- The
concept remains, but so far it hasn’t gained much traction. Given the packed,
slow-moving state of California traffic, the question is why. It is the
Hyperloop, a conceptual train system unveiled by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one he
announced in 2013 and which would shuttle passengers from San Francisco to Los
Angeles in 30 minutes. SpaceX, the space exploration company Musk owns, said
this week that it will build a one-mile test track near its headquarters in
Hawthorne, California and is calling on engineering teams and university
students to develop the pods, which Musk's concept said should move at more
than 700 mph. SpaceX announced the competition as a way to "accelerate
development of a functional Hyperloop prototype,” though one could argue that
it’s a great way to get others to do their work for them for free. Those
interested in some unpaid labor in return for possible scientific glory down
the road need to have their pods ready in the next year because SpaceX claims
its test track should be ready by June 2016.
The track was originally supposed to be built in Texas, but Musk is rich and
eccentric and can do whatever the hell he wants. The Hyperloop was his
hyper-aloof response to the news that
California was building a $68 billion high-speed rail system with a top speed
of 220 mph. According to Musk, the proposed system is too expensive and even if
it is completed, he argued that it would be too slow and inconvenient. Of
course, the state-sponsored railway is already under construction and Musk is pushing
ahead even though he has said repeatedly that he has no plans for either SpaceX
or Tesla to make the Hyperloop commercially viable and wants other companies to
step in. In fact, former SpaceX engineer Dirk Ahlborn has his own company, Hyperloop
Technologies, which is one of three that has started work on the idea. This
should be a fun race to watch………..
- Whatever
the reason, less electronica in rock and roll is a good thing. Muse, fresh off releasing
their seventh album earlier this month, are sounding less EDM these days and
more like an actual rock band. So the obvious question when it comes to “Drones,”
their new release, is why the reversion to a more guitar-based sound? Bassist
Chris Wolstenholme explained the change and it’s not exactly what you would
expect to hear from a talented, nuanced band that has become one of the biggest
and arguably most political in music. Wolstenholme claimed that the band’s
change in sound came because their music was "becoming more and more
difficult to play live." The new album topped the United Kingdom’s album
charts and sold 73,000 copies in its first week on the market. It is Muse’s
fifth album to top the charts in the U.K. and it is allegedly the byproduct of
how their songs translated to a live setting, thereby preventing them from pursing a more electronic route that
came more to the focus with previous albums 'The 2nd Law' and 'The Resistance.’
"We got to the point where things were becoming more and more difficult to
play live,” Wolstenholme said. “ It was a real headache with certain songs on
the last album to try and work out all the arrangements to get them to work
live. In the last six albums additional things crept in apart from the rock
three piece, so all these classical influences and particularly the electronic
influence.” He oh, so wisely noted that had Muse “gone any further we would
have been an electronic band." Instead, they made the brilliant choice to
get back to their rock roots with one guitar player, one bass player and one
drummer and see what sort of magical places that could lead them……….
- Big
day for Brazilian police and amazingly, it didn’t involve
riots in slums by impoverished people whose basic rights and freedoms are
squashed on a daily basis. Instead, the long arm of the law arrested the
presidents of two of the country's largest construction companies for their
alleged involvement in the massive corruption scheme at the country's state-run
oil company, Petrobras. Federal Police inspector Igor Romario de Paulo announced
at a news conference that Marcelo Odebrecht and Otavio Marques de Azevedo now face charges of cartel formation, money
laundering and diversion of public funds. These two deviants are the chief
executives of Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez, respectively, and they truly do
lead the way because an additional eight executives from the two companies were
also arrested. These 10 mischief-makers will be taken to the southern city of
Curitiba, where the investigation is based. "We have money-laundering
professionals in Brazil and we have no doubt that Odebrecht and Andrade
Gutierrez headed the cartel scheme inside Petrobras," federal prosecutor
Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima said. "I do not see how the companies can claim
innocence given how much evidence we have." Carlos has clearly never dealt
with corrupt titans of industry because these ass hats can claim innocence
regardless of the mountain of evidence against them, even if that mountain
shows their leaders "had a
sophisticated system" for making the alleged bribe payments, using foreign
bank accounts in Switzerland, Monaco and Panama. This is one helluva an alleged
scam, as it is alleged - get ready for a lot of that word - to have involved at
least $800 million in bribes and other illegal funds. A large chunk of that
alleged cash was allegedly funneled back to the ruling Workers' Party and its
allies' campaign coffers and allegedly also included the payment of bribes to
Petrobras executives in return for inflated contracts. Petrobras just so
happens to be Brazil's biggest company and is in charge of tapping big offshore
oil fields and creating wealth and is/was the country’s big hope for propelling
their nation to developed world status. At this point, all of the accused are
denying every accusation against them, which is par for the course………
- Social
media. Loaded gun. Always. For everyone. Boston Red Sox third baseman Pablo
Sandoval forgot that valuable lesson and
it cost him one game of action. The man known as Kung Fu Panda for his cherubic
frame and uncanny agility for a big guy was benched for Boston's 5-2 win
Thursday by manager John Farrell after owning up to doing what all of us have
done at some point, using a social media app when we were supposed to be
working. The problem for Sandoval is that he’s a professional athlete and when
he is noticed liking a woman's photographs that appeared in his Instagram feed
while he’s at work, some blogger notices it and takes the breaking,
world-changing news straight to Twitter. To Sandoval’s very limited credit, he
admitted his error which occurred during
Wednesday night's 5-2 loss to Atlanta, saying that he used his cellphone after returning to the
clubhouse to use the bathroom. He met with Farrell and general manager Ben
Cherington and despite being benched for a game, he was not fined and instead
paid his penalty in public penance. "I know I f*cked up," Sandoval
said Thursday. "I made a mistake [Wednesday]. I learned from that. I'm a
human being, I made a mistake, so I apologize to my teammates, to the team, to
the organization, the fans support. This is a thing that I pushed the ['like']
button at the wrong time. I hit a 'like.' I was in the bathroom, I pushed it at
the wrong time. ... I just grabbed my phone and checked it." Sandoval has
used the occasion to do what he should have done long ago, making his Instagram
account private. He acknowledged that he is aware of the team’s rule against
using cellphones during games and promised to never do it again and move
forward………
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