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Dubai's Hyperloop could be built within four years - and will be on-demand

It looks impressively futuristic.


BIG / Vimeo

HIGH-SPEED TRANSPORT between Abu Dhabi and Dubai will take just 12 minutes from 2020.

That is if an ambitious plan for a Hyperloop come true. The plan was formalised by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Hyperloop One and would move people three times quicker than flying.

The autonomous system would see passengers loaded into pods which are then put into tubes which are sent through tubes at high speeds.

Last month, Hyperloop One signed a deal with the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

Hyperloop Hyperloop's Emirates Towers portal Hyperloop One Hyperloop One

Bjarke Ingels of BIG says the plan will be a completely new paradigm in mass transit. Passengers will be able to demand travel because pods are small, frequent and have a high departure rate.

“With Hyperloop One we have given form to a mobility ecosystem of pods and portals, where the waiting hall has vanished along with waiting itself. Hyperloop One combines collective commuting with individual freedom at near supersonic speed.

Group A group pod on Hyperloop

“We are heading for a future where our mental map of the city is completely reconfigured, as our habitual understanding of distance and proximity – time and space – is warped by this virgin form of travel.”

According to BIG, the design of the scheme is based on a study of “how an urban and inter-city transport network should integrate with existing infrastructure.”

The pods are contained within a transporter, a pressure vessel attached to a chassis for levitation and propulsion that can accelerate the transporter to 1,100km/h.

Burj The view of the Burj Khalifa Hyperportal from the building. Hyperloop One Hyperloop One

The pods operate autonomously from the transporter, which means they are not limited to the portal area and can move on regular roads and pick up passengers at any point.

Read: A test track for an 800mph train is being built

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36 Comments
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    Mute angryzes
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:26 AM

    I grew up in USSR and we had DIY lessons in school, I can confirm – most of the skills I use all the time in my life after that, must have!

    For “cold war” fans – I also learned in school how to throw a grenade and what to do in case of a nuclear strike :)

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    Mute Gerard Murphy
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    Feb 13th 2012, 1:35 PM

    Sh*t, you played with hand grenades and we learned about Peig!

    12
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    Mute Bob Coggins
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:12 AM

    Our sex education included elements of DIY…

    54
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    Mute Lionel Hutz
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:33 AM

    … literally “daddy then puts his plug into mammy’s socket”.

    32
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    Mute Daniel O'Sullivan
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:08 AM

    I would agree but their is people who haven’t the hands to bless them selfs with.

    46
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    Mute Emma Conway
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:36 AM

    I remember in our Home Ec book there was a basic ‘How to Wire a Plug’ type section. Can’t hurt teaching these basic skills in school. Take away one of the Religion classes for it.

    40
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    Mute Hanly Sheelagh
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:54 AM

    Do people now believe that if they have a go at religion everytime they open their mouths that they are somehow making some kind of comment that is intelligent or what. It is the new sheeple activity….lemmings

    11
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    Mute Rommel Burke
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:25 PM

    No Sheelagh, but replacing the teaching of it in schools is a valid opinion these days.

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    Mute Deirdre Forde
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:55 PM

    I remember that. It came in handy there a couple of months ago.. a good 15 years later!

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    Mute Emma Conway
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    Feb 13th 2012, 4:46 PM

    @Hanley I was not picking on Religion classes just for the sake of picking on religion. I only suggested them be used because in a lot of schools they are used as free classes or study periods. I had three a week when I was in school and it would have been beneficial for myself and my classmates to take one of those classes and be taught how to change a tire or something to that effect. It wouldn’t have spoiled my religious education if I had two instead of three classes a week.

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    Mute stephen corrigan
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:13 AM

    It certainly would be more useful than imposed irish!

    36
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    Mute Gill Jones
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:42 AM

    Forced Irish! No choice but to ‘learn’ it.

    12
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    Mute sluazcanal
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:59 PM

    I am pretty sure i had no choice in any of my subjects until Second Level.

    6
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    Mute Paul Mallon
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:59 AM

    They should teach basic computer maintenance too, along with the importance of/how to set your privacy settings.

    31
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    Mute angryzes
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    Feb 13th 2012, 12:04 PM

    Keyboard typing lessons (touch typing) would be also handy.

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    Mute Eamon O Regan
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:13 AM
    30
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    Mute Gill Jones
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:34 AM

    YouTube :)

    24
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    Mute Rommel Burke
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:20 AM

    Start by teaching them how to change a wheel. lol

    28
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    Mute Barry
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:44 AM

    This should be part of the driving test, if you can’t chance the wheel of your car then you can’t pass the test

    40
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    Mute Sovereign Being
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    Feb 13th 2012, 12:20 PM

    Get rid of ALL religion classes and replace them with useful, practical things such as DIY. That’s how we save this country. Get on it!

    27
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    Mute Jambbie
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    Feb 13th 2012, 12:15 PM

    Needs to be a separate “How to change wiper blades class”, especially for Halfords staff.

