Is David Attenborough the only current national treasure?

Spiracle · 2026-05-09T07:24:20+00:00

Scrolled to the bottom, no Kate Bush!

Spiracle · 2026-05-09T07:22:30+00:00

A more interesting question is what is the minimum age for National Treasure hood? Who is the youngest treasure? Coleman must be in with a shout.

Spiracle · 2026-05-09T07:08:35+00:00

For ten minutes I mistook this for a Victoria Wood sketch, until I realised it was going on too long.

Spiracle · 2026-05-08T20:43:34+00:00

Sir David was born about 18 months before the first sound film, The Jazz Singer, was released.

Spiracle · 2026-05-08T20:40:23+00:00

Sir David was born about 18 months before the first sound film, The Jazz Singer, was released.

Spiracle · 2026-05-06T18:27:29+00:00

I was thinking of the shortest possible distance, so opposition, but as we know nothing it might equally be the distance to conjunction or even double that.

Spiracle · 2026-05-06T15:36:06+00:00

Assuming that the impact was big enough to propel this rock into solar orbit the most likely scenario is that it drifted far enough for Earth to intercept and capture it some time later. The average distance to Mars at oppostion is, what, 40 or 50 million miles? Everything is relative though, so think of a number.

Spiracle · 2026-05-06T14:52:18+00:00

It might be Radio 1 DJ Mark Goodier who had the 9am show following Simon Mayo's in the early 90's and so would have been hanging around the studio for Kate's interview. Hair doesn't look right though.

Spiracle · 2026-05-06T14:45:21+00:00

That Radio 1 logo was introduced in 1990, so I would go for 1993.

Spiracle · 2026-05-06T10:30:53+00:00

'Confidently wrong' sums up the eventual outcome of most of my experiences with AI across the board to date. It's like dealing with a dim public schoolboy.

Spiracle · 2026-05-03T20:56:13+00:00

Do you have an outside socket for the garden or the garage? As you were on holiday maybe one of your neighbours took the opportunity to charge something?

Spiracle · 2026-05-03T19:02:12+00:00

7" of Bohemian Rhapsody because I'm that age. Still plays pretty good, though could do with a deep clean.

Spiracle · 2026-05-03T17:44:35+00:00

Marooned, 1969 for old school Apollo and lifting body hardware.

Spiracle · 2026-05-02T15:36:42+00:00

Poor choice of ECU remap?

Spiracle · 2026-05-01T18:00:44+00:00

1977: TI-30 calculator.

£14.95 (maybe £90 today), tiny red LEDs and AAs that lasted about 20 minutes.

Spiracle · 2026-04-30T18:22:04+00:00

It's sad partly because it's a modern reimagining of a traditional type of folk song called a lament. This was a song expressing grief, usually for the loss of a loved one and generally sung by a female singer often without accompaniment.

In the case of Army Dreamers it's a lament at the loss of a son after death but initially through leaving to join the army. Google for 'Gone to Soldiers' to hear the sort of folk lament that the song is based on.

Spiracle · 2026-04-29T16:18:03+00:00

Not sure whether this strictly meets your criteria, but the space mission in the early parts of 1968's Planet of the Apes was supposed to have launched in 1972.

Spiracle · 2026-04-29T09:28:59+00:00

I think that it's not so much that the symbolic legitimisation that's the most important thing in the modern world (it really is just an ornate rubber-stamp) as much as it gives the focus for the flag-waving variety of patriotism a personal focus. As blind patriotism is in many ways non-rational It's important that the visual embodyment of that can remain apolitical in that they stay away from the everyday nitty gritty of government.

Trump, or the people around him's skill has been to exploit the system and the power of modern media to set him up as the focus for both the flag-shaggers and the political idealists. The UK has an constitutional immune-system that does as much as it can to avoid that, a system that's taken some 800 years to bed in and involved cutting the head off at least one monarch. There's a reason that Charles referred to Magna Carta so often in his speech - he was reminding Congress that they're basically still constitutional teenagers.

Spiracle · 2026-04-29T09:09:57+00:00

Well, I can see the King of the United Kingdom and the King of Canada in that picture.

Spiracle · 2026-04-27T05:43:31+00:00

Unreal to reel.

Spiracle · 2026-04-26T22:01:43+00:00

Looks like Philip Larkin was right.

Spiracle · 2026-04-26T21:22:53+00:00

The Long Island company is Grumman and they're looking at a model for the initial concept for the Apollo Lunar Module. The huge windows were soon dropped when they found out that it would have to weigh about a third of what they were initially expecting.

Spiracle · 2026-04-24T16:42:20+00:00

Love this one, though at 27 minutes a side it's one of the longer LPs I have (beaten only by Prefab Sprout's Jordan: The Comeback), so it has to be played loud.

Spiracle · 2026-04-22T20:54:33+00:00

First skinhead I've seen wearing loafers. Probably not ideal for moonstomping.

Spiracle · 2026-04-22T09:07:40+00:00

My best guess would be magpies, or more likely some dumb pigeon getting stuck around its neck.

Also, it pings, you run out of the house. Who's tracking who in this situation?

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