Monthly Archives: June 2022

There are no humans on Mars, a NASA spokesperson confirmed yesterday, likely to no avail.

The problem, of course, is that the people who needed to be told this wont believe itbecauseits coming from an official NASA spokesperson and those folks already expect official denials of their claims. Official denials are part of their conspiracy theory involving a secret Martian colony so, for them, hearing a NASA official deny the colonys existence is received asconfirmationof the conspiracy.

This conspiracy, by the way, involves the abduction of children who are then shipped to Mars where they will serve as sex slaves for depraved plutocrats until they (the children) are slaughtered and their blood and body parts can be harvested and consumed by the plutocrats.

Yes, its Satanic baby-killers on Mars.

Ben Collins reports on this new, extraterrestrial twist on the archetypal immoral panic,NASA Denies That Its Running a Child Slave Colony on Mars.Collins first heard about this conspiracy theory on Alex Jones Infowars radio show a program admired and recommended by President Donald Trump. And so, as a good reporter, he called that poor NASA spokesperson for their response.

There are no humans on Mars. There are active rovers on Mars. There was a rumor going around last week that there werent. There are, Guy Webster, a spokesperson for Mars exploration at NASA, told theDaily Beast.But there are no humans.

Being part of NASAs Mars exploration team is a great gig, but Webster may have the worst job on that team. He sounds like a man who gets a lot of phone calls like this one and has to respond regularly to whatever the latest nonsense somebodys crazy uncle is posting on Facebook. Oh for goodness sake, what is itnow? he must think, every time his phone rings.

We can appreciate his exasperation. It must be exhausting, having to field so many inquiries about outlandish and impossible theories about whats really going on up there on Mars. When Collins asked him about this one rumor being spread on talk radio and the Internet, Webster replied, Theres only one stupid rumor on the Internet? Now thats news.

Its appropriate to see the humor in this particularly given the extreme incoherence and implausibility of this dead-earnest nonsense. After all, the same people who claim to believe that NASA has been smuggling abducted children to a secret Martian colony for 20 years also claim that NASA faked the Moon landing. And they also believe Pizzagate which posits that these same Satanic baby-killers are operating child-abduction-sex-slave-blood-harvesting rings in secret tunnels beneath their neighborhood pizza parlors. Why go through all the risk and expense of building a secret colony on Mars if youve already got all the pedophilia-and-human-sacrifice you need just down the block?

But while this latest Martian twist is ridiculous and hilariously bonkers, theres nothing funny about the way the underlying mythology here is actually shaping life in America. Our politics and our religion are shaped by precisely the same laughable silliness that were hearing from Alex Jones and his purportedly CIA insider guest.

Most of the 80 percent of white evangelicals who support Donald Trump would join us in laughing at this Martian conspiracy theory.They know that theres no secret colony on Mars harvesting the bodies of children because thats what they think Planned Parenthood is already doing. They believe with as much sincerity as theyre able to trick themselves into faking that Planned Parenthood sells baby parts.

Yes, theyve surely seen how those edited sting videos have been thoroughly debunked but, again, official denials were already factored in as part of the conspiracy theory, so they can receive that debunking as a kind of perverse confirmation. Medical professionals, courts, women and The Media are allin on it.

They believe in Satanic baby-killers. And given the nature of this superlative evil, they believe opposition to Satanic baby-killers must be our top priority at all times, eclipsing every other concern. And everything must be reshaped to conform to this priority our politics, our religion, our piety, our charity, our education, our parenting all must be repurposed toward this one priority. Only then will we achieve the one thing that can, at last, bring an end to the secret reign of terror of these Satanic baby-killers: a return to Lochner Era jurisprudence.

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6/30 Flashback: It's the freakiest show | Fred Clark - Patheos

Written and directed by Jed Rothstein

The documentaryWeWork:Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, available on Hulu, concerns the meteoric rise and breathtaking six-week collapse of a real-estate start-up. A unicorn is a privately held company valued at over $1 billion.

