Mandy Lifeboats

The last 2 threads I've read have covered the following topics.  

1. How do Whales see?

2. If you had a penis on your forehead, how much of it could you see.   (Mysteries Thread) 

If whale with a penis on his head would it think it had 2? 

11 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

My eldest sons birthday is the 3rd of December and my youngest is the 12th of December. Might as well turn me upside down and shake me for any spare money

Whose birthday is in March?  Yours or their mom?  

Sark Yves Amadeus Kennedy,  the son of Nigel Kennedy, has been jailed for 33 months for “middle level cocaine dealing”.

Why are there only 3 of them in the photo? Where’s Lennon? 

2 hours ago, bickster said:

Isn't privatisation marvelous

 

To be fair..........

I remember the rail system before it was privatised.  It was horrendously bad and not cheap.  In the 1990's I travelled around Europe on the InterRail tickets.  Two weeks of  unlimited travel around Europe for a set price.  I forget how much I paid.  But I remember it was the same price as my monthly train commute from Wolverhampton to Birmingham.  

3 hours ago, Phil Silvers said:

Cheers pal, from what I've found its about 25% of the value on top for import duties, including a £8 handling fee from Royal mail. 

Just don't a hidden surprise that doubles the cost say, so just doing a bit of leg work.

Lifeboats got me on the hunt for a piece from my birth year and I fancy a nice Seiko dress /sports-dress piece.

Don't blame me.  

I have never purchased from Japan but there's somewhat of a catch 22 situation with ordering from abroad.  A credible large company will label the watch correctly and declare the correct import value.  This makes it likely to be picked up for import duties.  A less reputable company will know how to package it in order to avoid unwanted attention.    

49 minutes ago, Ingram85 said:

Off topic I know but I’d like to clarify I actually can’t remember why I even had a Scottish team as a young kid, 

I had the 1978 Panini Album.  It included all the top division clubs in England and Scotland.  I decided to support whichever Scottish team I completed first.  

Billy Stark was the final sticker for St Mirren. 

Eye

When was the last time you topped up the headlight fluid?  

After a lot of careful thought my wife and I have decided that we don't want children. 

They are going to be very upset when we tell them. 

No enemy aircraft has ever shot down the air superiority version of the F15. 

But one has been shot down by an aircraft whilst on active service.  

On 22/11/95 two Japanese Airforce F15 were intercepting an unknown contact when the lead pilot was accidentally downed by a missile fired by his wingman. 

It's very similar to F1 engines.  You cannot start a F1 engine at room temperature.  Until the engine is warm the components are seized together.  

That level of engineering is just amazing. 

57 minutes ago, BOF said:

I see Spielberg wasn't big on historical accuracy in Bridge of Spies when he mis-represented Powers' treatment by the Russians, who actually treated him very well. I guess his film-making motivations are subject to change.

"...though reviewers have praised the film and argued that such departures [from historical record] are permissible" - I guess that also depends on who the reviewer is and who the departure taints.

Maybe I'm too cynical of Hollywood attempting to be 'The idiot's guide to history' (see also Argo)

I don't think we will ever know tye full facts because all concerned had motives to portray a particular version of events.  Powers was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for withstanding "harsh" interrogation techniques.  But many think that is an attempt to repair his image.  He was eventually freed in a Spy exchange.  But many Americans opposed this.  Many thought he had no value to the Russians because he'd revealed all.  Yet other say that he should be commended for giving away so little.  

It's all a fascinating read and a great example how governments rewrite history. He is now portrayed as a hero.  At the time many took the view that failing to self destruct the plane, bailing out and not using his suicide pill was cowardice, incompetence or treason.  

But 12 of the 32 SR71 were lost in accidents.  That's a high rate.  But it was also cutting edge technology that was operating at the limits of performance.  

If you ever get chance read the story of Gary Powers whose U2 was shot down over the USSR.  According to standard procedures he should have activated the self destruct function.   He didn't.  It was also an unwritten rule that if you were crashing in enemy terroritory you died with the plane.  He didn't.  This gave the USSR the technology and someone who knew what it did and how to operate it. 

When he was finally released in a spy exchange he was treated as a pariah.    

Spy satellites

I have written about this on Villatalk in the past.  

In the early 90s I was part of Birmingham's Civil Defence Team.  My job specifically related to a nuclear attack on the UK.  My role was to receive data from throughout the UK and try to work out what had hit us.  Part of this was based upon things like crater size and radiation levels.  But I specifically remember that monitoring the amount of dead cattle in fields was a key tool to predicting if there were likely to be human survivors in an area.  Two satellite photos of the same field taken minutes apart were enough to establish if it contained 200 dead sheep or 200 live sheep.  That was 30 years ago.  What they can see today must be amazing.  

8 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Been reading.

The Lockheed SR71 had 4000 missiles fired at it during it's service. Not one ever got near it. Apparently it was retired, as we now have spy satellites, so there is no need for reconnaissance aircraft. This is actually untrue information, an we will always have the need for high speed, high altitude reconnaissance. Which had me thinking, what have they got now?

Lyndon B Johnson once said that the $40 billion spent on the space programme was worth every cent because of the advances in space photography and intelligence gathering.  Getting the same information on the USSR by conventional means would have cost much more.  In addition the information obtained allowed them to prioritise defence spending against real threats rather than predicted ones.  He estimated space photography had saved $400 billion in defence spending.  

17 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

Wow and Live Aid was only a couple of years before too 

I remember Phil Collins singing  "Revenge For the Benin Trade Mission"  to the tune of "In The Air Tonight."

It was emotional. 

The story below is the official story of how the Benin Bronzes came to be in the British Museum.  

1896    Merchants from the Kingdom of Benin decline to supply the British with Palm Oil for the price offered.     They are supported by the ruler of Benin.  

January 1897   The UK agreed that a "Trade Mission" should visit Benin.  It was actually 250 fully armed African Mercenaries masquerading as a drum and pipe band along with a handful of British "Trading Agents".   Their intention was to occupy the country and install a more friendly ruler.   The plan was discovered and the invading army was slaughtered before they could take their rifles out of their trombone cases.   

February 1897    The UK invaded in order to punish the savages that had slaughtered our innocent trade mission.  They slaughtered thousands and literally wiped Benin off the map by making it part of Nigeria.   We scorched the earth.  

We then decided that Benin must pay for the cost of killing all those savages.  Using official figures 2500 treasures were plundered and sold.  That only reflects items that were plundered and sold at official auctions.  Much more was simply taken away.   40% of the official plunder ended up in the British Museum.  

2021 "The British Museum is fully committed to developing an online tool to DIGITALLY reunite historical objects that illuminate Benin."   

Aren't we kind. 

7 hours ago, choffer said:

Let’s get the Elgin Marbles back to Scotland where they belong.

 

Best post ever.  

I'll never forgive the Romans for invading us.  

What did the Romans ever do for us?  

I find it very hard to look back on UK history and ignore the atrocities we have committed,  the wealth we've plundered or the profit we've made from exploiting others.  We had the biggest empire and we didn't get that by treating people fairly.  

I can see the argument that we can't hold the people of today in any way responsible for things that happened before them.  But I can also see that we are still profiting for those things and we should put things right if we can.  

If you ever get chance visit the British Museum and wonder at the exhibits.  But also take the time to read how those items were obtained. 

I see no reason  to keep statues of slave traders who built a few schools for the UK poor.  But I have no idea what we should do with statues of Churchill.  

I see no reason to keep the Elgin Marbles.  But I have no idea what we should do with the massive diamonds in the crown jewels.  

The only thing I am sure of is that we should learn from history and let history evolve.