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Dr Stephen Davies on the wealth explosion unleashed by railways
I’ve followed the career of Stephen Davies ever since I got to know him in the 1980s. Here’s a photo I took of him in my home in January 2000, when he spoke at one of my last Friday of the month...
View ArticleVera Kichanova on micro-homes
Last night I attended a meeting, and although I did not have any arguments with anyone about fake news, I did meet with Vera Kichanova, and learned from her that her Adam Smith Institute “report” (aka:...
View ArticleSpanish practices
Taxi drivers in Madrid are on strike over “unfair competition” from online ride-sharing services such as Uber and Cabify, reports El Pais. In English. On the internet. Discuss.
View ArticleThe beating heart of NYC
Today I am reading and watching all those weather reports about how extremely cold it is in the US and some of my friends in New York and Chicago have been telling me about it. But what impresses me...
View ArticleLike Top Gear but not funny
The Times reports, Son travels 170 miles and beats ambulance to injured mother In a race between a man travelling 170 miles by public transport and an ambulance starting ten minutes’ drive away, most...
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A Brexit photo
Today I was at Euston tube station, and found myself admiring the antique signage on one of the platforms, the Northern Line I think, done with painted tiles, rather than with a printing press or with...
View ArticleWhat comes next after two?
Iran claims to have seized British oil tanker in strait of Hormuz Second ‘British’ tanker ‘Mesdar’ seized near Iran after veering off course
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Boastful Boris’s big bad boondoggle
So, Boris wants to build a new railway line. Between Leeds and Manchester. He says he wants it to do “…what we did with Crossrail in London”. An interesting argument given that the only thing the...
View ArticleA little phrase to look out for
The Times Saturday magazine features the latest of its series of quick interviews in which a famous person tells the readers “What I’ve learnt”. This one is with that fine actor, Jared Harris. Among...
View ArticleDon’t think of it as a “power cut”, think of it as an “electricity holiday”
The BBC reports that the National Grid will “learn the lessons” after nearly one million people across England and Wales lost power on Friday. But what lessons will those be? The power outage happened...
View ArticleMercedes benz with the prevailing wind
The Mail can be a little sensationalist sometimes. I am hoping that some of our well informed and technically aware commenters will tell me that the following story is ridiculous: How ALL cars could...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
One incident of Sectarianism in Northern Ireland does stick in my mind – myself and a friend were dropping off a car at a “park and ride” in Belfast and went for a bus – I went to buy a ticket and the...
View ArticlePeople power!
“Commuters now physically dragging [Extinction Rebellion] protestors from the roof of the train”, reports ITV’s Holly Collins. If it will not cause a problem where you are for you to cheer out loud,...
View ArticleWhat airports tell us about a police state
Kevin D Williamson doesn’t hesitate to put the boot in: With apologies to Margaret Atwood and a thousand other dystopian novelists, we do not have to theorize about what an American police state would...
View ArticleA lot of politics consists of politicians doing one of these two things
Here. In case the video at the other end of that link disappears, what we see is a guy on a railway platform bringing a train to a halt, with great effort. And then he gets it going again, with even...
View ArticleReaders of the Times try to help Greta out
The problem: Greta Thunberg stranded as climate summit moves from Chile to Spain In the centuries before powered flight, getting from California to Madrid was an arduous business, necessitating a long...
View ArticleGuards, guards!
“Passengers locked on train with violent thugs”, reports the Times: Two “psychotic” thugs spent 30 minutes assaulting and abusing commuters after rail staff locked them in a carriage and refused to...
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How a standard rut gauge created a standard rail gauge
Some MapPorn: This is a map of the world’s different railway gauges. Fun fact, if fact it be. In the schmoozing after a talk I attended earlier in the week, someone told me that Britain’s four foot...
View ArticleNo more cheap cars
In the Continental Telegraph, Tim Worstall points out that electric cars ain’t cheap. So when all cars must be electric, no cars can be cheap. This is where “trickle down economics” is actually true....
View ArticleDiscussion point – cars and COVID-19
A writer I follow is Joel Kotkin, who is based in the US and writes a lot about how cities and other human settlement patterns are changing. COVID-19 will accelerate changes in place, such as moves...
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