Soundoks Mix Review: This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF
Party speakers aren’t really my thing. It’s not that I don’t like to party—I do. Not in a “friends and family surprise you at your house for a serious talk” kind of way, but in a “mid-30s, I have sh*t to do in the morning” kind of way. Really, I just don’t like to annoy people more than I have to.
New York City isn’t known for its serenity, but it takes a certain level of decorum to get along, and party speakers, with their inherent obnoxiousness, break a very tenuous code. They’re big (not great for small living spaces), loud (not great for proximate neighbors), and expensive (not great for paying rent on time). They’re, in many ways, antithetical to what most New Yorkers (and other urban-dwelling people) look for in personal audio.
They’re also, as I learned in my experience using the 21-pound Soundboks Mix party speaker, actually a great way to make friends.
Soundboks Mix
The Soundboks Mix is a party speaker that’s loud and portable with decent sound.
Loud!
Still pretty portable despite its size
Sound is pretty good
Sound is good but not great
No way to get battery readings from the app
Underwhelming EQ options
Party speakers are pricey and so is the Soundboks Mix
This speaker goes to 11
Party speakers are first and foremost meant for parties, and the $800 Soundbox Mix is no different. Soundboks is known for its Bluetooth speakers and, in particular, for making ones that get ridiculously loud. In case you had any doubt about the loudness, the Soundboks Mix even has a volume dial on the side that goes to 11 instead of 10, Spinal Tap-style.
To test out that volume, I went to Washington Square Park in Manhattan and let loose. The Soundboks Mix is indeed loud, folks. It didn’t quake the Earth upon which we walk or anything like that, but it’s got juice. I tested the party speaker at a range of volumes playing music across different genres—mostly rock, but some electronic music and soul—and the park got an earful. I can’t say for certain, but I’m pretty sure I chased off two guys hitting a volleyball around. You heard it here first: if you hate people playing volleyball, the Soundboks Mix is a repellent.
It’s hard to quantify volume into words, but if I were to try, I would say that the Soundboks Mix is loud enough for a graduation party or a medium-sized quinceañera. It’s not going to bring down the house like a full PA, but if you’re outside within a frisbee distance of the speaker, you’re going to hear it. I also tested the Soundboks Mix briefly at full volume in my office playing Creed’s “One Last Breath,” and it was loud enough to make me feel like we could get kicked out, both for the Creed and the volume.
Maybe I’m masochistic, but I was actually expecting it to be a little louder—maybe I’m just old and have bad hearing, though. I guess it’s good that it isn’t. Permanent hearing loss isn’t high on my list of occupational hazards.
One thing you’ll be happy to know is that the Soundboks Mix isn’t just loud; it also manages to stave off distortion even at high volumes. Even at 11 out of 11, the Soundboks Mix sounded pretty clear, both from close up and from about 30 feet away. This isn’t the most impressive speaker I’ve heard in the sound department—you’re not getting Sonos outside—but for a party, where people need volume and not necessarily fidelity, it does the trick.
I played a few Steely Dan songs at 50% volume and was pleased with the soundstage. There’s a tasteful amount of low end that doesn’t drown out mids and highs. Vocals were clear, and I never felt like I was sorely lacking in any frequency range. Likewise, when I played songs like “Digital Love” by Daft Punk, the bass was present and tangible without overpowering, and auto-tuned vocals didn’t sound tinny or cheap. Using a party speaker outside isn’t the most high-fidelity way to listen to anything, but for what the experience is, I think the Soundboks Mix is pretty solid.
If you absolutely need more volume and you have the budget, you can also couple the Soundboks Mix with another Soundboks speaker and use them in pairs in stereo mode. I was only sent one speaker for review, so I didn’t get a chance to test that feature out, but I assume it kicks everything up a notch, as celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse would say.
Loudness and audio quality aren’t the only things you have to consider when you’re looking at party speaker. You also have to think about rolling joints.
Portability is friendability
If there’s one thing that party speakers aren’t known for, it’s being easy to carry around. To get loud, they have to be big—that’s literally just how physics works. But how big is too big? It’s difficult to strike a balance between giving you enough oomph to really project into a party and enough portability so that you don’t feel like you need to rent an ATV just to drag the speaker down the beach. Having carried the speaker from my office to Washington Square Park, which is about 0.3 miles according to Google Maps, I can say for certain that the experience wasn’t so bad.
There’s a built-in handle, which helps, but to be honest, it does weigh 21.4 pounds, so putting all the weight on one hand is a bit much. If you’re moving the Soundboks Mix over longer distances, I would recommend either holding it to your chest like a baby or buying one of Soundboks’ first-party straps that can hook to the speaker, allowing you to sling it over your back. Soundboks didn’t send over a strap for me to try, so I went with the baby method, which was fine, if not ideal.
