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The viability of Hyperloop One should not be the focus in the context of this article. That's not what this is about at all. It's that Hyperloop One needed Ric

The viability of Hyperloop One should not be the focus in the context of this article. That's not what this is about at all. It's that Hyperloop One needed Richard Branson on board because Elon Musk is creating his own competitor now. This is an incredibly smart move to ensure the survivability of the business from a publicity perspective. Branson has a history of doing things that people thought impossible or just a bad decision (like creating an airline company). Public perception is the name of the game at this stage, not just feasibility. From that perspective, Hyperloop One has effectively done one of the only strategic moves remaining at this point that ensures it has any chance of persuading a government to select them as a preferred vendor (or continue doing so).

detritus 9y ago
Branson's missing a d from his almost nominatively-determining name — the guy's got a talent for self publicity over challenging the incumbency, which for the most part he hasn't since launching Virgin Airlines and Megastores, which were both back in the 80s.
- nsxwolf 9y ago
  "Branson's missing a d from his almost nominatively-determining name" Wat? Edit: This has been a fun puzzle. I read the Wikipedia article for "Nominative determinism" and I've been swapping the letter "d" into various positions of his first and last name trying to figure it out. No luck yet!
  - eradicatethots 9y ago
    I also was confused, but they probably mean “Brandson”
    - detritus 9y ago
      Yes, there we go. I'm genuinely surprised it was anything other than fairly obvious. Perhaps his reputation's different away from the UK?
      - LowRezSkyline 9y ago
        How dare you be clever... don't you know that if you make the very very smart people and or the mods feel less smart you will get smacked down on HN? Or maybe it was your foolish statements of a personal nature cause that's not scientifically, rigorously provable, cause you know, personal experiences are invalid! Why... well the very very smart people know more than you! As Jobe from Arrested Development would say ' COME ON ! '.
        LowRezSkyline 9y ago
        The downvotes are a badge of honor btw, it means you are onto something and countering the pathetic herd mentality of HN these days. It's sad! So yeah I love when I get downvotes, it means I'm not like the rest of you cattle around here, thank god! C-137 forever baby.
        detritus 9y ago
        I'm massively wary about posting chat here (with fairly good reason) but thanks. There should be an allowance for balance and humanity in HN comments. Not everything need be ultra-violet literal on the spectrum! x
    - upvotinglurker 9y ago
      Seems more like a brand-father, though.
  - JohnDotAwesome 9y ago
    I was thinking "Richard" - "d" = "Richar" or "richer"
- detritus 9y ago
  Downvotes? Presumably not from Britons or anyone who knows anything about the guys history? So what HAS he done then, other than brand anything he can then offload to third and fourth parties to run the businesses for him? And don't say Virgin Galactic - that's just some clever peripheral branding to encourage the likes of the downvoters here that he is in any way novel or dynamic. He's marketing clever, not strategically or developmentally-so.
  - waegawegawe 9y ago
    Well, you're criticizing him for only acquiring things and slapping his brand on them. But the criticism is leveled in the context of him investing in an unproven technology. It seems like your comment would be more apt if he were taking an action that follows the pattern you are criticizing. For example, if he were acquiring a computer company and calling it Virgin Computing or something.
    - detritus 9y ago
      That's fair enough, I suppose. I guess I simply distrust his motivations beyond self-aggrandizement and inflating the idea that he's somehow an ideas man, when I can't for the life of me think of anything novel he's done for literally decades. I'm coming across like a 'crab in a bucket' here - I've nothing against the guy or his success, but I'm not for one second convinced he's 'challenging the impossible'.
  - adventured 9y ago
    He's worth $5 billion. He's a high-school drop-out dyslexic that started from nothing. He built a successful airline and record label, along with countless successful branded companies whose success partially rides on the vast effort he has put into building his own well-known brand - a substantial feat unto itself. Yes, golly gee, what HAS he done.
    - dom96 9y ago
