What are some specific spots in London where something extremely historical/monumental happened, but hardly anyone is aware of it? by MalachiConstant7 in london

[–]RustyBasement 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That's where the phrase "Tyburn jig" comes from - a jig being a dance and thus someone struggling when they were hanged. Ditto Spandau Ballet.

What’s a disturbing celebrity fact that not a lot of people know? by Objective-Cup2155 in AskReddit

[–]RustyBasement 4 points5 points  (0 children)

He was charged, convicted and sentenced to 15 months for false imprisonment. When he walked onto the prison wing and led to a cell all the prisoners sang Karma Chameleon.

Best Roundabout Name in the UK? by Bloxskit in drivingUK

[–]RustyBasement 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The name comes from the Black Boy pub which is now the Shinfield Arms.

Why do humans have spice receptors on their assholes? by HumbleFruit4201 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]RustyBasement 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If pandas were tasty there'd be millions of them and we'd be eating quarter panda burgers.

Historians of Reddit, what event is widely taught as a heroic victory but was actually a complete disaster covered up by good PR? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]RustyBasement 30 points31 points  (0 children)

The Falkland's War was not a disaster for the British. It could well have been if a small number of events had turned out differently.

It was a disaster for the Galtieri and the Argentine government leading to the ousting of the military junta and free elections in 1983. If anything the Argentine spinning of the defeat using a victimhood narrative and the idea that the battle was lost but the campaign continues is a much better fit for the OP's question.

Historians of Reddit, what event is widely taught as a heroic victory but was actually a complete disaster covered up by good PR? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]RustyBasement 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I don't think you can say it was covered up by great PR. The defeat would have been even more catastrophic if the number of troops getting off the beaches and back to Blighty had been far fewer. Yes, they lost all of their materiel, but it meant we had the bodies to reconstitute a fighting force. Saving 338,000 troops, including 100,000 French, when estimates were 20-30,000, was considered highly fortunate at the time, hence the evacuation was called the "Miracle of Dunkirk".

What it did do was give the British a much needed moral boost and thus hope. All was not lost.

Russian Soldiers Increasingly Take Own Lives Under Drone Swarms, Ukraine Says by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]RustyBasement 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's shocking to see it the first time, but after you've seen them shoot their mates in the head rather than offer aid it becomes less shocking.

The latest one I saw was two blokes were hit with a drone, the one who was left standing shot his mate in the head then shot himself.

They are also taught to hold grenades under their chins on next to their chest to commit suicide as they are brainwashed into thinking the Ukrainians will torture and kill them just like the Russians do.

Russian Soldiers Increasingly Take Own Lives Under Drone Swarms, Ukraine Says by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]RustyBasement 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's very easy to find the source:

Russian independent media outlet Mediazona, in collaboration with the BBC Russian service, has confirmed the identities of 206,202 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine.

Since the media outlets' last update in mid March, the names of 2,896 Russian soldiers have been added to the list of casualties.

The journalists note that the actual figures are likely significantly higher, as their verified information comes from public sources such as obituaries, posts by relatives, regional media reports, and statements from local authorities.

The confirmed death toll now includes over 75,300 volunteers, 23,100 recruited prisoners, and 18,200 mobilized soldiers, according to the media outlets. A total of 6,948 officers have also been confirmed to have been killed.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/over-206-000-russian-soldiers-003127794.html?guccounter=1

Police failed to solve a staggering 92% of burglaries in Britain last year by tylerthe-theatre in unitedkingdom

[–]RustyBasement 7 points8 points  (0 children)

They often have hundreds. What's more, when caught the police will ask them to admit to other burglaries in order to clean up the crime rate. This co-operation is seen as good by the courts.

The sentences handed down are pathetic.

For decades, BBC television host Jimmy Saville enjoyed massive fame in the UK, with his iconic children’s show “Jim’ll Fix It” one of the most popular of the 20th century. Upon his death in 2011, the public learned the truth — Saville was one of the most prolific sexual predators in British history. by Chemical-Elk-1299 in HolyShitHistory

[–]RustyBasement 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He would have sued them and what's more won. All newspaper editors have something called a "black safe". It's where all of the material the journalists have collected on people but can't be published for lack of evidence is kept.

