Nigel Bridgman-Elliot

I'd suggest asking a few other dentists. Never take the word of a single one, its like listening to a car mechanic when they tell you your need to spend £600 fixing a problem when in reality you only need to spend a fiver! Personal recommendation works well (Its how I got my current dentist, previous ones I've not been happy with.) and going private doesn't necessarly mean your going to get a better one! Also, medical science is not 100% so you might just be unlucky so to speak. (Hence asking other dentists if your dentist sounds like they know what they are doing or not.) http://www.dentalfearcentral.org/dentalforums.html

Remember also, if your kids go to school or visit their friends, that you cannot be with them 24/7 and you'd be amazed what they get up to behind your backs, eating all manner of devilish delights. Perhaps explaining that later on in life if they don't look after their teeth, that its going to cost all their pocket money to pay for treatment..

An improved infrastructure element such as a tunnel helps boost the local economy, look at the Chunnel for example. Why stop there, build an entire underground railway like Londons Tube network..

> You're Calamity in disguise and I claim my £5. I suppose we have some aspects in common, maybe its because we both came from Essex If you built it earth sheltered style, you could avoid wrecking the countryside, sticking the buildings underground and leaving topside for enjoyable countryside, even plant a few trees here or there. In time, one might be able to afford to buy up the existing ruined countryside with buildings on (Estimated to be around the 160 Trillion pound mark in total if you want to convert the entire UK..) and turn it into a nice earth sheltered place. After all, we have built on how much land already, 10% ? so if we used another 1% only make a better job of it this time that would be ok ? But you really need to start someplace fresh so you can design it better and not just repeat the same town planning mistakes we are currently making over and over again. As mentioned I tihnk in another thread about the lack of affordable housing, due to private ownership pushing prices ever higher, what we need is plenty of social housing with low rents for all, and not sold off to the highest bidder. We need housing close to where you work to reduce commuting time. Well designed buildings to last hundreds of years out of fireproof materials, rather than the shoddy structures thrown up of late by developers intent on squeezing every penny of profit from a development before creating another unproductive housing estate on a greenfield site.. We do need to figure out just what is and what isn't too much development for an area, I reckon small towns of 10,000 population each with sizable countryside belts between them would be far better than a stonking great city of millions and not a patch of grass for miles. What level of population would anyone say was suitable for around here, especially Fetlar as that looks a good place to start with, 250 max there, or 2,000 ?

I might suggest another dentist (Also worth asking in a dentist forum, as my suspicion is they aren't doing their job right..) and I might also suggest: http://www.armandhammer.co.uk/enamelcare.php Expensive, but I do notice a difference myself when using it. (I alternate between one month using it and one month with another toothpaste.) It might all just be down to genes though.. I have heard that decay can be due to an infection, and once you've got it, then your stuck for life! I'm the one in my family with the mouth full of fillings, and my girlfriends not got a single one! I've also heard it said from various dentists its better to brush your teeth before having a meal than afterwards. There also appears some evidence that milk isn't necessarly good for growing teeth, but I'm not entirely convinced by that yet. (Its on my todo list to look at one day, but as I've already lost a percentage of my teeth its less urgent to think about not having milk than if I was younger!)

People managed such schemes hundreds of years ago, be it the village well, or local canal. With enough volunteer labour and some funding, how much less might it cost per mile to build that way ?

Located wherever it was welcomed Though land price would have something to say on this too, would be much better to build it someplace where land is £500 an acre than £4 million. I reckon there is enough surplus people in the UK to round up 10,000 hard workers from among them. (Well, hopefully..) Manufactoring jobs would play a big part I reckon, as one of reasons why our costs are so high is the cost of our housing, reduce that and you could then afford to pay workers less. (Though if you ran it like a cooperative, they would actually get more!) Teleworking could be a good way to start as there is an awful lot of web/programming work out there which is being outsourced to other countries at the moment due to their lower living costs. Transport costs are also very high, and as such a port based town would be more able to compete on a level playing field in world markets than a town based inland. (That and if you built your town around the idea of ultra cheap transport links, perhaps free public transport, electric vehicles, the taxibus approach looks promising. (Basically free taxis for all.)) I wasn't thinking of any deposits at all, as another reason why our country is having such difficulties is ease of labour movement. There might well be jobs 100 miles away, but unless you can easily move to them, your a bit stuffed! Just turn up for work! Children would be an important part to help maintain the population, otherwise you would end up with all old folk and no one to look after them! Other countries are building successfully such towns, I reckon its about time we copied them! Huaxi in China is a good example in many ways. Greensburg US is perhaps not.. For those interested, related links: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/may/10/china.jonathanwatts http://www.greensburgks.org http://www.oycf.org/Perspectives/7_083100/nanjie_model_and_its_vitality.htm

You could have a town that produces so much wealth that it could afford to help nearby areas by building such things as low cost housing, tunnel links.. I reckon an industrial originated town (But done eco-friendly, eg. no black belching smoke stacks!) of that size could see its surplus wealth be around the £500 million mark per year.

What are the main costs of tunneling down to, materials to line the tunnel, labour costs, equipment costs ? People come together for self build housing projects, how about a self build tunnel project.. ? (My thought is that its about time we forget about waiting for councils to do what we want, we need to organise and do it ourselves!)

Is there room to build a new city here ? I wouldn't mind building say a small town with a population of around 10,000 but would a new town be welcomed anywhere in the UK ? (Here strikes me so far as perhaps the only place that would welcome it! any objections ?)

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

So the drill and blast tunnel approach would be the cheapest option ? I wonder how much it might cost per mile (Or do we use km these days..) for building a underground railway system similar to the London Tube, and how much difference there is in cost going for a larger diameter tunnel over a smaller one ? Every now and then I wonder how far we are from a practical NTBM machine, and whether we'll see a return of the atmospheric railway one day.

