Brexit, for once some facts.

[oyster]

Mazda Electric SUV Will Drive Just Like Gasoline & Diesel Powered Cars

The Mazda MX-30 electric SUV will go on sale in Europe in late 2020. The company's engineers are tuning it to drive exactly like its gasoline and diesel powered cousins. Is that a smart thing?

cleantechnica.com

Interesting article. It seems Mazda are saying anything much over a 35kwh battery is as environmentally as damaging as ICE. (source of study in article). Consequently this car only comes with a 35kwh battery, anyone wanting more than the 109 mile range has to have a "small Rotary ICE range extender" under bonnet. Sort ofdefeats object and is in conflict with Tesla's views.????

So many assumptions!

I can accept that huge batteries will result in heavier vehicles. Thus impacting the miles per kWh. But the obvious answer to that isn't an ICE range extender but some or all of:
Improved availability of chargers and speed of charging;
Lighter batteries;
Having vehicles smaller than houses on wheels.

Sometimes I would like a car that is somewhat taller than our current vehicles. The main reason being to get a better view when travelling. I have no desire or need for the monsters that we see so often.

 

[Danidl]

So many assumptions!

I can accept that huge batteries will result in heavier vehicles. Thus impacting the miles per kWh. But the obvious answer to that isn't an ICE range extender but some or all of:
Improved availability of chargers and speed of charging;
Lighter batteries;
Having vehicles smaller than houses on wheels.

Sometimes I would like a car that is somewhat taller than our current vehciles. The main reason being to get a better view when travelling. I have no desire or need for the monsters that we see so often.

I went taller when the Renault Scenic came out,I would find it very difficult to do back. It may be only 6 inches, .. but you can do a lot with that!.

 

[flecc]

Not sure about that last point. The oligarchy of 1913 Edwardian British Empire and its New England equivalent has yet to be matched. According to calculations Rockefeller was and is the richest man who ever lived, Richer than any Paroah ,and he was in good company with British magnates . The difference was that people actually starved to death ,and many had only one set of clothes ,and this in the British Isles. Even 30 years later, the peri natal mortality rates were horrific. The conditions as shown in early series of "call the midwife " , were sanitised for the audience of today. My father ran a hospital which started with a 70% mortality rate in children, bringing it down to 20% .. the vast majority of which were dysenteric deaths. Social conscience would not allow that now.

I believe you are discounting the tremendous influence of the technological advance factor.

Vast wealth doesnt mean much when ill and medicine is too primitive to offer much, but it certainly does now when the very wealthy have very real benefit. Just consider the near 100 year old Queen and her husband now 95, her mother who went well beyond 100 years, and the numerous very wealthy who get well into their 90s. Meanwhile there are social groups in some areas of the UK where life expectancy is very low and far below the national average. Those reaching far into their 90s have one a half lives compared to the many who only get into their 60s. That's an incredible benefit.

The other technological areas also have a very big effect. When the only lighting was candles, parafin lamps or gas mantles, life for the rich and poor was almost the same in that respect. When the home heating was from afireplace burning coal or wood, again keeping warm was similar for all.

In transport by air, sea or land, the wealthy have huge advantages now, compared with well over a hundred years ago when a horse or Shanks's pony were the main means for all.

And in variable access to the best areas of the world to avoid the least clement weather throughout each year, the wealthier have huge advantage.

In short, wealth buys infinitely more personal gain today than it could in past eras. Hence the obscene disparities that now exist.
.

 

[jonathan.agnew]

Just about all the mainstream press and media are disingenuous. When Rachel Maddow of CNN was sued for telling lies about someone, her defence was that everything she says is understood to be opinion rather than fact, so nobody would take it that the guy actually did what she said and the guy's character wouldn't actually be harmed. The Judge found in her favour.

We live in a fabricated post truth world. like goebels' (or comical ali's) history and reality will probably judge it less kindly than those who buy into it at present.

 

[jonathan.agnew]

So many assumptions!

I can accept that huge batteries will result in heavier vehicles. Thus impacting the miles per kWh. But the obvious answer to that isn't an ICE range extender but some or all of:
Improved availability of chargers and speed of charging;
Lighter batteries;
Having vehicles smaller than houses on wheels.

Sometimes I would like a car that is somewhat taller than our current vehicles. The main reason being to get a better view when travelling. I have no desire or need for the monsters that we see so often.

But to state the obvious, brushless motors are 90% plus efficient (vs ice 20 to 25% at most). A 2.5t tesla would need an absolute monster of a climate destroying ice to do 0 to 60 in 2.9s

 

[oyster]

EU confirms that it will not be ready to start talks on trade deal with UK until end of February

The European commission has confirmed that it will not be ready to open talks with the UK on a future trade deal until the end of February at the earliest. The commission’s chief spokesman, Eric Mamer, told journalists this morning:
The commission can adopt its proposal for the negotiation directives only once the UK has actually withdrawn from the EU.
But then there is still an institutional process for these to be adopted by the [European] council.
This we know will take some time, which is why we have said we will start negotiations as quickly as we can, but it will certainly not be before the end of February, beginning of March.
This is not a slowing down or speeding up of the process. This is simply the nature of the institutional process and the consultations that need to take place before the negotiation directives can be formally adopted.

