The X-Factor In Musk's Human Transport Concept Gets A Boost

Hyperloop capsules being loaded with human and luggage cargo for a very quick and insulated trip that will be amongst the fastest type of public/commercial transportation devised by man. Image Credit: Daily Mail via Space X (2014)

The X-Factor In Musk's Human Transport Concept Gets A Boost

While standing in a long line at a Costco Wholesale during the Christmas season holiday, one may notice how communication from the checkout cashpoint to the central management office is accomplished.

The "Checker" at the cashpoint, with the all of the scanners, credit card terminals, and printers, also is equipped with a tube system that allows one to take checks, money, and other paper-based monied communications, place them in a cylinder, which is then placed in the tube and sucked through vacuum pressure where at the other end of the tube, the information is delivered almost instantly. 

Marshall Fields central communications (1947) - Before the invention of phones and fax machines, people in cities sent messages through a huge system of underground tubes filled with compressed air. Image Credit: chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wordpress-dot-com

Management is assured that these communications that result in good profits never become breached from point-to-point due the closed nature of this pneumatic tube system.

A typical Costco Wholesale cashpoint section where the pneumatic tubes of the money transfer system can be seen routed along the ceiling of the store. Image Credit: Flickr

This is the precise idea behind PayPal, Tesla Motors, and Space X founder and CEO Elon Musk. He believes that the findings of a recent 76-page report may go a long way in proving his pneumatic tube proposal/argument that a human transport system such as this vacuum "hyperloop" that is in use at all Costco stores is the future of human mass transportation from point-to-point.

Infographic of the proposed Hyperloop human transport system (video presentation link). Image Credit: via Space X (2014)

This edited and excerpted from USAToday -

Report: Elon Musk's 'hyperloop' idea could work
By Chris Woodyard - 12-22-2014 - USAToday

Enthusiasts behind Elon Musk's "hyperloop" proposal -- an intercity tube that speeds passengers riding in capsules at 600 miles per hour -- have taken the next step, producing a report outlining some of the big issues around the project.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies' 76-page report focuses issues surrounding a system that could connect San Francisco with Los Angeles. The report says, however, that there are many city pairs round the world that would be candidates for a hyperloop.

The 400-plus-mile trip would take less than an hour, compared to more than six hours of driving. The goal is to keep the ticket price in the $20 to $30 range, although the report points out that at total cost estimates of $16 billion, they could go higher. Still, it says, hyperloop would be a bargain compared to alternatives. "If this same overall price point were preserved for other city pairings, it could dramatically change the way people live and work in cities," the report says.
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"The Hyperloop design uses a combination of low air pressure and magnetic acceleration to get people from LA to SF in just about 30 minutes," the report says. It would produce its own electricity from solar power.
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Passengers would travel in aerodynamic pods the size of vans inside the tube. HTT envisions developing three designs -- one each for luxury passengers, economy economy passengers and freight.
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HTT estimates that the cost of the system would be $20 million to $45 million a mile, as contrast from what it says are costs of up to $200 million a mile for conventional mass transportation system.
[Reference Here]

The report does point out one of the many problems of a self-contained closed loop pneumatic tube system ... how would passengers deal with an uncontrollable "Nature Calls" or a "Mile High Club"-like situation?

Good question.

... notes from The EDJE

Public OpinionPoll Results

Environmental Wacko NFL Super Bowl XLVII Pick

Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco, shown here during the AFC Championship game on Jan. 20, will lead his team on a game-winning drive in the final two minutes of Super Bowl XLVII. Well, according to the Madden 13 simulation of the game, which has the Ravens winning by three. Image Credit: Al Bello/Getty Images

Environmental Wacko NFL Super Bowl XLVII Pick

In the time honored tradition of Rush Limbaugh and his Friday show segment that features the picking of winners in the weekend's NFL games, here is a treatment of the Super Bowl environmental wacko pick for this weekend between the NFC San Francisco 49ers versus the AFC Baltimore Ravens.

The environmental wacko picking system first looks at the team mascot or name, not the athletic prowess of each team. The next item for judgement or parsing would be location and type of same category of mascot given a progressive or liberal perception of the nature of the mascot.

This excerpted and edited from a Rush Limbaugh show transcript for Super Bowl 2009 -

The Environmentalist Wacko Pick Method Returns for the Super Bowl 
Rush Limbaugh - January 30, 2009

"Okay, how can I combine the issues with my game picks, and ingeniously I came up with the environmentalist wacko method which would look at the games and the teams that were competing against one another that weekend from the standpoint of the wacko animal rights movement, the environmental wackos, the entire left-fringe politically correct movement. How would they choose winners? So I'm going to use the environmentalist wacko method to pick the upcoming Super Bowl on Sunday afternoon.

