Recent content by crudshoveller

For interest, in his prophetic view of the future world H.G.Wells (died 1946) included the idea of an 'United States of Europe'.

Inventions A few British inventions to add to the list are the vending machine, caterpillar tracks, the artifical hand, the heavier than air flying machine and golf. One false discovery attribution seems to be Edward Jenner's smallpox innoculation. He was preceeded in the endeavour by Benjamin...

I see no British Isles pre-Celtic name survivals mentioned. Have none been identified?

I do have a long list of books that have meant something to me or that I adjudge to have played some role in developing interests I later explored more deeply. I don't think this tiresome list would have much relevance for anyone else. A few items from my early literary awakening I will risk...

Belgian contribution to the world I don't think this has been mentioned yet. Thomas Blanquet or Blanket, a Flemish weaver who settled in Bristol, began manufacturing woollen goods - including the blanket - to which he gave his name (this obscure piece of trivia comes via the historian Arthur...

nationalistic stuff Ah, I am Englander. I have Britisher EU passport for when I visit to the foreigners and distant parts of our oblate living-shere. Thank you for your kind interest LeBrok. I live between Alliston and Barrie in Ontario - retired now but formerly worked here in aerospace...

What makes Europeans similar between each others, as opposed to Americans? One factor that bears comparison is bloodthirstiness. By murder rate Americans are much more accomplished killers than Europeans - I don't mean Americans abroad, but in their own country. The European Russians are worse...

Strike four!!!! Sirius. Not that you were to know but I am not Canadian - I just live and pay taxes here. The Eupedia questionnaire asks where one lives and does not elicit further clarification so that's where the deficiency lies. However, not all is lost because I did used to work for...

The falsely convicted who are later exonerated by late arriving DNA evidence (at least 250 now exonerated by Innocence Project initiative) might be choose to focus on Alec Jeffrey's contribution to forensic science. In that first case, in typical fashion, available evidence pointed to an...

For my offering I tender the cyclic pitch control used in helicopters. Designed and patented by the Marquis de Pescara.

van Meegeren, who cocked a snook at the stuffy world of art and showed that Vermeer wasn't the only one who could paint a Vermeer - but had to demonstrate it to the experts of the day before they would believe his claim. I have an especial affinity for snook cockers.

Excellent Sirius. [It was a Do217 that sank Egret but close enough]. For reference m'sieur, don't take this as my saying guided missiles were the greatest German contribution to humanity - just one other step forward into the technology of today that has (arguably) brought some benefit to those...

Anyone know what this means. It is lost on me: You are only allowed to post URLs to other sites after you have made 10 posts or more. Ah links Monika, thanks - in my overawing ignorance I had thought it supposed I wanted to make reference to some external web site - which I didn't, I simply to...

The bursting through of the sea into the Black Sea, if that's what happened, like the bursting through of the sea into the Mediterranean itself (at the neck of Gibraltar), can only be envisioned as happening suddenly rather than as over time surely. This means that any forewarning permitting the...

This lament also resonates with me. Any loss of historical (and prehistoric) remnants is to be deplored. There are too few of us getting hot under the collar about it. It is like the extinction of a species - when it is gone it is gone - well, except for St Petersburg palaces and treasures like...