    22
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    Mute Kevin Quinlan
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:18 AM

    I think there has been what I call a “soft push” for people not to do things themselves. It has been viewed as good for the economy to phone someone else ie. a professional. I phone someone to install a dishwasher for example. They charge e100 to do the job. There’s a tax due right there. Their company takes 60% of the remainder while the man gets his 40% and both pay tax on that. Because we don’t trust anybody, we require this man to be certified to do this right in case it all goes pear-shaped, so that means he had to go to to school. There’s teachers get paid who pay tax…………….You see where this is going. Imagine if I go buy a few washers and a spanner and do it myself. Maybe I’ll teach my kids how to do this too. I could get in trouble!!

    21
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    Mute Paulie K
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:24 AM

    having been to many “diy experts” houses to put right their own attempts at small wiring jobs. i would imagine that a fair amount of those people saying they have a knowledge of diy possibly have a toolbox with a few tools and as a result consider themselves to be experts. if your not sure leave it to the pros. hope its not taught in schools for selfish reasons it would mean less handy jobs for me.

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    Mute Aurfur
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:32 PM

    How many professional electricians are competent to use an oscilloscope for measuring timing of contact bounce/ release times of contacts. Or using generic meters to test rather than one click machines. Many DIYers are very capable. Of course some know their limitations. I have met loads of professional electricians who don’t understand peak, rms, power factor, and j notation, capacitive and inductive circuits etc. Few electricians would know how to measure peak voltage with an ordinary moving coil meter calibrated for rms. Few know the effect of using too high an input impedence meter on a dead cable when testing before working on.

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    Mute You know
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:44 PM

    @Aurfur 99.99% of domestic electrical call outs would never need any of what you mentioned.

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    Mute Paulie K
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:55 PM

    only speaking from personal experience but then i don’t suppose those who are genuine need a sparks to fix it. Fas syllabus has everything you mention in it and if you know the theory and maths behind electricity an rms meter is all you need to get peak.

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    Mute Aurfur
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    Feb 13th 2012, 3:13 PM

    If you want to test a residual current breaker, or test a capacitor (well pumps) and subsequently change it you need to understand peak and rms values and how to use generic test gear. Also need to understand how to calculate capacitance in series and parallel if the correct value is not to hand on a call out. Whilst we are on that subject adjusting relay tension, follow through and residual gaps all come into play on switch gear for pumps. Surely the object of a competent person is to safely restore service to non working equipment as soon as possible.

    I saw a professional electrician test a dead cable with a 10 Mohms per volt input impedance meter and then couldn’t understand why he had a 100 volt reading on it. I lent him a 20 Kohm per volt analogue meter and suggested he try that. He never understood why he now had a zero reading but was happy to then work on the cable.

    Finally if a boiler doesnt work you can’t just change the boiler you need to be able to test which component is faulty before disconnecting and repairing or replacing.

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    Mute Aurfur
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    Feb 13th 2012, 4:06 PM

    Pauline K

    True you can calculate peak from rms and vice versa, but to actually measure peak with an rms calibrated multimeter you have to make up some circuitry. Square root of two and reciprocal of root two only apply to pure sine waves. With modified waveforms found in inverters there might be some uncertainty. Certainly most analogue meters with the exception of moving iron meters are calibrated to measure full sine waves at rms and within some frequency limitations. Hence a half wave rectified non smoothed interface would give a false rms reading, and if smoothed would read peak even if not a sine wave, provided the components used were suitably chosen. And to be correct if making up an interface to measure peak the losses in the components would need also to be taken into account.

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    Mute Mark Dolan
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    Feb 13th 2012, 12:30 PM

    Have to admit though, nothing like a recession to force you to learn these skills. Only yesterday I replaced the Alternator on my car, I still feel a little glow of achievment! I think it would be an excellent idea to teach it in schools along with basic cookery skills and diet advise. Youtube is a great resource of knowledge for these things, and you can have it on your smartphone or PC tab while you do it!

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    Mute Aydo
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    Feb 13th 2012, 12:58 PM

    I learned most of this stuff myself as a kid from doing it myself or from the oul lad. What’s happened to kids who now have better access to the info? Too mollycoddled that’s the problem.

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    Mute Barry
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:47 AM

    It amuses me what people don’t know what to do, and pay people to do for them

    - Bleed rads
    - Bleed oil boilers (seriously easy to do!)
    - Replace a plug socket (also very very easy)
    - Wire a plug (seriously)
    - Wire a light socket (again also seriously easy)

    And yet people pay other people to do these very easy things…the bleeding a oil boiler is as easy as bleeding a rad in fairness,

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    Mute Thomas Meaney
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    Feb 13th 2012, 1:51 PM

    Interesting points!! Now when the person adjusts the oil pump pressure instead of bleeding the oil pump on a Riello G3b what happens or when they bleed the radiators and it drops the system pressure so much the circ pump cavitates and the boiler shuts down what do you do?

