Japanese Train Sets A Speed Record Of 581 kph

Azuma writes "Last night, on December 2, a high-speed Japanese train set a new record of 581 kph, breaking its own previous record. The new Maglev high speed had real passengers on board this time. They proved that the distance between Osaka and Tokyo can be covered in one hour's time. However, we wouldn't see real trains for a while now since the cost is prohibitively expensive at this time. However, they expect that the cost would come down over the next 20 years. This seems to be the future of transportation, at least in Japan. Here is a detailed article from The Japan Times."

Obligatury Simpons quote

[rf0]

"There's nearly [a train] that can out run a greased Scotsman"

Well ok its close

Rus

361MPH

[sakusha]

for those of us who don't use that artificial metric crap. I mean, really, if God wanted us to use the Metric system, he would have made the distance between the King's nose and his thumb to be exactly one meter.

Re:361MPH

[mattjb0010]

for those of us who don't use that artificial metric crap.

Have you considered a job working for NASA or the JPL?

Re:361MPH

[javiercero]

Too bad god made his penis exactly 1 inch long... a lot of repressed feelings and wars due to massive inferiority complexes could have been avoided if God had been more generous with the King!

But then again, if God did not want us to use the metric system then how come s/he gave us Ten fingers? :) Rather than using the kings shortcommings, other people decided to use"standard" equipment.... unless you are one of them crab people, then you must be restricted to binary counting I guess.....

Yeah it is late and I have been coding 2 days straight....

Re:361MPH

[Dopefish_1]

But then again, if God did not want us to use the metric system then how come s/he gave us Ten fingers?

Well, just to be pedantic, God didn't give us ten fingers. He went for the more practical combination of eight fingers and two thumbs.

Re:361MPH

[pubjames]

for those of us who don't use that artificial metric crap.

Yes, for those of us with twelve fingers, imperial measurements are much more natural.

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[0123456]

Dammit, there are far too many different bulletin board magic tag schemes these days, I can never remember which one to use where :).

Re:Ouch...

[iamthemoog]

"Last night, on December 2..."

Presumably they did the test at night so the passengers wouldn't be able to see anything and get scared... (apart from the 2001 Space Odyssey style mind-bending light show)

352.99407 cubits per second.

[zhenlin]

God measured in cubits.

Also, 581 kph = 116.5050712 microparsecs per century.

Re:361MPH

[Anonymous Coward]

well, if GWB's nose keeps growing, it soon will be.

Re:Twenty Years ago...

[BenjyD]

>and while the british system closely resembles western europas tracks its not safe for high speeds...

or if it's hot, cold, snowing, raining, autumn, or if Jarvis has been within a mile of it.

Re:352.99407 cubits per second.

[phfpht]

As I head down the Karma tubes: 581 (kilometers per hours) = 970,412.789 furlongs per fortnight.

Real passengers

[leoboiko]

The new Maglev high speed had real passengers on board this time.

From the article:

The three-car maglev train reached a top speed of 581 kph with technicians on board[...]

You see, they haven't tested it with real people, only with technicians.

Re:Ouch...

[dunstan]

The most anoying one is going into Watford Junction from Euston. Most of the trains stop there, yet the track has been cambered for high speed for the odd train which doesn't stop. Result: everything sliding off the table.

Dunstan

Re:361MPH

[Pig Hogger]

Naughtical miles are slightly better,

They may be, but they always require a good spanking...

Re:361MPH

[pavon]

Everyone should have 12 fingers! I mean really base ten is such a pain in the ass. People natually work well with common divisions and multiples of things, like half an hour, 1/3 a cup etc. Look at all the natually developed measuremnent units: 360 degrees, 24 hours / day, 60 minutes per hour, 12 inches per foot. All nicely divisable by all sorts of numbers. But ten is divisible by what, 2 and 5. Like that sucks. Think about how cool it would be if all the common fractions had simple decimal notations as well. In base 12: 1/4 = .3, 1/3 = .4 1/2 = .6 etc. None of this infinite repeating digit crap.

Oh, and every time you hear about alien sightings they have 6 fingers on each hand. Is it a coincidence that those base-12 civlilizations are advanced enough to cross the galaxy, while we base-10'ers are still groveling in the dirt? I think not!

Forget metric - it is cumbersome in its ten-ness. And imperial is out of sync with our numbering system. What we need is a base-12 metric system. And it all begins with genetically engineered 12-fingered children! Who's with me?

Re:Ouch...

[rabidcow]

Arrive 5 minutes before departure.

Wow, that must be a really fast train!