YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    This Could Be Big

    Rewriting The Rules of High Speed Travel

    By Bill Weir, David Miller, Justin Bare & Mark Monroy | This Could Be Big – Thu, Mar 29, 2012

    Let's say it's the fourth of July, and the Clintons have invited you to their house in Westchester, New York to shoot off some fireworks and have a barbeque. From Grand Central station in New York City, it would take you an hour to get there by train. Well, imagine being able to travel to London in less time to meet the Queen for tea at Buckingham palace.

    A licensing organization called ET3 believes that day isn't far off. They hold a patent to Evacuated Tube Technology or ETT and say that with their tubes, you will eventually be able to get you from New York to Beijing in 2 hours and from New York to London in less than an hour.

    Their six person capsules would travel on frictionless magnetic levitation tracks, through air-less vacuum tubes reaching a maximum speed of 4,000 miles per hour. At that speed you could spend the day comparing noodles in China to Pasta in Italy and back to New York in time for cheesecake, all in the same day.

    Now before you start making dinner reservations in Tuscany and sending out an RSVP to the Royal Family, this technology is still a concept and it's not clear when it will be operational. The first prototype is being built by researchers at Southwest Jiaotong University in China, who licensed ET3's technology and have worked with the founder of the company to build it.

    If you're interested in getting involved, it's an open source technology and you can buy a lifetime license for a hundred dollars allowing you to propose and bid on related construction of the rails.

    Loading...

    News for You »

    • The Video of the Washington Bridge Collapse Is Terrifying

      Seattle's KIRO-TV got their hands on surveillance video capturing the very moment when a too-heavy truck starts crossing the bridge and the supports start to collapse. You can see the next truck start to cross the bridge as the whole thing is coming apart. It is a terrifying video. Watch the whole thing below: 

    • Fired for word: 'Negro' in Spanish class

      One of the first lessons one learns in English class is that context is everything. The same holds true in Spanish.

    • Atlanta mayor: Savannah harbor will get deepened

      Don't worry, the $652 million plan to deepen Savannah's busy shipping channel remains very much on President Barack Obama's radar, the mayor of Atlanta told coastal business and political leaders Thursday. ...

    • 5 climbers missing on world's 3rd highest mountain

      KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Nepalese official says five climbers are missing and feared dead on the world's third highest mountain.

    • Magnitude 5.7 quake strikes Northern California

      (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Northern California on Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter of the quake was 6 miles northwest of the town of Greenville, and near the smaller community of Canyondam, the USGS said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Allen Shephard, a hunting and fishing guide at Quail Lodge at Lake Almanor in Canyondam, said the quake knocked him "right off the couch and onto the floor." The floor of the lodge was littered with broken dishware, and cabinets were in disarray, said Shephard, 62. ...

    • Will Rising Interest Rates Hurt the Stock Market?

      You can't listen to the news these days without hearing about how interest rates are at historic lows. In 1981, the 10-year Treasury hit an all-time high of nearly 16 percent. Since then, interest rates have been steadily falling to their current value of around 2 percent. You may be familiar with the relationship between bond investments and interest rates (if not, here's a one sentence answer: bond prices move in the opposite direction of interest rates), but how do interest rates affect the stock market.

    • Fox News Is a Terrible Advocate for Freedom of the Press

      Roger Ailes is full of self-righteous outrage that the Department of Justice subpoenaed Fox News reporter James Rosen's personal emails as it investigated the leak of classified information about North Korea. It's a recent conversion after leading a news network that has been calling for criminalizing journalism for years.

    • Damage reported from magnitude-5.7 quake in Calif.

      GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Residents in rural northeastern California assessed damage to their homes and businesses Friday from a magnitude-5.7 earthquake, one of the strongest temblors to hit the densely forested region in decades.

    Show More

    Blog Authors / Profiles

    Loading...