Category Archives: Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a man of extraordinary accomplishments. He has been in the limelight for over two decades. During this time, he has undergone a normal physical transformation just like any other man.

From his latest photos, you might not know that Elon Must once sported a balding scalp.

This article will speculate on the potential treatments Elon used to change his hair.

A good way to capture Elon Musks remarkable transformation is to take you back to the mid-90s. That is when he first became famous for his business successes.

At the time, it was clear to anyone that he was fast losing hair at the front part of his head.

Perhaps the first picture, taken some time around the unveiling of PayPal, best illustrates the state of his hair back then. You can see his bare front scalp in the picture. At the time, he was in his late 20s.

You will notice that his hairline had receded dramatically. Additionally, the remaining hair on the top had thinned considerably.

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The nature of his hair loss confirmed that he was in advanced stages of male pattern baldness. He was around a Norwood 4. He was losing hair so fast, that without some sort of intervention, his baldness would have almost certainly deteriorated. By today, had he let his baldness run its normal course, we should expect him to be almost completely bald (Norwood 6).

You can see the progression of male pattern baldness in this image.

Enter 2012 with Elon talking about having fun with his new car:

This video shows him with a partially restored hairline. The entire top of his head is also much fuller. We could class him as a Norwood 2 to 3 here.

Male pattern baldness does not do this spontaneously. It is a naturally progressive condition, which typically only gets worse with time. On its own, it never improves. Without intervention, the best-case scenario is that it stays the same.

That Elon Musk did something to his hair is not in doubt. The question is, what exactly did he do to bring about thick, healthy-looking hair after just a few years?

Like many business magnates in Silicon Valley, he must have had several options. After all, he is a man with deep pockets and international connections. It is important to note that the man himself has never publicly revealed the details of the hair restoration technique he used.

This brings us to the analysis of two of the most plausible techniques that he might have turned to.

Finasteride and minoxidil are two of the most recommended hair loss medications on the market.

Theoretically, it is possible Elon Musk owes his remarkable hair restoration to such drugs. Yet this is highly unlikely. The reason is that these drugs primarily stop further hair loss. They dont generally restore hair thickness to the degree of Musk. They also cannot restore a hairline in the dramatic fashion we see with Musk.

In addition, Elon Musk would have to take the meds for an extended period of time.

This is by far the most plausible technique the tech guru must have used. Modern hair transplants are incredibly advanced and for the most part, look much better than old-fashioned hair plugs.

Real hair follicles (donors hair) are transferred from one section of the scalp to another with the help of very fine instruments. The transfer is from areas in the back and side of the head which never go bald to the front and top of the head. These non-balding areas are called donor areas.

You can get an idea of the typical hair transplant timeline in this article.

A good candidate for a hair transplant is someone with a sufficient supply of donor hair. It must be enough to cover the balding areas as well as any other areas that might lose hair in the future.

Individuals past the age of thirty-five are generally good candidates for hair transplants. By this age, their hair loss patterns are well-established compared to younger patients.

Due to his age, Elon Musk was not perhaps the ideal candidate. He was losing hair very fast and at a relatively young age. His hair loss had not yet stabilized.

Elon Musk may be quiet about his hair, but all indications point towards a hair transplant. In fact, qualified surgeons like Dr. Yates, based in Chicago, contend that Elon Musk most likely went under the scalpel.

Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) are the two methods used during hair transplants. They both work with the same principle: the surgeon removes healthy follicles from the donor areas and transplants them onto the balding parts.

One major difference is that FUT typically leaves a noticeable scar in the back of the head. In FUT, the surgeons remove a strip of hair from the back of the head. He then dissects it and implants it into the balding area. The strip is in the form of a relatively straight, horizontal line. For this reason, another name of FUT is strip excision.

In FUE there is no strip removal. The surgeons harvest individual hair follicles, which he then transplants directly into the top of the head. This process does not leave any noticeable scars.

