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In the Google Navy
theodp writes "Having already assembled a private Air Force, Google's top execs now seem to be turning their attention to building a personal Navy. At last count, CEO Eric Schmidt's wife had assembled a stable of three classic racing boats — the Swan 80 Selene, the 46-foot W-class Equus and the Alerion Mischief. Perhaps not to be outdone, the press is reporting that Google founder Larry Page just snapped up a $45 million superyacht called Senses from New Zealand businessman Sir Douglas Myers, who referred to the ostentatious-yet-awesome yacht as his 'adventure boat.' As Google likes to say, 'just the latest steps in Google's commitment to a clean and green energy future.' So, do Google execs eat their own carbon footprint calculator dogfood?" All I know is if Larry wants to go fishing, I'll bring bait — or he can come here and fish on Zen's pontoon boat. It only leaked once, the engine usually starts right up, and while there's no helipad, I'd love to watch someone try.
It's not really a Navy unless it's got guns, or a least archers or spear-throwers or something.
Enormously rich person buys large object, news at 10?
Thank you /. for sticking "in the navy" in my head. It also somehow has a YMCA blend to it too. Say, wasn't Google at one time at least helping NASA develop rockets?
"and while there's no helipad" What? No way! Count me out then unless accommodations are made for my Xheli.
Home of The Suki Series
I predict they will cruise around the world taking photos of every harbour, ship and shoreline.
I also predict they will get into trouble for doing that.
All of the world's marine traffic in real-time is already on Google... (ok, its basically just overlayed AIS data, but still its effing cool ! just try to find an application that is cooler! or is it wetter?)
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
Carbon footprint of racing sailboat is pretty much 0, at least while it's actually racing. I'll grant you that construction and the diesel auxiliary contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, and especially if they're having it moved around on a container ship so it's ready to go in exotic locations, and then flying in to sail on it, they're pretty much at the head of the line in terms of their individual contribution to future generations' climate-related misery. But overall, I think sailboats should be way down your list if you're making a catalog of climate-hostile consumption.
Still, I realize this is slashdot. Let the poorly-informed outrage fly!
Have you seen the front page of Slashdot lately?
You can search the net with ease...
I'm a Republican that met Dick Cheney in the Las Vegas airport bathroom, he didn't tap his foot or shoot me in the face with a quail gun.
I do own guns, and I'm more than happy to get my news from alternative sources and accept alternative views. Hell I lived on a Kibbutz for a year and support tax hikes on the wealthy. I also voted for the Democrat for the Governor of Alaska in '10 (he ran on more of a drilling and pipeline platform) and wrote in Murlowski in the race against the Tea Bagger.
The only thing I've gone on a rampage against is a shotgun vs a balky printer from work.
remember the floating data center idea? They're doing it with style. sys admins on the night shift need to party, right?
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
do Google execs eat their own carbon footprint calculator dogfood?
All those words... but together they.... the letters, the letters...
So it's come to this. After all those centuries, English, this is what you've become. Face down in the left gutter wearing Comic Sans with an empty carton of Strunk and White. Googling your own blogfeed indeed.
I just hope you're happy.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
Does this article fit the "news for nerds, news that matters" criteria? Does every web site now have to show how pitiful my existence is compared to the "rich and famous"?
Does owning a $45 million yacht significantly increase your probability of getting laid?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The world is full of liberals/socialists/workers/puritans/humanists who live by their beliefs. You usually don't hear them in the media because they're too busy living off a worker's wage, possibly playing a part in a local union, looking after people in the family and community, etc. to have the money to make their voice sufficiently loud.
Unfortunately, like the undergrad banner-waving protester who says "capitalists r evil hypocrites look at Bush/Hitler!", we have childlike Randroids with the idential "librals r evil hypocrites look at Gore/Stalin!" A nice balance of idealists from every faction seems to make for a nice outcome, with pragmatists acting as the glue to keep everyone stuck together.
Generally speaking, the only kinds of racing that have anything approaching a 'green' fotprint are the kinds of racing that leave footprints.
