Patch

A social network needs enough users to actually function. In the early days, Lemmy/kbin/associates were too quiet to be appealing, so there was a constant push to bring in new users. As this is a Reddit clone social network, inevitably that means hoping that Reddit users will come across.

I would argue that Lemmy et al is already at a high enough number of active users that there's a basic critical mass; that there's enough activity here such that a new user would find plenty to keep them engaged. It could certainly stand to be much bigger still, but the pressure to grow is much less intense.

Exactly! Tunnel capacity is a hard upper limit, but in an ideal world you'd be using every minute of that capacity for either passengers or freight. Depot capacity issues are very solvable.

Station capacity is also an issue (particularly passport control issues at St Pancras, which limits how many passengers they can process even beyond platform capacity), but that's relatively solvable too. One of the competing proposals (possibly the Gemini one?) wanted to make Stratford International its terminus rather than St Pancras to avoid station congestion. If HS1-HS2 link were back in play, that would open up other options for alternative termini too (such as Old Oak Common, or HS2 stations out of London).

Yep. It's to distinguish it from other forms of homelessness, such as "sofa surfing" (where someone moves from one friend or family member to another for short periods without having a fixed address of their own), people temporarily living in homeless shelters/boarding houses, people living in places which aren't really accommodation (such as their place of work), and "statutory homelessness" (a broader legal definition which includes a few things which might not seem like homelessness, such as people who are at serious risk of violence in their homes).

Personally I am decidedly unoptimistic about their chances on this one, as it seems to be looking for a huge amount of spending for some very small communities (e.g., a new mainline station at Christian Malford, population somewhat less than 1000 people). But you've got to love the effort.

With the number of different proposals now in flight (at least 5 that I'm aware of, including this one), surely we must be heading towards the conclusion that we need to build new depots. If unmet demand for international rail travel is there and the only limiting factor is capacity at Temple Mills, surely the answer has to be increasing capacity to meet the demand rather than just accepting that some company will be allowed a few scraps.

I must have missed the golden age. Taco Bell opened in my town in 2021, and I've only eaten in there a couple of times because it's dire. Small, scraggly little wraps with barely any filling (and the filling they do have is bland and crap; they don't seem to sell a single spicy item on the menu).

We're not exactly overwhelmed with Mexican restaurants, but even if I wanted a taco I still wouldn't bother.

Do you think it might be a good idea to bolster the admin team by another member, just in case?

I'm not volunteering, you understand. Oh heck no. But might be worth putting the feelers out to see if anyone is interested. If Emperor returns then all good, you've got an extra admin, no harm done; and if he doesn't, then at least you're not short-handed.

They're cakes, as ruled on by the courts in the case of McVities Biscuits vs HM Revenue and Customs (1991).

Agreed; I don't hate my FP4, but it's definitely the least polished phone I've ever owned, and it wasn't cheap for it. The ghosting was a nightmare, but they fixed it (eventually) with a software update...which begs the question why it shipped with a bug like that in the first place.

The company has been around far too long to get away with putting out buggy devices.

And that's before we get to the failure to update FP4 (let alone FP3+) to Android 14, despite being well within their support period. In theory FP4 will be going straight to Android 15, but FP3+ is effectively grounded at Android 13; which considering their stated goal of reducing e-waste, is really not a good look.

And yet nobody ever wants my tiramisu.

The real competitor for green aviation isn't hydrogen, it's bio-fuel. Bio-kerosene, bio-gas and bio-ethanol all have useful roles in aviation, and are essentially carbon neutral over their lifecycle. Zero carbon at the proverbial tailpipe is a lot less important when that tailpipe is at 30,000 feet.

It's less a "row" and more a straightforward capacity issue.

The ORR has produced a report detailing exactly how much capacity is available at Temple Mills, and the long and short of it is "some, not a lot". If an operator puts in a bid which only requires a small amount of depot space then in theory that could sneak in there and use that capacity, but basically all the serious proposals we've heard about so far (Virgin, FS Italiane, Evolyn and Gemini) are likely to be too big and need further depot investment. This isn't news to Virgin; they've read the same report everyone else has. They just need to figure out what they want to do about it.