In 1966, Clan Line, which weighed 150 tonnes, was prevented from travelling past Wareham as it was too heavy for the single branch line to Swanage.

BBC: 'Banned' Clan Line steam locomotive's return trip

Serious damage would be done to the balance inherent in our tripartite form of government, in which no single branch (executive, legislative or judicial) is supposed to exert a death grip, or even a choke-hold, on any other.

FORBES: The John Edwards trial: The prosecutors' ball of steel wool predictably sinks

The only visible sign of its tie-up with Toyo Trust, for instance, is a single joint branch, opened with great fanfare last November.

ECONOMIST: Japanese banking

By current means, it could take researchers years to trace the 10, 000 or so synapses that branch from just a single neuron.

WSJ: Brain Science: Mysterious Neural Circuitry Becomes Viewable

Some estimates suggest that if current technology were used, it would take years to map the roughly 10, 000 synapses that branch from just a single neuron.

WSJ: Obama Gives Details of Brain-Research Project

The rise of grandfamilies also highlights another growing branch of America's changing family tree: The single parent household, overwhelmingly headed by mothers.

CNN: Economy sends more kids to grandma's house

And in fact, his branch of the United Auto Workers Union doesn't represent a single employee from the manufacturing industries.

NPR: UAW Sets Sights on Other Industries

And it is interesting that, for him, the fundamental question is whether it is possible to have an effective single code of conduct for a universal bank like Barclays, when the motivations and instincts of investment banking traders and branch managers are so different.

BBC: Could Barclays�� review spur break-up of bank?