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Wednesday 19th 37F, dark grey, damp, distant mist and breezy with occasional showers.
A blind, worm-like amphibian, which spends most of its life hiding with its head in the sand, has received the extremely doubtful honour of being named after German immigrant, Chancellor Chump. Will the worms start a class action suite against the Coal Kingpin for defamation? We shall see.
Amphibian that buries head in sand named after Donald Trump - BBC News
A walk to the lanes again with the cold easterly wind blowing up the shoulder vent of my jacket. I saw a small group of pretty Bullfinches. Later I saw about 30 mink gulls washing their feet in a small puddle.
One of my tongue-in-cheek ramblings on sea level rise and needing amphibious vehicles produced an interesting comment. Which made me suddenly realise that changing en-masse to alternative means of transport is a huge hurdle for humanity to overcome. Ironically it is developing countries which will have a head start.
Smaller vehicles are relatively easy and cheap to produce. A cheaper and lighter, battery technology, with increased storage density, is still under intense development. A fortune probably awaits the earliest major patent holders.
The main problem, as I see it, is asking different vehicle types, of radically different speeds and sizes to share the existing roads. All of which are based on a century of global investment in the infernal combustion engine. Our roads are fine in themselves. The problem is our sharing them with anything different.
Farm tractors and JCB "diggers" are getting quicker but still badly[?] hold up the traffic in rural areas. The horse and carriage had the same problem with faster bicycles. The change-over from horse drawn transport had an immense impact on a centuries old industry. The infrastructure and vast number of people employed, supporting slow carriages and their passengers was firmly embedded in hotels and inns and stables.
The bicycle disrupted the staid speeds, expense and range of a well established means of transport. Much of the advancing technology in improving the bicycle was soon adapted to motorcycles and cars. The mass movement away from agriculture and the immense pain and suffering it caused is unimaginable to us today.
Now a very similar situation awaits us. The battery driven, intelligent vehicle revolution is an exact parallel with that of the first motor vehicles of 100 or more years ago.
Alternative vehicles are completely unsuited to sharing roads with human drivers riding in 1-2 ton metal boxes. The humble bicycle is a slow moving clot in today's major traffic arteries. A tricycle even worse! A tricycle can survive on a bicycle path, but only just. Its width is a problem for other users going in both directions. A recumbent bike or trike is even more disruptive on the cycle paths. Just as will be the high performance electric bicycles and trikes about to join the staid commuters on their comfortably upright bikes.
No doubt there will be a period where more normal, electric vehicles gradually replace the ICE car and van. An alternative size of vehicle, specifically for town commuting, is probably on a much more distant horizon.
A walk to the lanes again with the cold easterly wind blowing up the shoulder vent of my jacket. I saw a small group of pretty Bullfinches. Later I saw about 30 mink gulls washing their feet in a small puddle.
One of my tongue-in-cheek ramblings on sea level rise and needing amphibious vehicles produced an interesting comment. Which made me suddenly realise that changing en-masse to alternative means of transport is a huge hurdle for humanity to overcome. Ironically it is developing countries which will have a head start.
Smaller vehicles are relatively easy and cheap to produce. A cheaper and lighter, battery technology, with increased storage density, is still under intense development. A fortune probably awaits the earliest major patent holders.
The main problem, as I see it, is asking different vehicle types, of radically different speeds and sizes to share the existing roads. All of which are based on a century of global investment in the infernal combustion engine. Our roads are fine in themselves. The problem is our sharing them with anything different.
Farm tractors and JCB "diggers" are getting quicker but still badly[?] hold up the traffic in rural areas. The horse and carriage had the same problem with faster bicycles. The change-over from horse drawn transport had an immense impact on a centuries old industry. The infrastructure and vast number of people employed, supporting slow carriages and their passengers was firmly embedded in hotels and inns and stables.
The bicycle disrupted the staid speeds, expense and range of a well established means of transport. Much of the advancing technology in improving the bicycle was soon adapted to motorcycles and cars. The mass movement away from agriculture and the immense pain and suffering it caused is unimaginable to us today.
Now a very similar situation awaits us. The battery driven, intelligent vehicle revolution is an exact parallel with that of the first motor vehicles of 100 or more years ago.
Alternative vehicles are completely unsuited to sharing roads with human drivers riding in 1-2 ton metal boxes. The humble bicycle is a slow moving clot in today's major traffic arteries. A tricycle even worse! A tricycle can survive on a bicycle path, but only just. Its width is a problem for other users going in both directions. A recumbent bike or trike is even more disruptive on the cycle paths. Just as will be the high performance electric bicycles and trikes about to join the staid commuters on their comfortably upright bikes.
No doubt there will be a period where more normal, electric vehicles gradually replace the ICE car and van. An alternative size of vehicle, specifically for town commuting, is probably on a much more distant horizon.
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