Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - June 9th
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This planned IPO for SpaceX is so bizarre. Wealthy investors and the investment banking firms are losing their minds about it. It's so valuable! Elon is letting us in on his world! ... IMHO, It is a silly amount of hype!
For the average investor, there's nothing to see here. We can't feed at this trough (though he sure likes to tell us we can).
As we look at it, "going public" via an IPO doesn't feel quite right. It would seem that any rules the SEC has, and applicable laws in place, are being bent or outright abused.
He's selling a small percentage of shares, and will keep the rest for himself.
He has stated that he will still "own the company," and there is no immediate plan to establish a board of directors. So in most ways this is a fundraiser, and not technically making his company publicly traded.
And then there's this "plan to merge SpaceX and Tesla" as one company. He is the CEO of Tesla - not a single owner. He would have to get board and then shareholder approval for such a move (and he may follow that rule in the long run), but it's weird that he just says it's what he wants to do - without proper filings and whatnot. And without a board or significant shareholders in SpaceX, how would this be done? It will be publicly traded and would have to go through some disclosure and due diligence process ... I would think?
And this is where things get a little more complicated. By announcing his merger of the two companies, he is allowing for individual investors to take part, by buying Tesla stock. Which sure feels like he's manipulating the market to his advantage, doesn't it?
And honestly, in a more normal world where he wasn't a defacto part of government, this would probably get flagged and not be allowed. Yet, here we are.
Oh and there's the small matter of the company valuation. He pegged a number, and what has come back since is less than half that value. Which again feels fishy in a way. "Hey investors, you're getting a bargain."
And finally, it would seem from what he's revealed, that SpaceX is probably doing no better than breaking even on their space ventures (that's an expensive endeavor!). Rideshares to space and starlink are income, but it seems just enough to keep the company afloat... Whether that has value to investors remains to be seen.
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Europe and Asia continue to lead in finding alternative fuel sources. Here’s a story about a tokamak that is being tested.
A tokamak is an experimental device that uses powerful magnetic fields to confine a superheated plasma in the shape of a donut (torus). It is the leading design for harnessing nuclear fusion—the process that powers the sun—to create clean, limitless, and on-demand energy on Earth.
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This is the story of fallout from sweeping changes by this administration. However it’s framed, Delmonte closed a packing plant, laid off workers, and now the effects are being felt by the growers who supplied produce.
And of course, we’ll feel it at the grocery stores when we are unable to get fresh produce.
FAFO indeed.
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I noted on a previous post that nasa was using a laser to send compressed data back to earth. It had less lag than a traditional radio broadcast (as we used in Apollo), and contained way more data in the stream. They were able to broadcast near HD video from the spacecraft.
Here are some additional details on how this worked, and what they learned.
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Denovia, a company based in Canada, has come up with a compound that more efficiently breaks down plastics at lower temperatures, meaning that plastic waste can be recycled at scale.
There’s more to be done, but it’s a step in a better direction.
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Here’s another step forward in the development of solar cells. Thin, transparent cells that can cover a surface and still be clear enough to see through is an intriguing use case.
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Bonus: The professional football corporate branded stadium in south Florida will be rebranded as "Miami Stadium" for the World Cup (along with all the other stadia with corporate branded names. So they’ll be Dallas Stadium, Atlanta stadium, New York / New Jersey stadium, etc during the World Cup).
Personally, I think we should eschew the corporate names, and keep calling the stadiums by city names, by a founding name (like in Miami calling it Joe Robbie stadium), or for the team that plays there (like cowboys stadium).
The corporations aren’t paying me, so I have no reason to refer to them by whatever name they put on it.
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