Posts by Roxton

Brit loonies adventurers headed to Timbuctoo by 'flying car'

"Laughton's" flying car?

Just for the information of all involved: the skycar is actually Giles Cardozo' project, not Laughton's. The reason that Laughton is getting all the credit is because his is the more familiar name being used for promotion. The car was thought of by Cardozo, designed by Cardozo and built by Cardozo. Laughton brought in sponsorship. Ditto with the Everest expedition. Cardozo designed and built the engines for the trip; Laughton didn't even fly on that occasion claiming it was too dangerous.

Nothing against Laughton; he's a great guy and I like him very much, but I'm actually involved in the project, and was a bit surprised by how little Cardozo's name was mentioned.

Added green burden could ground flying cars for good

I have a flying car.

No jokes. My uncle manufactures them, and I've got a prototype because I helped to design it. Imagine a paramotor (wikipedia it if you don't know what that is), and then replace the backpack and fan with light car (about the size of one of the old Mini's) where the fan folds up out of the boot. . The wing is self-retractable and expandable, and you have to be going at thirty-or-so miles an hour for about 20 metres to take off. And safety isn't an issue, because if the engine breaks or runs out of petrol, then you've already got a parachute out, by nature of the wing. We're also working on something awesome motorbike-wise which works completely differently, but the military got interested and we've signed an NDA so I can't say anything about it here.

But expect a working flying car before the end of the year.

Lords linger over extreme porn definition

In your endo

"The debate left behind a feeling of deep dissatisfaction: a sense that the government was indulging itself with extended foreplay on this issue rather than getting down to serious business."

Brilliant. If only the second word had been "mass".

Paris, for obvious reasons.

School crossing guards join CCTV panlollycon

@Anonymous Coward

Even better than speed cameras is the system they currently have in Spain. What they have, wherever speeding has been shown to be a risk, is a set of traffic lights. There's not normally a crossing there, but the way it works is as follows: the lights stay green constantly until a driver breaks the speed limit (at a point a bit further up the road). When this happens, the lights go red and stay red for a good thirty seconds. Of course, this holds up all the traffic for a long time but the kicker is that the person who triggered the lights is the guy right at the front of the queue, and so everyone knows who he is and hurls abuse at him. Works like a charm.

But would we have it in the UK? Nope, cos it doesn't make any money for our useless waste of a Chancellor.