PC Pals Forum
General Discussion => Science & Nature => Topic started by: sam on April 17, 2010, 23:12
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OSLO (Reuters) - A thaw of Iceland's ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, scientists said on Friday.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ice-cap-thaw-iceland-volcanoes
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They are now talking about that volcano erupting for 18 months! :bawl: You will become a Canadian Sam.
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Good God! Imagine if they kept the airspace closed all that time!
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They are now talking about that volcano erupting for 18 months! :bawl: You will become a Canadian Sam.
I'll be on a boat before that!
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:woo:
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If the situation were to continue for any length of time, I suspect it would have more impact on global economies than the recession. Airlines would go bust, plus all the service industries, thousands would lose their jobs. The foreign producers who rely on air freight to get their produce to market would be ruined, food prices (in particular) would go up, and there would be a price war to obtain cargo shipping.
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But other than that, we'll be OK? :o
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Maybe. ;D
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everyone will start to use trains again and we will become environmentally friendly... with the occasional sacrifice to the gods of the mountain.
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You're going to find it hard to get home, then, Sam. ;)
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train across canada then I'll get on a boat... something like the titanic... :crazy:
(p.s. I said nothing about intercontinental flights... I just thinks its daft when people go on a flight from London to Edinburgh - use the fecking train)
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I can't see the point of most domestic flights, given you have to travel to the airport, be there early for check in etc. OTOH, the railways have a pricing structure that makes flying more economical.
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only just though. I tend to find trains a hell of a lot more relaxing and if I wanted to not get a cab or a lift to the airport I'd probably have to get to a train anyway... oh well. Silly people. I wonder if this will have a knock on effect with the trains and ferrys becoming more popular... its a shame its so expensive to use the eurostar. I love travelling on the train in Europe and would quite happily do that instead of a plane.
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I must admit liking trains, perhaps because of my age. When I was a kid, few people had cars, fewer could afford to fly, so the train was the way to go. I remember my first sleeper trip to Inverness like it was yesterday. That huge beast of a steam engine, the wonderful smells, the exciting sights, watching the countryside roll past the window (sleep? I was way too excited!).
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I'm with you Sam, I much prefer trains. Far more relaxing and you can get up and walk around. Plus I hate flying, at least when I'm sober.
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I like to fly to be honest. I like trains too. If I had the option it would always be trains. That really isn't an option over here in Canada - much easier to fly (locally never mind back to the UK).
I love big steam engines, but I'd rather be on one of the high speed trains we have no. Shame they can't go as fast as they should. Can't wait for the government to get their fingers out and properly invest in the rail network. Its the way to go.. having all linked up with local metro services and job done, you never need a car.
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They should have stuck with Brunel's wide gauge.
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oh they should have. That and thought about the height of road bridges a little more. :dunno:
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Brunel was miles ahead of the rest of his generation.
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a great engineer who we should be very thankful for.
And his father was pretty smart too... the Thames Tunnel and all.
the atmospheric railway is something that always makes me go wow... and I feel sad that such interesting developments were ignored. How we should have high speed maglevs now if people listened.
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Yes, the Thames tunnel was a massive achievement - I got to walk through it as a kid. Brunel was a good architect as well as engineer - a real Renaissance man.
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cool that would have been a nice walk. I wonder if it is part of the new London Overground network since the East Line was shut?
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Possible, Sam, I haven't been back to London for 30 years now. I also had the privilege of walking the tunnels in the Post Office Railway. Great fun, really interesting to be down there.
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cool - they have a few post office tunnels in brum that have now been shut, which is a shame
You haven't been to London for 30 years? Bet its changed quite a bit!
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I doubt that I would recognise large swathes, but the house I grew up in looks much the same on Google.
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ah good old Google.
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Some say that, others know the sod. ;D
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:laugh:
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When I visited Glasgow to attend a wedding in 2008 train fare from Cardiff was £125 each, airfare £40 each. No contest really. :dunno:
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That's a lot of the problem, Clive.
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Yes, I've often wondered why train travel is so much more expensive than virtually any other.
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It's not like that in France. Probably not in the rest of Europe either but I think Sam is the expert on rail travel in Europe! 8-)
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It's crazy. If they want to get us out of our cars and off the planes, they need to address train fares.
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Something I have always said Rik! :(
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Me too. No-one ever listens though, do they? :(
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It's not like that in France. Probably not in the rest of Europe either but I think Sam is the expert on rail travel in Europe! 8-)
yeah its not - then again I found Italy fairly pricey for the trains... but the rest seemed very reasonable... and cheaper for the same distance than the UK. The problem we have is that the system is so fragmented now its easy for the companies to mess up the prices.
