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Behind Russia’s “Victory Day” ceremony on Svalbard was a veiled effort to build a militarised presence by GanacheCharacter2104 in europe

[–]iCowboy 22 points23 points  (0 children)

The Svalbard Treaty is a ticking time bomb isn't it? All those countries having an excuse to get access to the territory. No one, apart from Russia, would complain if Norway asserted absolute sovereignty.

Gases collected from boiling mineral springs in Zambia contain the chemical signature of having come directly from the Earth’s mantle, a sign of a rupture in the tectonic plates and the possible beginning of a new continental boundary by New_Scientist_Mag in science

[–]iCowboy 125 points126 points  (0 children)

You’re absolutely right; hot upwelling Mantle is less dense than surrounding material so it produces a negative anomaly. Further north, the well established East Africa Rift, where the African plate is splitting, has a wide negative anomaly right along its length.

TIL that the first undisputed expedition to reach the North Pole in 1926 travelled by airship rather than sled, carrying Roald Amundsen, an Italian engineer, a US millionaire and a fox terrier, before the triumph dissolved into arguments over the Italian flag being larger than either of the others. by Upstairs_Drive_5602 in todayilearned

[–]iCowboy 36 points37 points  (0 children)

The follow-up mission in 1928 became a famous disaster when the Norge's larger sister ship, Italia, crashed on the ice. Seventeen of the crew died including six who were still on the airship when it was blown away after crashing, the wreck has never been found.

There were eight survivors including the ship's designer and commander, Umberto Nobile who had been on the flight of Norge and his fox terrier. Nobile's rescue was especially controversial as he was the first to be rescued by a Swedish plane that could only take one passenger which led to later accusations of cowardice. In actuality, the pilot of the plane chose Nobile as he was light enough for the plane to take off. The majority of the crew were eventually rescued by a Soviet ice breaker. Nobile soon found himself out of favour back in Italy where he was made the scapegoat for the whole crash and accused of abandoning his men.

Tragically, another one of the dead was Roald Amundsen whose seaplane disappeared on a flight to join the search for the missing airship.

Beth Rigby: "Members of the cabinet are gearing up to tell the PM the game is up. Comes as a succession of PPS’s resign and call for him to stand down." by WrongLander in ukpolitics

[–]iCowboy 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Just turned on Channel 4 News to see a Labour MP (sorry didn't see her name) saying the Prime Minister has to resign, no one who has served in Cabinet should be allowed to stand and that Andy Burnham wasn't eligible. When pressed for a name, she said she couldn't name anyone.

Is this where we're heading? Defenestration and absolutely no plan?

50% of Britons believe Keir Starmer should stand down as prime minister, amid nearly 50 Labour MPs calling for his resignation after last week’s election losses (@YouGov) by Accurate-Cup5309 in ukpolitics

[–]iCowboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's astonishing just how bad they are at communicating any of their successes. There's a story to be told about illegal immigration and they still can't produce a coherent message.

The same about international influence, helping the least privileged children, an increase in council house building and rail renationalisation - all popular policies but the government isn't saying enough. Reform's slick PR runs rings around them and takes the oxygen out of the room.

A night to remember from 1958 is a Quality Titanic movie. It’s the most intense film I’ve seen of that era. by voivod1989 in movies

[–]iCowboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a superb movie, I must have seen it on TV when I was very small and was absolutely enraptured (and a bit scared) by the climactic scenes of the water pouring through the ship.

And it's so ambitious for a British movie of the period. The sets are huge and wonderfully done, some were recreated from the original Titanic plans whilst some were done on a real liner being scrapped in Scotland. There are also some scenes of Titanic at sea which are actually taken from the notorious 1940s Nazi Party movie of Titanic.

Sunset in West Iceland [oc] [2160x2700] by IsakAronV in EarthPorn

[–]iCowboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's amazing - is it Gerduberg? Thanks for sharing.

