Lyndsay Tucker, 25, works at a beauty boutique in San Jose, California. Every day, her mobile phone rings or buzzes with texts, not for her but for Elon Musk. Tucker was randomly assigned Musk's old phone number that made its way online years ago and continues to spread. (It's not clear if Tucker's number is the one Musk accidentally Tweeted publicly back in 2017.) From Bobby Allyn's story on NPR:

One woman volunteered to go to space with SpaceX. Another person sent a blueprint for a bionic limb. "Which is, No. 1, really cool," Tucker said. "But I have no idea how it's built."

A South African businessman asked about buying 1,000 trucks. The Internal Revenue Service called about a complicated tax issue.

"I assumed I had messed something up," Tucker said about that call. "It was a huge relief they weren't looking for me."

[...] NPR reached out to Musk to see whether he knew about his long-lost number. He replied with a short email.

"Wow," Musk said. "That number is so old! I'm surprised it's still out there somewhere."

Some of those who texted Tucker said Musk himself provided the number to them. When NPR asked Musk whether he gave out that number to people he was trying to dodge, he did not respond.

Tesla worker: 'We’re extremely frustrated, angry, scared, that Elon is putting his cars before his workers.'

Tesla's chief executive said he reopened production at the company’s Fremont, California factory Monday, which Musk said he knew was a violation of public health orders. Read the rest

The winner of yesterday's SpaceX Hyperloop Pod design competition was the WARR Hyperloop. Built by students at the Technical University of Munich, it hit 324 Km/h (~201 mph). First-person video below. Read the rest

Yesterday Elon Musk took delivery of his second-hand boring machine for his Boring Company. It's in a parking lot next to the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Musk says he's going to take it apart, figure out how to improve the design of boring machines, and start testing by coring out an underground pedestrian tunnel from his offices across (or rather under) the street to the parking lot. He'll certainly need good boring machines to build his Hyperloop system. From the San Jose Mercury News:

Last week, a tunnel-boring machine used by L.A. Metro to carve out 2 miles of earth for the new Crenshaw/LAX line was removed from the future Leimert Park Station in South Los Angeles in three pieces.

No one confirmed whether the 950-ton, 400-foot-long steel grinder would go to SpaceX. Metro had dubbed the machine “Harriet,” in honor of Harriet Tubman, an American abolitionist instrumental in the Underground Railroad, after a student contest.

The day Harriet finished work for Metro, Musk submitted plans to Hawthorne officials to build an underground pedestrian tunnel from SpaceX headquarters to its parking garage across Crenshaw Boulevard.

A vertical tunnel shaft already has been dug in the SpaceX parking lot.

Now, The Boring Co. machine will dig – cheese grater-style – a 500-foot-long, horizontal pedestrian tunnel that is 20-by-150 feet and 13.5 feet in diameter, according to interim Hawthorne City Manager Arnie Shadbehr.

Brian Sacks: "Tell your child that before he/she was born you too had a groundbreaking idea for a rainbow-powered washing machine. Let them know you were on the verge of getting a patent and becoming fabulously wealthy but then they happened." Read the rest