Written and directed by Jed Rothstein, the film treats the period from 2008in the wake of the stock market crashto 2019, and chronicles the operations of Adam Neumanns WeWork, in essence, anoffice rental firm. Billing itself as a revolutionary high-tech company, the enterprisewould sign long-term leases on office space, subdivide the latter into smaller areas and then rent those out on a short-term basis. Israeli-born Neumann professed a desire to create a more communal corporate world, which he envisioned as a kind of capitalist kibbutz.

The years following the 2008 global financial crisis were marked by speculative parasitism soaring to stratospheric heights. Neumanns grotesque, New Age company, which he founded withMiguel McKelvey in Soho, New York in 2010,arose within these conditions.Neumann eventually walked away with a $1.7 billion severance package after a failed Initial Public Offering [IPO] in 2019, at which time the firms actual financial state of affairs came to light.

In retrospect, theNew Republicmagazine suggested in a November 2020 article, Neumanns knack for amassing billions of dollars in venture capital with no viable business model was one of the greatest scams of the twenty-first century.

WeWork went from two locations in New York City and 450 tenants in 2010 to 800 locations in 111 cities across 29 countries, with 527,000 tenants, by the second quarter of 2019. The workforce nearly quadrupled from 4,000 employees at the end of 2017 to 15,000.

Rothsteins documentary interviews a phalanx of former employees, journalists and customers, drawing as well on extensive video footage of Neumann. His pretentious, pie-in-the-sky marketing concepts were crucial for rebranding his company as a pioneering tech company as opposed to a mundane, but risky real estate venture. What stands out is how effectively Neumann was able to manipulate people who thought they were following a prophet, not a garden variety huckster.

He exploited the fact that millennials, many of them economically distressed, werent just looking for a job or a career, they wanted a calling. His overblown sale pitches were bound up with a self-indulgent, do what you love ethos that attracted not only potential employees and customers but also wealthy investors, such as Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase. Other investors included Goldman Sachs, Benchmark Capital, Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund (PIF), Harvard Management Co. (the company that manages Harvards endowment funds) and Legend Holdings (the Chinese holding company and controlling shareholder of Lenovo Group), among others.

TheWeWorkdocumentary contains footage of the firms annual summer camp, an alcohol- and rave-filled event, that was mandatory for employees, who were then monitored with wrist trackers. The company segued to WeLive, in which members were invited to live indorm-type accommodation. Plans were afoot for schools (WeGrow), gyms (WeWork Wellness) and even a colony on Mars.

Neumann even trademarked the word We. WeWork paid him $5.9 million to license it. TheWall Street Journal reported that he took $700 million out of the company before the failed IPO.

On his way to the top of the dung heap, Neumann had flopped with various money-making schemes, such as retractable heels for womens shoes and infant clothing with knee pads.(My generation will not accept our babies crawling on the floor with their knees hurting!)

Rebekah Neumann, Adams wife, a certified Jivamukti yoga instructor and a cousin of actress and professional confusionist Gwyneth Paltrow, guided the company into the mystical realm, claiming the mission was to elevate the worlds consciousness.

According to Equilar, Inc., an executive compensation analysis firm, the 200 highest-paid CEOs at public companies had a median salary of $18.6 million in 2018. Neumanns consulting fee alone was about ten times that amount.

While lavishing riches on Neumann, the company required cash infusions from SoftBank, a Japan-based conglomerate and WeWorks largest investor.According to the filmmakers,its founderMasayoshi Son encouraged Neumanns outlandish behavior. But in 2019, when the cultish real estate outfit filed an IPO, all the pixie dust vanished.

What emerged was one bizarre account after another of the executive-gurus extravagant spending on homes and jets, as well as his abuse of employees. One believer in Neumanns pabulum tearfully tells the filmmakers that she required therapy to unwarp her mind. More to the point, the S-1 filing,the paperwork required to go public, revealed massive losses and unethical business practices.

