Ask Florian if he is a bigger dick-sucker than Daniel Domscheit-Berg, another famous disinformation agent of recent times.

Let's leave out the question of Lennart Poettering. The question of dick-suckage would disappear into its own event-horizon.

Well, as long as you stay unmarried your chances at getting a divorce are zero, so don't do it!

Seriously, this is just statistics, correlation without causation most likely. I am sure they can find similar correlations for unmarried couples: 10% more chance of a breakup if your first pet was a cat instead of a dog, that sort of thing.

The Russians had their Space Shuttle as well, the Buran. But they applied the same principles and approach to engineering to it; apparently it was a much simpler and better integrated design than the extremely complex Space Shuttle. The thing only flew once, sadly, so it's hard to say how they would have compared in reliability and performance.

Guess someone learned their lesson about not opening their big mouth... On the other hand, being crammed upside down into a tiny capsule atop a pile of combustible fuel contained by experimental Soviet equipment might still be worth it for a once in a lifetime chance at going to space.

Perhaps the first Mars One flight could have bears and wolves on board. These would be released (in special space suits) just prior to the human settlers, who will then have to battle these animals for food and survival. Mars One is just a reality show after all, and this would make for some great* television.

I doubt that Mars One colonists will have to deal much with anything, by the way. My guess is that the people behind the venture have no plans to actually launch a single vehicle, but have a whole range of reality shows planned for "selecting" the "astronauts". They're probably just waiting for a network to pick them up, or for Endemol to buy the concept.

*) for some definitions of "great"

"Elon Musk, I knew Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was a friend of mine. Mr. Musk, you're no Steve Jobs..."

The iPhone was a game changer in the market. You are right in that it wasn't a radical new design and more the result of a series of small improvements coupled with a drive for quality. Even so, all those improvements added up to the first smart phone that was actually easy to use. Back then, if you saw someone take out a smart phone at the bus stop, fiddle with it for a minute and then put it back, you could be sure it was an iPhone. Doing small tasks quickly simply wasn't practical on the other smart phones out there at the time.

I'm not sure to what extent Tesla innovated to create the cars they have, but certainly they made the first EV that people actually wanted to have for reasons other than it being an EV or hybrid. It was also one of the first mass market EVs that doesn't look like utter crap (the Honda Civic hybrid being the other one). Interestingly, some analysts suggested that Tesla should stick to supplying batteries and drive trains for other car makers... after having stood the EV market on its head. I for one hope that they'll continue to make cars, but the real test (and the tipping point) will be the moment they create a family EV in a mid-range price class.

It's Top Gear doing the misdirections and deceptions. They fudged the tests in order to make fun of the Tesla, and when Musk called them out on it and sued them for libel and defamation, Top Gear's defence was that they are "an entertainment program, not to be taken seriously". And that's exactly what it is.

I'm sure the man has an ego the size of Jupiter and a temper to match, but at least he has some reason to have those. He's getting things done in several difficult industries. The comparison to Apple and Jobs is apt in more ways that one: like Apple's flagship product, the Tesla has caught the attention of many, and every little flaw is put under a magnifying glass and blown out of proportion.

It was Exxon, in the early 70's in the 'States. Before that? I remember "Standard" stations. Might have been regional.

Mobil had a Pegasus! That's cool when your 5.

Aviation design doesn't exactly spell open and airy interiors to me. It spells cramped seats and stale peanuts.

Don't forget Brent Spar: when they occupied the platform and took some measurements, it turned out Shell was actually right, so they fudged the numbers rather than admit their mistake. Greenpeace is not about the environment any more, even though many of its individual members and employees may still be. This often happens to such organisations: at some point it's no longer about the founders' goals, but about membership, money, and influence. Greenpeace is no exception: today they are a marketing firm with themselves as sole customer.

I am sure they will offer up some excuse about Shell greenwashing its image, or brainwashing our kids about the blessings of fossil fuels, but the stark truth is that this does nothing for the environment. This announcement comes in time for GP to further their real goals: they have been out of the news for a bit and they needed a win and some publicity. Well played.

Prolly true. But we had Esso in UK and on continent (Netherlands? Hard to recall) back in the day.

That was what they had on special Lego blocks, when I was a boy...

I think yanks called 'er Exxon, by then.

I'm sure they have thought of that

If I knew you were this easy to provoke, I wouldn't have bothered.