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benzman

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Everything posted by benzman

  1. Chariots of Fire. What else could it possibly be?
  2. Some very good reading here. Many thanks to all who have contributed.
  3. In terms of TNT equivalent yield, what is the smallest viable nuclear weapon? One that will detonate rather than just fizzle. I am prompted to ask by talk of 'tactical' weapons. To my mind, nuclear weapons are so phenomenally destructive that their only viable use is to destroy a city and annihilate as many of that city's people as possible. So to me, the only use for nuclear weapons is deterrence, something that they did brilliantly in the cold war, and any talk of using them tactically is ridiculous. I will be interested to read any comments on this subject.
  4. A perfect candidate for the Darwin Award.
  5. I have heard it said that 'Mad Max 2' is the only sequel ever made that is actually better than the original. This is usually because if a movie becomes a success the Hollywood cigar-chewers say "We'll give you heaps of money to make a sequel but we want it bigger and better.", which is usually a prelude to disaster.
  6. Apparently, battleships sprouted multiple turrets after it was realised that the big guns then in use could fire a shell miles further than you could hope to accurately aim it. But if you had multiple turrets and fired them in a simultaneous broadside at a far distant target there was a reasonable chance that it least on shell would score a hit. The British 'Dreadnought' from 1905 could fire an eight gun broadside and was the first battleship designed with this in mind.
  7. When I was a youth in England I was told that a 'boat' was open with no deck, as in a rowing boat. If it was enclosed with a deck it was a 'ship'. Yachts and cabin cruisers were 'little ships'.
  8. Aging is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person you always should have been - David Bowie
  9. I once read that the reason some British people dislike Metric is because it was invented by the French, and they don't like the French. And the reason some Americans dislike it is because it was invented by godless atheists. Both reasons are equally stupid.
  10. I have often thought that the British national sport is dreaming up freakishly weird standards of measurement! Brilliant graphic. I could stare at it for hours, and it all makes sense. Well, kind of.
  11. The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny …”— Isaac Asimov There is some doubt as to whether Asimov did actually say this, but it is too good a quote to pass up.
  12. Some people have far too much time on their hands, and I for one am very glad that they do!
  13. France is a place you have to go through to get to Italy. - James May. Braking is the secret to fast driving. - Jim Clark. I may be slightly paraphrasing these two quotes as I cannot track down the originals, but I know I came across them somewhere.
  14. I don't watch a great amount of TV but for my money the best British TV series was 'Yes, Minister' and the best American was 'Breaking Bad'.
  15. Madeleine Albright, aged 84. she wrote a rather scary book called 'Fascism - a Warning' that gives us little hope for the future.
  16. I will take a guess at Alaska, that being the fiftieth state to join the USA.
  17. I wonder if they chose the Silver Fox name as a tribute to Piero Taruffi who designed and drove a twin-boom car that achieved about 130 MPH using a 500CC Gilera motorcycle engine? https://www.uniquecarsandparts.com/race_drivers_piero_taruffi.htm http://www.gregwapling.com/hotrod/land-speed-racing-history/land-speed-racing-tarf-gilera.html
  18. To be positive is to be mistaken at the top of one's voice - Ambrose Bierce. Knowing this quote has occasionally saved me from making a fool of myself.
  19. Nevertheless, I stand by my original post. And now we had better terminate this exchange before the moderators do it for us.
  20. So did I and probably a lot of other people too, which is why I never post a picture.
  21. I would learn everything I could about women and make them my main interest. I am sure I would never regret it!
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