      While what he has done should be commended, I don't think it's fair to say that he "started from nothing". His own mother was an entrepreneur, obviously not as successful as him but come on, he went to a "prep school" for goodness sake[1]. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson#Early_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson#Early_life
- dom96 9y ago
  I don't know much about that, but ever since the 'Traingate'[1] spectacle I've lost all respect for Branson. 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47fqjA8CwGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47fqjA8CwGE
  - detritus 9y ago
    For me the sheen came off his lustre a bit back when I was trading at festivals, and at his 'V' festival the only cola drink that was allowed to be sold on-site was the God-awful 'Virgin Cola'. Minded me of the sort of criticisms he'd level at the likes of BA back in days of yore...
    - timthelion 9y ago
      There was never any lustre for me, the first thing I ever knew about "Virgin" was "virgin mobil, which was "free" if you'd click through ads. It was aimed at youth who didn't have much pocket money and I thought that was just awful that teens were clicking through ads to answer the phone.
- gaius 9y ago
  he hasn't since launching Virgin Airlines and Megastores, which were both back in the 80s. There's a jar of Branson Pickle in every home in England! But his moves into healthcare are looking extremely dodgy and of course he lives offshore in a tax haven.
  - DanBC 9y ago
    > There's a jar of Branson Pickle in every home in England! Is this humour? The pickle, and beans, are Branston. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branston_(brand) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branston_(brand) > But his moves into healthcare are looking extremely dodgy His healthcare stuff is really dodgy. There are already serious concerns about care and treatment at his places.
alphaalpha101 9y ago
The viability of hyperloop is nil. It doesn't exist. It is literally physically impossible for it to be viable. I think it's on-topic whenever hyperloop is on-topic.
- late2part 9y ago
  Okay, great. It's on topic. So what? Why is hyperloop's viability nil and nonexistent?
  - alphaalpha101 9y ago
    That's been well covered elsewhere in this thread and other threads. I'm not going to say the claim it's not viable is original, nor am I going to argue that claim. But it is on topic.
- danmaz74 9y ago
  Physically impossible or economically impossible? The physics doesn't look impossible at first glance.
jdietrich 9y ago
Branson owns both an airline and a high-speed rail service. He seems like an eminently sensible choice of partner for Hyperloop. The institutional expertise that Virgin Group are bringing to the table will be at least as important as the capital investment.
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  > Branson owns both an airline and a high-speed rail service. I can't speak to the airline but the rail service is universally reknowned in the UK as "piss poor", especially since they get huge government subsidies.
  - gsnedders 9y ago
    Both Virgin Trains (51% Virgin Group) and Virgin Trains East Coast (10% Virgin Group) pay large net premiums to the government (£153 million and £204 million respectively). The huge government subsidies go to Network Rail, a company wholly owned by HM Government, and are never seen by any of the train operating companies (except insofar as they are indirectly subsidised given they don't pay the full cost of maintaining and improving the infrastructure).
    - zimpenfish 9y ago
      https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/private-rail-operators-using-public-subsidies-fund-pay-outs-shareholders-says-tuc https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/private-rail-operators-using-pub... Has a total net of -£225M from Virgin in 2013/4. This shows them as still being net-subsidised: http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/25757/rail-finance-statistical-release-2016-17.pdf http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/25757/rail-fin...
      - gsnedders 9y ago
        Both of those are including the Network Grant; note the ORR document gives Virgin Trains East Coast as paying a net premium in 2016–7 (which I hadn't been able to find figures for before) even including the Network Grant. Note that apportioning the Network Grant based on percentage of track access charges isn't entirely fair: Virgin Trains notably pays above average per km as a result of funding agreements for the WCML Modernisation programme in the 90s/00s, and as such given the different funding agreements for different network improvements (with the shortfall mostly coming from the Network Grant since the demise of Railtrack plc) it doesn't really make sense to apportion the Network Grant in that way.

