020210us Th1ngs

[dissolute ocelot]

I don't know if the film First Man is accurate (surely Ryan Gosling wouldn't lie to us) but it has a very frightening depiction of the Apollo 1 fire, which seems to show it's on top of the rocket, similar to an actual launch, and they were sealed up and fastened in quite tightly, so that when it happened (very quickly) they couldn't just pop the doors open and fill it with foam.

EDIT: The Wikipedia page is ridiculously detailed. It says it was on top of the rocket, and "plugs out" refers to the fact that it was running on internal power with no external supply (although apparently they had a cable to simulate the internal power supply); the rocket (launch vehicle) wasn't fuelled so they thought it was all safe.

[touchingcloth]

I don't know if the film First Man is accurate (surely Ryan Gosling wouldn't lie to us) but it has a very frightening depiction of the Apollo 1 fire, which seems to show it's on top of the rocket, similar to an actual launch, and they were sealed up and fastened in quite tightly, so that when it happened (very quickly) they couldn't just pop the doors open and fill it with foam.

EDIT: The Wikipedia page is ridiculously detailed. It says it was on top of the rocket, and "plugs out" refers to the fact that it was running on internal power with no external supply (although apparently they had a cable to simulate the internal power supply); the rocket (launch vehicle) wasn't fuelled so they thought it was all safe.

I've seen First Man and remembered that scene, but even so my earlier memory of whatever documentaries I'd seen overrode that.

I'm reading Gene Kranz's autobiography at the moment and that's what made me twig that the thing took place atop a rocket. As well as the rocket not being fuelled, they were using external batteries instead of the internal supply as you mention - the internal supply during missions used hydrogren fuel cells instead of batteries, and the lack of a fuel cell in the test is another factor that meant they considered it to be completely safe.

It never gets less horrific to hear about that fire, particularly just how quickly it developed, overwhelmed and killed the crew.

[Famous Mortimer]

Churchill's "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent" speech was delivered at an obscure private college in Missouri.

I did wonder why there's a "Churchill Museum" (or whatever the fuck it's called) just down the highway from me.

[gilbertharding]

Or is it, according to Alan, a newspaper format between a tabloid and a broadsheet?

(this post was originally accompanied by a picture of Mike Yarwood as Robert Robinson on the set of Call My Bluff).

But honestly - a Berliner is a doughnut, a newspaper format, a type of coachwork (if spelled 'Berlina'), and... get this - an inhabitant of the German capital city.

[dissolute ocelot]

I did wonder why there's a "Churchill Museum" (or whatever the fuck it's called) just down the highway from me.

I know someone who's originally from near Fulton, Missouri, which is how I know about its Churchill connection, although I don't think she's actually been to the museum. Westminster College, home of America's National Churchill Museum (officially so designated by Congress), also apparently has a 17th century Christopher Wren church they had shipped over and reassembled in the 1960s. Clearly someone has money to burn. (Maybe they would like a Boris Johnson museum too.)

Every recent American president has some kind of museum, but Britain doesn't really do that, although you can visit Churchill's home Chartwell (now National Trust) and Edward Heath's house.

[Dex Sawash]

Sealion is just a seal with an electrical potential

[touchingcloth]

I know someone who's originally from near Fulton, Missouri, which is how I know about its Churchill connection, although I don't think she's actually been to the museum. Westminster College, home of America's National Churchill Museum (officially so designated by Congress), also apparently has a 17th century Christopher Wren church they had shipped over and reassembled in the 1960s. Clearly someone has money to burn. (Maybe they would like a Boris Johnson museum too.)

Every recent American president has some kind of museum, but Britain doesn't really do that, although you can visit Churchill's home Chartwell (now National Trust) and Edward Heath's house.

There's a blue plaque on that pub where Cameron abandoned his infant.

[touchingcloth]

The C, S and P in C-SPAN don't stand for Congress, Senate, Politics or anything resembling them, but for Cable, Satellite, and Public.

