So what proportion of road building costs should cyclists bear? If I were to hazard a rough guess as to the percentage of new roads built to cope with the increase in bicycle traffic, I think it would be a pretty "round" number...

100% sounds efficient, but if you're set on electric heating then it's pretty lousy compared to an electric heat-pump. For example, I have an aircon at home that runs at about 400-500% efficiency for heating - not unusual these days. Admittedly, though, it's not so easy to fit as a light bulb, and not so bright either!

They'll never do that, though - their pricing structure is very successful for them in breaking the mental link between what you pay and what you get, as evidenced by the fact that people talk about their "free minutes" without mentioning the huge monthly bill!

Hard drives may be getting cheaper and bigger, but my iPod Nano isn't! My music collection is now held as about 160GB of FLAC files that I listen to using a Squeezebox (which I love), but I squash them down to 128kbps MP3 files to listen to when I am out and about. I encode a few albums with problem tracks at a higher bitrate, but mostly 128kbps is perfectly acceptable when out and about. It's certainly a compromise I'm happy to go with if it means I can squash a bit more variety into my iPod or satnav...

I was talking with a friend earlier about the whole ID card fiasco, and said how doubtful I was about the apparent demand by people to get their cards. He said that he would get one early too - because they are free/cheap now, but will cost lots in a while. Sell your soul, get it now and avoid the poll tax, was his view! Personally, I'd rather have the whole crazy idea shot down alongside the black boxes.