In the video below it does appear like there is a strip at the back of Musks head. This strongly suggests a transplant. Watch the video below to see the strip:

Because it leaves no scars, FUE is generally considered the superior method. But at the time Musk presumably had his transplant, FUE was not yet widely available. In those early days, the only option was FUT. Even for the very rich and famous.

Need might be too strong a word in the context of Elon Musks hairline restoration.

Musk is a businessman, not a celebrity like an actor or singer. In this sense, he did not strictly need to have a transplant.

Yet human hair has incredible aesthetic power. Like any other man, Mr Musk would have not been happy about going bald at such a young age.

So we can understand his decision in the context of a celebrated personality determined to put forward his best image.

As a billionaire, Elon Musk definitely had enough resources to pay for the best.

Hair restoration is a diverse market. There are hundreds of clinics and surgeons offering hair restoration services. This means its difficult to quote the exact amount of money Mr. Musk dished out. However, the average cost of hair transplant surgeries is around $10,000. That figure may be lower or higher depending on the number of grafts an individual needs.

A hair transplant is not a ticket to perpetually thick, voluminous hair. The procedure helps to restore parts of the head that have gone bald or thinned. It cannot stop the underlying progression of male pattern baldness.

It is for this reason that men often need a second or third transplant. As their hair continues to fall out, they need to keep transplanting hairs from the donor areas, until these are eventually depleted.

In the case of Musk, we see that he still has thick-looking hair on the top of his head. This is not compatible with only one transplant surgery two decades ago. More likely, the entrepreneur either had additional transplants or is taking medication like finasteride to stop his baldness from deteriorating.

Elon Musks decision to go for a hair transplant may be debatable. But one thing stands out: He is proof that balding men can have the hair of their youthful days restored.

His incredible transformation confirms that it is possible to restore a youthful appearance thanks to advances in medical expertise and technology.

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Inside Elon Musk's Hair Transformation: How He Did It ...

4.5 stars

Billionaire Elon Musk is a businessman, engineer, and inventor with a radical vision for the future of mankind. In fact Musk wants nothing less than to establish a human colony on Mars.....with a view toward exploring Jupiter's moon Europa someday.

Jupiter and Europa

Musk fears there will be another mass extinction event - like the asteroid that destroyed 75% of Earth's species at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary 65 million years ago - and he wants people to have somewhere to go.

I agree with Musk that Earth is likely to become inhospitable to humans someday, but I fear we'll ruin the planet ourselves - with over-exploitation, pollution, war, and disease. (And then we'd probably do the same thing to Mars. I'm a skeptic.)

In any case, Musk puts his money where his mouth is. In 2002 the audacious entrepeneur founded the rocket company SpaceX. SpaceX is already launching satellites for several countries, and carrying supplies to the International Space Station.

SpaceX

In the future, Musk wants rockets to bring people, equipment, and provisions to the red planet.....ideally in the next 50 to 100 years.

SpaceX is just one of Musk's far-sighted enterprises. In this book Ashlee Vance explores Musk's various business ventures, and provides insight into the developer's character and personal life.

Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971.

He had a difficult childhood, being viciously bullied at school and tormented by his father, Errol. The book has few details about Errol's behavior (no one will talk about it), but it's revealing that grandpa Musk isn't allowed to meet Elon's five sons.

Elon Musk's father Errol

As a youngster Elon devoured books, and - with his photographic memory - recalled everything he read. Elon was also an inventive child who built rockets and created video games.

Little Elon Musk

When he was 17-years-old Elon moved to his mother's home country, Canada.....and the penniless teen bunked with relatives, did odd jobs, and went to school.

Young Elon Musk

Eventually, Elon ended up at the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in economics and physics. Musk then moved to California and entered the business world.

Vance did extensive research and describes Musk's business projects in elaborate detail, including: how they started; financing; development; failures; successes; leadership; personnel; buy-outs; etc. Musk's trajectory didn't go straight from start-up to billionaire. Far from it. In fact the developer nearly went bankrupt several times....to the glee of naysayers and jealous rivals. Musk carried on, though, and was successul in the end. (So yay Elon!....and pooh on the guys who tried to take him down!)