What do we have here? We have the Steelers versus the Cardinals. What are the Steelers? The Steelers are a huge, big, polluting business that destroyed things with filth. Their tactics have led to lung disease, global warming, and general filth, the pollution of rivers; slave labor jobs, 24/7 working in insufferable conditions at the steel mills; polluting the skies so that people had to take three shirts to work every day if the shirt was white because by noon the shirt would be gray with soot! The byproduct of the work of the Steelers, the industrialists who cared not about the environment, cared not for their city, cared not a whit for the animal life surrounding the mills.

On the other hand, who are the Cardinals? The Cardinals, they're birds! Innocent beasts of nature struggling to survive as man encroaches upon their habitat. So, if you just stop there, you would say, as the environmentalist wackos look at things in the interests of fairness, that the Cardinals -- the innocent beasts of the air -- will finally exact revenge against these polluting industrialists who destroyed lives and things! However, ladies and gentlemen, it's not exactly that way anymore, because the Steelers were also union workers! The Steelers were Big Labor, ladies and gentlemen.

Just this morning at the White House, Big Labor was rewarded by President Obama and Vice President Biden. Also, these birds are no longer just innocent beasts of the sky. These birds can fly into the engines of jet aircraft, as to so happened recently with a US Air flight. They were geese, admittedly, but a bird is a bird. An innocent beast of the sky is an innocent beast of the sky. Who flies these magnificent jetliners and staffs them? Why, Big Labor! Unionized pilots, unionized flight attendants -- and we now know that the federal government, along with the states and the cities where there are airports, have begun implementing programs to kill the birds.

Why? Because the birds threaten Big Labor: the pilot, the copilot, and the flight attendants who are flying the jets. We're going to kill the birds to protect Big Labor, since they were just rewarded in the White House this morning. Therefore, the game is not to be viewed as the polluting industrialist pigs versus the innocent beasts of the air. This game is viewed as these innocent beasts of the air being killers, flying themselves into the jets being flown by union people: the pilot, the copilot, and the flight attendants. (No, the passengers don't matter.) 

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, the Steelers will kill the birds to further the Obama policy of protecting the union pilots and flight attendants. 

It's 27-10. Steelers cover."
[Reference Here]

Right off the top, wild animals have to given a nod over any human being based mascot. So, in the case of this Sunday's Super Bowl, the Ravens (also an object of poetry) have to be given the go ahead as the pick for the 2012 champion over the 49ers (those evil, land disrupting, polluting, money grubbing, never to be unionized, gold miners) ... even though the team is based in one of the most progressive cities (represented by Nancy Pelosi - by God) in the United States.

Personally, I'm all for hard work and self improvement, so I pick the San Francisco 49ers (the line right now is, 'Frisco' is favored by 3.5 points over the 'Marylanders' & the over/under on total points is 47.5) to take home the hardware, leaving the over-sized, scavenging, black birds flapping wounded on the field, quoting Edgar Allen Poe ... "Nevermore"!!

Teams: 49ers (home) vs. Ravens (away)

TV Schedule: CBS national broadcast

Announcers: Jim Nantz (play-by-play), Phil Simms (color)

Date: Feb. 3, 2013

Time: 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT

Location: The Superdome, New Orleans

Weather: 72 degrees, controlled

Public OpinionPoll Results

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Hats off to the victors - Baltimore Ravens squander a 22 point lead early in the 3rd Quarter to win in the final minutes with taking a Safety penalty in the endzone that chewed up precious seconds on the clock to eventually win by three points.

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Barack Obama's Judgement Of Us Is A Bitter Pill To Swallow

The Modern-Day Pied Piper Of Hamlin - Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) addresses supporters during a campaign stop at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Indiana, April 11, 2008. Image Credit: REUTERS/John Sommers II

Barack Obama's Judgement Of Us Is A Bitter Pill To Swallow

Obama touched off controversy with his remarks at a closed San Francisco fundraiser over this previous weekend. The remarks became public late Friday afternoon via the very liberal internet politics posting site The Huffington Post.

He said jobs had been disappearing in small towns in Pennsylvania and across the Midwest for 25 years with nothing to replace them and that people become "bitter".

"It's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," said Barack Obama.

In short, Barack Obama declared in front of a crowd of politically friendly people that one of the root causes of racism, the dislike toward open-borders immigration, the perceived need for personal gun ownership, and a deep and entrenched focus on religious principles is bitterness.

NICE!