[Icehaven]

"Zombie finger" - touchscreens being really unresponsive to you - is a common problem with various causes including having callouses on your fingers from playing string instruments or having really dry skin. I have both those, which is why various touchscreen devices frequently ignore me and not because I'm fading away like the McFly siblings.

[Dex Sawash]

"Zombie finger" - touchscreens being really unresponsive to you - is a common problem with various causes including having callouses on your fingers from playing string instruments or having really dry skin. I have both those, which is why various touchscreen devices frequently ignore me and not because I'm fading away like the McFly siblings.

Thanks for investigating this

[touchingcloth]

That Serial podcast about killers is so named because it's serialised rather than about serial killers. Someone should let other podcasters know that it's possible to produce more than a single episode, and that you can never release new ones as regularly as weekly or even more so.

[Paul Calf]

You should tell Ricky Gervais who, as any fule kno, invented podcasts.

[touchingcloth]

He also invented that new Netflix smash hit, Inventing Karl.

[Paul Calf]

I thought it was called Inverting Karl.

[touchingcloth]

You're thinking of Pilk Karlington, who I think was the producer for Marc Maron.

[beanheadmcginty]

Kendrick Lamar is not the same person as Lemar who came 3rd on Fame Academy.

[touchingcloth]

Kendrick Lamar is not the same person as Lemar who came 3rd on Fame Academy.

Maybe that is responsible for this

Kendrick Lamar is a rapper and not, I dunno, a personal shopper or something else more suited to the name Kendrick Lamar.

[touchingcloth]

Sly and the Family Stone have very little if anything to do with Sylvester Stallone.

I think they might be linked in my mind thanks to hearing Will Smith's "ain't no surprise in the club to see Sly Stallone" before I heard of the Family.

Off topic, but if the alligators, humidity and rampant ancients weren't enough to make me never want to visit Miami in my life, the Smith song offers a good ten plus additional arguments against.

[olliebean]

If something is a particular way "as a matter of course," that means that of course it is that way.

[NoSleep]

If something is a particular way "as a matter of course," that means that of course it is that way.

I think it's probably the other way round. Presumably the course that it's a matter of is the usual path down which something like this happens; that it's "on course"; that this is the way. "Of course" seems like a shorthand derivative of this, although it's changed the meaning from "the usual way" toward "necessarily".

[FredNurke]

'Of course' is first attested about 35 years before 'matter of course' (1541 vs. 1577). 'Course' here originally denoted (typical) procedure, custom, practice, etc.

[NoSleep]

"Of course" has strayed from the original meaning of "course" a little. If you do something "of course" there is the implication that you have no other course, rather than it simply being the usual course.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Sly and the Family Stone have very little if anything to do with Sylvester Stallone.

I think they might be linked in my mind thanks to hearing Will Smith's "ain't no surprise in the club to see Sly Stallone" before I heard of the Family.

Off topic, but if the alligators, humidity and rampant ancients weren't enough to make me never want to visit Miami in my life, the Smith song offers a good ten plus additional arguments against.

Imagining Sylvester mumbling his way through If You Want Me To Stay now.

[touchingcloth]

If you want me to stayyyyyydrian.

[Norton Canes]

The versions of Android named after confectionery are also in alphabetical order

[touchingcloth]

The versions of Android named after confectionery are also in alphabetical order

Ice Cream Sandwich was a thematic reach.

[Dex Sawash]

Hope I live to get Android Zotz update.

[olliebean]

They chickened out with Q, unfortunately, and it's just been boring old numbers since then.

[touchingcloth]

At the same time, they switched their mascot from a friendly robot face to Sandi Toksvig.

[gib]

"Of course" has strayed from the original meaning of "course" a little. If you do something "of course" there is the implication that you have no other course, rather than it simply being the usual course.

it's evolved the mean 'obviously' to the extent that you can respond 'of course!' which was my immediate response to yours and Fred's nice posts