In this brief review I'll just provide a quick summary of Musk's business activities. For a full picture, you'll have to read the book.

Musk's first venture after college was Zip2 - a kind of online Yellow Pages/Mapquest that allowed users to find businesses and get directions. When Zip2 was sold, Musk founded an internet banking venture that became PayPal. These were profitable pursuits that provided money for additional investments.

Musk founded SpaceX - the aforementioned rocket company in 2002, and co-founded Tesla Motors - which manufactures environmentally friendly electric cars in 2003. Then, in 2006, Musk helped his cousins launch SolarCity - a company that fabricates, markets, and installs solar panels.

Among other things, Tesla and SolarCity are meant to reduce the use of fossil fuels and lower carbon pollution....which would help preserve the Earth and its inhabitants. In this vein, Musk also hopes to build 'hyperloops' - high speed trains that travel on a loop between major cities like New York and Washington DC; and Los Angeles and San Francisco. President Obama is said to be a fan of this project.

Hyperloop

Musk's various ventures require smart, capable personnel and the developer was (and is) always on the lookout for the brightest students, the best engineers, the most foreward-thinking inventors, and so on.

Elon Musk giving commencement address

Caltech students

Musk is notoriously difficult to work for and - when he wants something done - refuses to hear "I can't do it." If you really can't do it, Musk is likely to let you go and do it himself. Musk expects employees to work long hours without complaint.....and has a reputation for upbraiding and firing personnel. Thus, he's quite ruthless on a business level.

Elon Musk is notoriously hard to work with

In private life, though, Musk is said to be a fun guy who likes to make jokes; laugh; attend costume parties; play video games with his kids; and generally have a good time. Musk has five sons - twins and triplets - from his first marriage to Justine Musk and is now wed to the actress Tallulah Riley. The entrepeneur has a brutal work schedule - he often works 100 or more hours per week - but takes his sons all over the world with him. Musk is also close to his brother and cousins, and often collaborates with them on business projects.

Elon Musk's first wife Justine Musk

Elon Musk with his second wife Tallulah Riley

Elon Musk with his sons

In addition to influencing national and international corporations, Musk has impacted popular culture. After the actor, Robert Downey Jr., visited the SpaceX factory, he modeled aspects of his character 'Tony Stark' (Iron Man) on the billionaire entrepreneur. And Musk guest starred on an episode of 'The Simpsons' called 'The Musk Who Fell to Earth.' The Simpsons segment is hilarious and gives a cartoonish - but probably accurate....picture of the entrepreneur as an imaginative inventor and concerned citizen of the Earth. (The episode is available on YouTube.)

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (Iron Man)

Elon Musk on The Simpsons

Vance's discussions of the ups and downs of Musk's businesses are especially well-researched and interesting. The author explains how Tesla ultimately built an electric roadster that's beautiful, comfortable, kid-seat friendly, and (more or less) reasonably-priced (if you're rich); and how a rocket was finally launched after heartbreaking failures due to mechanical errors, sloshing fuel, and other hard-to-foresee factors.

Vance also discusses the problems involved when private companies - like Musk's enterprises - compete with established (though inferior) businesses that have government support. Some corporations are beloved by politicians because of monetary contributions, lobbyists, factories in their districts; etc. It's hard to compete with such companies, and they caused massive headaches for Musk. But, of course, he prevailed in the end.

I admire Musk for his brilliance and accomplishments, and I like this book. I'd recommend the book to readers interested in Elon Musk; his far-reaching business ventures; and the future of the planet.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

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Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic ...

If SpaceX really is staring down a potential bankruptcy, at least it wouldn't be the first time.

On Tuesday, CNBC obtained a copy of a letter that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent to his employees the day after Thanksgiving, in which the billionaire said the rocket company could be at "genuine risk of bankruptcy," unless it can speed up production of the Raptor engines that power its Starship rockets.

Each rocket flight could require as many as 39 Raptor engines. "We face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year," Musk wrote. "We need all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster."