Its portability also helped make me a friend, who asked me to play some music while he rolled joints. I don’t smoke weed because it makes me feel like the world is ending, but my new friend did offer to share, which was a nice gesture. His first sound request was Beyoncé’s “Me, Myself, and I,” which honestly sounded pretty good at full volume.
The whole thing was kind of heart-warming, really. It’s how I imagine people felt about boomboxes back in the day, when portable ways to play weren’t easy to come by. And I assume the experience is a lot better than it used to be from a convenience standpoint—especially because of the battery.
One cool thing about the Soundboks Mix is that it has a removable battery that you can just pull out and top up with USB-C. That also means you can hot swap it if you really need a new battery ASAP, though you’ll have to buy an extra for $150. There’s also an app for convenience, but it’s pretty barebones.
I like that you can adjust volume from the Soundboks app as well as EQ—there are presets for indoor and outdoor as well as custom EQ if you’re feeling picky. I’ll be honest, I didn’t hear a huge difference between the outdoor and indoor EQs, but according to the bars, the outdoor EQ brings down the mids just a tad, letting bass and treble take the lead.
There is,however, a way to get quick battery readings, which is just odd. Soundboks claims that the Mix gets 8 hours of battery at full volume, though it was hard to get a read since the only way to monitor battery life was to use one of the five circular light indicators on the battery itself. You have to press the button and then just go off those increments and vibes. It’s not ideal. I played the Soundboks Mix for an hour at 60% volume, and none of the five circles dropped out, so take that for what you will.
Outside of volume adjustment and EQ, you can also turn the Soundboks Mix off through the app and initiate the “TeamUp” feature to pair the Mix with other Soundboks speakers. It’s nice to be able to adjust the volume remotely, but to be honest, the built-in volume dial on the Soundboks mix feels so nice and premium (it’s metal and there’s plenty of resistance) that I didn’t want to adjust the volume any other way. Button-wise, there’s also a power button and a button for the TeamUp feature that allows you to pair speakers together. There’s also a “Bond” button that can cycle through modes when you’re using TeamUp and Bluetooth connections. Lastly, there’s a 3.5mm aux in if that’s your thing.
The Soundboks Mix keeps things pretty simple design-wise, but one nice touch is the inclusion of rubber balls on the bottom of each corner, which makes setting it down feel safe and easy. You also won’t have to worry about the Soundboks Mix getting fried in the rain, either. The speaker is IP65-rated, meaning it’s resistant to dust and water, and if you get caught in the rain, you should be fine.
Listen, $800 is a lot of money to spend on a speaker, even if it can get as loud as a chainsaw. This isn’t something that you’re going to want to use all the time, and it certainly isn’t the most versatile speaker in the world, but no party speaker really is. If you’re looking for something that gets loud, sounds good, and can be built out to get even louder and more obnoxious, the Soundboks Mix is not a bad pick. It helps that it’s still somewhat portable despite its loudness, too, so if you plan on hauling this to the beach or something, it’s not an insurmountable task.
Party speakers aren’t for everyone, but if they’re for you, then the Mix might be a great way to make friends and maybe get a little high on someone else’s supply.
Party speakers aren’t really my thing. It’s not that I don’t like to party—I do. Not in a “friends and family surprise you at your house for a serious talk” kind of way, but in a “mid-30s, I have sh*t to do in the morning” kind of way. Really, I just don’t like to annoy people more than I have to.
New York City isn’t known for its serenity, but it takes a certain level of decorum to get along, and party speakers, with their inherent obnoxiousness, break a very tenuous code. They’re big (not great for small living spaces), loud (not great for proximate neighbors), and expensive (not great for paying rent on time). They’re, in many ways, antithetical to what most New Yorkers (and other urban-dwelling people) look for in personal audio.
They’re also, as I learned in my experience using the 21-pound Soundboks Mix party speaker, actually a great way to make friends.
Soundboks Mix
The Soundboks Mix is a party speaker that’s loud and portable with decent sound.
Loud!
Still pretty portable despite its size
Sound is pretty good
Sound is good but not great
No way to get battery readings from the app
Underwhelming EQ options
Party speakers are pricey and so is the Soundboks Mix
This speaker goes to 11
Party speakers are first and foremost meant for parties, and the $800 Soundbox Mix is no different. Soundboks is known for its Bluetooth speakers and, in particular, for making ones that get ridiculously loud. In case you had any doubt about the loudness, the Soundboks Mix even has a volume dial on the side that goes to 11 instead of 10, Spinal Tap-style.
To test out that volume, I went to Washington Square Park in Manhattan and let loose. The Soundboks Mix is indeed loud, folks. It didn’t quake the Earth upon which we walk or anything like that, but it’s got juice. I tested the party speaker at a range of volumes playing music across different genres—mostly rock, but some electronic music and soul—and the park got an earful. I can’t say for certain, but I’m pretty sure I chased off two guys hitting a volleyball around. You heard it here first: if you hate people playing volleyball, the Soundboks Mix is a repellent.
