Man arrested after charging iPhone on London Overground train | Technology | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... ound-train

FFS, a quiet word probably would have done the trick. To my knowledge you don't really get incidents like that in Ulster - the jobsworth would have a hostile crowd round them in seconds

“Abstracting electricity” - what a curious phrase. If they don’t want people plugging in, then make the sockets more secure.

It's a phrase that usually crops up (no pun intended) in the growing of cannabis.

Surely it's not beyond the wit of the rail firm to put in a master kill switch to the circuit if they really don't want to be kind to their passengers?
I guess cleaners etc. might need an outlet the rest of the time, so just activate it when needed?
Or, I dunno, just don't be so miserly about people using a few pence worth of electricity?

As for 'abstracting electricity', that just makes me think of Kirlian photography.

Different lands, different attitudes, most seats or seat groups (2 row of 2 seats facing each other) here now have a socket for charging.

If the sockets are in a public location but not for public use, then they should either be of a non-standard design or disabled by a master switch when not needed.