On Tuesday, Musk replied to a tweet about his comments with some added context, noting that bankruptcy for SpaceX, while "unlikely," is also "not impossible," especially if the global economy suffers a downturn before the company can get its Starship program up and running. Musk also pointed to auto giants like General Motors and Chrysler, both of which filed for bankruptcy during the Great Recession in 2009, and he included a quote from former Intel CEO Andrew Grove: "Only the paranoid survive," which was Grove's famous slogan.

It's not SpaceX's first brush with serious financial risk: Musk has often spoken about how risky it was to launch the company in 2002, and how it nearly failed just a few years later. Last year, Musk tweeted that "in the early days" of launching both Tesla and SpaceX, he had very little faith that either venture would succeed.

"I thought there was >90% chance that both SpaceX & Tesla would be worth $0," he wrote.

In 2013, Musk spoke at a Google for Startups event about how SpaceX nearly went under after its first three attempted rocket launches all failed between 2006 and 2008. The issue was simple: He'd invested roughly $100 million of his own money to found SpaceX, which only covered three attempts to launch a rocket into orbit.

The first three attempts failed the first due to a fire, while the next two simply failed to reach orbit. "I thought 'OK, we can afford three launches.' And, then the third one failed," Musk said. "It was a very, very painful exercise. We were just too stupid to know how to make a rocket go to orbit."

Instead of folding the company, Musk said, he invested more of his own money just barely enough for a fourth launch. In a 2017 speech at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) conference in Adelaide, Australia, Musk noted that if the fourth launch failed, SpaceX would have closed down for good.

"That would have been it for SpaceX," Musk said. "But fate liked us that day."

That's because the fourth launch succeeded, reportedly due to engineers changing a single line of code to fix a problem from the third attempt. The success helped SpaceX land a commercial contract with NASA valued at roughly $1.6 billion, extending the young company a lifeline.

Today, SpaceX isn't nearly as young and last month, it hit a $100 billion valuation, making it hard to believe that the company could truly be facing bankruptcy again. In October, a Morgan Stanley survey found that a majority of "institutional investors and industry experts" believe SpaceX could eventually become more valuable than Tesla, which currently has a market value of more than $1.1 trillion.

It's always possible that Musk is using the threat of bankruptcy as a motivational tactic for his employees. But as CNBC noted on Tuesday, the Raptor engines are essential to SpaceX's financial future because the company will need its Starship rockets to launch its next generation of Starlink satellites into orbit.

It's the type of risk that's propelled Musk to his current status as the world's wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of $310 billion, according to Bloomberg.

"If you were to do a risk-adjusted rate of return estimate on various industry opportunities, I would put building rockets and [electric] cars pretty close to the bottom of the list," Musk said at a South by Southwest panel in 2018. "They would have to be the dumbest things to do."

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Elon Musk: Starting SpaceX and Tesla were 'the dumbest things to do'

In high school, this is the career Elon Musk thought he would pursue and why he changed his mind

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Elon Musk has worried about SpaceX bankruptcy before early on he thought it would be 'worth $0' - CNBC

Teslas chief executive, Elon Musk, has appeared to joke about whistleblowers on Twitter in the wake of high-profile lawsuits against the electric carmaker brought by current and former staff.

The billionaire urged his 65 million Twitter followers to Blow the whistle on Tesla! and included a link to a branded Cyberwhistle for sale in the companys online shop.

Despite being priced at $50 (38), the stainless steel whistle had apparently sold out online within minutes, with many of Musks Twitter followers tweeting to say they had bought the item, which is shaped like Teslas futuristic Cybertruck vehicle.

In a follow-up tweet, the 50-year-old, who is also the owner of Space X, told his followers: Dont waste your money on that silly Apple Cloth, buy our whistle instead!, referring to Apples recently unveiled polishing cloth, which is on sale at the firms UK online store for 19.

Tesla has faced several lawsuits in the US in recent months from current and former employees, some of whom have complained of harassment while at work.

A federal court in California ordered Tesla in October to pay almost $137m in damages to a black former employee who said he endured racial abuse while working at the firms main factory in Fremont.

