Support for a controversial new high speed rail route from London to Birmingham was voiced by civil engineers today, saying it would boost the economy and bring about a “step change” in rail capacity.
The Institution of Civil Engineers said the HS2 route was more visionary than alternatives, and would encourage long-term economic growth. HS2, set to cost £32 billion, is expected to be built by around 2026 and has divided opinion. The Institute of Economic Affairs said it was “economically flawed”.
But ICE backed the plan, arguing it would free up capacity on the UK’s “congested” rail network and would be value for money.
Spokesman Steven Hayter said: “The opportunity should be taken to invest in growth by providing a new railway that is fit for the 21st century – significantly increasing capacity, strengt- hening connectivity between Britain’s city regions and linking up with the trans-European rail network.”
He added: “Faster, more reliable connections to London could propel a region’s economic competitiveness and act as a catalyst for regeneration as city developers, planners and businesses alike take advantage of the opportunities, especially in the Midlands, the North and Scotland.
“We believe the benefits are not limited to those cities served by HS2. Many will benefit from released capacity and significantly improved services on the existing lines, such as communities that are currently not well served by the West Coast main line.”
Earlier this week a report from the Institute of Economic Affairs said the project was “economically flawed”. It would require a contribution of £1,000 per income tax-payer and was not commercially viable, its report said.
Deputy editorial director Dr Richard Wellings said it was “another political vanity project – like Concorde and the Millennium Dome – being ploughed ahead with complete disregard for properly thought-through commercial prospects or the mounting opposition to it”.
Are you more of a 'money makes the world go round' or 'money doesn't buy you happiness' person? It's a tricky choice as we all want to work in a job that we love but we also need money to make our quality of life as good as it can be. I'd like to think of myself as someone not driven by money, but I have left jobs I've enjoyed in the past after being lured by pound signs. There, I said it.
And it's not just me. In a recent survey of 2,000 participants, more than 54% said that pay was the main reason they looked for a new job with just 42% wanting to move for an increase in job satisfaction. No big shock there. But compare this to the same survey held in 2010, in which 61% put job satisfaction first with just 48% wanting more money.
So why the change? We were all reeling from the recession last year, after all. Well, for me, I am really starting to feel the pinch now - and 18% of workers say that it's a 'constant struggle' to make ends meet. From food prices in the supermarkets to MORE hikes in fuel bills, we're all having to tighten our belts, especially as many companies continue to freeze pay or offer below-inflation salary increases.
And actually, people moving jobs can be good for our economy, particularly if you're moving up the career ladder. There are lots of people out of work at the moment and if you're leaving a junior position behind, many people could have the skills to fill it. Plus we all need a new challenge from time to time and we mustn't feel scared to take the plunge, economic downturn or not.
The Institution of Civil Engineers has thrown its backing behind plans for a high speed rail network, linking Birmingham to London.
The ICE said HS2 would free up capacity on the existing congested rail network and help regenerate and boost the economies of city-regions.
However, it said the Government must commit to the full ‘Y’ shaped route extending to Leeds and Manchester and maximise the environmental potential of HS2.
Chairman of ICE’s HSR working group Steven Hayter said: “The opportunity should be taken to invest in growth by providing a new railway that is fit for the 21st century – significantly increasing capacity, strengthening connectivity between Britain’s city-regions and linking up with the Trans-European rail network.
"The time to invest is now, and we endorse the Government’s strategy.
“In addition to better connectivity between regions, the benefit of improved connectivity to the capital should also not be understated, he added.
“Faster, more reliable connections to London could propel a city-region’s economic competitiveness and act as a catalyst for regeneration as city developers, planners and businesses alike take advantage of the opportunities – especially in the Midlands, the North and Scotland.”
Mr Hayter said the benefits of HS2 are not limited to those cities served by it – such as communities that are currently not well served by the West Coast Main Line.
He stressed, however, that while the HS2 proposals open up significant economic opportunities and present good value for money, the business case must continue to be reviewed as the proposals develop.
