Re: Other projects? Well, how about a "revolutionary" train set?

The problem with monorails is that junctions ('points') are horrendously slow and complex. For this reason almost all monorails running today are either point-to-point (airport shuttles, such as Düsseldorf or Newark) or circular (tourist lines, such as Sydney or Seattle).

If you're anywhere near Wuppertal, I can highly recommend the Schwebebahn - it looks (and, to an extent, is) bonkers, but it delivers a local transport system over the top of the Wupper river (the town is in a narrow valley and there was nowhere else to put it). The line is point to point with a circular loop at each end that allows the cars to turn round.

Re: What about Manchester to Liverpool?

I assume you're aware that it was a private company that built the line? And the benefits of the first railways were obvious to everyone - journeys that took days reduced to hours. In contrast, HS2 will deliver time savings of perhaps 25%, essentially negligible unless you live/work in a flat/office overlooking the station.

Switzerland

But not exactly high-speed.

@Neil

The Chiltern (my local line - great service BTW) is running on GCR track only as far as Aynho Junction (Banbury), where it joins the GWR Paddington-Oxford-Birmingham line.

Re: Pot and Kettle?

And the cunning use (she was an accountant before she was an MP) of family trusts to avoid inheritance tax. "DON'T LOOK OVER HERE - LOOK OVER THERE!"

Re: Past and future

Those pesky Victorians were falling over themselves to build railways through private investment, because there was money to be made. In the end, they overdid it and many companies went bust, but the infrastructure was still there. Today, no private company would swallow the nonsense on stilts that is the HS2 cost-justification, but luckily the taxpayers are awash with cash ... oh, wait

Re: Where will video conferencing be by the time HS2 is actually working

You're right about double deckers. But the DfT published a study that showed you could upgrade the WCML to full speed and introduce in-cab signalling to increase traffic density, lengthen the platforms (except Liverpool and Birmingham which are in deep cuttings) and electrify the Chiltern Line for ~1/4 the cost of HS2. The study has now been buried as another 'inconvenient truth' but Google should still be able to find it.

Yes, but not if there's some other project with a k>2 that doesn't get done because you've splurged all your cash on your train set. The object of the exercise should be (it isn't, of course) to maximise value, not to try to do everything (which can include almost anything) that generates a theoretical return on investment.

Re: Simple solution

But if you can access the records of a specific phone, it isn't difficult (in most cases) to work out where the owner lives and where they work. Not very anonymous now, is it?

Re: I've had mine since Friday

It's true my Nokia 6110 could run for a week on a 900mAh battery. But all it had to/could do was handle GSM voice calls. It's not surprising that a 4G/Wifi/GPS phone with a 1920x1080 screen needs an order of magnitude more power. It would be nice if batteries had improved to the same extent, but "ye cannae change the laws of physicselectrochemistry, Cap'n".

Re: Degenerate Dwarf?

It's standard astronomical parlance to talk about a white dwarf consisting of degenerate matter. A degenerate (white) dwarf is a bit of a tautology, but it sure sounds funny.

Re: I do hope .....

I have never heard anyone express such ideological opposition. If renewable sources could effectively meet our energy needs at a competitive price, I for one would joyously embrace them singing 'Glory, Hallelujah'. There's precious little sign, however, that such a contingency will arise in the lifetime of anyone now living.

Re: Business as usual

Politically impossible to take action? Not judging by the green tax on my monthly energy bill, the number of houses with pointless (in the UK) PV roofs, grotesque wind farms, etc etc.

Re: blimey

Correct, do not defrag an SSD, it will only contribute to wear. Speaking of which, SSDs don't fail gracefully - cells become unreadable after a finite number of R/W cycles. I'm paranoid, so use a 256GB SSD for my OS, but keep my data on a 2TB rust-bucket. Speed is excellent, and 6MB JPEGs open pretty much instantly even though they're stored on the HDD.

Re: Schmidt

I take it you haven't met many CEOs of tech companies. Schmidt is marginally above the median in his tech grasp - which explains many things.

Re: Ongoing Modelling

Give them a few days, and I'm sure new papers will appear. With all the free parameters in current climate models (even more than the 'Standard Model' of physics), matching the historical record is no great feat. As no less a scientist than John von Neumann remarked:

If you allow me four free parameters I can build a mathematical model that describes exactly everything that an elephant can do. If you allow me a fifth free parameter, the model I build will forecast that the elephant will fly.

Re: "Got a Windows XP end-of-life plan?"

If you're talking about a home PC, that sounds fine (my Win2k box recently quit after >10 years faithful service). But as a corporate strategy, it won't survive any risk assessment.

Re: Bubble bursts

In that case, you should fill your boots with Apple stock, while it's so cheap and the rest of us dunderheads foolishly undervalue it. And if you really believe that, I own an attractive bridge you may well be interested in.

Re: high risk and too cheap to be credible,

Indeed. And less chance of a directorship when you decide to cash in your 'public service' chips.

Re: Have we turned into El Graun?

I don't think so. It's usually a sign that the article has been amended thus rendering the post (at best) confusing. I've lost a few that way, myself.

I think the 'right' thing to do is use the 'Send corrections' facility, though I get the impression that comments sometimes provoke a swifter response.

Re: Context

It's also equivalent to about 12kg of TNT. I'd be interested in a failure mode analysis. If one of these is near people and suffers a catastrophic failure, it will need substantial containment to prevent injury.

Battery failures can lead to them dumping all their energy into the environment over a period of a few seconds or minutes - causing a fire risk and potentially major problems if they're on an aircraft, say - but one of these could do the same thing in a few ms.

Re: But I like real books!

Definitely. But if ebooks were priced sensibly (how much does it cost to produce a printed book? I realise it's volume dependent,) instead of for rip-off, I might be more interested. (I won't deny that I occasionally raid Gutenberg for out-of-copyright volumes.)

Re: Could he have survived the flight?

Unless you know where to tuck yourself in, you'll probably be crushed by retraction of the undercarriage (parts of which can also get quite hot on the takeoff run). After that you've only got to survive anoxia and hypothermia for a few hours. Good luck!

Re: Science Advances

I entirely agree, Ledswinger, but I think the point the OP (no relation, BTW) was making is that if we wanted to make a real difference to CO2 emissions (to the point of reducing atmospheric concentration) then we would have to keep LDCs in poverty. The fact that Kyoto imposed few obligations on LDCs is merely an illustration of what a useless piece of window-dressing it was (unless you were a first world manufacturer able to cash in your carbon credits - kerching!)

Re: One lasting change from Mrs T

Thatcher had been out of power for a decade when Tony and Gordon decided that 'light touch' regulation of the banks was a winning idea. You really should try to put aside what you were taught in school about Thatcher being the devil incarnate and the root of all evil and start thinking for yourself.

Re: Supernovae as popcorn

Or the Cambridge entrance exam question that began:

An elephant, whose mass may be neglected, ...

Re: isn't young 'un oxford educated?

No - his graduate 'studies' were apparently at Kim Il-sung University (no, me neither). It seems he may have gone to school in Switzerland, but neither of these 'facts' is totally incontrovertible.

Re: Poor Bill...

Yes, I'm sure he lies awake at night worrying about your opinion of his hair. Actually, it looks like they've tried to sweep his fringe forward to imitate the 1981 'styling'.