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Corporate tax avoidance is a very big problem which is robbing citizens, but Cook should feel no shame for it. Everyone does it. Well, everything big and rich does it. It's because of the sociopath "companies are people" and "we must act in the best interests of our shareholders" mantras. If citizens do not like it, they should pressure their elected representatives to stop it, but if citizens vote for elected representatives that allow it, then those citizens deserve to be fucked over.

What The Founding Fathers Thought About Corporations http://www.addictinginfo.org/2...
10 Founding Fathers Quotes That Will Make Conservatives’ Heads Explode http://aattp.org/9-founding-fa...
What the Founding Fathers Really Thought About Corporations https://hbr.org/2010/04/what-t...
Why did our founding fathers hate corporations? http://www.justplainpolitics.c...

Bla bla bla. Singling out Muslims is pure bigotry. The only difference between Christian Terrorism and Islamic terrorism is that Christian Terrorism never makes the evening news..

YOU are the one "singling out Muslims" by trying to excuse MUSLIM terrorism that is orders of magnitude WORSE than even combined CENTURIES of "Christian" terrorism.

Not ONE of your linked "Christian terror" groups had killed anywhere near the number of people ISIS has killed in just the past two years.

Bigotry runs both ways.

You bigot.

Bla bla bla. Singling out Muslims is pure bigotry. The only difference between Christian Terrorism and Islamic terrorism is that Christian Terrorism never makes the evening news..

Bwaaa HAAA HAAAA!!!

You're downright fucking risible.

And full of BULLSHIT.

How many people have your "Christian" equivalents of ISIS murdered - in the hundreds of years some have been around? How many have the KKK murdered in 150 years? At MOST what? 3000?

3000 is just ONE good day for Islamic terror.

Or 3,000 is a mere 10 percent of just the number of CHILDREN ISIS alone has killed in Syria alone in just the past couple of years:

Current Total Death Count in Syria: 250,000+
Children: 30,000

Again - crawl up out of Mommy's Basement Intellectual Shelter, grow a MAN'S intellectual balls, and read this UN report:

UNAMI/OHCHR has received reports of serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross abuses of human rights that have been perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups, with an apparentv systematic and widespread character. These include attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms.

Bla bla bla. Singling out Muslims is pure bigotry. The only difference between Christian Terrorism and Islamic terrorism is that Christian Terrorism never makes the evening news..

Visual demonstration.

A high speed rail line requires steel rods -- cheaper than pipe, no?

Yes. But the cost of the steel in the track in a high speed rail project is only a tiny fraction of the total costs. BTW, you can double check Musk's tube estimate (I did), they're quite realistic compared to other "large pressuretight steel tube" project costs. He's basically building a pipeline, but instead of pumping oil or water through it, he's shooting people through it.

You could also put it on pylons if you wanted. People don't, in general, because putting it on the ground is way cheaper. There are exceptions to this -- some of the Chinese lines are elevated, I think -- but it's fairly rare.

As per my comment earlier, this is an erroneous comparison. Rail spends 99% of it's time unloaded, then for 1% of its time is loaded very heavily, an order of magnitude higher than the peak loads for Hyperloop. Consequently you have to have dramatically stronger pylons for an elevated rail line. Think monorail pylons, not conventional rail pillars.

we have a perfectly well-known technology (high-speed rail)

Unfortuantely, one of the things we know perfectly well about it is that it's ridiculously expensive. I'm not saying this to be mean, it's just a fact.

Compare this project to an oil pipeline.

* Loadings (weight) on the supports in oil pipelines will be *far, far* higher.
* Environmental approval in an oil pipeline will be *far, far* harder, and environmental constraints on construction will be far more severe.
* Oil pipelines generally move through wilderness and private land, rather than above already-prepared and already permitted land, and are often built in remote (read: expensive) areas.
* Both require the occasional pump or other regularly spaced infrastructure (honestly, an oil pipeline's is more complicated - you have to also maintain its temperature within a certain range, you require a lot more sensors, oil pumps are more expensive than vacuum pumps, etc)

We'll leave the terminals out of this for now. Given that, one would think that an oil pipeline of the same diameter would cost several times as much? Well, let's see, what's the average rate for oil pipeline construction these days. This says $200k per inch per mile, a 3-fold increase in 8 years driven in large part by "new industry regulations and practices to reduce right-of-way and minimize environmental effects" (again, reinforcing that oil pipeline should be far costlier per unit distance to build than hyperloop track). What would an oil pipeline the diameter of hyperloop this cost? $6B each way, or $12B total. Hyperloop's track is expected to cost $4B. How is this not a reasonable estimate? Even if you go with the full cost of an oil pipeline over that difference, despite the orders of magnitude difference in loading and huge difference in environmental regulations and right of way problems that have tripled oil pipeline production costs in recent years, you still end up with a hyperloop track that costs way less than HSR.

Every number in Musk's proposal that I've cross-checked I've come away feeling it's probably realistic. It looks by all standards like they consulted industry experts to come up with their figures. The only way it looks "ridiculous" is when you make inapplicable comparisons like when people claim that the cost per mile would be like the per-mile cost of a rail bridge over a canyon and whatnot.

Well, the canadians apparently want him after his time's up here.

Glad to see someone can appreciate all he's done for us. :)

Isn't Saudi Arabia an ally of the US?

Also, have a look at some of the things happening in your own country:
Passengers Cheer as Trans Woman is Stripped and Beaten on Atlanta Train (with video) (May 31, 2014)
Abortion Clinic Escort Opens Up About 'Disgusting, Degrading And Racist' Attacks On Patients (February 21, 2014)
Sikh (mistaken for a Muslim) attacked by racist mob, thanks Good Samaritans who got between him and his hate-filled attackers (after getting his jaw was surgically re-wired) (September 23, 2013) Transgender Woman Dies After Beating in Front of NYPD Precinct (August 26, 2013)
Police: Man damaged Bloomington Planned Parenthood building, cited religious beliefs (April 11 2013)

Please note that I don't support any repressive regimes or groups that enforce FGM or promote sexist behaviours, I am just pointing out that the US is not a shining example of tolerance and social liberties...it would be best if the US focused on sorting out her own problems before pointing fingers at others. Also, thanks for liberating Afghanistan, freeing the Afghans of the nasty Soviet puppet government and delivering them into the hands of the Al-Quaeda and the Taliban is highly appreciated by the entire world!

Please give specific examples to demonstrate reactionary bias in Fox News' reporting.

There are way too many to list in a Slashdot post so you can start with these:

http://foxnewslies.net/
http://www.politicususa.com/fox-news-hosts-speak-words-written-laughing.html
http://aattp.org/category/fox-news-lies-2/
http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=8583

In fact, Fox has admitted to lying in Federal Appellate Court:

http://foxnewsboycott.com/resources/fox-can-lie-lawsuit/