Comments by Steve.T

Düsseldorf's altstadt area in the evenings is hardly dull!

Dusseldorf's altstadt area is hardly dull!

There is no single British way to say "past". In most parts of Southern England, the vowel is long, as in "car". However in Northern England, Scotland and Wales the vowel is short.

At what stage in the eating and digestion process does it cease to be illegal? You might want to have your last whaleburger 48 hours before leaving Keflavik.

Funny coincidence, perhaps - but a few years ago, I saw mice scampering around on the hardwood floors, near the windows in Stockholm Arlanda airport - near Gate 57 as it happens (the non-Schengen part used for UK flights). While being a little surprised that super-neat Sweden could have such beasts in a public area, I never thought they could ground a plane ...

@bcRpTp8T4a - if we really do need a technology fix to this problem (I doubt it, personally) - then the "room occupied" light outside, could be activated (only) by the housekeeping staff's card. So it would provide no additional help to a thief.

Better still, the staff could carry some sort of device that gives them a map of the vacated rooms, enabling them to clean in an efficient sequence.

@Pablo Ba, thanks for your note of optimism and hope in what is a pretty bleak debate. If people like Izzeldin Abuelaish (book "I shall not Hate") can gain at least some traction then there is always hope.

Last August, I booked via Expedia 7 nights in Rome, for our family of four, with 3 days notice. BA flights from LHR (which were both pleasant and punctual), Sheraton Roma 4* (outside the centre but dedicated & reasonably priced coaches to&from .. plus an outdoor pool).

Total fixed cost incl. flights, hotel and breakfast was less than £400 each. Even the final hotel bar/food bill was not outrageous, apart from the extravagant non-alcoholic cocktails my wife + kids loved at 11 euro each. Nothing is cheap in Rome but this didn't hurt as much as I was expecting.

@Felixoo - it exists - Inmarsat. But it's expensive.

On the title: May I suggest 'PageUp refreshes Google'

We're encouraged to book via our TMC's online site, which does at least work (although often a call to their agent produces better availability, cost, or even both). I suppose it saves the agent handling fee or something. The website rigidly enforces lowest cost option despite longer journey times, antisocial departures or distant airports. And there are usually special fares with the airmiles/qualifying flight status 'stripped out' so they now have a way to remove even that travel perk.
For a quick search of flight options I prefer kayak.co.uk

I think this will be even worse for shorter people - less than 5' tall gives comfort problems with seating of all kinds, not just on planes. That's why kids swing their legs on hard seats. Speaking of which, if this increases the chances of thrombosis then I hope the idea won't get far.

In para 2, do you mean “probabilistic inference” rather than "interference"?

Hotel internet also varies widely in reliability and bandwidth, with seemingly no relationship to price. My advice when it's slow is, leave your machine collecting mails (but secured), go have a beer, and answer them later. You'll only increase your stress level trying to open them as they crawl in.

Some colleagues have 'per diem' where they are given a fixed amount to spend on food. They are masters at optimising breakfast costs. Usually I tag along with them, as quality is often better than the hotel's own.

gbles is almost correct. When on flattish ground, wind resistance dominates (rather than the work needed to lift the rider + bike up hill on the climbs).

Wind resistance goes up approx. with the square of speed.
The work done per second (in watts, or horsepower) goes up with the cube of speed, so even more sharply. This is not exactly exponential but it's a steep curve nonetheless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_%28physics%29#Power

Call me paranoid if you like, but I take my shoes off once we're airborne and have gained roughly 2000ft (enough to turn around and land again). You might just be very grateful for footwear if you're in an aborted takeoff/crash and need to run across rough tarmac to get away.
Of course "ladies should remove high heels before using the slide". Another reason to have sensible shoes whether male or female.

If like the author you have apparently worn the same socks for a week (Journalist style) then please keep your shoes on!

Grab a free plastic ziploc bag as you go through security, even if your liquid stuff is already packed in one from last time. Great keeping various currencies separate. Also for keeping headphone leads from tangling (coil them neatly then put into the bag).

Sennheiser CX300 in-ear headphone buds. Tiny, but almost as good as much bulkier noise-cancelling types. Wear them even when not actually listening to music.

Note that the screen (bright OLED = works well indoors) is very different to the reflective screens in ebook readers (that are boring monochrome, slow to update, but are intended to be readable in bright sun).

I suspect colour + shiny beats outdoor use.

Dear Sir,
Londa Schiebinger discusses housework as an indicator of equality. While being forced to do unpleasant work is undesirable for anyone, don't overlook the therapeutic benefits (mental and physical) particularly with a demanding 'day job', for both men and women. I say this as a man who today baked bread, vaccuumed the house, cleaned up after our children and cats, and did a full days paid work.

Security is a concern not mentioned in this article. The whistle was blown a while back, on Israeli companies AMDOCS and Comverse for suspected backdoors in their network equipment - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comverse#Suspected_of_collaboration_with_Is...

Once equipment is embedded into operator's networks, this power could easily be misused by the national authorities if they wished.

CERN (the international particle physics laboratory) receives about 1 million security probes PER HOUR, mostly from Chinese internet addresses.