It’s hard to quantify volume into words, but if I were to try, I would say that the Soundboks Mix is loud enough for a graduation party or a medium-sized quinceañera. It’s not going to bring down the house like a full PA, but if you’re outside within a frisbee distance of the speaker, you’re going to hear it. I also tested the Soundboks Mix briefly at full volume in my office playing Creed’s “One Last Breath,” and it was loud enough to make me feel like we could get kicked out, both for the Creed and the volume.
Maybe I’m masochistic, but I was actually expecting it to be a little louder—maybe I’m just old and have bad hearing, though. I guess it’s good that it isn’t. Permanent hearing loss isn’t high on my list of occupational hazards.
One thing you’ll be happy to know is that the Soundboks Mix isn’t just loud; it also manages to stave off distortion even at high volumes. Even at 11 out of 11, the Soundboks Mix sounded pretty clear, both from close up and from about 30 feet away. This isn’t the most impressive speaker I’ve heard in the sound department—you’re not getting Sonos outside—but for a party, where people need volume and not necessarily fidelity, it does the trick.
I played a few Steely Dan songs at 50% volume and was pleased with the soundstage. There’s a tasteful amount of low end that doesn’t drown out mids and highs. Vocals were clear, and I never felt like I was sorely lacking in any frequency range. Likewise, when I played songs like “Digital Love” by Daft Punk, the bass was present and tangible without overpowering, and auto-tuned vocals didn’t sound tinny or cheap. Using a party speaker outside isn’t the most high-fidelity way to listen to anything, but for what the experience is, I think the Soundboks Mix is pretty solid.
If you absolutely need more volume and you have the budget, you can also couple the Soundboks Mix with another Soundboks speaker and use them in pairs in stereo mode. I was only sent one speaker for review, so I didn’t get a chance to test that feature out, but I assume it kicks everything up a notch, as celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse would say.
Loudness and audio quality aren’t the only things you have to consider when you’re looking at party speaker. You also have to think about rolling joints.
Portability is friendability
If there’s one thing that party speakers aren’t known for, it’s being easy to carry around. To get loud, they have to be big—that’s literally just how physics works. But how big is too big? It’s difficult to strike a balance between giving you enough oomph to really project into a party and enough portability so that you don’t feel like you need to rent an ATV just to drag the speaker down the beach. Having carried the speaker from my office to Washington Square Park, which is about 0.3 miles according to Google Maps, I can say for certain that the experience wasn’t so bad.
There’s a built-in handle, which helps, but to be honest, it does weigh 21.4 pounds, so putting all the weight on one hand is a bit much. If you’re moving the Soundboks Mix over longer distances, I would recommend either holding it to your chest like a baby or buying one of Soundboks’ first-party straps that can hook to the speaker, allowing you to sling it over your back. Soundboks didn’t send over a strap for me to try, so I went with the baby method, which was fine, if not ideal.
Its portability also helped make me a friend, who asked me to play some music while he rolled joints. I don’t smoke weed because it makes me feel like the world is ending, but my new friend did offer to share, which was a nice gesture. His first sound request was Beyoncé’s “Me, Myself, and I,” which honestly sounded pretty good at full volume.
The whole thing was kind of heart-warming, really. It’s how I imagine people felt about boomboxes back in the day, when portable ways to play weren’t easy to come by. And I assume the experience is a lot better than it used to be from a convenience standpoint—especially because of the battery.
One cool thing about the Soundboks Mix is that it has a removable battery that you can just pull out and top up with USB-C. That also means you can hot swap it if you really need a new battery ASAP, though you’ll have to buy an extra for $150. There’s also an app for convenience, but it’s pretty barebones.
I like that you can adjust volume from the Soundboks app as well as EQ—there are presets for indoor and outdoor as well as custom EQ if you’re feeling picky. I’ll be honest, I didn’t hear a huge difference between the outdoor and indoor EQs, but according to the bars, the outdoor EQ brings down the mids just a tad, letting bass and treble take the lead.
There is,however, a way to get quick battery readings, which is just odd. Soundboks claims that the Mix gets 8 hours of battery at full volume, though it was hard to get a read since the only way to monitor battery life was to use one of the five circular light indicators on the battery itself. You have to press the button and then just go off those increments and vibes. It’s not ideal. I played the Soundboks Mix for an hour at 60% volume, and none of the five circles dropped out, so take that for what you will.