Additionally he urged Government to ensure the UK wide benefits are realised, by committing to the full ‘Y’ shaped route extending to Leeds and Manchester and by giving serious consideration to future extensions to other key UK cities.
ICE also called on the Government to ensure careful thought is given to the route’s connection points to the existing network and the costs involved in providing extra capacity at terminals.
In particular, how the London Underground lines will cope with the 80,000 additional passengers, each day, that HS2 will bring into Euston station and whether the proposed single track route linking HS1 and HS2, set to operate in the same corridor as the North London line, could cause further congestion to that commuter service and potentially cause delays to HS2 services.
Finally, it urged Government to maximise the environmental potential of HS2, by ensuring that in future decades, UK grid electricity is increasingly generated by low carbon sources.
According to recent research, nearly three-quarters of workers in London are happy to contact work while they are on holiday. The thinking is that, in these financially austere times, employees simply have to make themselves available all of the time in order to keep their jobs.
The concept of checking work email from the beach doesn't trouble me unduly. I know a lot of people make quite a big deal out of shutting down all work activity for the duration of their holiday, but in these connected times, that probably involves more effort than occasionally looking at your inbox. I actually think that wanting to keep abreast of developments while you're away is a good thing - you spend more time at work than you do with your friends or family, and the projects you're involved in play a major part in your life. It stands to reason, then, that you might want to see what's happening when you're out of the office.
A lot of the problem here is that it often isn't the people who want to stay connected constantly who end up doing it. People who boast high job satisfaction usually have a pleasant work-life balance, meaning that, although they'd be happy to think about work on their days off, they probably don't need to. Stressed, overworked and undervalued people, however, would no doubt kill for the chance to switch the Blackberry off for a fortnight, but work pressures mean that probably isn't possible.
But the trend certainly seems to be that more and more people find themselves giving up valuable holiday time in order to keep tabs on events at work. And while I can see that worries about losing your job are pressuring many people into out-of-office work that they'd rather avoid, the simple fact of the matter is that technology has made it staggeringly simple for just about everyone to stay in the loop. Decades ago, working from home or contacting work from the other side of the world was the sole preserve of the high-flying executive - overworked and stressed, yes, but paid handsomely for it. Nowadays, it's unusual for anybody to go for a whole weekend without having a sneaky peek at their work email at some point.
No matter how easy it is, though, everybody has the right to switch off from work and relax when they take a holiday. It's one thing to know that someone from work might phone you at some point with an urgent query that only you can answer, but it doesn't seem right to me to spend what little holiday you have hunched over a laptop. Swapping your office chair for a beach towel isn't really going to relax you terribly if you're doing exactly the same thing.
Me? I am perfectly happy to check my email when I'm away from the office, largely because I'm very nosey and don't like the idea of missing out on office gossip. Unless someone asks something particularly urgent, then I feel that my out of office auto-responder does the job quite nicely of letting people know when I'll get back to them.
What do you think, though? Do you enjoy the luxury of being able to switch off when you leave the office, or do you feel pressured into staying connected the whole time? Or do you just love your job so much that you don't want to stop thinking about it for a moment? Let me know in the comments.
Inductive-charging group HaloIPT has teamed up with Drayson Racing Technology to develop its wireless charging technology for high-performance cars.
Drayson Racing, which develops and races ’green’ motorsport technology, plans to market HaloIPT’s technology to the motorsport industry as a replacement for the internal combustion engine and pit stops for fuel.
The system is based on Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) wireless charging, which uses strongly coupled magnetic resonance to transfer power from a transmitting pad hidden in the road or race track to a receiving pad on an electric car.
The pad in the ground is supplied with electrical power at a current typically in the range of 5–125A. The pad is inductive so compensation using series or parallel capacitors is used to reduce the working voltages and currents in the supply circuitry.
Within the car, pick-up coils are magnetically coupled to a primary coil. Power is transferred by tuning the pick-up coil to the operating frequency of the primary coil with a series or parallel capacitor.