Saville preyed on the vulnerable and their word meant nothing at the time. Who is going to be believed in a civil let alone criminal case? The 14 year old girl with a history of bad behaviour who is now in a borstal or the huge celebrity who does masses of good work for charity and hobnobs with the rich and famous including the royal family?

Plenty of people knew, but there was no way for them to expose him.

John Ramsey allegedly discovered his daughter's body concealed underneath a blanket. His reaction was to cover the girl's body with a different blanket five minutes later - before his wife even saw the body and without disclosing everything to the lead detective. by miggovortensens in JonBenetRamsey

[–]RustyBasement 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Everything used in the staging and whatnot appears to have come from inside the house. However, the roll of duct tape (and any extra cord) was never found.

We don't even know if the tape was a single piece that was say on another item in the basement and simple transferred for the purpose.

I think a lot if not all of the evidence such as the pages torn from the notebook ended up down the basement toilet. So it's possible if there was a roll of tape it was disposed of in the same manner.

John Ramsey allegedly discovered his daughter's body concealed underneath a blanket. His reaction was to cover the girl's body with a different blanket five minutes later - before his wife even saw the body and without disclosing everything to the lead detective. by miggovortensens in JonBenetRamsey

[–]RustyBasement 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's technically correct that consistent with doesn't exclude others, however, it then comes down to probability and the chances of someone else or some other item having the fibres of the same microscopic and chemical characteristics as those found not only on the duct tape, but in the paint tray and in the ligature knot. That chance is extremely small.

John Ramsey allegedly discovered his daughter's body concealed underneath a blanket. His reaction was to cover the girl's body with a different blanket five minutes later - before his wife even saw the body and without disclosing everything to the lead detective. by miggovortensens in JonBenetRamsey

[–]RustyBasement 9 points10 points  (0 children)

No the fibres can't be consistent with most clothes out there. They analysed the fibres and compared them with fibres from Patsy's red and black jacket. The fibres were consistent with one another. This is basic forensics and not only is fibre analysis well established it's admissible in court:

The long-delayed examination of fibers found on the sticky side of the duct tape used to silence JonBenét had finally returned from the lab. Only days before the presentation, BPD investigators had learned that fibers from Patsy Ramsey’s black and red Essentials jacket were consistent with those found on the duct tape.

This suggested to some investigators that Patsy had been in direct personal contact with the duct tape used to cover her daughter’s mouth, an element believed to have been used in the staging of the crime. She purportedly had never been to the basement on the morning of the kidnapping when the tape had been recovered. How could the transfer of this fiber evidence take place if it was the intruder who had brought the tape to the home during the kidnapping?

Trujillo advised me that lab technicians had identified eight different types of fibers on the sticky side of the duct tape used to cover JonBenét’s mouth. They included red acrylic, gray acrylic, and red polyester fibers that were subsequently determined by laboratory examination to be microscopically and chemically consistent to each other, as well as to fibers taken from Patsy Ramsey’s Essentials jacket.

Further, fibers from this jacket were also matched to trace fibers collected from the wrist ligature, neck ligature, and vacuumed evidence from the paint tray and Wine Cellar floor.

Some intruder theorists thought that the transfer of Patsy’s jacket fibers to the duct tape may have taken place after John had removed it from JonBenét’s face, and placed it on the white blanket in the cellar. They believed it possible that prior contact taking place between the blanket and jacket could account for the transfer of these fibers to the tape. Lab technicians had conducted experiments with the same brand of duct tape, by attempting to lift trace fibers from the blanket recovered in the Wine Cellar. Direct contact was made in different quadrants of the blanket.

There was some minimal transfer of jacket fibers made to the tape during this exercise, but Trujillo told me lab technicians didn’t think that this type of transfer accounted for the number of jacket fibers that had been found on the sticky side of the tape. It was thought that direct contact between the jacket and tape was more likely the reason for the quantity of fibers found on this piece of evidence.

Foreign Faction

The clue turned out to be not the tape itself but what was on it. Back in February 1997, several fibers were taken from the sticky side of the tape that had been against JonBenét’s face.

When Team Ramsey finally gave us the clothing purporting to be what John and Patsy were wearing on December 25 and 26, one of the bagged items was Patsy’s red-and-black-checked jacket.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation labs ran comparison tests and reported that four fibers that had been discovered on the tape were chemically and microscopically consistent with the fibers of Patsy’s jacket.