Outside of volume adjustment and EQ, you can also turn the Soundboks Mix off through the app and initiate the “TeamUp” feature to pair the Mix with other Soundboks speakers. It’s nice to be able to adjust the volume remotely, but to be honest, the built-in volume dial on the Soundboks mix feels so nice and premium (it’s metal and there’s plenty of resistance) that I didn’t want to adjust the volume any other way. Button-wise, there’s also a power button and a button for the TeamUp feature that allows you to pair speakers together. There’s also a “Bond” button that can cycle through modes when you’re using TeamUp and Bluetooth connections. Lastly, there’s a 3.5mm aux in if that’s your thing.
The Soundboks Mix keeps things pretty simple design-wise, but one nice touch is the inclusion of rubber balls on the bottom of each corner, which makes setting it down feel safe and easy. You also won’t have to worry about the Soundboks Mix getting fried in the rain, either. The speaker is IP65-rated, meaning it’s resistant to dust and water, and if you get caught in the rain, you should be fine.
Listen, $800 is a lot of money to spend on a speaker, even if it can get as loud as a chainsaw. This isn’t something that you’re going to want to use all the time, and it certainly isn’t the most versatile speaker in the world, but no party speaker really is. If you’re looking for something that gets loud, sounds good, and can be built out to get even louder and more obnoxious, the Soundboks Mix is not a bad pick. It helps that it’s still somewhat portable despite its loudness, too, so if you plan on hauling this to the beach or something, it’s not an insurmountable task.
Party speakers aren’t for everyone, but if they’re for you, then the Mix might be a great way to make friends and maybe get a little high on someone else’s supply.
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#Soundoks #Mix #Review #LoudAss #Party #Speaker #High
Most people don’t like billionaire Elon Musk. According to the latest polling, 53% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the billionaire, while just 39% hold a favorable view. The Economist pointed out this fact in an absolutely wild sit-down interview last week that went viral. Musk appeared defensive and desperate to prove people actually love him, pointing to his large follower count on X, the social media site he controls.
The hate for Musk probably has something to do with his destruction of USAID, his steady stream of racist tweets, and his refusal to accept responsibility for the people who died as a result of his actions in government. And who can forget those two Nazi-style salutes he gave in public? The hate is also likely related to his attitude about charity. Musk has argued that his private businesses are a form of charitable giving and that billionaires like himself shouldn’t bother giving money away.
Why does Musk not believe in charity? Recently, he’s started to insist that it’s because people won’t actually need money in the future.
“Money won’t matter in 2036,” Musk insisted in an interview with the editor-in-chief of the Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Beddoes laughed off Musk’s assertion, pointing out that SpaceX investors probably believe that money will still matter in ten years. But Musk claims that AI will exceed human intelligence in five years and humans will no longer be in charge of the world by 2036. And at that point, he claims a techno-utopian society will emerge where no one will need money because robots will do all the labor and produce a world of abundance.
It’s absurd, of course. Labor-saving technologies are great, but they don’t change how a political or economic system is set up. If you want to pay people to stay at home, you could do that today in some fashion through government actions. There would be massive trade-offs, especially if the promise was a leisure society of little or no work. But it’s a political problem, not a technological one. And Musk proved through his actions with DOGE that he loathes people who he believes don’t work for the money they’re given. He was constantly complaining about people who he believed were getting government money without contributing through labor. The only thing that’s changed is that he’s selling you on the idea that his robots will do everything.
Musk has been crashing out for days over criticism about what he said in that interview last week. He promoted blog posts from his fanboys, he referred to chef José Andrés as an asshole; he said liberal commentator Joy Reid is a man and suggested she must be getting talking points from some unseen entity; and he called the Economist editor a “traitor to the west” and implied with an image that she should be shot.
All of which brings us to his tweet on Monday where he was asked to put his money where his mouth is. Daron Acemoğlu, a professor at MIT and 2024 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics, suggested that Musk pledge to donate about all of his current wealth, about $1 trillion, to charity no later than 2036.
“This would establish with great credibility your belief in the powers of AI and technology,” wrote Acemoğlu. “It would also assuage many people around the world who are worried about the political and social influence of billionaires and trillionaires.”
Acemoğlu added that the charities should be “approved as effective and non-ideological by an impartial body.”
A proposed pledge for Elon Musk. An opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. If money won’t matter in 2036, why don’t you pledge to donate your current wealth of approximately $1 trillion to charity no later than 2036. This would establish with great credibility your…
Musk responded to the tweet by claiming, “I am actually going to do something along these lines!” It’s unclear what that means exactly. But if Musk actually plans to give away all his wealth, that would indeed be noteworthy. Consider us skeptical.
Musk has given money to his own foundation over the years, but the Musk Foundation is little more than a joke. Filings show the Musk Foundation gave out $474 million in 2024 but the vast majority of that went to a nonprofit that operates a school for his employees in Texas, according to the New York Times. If your charitable giving is just something that benefits your business, it’s not really charity.
The most interesting question might be how much money Musk could donate in order to see his approval ratings improve. Would society look at him differently if he actually donated substantial sums to charity? It’s entirely possible that his reputation is so incurably radioactive that his polling numbers wouldn’t budge. But you have to believe that giving away every penny he holds would do something for his likability.
