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15 January 2020
From Alec Cawley, Penwood, Berkshire, UK
Douglas Heaven reviews The Artist in the Machine: The world of AI-powered creativity and notes the argument that works created by a machine aren't art, while those created by a human aren't machine art ( 14 December 2019, p 30 ). All the creative artists I know are constantly dissatisfied with their work. They always …
15 January 2020
From Mike Frederick, Leeds, UK
You report that most people give up on using mental health apps within a few weeks ( 16 November 2019, p 14 ). I have tried three mental health and well-being apps for mobile phones that have high user ratings. All of them restrict what you can do without purchasing a subscription for the service, …
22 January 2020
From Rob Wheway, Coventry, West Midlands, UK
Researchers in Canada and the US find that grid street layouts encourage people to walk rather than drive, unlike those dominated by cul-de-sacs, Alice Klein reports ( 21/28 December 2019, p 10 ). There are more factors to consider. In the Children's Play Advisory Service report that I co-wrote – Child's Play: Facilitating play on …
22 January 2020
From Robert Hale, Evesham, Worcestershire, UK
Richard Webb rightly extols the virtues of roundabouts and identifies problems implementing them in the US ( 21/28 December 2019, p 65 ). There is also great scope for improvement on the way they are laid out in the UK. I do suspect that our Department of Transport may be as intransigent as the US …
22 January 2020
From Butch Dalrymple Smith, La Ciotat, France
What more could the aviation industry do to reduce carbon emissions? The decision by Airbus to stop making the double-decker A380 in 2021 may need to be reviewed ( 11 January, p 18 ). This plane, particularly if configured with all seats in economy for intercontinental travel, has higher efficiency in terms of fuel used …
22 January 2020
From Simon Goodman, Griesheim, Germany
The article on vacuum lift airships by Philip Ball was, in a manner of speaking, a gas ( 21/28 December 2019, p 68 ). But some aspects of the idea sound like so much hot air. The greater lift that a vacuum gives compared to the same volume of hydrogen or helium must be greatly …
22 January 2020
From Judy Gardner, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK
Bryn Glover wonders why legislation can't allow for burial of the dead on private land such as gardens (Letters, 14 December 2019 ). I think each local authority can permit this. When a friend recently died in Gloucestershire, his relatives applied to their council to bury him in their garden. The council appeared flummoxed by …
22 January 2020
From Martin Pettinger, Hassocks, West Sussex, UK
It is already legal in the UK to bury loved ones in private gardens , subject to certain permissions and to regulations concerning depth, distance from buildings, and so on. Problems arise when the time comes for the survivors to move house. The emotional wrench of leaving not only a home but also a dead …
22 January 2020
From Paul Whiteley, Bittaford, Devon, UK
Jacob Aron has been playing the game Death Stranding, in which you must carefully choose your route or die ( 14 December 2019, p 32 ). Has he unwittingly been drawn into a vast data accumulation programme that an artificial intelligence can eventually use as a data set for solving the currently intractable travelling salesman …
22 January 2020
From Graham Jones, Bridgham, Norfolk, UK
This finding made me think of three UK towns: Colchester in Essex, where I grew up, Diss in Norfolk, where I worked for many years, and Towcester in Northamptonshire, which I visit. In all, residential areas laid out in the years after 1945 have curvy streets with cul-de-sacs. Most of these, though, are connected by …