Also the train to Glasgow was probably one of Virgin's cash cows...
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The best railways in europe are in France and Germany and are part nationalised and subsidised by the state.
As far as I know there is only one party in the UK that wants to renationalise the utilities, so I presume that would include the railways, for the benefit of the British people and not just for big companies to make vast profits at the publics expense.
If they got in power then our railways could compete to once again be the amongst the best in the world :)
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By a strange coincidence I have just read this on the BNP website :
http://bnp.org.uk/2010/04/the-madness-of-torylabour-privatisation-german-state-about-to-buy-arriva-trains-and-busses-in-britain/
German state-owned Deutsche Bahn is about to buy the Arriva train and bus network in Britain, proving the Tory/Labour privatisation policy to be a shocking hoax which has seen Britain’s infrastructure pass into foreign ownership.
Deutsche Bahn is set to buy Arriva for about £1.6 billion within the next two weeks, according to news reports.
Arriva runs 20 percent of London’s buses and the Cross-Country and Wales rail franchises. According to reports, Deutsche Bahn has been in detailed talks with Arriva since making an approach last month.
Deutsche Bahn has the backing of the German government in its takeover bid which gave it an advantage over the French state-controlled SNCF railway network, which was also attempting to buy Arriva.
The French government refused to back the SNCF bid, as now the path is open for the German state to buy up yet more of Britain’s infrastructure.
Deutsche Bahn was created in 1994 through a merger of the rail arms of west and east Germany. It is one of the largest transport groups in the world, and the biggest railway operator and infrastructure owner in Europe.
The move gives lie to the underlying rationale for privatisation in the first place, namely that the British state could not run a transport network efficiently.
It seems, under the Tory privatisation plan (which was endorsed and carried through by Labour) that it is “wrong” for the British state to own our railway network, but it is perfectly acceptable for the German state to own it.
As I thought, the article goes on to say :
“The BNP would re-nationalise the railways,” Mr Prince told a local newspaper. “All profits will be re-invested and the days of putting passengers’ safety at risk due to shareholders’ returns would be a thing of the past.
A so called right wing party that has real left wing socialist policies, more like old labour was than new labour is now :)
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I'd definitely argue that the UK's railways are still amongst the best in the world.
Also with Arriva they just get a franchise that surely has to be renewed.
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It has to be said, the Germans do tend to do things more efficiently, so perhaps it's not such a bad thing for Arriva?
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indeed
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Unfortunately we could end up in the same situation with our trains as we are in with our energy suppliers, once they are owned and controlled by foreign governments. France wouldnt allow EDF, ( I think thats the majority state owned French energy company), to increase their charges to the French by more than 5% while having no such qualms about increasing them to us by 50% a couple of years back >:(
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I dumped EDF last year after they put their charges up when all the others were decreasing them!
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EDF are big world wide not just in France / UK. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lectricit%C3%A9_de_France#Main_partners
EDF are on the market so I doubt the Frence Government play a large part in them.
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I think theyre a majority shareholder, I know they dictated a maximum price increase for french consumers. It was widely reported at the time.
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I think theyre a majority shareholder, I know they dictated a maximum price increase for french consumers. It was widely reported at the time.
Was it?? I don't recall though. I took a look at their website and couldn't see who the majority shareholders was - then again it could have just been government policy.
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Just under 2 years ago Sam, according to this article :
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/55944/French-energy-firm-rips-off-UK-families
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I was one of the great "ripped off". >:(
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I escaped just in time.
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What annoyed me was that I was mis-sold it by Sainsbury's who call it Sainsbury Energy. They told me they were not linked to any particular energy company and would always switch to the cheapest provider. That of course was a downright lie as all they are doing is reselling EDF. I have no proof that I was mis-sold because there was nothing in writing and no record of a telephone conversation since the salesperson accosted while we were shopping in Sainsbury's. My bill went up 50% during a time when British Gas started to lower their tariffs. >:(
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that's what you get for shopping in Sainsbury's - surely you only ever shop at M&S or Waitrose
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M&S usually. :laugh:
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If only they delivered. :bawl:
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Don't they? They do for wine. ;D
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Not for food.
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I wonder why not, that's missing a trick to me, especially with the ready meals etc.
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Indeed. Everyone else does it.
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Given all their food-only outlets, eg BP stations, you'd have thought it was the logical next step.
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I can but hope. :)
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Watch the salt content. :)
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I don't just eat ready meals! ;D
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;D