According to HaloIPT, the technology automatically adjusts for changes in the vertical gap between the car and the surface. It also has the ability to intelligently distribute power so that there is a consistent delivery of power at speed.
Lord Drayson, co-founder of Drayson Racing, told The Engineer: ‘With current battery technology you’re limited to about a 20-minute race in an electric car and that’s why we’re excited about induction-charging technology.’
He added that it could one day be seen on roads. ’I think that it requires very significant investment into the infrastructure for charging, but it’s a lot safer than the use of cables and it enables you to optimise energy transfer for the use of the car as a tiny storage element in a distributed energy grid. It’s an exciting part of the future.’
‘I am self employed CGI artist based in Stokes Croft, Bristol, originally from London.
I have over a decade experience in digital media, focusing mainly on 3D modelling, lighting & animation - I have worked for major aerospace companies and architectural visualisation studios around Bristol.
I share an office with Play Nicely, a full service media agency - I'm friends with the directors who encouraged me to take the plunge and really go for the freelance thing - I was reticent at first but I'm glad I listened to them.
Since going freelance I've worked with many agencies around the country and things have just been growing and growing - long may they continue!'
Twitter: @JD3D_CGI
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/mynewcat
Website: www.jd3d.co.uk/
How long have you been a Freelancer for?
I've been a full time freelancer for two years now but did bits on the side before that.
Describe your work in one sentence.
I consider my work craft rather than art - so I'm proud to say I am technical, efficient and let the ideas speak for themselves - I try to make my influence as invisible as possible.
What's the most important thing you've learnt in your line of work?
Get things done as quickly as you can. Make sure you clear the deck for the next job.
What attracted you to your chosen field?
I played with Lego all the time as a kid and locked myself in with a computer through my awkward teenage years - put that together and you get a 3D artist.
Tell us about your best project to date.
The one I'm working on right now with Play Nicely - we're doing an intro and idents for a major sporting event (coming soon!); seeing the dailies with the stirring music made me feel a bit tearful.
What sets you apart from your competitors?
I love my job, I love what I do and I am always interested in whatever I'm working on - I put as much enthusiasm into rendering rubbish bins as I do with giant robots.
If you could work on any project for any company/organisation, what would it be and who would it be for?
I would love to be doing VFX for the inevitable remake of Ulysses 31 with someone like MPC.
What frustrates you the most about your job?
Lack of routine - you can't just down tools at 5 o'clock and go home. It can really affect other aspects of your life and really upset the balance. First you miss the gym, then you are eating junk food and then before you know it you're raiding the good bins outside Subway at 4am.
What pearl of wisdom can you offer to someone thinking about starting out as a freelancer?
Don't. I don't want any more competitors!
If you could have ONE super power, what would it be?
The ability to make everyone around me accept that they are wrong about everything.
What's your favourite bit of kit?
My HTC Desire HD - I can run my business from my phone if I need to; I can even remotely access my work machines and troubleshoot.
Tell us a random fact about yourself.
I have never purchased my own underwear.
What's your favourite song of all time?
An impossible question! But to pick one... 'The Disappointed' by XTC
What is your favourite App?
Spotify for mobile - bring warehouses worth of music and all your playlists to any gathering.
Iphone or Blackberry?
Android!
Too Cool for School or too School for Cool?
I am the omnipotent all-seeing, all-hearing master of time, space and infinity.
Facebook or Twitter?
You don't get to see how obese your school bullies have become on Twitter, so Facebook.
Eat In or eat out?
Eat in, at the office desk watching renders.
PwC has produced the first analysis of what the government could expect to see as a financial return if it sells the infrastructure of High Speed 2 (HS2).
According to a statement, figures show it could produce between £6bn to £7bn as a return on its £13.9bn investment.
The report, written by PwC for Greengauge 21, a not-for-profit think-tank researching the economic impact of high-speed rail for Britain, has calculated the return if HS2, like HS1, has its infrastructure sold off under a 30-year concession.
Delivering a return on Government’s investment comes before the end of the public consultation on the project on 29 July and focuses on the costs and revenues associated with the planned 175km high-speed route between London and the West Midlands.
