Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rogain
"Up to" being the legal loophole. It means it can actually be less effective than a placebo.
Also, what's 4 x zero
Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
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Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#72Things like this are what happen when you get someone who knows how to make things happen, but also has the intelligence training and experience of a senior engineer.
Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#73Why announce the publication date in advance? It's not like he needs to disrupt anyone else's futuristic transport plan announcement.
There was that recent PR article that made the rounds here last week from some company allegedly developing an evacuated tube based system that was written in a way to imply they were working on Musk's idea. I would not at all be surprised if he's a little miffed about that and has decided to just get everything out there. Given that they may not actually be working on what he specifically has in mind, there is a ris…
is this the company you are referring to?
http://www.et3.com/
Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#74I'm always surprised that more billionaires don't try interesting off the wall projects when they have so much money. What's the fun of having it, if you can't have the occasional mad scientist moment.
I'm more surprised that more billionaires don't build crazy monuments of themselves or just some crazy ones with their name on it.
You mean like Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Ahyan:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016841/Al-Futaysi-i...
Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#75I think I know what it could be, comments? An electric hovercraft design without tires and without a fan, but driven by one large/many small linear or stepper motors that build-up and fire Electromagnetic pulses or compressed Air to build thrust. When he said hyperloop I pictured a normal road with large Metal loops (induction) every mile with smart-meters tracking how much energy you consumed and charging your bank…
I love that you just made up all the details to his idea, and then discredited it... and then said you know a better way, but assumed no one would listen.
Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#76Being cynical: promoting a futuristic tech to block the development of the proposed high speed rail.
There are certainly less round-about ways of doing that than getting HN excited by dropping vague hints about a future project every few months.
Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#77When I read PG's essay earlier today, I thought of hyperloop when I read this footnote:
"There may even be an inverse correlation between launch magnitude and success. The only launches I remember are famous flops like the Segway and Google Wave. Wave is a particularly alarming example, because I think it was actually a great idea that was killed partly by its overdone launch."
I can actually recall the launch of some things that succeeded (ipad & iphone, for example). Still, this reminds me in some way of Wave. When wave was launching there was a lot of hyperbolic explanations by people who didn't seem to understand what they were describing. realtime collaboration-communication hybrid that's really more of a cloud based protocol than a app. The app itself is just a proof of concept People either didn't get it or made unlikely assumptions about what it was.
Something about all this excitement pre-reveal feels wrong to me. Especially since this sounds like such a big, long term project.
Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rogain
Slightly O/T. A buddy of mine was saying last night that his lady suggested looking at a hair regrowth product, on inspecting the packaging and marketing material he found the wonderful claim: "Up-to 4 times more effective than a placebo in clinical testing"
You would be surprised at how many medicines on the market compare effectivity to placebo. It's mostly done in instances where there is a chance that the drug may not even work. By comparing it to a placebo, you're as close to as you can be to leveling the playing field to show it is more effective than doing nothing.
Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#79I'm always surprised that more billionaires don't try interesting off the wall projects when they have so much money. What's the fun of having it, if you can't have the occasional mad scientist moment.
I'm more surprised that more billionaires don't build crazy monuments of themselves or just some crazy ones with their name on it.
One of North Korea's major exports is, apparently, giant statues of people.
E.g. (sorry it's a WSJ link...)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870390620457502...
Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August
#80Being cynical: promoting a futuristic tech to block the development of the proposed high speed rail.
more than likely a big part of his motivation, but considering how bad an investment the current plan is, it is very prudent.