WeWorks unicorn valuation fell from $47 billion to just $8 billion, as the hot air balloon deflated.

But despite the job massacre, the Neumanns were given their golden parachute and, according to the documentary, planned to open a private school, Students Of Life For Life, or SOLFL (pronounced soulful), but with soul-destroying tuition of $42,000 a year. In addition to the layoff of some 3,000 employees, the company had to remove over 2,000 phone booths in North American locations that were tainted by formaldehyde.

The blame for this wreckage, says director Jed Rothstein in an interview, lies with this incentive structure where youre just signing as many deals as possible and growing as fast as possible, and its like building a rocket ship as its flying.

Unfortunately, Rothsteins documentary never looks behind this incentive structure, or more generally, into the character of the recent epoch.

The persistent tendency toward the creation of speculative bubbles arises out of deep-rooted contradictions in the development of the world capitalist system, especially bound up with the historical decline in the global position of American capitalism,commentedWSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North in January 2008.

Trillions have been pumped into the financial system by the worlds central banks since 2008. The stock markets have climbed and climbed, and ever-more arcane forms of speculation (and swindling) have emerged. What has this apparently unlimited supply of cash produced? The result has been the almost unimaginable concentration of wealth, an explosion of imperialist militarism and violence, the re-emergence of fascism, ferocious attacks on democratic rights and a relentless increase in the exploitation of the working classin short, the opposite of the kinder, kibbutz capitalism promoted by Neumann and company.

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WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion UnicornThe fantasy of kibbutz capitalism - WSWS

From glamping in space-age sky pods to arctic off-roading in the White Desert.

The idea of wilderness plays a crucial and curious role in the ongoing evolution of travel. Conquering the wild was once central to our pioneer narratives of progress. Nowadays exploring the frontier can take on a myriad of meanings for different travelers. Whether the notion conjures remote lands, or the thrilling prospect of tracking apex predators, here are ways to get your wild onfrom the South Pole to the South Sandwich Islands.

An entirely 21st Century upgrade in travel to the White Continent is finally here, ready to quite literally rock your world and properly blow your mind. White Deserts newest camp, Echo, debuts this December. The new camp is located inland of Antarcticas north coast, three miles from Wolf s Fang, a sister camp that opened in December 2021 on a glacier in Queen Maud Land.

A power player in the sustainable polar travel arena, White Desert is the only luxury hospitality company in the world to fly business jets to Antarctica. Their 9,800-foot runway is exclusively for private jets, either the companys Gulfstream G550, a privately-chartered A340 or those of camp guests, which have included the likes of Prince Harry, Bear Grylls, and Buzz Aldrin.

Echo is the next best thing to a stag party on Mars. Intimately scaled, its ideal for exclusive use by affluent families, C-suite executives, and bachelors gone rogue. On arrival, a welcome cocktail chilled with 10,000-year-old ice awaits in the central lounge.

Accommodating up to 12 explorers in serious style, Echos high-end execution of deliriously thrilling expeditions raises the bar on next-gen pop up possibilities. As with all White Deserts camps on the 7th Continent, Echo is designed to be completely dismantled, leaving no trace on the environment.

Inspired by the golden age of space exploration, the idyllic design of the Sky Pods is striking, to say the least, like superstructures from a parallel multiverse. Futuristic and nostalgic all at once, Echo is quite an aesthetic coup. Six heated pods were created using composite fiberglass with floor-to-ceiling windowslose yourself in the lunar-like landscape from the comfort of your bed. Waking up at Echo, encircled by otherworldly geological formations, feels like youve lifted off the planet without actually leaving Earth.

Each pod features original photography by Colonel Terry Virts, former International Space Station Commander, taken from the ISS. Virts was an early guest with White Desert, and the terrain spectacle clearly made a massive impression. Take it from one of the few astronauts who can legitimately boast this frame of comparative reference; says Virts of the Echo camp landscape, The mountains are the most beautiful I have seen across Earth, Venus and Mars.