detritus 9y ago

Branson's missing a d from his almost nominatively-determining name — the guy's got a talent for self publicity over challenging the incumbency, which for the most part he hasn't since launching Virgin Airlines and Megastores, which were both back in the 80s.

nsxwolf 9y ago
"Branson's missing a d from his almost nominatively-determining name" Wat? Edit: This has been a fun puzzle. I read the Wikipedia article for "Nominative determinism" and I've been swapping the letter "d" into various positions of his first and last name trying to figure it out. No luck yet!
- eradicatethots 9y ago
  I also was confused, but they probably mean “Brandson”
  - detritus 9y ago
    Yes, there we go. I'm genuinely surprised it was anything other than fairly obvious. Perhaps his reputation's different away from the UK?
    - LowRezSkyline 9y ago
      How dare you be clever... don't you know that if you make the very very smart people and or the mods feel less smart you will get smacked down on HN? Or maybe it was your foolish statements of a personal nature cause that's not scientifically, rigorously provable, cause you know, personal experiences are invalid! Why... well the very very smart people know more than you! As Jobe from Arrested Development would say ' COME ON ! '.
      - LowRezSkyline 9y ago
        The downvotes are a badge of honor btw, it means you are onto something and countering the pathetic herd mentality of HN these days. It's sad! So yeah I love when I get downvotes, it means I'm not like the rest of you cattle around here, thank god! C-137 forever baby.
      - detritus 9y ago
        I'm massively wary about posting chat here (with fairly good reason) but thanks. There should be an allowance for balance and humanity in HN comments. Not everything need be ultra-violet literal on the spectrum! x
  - upvotinglurker 9y ago
    Seems more like a brand-father, though.
- JohnDotAwesome 9y ago
  I was thinking "Richard" - "d" = "Richar" or "richer"
detritus 9y ago
Downvotes? Presumably not from Britons or anyone who knows anything about the guys history? So what HAS he done then, other than brand anything he can then offload to third and fourth parties to run the businesses for him? And don't say Virgin Galactic - that's just some clever peripheral branding to encourage the likes of the downvoters here that he is in any way novel or dynamic. He's marketing clever, not strategically or developmentally-so.
- waegawegawe 9y ago
  Well, you're criticizing him for only acquiring things and slapping his brand on them. But the criticism is leveled in the context of him investing in an unproven technology. It seems like your comment would be more apt if he were taking an action that follows the pattern you are criticizing. For example, if he were acquiring a computer company and calling it Virgin Computing or something.
  - detritus 9y ago
    That's fair enough, I suppose. I guess I simply distrust his motivations beyond self-aggrandizement and inflating the idea that he's somehow an ideas man, when I can't for the life of me think of anything novel he's done for literally decades. I'm coming across like a 'crab in a bucket' here - I've nothing against the guy or his success, but I'm not for one second convinced he's 'challenging the impossible'.
- adventured 9y ago
  He's worth $5 billion. He's a high-school drop-out dyslexic that started from nothing. He built a successful airline and record label, along with countless successful branded companies whose success partially rides on the vast effort he has put into building his own well-known brand - a substantial feat unto itself. Yes, golly gee, what HAS he done.
  - dom96 9y ago
    While what he has done should be commended, I don't think it's fair to say that he "started from nothing". His own mother was an entrepreneur, obviously not as successful as him but come on, he went to a "prep school" for goodness sake[1]. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson#Early_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson#Early_life
dom96 9y ago
I don't know much about that, but ever since the 'Traingate'[1] spectacle I've lost all respect for Branson. 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47fqjA8CwGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47fqjA8CwGE
- detritus 9y ago
  For me the sheen came off his lustre a bit back when I was trading at festivals, and at his 'V' festival the only cola drink that was allowed to be sold on-site was the God-awful 'Virgin Cola'. Minded me of the sort of criticisms he'd level at the likes of BA back in days of yore...
  - timthelion 9y ago
    There was never any lustre for me, the first thing I ever knew about "Virgin" was "virgin mobil, which was "free" if you'd click through ads. It was aimed at youth who didn't have much pocket money and I thought that was just awful that teens were clicking through ads to answer the phone.
gaius 9y ago
he hasn't since launching Virgin Airlines and Megastores, which were both back in the 80s. There's a jar of Branson Pickle in every home in England! But his moves into healthcare are looking extremely dodgy and of course he lives offshore in a tax haven.
- DanBC 9y ago
  > There's a jar of Branson Pickle in every home in England! Is this humour? The pickle, and beans, are Branston. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branston_(brand) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branston_(brand) > But his moves into healthcare are looking extremely dodgy His healthcare stuff is really dodgy. There are already serious concerns about care and treatment at his places.

alphaalpha101 9y ago

The viability of hyperloop is nil. It doesn't exist. It is literally physically impossible for it to be viable. I think it's on-topic whenever hyperloop is on-topic.

late2part 9y ago
Okay, great. It's on topic. So what? Why is hyperloop's viability nil and nonexistent?
- alphaalpha101 9y ago
  That's been well covered elsewhere in this thread and other threads. I'm not going to say the claim it's not viable is original, nor am I going to argue that claim. But it is on topic.
danmaz74 9y ago
Physically impossible or economically impossible? The physics doesn't look impossible at first glance.

jdietrich 9y ago

Branson owns both an airline and a high-speed rail service. He seems like an eminently sensible choice of partner for Hyperloop. The institutional expertise that Virgin Group are bringing to the table will be at least as important as the capital investment.

zimpenfish 9y ago
> Branson owns both an airline and a high-speed rail service. I can't speak to the airline but the rail service is universally reknowned in the UK as "piss poor", especially since they get huge government subsidies.
- gsnedders 9y ago
  Both Virgin Trains (51% Virgin Group) and Virgin Trains East Coast (10% Virgin Group) pay large net premiums to the government (£153 million and £204 million respectively). The huge government subsidies go to Network Rail, a company wholly owned by HM Government, and are never seen by any of the train operating companies (except insofar as they are indirectly subsidised given they don't pay the full cost of maintaining and improving the infrastructure).
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/private-rail-operators-using-public-subsidies-fund-pay-outs-shareholders-says-tuc https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/private-rail-operators-using-pub... Has a total net of -£225M from Virgin in 2013/4. This shows them as still being net-subsidised: http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/25757/rail-finance-statistical-release-2016-17.pdf http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/25757/rail-fin...
    - gsnedders 9y ago
      Both of those are including the Network Grant; note the ORR document gives Virgin Trains East Coast as paying a net premium in 2016–7 (which I hadn't been able to find figures for before) even including the Network Grant. Note that apportioning the Network Grant based on percentage of track access charges isn't entirely fair: Virgin Trains notably pays above average per km as a result of funding agreements for the WCML Modernisation programme in the 90s/00s, and as such given the different funding agreements for different network improvements (with the shortfall mostly coming from the Network Grant since the demise of Railtrack plc) it doesn't really make sense to apportion the Network Grant in that way.