Posts by ðøþ“ßj}²\ßð¹|²

The Russians Are Coming (to Kansas City)

Or is Gurgle just taking the piss?

Труст Авеню, Kansas City, Missouri

What gives?

What is Orlowski afraid of?

A few hours ago I posted a comment, which you'll find quoted at the bottom of this message, on the "So. Farewell then Steelie Neelie: You were WORSE than USELESS" article by A. Orlowski.

The comment, two straight questions posed to the aforementioned author, was rejected (without any form of response, obviously). I understand that since he started allowing comments at all, he has this habit of pre-moderating his articles, which is his call as long as The Reg are fine with it. However, part of the benefit of online news is being able to have a public discussion about the topic, involving the author when it's appropriate to do so, such as clarifying his own motives for taking on a certain subject or focusing it in a certain way--this potentially adds value to the article and improves the quality of your readership, either by them being better informed, or by them going elsewhere if they decide your articles are not worth reading after all (an angry reader provides no benefit and can negatively impact reputation, therefore it's better to just lose them).

I shall give Mr. Orlowski the benefit of doubt and provide him with another opportunity to enlighten us as to his motives for a) choosing to focus his recent efforts on the EC's Commissioner for Digital Agenda (the postholder rather than the office itself, it seems), and b) taking the particular view that he's taken, which largely consists of attacks towards said commissioner without providing any real rationale or alternative arguments or proposals.

My original post follows:

hard to count

> It's hard to count foiled terrorist plots

No, it is not. When they do manage to foil one they do so with as much fanfare as possible. Understandable given that we all have budgets to maintain.

Train vs. Air

First comment on this article (Timo) is actually a very good one as it turns out. Research carried out by A. Horvath (UC Berkeley) et al. over the last few years using a cradle to grave approach has shown the environmental impact of high speed train to be much higher than commonly considered.

Further research in Europe (sorry, forgot by whom right now) would appear to favour a relatively dense network of point-to-point air links (i.e., moving away from the hub model) as possibly the most beneficial form of medium-range transportation in economico-environmental terms.

N.B.: Yes, as can be deduced from the above Ryanair *is* actually a pretty green company. Just mentioning it to save people from posting embarrassing pseudo-witty comments.