Patrick Woodhead, White Desert founder and CEO, tips his hat to pop culture in his latest passion project. The inspiration behind the interiors of Echo Base comes from too many years of watching Star Wars as a kid, says Woodhead.

I loved the 1970s vision of what the future would hold. The real difficulty was trying to get the interior designers to fuse together the retro feel of the Millennium Falcon with the luxury of a boutique retreat! The polar explorercum-camp entrepreneur finds the greatest validation from those whove ventured into orbit, divulging, Weve hosted a couple of astronauts over the years, and hearing them speak about the beauty of the Antarctic landscape is quite something.

Fill your days with as much fat biking, skiing, and Ski-Dooing as you like. Or forge trails in a 44 arctic truck to ice-climbing and mountaineering sites. An expedition to the 28,000-strong Emperor Penguin colony is the peak bucket list moment for most guests. Be sure to avail yourself of the arctic-specific SPF100 on hand at camp or face the high-UV consequences, like the group of Saudi royals, who thought they were immune.

By nightfall, captains of industry sip snifters of Speyside Scotch served from a snow bar sculpted from Jurassic-era ice. A dining room serves up epicurean delights such as savory lamb shank, or velvety tagliatelle in a Parmigiano wheel, no small feat, considering youre carb-loading this close tothe South Pole. Beam us in a hologram of Wonderwall-era Jane Birkin, were hooked. This five-day fantasy can be yours from $780,000, for up to a dozen of your friends.

Nearly a century after the heroics of early Antarctic exploration, the elusive continent remains largely undiscovered. We cant think of a more thrilling frontier than the impassable Weddell Sea and imposing Larsen Ice Shelf. The big buzz on the high seas for the coming Antarctic cruising season? Ponant recently launched Le Commandant-Charcot, the worlds first luxury hybrid electric ice-class vessel, powered by LNG (currently the cleanest fuel on the market).

Le Commandant-Charcot is capable of sailing to parts of the Bellingshausen Sea that have been inaccessible until now. The volcanic Peter I Islandwhere fewer people have visited than have set foot on the moonis suddenly an option, to put this auspicious launch into rather wild perspective. Navigating the route first explored by Jean-Baptiste Charcot in 1909, National Geographic enthusiasts will surely be smitten by the oceanographic laboratory onboard. Far from a mere pleasure cruise, take part in what Ponant dubs participative science by helping to set up a station on an ice floe or taking water samples. Ponant polar itineraries also include the South Sandwich Islands and the Ross Sea.

Our continental frontier remains the Lamar Valleythe Serengeti of North Americain Yellowstone National Park. If wolves are your spirit animal (or just on your boos wish list), the Four Seasons Jackson Hole unveils a new encounter this summer designed to dive deeper into this connection. The resorts partnership with Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris allows for unrivaled access to view Greater Yellowstones apex predators in prime natural habitats. An expert naturalist guides you in safely tracking and photographing wolves, grizzlies and megafauna in a landscape right out of Jeremiah Johnson.

With Grand Teton and Yellowstone in their backyard, the Four Seasons Jackson Hole boasts a Swiss Army Knife of solutions when it comes to creative expeditions to Willow Flats, Pacific Creek, Hayden Valley within the parksall with an upscale spin. To disappear into the wild at dawn, revel in an emotional epiphany with wolves by dusk (or at least a certain awe), then feast on dry-aged Piedmontese ribeye slathered in black-truffle bone marrow butter is pretty priceless.

If you value lashings of personal attention and handcrafted, five-star meals, nirvana awaits at Westbank Grill, overlooking the resorts base camp. Many of this particular Four Seasons custom experiences are in some way geared towards physical and mental exploration, if not enlightenment. For those short on time, but big on rugged adventure with all the trappings of a posh holiday, this is as good as it gets.

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The Ultimate Guide To An Adventurous Antarctica Vacation - Maxim - Maxim