geordiezimmerman wrote: 
Sucks for sure. I read it is the glass that is the big problem. It turns molten inside the jet turbo engines and gums them up. Your must be breathing that...That sucks...Get a mask.

What's also rather worrying is there are absolutely no health warning on the news about this. It's all about those deserted and how much money is being lost. Mrs Hobie mentioned earlier that there is some of this fine rock on the ground in the south west. If it's on the ground it must be in my lungs. I'm actually quite sick right now with what feels like man flu but my throat is extremely sore. Ok, this could be a coincidence but some advice would be helpful but there's none at all. What goes up must come down so to speak.

 JrzyTmata wrote: 
this is how Iceland will get out of it's financial crisis... bag that stuff up and sell it!

 hippiechick wrote: 
the good news is that it will kill all the slugs in the garden.

 hobiejoe wrote: 
"Ash" is a bit of a misnomer. It is really ground rock. That's why it's so abrasive and bad to be breathing.

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Stock up on air filters for the car!  

Been a light coating of incredibly fine ash here in the SW for the last few days - very abrasive stuff, I can quite understand the flight ban.

 mzpro5 wrote: 

It's surprising that those cities weren't connected many years ago - it's not as if they are "new" cities.  The Southeast is pretty sparse when it comes to rail too, and there has been a long tradition of keeping it that way.  I guess I was thinking more of the Northeast, which has a lot of rail coverage.  But much of the country would be up the creek if there were no flights.

 Proclivities wrote:
There's a pretty extensive rail system, particularly east of the Mississippi, but it could and should be more extensive; it really only connects major metropolitan areas.

Well here in Ohio and most of the Midwest there is for all intent and purposes nothing.  They keep talking about "high speed" rail on a Cleveland-Columbus -Cincinnati route but they have been doing taht for years.

 

 mzpro5 wrote:
There's a pretty extensive rail system, particularly east of the Mississippi, but it could and should be more extensive.  It really only connects major metropolitan areas and trips generally take a long time.

I've been thinking about what would happen if this ash cloud was over North America.  At least Europe has a decent rail system and though it is really crowded right now at least there is an alternative to get around.

If this happened in the US we'd be SOL.  Travel of any distance in this country is primarily by air.  We essentially have no passenger rail system. 

Guess Greyhound would get very busy.

 geordiezimmerman wrote: 
Well... after Dr. Seth Brundle finishes perfecting the teleporter, then travel will be totally updated.

 dmax wrote: 
I gather you mean in a distant future; right now, there are not "centuries of expression and communication" exclusively recorded by electronic means.  Part of me actually welcomes a disruption to the "virtual" world anyhow.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
Ah, yes, that's better.

 dmax wrote: 
This whole concept makes me shudder.  True, and very alarming.

 callum wrote: 
Yeah but most people travel for leisure, not business so If anything, I believe air travel will increase more and more, especially short haul where the flights are ridiculously cheap.

 MrsHobieJoe wrote: 
Low prices are a Chimaera.    They really aren't doing us that much in the long run.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
I don't think that it's Luddite as much as it far-sighted. I've been thinking a bit lately about how we've developed a quick, fragile culture that won't leave a trace in 2000 years. We rely so heavily now on electricity - but it wasn't present until relatively recently. What happens if/when its availability becomes limited? Thinking very long term, it's reasonable to imagine that things could change drastically, like they have in the past.
Then, what becomes of all of this electronic based culture? Every single thing that's not written on paper or rock becomes lost. Everyone's electronic records are lost. Centuries of expression and communication don't exist any more.

Heiroglyphics are still there for us, thousands and thousands of years later, but your novel on your laptop won't be.

Here's a link to the Long Now, cofounded by Stewart Brand and Brian Eno. It's interesting. 

 rosedraws wrote: 
This one is slightly closer to the action.

But you are a bit late to the party. The good stuff was on Saturday morning GMT. We all knew that the eruption had ramped up spectacularly but it was hidden by cloud for two days. It cleared Friday night (I was asleep) but I got up in time for the early dawn when the light was brilliantly clear. Absolutely awesome display of nature's power. there are some good time lapses on you tube if you want to catch up.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
IMO air travel is on the way out.  People of my generation are far more comfortable with online meetings etc and its on the way to becoming more of a norm...

As for production lines - hopeuflly we can see our way to a less specialised small producer system. Would make for a more agile economy that can react to stress.  But as our system becomes more stressed hopefully it will settle into this new pattern without too much weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth.