Prices of the electricity we use to charge

[Ghost1951]

Exploding stars are rare but emit torrents of radiation − if one happened close enough to Earth, it could threaten life on the planet

Some ancient texts record what were likely dying stars, faintly visible from Earth. If close enough, these events can disturb telescopes and even damage the ozone layer.

theconversation.com

 

[Ghost1951]

What fathers in the animal kingdom can tell us about humans

Some of the most caring animal fathers are insects.

theconversation.com

 

[lenny]

 

[lenny]

What fathers in the animal kingdom can tell us about humans

Some of the most caring animal fathers are insects.

theconversation.com

White-tailed eagles: Footage reveals 'miracle chick' in flight

A white-tailed eagle that broke its wing has taken to the skies after its parents nursed it back to health.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[saneagle]

White-tailed eagles: Footage reveals 'miracle chick' in flight

A white-tailed eagle that broke its wing has taken to the skies after its parents nursed it back to health.

www.bbc.co.uk

It said what "fathers" can tell us, not "feathers". Feathers tell us that there are either a lot of birds about, or there's a cat hiding under the bushes by the bird feeder.

 

[lenny]

 

[Ghost1951]

It said what "fathers" can tell us, not "feathers". Feathers tell us that there are either a lot of birds about, or there's a cat hiding under the bushes by the bird feeder.

Or, if you live in the countryside, that a fox has got one, or more of your chickens....

 

[flecc]

Compared to rail, water is a less pressing issue.

They are both pressing issues, which is why Jeremy Corbyn was right in his intention to renationalise both regardless of the cost. Worldwide rail is state owned, long proven to be the only way a country can have rail. Even those arch privateers the Americans have admitted defeat and have Amtrak, their own form of state run rail. And only a mad person like Thatcher would put water, one of the three fundamentals of life, into foreign hands.

Water had for too long been far too cheap, so we as a country have been wasting it. Within only a generation ago we used to have weekly baths, now many are showering daily, even two or even three times a day in some instances. We now have cars which we obsessively wash far more often than necessary. We've covered the country with golf courses using vast quantities of water to keep their greens pristine, so our rivers and reservoirs run dry.

The answer is very simple, take water back into public ownership and make it very much more expensive to stop the public's waste and cut the leakage waste by then having the money for the repairs.

As Ken Livingstone so successfully showed in London, big apparently insoluble problems require radical answers like the above one, and the courage to apply them.

Rail needs the opposite radical answer, take it back into public ownership, then apply Ken's logic and make it very cheap to use and frequent, while making car use very much more expensive by such as mileage charging to subsidise those rail fares. An added benefit of this radical change in policy would be making our green targets for air pollution much easier to reach.

The Spanish have done this. Their old, slow, creaky rail was in the doldrums and dying, so seemingly illogically they used huge sums to build high speed rail lines affordable to travel on. Now those new fast trains are popular and well used by the public, transforming rail's image in that country.

There's a hint for the UK in that. Instead of moaning about HS2 cost and cutting back on it., just go ahead flat out with HS2, HS3 and HS4. Then make them cheap to use and introduce annual car mileage charges and tolls for private cars on motorways to pay for those trains. London's hugely successful policies applied nationally.
.

 

[lenny]

 

[guerney]

Three cancellations on my outward train journey yesterday: two were because "Driver was unavailable", three more cancellations on the way back, added 4.5 hours to my return journey. This experience has got me hankering after a 4140Ah ebike battery, not least because these damned cancellations are all over the freaking shop for all of my intended journeys today. There isn't even a strike on!

 

[Ghost1951]

Ha ha ha ha.

Lunatics try to impose on the entire country a policy which might suit the rather anomalous situation in certain parts of inner London where too many cars have for fifty years at least been vying for space on roads.

The country is NOT LONDON!

LONDON is NOT the country. Most of the rapidly growing population does not live there.

For a start - huge amounts of money per capita have been spent on London public transport and a tiny fraction per capita has been spent on transport elsewhere. Nevertheless, the metropolitan self obsessed, dictate ridiculous policies which would paralyse other parts of the country.

UK transport spending per capita by region 2023 | Statista

In 2022/23, transport spending in London was 1,272 British pounds per capita, compared with just 361 pounds per head in the East Midlands, indicating a significant regional disparity in public spending on transport.

www.statista.com

.

 

[Woosh]

They are both pressing issues, which is why Jeremy Corbyn was right in his intention to renationalise both regardless of the cost.

unlike trains, it will take years to renationalise water. If the goal is improvements then it is much easier to do that by Ofwat fining the water companies for missing targets and jailing their directors for unauthorised discharges.

 

[flecc]

Ha ha ha ha.

Lunatics try to impose on the entire country a policy which might suit the rather anomalous situation in certain parts of inner London where too many cars have for fifty years at least been vying for space on roads.

The country is NOT LONDON!

LONDON is NOT the country. Most of the rapidly growing population does not live there.

For a start - huge amounts of money per capita have been spent on London public transport and a tiny fraction per capita has been spent on transport elsewhere. Nevertheless, the metropolitan self obsessed, dictate ridiculous policies which would paralyse other parts of the country.

UK transport spending per capita by region 2023 | Statista

In 2022/23, transport spending in London was 1,272 British pounds per capita, compared with just 361 pounds per head in the East Midlands, indicating a significant regional disparity in public spending on transport.

www.statista.com

.

You really do lack understanding. London has done what it did by raising the money necessary for the huge increases in public transport from motoring. That will work equally well elsewhere as I've implied, but no, you are so blinkered you deny that out of self interest. It is precisely your "do nothing" attitude that accounts for so many of this country's failings which you are so voluble about.

The rest of the country IS London in the terms you use. 86% of the population dont't live in the country, they live in urban areas like towns and cities where too many cars have for fifty years and more been vying for space on the roads. The problem everywhere is identical, as is the solution.

Open your eyes and mind. We've had roads for travelling on for some 2000 years, but suddenly only 100 years ago we started making a large proportion of them impossible to travel on. I'm speaking of parking, predominantly of private cars. Until then there was no parking, one couldn't leave a horse out long term so the horse and any attached vehicle left the road. It was when the public started garaging their cars on the roads that the problem started and when the short sighted authorities should have come down on that with hefty fines for obstruction of the highway.

Had they done that our development would have been very different. There would now be far lower levels of car ownership but far higher levels of car renting or taxi use on occasions of such need, plus more public transport. Of course the authorities everywhere are beginning to realise all this and belatedly startingto move in this direction, some policies now making that very clear.

So the inevitability of all this will make it happen anyway, albeit it very slowly in backward crowded countries like ours.
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[flecc]

unlike trains, it will take years to renationalise water.

Excepting the paperwork, I don't agree. Just like the privatisation which happened instantaneously, the instant change of control is just a change of employer for the staff in the industry

But it doesn't matter anyway if we adopt the policy of more expensive water as I've described. That, plus coming down hard on the water companies meanwhile, will provide the improvements and the money to achieve them.
.

 

[Woosh]

Had they done that our development would have been very different. There would now be far lower levels of car ownership but far higher levels of car renting or taxi use on occasions of such need, plus more public transport. Of course the authorities everywhere are beginning to realise all this and belatedly startingto move in this direction, some policies now making that very clear.

Some people reckon that self driving cars will save 900,000+ fatalities every year.

 

[flecc]

Some people reckon that self driving cars will save 900,000+ fatalities every year.

If true yet another huge advantage. One way or another, the day of the currently low cost privately owned car is over already in the minds of the authorities of many advanced countries. The making it happen has already started but the blinkered car owing public have yet to realise it.
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[saneagle]

Some people reckon that self driving cars will save 900,000+ fatalities every year.

What about self-driving motorbikes? How will self-driving cars deal with motorbikes? How will the big boss deal with motorbikes?

 

[Woosh]

What about self-driving motorbikes? How will self-driving cars deal with motorbikes? How will the big boss deal with motorbikes?

I suppose the same software can be used on motorbikes too as self balancing bikes are already made.

 

[saneagle]

I suppose the same software can be used on motorbikes too as self balancing bikes are already made.

Brilliant!. It's a PITA to have to keep putting your feet down at the traffic lights so I'll nip down to my nearest Honda dealer to see if I like the colours. If they have blue, I'll get one. I'm not keen on silver, orange, black or green, but I might be tempted by anything else.

 

[Woosh]

Brilliant!. It's a PITA to have to keep putting your feet down at the traffic lights so I'll nip down to my nearest Honda dealer to see if I like the colours. If they have blue, I'll get one. I'm not keen on silver, orange, black or green, but I might be tempted by anything else.

you don't have to put your foot down. The bike will work like a car. It has extra retractable legs.