The current timeline for HS2 is for it to open in 2026 with a potential sale once built. Once up and running, it will allow speeds in excess of 200mph and an estimated journey time of just 49 minutes between London and Birmingham.
Richard Abadie, PwC partner and global head of infrastructure finance, said: ‘HS2 will represent a significant investment in the UK’s national infrastructure. Given the pressure on government finances it is important to minimise the financial impact of this investment through asset sales.
‘Our report says the government may be able to sell the infrastructure for between £6bn–£7bn, representing up to 50 per cent of the initial design and construction costs. This will be a key consideration in the continuing affordability debate, not only for HS2, but for the wider high-speed network.’
Jim Steer, director of Greengauge 21, said: ‘This new analysis by PwC demonstrates that HS2 is an investment that not only helps the wider economy, but also makes a healthy £6–7bn payback to the Exchequer three years after opening.
‘This is a very good up-front return on the £13.9bn construction cost. HS2 is unusual in that it is a transport project that generates very large cash receipts, as well as other transport and regeneration benefits that will improve the productivity of the economy, right across the regions, and especially in the Midlands and the North.
‘There are potentially further cash returns over the lifetime of the project. The Exchequer will receive, over time, estimated extra tax receipts on the profits earned by the infrastructure concession holder and rail operating franchises worth £1.5–£2bn and, at the end of the initial concession period, HS2 could be sold again, generating a further £1–£2bn return to the taxpayer.’
The report is based on the planning assumptions developed by HS2, with a journey time from London to Birmingham of 49 minutes, anticipated peak train frequencies in 2026 of 11 trains per hour on the high-speed track from London to the West Midlands, and then onto Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and Glasgow. Fare prices are assumed to increase in line with the rest of the rail network.
In November 2010, the government completed the transfer of a 30-year concession of HS1 to a consortium for £2.1bn. The sale took place shortly after the completion of the 108km line that cost approximately £5.8bn to design and build.
Back in 1999, Ruth Kedar was teaching design at Stanford University, California. While here she was introduced to two students named Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The two students were looking for a designer who could design a logo and website and Ruth was invited to attend a meeting. The first time she met with the Page and Brin they told her they were establishing a company based on internet searches and the youthful pair were planning on giving people free, instant access to information about any subject. “It’s going to be called Googol,” smiled Larry Page, “A mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeroes”.
“Most of the companies that offered searches at the time were big portals like Lycos, Netscape and Hotbot, and results of the searches were similar to results from the Yellow Pages: If you wanted to appear in them you had to pay,” Kedar said. “This was the beginning of the era of gathering information on the Web. Sergey and Larry wanted to do something else, what we call today an ‘organic search’ or a ‘natural search’, which brings relevant results. They already believed then that the future of the internet was hidden in searches”.
Page and Brin were clear on what the logo should achieve. They wanted something that would clearly differentiate them from the other search players as well as embody their unique vision. These other players were commercial portals first, and search engines second. Google wanted to convey that it was as a search provider first and foremost. It offered fast, comprehensive, and above all trustworthy search results.Based on these guidelines Ruth Kedar explored many directions. At the time connections were slow, screens only displayed 256 colours and Brin insisted that a maximum of 24 words be used on the webpage because speed load was such an issue.
Ruth describes the logo that was finally chosen as being, “Playful and deceptively simple. The design subtle as to look almost non-designed, the reading effortless. The colours evoke memories of child play, and the texture and shading of each letter is done in an unobtrusive way resulting in lifting it from the page while giving it both weight and lightness. It is solid but there is also an ethereal quality to it.”
Simple as it is, the hero of the design is the name itself. “From the outset, it was clear to us that the name of company had to stand at the centre of the logo,” she said. “It must be remembered that at the time, many people were afraid to use the internet, and it was important to broadcast something user-friendly both on the home page and in the logo. Something simple, that you didn’t need to be scared of, something catchy and full of life.”
