podcasts are up.  see links on right.  comments welcome.

dilatory

I meant to do this one as a podcast, but I couldn't get Audacity to work, so the podcasts will have to come later.

Talk about dilatory! How about the Channel Tunnel that runs from England to France under La Manche (the English Channel)? That was a project with quite a few dilatory events.

Concieved in 1802, the Chunnel (for short) wasn't open for business until 1994! Of course in 1802 the dilatory problem was the lack of technology. Horse-drawn carts weren't quite efficient and powerful enough to plow through dirt and stone that had been packed down by the English Channel for a million years or so.

When the technology did come along, both sides of the river were worried about their own national security; after all, the French and the English haven't always been friends. Then when they decided they did want to be friends and make it easy to pay visits to the neighbors, they ran out of dough. A large portion of the construction was funded by private, small-time investors who have never gotten their money back. Finally in 1994, there was a big ceremony attended by the Queen and the Chunnel was open for business. These days, it's easy to take it for granted because if you take the Eurorail, you won't even have any way to know you're under the sea.