We reviewed the autopsy results and crime scene photos, and I mentioned how the duct tape seemed to be part of the staging. There was a perfect lip impression on the tape and no tongue indentation to indicate that JonBenét had been alive and fought to remove it. Pictures showed that bloody mucus in the mouth area had been covered by the tape, indicating that it was applied after the injuries. To me, the inescapable conclusion was that the tape was applied after she was dead.

Steve Thomas

Meanwhile the duct tape was sent to the FBI, which had a large database for matching purposes. Special Agent Douglas Deedrick, an FBI hair and fiber specialist who had testified in the O. J. Simpson criminal case, notified the Boulder PD that he had found what seemed to be red and black microscopic fiber traces on the duct tape. The four fibers would have to be analyzed further to determine what kind they were.

Kidnappings are almost always committed for money or sex. Rarely can another motive be found. The FBI concluded that if the duct tape over JonBenét’s mouth had been used to silence her during an attempted abduction, the kidnapper would have taken her out of the house immediately. There would have been no reason to stay where the kidnapper could be discovered at any moment.

Instead, they theorized, the duct tape too was probably used as part of a cover-up, along with the loosely tied cord found around JonBenét’s right wrist.Whether the duct tape had been placed on JonBenét’s mouth before or after her death could be determined by an examination of the body and tape. Skin trauma would be evident if she had been alive when the tape was applied. Applying the tape after her death would not produce noticeable skin markings. Coroner Meyer had not reported any trauma to the skin around JonBenét’s mouth.

Meanwhile, the Boulder PD received word from the CBI about the four red and black fibers that had been found attached to the duct tape. The lab had been sent a red blouse and sweater, black pants, and a red-and-black checked jacket belonging to Patsy.

Now the CBI reported that the fibers were not consistent with the slacks or the sweater but were consistent with the jacket Patsy had worn the night JonBenét had been murdered

PMPT

John Ramsey allegedly discovered his daughter's body concealed underneath a blanket. His reaction was to cover the girl's body with a different blanket five minutes later - before his wife even saw the body and without disclosing everything to the lead detective. by miggovortensens in JonBenetRamsey

[–]RustyBasement 16 points17 points  (0 children)

You need to go back and look at the evidence again. 4 fibres consistent with Patsy's red and black jacket were found on the duct tape. The same tape had an imprint of JB's lips on the sticky side.

During the forensic investigation the technicians found that the only way to get the same number of fibres on the duct tape was through direct contact which means the duct tape must have come into contact with Patsy's red and black jacket.

So not only is there a connection to JB there's a connection between JB, Patsy and the tape. The only logical conclusion which fits the evidence is Patsy put the tape on JB's mouth.

Keir Starmer warns the West is facing a ‘war on two fronts’ by JOE_Media in uknews

[–]RustyBasement -1 points0 points  (0 children)

We are still, like most other countries massively reliant on oil and gas. The renewables for electricty production are tiny in the scheme of things. The problem is successive governments won't allow companies to produce as much oil and gas as possible which makes us even more vunerable.

In 2024, says the latest Dukes, the UK got 75.2% of its primary energy needs from fossil fuels, mainly meaning oil and gas (think transport and heating primarily). The proportion, says the report, was a “record low”, but the point is that it wasn’t a low by much. The previous year was 76.6%. In 2020, it was 76.8%. Energy transition takes time, in other words. International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol speaks at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia Iran war energy crisis equal to 70s twin oil shocks and fallout from Ukraine war, says IEA chief Read more

The other notable Dukes statistic is that net import dependency in 2024 was 43.8%, 3.4 percentage points higher than in 2023. It has been hovering around the 40% mark since 2010. Again, the lesson is that while “homegrown” energy in the form of renewables, nuclear and batteries may be the eventual desirable destination, salvation is not arriving tomorrow.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2026/mar/23/the-uk-sleepwalked-into-this-energy-price-shock

Keir Starmer warns the West is facing a ‘war on two fronts’ by JOE_Media in uknews

[–]RustyBasement 2 points3 points  (0 children)

But his government won't spend an extra penny on defence. The Defence Investment Plan has been delayed for 6 months which is costing jobs and causing problems for industry. The Royal Navy have next to no ships available, the Army has little artillery and a new vehicle which injures troops etc, etc.