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    Mute Rommel Burke
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:21 PM

    Call a plumber? You wouldn’t know any would ya Thomas? ;)

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    Mute sluazcanal
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    Feb 13th 2012, 3:04 PM

    Make sandwich (easy) but i still go to subway;)

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    Mute Aurfur
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    Feb 13th 2012, 3:29 PM

    Buy a gauge, bleed the fuel, look at the pump manual, follow fault finding flow chart and reset procedure. Adjust pressure to manufacturers settings.
    Recharge the primary water system with the filling loop to about 1bar. Get system going and calculate correct running pressure for system and size of pressure vessel.

    How many plumbers over here fit a micronic filter to the fuel supply and a capillary fuel cut off outside the building with internal and external manual fuel shut off valves as per most boiler manufacturers manuals.

    Sorry forgot wont have to buy a pressure gauge or smoke pump or gas analyser as I already got them in my tool box some years ago. Competent DIYer.

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    Mute Brian O'Donnell
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:18 PM

    Parents are the primary educators of a child-let them learn DIY in the home!

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    Mute Fintan O'Mahony
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    Feb 13th 2012, 7:15 PM

    Leave it to us teachers lads. We can shows kids how to wire plugs, fix tyres, drive cars and throw grenades in between solving all the ills of society from drunkness to morality, and teach, all at the same time.

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    Mute Tom Neville
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    Feb 13th 2012, 7:45 PM

    Agree. Let teachers teach.

    Getting teachers to teach DIY is like parents abdicating responsibility for teaching menial tasks which should be taught at home.

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    Mute Adam Magari
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    Feb 13th 2012, 1:24 PM

    No one should leave high school with learning to drive. Seems crazy not to have that as part of the curriculum. Learning to wire a plug, change a tap, fix a puncture – where do you stop with basic DIY?

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    Mute Helena Hasler
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    Feb 13th 2012, 11:57 PM

    I work in the community centre where I live and we are offering a DIY class for €10 for 10 weeks not beyond anyone’s means especially if it saves them any money long term.

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    Mute Sean Mc Avinue
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    Feb 14th 2012, 4:19 AM

    Very reasonable and good on you

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    Mute Tom Neville
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    Feb 13th 2012, 7:44 PM

    FFS, this is DIY. Let the teachers teach. Mums and dads should teach kids how to do DIY. A teacher has no business doing this.

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    Mute Helena Hasler
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    Feb 13th 2012, 9:41 PM

    but if there is a gap in the passing on of these life skills then somewhere along the way it needs to be taught. I think most people point out that maybe as part of the TY programme not everyday teaching.

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    Mute Sean Mc Avinue
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    Feb 13th 2012, 10:15 PM

    Don’t need classes Plenty of DIY books and DVDs out there for basics. Anyway most people are struggling so can’t afford classes

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    Mute Lisa Saputo
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    Feb 13th 2012, 3:59 PM

    I learned how to change plugs in school, we did all that stuff in Home Economics.

    3
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    Mute Thomas Meaney
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    Feb 13th 2012, 2:01 PM

    Bleeding a radiator is simple?? What happens when you bleed your radiator and the system pressure drops so much the boiler shuts itself down? Why is there air in the radiator in the first place? How did it get in there? It didnt magically appear! How many times can you bleed the radiators before you cause serious damage to your system? And they said it was easy! The act is easy the consequences and reasons might not be so easy hence the experienced professional!

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    Mute angryzes
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    Feb 13th 2012, 3:54 PM

    Pressure drop? You must have some sort of a gague (manometer) somewhere in your hotpress or around boiler where you can see current pressure and add more water from the mains using tap provided to increase the pressure. Pretty simple thing, there must be even some sort of a red arrow which points to the safe limit value, just keep adding water until black arrow reaches red one. If you do not have red arrow, no problem : usually safe limit is about 1,5 or 2 bar. Rocket science?

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    Mute Aurfur
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    Feb 13th 2012, 8:02 PM

    Agreed and then you clear the leak from the potential fault that the plumber left some years ago cos either he didn’t solder the joints properly and clean up afterward, or the compression joints weren’t tightened properly. How many plumbers can lead weld (burn) and know how to solder lead today.

    3
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    Mute John Conniffe
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    Feb 13th 2012, 3:24 PM

    We’ve had or view shifted to view many things as disposable and replaceable rather than repairable. Repair a mobile phone? Repair a Playstation. Even Sony have a policy of replacing rather than repairing returned units. It’s no wonder we don’t fix things ourselves anymore. Those ” warranty is void if opened/removed” stickers are not exactly or emoting self repair. Fixed my washing machine last month, after a mammoth amount of calls to get a repairman out ( still under warranty ). Gave me a big old jolt of masculine pride…

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    Mute Helena Hasler
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    Feb 13th 2012, 7:32 PM

    basic cooking skills should be taught too, everyone eats. everyone should be able to prepare simple meals for themselves. I have spoken to loads of people who live on take away because of total inability to cook for themselves, could this be part of the obesity problem.

    On a similar note I had someone out to look at my dishwasher as its been playing up and I was told the part would be more expensive than a new machine white goods aren’t designed to last anymore.

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    Mute Tom Neville
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    Feb 13th 2012, 9:16 PM

    Helena,

    With the greatest of respect but if someone cannot cook a simple meal, it is due entirely to laziness or personal choice, not inability.

    3
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