Sep. 1st, 2023

thewayne: (Default)
A little background to those not familiar with Scientology.

When you become a Scientologist, or whenever you commit an infraction that the management doesn't like, you go through "auditing" with an E-Meter. These devices supposedly reveal things about your past lives, your possession by 'thetans' which are responsible for all the bad things in your current lives, or something like that. Popular belief is that the E-Meter is a crude polygraph and is measuring galvanic skin response or something: you're holding a copper cylinder in each hand and an "auditor" is questioning you about yourself and your past.

Well, if the copyright office opens up the Right To Repair, people who have obtained E-Meters (apparently there's a thriving market on Ebay and channels on YouTube) can take them apart and figure out how they work. The software for doing updates to the later models is tightly locked down and requires a license and your Scientology membership ID number.

The Scientologists say that devices that are only intended for sale to professionals should be exempted from right to repair, and that these are religious artifacts. One counter-argument that I see here is look at the pandemic. Thousands upon thousands of ventilators across the country/world were broken and couldn't be repaired because of a lack of manuals and DMCA threats from manufacturers. These were devices sold to processional medical installations, but they couldn't fix their own gear for reasonable costs. Eventually the copyright office caved in, and repair manuals were collected and published online, quickly followed by 3D printer models for replacement parts.

https://www.404media.co/scientologists-ask-government-to-make-hacking-e-meters-illegal/
thewayne: (Default)
*snicker*

This is absolutely true, but obviously a little more complicated than that. You need to remember that Bezos, like Musk, owns a rocket company, Blue Origin. Theoretically it competes with SpaceX, Musk's rocket company, but let's face it, BO doesn't do much.

Amazon is theoretically going to launch a satellite constellation called Project Kuiper, which is a satellite internet thingie much like what Musk is operating. BO doesn't have the lift capacity right now that actually works, so they're going to another rocket company to get their satellites into space.

And they didn't consider SpaceX - which has the lift and availability right now, and is pretty darn reliable. Bezos and Amazon are being sued by a pension fund, and I'll let the article speak for itself, because the words just make my heart glow when billionaires go after each other: "Shareholders of a pension fund that includes Amazon stock have sued the company, its founder Jeff Bezos, and its board of directors for "breaching their fiduciary duty" as part of a contract to acquire launch services for the Project Kuiper megaconstellation.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday and first reported by the Delaware Business Court Insider, alleges that in purchasing launches for Kuiper, Amazon failed to consider SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket. This was the only prudent choice that would have enabled Amazon to launch half of its constellation by a 2026 deadline, the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs say that the Falcon 9 costs less than its competitors and has other advantages, such as being available now. Nevertheless, the lawsuit alleges, SpaceX was never considered due to an intense and personal rivalry between that launch company's founder, Elon Musk, and Bezos, who has a competing rocket company in Blue Origin.

"Given these factors, Amazon’s persistent refusal to even consider SpaceX—and the Board’s failure to question its exclusion—lays bare the extent to which Bezos’ personal rivalry influenced Amazon’s procurement process," the lawsuit states."


Pass the popcorn! As much as I hate Musk - and Bezos, for that matter - I'll bet he split a gut when he read about this.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/09/pension-fund-sues-jeff-bezos-and-amazon-for-not-using-falcon-9-rockets/

August 2025

S M T W T F S
     12
34 56789
10111213 141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Aug. 16th, 2025 07:44 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios