July 24, 2021
There is no planet B.
First, it was Richard Branson, Great Britain’s Richie Rich. Then Jeff Bezos. The two made history of sorts recently by being the first two human beings who were completely unqualified to go into space. By the way, the FAA clarified that neither can call himself an astronaut. Apparently, you can’t call yourself a pilot simply because you traveled on a plane once. In any case, this is a significant milestone. We have the world’s first space tourists! The new middle class is now anyone who hasn’t travelled into space.
There has been criticism. It didn’t help that Bezos thanked Amazon’s employees and shareholders for “paying for the trip” upon return. Cheeky bugger. Shouldn’t Bezos focus his energy on saving the planet from the perils of climate change? Aren’t earthly problems more pressing than other worldly fantasies? Questions are being asked of Bezos. By the way, no one seems to expect anything of Branson.
The unkindest cut came from Scientific American, the media’s standard bearer of Science in America. They ran a piece headlined, “Could we persuade a few tech billionaires obsessed with sci-fi to make Earth a better place first?” This is such a bad argument at so many levels that I don’t even know where to start. First, there seems to be a mismatch in expectations. Billionaires don’t exist to make the Earth a better place. That, frankly, is the job of governments. We can argue about HOW Bezos made his money. Did he exploit labor, dodge taxes, and muscle suppliers? That’s an entirely valid but separate discussion from how he gets to spend his allegedly ill-gotten gains. Bezos owes nothing to any of us other than what HE thinks he owes us. That’s the whole point of making money, isn’t it? To spend it the way you choose to do so. What’s even the point in being a billionaire who worked hard long into the night, had no life for decades and got divorced if you can’t travel into space to make up for all of it?
“The Greek Freak is HOOPING” tweeted King Lebron James himself during Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Scoring a stunning 50 points, Giannis Ugo Antetokounmpo, led the Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA championship in a long, long while. He will make 22 million dollars this year and yet he lives in a two bedroom rental apartment with his mom, brother and girlfriend. Amazing kid.
Floridians are always up to something or the other. When things get bad in America, you can always count on Florida to make them worse. In the most recent story from the storied past of Florida men, a Florida man was banned from playing the tuba on the beach, which somehow led to Trump supporters protesting the ban. How Trump supporters got in the middle of all this, I have no idea. I say let’s just burn the Bill of Rights right away. What’s even the point in living in a free country if you can’t play the tuba on the beach during a pandemic? At this rate, we’ll never make America great again.
Apple sold 16 billion dollars worth of Airpods in 2020. There is no typo in the previous sentence. Apple’s Airpods business by itself is around the same size as Charles Schwab and Albania. Incredible, innit?
Eric Clapton said he would cancel any shows if the venue required attendees to prove they are vaccinated. Tbh, we’ve been through a lot in the last year. We’re exhausted. We want this thing to go away. We’ve endured enough. We’re looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and hoping it’s not an oncoming train. At this point, the last thing we need is neither Fauci playing the guitar nor Clapton giving out medical advice. Buh bye, Clapton. I guess we were not meant to be with each other. I used to think that I was my worst enemy. Turns out that others are way way ahead of me.
Cleveland’s baseball team known as the Indians for a hundred years have renamed themselves the Cleveland Guardians. There is a lot of angst and whining among sports fans about this. Come on, people. We’ve named teams after colored socks, just plain colors, little known birds, and whatnot. I think we can learn to live without a racially offensive name.
July 2021 has officially entered history books as the greatest month in the history of watching sports. We had the Euro and Copa football championships. Then Wimbledon and the NBA finals. Now, the Tokyo Olympics are finally here. I’m pumped to watch the world’s best compete. The fastest woman in the world, Sha’Carri Richardson, won’t be there. She smoked a bit of weed and failed the drug test. Rules are rules, I guess. It’s also time to change the rules. If you can run like the wind after smoking weed, I think you deserve more than just a gold medal.
Take a look at the Ralph Lauren designed Olympic outfits below. They’ve got a “trust fund baby sets out to fight the Revolutionary War” vibe going. Who allowed Ralph Lauren to design Olympic wear? Have we learned nothing?
Taking a dog named Shark to the beach is a bad idea. No reason why I bring this up. Just putting it out there.
Take a look at this picture, the results of a Twitter poll. Honestly, I don’t know what stresses me out more. The fact that 26% somehow got 13 as the right answer or the fact that the right answer is not even listed as one of the options.
Stay safe. Have a lovely week ahead.