Auto racing can't claim a green footprint. Even solar racing has a manufacturing footprint that is noticeable.
Boats? Powerboats of course just crave fuels. Sail? Except perhaps for some small classes, they rely on exotic materials. Smaller classes are starting to give in to this a little bit.
Planes? hehe... Gliders? Carbon-fiber.
Even bicycles use such exotics that their footprint is scary, perhaps the worst emissions/lb. of anything.
But footracing, horse racing, maybe.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
How's that "Don't be evil" working out?
Carbon-neutral? Nope.
Excessively reckless and wasteful? Yep.
The top AOL execs were never this ostentatious.
Well, we did buy Time Warner. They were bigger than your yacht and stable of Cigarette boats.
Kriston
THIS is a boat.
If I had Larry Page's stupid amount of money, I'd get a real ship. Plus, you can make money with it if the GOOG stock tanks.
Or just load it up with 1400 hot chicks and sail around the world.
And of course, there's always THIS boat
I think sailboats should be way down your list if you're making a catalog of climate-hostile consumption.
Why?
http://galenfrysinger.name/eh61/harbor02.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Monterey_CA_harbor_p1070194.jpg
http://www.pictureninja.com/pages/new-zealand/north-island/auckland-harbor-sailboats.jpg
http://www.harborsailboats.com/images/mainpage.jpg
http://www.gdanmitchell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/SouthBeachHarborMornFogSF20090701.jpg
http://reve.ed.shizuoka.ac.jp/photos/Honolulu02.jpg
http://thetriton.com/directory/userlogo/21736-5724_b.jpg
http://www.boatharborslocator.com/ca%20marin%20county/ca_marin_ar_lowrie_yacht_harbor.jpg
The coasts and inland lakes of every wealthy nation are littered with harbors filled with composite and hardwood sailboats and yachts. You dismiss concern over the climate impact of these because....?
If there is a more effective way to foster resistance to climate regulation than exempting the toys of the wealthy I'll need some help from the audience, because nothing comes to mind.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
terrible Google Wave pun
sorry, all that came up when I googled that was this
actually, I'm joking. the actual GIS results for that phrase were even more off the wall
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
... we'll get Google Davie Jones' Locker View, real soon ...
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I was going to make the same exact point.
As these are proper ocean cruiser boats you are not going to move them by container ship. 24m worth off composite hull is something you move by water with a hired crew, not by ship. Sailing such boats from A to B so that the person with excess pocket money can use it where they want it is a pretty good job if you can have it by the way. I would not mind being a sailing crew on one of those :)
So the only greenhouse emissions are from the leerjet flying you to the sailing destination and back.
If there is to be a choice, I woul definitely go for this (and Larry Ellison America cup obsession) compared to let's say top Microsoft execs lobbying for specia exemptions to the USA import regs so they can import limited use supercars for their personal consumption (which they did at least once).
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
But what about Good Google? How much carbon is saved each year, for example, by their handy maps? (Now if I could only get my wife to stop printing them out and just write the directions on a piece of waste paper) How much does Google reduce carbon by efficiently locating points of interest -- and someday -- helping you get your car to the nearest electrical outlet. Sniping at rich people's yachts is I guess a family tradition but the real problem with carbon hypocracy stories is they really don't take in the big picture. I'm for an all electric civilization; wave, wind, sun and nuke. Google is an extremely valuable part of that as it makes things smarter. They can keep their yachts and hovercraft and jet planes.
Making a carbon fiber epoxy composite uses a bunch of energy etc. I imagine that's what he referred to.
You're not keeping carbon from being CO2, net.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Joe Biden's mansion? You might want to check your facts on that one.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Careful, it didn't end so well for L. Ron Hubbard.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
you can easily move very large ships from ocean to ocean via a piggyback ship.
in fact, there are ships designed for this very purpose, and moving a large sailing yacht is one of their main customers.
these specialized ships take on ballast and essentially purposefully flood their own decks and then the large sailing/motor yachts are driven over the deck, pilings are set to support them, and the ship pumps out the ballast to raise itself above the waterline.
why?
because its a lot cheaper to pay for one large transport to move from continent to continent than it is a whole bunch of little ones that require not only propulsion but electrical power as well.
The world is full of conservatives/religious people/workers/puritans/humanists who live by their beliefs. You usually don't hear them in the media because they're too busy living off a worker's wage, possibly playing a part in a local union, looking after people in the family and community or church, etc. to have the money to make their voice sufficiently loud.
no i dont know he isnt really mad. i dont have an obligation to spare inane efforts to see sarcasm everywhere i go - which happens to be the most abundant commodity on the net by the way.
basically, i dont have to oblige with anyone's shitty sarcasm. if one wants to say something, s/he should directly say it.
Read radical news here
Someone with money bought a boat. News at 11.
I mean come on ... who the fraq cares?
Hurricane Island Outward Bound
OB
let me put it this way :
the guy, talked as if he was mad. i have read it, taking it as he pictured himself, that is, as mad.
i dont have any obligation to see deeper meanings or connotations or references or hidden implications in any random schmock's post on the internet.
by the way, i havent made any claim. it was you who pulled me making a claim out of your ass. you can put it back there, if you wish.
tho, i want to thank you for providing me with the opportunity to voice my opinion about this very rare sarcasm phenomenon that we have on the net. ooops - that was sarcasm too ? how rare !!!
Read radical news here
Laughing at someone is not a sign of fear.
I seem to remember an old? 60-minutes piece on the culture of Google where execs drove normal cars to work and shopping sprees to shave off excess millions were universally frowned upon.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/30/60minutes/main664063.shtml
Yes, quite.
One such company is Dockwise Yacht Tranport - www.yacht-transport.com The larger the Sailboat / Yacht the more likely it is to move from place to place on it's own bottom.
Any idiot can buy yachts and planes. You're not a truly awesome geek millionaire until you have a self-sufficient private island.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Now, I know your UID is close to a million, but almost as many people have joined after you as before, so someone really should have said this to you before now:
Don't feed the trolls!
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
This is my documentation that if someone from google wants to buy the best in personal/corporate submarines, it's over here -> http://www.ussubmarines.com/submarines/phoenix_1000.php3 Check it out, you will be impressed if you haven't seen it before. How much for the finders fee? I might be able to right my own ship if everything works out ;-)
...then you should get a badass boat like this one, a 190 tons displacement, 37 meter costal patrol boat purchased by an early Internet pioneer from the Royal Navy.
Probably when pigs fly; or maybe when all power is gleaned solely from the sun and/or nukes. But then that only accounts for carbon created for power generation. What about the emissions from the servers themselves while running, plastic wire coatings decaying, the actual creation of the parts that make up the servers - etc., etc., etc.
The only way for Google to ever be green in reality is to cease their business. Let's get real.
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
Would all the asshats surfing the web with their 150 watt processors and 225 watt video cards for the sole purpose of trolling Slashdot kindly rethink their asshattery?
Sounds like an adventure boat to me.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
So, why are leftists so AFRAID of Sarah Palin, anyway?
Speaking as a non-American I'm not sure you have any leftists in your country, but that aside, what people in the rest of the world are afraid of is that the most powerful county on earth could even conceive of electing someone as patently thick as Palin.
Then again, you've got previous with George W Bush, Reagan and so on. At least in the UK our evil politicians like Thatcher don't have learning difficulties.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
As posted already, a navy has ships, guns are an additional feature that make it a military navy instead of a merchant one.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Obama is no fucking leftist. He is just GWB round 2.
I expected it, both parties are rightist and after the same stuff, no surprise to me at all.
Not to mention the noxious chemicals in the epoxies, manufacturing the carbon-fiber to start with, etc.
And the manure from horse racing has its usefulness. More than the discarded carbon-fiber components from the sailboat, which at best lay inert in a landfill, and at worst leach interesting stuff into the aquifers below when the landfill inevitably fails.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
this is dumb. seems to me that these are personal watercraft, not google's.