Not On-Line

I am a railway fan - not the anorak type - but someone who finds that rail is still the most civilized way to travel and I would support all realistic proposals to improve the current network (TGVs anyone?). However when I read proposals such as this http://dylanje.blogspot.com:80/2008/06/north-south-rail-links-new-approach_24.html I wonder which planet people are on.

A dual-track line built to a similar standard as the Marches line would be hideously expensive. It would be unfeasible to
re-use the routes of closed lines such as the Mid-Wales Railway (MWR) because they, frankly, were built on the cheap way back in the
1860s and were awful railways in the first place - slow, poor capacity, tight alignments, narrow tunnels etc (the narrow
tunnel bit is interesting - not all lines were built to the same loading guage and to save money some - such as the MWR - were
built to a basic a standard as possible!) and so, in effect, a new railway would have to built from scratch - if double track....and frankly you could forget that.

The problem with single track is that it wouldn't help North-South communications one jot: fast services would be impossible
owing to the need for passing places and if old trackbeds were re-used then they would keep the speed down. So we would have the situation
of a long-distance local service - not much different to the current situation on the Heart of Wales or the Cambrian routes where maximum speeds are limited (70MPH tops on the Cambrian Main Line; much less on the Coast and the HoW). A rebuilding of lines to link the North and South of Wales is romantic rubbish.

Where has the taste gone?

A few weeks ago my daughter brought back so carrots that a friend of hers had grown on his grandfather's farm. They looked awful - twisty, curly and decidedly unappetising. Until you tasted them. Real old-fashioned carrot taste which was absolutely lovely. Wind forwards to today. Carrots which looked gorgeous from Tescos, lovely orange look but they tasted of absolutely nothing. Literally nothing. I could have been eating hot cardboard. Supermarkets have been brilliant at bringing us cheap food but at what cost (and I am going to ignore here issues such as carbon miles)? The loss of taste in what we eat has been considerable - the supermarkets assumption that looks are everything (and to be fair I am not certain who is pushing this - is this consumer or supermarket driven?). I want my food to taste of something .. so please ...

Popular Crime

It has always fascinated me how some crimes have always held the popular fascination and today's Times is no exception. In essense it's saying that Dr Crippen who was hung in 1910 for the murder of his wife was framed. Now part of the fascination is the fact that wireless was used by the master of the Montrose to inform London of this suspicions that Crippen and Ethel Le Neave were on board. Story here
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4232359.ece

However I wonder if NHS Blog Doctor will sue?
http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/

Doctor Who

and it was well worth watching!

Andy Murray

At least he won his match in plenty of time before Doctor Who started!

Villiage Idiots

Just come off a call with a security specialist who wanted my advice on Unix password security. Apparently a live sys admin's idea of good security is "The old passwords will be removed and password set to the username with a blank password."


Why do we bother?

Well done Boris ....

I see Boris has announced that anyone who is in receipt of a pension under the War Pensions Scheme or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (and that includes war widows and widowers and eligible dependents) will be intitled to free transport within London. Excellent idea ... Is the rest of the country listening?