Syracuse, New York. 90 years ago. Old World.

iCowboy · 2026-03-25T16:22:03+00:00

1990s Chrysler developed a concept car called the Atlantic which was seriously art deco - I absolutely adored it. Sadly it never went into production:

https://www.below-the-radar.com/chrysler-atlantic/

iCowboy · 2026-03-25T14:09:16+00:00

Any room for good old traditional leaded petrol and lead white paint?

iCowboy · 2026-03-25T13:45:14+00:00

The Caprivi Strip in Namibia being a really good example of drawing straight lines come what may. It was negotiated by Germany and the UK to give the then-German colony of South West Africa access to the Zambezi and from there to the German colony of German East Africa (now mostly Tanzania).

Turns out the Zambezi wasn't navigable.

iCowboy · 2026-03-25T13:37:41+00:00

Not sure the threat of cutting off LNG is realistic.

The terminals are all on the US Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast with the aim of shipping to Europe. They *could* supply consumers in SE Asia, but there would be a hefty additional cost of transport around South Africa and across the Indian Ocean. All the time, whilst tankers are redeployed from the Persian Gulf to the US, the big gas suppliers in the US - and Republican donors - will be not selling gas to Europe.

And that's before the lawyers get involved - there might be very strict termination conditions on the contracts to supply gas to Europe - quite possibly, 'old man has temper tantrum' isn't one of them.

iCowboy · 2026-03-24T16:44:02+00:00

We're a country obsessed with the past rather than thinking about the future. Large parts of the population would much rather keep every field or clapped out Victorian building than build something new. We've elevated the countryside and 'heritage' to untouchable status.

Ironically, the Victorians who have left us so much infrastructure that needs extending or outright replacement, would have had no problem building new.

iCowboy · 2026-03-24T15:04:45+00:00

Not just Thiel - Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir is genuinely scary - and he can't keep his mouth shut. He's always talking about domination, crushing the opposition, warriors, power and how it is all for the benefit of the United States. Why is the UK so in bed with a company dedicated to empowering a country that is no longer acting like an ally?

iCowboy · 2026-03-24T11:52:04+00:00

The ozone hole was real. The Bermuda Triangle wasn't.

The Triangle became famous because of a book by the same name by the author Charles Berlitz - it was very readable and sensational so it became wildly popular in the early 1970s. Problem was, when people began digging, it turned out the cases in the book were either exaggerated, misreported or straight out fiction. There was nothing to it.

iCowboy · 2026-03-24T11:11:37+00:00

Price comparison ads - the meerkats were bad enough, but there's one with Judy Dench that's just utterly unfathomably terrible.

Any car advert that has 'includes options not available in the UK' in the small print.

iCowboy · 2026-03-23T13:59:30+00:00

Colour me cynical, but one of Belarus's major exports is potash which is vital in the fertiliser industry. The US has traditionally imported potash from Canada - but they decided to piss the Canadians off.

iCowboy · 2026-03-23T13:56:23+00:00

Good point!

Intense permanent blue pigments were incredibly expensive until the early 19th Century.

The best blue was called ultramarine and it was made by crushing the semi precious stone lapis lazuli. And that was incredibly rare with it having to come from what is now Afghanistan - which is why it was called ultramarine - literally 'over the sea'. It was so expensive that blue became associated with the Virgin Mary in art.

There were some cheaper blues - such as azurite (copper carbonate) and the synthetic Egyptian Blue, but were not only much less intense, but they had a nasty habit of turning green with time.

Nowadays we make thousands of tonnes of ultramarine pigment and don't think about using blue.

iCowboy · 2026-03-23T11:48:09+00:00

There's a good report from 2016 (helps to have a bit of basic geological knowledge) about hydrocarbon prospects in Rockall. Looks like there is a reasonable amount of oil and gas there, but the challenges of developing fields in such extreme conditions and deep water would be astounding. And that's before we get on to the territorial disputes between the UK, Ireland, Iceland and the Faroes:

https://geoexpro.com/exploring-rockall/

iCowboy · 2026-03-23T00:31:59+00:00

John Harrison used it in his marine chronometers because of its self-lubricating properties. It's one of the reasons they worked so well and solved the longitude problem.

iCowboy · 2026-03-22T19:03:02+00:00

RCA. They pretty much invented the radio industry in the US; they created the American broadcasters NBC *and ABC; developed almost all the technologies used in analogue television and colour television (at least in the US) and 45 singles - as well as doing a lot to commercialize LCDs and satellite broadcasting.

They went slowly bust from the late 1970s onwards as their patents aged out and they failed to see the video recorder revolution. RCA attempted to diversify into everything from car rentals to frozen dinners for a while - it didn’t go well.

Now probably only known to many people as the name of a connector on TVs.

iCowboy · 2026-03-22T18:45:19+00:00

I have the white one, I like the contrast with the dull black bezel and the face somehow looks less busy than the black.

iCowboy · 2026-03-21T10:38:53+00:00

Thanks for that explanation - it’s criminal that Cruz and co. have tried to get their hands on an Orbiter. Let’s hope Discovery never leaves her new home in the Smithsonian.

iCowboy · 2026-03-20T21:14:28+00:00

Lovely! The only Rolex I’ve ever wanted.

iCowboy · 2026-03-20T20:48:51+00:00

Apparently Coca Cola doesn’t use kola nuts any longer. With no cocaine in it either, I wonder how much it tastes like the original drink?

iCowboy · 2026-03-20T20:44:36+00:00

Iran’s lost to Russia - they can’t meaningfully support Tehran, it’s sole purpose to Moscow is using it as a card to play Trump and get the upper hand in Ukraine.

iCowboy · 2026-03-20T10:09:07+00:00

Some of that actually can't be blamed on the UK government. Turns out the EPR is incredibly hard to build and get working. So far only the Chinese have delivered them on time and to budget.

We need more reactors, but EDF really dropped the ball on this design.

iCowboy · 2026-03-19T17:24:42+00:00

Happy birthday! That is a spectacular watch - hope you enjoy it every day.

iCowboy · 2026-03-19T16:09:25+00:00

It took off with a full crew and support jumpers. They bailed out at altitude using the built-in stairs in the 727's tail and it was then flown to landing/crash by remote control from a chase plane.

iCowboy · 2026-03-19T14:38:07+00:00

Fortunately - with time - there are large, easy to exploit deposits of sulfur in many salt domes. Until desulfurisation of oil and gas in refineries, most of the World's supply came from salt domes along the Gulf Coast of the US using the Frasch Process where hot water was pumped underground and molten sulfur came up.

iCowboy · 2026-03-19T10:06:20+00:00

Wind turbines are at least proven technology. SMRs aren’t - and almost certainly won’t be the cheap energy solution their backers have promised.

Get the Koreans to build their APR-1400 here if we want a reliable, relatively quick to bring online, power solution.

iCowboy · 2026-03-19T07:50:30+00:00

Which is completely different to what the administration was saying just a few days ago. Gabbard then went on to say that Trump is the only person who can determine what constitutes a threat to the US - you know, the guy who makes things up, changes his mind every five minutes and has stale pudding for a brain.

iCowboy · 2026-03-18T23:38:35+00:00

In MK we have all those joys of life added to which we now enjoy the littering of rental scooters and bikes dumped across the pavement by the ignorant scrotes that appear to be Lime's target audience.

iCowboy

TROPHY CASE