emordnilap wrote:
Of course, you could give Michael O'Leary yet more money to trash the planet with. Flying sounds 'cheap' compared to travelling by train but of course you have both journeys to pay for, with all the added extras and surcharges, you can only take a small amount of luggage, you have to pay for trips to and from airports, etc etc and you're not paying for even the tiniest fraction of your impact on the environment, nor your taking into account your support of an ultimately stupid way of shifting bodies round the planet.
There's a guy in the audience got shares in Ryanair. Or is he a member of PS?
Last edited by emordnilap on 04 Jan 2012, 12:23, edited 1 time in total.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
They should be renationalised with shareholders taking a 100% loss.
And you want people to invest in windfarms?
Nope, I want the government to build windfarms.
I don't believe the free market can solve our problems. Ecological sustainability and the need to make a profit are goals which are generally incompatible in a free market. We cannot rely on people to build renewable power sources because they think they can make a profit. We need them to be built even if they make a loss.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
Me and a friend holidayed in Holland last year. London Liverpool Street to Harwich, big ferry overnight to Hook of Holland, and a train to any major Dutch city for one price, which I think was £25 + £30something for the cabin+ £19 for a reasonable 3 course meal with serviceon the boat. Nice way to see the North Sea (from one of the biggest ferries in the world) if it gets rough. Rented bikes from various hostels we stayed at and saw Botanic Gardens and Arboretums in Leiden, Delft, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, rode a lot of trains and looked round some really impressive allotments. Not an expensive holiday in all, and beats the hell out of drinking beer all day on an all inclusive place on the Costas. Scotland by train next. Don't do planes, can't f**ing stand them. I wonder how much the Dutch spend on their railways and maintaining cycle routes- you can actually cycle from city to city through beautiful countryside on dedicated cycle roads, not lanes to the side of cars roaring past.
Last edited by leroy on 21 Jan 2012, 21:13, edited 1 time in total.
biffvernon wrote:Isn't it funny how stuff gets worse.
Vellum - paper - digital media
Live music - analogue recording - digital recording
Aah yes, progress.
I was using a loo in a restaurant in Dublin. The urinal flushed 'automatically' as I moved away; the soap dispenser dispensed automatically; the water for washing started automatically; so did the hand drier. There was even a rubbish bin which opened electrically, as you moved your hand towards the appropriate spot.
I was miffed at having to open the door manually. Such effort!
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
emordnilap wrote:I was miffed at having to open the door manually. Such effort!
Presumably as everything else is automated, there's no hygiene reasons for not touching a door handle .
There are no hygiene reasons for having an automated soap dispenser either, when you think about it!
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
No, that's right. the most important bits of infection control are being able to turn off the tap without contact with your hands, no previously used towels and opening the door without contacting a door handle which has probably been used by those who haven't washed their hands.
It is amazing how inneffective we are at washing our hands- if you spray some stuff on your hands which only shows up under IR light and do a normal sort of hand wash you miss loads of areas, hence the methodical system used in healthcare.
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