... IS A JOKE!. Get a grip people.

  Musk was introducing a bit of levity after a very information dense presentation and trolling the haters in the process.

The hyper-loop is basically just a conventional mag-lev train in an evacuated tube.
I've never heard of a maglev train derailing ... it's hard to imagine how that could happen without a damaged track or a collision with something (tough to do in a sealed tube).
Blow a hole in the tube(anywhere the train isn't ) and the train slows down(since the vacuum required for the very high speed is lost quickly, but not immediately in the form of a sudden wind.) pressure sensors notify the train controller who slows or stops the train if necessary (ie: if the breach is ahead of the train). This would be like running a car at high speed down a slope into water ... you slow down quickly but not catastrophically.

Realistically it would take well timed deliberate action, or a freakishly unlucky circumstances to cause a "crash" ... eg: significantly damage the tube structure close enough to an oncoming train to prevent the automated safety systems from reacting. In such a case people in the proximate and trailing cars are likely to die.

I sincerely hope they succeed ... it would be delightful to see Disney hoist by their own petard as it were. But the Mouse is the 800 lb gorilla in the IP cage match arena and I'm guessing they'll come out on top.

Precisely. Words have meaning ... it's important to use the right words when asking questions and giving answers. Unfortunately many people think risk and danger are synonymous. That makes me sad. :(

This is paranoid. Unfortunately it's also a valid point.

Multi-Use Media Unit ... just because.

I'll restrict my comments to the Circle. It's not a great movie, but it's not bad. It's not entertaining. It's a little too real for that. It's very much a "Big Brother" tale with all the check boxes of rising totalitarianism ticked. It proposes the idea that privacy is dying and either is or soon will be extinct. It further proposes that we have a choice, as to the consequences of the extinction of privacy. We can either blindly surrender to it and allow corporations and governments to be the arbiters of what is and what isn't transparent, and how that lack of privacy is used; or we can accept the inevitable and ensure that everything is revealed to everyone, that no one controls that knowledge for their own ends. Frankly, the idea that the extinction of privacy is inevitable is a scary one. The idea that some individual, corporation or government has control of it is far, far worse.

Assuming your new battery tech scales easily and economically for mass production and given the intensifying demand for such tech ... when would you expect to see it supplant lithium-ion as the battery technology of choice for manufacturers ?

I was being a mite sarcastic (only ).... and the commonality of a misconception doesn't validate it (despite what some people would have you believe). If you have a citation supporting your belief that location somehow changes the amount of water needed to raise cattle, I'll look at it; otherwise I'll only agree that the numbers may vary according to source, but since some sources are reliable and some are not, I only accept statements supported by reliable citations. Unless it's your opinion, which is your right, but not a "fact".

Not 2500 gallons of water for a pound of beef ... only 1799 !! http://gracelinks.org/blog/785...

that is Paranoia.

Why the questioning/criticism ? Sure most modern compilers do a lot of these optimizations for you .... But isn't the point of the post to find things that everyone knew and don't know now ? Not to find things that are still relevant ....? Frigging /. haters ....

Arrrr !!! Shiver me timbers matey!! Where's the RUM?

Now that we understand what the policy actually says.... WTF would anyone sign up for Instagram ?

Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war .... or if you're on a budget. http://www.thinkgeek.com/produ...