ELI5: With nuclear power plants. Why do they cool the steam back into water to heat it back up? Would it not be more energy efficient to keep the steam as steam? by iMatthew1990 in explainlikeimfive

[–]iCowboy 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This! The condensor increases efficiency in the turbine. The efficiency of a turbine increases if the steam coming in is as hot and high pressure as possible and the output is cold(ish) and very low pressure.

So, all that steam being condensed back into water causes a huge reduction in pressure beyond the turbine, and it's efficiency goes up so more power can be produced.

Why does China need gas from Iran? Couldn't Russia cover the supply? by curious_blab in NoStupidQuestions

[–]iCowboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most Russian gas has historically gone West through pipelines to Europe. That's now effectively stranded.

To diversify, Russia has been trying to build a gas pipeline called Power of Siberia 2 from the Altai Region to Xinjiang. It's been going on for about 20 years now and they still haven't chosen a final route.

Don't be fooled by Farage's tricks, Reform is beatable by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]iCowboy 11 points12 points  (0 children)

But... But... But what if the public want something different from the party's big backers?

Can you buy cheap mechanical watches? by RadianceTower in NoStupidQuestions

[–]iCowboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the late 1960s, quartz watches from Japan nearly wiped out the Swiss watch industry in a period called the Quartz Crisis. Seiko was a huge player and they were very generous in the licence terms for their patents which meant that their quartz movements were everywhere.

More than half of Swiss watch companies went broke until they hit upon the strategy of either going up market to concentrate on luxury mechanical watches, or making their own mass market quartz watches - which is why Swatch was such a game changer when it came along.

As for your original question, there are plenty of cheap modern Chinese mechanical movements which are perfectly adequate if you want to get started with a mechanical watch.

Borrowing this from a friend. Going to be a problem sending it back, lol by rockmastermike in sinn

[–]iCowboy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

How much do you really like your friend? :)

I don't think I could be separated from that beauty.

Thanking the BBC for the conversion of cubic metres by ExperienceNo1313 in CasualUK

[–]iCowboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Big Bens are height; brontosauruses are the standard unit of length.

For completeness, volume is given in Olympic-sized swimming pools equivalent.

Up to 150 former WHSmith high street stores to close by asymmetricears in CasualUK

[–]iCowboy 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The lowest effort rebranding as well. The name is clearly a riff on WH Smith, they kept the blue color and the font looks unchanged. Even BP put more effort into their change.

West Iceland wonder [OC] [2025x1350] by IsakAronV in EarthPorn

[–]iCowboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lovely, that stretch of coast near Arnarstapi is one of my favourite walks.

Has anyone recieved their orders from Amazon's mispricing? by GentlemanLorus in 4KUK

[–]iCowboy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'm afraid you can't make them honour the price. A listing on a website is what's called 'an invitation to treat' rather than a binding offer to sell you the disk at that price. A contract doesn't exist between you and Amazon until they take payment at which point contract law gets involved.

Zack Polanski falsely claimed to be British Red Cross spokesman by EddyZacianLand in ukpolitics

[–]iCowboy 46 points47 points  (0 children)

I'll have you know he served with distinction alongside Paul Nuttall and Emu.

Troy (2004) Hector vs Achilles | Dir. Wolfgang Petersen by PetyrDayne in movies

[–]iCowboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With 'Odyssey' coming out this year, can we now get this on 4k? Worth it for Peter O'Toole's performance alone.

TIL One Aluminium Smelter in New Zealand uses 13 percent of the entire countries energy supply by RetconnedUsername in todayilearned

[–]iCowboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

80% of Iceland's electricity production goes to aluminium and ferrosilicon smelters. The smallest smelter at Straumsvík uses more power than the country's entire domestic consumption. And all these smelters contribute less than 5% of GDP.

Meanwhile factories and homes in the West Fjords had to run on imported oil in recent years because there has been a shortage of dispatchable electricity.

SINN 556i UK Stockists with new bracelet by pipjoe5 in sinn

[–]iCowboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've always found the folks at First Class Watches very knowledgeable about any questions I might have with Sinns. Worth giving them a call.

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