SpaceX Elon Musk Transporting people to Mars within 10 years

Entrepreneur and inventor Elon Musk has some travel suggestions that are out of this world.

The SpaceX CEO known as the brains behind the Tesla electric car says he wants to take humans to Mars during the next decade.

Speaking to CNBC this week, the South African-born billionaire said that his main goal at this moment is to perfect technology that would make space travel possible in the not-so-distant future.

In less than 12 years' time, he said, Musk wants to make the red planet a must-stop travel destination for interstellar tourists. Soon after, though, he hopes that Earth's neighbor will be able to host humans for the long haul.

"I'm hopeful that the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years, I think it's certainly possible for that to occur," he said during an interview on CNBC'S "Closing Bell" on Tuesday.

"But the thing that matters long term is to have a self-sustaining city on Mars, to make life multi-planetary."

Another long term issue, Musk added, is raising the capital that's required to make both visiting and inhabiting Mars an obtainable goal.

He told CNBC that the 10-year plan he's aiming for is already too long-term to attract hedge fund managers willing to invest, but at this rate that could soon change.

"We need to get where things are steady and predictable," Musk added. "Maybe we're close to developing the Mars vehicle, or ideally we've flown it a few times, then I think going public would make more sense."

For now, Musk has set his sights on some goals that are a little easier to obtain. Namely, he told CNBC that he thinks an achievement more within reach would be the development of an electric car battery affordable enough to fully revolutionize the automobile industry.

"I am feeling really good about being able to produce a compelling mass-market car in about three years," said Musk, but first he hopes to find a way to sell a battery for one of those vehicles for under $5,000.

Previously, Musk told Wired magazine back in 2012 that he's been dreaming for a decade of a way to put a man on Mars, but the price-tag has proven to be problematic, to say the least.

"Since 1989, when a study estimated that a manned mission would cost $500 billion, the subject has been toxic. Politicians didn't want a high-priced federal program like that to be used as a political weapon against them," Musk told Wired at the time.

"But the United States is a nation of explorers. America is the spirit of human exploration distilled."

Musk made Elon Musk plans to take people to Mars within 10 yearss earlier this week when his electric car company, Tesla, announced it won't pursue patent lawsuits against any competing automobile makers that want to works off its patents.

"The mission of the company is to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric cars. If Tesla acts as the catalyst for other manufacturers...that will have been achieved,"Tesla spokesperson Simon Sproule told reporters.

Flying People in New York City - YouTube

Three people were spotted flying around the skies of lower Manhattan last Friday, causing dropped jaws from onlookers.

But while it appeared to be flying "death eaters" of  the "Harry Potter" series, it actually turned out to be a clever piece of viral marketing for this week's upcoming film "Chronicle."

In an interview to yahoo! James Percelay, the co-founder of Thinkmodo said he and his partner Michael Krivicka were approached by 20th Century Fox, the studio behind "Chronicle," and they came out with a plan for the viral video.

Those aren't people in the air, but some very intricately designed radio-controlled airplanes. Percelay has not disclosed who exactly was piloting the planes in the video. He only said: "They are expert AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) members with amazing skills."

The Moon Belongs to the People of Earth, the Bold or no-one?

LAST week, NASA crashed its Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into the moon's south pole, in a bid to discover reserves of water and other resources.

This was the latest in a veritable flurry of moon missions: between 2007 and 2011 there will have been eight: one from Japan, two from China, one from India, one from Russia and three from the US.

The race back to the moon has been prompted by the realisation that exploiting it may now be within reach. And it poses the question: who gets to use the moon's recoverable resources, such as oxygen or water?

This could be resolved through negotiation, as space scientists happily lodging their instruments in foreign spacecraft hope. But the Lunar Treaty drafted by the United Nations in the 1990s has still not been signed by the space powers. Since this leaves the moon unprotected by law - the ultimate terra nullius - we may now see a scramble for territory.

The UN's Lunar Treaty is still unsigned by the space powers, leaving the moon unprotected by law
History shows that the first step is colonisation and - the pressing issue - staking a claim. Thanks to the explorers Amundsen, Scott and the early sealers, the UK and Norway now claim about one-sixth of Antarctica each. So we may be witnessing a slow-motion reworking of the Antarctica story in which lunar exploration lays the ground for claims.

We are already witnessing the same mix of challenge, bravado, inquiry and national enthusiasm, suffused with dreams of empire and wealth that spurred the Antarctic race. Plus, there's fear. "Whoever first conquers the moon will benefit first," as Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's moon exploration programme, once told the BBC.

This potent cocktail can be used by scientists to win support for bigger, more aggressive national programmes. It is a long, expensive game but that never prevented it from being played out in the Antarctic for almost a century, and there are potential rewards to match.

When I put these ideas to David Parker, head of space science and exploration at the British National Space Centre, he called them Machiavellian. Perhaps he should recall that Machiavelli's Prince is the ultimate guide to realpolitik.

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When a Parent's Love Comes With Conditions - NYTimes.com

Mind - When a Parent's Love Comes With Conditions - NYTimes.com

Jo Frost of 'Supernanny,' in her book of the same name (Hyperion, 2005), says, 'The best rewards are attention, praise and love,' and these should be held back 'when the child behaves badly until she says she is sorry,' at which point the love is turned back on.

Conditional parenting isn't limited to old-school authoritarians. Some people who wouldn't dream of spanking choose instead to discipline their young children by forcibly isolating them, a tactic we prefer to call 'time out.' Conversely,' positive reinforcement' teaches children that they are loved, and lovable, only when they do whatever we decide is a 'good job.'

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