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Elon Musk's Boring Company Delivers $600 Flamethrower (theverge.com)
Last December, Boring Company CEO Elon Musk promised to sell a Boring Company-branded flamethrower after selling 50,000 Boring Company hats. Well, sure enough, 50,000 hats were sold and Musk is delivering on his promise. The Verge reports: Mark this down as one of the promises Elon delivers on, apparently, because it looks like the Boring Company flamethrower is here. Redditors in a few SpaceX, Boring Company, and Musk-related subreddits noticed earlier this week that the URL "boringcompany.com/flamethrower" started redirecting to a page with a password box. And at least one user was able to guess the original password, too: "flame." (It's since been changed.) Behind that password was a shop page that looks just like the one for The Boring Company's hat. But instead of a $20 cap, they found a preorder prompt for a $600 flamethrower. "Prototype pictured above," the listing reads. "Final production flamethrower will be better."
Why "flame"? This doesn't exactly work with the push against the carbon industries. Perhaps something like a plasma thrower would be more appropriate. You could generate that with electricity.
Maybe you could ionize the flame and accelerate it with an electric field as a compromise?
”And at least one user was able to guess the original password, too: "flame." (It's since been changed).”
That’s just the kind of attention to security best practices I’d expect from a Founder of PayPal.
#DeleteChrome
"Tesla fan" is going to take on new connotations if it becomes trendy for them to carry around flamethrowers as a sign of support for Musk's companies.
Maybe it'll end up that Tesla fans start getting hired to run security, in the way that Hell's Angels used to be. Then we'll end up waking up one day reading about how 7 people were charred to death during a ruckus at a Radiohead concert...
How come things that happen to stupid people keep happening to me?
I think you confused legal and illegal. Legal in every state but California. https://www.online-paralegal-p... https://www.quora.com/Is-it-le...
Wikipedia seems to disagree with you. Maybe you know the citations necessary to go correct the article? They cited a Washington Post story which is weaker than a reference to a law might be.
In the United States, private ownership of a flamethrower is not restricted by federal law. Flamethrowers are legal in 48 states and restricted in California and Maryland.
.... this place needs purifying.
Hmmm, my reading of 27 CFR 447.21 puts them in the same category as howitzers and mortars. IANAL; maybe there's something I'm missing?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Boring hats are already weeks beyond their originally quoted delivery dates, for a hat. I can imagine the safest way to keep your kid's hands off a flame thrower is to let them order one from Musk.
I expect he'll ultimately be remembered for taking generally-dismissed technologies, building PR campaigns styled after P.T. Barnum, and creating reasonably-successful companies using excitement to offset the extremely-high risk that led to the technologies being rejected the first time around.
Musk's PR stunts are exactly that. There is little scientific value (besides a dead-weight test) in launching a car into orbit... but by doing so, he can inspire another round of news stories and keep his name in front of the upcoming generation of engineers. Similarly, of course he's going to sell branded flamethrowers, because every reckless idiot (myself included) is going to think "Gee, I could probably spare $600 for that" and start clearing space in the living room next to the life-size Boba Fett statue. It'll be a great conversation piece, and a piece of history if/when the tunnels become successful.
I'm not going to opine on whether showmanship is a good or bad thing for investment purposes, but I am happy to see the public eye turning toward the real challenges to progress. Yes, the rockets blow up, the permits are a hassle, and building new manufacturing factories requires obscene amounts of money... but those problems are not insurmountable, with enough persistence (and funding). Don't worry about how hard your math homework seems, little Timmy... just give it another try, like your hero Elon Musk!
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
I'll give you my flamethrower when you pry it from my scorched, dead hands.
'Flamebait' has a whole new meaning now.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
ULA is alive only because of the money it got upfront from USAF for launches they may or may not deliver.
Fixed that for you. :-p
Ezekiel 23:20
what is the distinction between a big torch and a flamethrower?
A torch shoots out heat.
A flamethrower shoots out burning liquid fuel.