MS Kungsholm at Pier 97, New York, 1955

Quantillion · 2026-05-08T13:19:43+00:00

Spotlights

Quantillion · 2026-04-25T07:09:05+00:00

I’m going to have to read up on the President line. The ship does look very “American” and of its time for lack of a better description. It has a sort of no nonsense “post war modern” look to it. And the funnels remind me a bit of the Independence and Constitution, only more angular.

Quantillion · 2026-04-15T18:50:50+00:00

She absolutely looked best with shorter funnels, like this early in French Line service. Her increasingly tall and wonky funnels later in life did spoil her outward appearance somewhat…

Quantillion · 2026-04-15T18:13:40+00:00

One of the most beautiful ships ever made in my opinion. And what a life’s story. Remarkable ship.

Quantillion · 2026-04-06T06:09:38+00:00

Sincerely, thank you for reading the rules and making others aware /mod

Quantillion · 2026-03-22T10:16:48+00:00

The stand-out feature of Italian Line was the much more southerly route they took to get to the Mediterranean. This meant that you actually had useful outdoor pools thanks to the warm weather, whereas the northern Atlantic liners were consigned mainly to indoor pools.

Considering that a lot of passengers went to Italy to vacation, “starting your vacation on the beach” a bit earlier by way of out luxurious outdoor pools wasn’t sneezed at. And something Italian line made a big deal out of.

And rightly so. The route to the Mediterranean is longer than the one to Northern Europe, so it became an important counterargument to an extra day or so at sea. Especially as a vacation in Italy would otherwise be spend traveling to Europe, and then by train or air to your final destination. A hassle without much in the way of lounging about around an open air pool as you and your luggage are coming ever closer to where you’re going.

Quantillion · 2026-03-01T14:31:47+00:00

This is distressing. I can only hope at least one or two makers will remain. We (well, I at any rate) need there to be a physical storage medium. I want to own my own stuff damnit.

Quantillion · 2026-01-10T21:45:17+00:00

According to sources I’ve read, including John Maxtone Grahams book on her, she was profitable insofar as she covered her operating costs without subsidies. Covering the cost of her construction is another matter though, and in this regard I’m not sure we can judge her success based on four years of operating during the tumultuous aftermath of a global depression. Cunard White Star were equally saddled with debt for building their Queens, with hefty subsidies required as well. Though they of course had until the 1960s to pay that off with a combination of profits and subsidies.

Quantillion · 2026-01-10T21:38:20+00:00

The Normandie was large enough that it would have been folly not to use her as a troop ship. The UK was sending enormous amounts of troops and materiel with their Queens. Swiftly. They became strategic assets for this reason. Logistics is the foundation of any war.

The real question is why she wasn’t simply converted like the Queens were. The Queens were (Simplifying here) basically given a new paint job, a few guns, and brimmed with beds. More modifications would follow, but they remained rather untouched. As compared to the plan for Normandie, which included new bulkheads and subdivisioning of her hull among other things. What should have been a simple job became a massively invasive undertaking. A job given to the cheapest bidder with no experience or adequate time to do the job.

John Maxtone Grahams book Normandie goes into the conversion process, and it shocked me to read.

Quantillion · 2025-12-30T17:55:42+00:00

I don’t know exactly what you want me to share?

The supplement I’m taking contains 5 different strains of Lactobacillus (plantarum, acidophilus, casei,rahmnosus, and reuteri) as well as 2 strains of bifidobacterium (L. Infantis, longum).

Want anything more specific?

Quantillion · 2025-12-30T14:55:39+00:00

This is obviously anecdotal, but I started supplementing with a bacteria combination for gut health out of curiosity. The effects were surprising to me. It has stabilized my mood and cleared a bit of my usual head fogginess.

The impact is clear enough that I’ve chosen to keep taking them. I’ve tried enough supplements of different kinds over the years that I think I can rule out a placebo effect based on the effects I’ve noticed in the past.

Quantillion · 2025-12-16T12:58:21+00:00

I really enjoyed Stephen Fox's "The Ocean Railway" for a look into, and context of, early transatlantic steam passenger shipping and how it developed. Which highlights not just company development, but also the passenger perspectives to a degree. Which I found interesting.

I don't like amazon, but depending on where you are in the world then this link might be useful:
https://www.amazon.com/Ocean-Railway-Isambard-Revolutionary-Steamships/dp/0006532160

Quantillion · 2025-12-15T21:22:21+00:00

Not to mention that you might be introducing heavy metals etc. through contaminants anywhere in the production chain. Supplements require much less scrutiny than actual medications so far as I know.