Owen Diaz, a former contracted elevator operator, had complained of racial abuse while working at the plant between 2015 and 2016.

In November, a worker at Teslas main California factory filed a lawsuit alleging rampant sexual harassment and lack of support from supervisors when complaints were raised.

Jessica Barraza said she was regularly propositioned by colleagues and had to endure inappropriate touching at the Fremont plant. She said the firms human resources department had not responded to complaints she filed with them in September and October.

Musk, whose personal worth is estimated at about $271bn, has a track record of courting controversy through his tweets, his preferred means of communication. In recent months he has promoted bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, polled Twitter users over whether to sell some of his Tesla shares, and also mocked the US Senator Bernie Sanders over comments about taxing the wealthy.

Some of his tweets have got him and his company into trouble. The US securities watchdog warned Tesla last year that Musk had twice violated a settlement requiring his tweets and material public communications to be pre-approved by company lawyers, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

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The Cyberwhistle is made from medical-grade stainless steel, according to the Tesla website, and described as being inspired by the Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck made from stainless steel used in rockets.

The armoured vehicle was revealed two years ago, in November 2019, with Musk tweeting only days later that the company had received 150,000 orders.

Musk has told Tesla investors that Cybertruck production will begin in 2022. However, in recent days he complained of supply chain problems in response to a tweet requesting an update on Cybertruck delivery.

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Elon Musk jokes about whistleblowing in Tesla merchandise tweet - The Guardian

The latest SpaceX launch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit has broken the private space firms own record for the number of rocket launches in a calendar year.

The Falcon 9 flight, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday, marked the 27th successful launch for Elon Musks company in 2021.

The payload of Starlink satellites also means Musk now controls more than 36 per cent of all active satellites in orbit, according to data from CelesTrak.

SpaceXs Starlink project aims to establish a vast network of table-sized satellites around the Earth in order to beam high-speed internet to the ground.

There are now more than 1,750 active Starlink satellites in orbit, though SpaceX has filed paperwork to create a 42,000-strong constellation of satellites.

Up to five more SpaceX launches are planned before the end of the year, with the next one scheduled for the 9 December.

Musk said the Starlink network would provide near global coverage of the populated wold, but will mostly serve rural and isolated regions that are poorly served by conventional ground-based infrastructure.

The venture has already faced criticism from the Satellites Constellation (SatCon1) coalition of astronomers, who claimed the largest ever satellite constellation could prove extremely impactful to scientific advances.

The Starlink satellites, which typically launch in batches of between 50 and 60, have previously prompted UFO reports due to the unusual string-like formation, however SpaceX has taken measures to reduce their visibility to ground-based observers.

SpaceXs Starlink satellites has proved controversial with astronomers

(Wikimedia Commons)

The SpaceX boss is currently the wealthiest person on the planet, with an estimated net worth of $311 billion (234bn), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His closest rival, fellow space enthusiast Jeff Bezos, has a fortune of $201bn.

Both Musk and Bezos are currently rivals in what has become known as the billionaire space race, with Bezos Blue Origin firm currently focussed on sending private citizens to the edge of space aboard its New Sheperd rocket.

SpaceX secured a multi-billion deal with Nasa earlier this year, beating out Blue Origin in the process, but Musk warned this week that the private space firm risks bankruptcy if its next-generation Starship rocket is not able to achieve regular launches in 2022.

If a severe global recession were to dry up capital availability/ liquidity while SpaceX was losing billions on Starlink and Starship, then bankruptcy, while still unlikely, is not impossible, he tweeted on Tuesday.

There has only been one successful high-altitude launch and landing of the Starship craft to date, though plans are already in place to perform the first orbital flight early next year.

A SpaceX illustration of its Starship human lander design that will return astronauts to the Moon as part of Nasas Artemis mission

(SpaceX)

The long-term goal is to mass produce the space craft and use them to transport people and cargo around the Solar System, eventually establishing a permanent human colony on Mars.

The magnitude of the Starship program is not widely appreciated. It is designed to extend life to Mars (and the Moon), which requires ~1,000 times more payload to orbit than all current Earth rockets combined, Musk said.

Starship will enable a quantum leap in deep space and planetary science.

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Elon Musk now controls more than a third of all active satellites as SpaceX breaks rocket launch record - The Independent

"Not great, but not terrible either."Heads Up!

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed yesterday that some of the companys internet-beaming Starlink satellites had to swerve out of the way of space debris, which also forced NASA to abruptly call off a spacewalk on Tuesday.

We had to shift some Starlink satellite orbits to reduce probability of collision, Musk wrote on Twitter, notably declining to say the origin of the debris. Not great, but not terrible either.

The billionaire CEO also elaborated on the dangers that space junk presents to astronauts on spacewalks.

Stationand Dragon have micrometeorite shields (ultra high velocity impact absorption), Musk said, but [Extravehicular Activity] suits do not, hence higher risk for spacewalk.

Before the canceled spacewalk, NASA astronauts on board the International Space Station were scheduled to replace a broken antenna system outside the orbital outpost.

Due to the lack of opportunity to properly assess the risk it could pose to the astronauts, teams have decided to delay the Nov. 30 spacewalk until more information is available, NASA wrote in a Tuesday statement.

The news comes after Russia completed an anti-satellite test in orbit earlier this month, sending more than 1,500 traceable pieces of space junk hurtling around our planet. Its unclear however if NASAs decision, or Musks comments, are related to the incident.

Musks nonchalant reaction to the issue is certainly surprising. Crowding our planets orbit with trash not only poses an existential threat to astronauts, but it could make escaping Earths gravity well one of Musks main goals an even more treacherous journey.

More on debris: NASA Postpones Spacewalk Due to Deadly Debris

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Elon Musk Says Starlink Satellites Had to Swerve Out of the Way of Debris - Futurism

Theres a term bubbling up across social media that is confusing an awful lot of people. That term is Web 3.0, also called Web3. The phenomenon is being heralded by early supporters as the future of the internet. To others, its just a buzzword. But what is Web 3.0? And how does it stand to shape the future like its fans seem to think it will? Well, in some ways, Web 3.0 already exists, and its already well on its way to shaping how we connect online.

Source: Shutterstock

Cryptocurrency is opening up the gate for Web 3.0. The asset class is laying the foundation for a decentralized, autonomous network, free from corporate authority. In just a handful of years, many believe Web 3.0 will be alive and thriving.

So, what is it exactly? Heres everything you need to know.

Web 2.0 is the internet as we know it today, starting with prototypical Facebook pages and e-commerce. This is a period where connectivity is vastly emphasized; you can chat with friends, receive instant answers to any question in the world and buy nearly anything you want online.

Metas recent scandals have been the most shining example of this displacement of power. Whistleblowers have exposed ways in which the company manipulated its users the end consumers of the internet. Moreover, there is much controversy over the ways in which companies mine personal data and use this to target specific users.

Web 3.0 is the direct response to this power imbalance. It seeks to address this by putting power back into the hands of users through decentralization. Data and power is centralized currently among the tech giants like Meta and Alphabet. With Web 3.0, this data can remain as private as a user wants it to be. It also frees users of the indiscretions of these companies rules over users. The internet is considered a frontier for freedom of speech, thanks in large part to the connectivity fostered by social media. And yet, users are still subject to rules made at the whim of the ruling corporations.

The internet as we know it is slowly moving to the blockchain because it is where users can retain their own independence. As cryptocurrency is demonstrating, theres a lot of demand for a place where people can invest their money the way they want and for higher returns than banks can offer; that much is clear from the success of DeFi protocols, which allow one to do things like stake assets for passive income.

Theres a high demand also for a decentralized internet. With Web 3.0, one will be able to use things like social media dapps, where developers have renounced power and users make rules on the type of content that can and cant be posted through community voting efforts. They could then jump to a DeFi protocol and make a token swap, or use their tokens in the metaverse. Most importantly, they could do all of this on one personal account, log-in free. The possibilities are as infinite as the internet as we know it today, but without sacrificing ones power or data.

There are a lot of naysayers out there like Elon Musk. Since he is not likely to provide any insight on his views, we cant know for sure what is holding the business magnate back from Web 3.0. But, if his views fall in line with other skeptics, he likely thinks theres no real vision to it that makes it more compelling than the Silicon Valley-led Web 2.0 we experience today.

Others think the idea of Web 3.0 taking over is not such a ridiculous notion. However, they find it hard to believe these corporations wont simply adopt Web 3.0 ideas for their own products. Many believe that these Silicon Valley companies are going to continue taking notice of decentralization efforts, and they are going to implement ideas of Web 3.0 into their own businesses in order to retain relevancy.

As of right now, there are a handful of Web 3.0 crypto projects out there. Developers are creating protocols for sharing wireless internet, sharing secure data storage space and creating the foundations for a broader decentralized internet. Projects like Polkadot (CCC:DOT-USD) are leading the charge as some of the earliest Web 3.0 endeavors; indeed, Polkadot has the full backing of the Web3 Foundation, which seeks to expedite development of the next iteration of the internet.

On the date of publication, Brenden Rearickdid not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

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Web3 FAQ: What Is Web 3.0? And Why Does Elon Musk Call It 'BS'? - Investorplace.com

Astronomers have warned that Elon Musks Starlink risks blocking out the stars to deep space telescopes and putting hundreds of millions of pounds of British investment in space exploration in jeopardy.

The Royal Astronomical Society has claimed that networks threatening to blanket the night sky in low-orbit small satellites could blind observatories through light pollution and radio interference.

Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the society, warned a serious amount of public money could be wasted if investments in radio telescopes were rendered blind by thousands of satellites.

Mr Musks Starlink, part of his SpaceX rocket company, is planning to launch more than 12,000 satellites that the hopes will provide internet connectivity to remote areas across the planet.

Rival ventures, such as OneWeb, which is backed by the UK Government, and Amazon are also planning to launch hundreds of satellites to provide rural broadband.

But astronomers have warned this will create light pollution that makes it harder for amateur astronomers to pick out planets and stars in the nights sky.

They also argue that investments in radio telescopes, which use radio waves to search for the origins of the universe, could be at risk owing to interference.

Among these is the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a vast radio telescope in the Australian outback designed for deep space observation that has been in development for 30 years, and the Jodrell Bank Centre near Manchester.

The Government has committed 270m to the 1.5bn current cost of the SKA and spends tens of millions of pounds each year on other observatories.

Mr Massey said: These communications satellites require powerful downlinks. Historically, you would put a radio telescope in a remote site without interference.

But if you have a satellite constellation covering by design the surface of the earth there is nothing you can do about it. In a pessimistic scenario, we are shutting out a window on the universe.

The SKA and Royal Astronomical Society have complained to Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, asking it to regulate the expansion of satellite constellations, including their impact on astronomy as part of licencing conditions.

Mr Massey said there was a further risk of the unregulated expansion of satellite launches from China or Russia. He said: We can talk to Starlink and we can talk to OneWeb, but can we have the same conversation with companies in China or Russia if they launch systems?

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Astronomers accuse Elon Musk of blocking out the stars with Starlink satellites - The Telegraph

Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images, left, Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Joe Biden has proposed hiring 87,000 IRS workers over the next decade.

Rep. Lauren Boebert criticized the plan, saying it was to monitor billionaires.

Elon Musk paid no federal income tax in 2018, a year in which he was the second-richest person.

On Sunday, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted their disapproval of the Biden administration's proposal to expand the IRS's number of employees under the Build Back Better agenda.

Under the proposal, the IRS would hire nearly 87,000 workers over the next decade to close the "tax gap" by collecting unpaid taxes owed by large corporations, partnerships, and wealthy people, Politico reported.

Boebert compared the proposed increase with the workforces of Tesla and Apple, which employ 70,000 and 154,000 people, respectively.

