boilerdam

Since you'll be traveling faster than normal, it could be called the Mile Long Club :)

Also, per Relativity, the faster you go, time ticks slower. So, you'd last longer (compared to a guy on the ground).

Well, this is more of a policy question and a bit out of scope for the competition as such. But I'll take a stab at it with personal opinion. Elon's impetus for the Hyperloop was born out of frustration over the high-speed rail project. The main reasoning was that a new, expensive project that will take California (and humanity, for that matter) into the new age should be something revolutionary. And thus was born his Hyperloop idea.

So, if anything, Hyperloop will have a definite impact on the high-speed rail project and not vice-versa.

Also, as /u/ahalekelly mentioned, the Hyperloop technology is scalable and adaptable. Of late, we've seen multiple European entities express interest for their own Hyperloop Projects - SNCF in France & Vienna-Budapest-Bratislava system.

When they're tx-ing/rx-ing, you can see it here: http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

You're right, in my excitement of an AMA, I played fast & loose with the word "start". It should, technically, be "expressed serious interest".

As for "etc", I thought I read something in Germany but I'm not able to pull anything up. Also, I treated Vienna-Budapest-Bratislava as independent sectors even though it's by the same entity.

I vote for Red Velvet as well! or some kind of double chocolate fudge thingy.