The use of primary colours – blue, yellow and red – was born of the same desire to design something that at first sight wouldn’t be threatening.”With green there is something that stands on its own, that’s not apologising,” she said, “and also the two Os that lean slightly to their sides. This gives a little drive to the logo, but also shows that nothing on this site is standard.”
When asked why the logo hasn’t changed for many years, Kedar replies, “It still looks very different from anything out there. I think one of the great successes is the fact that when you say the word Google, you see the logo in front of you.”
John Fountain, freelance copywriter and writer. Follow on twitter – Fountainjohn
US researchers are developing self-organising nanostructures that can initiate wave-like motions such as those observed among the tiny hairs of the lungs.
In the body, these cilia act to clear microscopic debris from the lungs and determine the correct location of organs during development. Their beating motions are synchronised to produce metachronal waves.
Due to the importance of ciliary functions for health, there is great interest in understanding the mechanism that controls the cilias’ beating patterns. But learning exactly how cilia movement is coordinated has been challenging: each cilium contains more than 600 different proteins.
‘We’ve shown that there is a new approach toward studying the beating,’ said project lead Prof Zvonimir Dogic of Brandeis University. ‘Instead of deconstructing the fully functioning structure, we can start building complexity from the ground up.
The experimental system was comprised of three main components: microtubule filaments — tiny hollow cylinders found in both animal and plant cells; motor proteins called kinesin, which consume chemical fuel to move along microtubules; and a bundling agent that induces assembly of filaments into bundles.
The researchers found that under a particular set of conditions these very simple components spontaneously organise into active bundles that beat in a periodic manner.
In addition to observing the beating of isolated bundles, the researchers were also able to assemble a dense field of bundles that spontaneously synchronised their beating patterns into travelling waves.
Self-organising processes of many kinds have recently become a focus of the physics community.
These processes range in scale from microscopic cellular functions and swarms of bacteria to macroscopic phenomena such as flocking of birds and traffic jams. Since controllable experiments with birds, crowds at football stadiums and traffic are virtually impossible to conduct, the experiments described by Sanchez and colleagues could serve as a model for testing a broad range of theoretical predictions.
It’s still on TV. That Head and Shoulders Jenson Button ad. Sports men and women in adverts are generally not a good thing. Just when one of these particularly annoying ads has finally removed itself from our airwaves a new ad comes along; a different sportsperson but with an equally vacuous and robotic-like demeanor. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Sportspeople and advertising can be a harmonious match, as some companies have worked out.
If you haven’t seen the Jenson Button ad I mention above then you can truly consider yourself to be one of the lucky ones. This now seems like a poorly chosen moment to ask you to view the clip below if you haven’t yet seen it. I feel like I should have started off by lying and saying that the ad was really good just so I could have gotten you to watch it and then been able to start my rant afterwards. But I couldn’t have done that. Firstly, it would be downright dishonest and secondly, and most importantly, I couldn’t risk anyone only reading the first paragraph or two and then leaving the blog thinking I actually do like the ad without discovering it was only a ploy.
This ad is particularly mean on its audience as it puts them through several key stages of viewing displeasure. The first of which is perhaps the most damaging of all. When he says the word ‘racing’ followed by ‘spacing’ you immediately know the formula the ad is going to take. You know that the ad is going to show him in a series of situations which he will describe with just one word which will probably rhyme with the others used. It’s a bit like that deflating moment when you’re watching a play and one of the actor’s lines rhymes with the previous one; you know another song is about to rear its ugly head and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.
The next stage of frustration is how the advert fails to even do what it’s supposed to be doing. The words are set-up to rhyme, ‘racing’ is followed by ‘spacing’, which in turn is followed by ‘bracing’. Fine. This is then followed by ‘amazing’ and you think, OK, a bit disjointed perhaps but OK. But then the next word is ‘lie-ins’. Lie-ins?! This makes no sense. From this point onwards any feeling of connection between his little juxtaposed scenarios is completely thrown out of the window as the next words in the sequence are ‘rubber’ and ‘stuff that works’.
