New restrictions on the powers of the Lords were introduced in the 1949 Parliament Act which reduced the time peers could delay a bill from two years over three parliamentary sessions to one year over two parliamentary sessions.

BBC: What is the Parliament Act?

Following a one-hour morning rain delay, the visitors had been reduced to 80-5 in their second innings, still needing a further 145 runs to make England's openers strap on their pads one more time.

BBC: England seal emphatic Lord's win

The tourists batted first and scored 268 for seven off their allocated 50 overs, before a 20 minute rain delay during New Zealand's innings reduced the target they were chasing to 250 off 46 overs.

BBC: New Year cheer for Kiwis

The fine was calculated by measuring by how far Railtrack missed its target in percentage terms, but with an allowance for where the company reduced delays to the "greatest extent reasonably practicable" or where it was subsequently found that the delay was not its fault.

BBC: Railtrack says new fine is 'ludicrous'

Why delay near-term capital consumption if dollars invested and saved will, if lucky, come back reduced in value?

FORBES: Bernanke's Confusion Is Our Economic Ill Health

And by stacking components so compactly, signal latency (the delay that results when data are moved from one part of a computer to another) would be greatly reduced, further enhancing performance.

ECONOMIST: Data-storage systems