Slashdot Mirror
Pipeline Mass Transit?
pipingguy writes "'Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) is a new kind of transportation system that requires less than two percent of the energy of current transportation methods. It is also much safer, and can be faster. [...] Anyone can visualize 2 tubes (one for each direction) along a travel route. Air is permanently removed from the tubes; so travel takes place without friction. Pressurized passenger capsules (like a 2 - 8 person airplane cabin), travel in the tubes on thin steel wheels or on nearly frictionless Maglev. Airlocks allow access without admitting air to the tubes. Linear motors (as used on new rollercoasters) accelerate the capsules. During most of the trip the capsules coast; using no power. When the capsules slow down, linear generators recover most of the electrical energy used to accelerate the capsules.' Some CG images and drawings here, the FAQ is here." MSNBC had an article on monorails a few days ago. Don't bother making Simpsons jokes, the article has them covered already.
The very first underground train in New York worked exactly like this, pneumatically. Everything old is new again, eh?
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
Now that articles are making pre-emptive Simpsons jokes, if they would just include "OMG FP FP FP!!" and "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of...", we could eliminate half the comments on Slashdot.
> Don't bother making Simpsons jokes, the article has them covered already.
But that's the kind of commentary Slashdot does best!
I belive that this was originally the idea of Tenacious D. You can hear Jack Black sing about it in the song "City Hall".
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The story is a dupe, the topic is boring, the facts weren't checked. WE GET IT!!
duuuuuuhhh:
1. Create vacuum.
2. ???
3. Violate thermodynamics!
Ele-fucking-mentary, my dear Watson.
Hasn't it already been patented by the Logan's Run creators?
Wow that presents all kinds of scenarios for potential disasters.
... Everything you can think of is impossible and your fears are unreasonable.
Read the FAQ
To change the subject, did you know they've removed gullible from the dictionary?
Fry: Whoa!! [He sees the tube transport system and gives it a try.]
Man: Radio City Mutant Hall! [The man is sucked up into the tube]
Fry: Um. Cross Town Express? [He is sucked up into the tube] Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! [People look up from the street and stare at him. He is taken across the city, past the Statue of Liberty, underwater and finally out the other end smack into a building.]
Man: Pfft! Tourist!
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
"If you could drive a car between San Francisco and New York in five and a half hours, nobody would ever fly... "
If you can get the police to stay out of my way. I bet I could.
If you could drive a car between SF and NY in five hours, you'd be airborne at the first pothole or dip in the road :P
Where can I get an ejection seat for my Honda?
The idea is a lot older than that, Nostradamus wrote
C1Q3
When the litter is overturned by the whirlwind,
and faces will be covered by their cloaks,
the republic will be vexed by new people,
then whites and reds will judge in contrary ways.
which obviously foretells a terrorist attack by the Chinese on one of these systems.
The litter (to contemporary term for a carriage or capsule) is destroyed when the vacuum is lost and the air rushes in. The Republican president has to deal with the 'reds' aka the Chinese.
Mapquest says it's 2906 miles from SF to New York. That puts your average speed at about 530 MPH. I'm pretty sure the cops wouldn't be able to catch you at that rate, anyhow.
If you decide to try it out, let me know and I'll race ya.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
No, it would never work with the El. Those cars are too damn leaky. Take it from me, I'm commuted on them during the winter.
Except without the falling and the crashing and the screaming.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
"So, in closing, mono means one, and rail means rail."
"But the cars are all flashing me, bright lights are passing me, I feel life passing me by" - Stiff Little Fingers
ok then, how about this: you own your own tube capsule. You have a sort of offline station in your neighbourhood which you drive your capsule to in a conventionaly way. You put your capsule into the airlock and its wheels retract. The capsule asks you "where do you want to go?" You tell it. The air comes out of the tube in the offline station. You see green lights. Then you hold onto your retinas as the capsule goes to 300mph and your little fuzzy dice start pointing towards the rear windshield...
kinda like in hover carnage except without all the death and stuff...
Except--the company actually is promising this.
Actually, from reading the FAQ, it seems like the company is merely promising franchise rights to this, not any actual end-product itself. That's worse than vaporware. That's meta-vaporware. Yuck.
I write in my journal
For crying out loud, dude. Not every Slashdot article is an opportunity for you to bash Microsoft, okay? Cut it out.
I write in my journal
Cities will be designed around Ginger!
Meet George Jetson
His boy elroy...
OK, you're all skeptical. Here's the FAQ from my investment prospectus.