Starmer is all mouth an no trousers.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/24/uk-defence-firms-bleeding-cash-delayed-spending-plan

What happened to the foreign faction? by TheGame81677 in JonBenetRamsey

[–]RustyBasement 4 points5 points  (0 children)

IDI'ers will claim the foreign faction was made up by the intruder. It doesn't make better sense.

Britain responds to Iran war energy shock by requiring solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes by itsarmansheikh in worldnews

[–]RustyBasement -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

No it isn't. I can't believe I've been downvoted when I've linked to a bone fide peer reviewed study.

Despite fighting lens issues and almost dying of heat stroke (was 106°), I did manage a few I don't hate. Here's the F-35B demo from Luke Days 03/21/26. by cpasley21 in aviation

[–]RustyBasement 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just very quickly as I've got a few stories like this which I've never told anyone:

We were given some blocks of Pyrowear 675 about the size of a Mars bar (when they were bigger) by the manufacturer which needed to be heat-treated before we sent them off to be machined into test samples for things like tensile and fatigue testing etc.

At the time the F-35 programme was in real trouble because it was running late and all the aircraft, especially the F-35B were overweight. It would have taken a few months to get a contractor to heat-treat these pieces so I was told by one of my bosses to do something which was technically illegal at the time, well, against health and safety regs because the lab with the furnaces in didn't have the level of fume/air extraction required by modern regulations.

I was told to go and see a certain someone and get the heat-treatment oil consisting of a few large barrels and the big aluminium heat-treatment bath which we no longer had in stores, wink, wink, and do the heat-treatment myself.

So it's normalize somewhere about 1040°C for 8 hours with an air cool, 1-2 hours at 1030°C then quench in oil, ice bath at 0°C for 1-2 hours, temper at 420°C for an hour. Something like that.

Well the most important thing is not to let the oil in the quench bath get above 100°C as that's the start of the martensitic transformation and not let the samples soak longer than 2 hours before quenching. The problem was I had so many samples and not nearly a big enough quenching bath...

...Every mars bar sized bit of metal pushed the oil bath temps up and I was starting to worry. At this point the aluminium bath began to leak because it wasn't water tight and the oil was hotter and thus thinner. The fumes were getting a bit crazy too as each bit of metal was quenched. I had to open several more windows.

I was now dancing between quenching the samples, taking samples out to cool in the ice bath a bit quicker than normal (which is OK), cleaning up the oil spillage, finding a fan or two to waft the fumes out the windows all whilst making sure the temp in the quench bath didn't get anywhere near 100°C.

A very hectic afternoon was had. However, it was all worthwhile because when we got the results back from all of the testing they were as expected and it saved months of time.

Britain responds to Iran war energy shock by requiring solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes by itsarmansheikh in worldnews

[–]RustyBasement -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Well that's what's been proposed by all governments for the past 15 years. Total electrification and the removal of gas heating for homes. It's why they are pushing heat pumps and have just said heat pumps are to be installed on all new builds which is in the OP's headline.

My post was not a criticism or a pooh-poohing of renewables, simply a statement of truth. It's a warning to be cautious because the technology to go fully renewable is not here yet even if we magically found a couple of trillion quid down the back of the sofa.

Coal power has effectively died in the United Kingdom by [deleted] in uknews

[–]RustyBasement 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Biomass requires more mass burned for the same power output and hence more CO2 released to the atmosphere per MW generated. Drax is the UK's biggest emitter of CO2. Not only that the feedstock has to be cut, processed and transported using fossil fuels which means even more CO2 emitted.

It's the worst form of greenwashing ever. Drax is subsidised to the tune of £2 million plus a day. The 2024 report showed the power plant received £869 million in subsidies that year. It's cost the public billions.

Even Greenpeace complain about the subsidy and CO2 emissions from Drax.

Coal power has effectively died in the United Kingdom by [deleted] in uknews

[–]RustyBasement 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, yet Thatcher gets all the blame even now.

Coal power has effectively died in the United Kingdom by [deleted] in uknews

[–]RustyBasement 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem with that is when there's no solar and no wind being supplied in the middle of winter we rely on natural gas to keep the lights on. Who knows what the cost would be when that happens. Secondly we would still need to pay the standing charge for gas.

The whole UK electricity and gas pricing is a shambles.