"Then the Library told us that the private sector couldn't be trusted to do the job, because future funding couldn't be assured"

Given the way this British Government (and, to be fair, several previous British Governments) have behaved, what makes you think that source of funding is any more secure?

... is that Apple are actually testing the device.

I thought they left that to the fanbois who buy their stuff...

What, like a Harrier you mean - in service so long ago that it's almost obsolete now?

I hope one of the French events is a 24h race at Le Mans: with present tech it would be about two hours of racing and 22 hours sat in the pits recharging!

Gentlemen, start your engines!

click...whirrr....hum...

Not the same, is it?

I have a feeling this is something like the design Jaguar are looking into - a small 1.2l "Generator" to keep the batteries topped up.

Seems like a good idea - after all, if you detach the generator from the drive train like that you could plug in all sorts of generator units (diesel, petrol, LPG, paraffin, hydrogen, gas-turbine, fuel cell, solar, wind-powered, nuclear, Mr Fusion™ ...)

+1 on Dyson service - my 10yo dyson is about to be fixed on the same £64 service deal.

And their web site will sell you just about any of the bits that occasionally break, even down to the lurid lime green or purple accessories for my DC04.

Cyclists were there first, or at least the bicycle was invented before the motor car.

I operate both a car and a cycle regularly, and I try to consider other road users equally, at least up to the point where they demonstrate their foolishness. Then they're fair game.

I avoid running red lights, and even stop at pedestrian crossings. I DO occasionally mount the pavement - part of my regular cycling route is a fairly busy but narrow road, so when a HGV starts dropping gears behind me I often roll up the pavement for a few metres to let it through.

I've had a couple of scrapes when on my bike - mostly they were 50-50 cases where I had let my concentration lapse or I was pushing my luck.

Except for the guy that cut me up three times in one short stretch of high street. I removed his passenger side wing mirror. A few days later he passed again, stopped and actually stood in front of me in the middle of the road. I duly cycled straight into him, and suggested that he would do well not to draw my attention to him ever again. No trouble since then.

To be honest, I think anyone uses a car rather than a bike for short journeys (less than 5 miles, say) on their own is a bloody fool. Aside from VED and insurance, much of the running cost of a car is proportional to mileage. Fewer miles, less money. Save that for the times you have to carry passengers/DIY goods/leisure equipment or take longer journeys.

Or not... those outputs seem pretty low for a 1.2l engine.

Of course, Lotus always specialized in chassis and handling, and let someone else do most of their engines.

I reckon you should get more like 80hp from that engine at 3500rpm. Probably needs a turbo too... :)

Looks more like a squid than a plesiosaur: every time I saw Nessie she was a dark colour that wouldn't show up on a Google Earth photo very well.

'Course, it could be a rare albino Nessie...

Or worse (looking squid-like) ... no that's too horrible to contemplate...

Really, it just looks like a pale-coloured motor boat with a couple of waves of breaking wash trailing behind it.

.. but presumably TalkTalk's share are on the up now :)

You should crouch down in the middle of the field - make your self smaller than the trees...

... after all such things are designed to be stolen by [students|squaddies|matelots|scouts|etc.].

No, it's the subsequent throwing it in the harbour - that's despoiling the environment - a much more serious crime!

An aside - as a group of students we once liberated the "Italia" sign from a remote French-Italian border crossing using Swiss Army knives. A big 2 metre square sort of thing, blue, yellow stars, all that stuff. Brought it back to blighty on the roof of the minibus. Typically, as we walked it from the vehicle to its temporary storage location (prior to the planned display in a bar or something) at around 5am, a police patrol car passed us and slowed down. Luckily the quick-thinking rozzers just shook their heads and carried on their way...

Running the fans slower is likely to make less noise (unless the you get a gear-whine...), but how does it give you a greater by-pass ratio? Surely a slower fan pushes less air through the engine, so makes less thrust for the same turbine speed.

I suppose slower fans could run at a steeper blade pitch, but wouldn't that just increase the noise level again?

You numpties! (except Lloyd - I think you got it)

Oli 1 meant you can't run "No Script" on a phone...

Surely this is exactly what Project Kangaroo needed - some competition!

How can the watchdogs complain if there's an alternative.

C4 and ITV should sign up to both, and see which one brings in the revenue.

With a bit of careful design, there's no reason why a fuel cell could not be plugged in to the same space as a battery: after all a fuel cell is just a different form of rechargeable power store.

So I don't see there being a conflict with fuel cells and batteries - the stations can start offering a fuel cell refilling option alongside the battery swap during the transition period.

It might even be safer to pop the fuel cell unit out to refill it in a safe area (esp. if hydrogen is the fuel) and then pop it back in using the same robots...

I suspect it might be better to have the access to the battery in the sides or ends of the vehicle - maybe the driver opens a hatch and the robot can get in that way - it could solve a lot of the cleanliness/water seal problems.

When I type www.della.com into my browser, I end up at www.weddingchannel.com.

Either that or Dell are really branching out into new lady-friendly territory...

... as those of us who live on the more picture-skew parts of the river further up call that grotty tidal bit below Maidstone.

The "Medway Towns" drag down the reputation of the whole river (although Maidstone's a bit grim too...)

It would be perfectly normal for our American friends to adopt their own standards. Just try sailing across the Atlantic: do I go to port or starboard of that red mark? Depends if you're in American waters or the rest of the world...

UK police are overreaching their powers so much, we need the government to crack down on them.

But the UK government comprises of corrupt, money-grabbing liars, so we need the police to sort them out...

Time for the military to take over, me thinks. I hope there are enough left!

"That borders on cruelty,"

But only *borders* on cruelty, so perfectly OK then!

Would sending terriers into the burrows to get the wee beasties be just over the border?

How about laying itching powder down around the burrow entrances?

When they make an estate/tourer/station-wagon version, with nice rails on the roof for my kayaks, then I'll be interested. Surf-boards and mountain bikes are one thing, but can't get a 20-foot racing K2 inside anything you would honestly call a car...

'course, that roof-rack might just shorten the range a little: it certainly does with a petrol engine :(

But the extra boot in the front sounds perfect for the wet kit after the race.

On the styling - it's not an Aston, Maserati, Jaguar, Audi, Renault look-alike: it's a Mazda RX8 with proper rear doors.

... when talk with your tongue in your cheek like that :)

Of course, if any of the major newspapers wrote such an article, that would be scaremongering, wouldn't it?

"NASA Space Station Creates Mutant ... er ... blood and stuff" - Daily Mail

apparently they started eight years ago, although that is a estimate - maybe the don't know when the work started for sure, again sounds about right for a water company :)

As far as I know (IANAL) you trademark the typeface and so-on as well - the whole logo.

So we just need to know which font he used in his trademark application (comic sans MS, probably), and pick another one...