Unfortunately, it seems like we’ll never get to see this experiment play out in real life. Musk could give away hundreds of billions of dollars and he would still have more money than entire countries. And we’ve already seen what he spends his money on.
Musk is currently worth about $715 billion, according to Forbes, well off the $1.4 trillion peak he saw shortly after the SpaceX IPO. And if he’s serious about giving away billions of dollars, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it all depends on where the money goes. He spent almost $300 million to help elected Republicans and Donald Trump in 2024. And if we had to bet, this guy isn’t going to give away money to orphans, widows, and starving people.
The head of the UN world food program asked Musk to donate $6.6 billion to feed hungry people in 2021. Musk declined and instead gave money to his own foundation. Whatever he’s cooking up, it’s not going to benefit the poor and the vulnerable.
Most people don’t like billionaire Elon Musk. According to the latest polling, 53% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the billionaire, while just 39% hold a favorable view. The Economist pointed out this fact in an absolutely wild sit-down interview last week that went viral. Musk appeared defensive and desperate to prove people actually love him, pointing to his large follower count on X, the social media site he controls.
The hate for Musk probably has something to do with his destruction of USAID, his steady stream of racist tweets, and his refusal to accept responsibility for the people who died as a result of his actions in government. And who can forget those two Nazi-style salutes he gave in public? The hate is also likely related to his attitude about charity. Musk has argued that his private businesses are a form of charitable giving and that billionaires like himself shouldn’t bother giving money away.
Why does Musk not believe in charity? Recently, he’s started to insist that it’s because people won’t actually need money in the future.
“Money won’t matter in 2036,” Musk insisted in an interview with the editor-in-chief of the Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Beddoes laughed off Musk’s assertion, pointing out that SpaceX investors probably believe that money will still matter in ten years. But Musk claims that AI will exceed human intelligence in five years and humans will no longer be in charge of the world by 2036. And at that point, he claims a techno-utopian society will emerge where no one will need money because robots will do all the labor and produce a world of abundance.
It’s absurd, of course. Labor-saving technologies are great, but they don’t change how a political or economic system is set up. If you want to pay people to stay at home, you could do that today in some fashion through government actions. There would be massive trade-offs, especially if the promise was a leisure society of little or no work. But it’s a political problem, not a technological one. And Musk proved through his actions with DOGE that he loathes people who he believes don’t work for the money they’re given. He was constantly complaining about people who he believed were getting government money without contributing through labor. The only thing that’s changed is that he’s selling you on the idea that his robots will do everything.
Musk has been crashing out for days over criticism about what he said in that interview last week. He promoted blog posts from his fanboys, he referred to chef José Andrés as an asshole; he said liberal commentator Joy Reid is a man and suggested she must be getting talking points from some unseen entity; and he called the Economist editor a “traitor to the west” and implied with an image that she should be shot.
All of which brings us to his tweet on Monday where he was asked to put his money where his mouth is. Daron Acemoğlu, a professor at MIT and 2024 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics, suggested that Musk pledge to donate about all of his current wealth, about $1 trillion, to charity no later than 2036.
“This would establish with great credibility your belief in the powers of AI and technology,” wrote Acemoğlu. “It would also assuage many people around the world who are worried about the political and social influence of billionaires and trillionaires.”
Acemoğlu added that the charities should be “approved as effective and non-ideological by an impartial body.”
A proposed pledge for Elon Musk. An opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. If money won’t matter in 2036, why don’t you pledge to donate your current wealth of approximately $1 trillion to charity no later than 2036. This would establish with great credibility your…
Musk responded to the tweet by claiming, “I am actually going to do something along these lines!” It’s unclear what that means exactly. But if Musk actually plans to give away all his wealth, that would indeed be noteworthy. Consider us skeptical.
Musk has given money to his own foundation over the years, but the Musk Foundation is little more than a joke. Filings show the Musk Foundation gave out $474 million in 2024 but the vast majority of that went to a nonprofit that operates a school for his employees in Texas, according to the New York Times. If your charitable giving is just something that benefits your business, it’s not really charity.
The most interesting question might be how much money Musk could donate in order to see his approval ratings improve. Would society look at him differently if he actually donated substantial sums to charity? It’s entirely possible that his reputation is so incurably radioactive that his polling numbers wouldn’t budge. But you have to believe that giving away every penny he holds would do something for his likability.
Unfortunately, it seems like we’ll never get to see this experiment play out in real life. Musk could give away hundreds of billions of dollars and he would still have more money than entire countries. And we’ve already seen what he spends his money on.