 

[Woosh]

And in variable access to the best areas of the world to avoid the least clement weather throughout each year, the wealthier have huge advantage.

In short, wealth buys infinitely more personal gain today than it could in past eras. Hence the obscene disparities that now exist.

anyone can fly from Southend to Spain for £50 return in winter time.

 

[flecc]

anyone can fly from Southend to Spain for £50 return in winter time.

You're just ducking the whole issue again. What about the entire costs of going, staying for the two or three months and returning? And how do the homeless, those in temporary accommodation through poverty, and the very large numbers whose income barely covers keeping their head above water take advantage of that possibility? £50 and more is what they are in arrears for much of their lives, and the employed ones cannot take two or three months off.

And how does that budget £50 flight compare with the private jet or business class flying of the wealthy?

There is no comparison, the wealthy are obscenely advantaged over the poor in every respect in our modern world, thanks chiefly to technological advances and biased government policies.
.

 

[oyster]

anyone can fly from Southend to Spain for £50 return in winter time.

Paying for the flight is no problem, but getting from here to there is! Rail would cost from £106.30 to £320.80 (not offered a coach option).

 

[Woosh]

Rail would cost from £106.30 to £320.80

it goes to show that rail travel is not good, never mind what flecc says...

 

[Danidl]

it goes to show that rail travel is not good, never mind what flecc says...

No the particular UK implementation is not good. If you were on the Málaga area in Spain, that distance might have been 15 euro. And the trains clean and very punctual

 

[oyster]

it goes to show that rail travel is not good, never mind what flecc says...

It certainly shows that flying from Southend is not in my future.

 

[oyster]

No the particular UK implementation is not good. If you were on the Málaga area in Spain, that distance might have been 15 euro. And the trains clean and very punctual

No comment on cleanliness and punctuality. But price - a minimum of £22.65 for a single from Malaga to Cordoba (most are £37.76) - and that is only 59 miles.

 

[flecc]

it goes to show that rail travel is not good, never mind what flecc says...

I'm simply observing the huge disparities between the rich and poor that exist now. An argument you are supporting with this post pointing out how rail travel in the UK is for those with sufficient disposable income, not for the many who have little or none.
.

 

[oyster]

Wouldn't it be spiffing to be PM...

Northern Ireland assembly votes to refuse legislative consent to PM's Brexit bill

The Northern Ireland assembly has passed a motion refusing to give legislative assent to the UK government’s EU (withdrawal agreement) bill. In effect, it has rejected Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. After a debate lasting almost three hours the power-sharing assembly, which was only revived just over a week ago, the motion was passed without opposition.

 

[Barry Shittpeas]

We've found that the probem is that Facebook sabotages an organisation's website with its alternative. In fact Facebook is far inferior to our website in that it's only convenient for the minute to minute stuff, news etc.

The website is far more convenient for our large specific galleries and management pages and those who rely on Facebook alone miss most of what is available.

Facebook suits this age of what the TV people call the 15 second attention span, but for some of us who are better than that, Facebook is a very poor substitute for many organisation's good websites.
.

The transient nature of Facebook suits running and cycling clubs well. Information about an event is only relevant for a short period of time. It allows questions, suggestions and discussions, and once the event is over, it’s self archiving.

It doesn’t cater for non Facebook users of course, but I find that they don’t really tend to know why they don’t use it. They just dislike it for reasons they can’t define. A bit like people opposed to the EU.

 

[oyster]

The transient nature of Facebook suits running and cycling clubs well. Information about an event is only relevant for a short period of time. It allows questions, suggestions and discussions, and once the event is over, it’s self archiving.

It doesn’t cater for non Facebook users of course, but I find that they don’t really tend to know why they don’t use it. They just dislike it for reasons they can’t define. A bit like people opposed to the EU.

As not-a-facebook-member, I clearly do not have direct personal experience of what it is like to be a member.

I do, though, have secondhand experience as partner goes into another meltdown over the way it pushes things at her all the time.

Another part of me "works" with a charity which has its own website, a separate forum and a facebook presence. Those who do some of the charity admin tend to go to facebook and say things there which never get reflected on the website or in the forum.

Lots of forum members would leave if they were expected to join facebook. (The forum software allows people to sign up with facebook credentials. Even the company which runs the forum advises against doing that!) There is a strong groundswell of not wanting to be involved with facebook - and at least some fo those who express that opinion have quite technical backgrounds.)

Facebook effectively contributes to balkanisation of members. Forum and website would be manageable. (Currently, the forum does seem to be winning but...)

 

[Woosh]

I have my FB account very early on, 2002.
You can lock access to just immediate friends.
However, FB API contains nasty backdoors for specialists like Cambridge Analytica to exploit their system.

 

[oldgroaner]

Bit awkward for Boris that the EU say they won't be ready to start negotiating a trade deal with us before March!

 

[oldgroaner]

Futile gesture of the day
"
Government lose first vote of new Parliament on EU citizens' rights post-Brexit
Peers reversed a provision in the Withdrawal Amendment Bill, passed by the Commons

Whatever.