Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/28/elon-musks-boring-machine.html
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meh 
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At least underground tunnels for Hyperloop seem a bit more feasible to me than giant suspended Habitrails on pillars…
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It definitely needs Ludicrous Mode.
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Improve boring speeds by 500 to 1000%
Hahahaha.
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"He is beneath you, but nothing is beneath him!!
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They really should change the name to Excaviting!
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What is the meaning of those dimensions? I can understand 500x20x150 but then what does diameter of 13.5 have to do with anything?
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My theory is that he’s quietly putting together all the pieces he needs to become a global super villain. Gotta have an underground lair from which you can deliver your rocket-ferried troopers to metropolitan centers around the world so they can mop up what remains of the populace that wasn’t neutralized by the synchronized battery explosions.
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I think he’s probably setting up to topple the Earth Kingdom by drilling through the Great Wall at Ba Sing Se.
Just a guess.
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This is a boring article
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Indeed. The hubris is almost Trumpian. TBMs have been a thing for decades and engineers who specialize in their design have been refining them the whole time. The idea that there is some sort of easy “low hanging fruit” that a clever guy with no real knowledge of how they work. (I’ll just buy one and take it apart) is going to improve speeds multiple times IS laughable.
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Seems like he needed to make a tunnel and instead of just, you know, getting a contractor to dig it for him, he has to turn it into some kind of “everything I do is the future” boast. As though it is only the lack of willpower that is holding anything back. Elon is so shameless…
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I wasn’t sure what to think about Elon Musk; he has used his Internet windfall money more usefully, intelligently and conscientiously for the betterment of the human species than anyone else alive today, but honestly I haven’t ever met the guy. I kept thinking maybe the people talking smack on him aren’t just jealous of his luck and pluck, maybe he really is a schmuck.
But I just gotta like anyone who can create a tunnel-drilling business called “the Boring Company”.
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The idea that there is some sort of easy “low hanging fruit” that a clever guy with no real knowledge of how they work
Yeah, but that’s where “It’s always been done that way” bumps up against “Why?”
There are usually good reasons to be on the side of the status quo, but Elon Musk doesn’t seem to ever end up there, and it’s worked well for him.
More practically, what is the main constraint on boring speed right now? Vibration? Cutter forces? Power input? Waste material removal? I have no idea, but I imagine Musk will be finding out.
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Or it bumps up against the joke about the economists and the $100 bill on the ground.
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Shouldn’t the solution be pretty obvious to a billionaire with a rocket company?
I just hope he doesn’t use it for his scheme to hold the earth hostage for one MILLION dollars.
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I don’t know that one, but googling “joke about the economists and the $100 bill on the ground” was pretty amusing even though it didn’t turn up your joke.
Edit: found it here http://www.workjoke.com/economists-jokes.html
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After Seattle’s awful experience with the world’s largest (so far) tunnel boring machine, I wonder if multiple cutter heads working together (staggered perhaps) might be more efficient I the long run. Dunno how you’d join the tunnels, but I hope Mr Hyperloop comes up with some fresh ideas.
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