SKULL TOWER

The Skull Tower is a stone monument, embedded with human skulls that was constructed by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire after the Battle of Cegar in 1809.
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I doubt there are many outside of Norway that know that the Norwegian pop group A-ha was critical in the introduction of electric car incentives in Norway. I certainly didn't. Read on...

In 1989, two members of the group, Morten Harket and Magne Furuholmen were in Switzerland with environmentalist Frederic Hauge, when they came across a hobby-converted Fiat Panda. Stated range: 45 km. They snapped it up and imported it to Norway.

Photo: In Switzerland (Bellona)

On arrival in Norway, the regs didn't accommodate the registration of electric cars so it couldn't legally be driven on the road. Since it had a propane-fuelled heater, just like a motorhome, they registered it as a motorhome.

Moreover, in contrast to petrol cars, diesel cars paid registration fees based on how far they were driven, and our heroes thought this should also apply to electric cars. So the two-seater Swiss-converted Fiat Panda was registered as a diesel motorhome in Norway.

They managed (somehow) to avoid paying the one-off registration fee in 1990, and ever since then electric cars have been exempted this now-substantial fee.
Source:

Mines had always had a large female element in their workforce; women were generally employed to carry coal to the surface. It was only in 1842 – with the Mines Regulation Act – that women and young children were banned from working below ground.

The following passage is an extract of a book that was published by Robert Bald, a mining engineer at Alloa, in 1812.

Robert Bald, A General View of the Coal Trade of Scotland, Chiefly that of the River Forth & Lothian, to which is Added an Inquiry into the Condition of the Women who Carry Coals under Ground in Scotland, Known by the Name of Bearers, Edinburgh: Oliphant, Waugh and Innes, 1812

In those collieries where this mode is in practice, the collier leaves his house for the pits about eleven o’clock at night, (attended by his sons, if he has any sufficiently old), when the rest of mankind are retiring to rest. Their first work is to prepare coals, by hewing

them down from the wall. In about three hours after, his wife (attended by her daughters, if she has any sufficiently grown) sets out for the pit, having previously wrapped her infant child in a blanket, and left it to the care of an old woman, who, for a small gratuity,

On 23 September 1984 the BBC broadcast the apocalypse: the story of nuclear war and its effects on the people of Sheffield. Filmed on a shoestring budget it still causes nightmares to this day.

This thread is not for the squeamish.

This the story of Threads...

In 1965 the BBC had filmed The War Game, a fictional docu-drama about a nuclear attack on Britain. However under pressure from the government the BBC withdrew it from screening. It was finally released in 1966 as a film in selected theatres.

For many years the withdrawal of The War Game had rankled many at the BBC. Surely it was a public broadcaster's duty to show the public what the reality of nuclear war would mean. Finally in 1982 they did so.

A Guide To Armageddon was a documentary for the BBC's peak-time science series Q.E.D. Produced by Mick Jackson it graphically depicted the effect of a one megaton explosion on London. It also explored how well people could survive such a blast if they were in a fallout shelter.

Jackson had carefully researched his subject and knew how under-prepared the UK was for nuclear war. The physical and psychological effects of atomic attack would catapult what was left of Britain back to a 14th century mode of living, a time when bubonic plague killed millions.

Chapin 1912.

Talking about droplets and airborne. To him "airborne" meant long-range as in many kilometers. Droplet could be through the air more than 1 or 2 m. Plus, he said study it more! We have failed to do that.

Quick thread.

12 foot droplets? I guess they shrunk over the years.

Also, ring worm may be through air.

Page 281. Plague. Droplets means through air over distance, but not long-range.

Note that MASKS WORKED.

page 295. Droplets detected, Flugge first found them during SPEAKING, LOUD TALKING, COUGHING and SNEEZING. Tiny droplets. Yup.

Note found 2 meters BEHIND the person

So clearly, our "droplet" has morphed from Chapin's droplet. That's weird.

p 296. How much do they travel? Well even Chapin said droplets fill a room. Five to six hours. Interesting.

(He then goes on to wonder if they are infective, same arguments as today ... sigh ... and he didn't have 100 years of studies to help him.)

In 1927, a young Spanish boy, aged 8, - who would become the 18th Duque de Alberquerque - sat in a cinema watching a newsreel of the Grand National.
In that moment, an impossible dream was born.
Born on the 15 December 1918, the boy - Beltran de Osorio y Diez de Rivera

- was so enchanted that he resolved one day win to the great race himself.
Aged 33, the Duke - having ridden in French steeplechases - made his Grand National debut in 1952, putting up ten pound overweight on his own eight-year-old Brown Jack lll (Pic), trained by Peter Cazalet.

The tall Spaniard fell at the sixth, sustaining cracked ribs and concussion

His second attempt came eleven years later aboard the Irish-bred Jonjo (named after its joint owners John O'Hagen and Joe Thompson).
Together the 44-year-old Duke and the 13-year-old Jonjo completed the

first circuit safely enough and were well up with the leaders when being unluckily brought down at the 21st.
In 1965 the Duke took a bad fall from Groomsman at Valentine's and was taken to Walton General Hospital with a broken leg

His ride in 1966 was on the doubtful stayer

L'Empereur who had to pulled up at the 26th

He was back again in 1973, pulling Nereo up at the Canal Turn. He finished 8th on the same horse the following year.

Yet another bad fall a week before the 1975 National resulted in yet another broken leg, ruling him out of the race,