at 12:08 am

    @ruemara:

    Not a free one. The Giant Evil Corporation is pay-as-you-go. Our free commissary went away years ago, too, though our rivals at the House of Shrek down the street have one (bastards!)

    People see my crew jacket and say, “Wow, they gave that to you?” And I have to say, “Hell, no, I paid seventy bucks for it.” Because that’s how the GEC rolls.

    (At least I still get free tickets to the Happiest Place.)

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2014 at 12:08 am

    @ruemara

    Or even a mouse-euse?

  23. 23.

    Citizen_X

    March 6, 2014 at 12:29 am

    @ShadeTail: Love that the sign next to it is for the equally-full-of-shit whyislam.org.

  24. 24.

    Ruckus

    March 6, 2014 at 12:54 am

    @Mnemosyne:
    Just getting over the same aliment except walking is OK for me but sitting down has to be done just right and in the right chair.

  25. 25.

    Ian

    March 6, 2014 at 1:44 am

    @NotMax:
    A fairly common occurrence from what I have heard. My uncle worked with energy companies overseas and took a globe with him to Saudi Arabia. The customs agents scratched Israel off the map before they let him take it into the country.

    I also don’t normally see the west bank/occupied area marked onto US maps. Only more recent ones seem to have it, the one here in my house from 2005 doesn’t show it at all.

  26. 26.

    Pooh

    March 6, 2014 at 2:59 am

    @Roger Moore: to quote Omar Little, Bitcoin ain’t got no owners, only spenders.

  27. 27.

    bjacques

    March 6, 2014 at 10:27 am

    Guys like Branson and the Winkelvoss are a serious disincentive to get involved in Bitcoin, especially on Libertarian principles. Branson makes his money on UK government private finance initiatives (funneling taxpayer money to private contractors), which basically guarantee profits to well-connected private contractors. The Winkelvoss Twins got winkled out of Facebook billions but sued and were basically given money to go away.

    They remind me of mobile phone early adopters in the US and UK, smug yuppies who cheerfully paid high prices in order to show off. Going mobile was something only assholes did, not exactly a driver for market penetration.

  28. 28.

    Paul in KY

    March 6, 2014 at 12:48 pm

    @debit: Calgon is the Lord of Dishwashers, not teleportation. That would be Teleporto.

  29. 29.

    Paul in KY

    March 6, 2014 at 12:49 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Great news! Enjoy it.

  30. 30.

    Bugboy

    March 7, 2014 at 8:34 am

    “…which allows normal people to pay for the privilege of becoming astronauts.”

    First of all, those willing to spend a quarter of a million dollars on a suborbital roller coaster ride are NOT “normal people”.

    Second of all, it has yet to be demonstrated to my satisfaction that the “Winklevii” are actually people, normal or otherwise, and not life sized automaton Ken dolls.

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