UK train travel on the up

The Grauniad has the story. Just imagine what would happen if they invested in re-opening many of the lines shutdown in the last fifty years, particularly through routes.

I'm back on the kick of comparing a railway network with a computer network. Re-instating railways would demonstrate Metcalfe's Law - connect any number, "n," of machines - whether computers, phones or even trains - and you get "n" squared potential value. Think of railway stations as nodes - the value of the railway is "n" squared where "n" equals the number of stations - open more stations and the value of the network grows exponentially.

Conversely chopping bits off the network by closing stations does calculable damage, not foreseen by the meddlers.

DIY Radio - no licence required

The BBC has a good simple explanation of the podcasting phenomenon and pioneer Adam Curry. I've been following this at Dave Winer's website Scripting.Com for some time. Radio meets MP3 Player with lots of home brewed content.

Bus stopped

My Mrs was on a Greyhound bus on 27th December departing 10:30 from Toronto for Kitchener. Reaching Guelph Line the bus pulled up with a seized bearing and caught fire. Passengers completed their journey on a back-up bus.

Different train of thought

The Guardian brings news of the benefits of opening an old railway line in Africa.

Happy non-denominational end-of-year celebration!

As you can see we have our main celebration of the year in Lewes in November. This enables us to publish the pictures in time for Christmas!
Wishing all my readers a Happy Xmas and good luck in '05. It is going to be a mega year here at PunchBuggy - stand by!