Hopefully http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/NSFET

I guess its cheaper than building them offshore out of sight..

Sounds like politics the world over to me.. I wonder if medical nuclear is exempt when it comes to NFLA conditions ?

What would it take for them to withdrawal from the NFLA ? Does their stand also effect those interested in personal ameatur science involving nuclear aspects ? (Say fusion for example..)

My 3rd dad was of German stock, so that would fit. This mentions a little about the geography of it for those interested: http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/facts.html When he started to develop it was shortly after we moved near a farm with a lot of pesticide use in the fields right up to our garden boundry, so I did wonder about that: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-399684/Breathing-pesticides-trigger-MS-Parkinsons-disease.html http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=show&pageid=1717

It would be far cheaper for them to just open a forum like this (or come here and chat with us..) to respond to questions and give out answers/information. I wonder for example why they didn't consider vertical windmills which could be used to create less of an eyesore on the landscape by being shorter. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/1288371.html > Vertical windmills, like the Wind Tower (right) from Windaus Turbines > of Ontario, can crank out 50 percent more power than conventional, > horizontal-mounted designs. http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2005/11/new_vertical_ax.html > They claim several advantages for their design including: > > Less dangerous to birds > Very quiet operation > Lower maintenance costs because their critical equipment is > more accessible > Lower capital costs due to simpler design > More acceptable because of lower profile - less visual pollution > Superior handling of high gusts of winds You could even imagine building them into a hillside, rather like a modern day version of Persian windmills, only have the wind go through the hill and end up with them underground and out of site. I would also have thought this might be an issue too (Unless its already been mentioned..): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3300814.ece > Wind farms ‘a threat to national security’

My third dad had multiple sclerosis and is one of the reasons I became interested in nanotechnology, as a possible means to repair the myelin sheath, though there has been progress in that area without using nanotech: http://www.physorg.com/news111142250.html

Thanks Brink and Njugle no kids in tow though, and a vasectomy means no unlikely suprises in the future! I'm keen to build and develop a teleworking centre though, perhaps a dozen or two new homes, and I'd be keen to encourage some families with kids to move and work there myself. Architecturally I'm keen on an earth sheltered approach (I'm a member of the British Earth Shelter Association), using waterproof concrete domes, if you can imagine something like this: http://static.monolithic.com/domenews/2005/rmf.html (Some inside shots of above for those interested: http://deputy-dog.com/2007/08/02/most-bizarre-radio-station-in-the-world ) Only underground with exposed concrete sections done in the style of fake rock, like this: http://www.stonecraftsite.com/landscaping.html So you end up with something a little simlar to the picture here: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/E/AE_earth-sheltered_house.html If you imagine a dozen or so of those in a setting like this: http://static.flickr.com/36/76530743_3cd8219d6a.jpg That way it can end up sympathetically blending into the landscape, plus with a structure underground that leaves topside for nature so you can add some trees and enjoy the landscape, rather than clutter it with whatever is todays fashionable modern architectural carbunckle. Whilst I'm a fan of concrete for its usefulness, I really don't like how its often used to create ugly dirty looking buildings, when you can use it to create beauty, longevity (Look at the Roman Pantheon as an excellent example of a concrete dome lasting thousands of years.) and make use of its properties to create large column free spaces, with low future maintence issues. Would such a style of architecture married with a desire to introduce productive businesses be welcomed ?

I quite like tunnels myself, though they are usually awfully expensive to build, but are nice to stick trains in.. But, I'd suggest using the money to invest in business ventures to make more money, several projects so your risk is spread, looking at how others make a few bob, I might suggest: Large scale hydroponics, would also create export potentional, like they are doing in Kent: http://www.smartplanet.com/news/food/10001438/is-thanet-earth-the-future-of-low-carbon-food.htm Satellite launching, works for these guys: http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/sealaunch Perhaps go for a different approach thats more eco-friendly and lower costs: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/us-military-developing-gigantic-magnetic-21600mph-slingshot-225717.php

There is a PDF file which explains somewhat how it works via the link I just posted, though my ability to understand it myself is limited, I've been keen for a while to investigate it further. (Though chatting with some greens they tell me it cannot possibly work, yet they have had working systems for 20 years, so what gives!) I do wonder about the oil fields, but they might well be a benefit in some manner, one might have to purposely choose spots where your not going to hit oil! (With experience of hole drilling I imagine thats a plus for the area to be considered, and survey data of the existing area being perhaps greater than other areas of the UK.) Shetland strikes me as the kind of place which may welcome attempts at this or something else ecologically friendly, yet pushes industry and jobs as a priority. (Thin film solar arrays might be another approach (Nanosolar.), or even one of the new Dr Bussards Polywell fusion reactors if the eagly awaited results from the latest experiments by MIT folk point to a go for further development work.)

My limited understanding is that this approach to geothermal can be used anywhere, and doesn't require hotspots: http://www.bassfeld.eu/Energy/energy.html > It is no longer essential to drill into hot water reservoirs or > to recreate these artificially in hot dry rocks. > The systems can be installed anywhere. As such, I would be keen to build one (Or several.) to supply not just ecological friendly produced power, but sustainable and low cost (Below market rates.) local energy to the local population and industry to give it an edge over the competition.

You might find this piece of software useful for dealing with it as it offers more control: http://odmonitor.blogspot.com

I'm not sure they are necessarly going about it the best way, I would have thought paying local people a percentage of their wages in local currency would be a way to make sure the notes got recirculated. Its something I've wondered about myself, whether such a currency could be employed to help maintain local industry and jobs.