Musk is currently worth about $715 billion, according to Forbes, well off the $1.4 trillion peak he saw shortly after the SpaceX IPO. And if he’s serious about giving away billions of dollars, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it all depends on where the money goes. He spent almost $300 million to help elected Republicans and Donald Trump in 2024. And if we had to bet, this guy isn’t going to give away money to orphans, widows, and starving people.
The head of the UN world food program asked Musk to donate $6.6 billion to feed hungry people in 2021. Musk declined and instead gave money to his own foundation. Whatever he’s cooking up, it’s not going to benefit the poor and the vulnerable.
#Charity #People #Elon #Muskcharity,Elon Musk">How Much Charity Would It Take for People to Like Elon Musk?
Most people don’t like billionaire Elon Musk. According to the latest polling, 53% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the billionaire, while just 39% hold a favorable view. The Economist pointed out this fact in an absolutely wild sit-down interview last week that went viral. Musk appeared defensive and desperate to prove people actually love him, pointing to his large follower count on X, the social media site he controls.
The hate for Musk probably has something to do with his destruction of USAID, his steady stream of racist tweets, and his refusal to accept responsibility for the people who died as a result of his actions in government. And who can forget those two Nazi-style salutes he gave in public? The hate is also likely related to his attitude about charity. Musk has argued that his private businesses are a form of charitable giving and that billionaires like himself shouldn’t bother giving money away.
Why does Musk not believe in charity? Recently, he’s started to insist that it’s because people won’t actually need money in the future.
“Money won’t matter in 2036,” Musk insisted in an interview with the editor-in-chief of the Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Beddoes laughed off Musk’s assertion, pointing out that SpaceX investors probably believe that money will still matter in ten years. But Musk claims that AI will exceed human intelligence in five years and humans will no longer be in charge of the world by 2036. And at that point, he claims a techno-utopian society will emerge where no one will need money because robots will do all the labor and produce a world of abundance.
It’s absurd, of course. Labor-saving technologies are great, but they don’t change how a political or economic system is set up. If you want to pay people to stay at home, you could do that today in some fashion through government actions. There would be massive trade-offs, especially if the promise was a leisure society of little or no work. But it’s a political problem, not a technological one. And Musk proved through his actions with DOGE that he loathes people who he believes don’t work for the money they’re given. He was constantly complaining about people who he believed were getting government money without contributing through labor. The only thing that’s changed is that he’s selling you on the idea that his robots will do everything.
Musk has been crashing out for days over criticism about what he said in that interview last week. He promoted blog posts from his fanboys, he referred to chef José Andrés as an asshole; he said liberal commentator Joy Reid is a man and suggested she must be getting talking points from some unseen entity; and he called the Economist editor a “traitor to the west” and implied with an image that she should be shot.
All of which brings us to his tweet on Monday where he was asked to put his money where his mouth is. Daron Acemoğlu, a professor at MIT and 2024 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics, suggested that Musk pledge to donate about all of his current wealth, about $1 trillion, to charity no later than 2036.
“This would establish with great credibility your belief in the powers of AI and technology,” wrote Acemoğlu. “It would also assuage many people around the world who are worried about the political and social influence of billionaires and trillionaires.”
Acemoğlu added that the charities should be “approved as effective and non-ideological by an impartial body.”
A proposed pledge for Elon Musk. An opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. If money won’t matter in 2036, why don’t you pledge to donate your current wealth of approximately $1 trillion to charity no later than 2036. This would establish with great credibility your…
Musk responded to the tweet by claiming, “I am actually going to do something along these lines!” It’s unclear what that means exactly. But if Musk actually plans to give away all his wealth, that would indeed be noteworthy. Consider us skeptical.
Musk has given money to his own foundation over the years, but the Musk Foundation is little more than a joke. Filings show the Musk Foundation gave out $474 million in 2024 but the vast majority of that went to a nonprofit that operates a school for his employees in Texas, according to the New York Times. If your charitable giving is just something that benefits your business, it’s not really charity.
The most interesting question might be how much money Musk could donate in order to see his approval ratings improve. Would society look at him differently if he actually donated substantial sums to charity? It’s entirely possible that his reputation is so incurably radioactive that his polling numbers wouldn’t budge. But you have to believe that giving away every penny he holds would do something for his likability.
Unfortunately, it seems like we’ll never get to see this experiment play out in real life. Musk could give away hundreds of billions of dollars and he would still have more money than entire countries. And we’ve already seen what he spends his money on.
Musk is currently worth about $715 billion, according to Forbes, well off the $1.4 trillion peak he saw shortly after the SpaceX IPO. And if he’s serious about giving away billions of dollars, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it all depends on where the money goes. He spent almost $300 million to help elected Republicans and Donald Trump in 2024. And if we had to bet, this guy isn’t going to give away money to orphans, widows, and starving people.
The head of the UN world food program asked Musk to donate $6.6 billion to feed hungry people in 2021. Musk declined and instead gave money to his own foundation. Whatever he’s cooking up, it’s not going to benefit the poor and the vulnerable.