The next irritation is the sheer length of time the ad goes on for. By the time he says the word ‘winning’ you think to yourself ‘surely this is nearly over now, surely’. But it’s not, and in his prophetically ironic words of choice, you realise that no-one is ‘winning’ in this advert, everyone is losing.
The final stage of frustration with this advert is when he says ‘little perks’ when being surrounded by beautiful women. The profoundly understated choice of wording ‘little perks’ making this flocking of members of the opposite sex seem on about a par with a cup of tea in the afternoon perhaps with an extra cheeky biscuit on the side.
There are an awful lot of things annoying about this advert but I think it’s reasonable to assume that if the exact same terrible ad formula were given to anyone other than a sportsperson it wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad to watch. There is something about the sportsperson thrown in front of the camera that lets you know it’s going to be a train-wreck before it even starts. The thing is I don’t blame the sports people at all. To be fair they largely don’t pretend to be good at anything outside of their sport. I’m sure Jenson Button doesn’t claim to be a good actor. He probably got the offer to do the ad, thought ‘yeah, cool, that sounds like a nice little earner’ and got himself in front of the camera as quickly as possible. I would definitely do the exact same thing in this situation. It’s the advertisers I blame. They are the ones wanting to put these people in front of the cameras. This seems to be a tactic that I can only assume would be detrimental to the advertisers themselves. I say this because I just simply cannot image anyone being able to get over how annoying ads like this are to be able to then take on what the actual message of the ad is supposed to be.
To prove that the Jenson Button ad is not the only example of irritating ads centering around sportspeople have a look at the clip below featuring Kelly Holmes doing a breakfast cereal ad with patronising overtones-a-plenty.
And remember, that as an Olympian, Kelly Holmes knows what’s best for YOU! I would argue that the reason the advertisers don’t question their own tactics in getting these sportspeople to do their ads is probably because the types of products they’re usually advertising are complete ‘cash-cows’. These are the types of products that sell themselves. They are huge, well-established brands that everyone already picks up walking round the supermarket anyway. Even if the ads for these types of products featured someone simply screaming at the audience not to buy the product it probably wouldn’t really have any major effect.
What it probably really comes down to is crass generations from advertisers about target demographics and the belief that certain groups will be impressed enough by sportspeople to forgive appalling acting. In the current graduate climate can we not please see more drama graduates being put into these ads as there is no doubt whatsoever that they would do a better job a thousand times over. Also, the target demographics for these ads probably wouldn’t lose any admiration or identification with the brand in not seeing a celebrity sportsperson cast in it. In fact, the absence of such celebrities would probably makes them listen to ad more they ever have done before.
If the advertisers really want to insist on using the sportspeople in their ads though there are definitely better ways of doing it than the above examples. Manufacturer of pens, Sharpie, decided to use David Beckham in one of their TV ads. Now footballers are probably the worst group of all for lacking in the personality stakes in front of a TV camera. So how do you solve this problem? Simple, just remove the need for them to talk in the ad. If the pulling power of the ad is simply the presence of the celebrity alone then I guess there often isn’t a need to make them read from a script. I’m sure Sharpie’s weren’t worried about David Beckham’s acting skills in this ad. He probably would have done a good job, but the silent presence seems to work surprisingly well.
The other way of utilising sportspeople in advertising is to actually concentrate on what it is they do well; their sport. It’s a simply idea but for some reason one that’s often overlooked. It makes sense to get someone who’s famous to do what they are famous for doing. It could be argued that Nike Golf realised this in using Tiger Woods in their great TV campaigns.
This ad is perfect. The idea behind it is simple; film Tiger Woods being awesome at Golf to sell Golf stuff. The ad isn’t too long and it’s ‘trick-shot’ fun style means it doesn’t bore people who don’t like golf. Well done Nike.
Maybe Head and Shoulders could take a leaf our of Nike’s book here and have someone being awesome at shampoo?! Hmmm maybe not. Or I guess if they really want to use Jenson button then they could make use of his talents and have him zoom round a racetrack while someone sits in a seat behind him applying shampoo.