"The IRS already has dedicated audit teams for high net worth individuals. The doubling of staff is for everyone else," Musk replied to her on Twitter.

According to a May report from the Department of Treasury, the tax gap the difference between taxes owed to the government and what is paid is expected to rise to more than $7 trillion over the next decade, or roughly 15% of taxes owed.

"These unpaid taxes come at a cost to American households and compliant taxpayers as policymakers choose rising deficits, lower spending on necessary priorities, or further tax increases to compensate for the lost revenue," the report said. "The tax gap disproportionately benefits high earners who accrue more of their income from non-labor sources where misreporting is common."

In June, ProPublica published an investigation that found Musk paid no federal income tax in 2018. At the time, he was the second-richest person.

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Elon Musk and Lauren Boebert interact on Twitter over ...

Tesla's Model Y compact crossover vehicles at a showroom in Shanghai, China, on January 18, 2021.

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Amid ongoing port constraints and rising shipping costs, Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged employees Friday, in a company-wide email obtained by CNBC, to look for ways to reduce the cost of delivering electric vehicles to customers, rather than rushing orders out last-minute to hit its end of quarter sales goals.

This year, Tesla has struggled to deliver new cars to customers in the U.S. in line with originally promised date ranges. As CNBC previously reported, some Teslacustomers here experienced delivery delays of months, leaving them paying out of pocket for rentals and ride-hailing apps, and needing to re-apply for loans due to slipped deadlines.

Tesla is not alone in leaving customers waiting longer than they had hoped for their new, fully electric cars. Last week, for example, newly public competitor Rivian Automotive notified people who had reserved their R1S, a sport utility vehicle, of delivery delays.

Still, sales have grown this year for Tesla seemingly unbowed by unpredictable delivery dates.

Vehicle deliveries, which are the closest approximation to sales reported by Elon Musk's electric vehicle and renewable energy business, amounted to about 500,000 total in 2020. During the first three quarters of 2021, Tesla had already reported deliveries of 627,350 vehicles.

Since the start of 2021, the company has not provided a clear target for 2021 vehicle deliveries. But Tesla has reiterated its loose guidance for "50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries" over a multiyear horizon, including on its third-quarter earnings call.

JL Warren Capital's CEO and Head of Research, Junheng Li, wrote in a note to investors last week that she expects Tesla sales to continue to rise, at least in China this quarter. "Soaring gas price benefits all new energy vehicle brands," in the country she noted.

Some 1.3 million electric vehicles were sold in China in 2020, according to Canalys research. The firm predicted that the number would grow to 1.9 million EV sales in China by the end of this year.

China remains the world's largest market for new cars, with strong government support for going electric.

Here's the full e-mail that Elon Musk sent out on Friday to all Tesla employees (transcribed by CNBC).

From: Elon Musk

To: Everybody

Subj. Q4 deliveries vs. cost efficiency

Date: Nov. 26, 2021 [time stamp redacted]

Per my email several weeks ago, our focus this quarter should be on minimizing cost of deliveries rather than spending heavily on expedite fees, overtime and temporary contractors just so that cars arrive in Q4.

What has happened historically is that we sprint like crazy at end of quarter to maximize deliveries, but then deliveries drop massively in the first few weeks of the next quarter. In effect, looked at over a six month period, we won't have delivered any extra cars but we will have spent a lot of money and burned ourselves out to accelerate deliveries in the last two weeks of each quarter.

We will still have quite a big wave of deliveries in the last few weeks of December, as we don't yet have high volume production either in Europe or Texas, which means a lot of cars on boats from China to Europe and on trucks [and/or] rail from California to the East Coast arriving late in the quarter, but this is nonetheless the right time to start reducing the size of the wave in favor of a steadier and more efficient pace of deliveries.

The right principle is take the most efficient action, as though we were not publicly-traded and the notion of "end of quarter" didn't exist.

Thanks, Elon

See the article here:

Elon Musk urges Tesla employees to reduce cost of vehicle deliveries - CNBC