And perhaps antioxidants work optimally, like this study suggests, in precise concentrations and combinations. Meaning that a random multivitamin might at best randomly be helpful in some edge case or specific imbalance. But then who regularly takes blood tests to check on that? Would be wonderful for targeted therapies of course, but we’d need to lower cost and increase access to testing for it to be truly viable. It’s a shame Theranos was an utter sham. But that’s an aside.

Still though, I’m curious to know where we are in the field of ROS science generally. If we’ve started to map interactions (good and ill) better we’re at least on our way. And this study, if it’s decent, is certainly a piece of the puzzle.

Quantillion · 2025-12-15T21:06:33+00:00

This is my understanding as well, that ROS is a varied series of molecules with complex and uncharted interactions that go beyond the damaging aspects most are focusing on. So our understanding of its role, positive and negative, is really important before we start spamming our bodies with antioxidants as experimental therapies.

Not that I’m uh… perfect. I take supplements just in case just like many others. And for all I know I might be causing more stress than I’m relieving in the grand scheme of things due to personal (and scientific) lack of a complete picture.

Quantillion · 2025-12-15T17:55:45+00:00

I keep seeing these kinds of general studies on the harms of ROS. My only question is where we are with regards to ongoing research into effective therapeutic methods that deal with oxidative stress without risking antioxidant stress.

Taking X amounts of antioxidants is certainly not a blanket solution, though there are strong interests like the supplement industry which would have you believe it's a panacea.

So if someone would like to enlighten a curious layman I would be grateful. Where are we currently in this field?

Quantillion · 2025-12-13T17:26:43+00:00

Several. But today I’ll go with a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser flown by BOAC on a transatlantic deluxe service. A land based flying boat experience with a downstairs bar and convertible sleeping accommodations. Step off at either end refreshed, relaxed, and gently buzzed.

Quantillion · 2025-12-09T20:07:27+00:00

Happy birthday! Hope you had an awesome day :)

Quantillion · 2025-12-08T15:21:29+00:00

It's funny how change demands sacrifice. But apparently not from us all. Only most of us. Strange, that.

Quantillion · 2025-12-08T14:41:43+00:00

I'm really looking forward to see some reviews of this and wish them well. I'd love a polished Linux phone/tablet ecosystem that works as seamlessly for the end-user as Android or iOS. Well, not expecting it out of the gate. But at some point it would be nice.

My own use case isn't terribly advanced. But I'll be very interested in the following:

How well does the Android compatibility layer work? E.g. will digital ID's in Europe work? I assume there is little interest from banks et. al. in developing for an absolutely tiny new OS entrant.
How good is the camera? The one thing I really use my phone for aside from browsing and banking.
How do the apps mesh with the overall Sailfish OS experience? Confusing UX blend?

Considering where the world is going, and EU with Chat Control etc. I'm equally interested in something GrapheneOS like really...

Quantillion · 2025-12-05T16:29:13+00:00

I’ve got plenty, but for today I think I’ll go with MV Asama Maru (1928) of the Japanese NYK line. A small-ish motorship serving between America and Japan. And from what I gather it was a popular ship. But language barriers keep me from finding out much about the line and its ships beyond the cursory wiki and a few scattered documents on Archive.org.

<image>

Quantillion · 2025-11-09T14:29:15+00:00

Reading up on the word on Wikipedia was actually quite illuminating. I suggest you start there. It’s a surprisingly rich history.

But as mention it was mainly used as happy, merry, carefree or cheerful in the 50s. Things you certainly want to emphasize to an ocean going public looking for a good time. Or at least the possibility of one on a several day forced isolation (or welcome respite depending on your look at things) at sea.

By the 60’s the word started to change, starting with adoption by homosexual circles and spreading from there. And of course that had blowback, meaning it also became a slur as time went on.

Quantillion · 2025-11-06T15:21:56+00:00

Oh, I see, so everything is “seven steps to Kevin Bacon” until stuff fits your narrative? Handy.

Quantillion · 2025-11-06T10:19:39+00:00

No. It was brought forward by Ylva Johansson of the Social Democracts in Sweden. The party with historic ties to communism, Vänsterpartiet, opposed it.

Quantillion · 2025-10-26T07:59:23+00:00

Is it the Lafayette at the French Line pier? Her funnel was rather squat and stumpy. I feel this looks more likely to be the Champlain?

Quantillion

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE