Elon Musk (unintentionally) presents... the new tool of "war amongst the people"?



By Péter MARTON

So Elon Musk is marketing a household flamethrower. A total of 20,000 have been pre-ordered already, and are being delivered as we speak.

Some in the state of California freaked out over this, and promoted legislation to stop the sales of this indispensable kitchen appliance, but... predictably, gun rights activists came to the rescue of this fascinating project. Most naturally.

Shipping is still reported to be a challenge as the likes of UPS are not happy delivering propane-filled canisters by air. It is nevertheless happening.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Station Eleven (the book): A Review of the Post-Apocalypse

Image
By Péter MARTON Having just finished Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven (the 2015 winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award), a part post-apocalyptic, part pre-apocalyptic novel with (inevitably and yet mostly just implicitly) the apocalypse in its centre, here are a few quick notes, in praise as well as criticism – not as a literary review, but mainly in reaction to the plot: its plausibility and its implications. As a work of literature I really liked this book – I enjoyed it, even. It is moody and haunting, as many would say. All the characters want to be somewhere else, even some time else. The story is effectively a collection of their memories upon memories of times, places and faces past. What follows here, however, is the dirty work – the ugly analysis of probabilities and plausibilities that's more interesting from a social science vantage point. A raw take from my part. Feel free (or invited, even) to add to this, or to criticise any element of my ass...
Read more

Developments related to ISIS, and much else, because this is, of course, related to pretty much everything else

Image
By Péter MARTON Because I need to speak at an event about the situation in Iraq/Syria tomorrow, here are some of the recent trends and developments related to ISIS -- my digest of these. These are research notes, effectively. For starters: Aaron Zelin notes how much the ISIS media presence diminished since the fall of Mosul: "In particular, after the fall of Mosul in July 2017, the IS distribution of governance-related media dropped precipitously (by 66 percent) until the complete end of such media activity (on September 12 in Syria; September 16 in Iraq). For reference, at its apex, between June and August 2015, IS released 3,762 pictures related to governance activities in Syria and 3,305 in Iraq. When Mosul fell, between May and July 2017, IS only released 315 pictures related to governance in Syria and 171 in Iraq. And the most recent count prior to the mid-September 2017 rupture was 142 in Syria and 113 in Iraq, between July and September 2017." And yet......
Read more