Tang and Charlie Jacobsma, the Shedd’s director of animal behavior and training, accompanied beluga whales Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra on the journey from their Niagara Falls enclosures to Toronto’s Pearson Airport and to Chicago. Two additional belugas joined the flight on a chartered Boeing 777 freighter but were then transported to an aquarium in San Antonio.
The whales had been living in Marineland of Niagara Falls, a notorious, long-running aquarium and amusement park that went bankrupt after the death of its owners and closed to the public in 2024. As it ran out of money to care for the animals, the park had previously implored the Canadian government for assistance. In 2025, Marineland announced that it had made the “devastating decision” to consider euthanasia if it could not relocate the animals.
Workers at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium use a sling to move a beluga whale.
Photograph: Reuters
At that point, the wider aquarium and marine biology world was already discussing what could be done; by January 2026, members of the rescue team were flying to Ontario to assess how they’d transport the belugas. In June, Canada reached an agreement with Marineland to allow this rehoming process, in which animals may go to a consortium of aquariums in Georgia, San Diego, and Spain, in addition to the whales already transferred to Chicago and Texas institutions. It was an unprecedented mission. “People have moved belugas before,” Tang says. “But something of this scale had not been done.”
It all went about as smoothly as moving thousand-plus-pound water-dwelling mammals hundreds of miles could have gone: “Beautiful, nice, slow takeoff and a nice easy landing,” Jacobsma tells WIRED. The team was able to stay close to the whales, constantly monitoring them and “pouring water on their backs, making sure that they were comfortable.”
A few days after the transport, on a sunny Friday afternoon, visitors to the Shedd’s Oceanarium section are greeted with signs asking for quiet. “Please keep voices low,” they read. “Help the rescued belugas acclimate to their new home.” WIRED peeked into a secluded habitat, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by veterinarians and other marine life experts, where Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra are currently being kept out of sight of the public so their new stewards can focus on settling them into their new home.
Tang and Charlie Jacobsma, the Shedd’s director of animal behavior and training, accompanied beluga whales Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra on the journey from their Niagara Falls enclosures to Toronto’s Pearson Airport and to Chicago. Two additional belugas joined the flight on a chartered Boeing 777 freighter but were then transported to an aquarium in San Antonio.
The whales had been living in Marineland of Niagara Falls, a notorious, long-running aquarium and amusement park that went bankrupt after the death of its owners and closed to the public in 2024. As it ran out of money to care for the animals, the park had previously implored the Canadian government for assistance. In 2025, Marineland announced that it had made the “devastating decision” to consider euthanasia if it could not relocate the animals.
Workers at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium use a sling to move a beluga whale.
Photograph: Reuters
At that point, the wider aquarium and marine biology world was already discussing what could be done; by January 2026, members of the rescue team were flying to Ontario to assess how they’d transport the belugas. In June, Canada reached an agreement with Marineland to allow this rehoming process, in which animals may go to a consortium of aquariums in Georgia, San Diego, and Spain, in addition to the whales already transferred to Chicago and Texas institutions. It was an unprecedented mission. “People have moved belugas before,” Tang says. “But something of this scale had not been done.”
It all went about as smoothly as moving thousand-plus-pound water-dwelling mammals hundreds of miles could have gone: “Beautiful, nice, slow takeoff and a nice easy landing,” Jacobsma tells WIRED. The team was able to stay close to the whales, constantly monitoring them and “pouring water on their backs, making sure that they were comfortable.”
A few days after the transport, on a sunny Friday afternoon, visitors to the Shedd’s Oceanarium section are greeted with signs asking for quiet. “Please keep voices low,” they read. “Help the rescued belugas acclimate to their new home.” WIRED peeked into a secluded habitat, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by veterinarians and other marine life experts, where Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra are currently being kept out of sight of the public so their new stewards can focus on settling them into their new home.
#Wild #Rescue #Mission #Beluga #Whales #Chicagoanimal behavior,biology,animals,zoos,marine science,science,whales,chicago,canada">Inside the Wild Rescue Mission That Took 4 Beluga Whales to Chicago
One of the most crucial parts of pulling off an unprecedented international plane ride for four beluga whales is making sure they don’t even realize that they’re on a trip. “The goal is that they notice as little as possible,” says Karisa Tang, the lead veterinarian and vice president of animal health at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.
Tang and Charlie Jacobsma, the Shedd’s director of animal behavior and training, accompanied beluga whales Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra on the journey from their Niagara Falls enclosures to Toronto’s Pearson Airport and to Chicago. Two additional belugas joined the flight on a chartered Boeing 777 freighter but were then transported to an aquarium in San Antonio.