Kwik-E-Mart Debut In Twelve "Springfield's"

Always wondered where Springfield really is? Does anyone really know? Well the folks at 7-Eleven do – in fact they’ve been working very closely with Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. The Kwik-E-Mart was made famous in The Simpsons and has landed in the streets of Burbank, Ca.. Image Credit: 7-Eleven Corporate website - YouTube Video (below) Credit: LAMISCH

Kwik-E-Mart Debut In Twelve "Springfield's"

Just before the release of the feature length movie, "The Simpson's Movie", scheduled for release on July 27th, twelve 7-Eleven convenience stores in North America have been converted to the famed "Kwik-E-Mart" stores.

We, at MAXINE were just minding our own business when all of a sudden we came upon a very crowded store where once a 7-Eleven stood on Olive Avenue in Burbank.

To our amazement, there stood a complete Kwik-E-Mart store and about 400 people were snaked from the front door to around the corner of the building wanting to share in the experience of a real life movie promotion.

It is pretty cool in that the Kwik-E-Mart not only looks like a Kwik-E-Mart, but it will sell products only found at the fictional store in Springfield. That's right, Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees.

Every promotion though has something that can kill a BUZZ ... no, really!

You are correct in guessing that there will be NO BUZZ BEER sold at the Kwik-E-Mart.

That is a Buzz Killer for sure!

Excerpts from AP via Yahoo! News -

7-Elevens become Simpsons 'Kwik-E-Marts'
By DAVID KOENIG, AP Business Writer - Sun Jul 1, 7:44 PM ET

DALLAS - Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of "The Simpsons" fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art.

Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees.

It's all part of a campaign to hype the July 27 opening of "The Simpsons Movie," the big-screen debut for the long-running television cartoon, which loves to lampoon 7-Eleven as a store that sells all kinds of unhealthy snacks and is run by a man with a thick Indian accent.

For 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Homer's creators at Gracie Films, the stunt is a cheap way to call attention to their movie, since 7-Eleven is bearing all the costs, which executives of the retail chain put at somewhere in the single millions.
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"We thought if you really want to do something different, the idea of actually changing stores into Kwik-E-Marts was over the top but a natural," said Bobbi Merkel, an executive for of 7-Eleven's advertising agency, FreshWorks, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc. "It shows they get the joke."

The monthlong promotion has been rumored a long time — it's hard to keep a secret known by so many suppliers and franchisees — but 7-Eleven managed to keep the locations of the stores quiet until early Sunday morning. That's when the exteriors of 11 U.S. stores and one in Canada were flocked in industrial foam and given new signs to replicate the animated look of Kwik-E-Marts.

The U.S. locations where a 7-Eleven store was transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart are New York City; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Burbank, Calif.; Los Angeles; Henderson, Nev.; Orlando, Fla.; Mountain View, Calif.; Seattle; and Bladensburg, Md.
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The Fox/7-Eleven deal is an example of a practice called reverse product placement. Instead of just putting products prominently in a movie or TV show, fake goods move from the screen to reality.

In some cases, 7-Eleven has contracted with manufacturers of similar products to make their Kwik-E-Mart counterparts. Malt-O-Meal, the Northfield, Minn., cereal maker, will conjure up a recipe for KrustyO's, for example. In others, existing products will simply be renamed. One flavor of 7-Eleven's own Slurpee will be sold as "WooHoo! Blue Vanilla" Squishee for the month.
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After Fox pitched a 7-Eleven tie-in last year, representatives from the studio, the stores, and Gracie Films — including Simpsons creator Matt Groening and executive producer James L. Brooks, met in Los Angeles to kick around ideas. Brooks added one — holding a contest to let one fan be drawn into a future episode of the TV show.

7-Eleven executives loved the idea. They had surveys showing a strong overlap between their customers and fans of the show — both tend to be young and male. It sounded like cash registers ringing.

"They've been looking at Squishees and KrustyO's and Buzz Cola for years and have never been able to put their hands on it," said Merkel, the advertising executive.

But they won't find Duff beer, the brand chugged by Homer Simpson. The movie will be rated PG-13, and selling a Simpson-themed beer "didn't seem to fit," said Rita Bargerhuff, a 7-Eleven marketing executive. "That was a tough call, but we want to make sure it's considered good, responsible fun."

Bargerhuff predicted extra sales to Simpsons fans will more than offset the cost of the promotion and create new customers for the chain. She also said the chain is prepared for crowds and will have extra security and clerks at the Kwik-E-Marts.
Reference Here>>

Always wondered where Springfield really is? Does anyone really know? Well the folks at 7-Eleven do – in fact they’ve been working very closely with Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

Burbank, CA
Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Lake Buena Vista, FL/Orlando, FL
Las Vegas, NV/Henderson, NV
Los Angeles, CA
New York City, NY
San Francisco, CA/Mountain View, CA
Seattle, WA
Washington, DC/Bladensburg, MD


UPDATE 7-10-2007:

Proof that the creators of The Simpson's have decided that the fictitious town of "Springfield" is actually ... Springfield, Illinois!