m-i-l

Or the Lewis–Mogridge Position[0] which is that "traffic expands to meet the available road space", i.e. building more roads (thinking it will improve traffic congestion) usually ends up mak…

The ones where the old and new windows don't line up always seem a bit dumb. Must be a horrible experience for the people inside the new buildings, looking out of their windows onto a brick wall …

Also had a look at electrical heating options again recently. Everywhere I've lived that burns fossil fuels to generate heat has been plagued by costly maintenance. At my current place, not uniqu…

Yes, its all well and good looking at things like a Passivhaus for a new build, but in places like the UK there are very few opportunities for new builds, given homes have historically been built to l…

"You sounded happier when you said ‘photography’” See also "Clever Hans"[0], the horse answering questions correctly because it picked up the subconscious reactions of the observer. […

In the UK the plan is to eliminate the use of fossil fuel based heating in new homes by 2025, and convert existing homes by 2050[0]. Apparently "14% of UK greenhouse gases come from our homes, a …

Good spot. I must have been either using the British definition of billion (million million) rather than the US definition (thousand million), or failed to spot that the 25,700 taxpayers in the refere…

"Soros did not hurt UK economy. Just bruised some egos at the Bank of England by showing their stupid mistakes." From the article: "At 11AM, the British government announced they woul…

"Nomophobia, the fear of low battery on phones, is virtually nonexistent in China, thanks to the widespread availability of power bank stations" Actually nomophobia is more than a fear of …

"there's something to the argument of accepting what is and being calm and present to the moment" Ah, but that's what they want - something to reduce our immediate suffering an…

Indeed. The Bank of England's report was summarised by one news source yesterday as "Banks say there's no shortage of machine learning talent"[0]. [0] https://news.efina…

Actually the link SamBam has provided, i.e. to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_colours_of_Italy , explains the tricolour better. It also says "An apocryphal story abo…

According to the original article, the Margherita pizza was invented after Italian Reunification: "All that changed after Italian unification. While on a visit to Naples in 1889..." I'm…

Don't know how true it is, or whether it is a modern invention, but the story goes that the pizza created for Margherita of Savoy had basil, mozzarella and tomatoes to represent the 3 colours on …

I was going to suggest this too. According to the Android dev site "Google Play Billing can be used to sell the following types of in-app products: One-time products: An in-app product requiring …

Seems like the practice came to an end last year in England and Wales: "From 1 October, anyone who contacts the police about something they have lost will be redirected to private websites"[…

Nice hack. The "official" way of dealing with lost property in the UK is to take it to your local police station. If no-one claims it within 6 weeks, you might be able to keep the item. I ce…

Has anybody seen any articles which actually have pictures of the car or car parts? According to this article they "had finally produced a driveable prototype", and e.g. the BBC article[0] s…

"I know "wild west" is a popular analogy, but I fear people may forget it was awful." Fair points about the American Wild West and lawlessness, genocide, etc. But I think a bette…

"The consequences of a Leave vote were hammered out by Remain-supporting politicians for weeks and weeks before the referendum. The government spent 9 million GBP to publish a leaflet in support…

"The public voted for something specific and 3 years down the road it has not happened or been scheduled properly. That should be the bigger democratic scandal" The public did not vote for…

How did MobilEye manage to patent reading speed signs? Firstly, computers reading a number has plenty of prior art, and secondly, how can one company be allowed to have a monopoly on important public …

> what is so different with a Tesla? Right now, in the UK, the Tesla Model 3 is the only option that (i) is 100% electric, (ii) can go from e.g. London to Edinburgh with one charge stop, and (i…

There are £1,000,000 [0] and £100,000,000 [1] bank notes issued by the Bank of England, used to back the value of Scottish and Northern Irish pound. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki&#…

I read a report recently on predictions for Generation Alpha, i.e. the generation after Generation Z (in turn the generation after the Millennial Generation) very roughly born after 2010. One of the p…

According to wikipedia [0] and UK government sources [1] there are 4 countries in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: England, Scotland, Wales (together forming Great Britain) an…

Back in the early days of the internet I used to believe that monetization, or micropayments, was one of the key unsolved problems. Now I'm starting to wonder if it is the problem, that monetiz…

Sounds like it is aiming to be the car equivalent of the smart feature phone (see "The Hottest Phones for the Next Billion Users Aren’t Smartphones"[0]). Definitely think there could be a bi…

Most electric cars now have locks on the charging cable port so cables cannot be unplugged without unlocking, and these types of charging solutions are operated by dedicated app and/or NFC card a…