Re: "Forging a role in low-end nuclear fusion", (Opinion, April 18).
The article by John Draper and Peerasit Kamnuansilpa on nuclear fusion, in listing the major players among private companies actively developing prototype reactors, neglected perhaps the most promising of all, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works.
With a long history of innovative engineering designs, Skunk Works has a small footprint reactor concept that allows a one-year prototype design, build and test cycle. This allows for an extremely rapid development time such that a functioning prototype is expected to be completed by 2019.
Also worth noting is the rapid progress being made on liquid-fuelled thorium reactors, especially in India and China. This technology offers truly inexpensive, proven, non-proliferative and clean nuclear energy as well.
Michael Setter, Bang Saray
A lesson in history
Re: "Shambolic EU", (PostBag, April 16).
JC Wilcox writes that "in the past both Holland and Ireland have voted to resign their membership but were told to vote again to ensure the EU desired result".
Neither Holland nor Ireland have ever held such a vote, either in parliament or by referendum, or any vote even remotely connected with resignation of membership.
JC Wilcox may have somehow confused Holland with Denmark which voted twice over the Maastricht Treaty, passing it the second time. But for Holland the only event with a very faint connection was the ratification of a common European Constitution, which was rejected when France and Holland voted against it in referenda (with any further referenda elsewhere being unnecessary as ratification had to be unanimously approved by all EU member states).
Ireland voted twice over the Treaty of Nice, the second time when it was rewritten and military neutrality included as the Irish wanted, and twice over the Treaty of Lisbon, the second time, again, after the Treaty was rewritten, primarily over abortion and, again, military neutrality.
None of these had anything to do with a vote to "resign their membership".
JC Wilcox goes on to write that "a few days ago Dutch people voted again against the EU policy on Ukraine but have been ignored". The latter, again, is simply not true. The Dutch voted against ratifying the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement and, so far from being "ignored" the agreement cannot be ratified and its implementation has been suspended. Distorting history is nothing new by those on all sides of politics, but JC Wilcox is completely rewriting it with not even a glimmer of truth.
John G
Teach kids to be safe
Why do we see pupils arriving and leaving schools on motorcycles, sometimes three, or even four on the bike and none wearing a helmet? Do the schools not have a responsibility to educate their pupils in road safety and the law regarding helmets. Should not the bikes be banned from the campus if seen to be breaking the rules on the campus? It would seem that schools turn a blind eye to road safety issues, but if the pupils' hair is too long, woe betide them.
Ron Martin
Cars not our masters
It is amazing what slaves to our cars we are here in Thailand. We line up for hours a day to go to work and take kids to school. Millions upon millions of litres of gas are wasted while cars stand still and residents are forced to breathe this brown air. Road rage adds a new element now where drivers attack each other.
It doesn't have to be this way. We need a full subway system and a train system that reaches all parts of Bangkok. We need an affordable reliable train system that reaches all of Thailand -- not a high-speed rail link to Singapore for China at our expense. The average Thai person won't even be able to afford to ride it. Stop being slaves to your cars and demand trains and subways.
Karl Stanford
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