The whales had been living in Marineland of Niagara Falls, a notorious, long-running aquarium and amusement park that went bankrupt after the death of its owners and closed to the public in 2024. As it ran out of money to care for the animals, the park had previously implored the Canadian government for assistance. In 2025, Marineland announced that it had made the “devastating decision” to consider euthanasia if it could not relocate the animals.
Workers at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium use a sling to move a beluga whale.
Photograph: Reuters
At that point, the wider aquarium and marine biology world was already discussing what could be done; by January 2026, members of the rescue team were flying to Ontario to assess how they’d transport the belugas. In June, Canada reached an agreement with Marineland to allow this rehoming process, in which animals may go to a consortium of aquariums in Georgia, San Diego, and Spain, in addition to the whales already transferred to Chicago and Texas institutions. It was an unprecedented mission. “People have moved belugas before,” Tang says. “But something of this scale had not been done.”
It all went about as smoothly as moving thousand-plus-pound water-dwelling mammals hundreds of miles could have gone: “Beautiful, nice, slow takeoff and a nice easy landing,” Jacobsma tells WIRED. The team was able to stay close to the whales, constantly monitoring them and “pouring water on their backs, making sure that they were comfortable.”
A few days after the transport, on a sunny Friday afternoon, visitors to the Shedd’s Oceanarium section are greeted with signs asking for quiet. “Please keep voices low,” they read. “Help the rescued belugas acclimate to their new home.” WIRED peeked into a secluded habitat, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by veterinarians and other marine life experts, where Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra are currently being kept out of sight of the public so their new stewards can focus on settling them into their new home.
Pushing a heavy lawn mower through thick grass in the peak of summer heat is nobody’s idea of a good weekend. If you’ve been waiting for a reason to hand off your yard chores to a robot, now’s the time to pull out your wallet.
Amazon’s running a limited-time deal (you have about 14 hours left) on the Ecovacs Goat A3000 LiDAR Pro robotic lawn mower. Right now, you can get it for $1,849 at Amazon, down from $2,499.99. That’s a 26% discount or $650.99 in savings.
Mashable Trend Report
Unlike older robotic mowers that require you to bury perimeter wires around your property, the Goat A3000 uses wire-free HoloScope 360 Dual-LiDAR navigation and an AI camera. It automatically maps yards up to 3/4 acre and maintains positioning accuracy within less than an inch, even under dense tree cover or along shaded fences.
It also features a built-in TruEdge trimmer to clean up borders along driveways and garden beds, a 32V power system designed for thick grass types like Bermuda or St. Augustine, and a 7,500 mAh battery that recharges in 70 minutes.
Pushing a heavy lawn mower through thick grass in the peak of summer heat is nobody’s idea of a good weekend. If you’ve been waiting for a reason to hand off your yard chores to a robot, now’s the time to pull out your wallet.
Amazon’s running a limited-time deal (you have about 14 hours left) on the Ecovacs Goat A3000 LiDAR Pro robotic lawn mower. Right now, you can get it for $1,849 at Amazon, down from $2,499.99. That’s a 26% discount or $650.99 in savings.
Mashable Trend Report
Unlike older robotic mowers that require you to bury perimeter wires around your property, the Goat A3000 uses wire-free HoloScope 360 Dual-LiDAR navigation and an AI camera. It automatically maps yards up to 3/4 acre and maintains positioning accuracy within less than an inch, even under dense tree cover or along shaded fences.
It also features a built-in TruEdge trimmer to clean up borders along driveways and garden beds, a 32V power system designed for thick grass types like Bermuda or St. Augustine, and a 7,500 mAh battery that recharges in 70 minutes.
SAVE 26%: As of July 27, you can get the Ecovacs Goat A3000 LiDAR Pro robotic lawn mower for $1,849 at Amazon, down from $2,499.99. That’s a 26% discount or $650.99 in savings.
$1,849 at Amazon $2,499.99 Save $650.99
Pushing a heavy lawn mower through thick grass in the peak of summer heat is nobody’s idea of a good weekend. If you’ve been waiting for a reason to hand off your yard chores to a robot, now’s the time to pull out your wallet.
Amazon’s running a limited-time deal (you have about 14 hours left) on the Ecovacs Goat A3000 LiDAR Pro robotic lawn mower. Right now, you can get it for $1,849 at Amazon, down from $2,499.99. That’s a 26% discount or $650.99 in savings.
Mashable Trend Report
Unlike older robotic mowers that require you to bury perimeter wires around your property, the Goat A3000 uses wire-free HoloScope 360 Dual-LiDAR navigation and an AI camera. It automatically maps yards up to 3/4 acre and maintains positioning accuracy within less than an inch, even under dense tree cover or along shaded fences.
It also features a built-in TruEdge trimmer to clean up borders along driveways and garden beds, a 32V power system designed for thick grass types like Bermuda or St. Augustine, and a 7,500 mAh battery that recharges in 70 minutes.
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