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John Bull Profile picture
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23 Nov, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Thing I have learned while helping put together our first "aerial" battlefield tour for @BattleguideVT:

The only reason we have an engineering schematic for the Upkeep bomb is because the Germans meticulously made one of the example they captured.

The British never made one.
I love that even in WW2, the only people doing proper project documentation were the Germans.
This is up there with when I discovered that it wasn't just a coincidence that Tilda Swinton shares a surname with the guy who helped invent the tank.
Important qualifier! Cheers. This is why I love mil history twitter (sometimes. when it's not being rampantly sexist)

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More from @garius

John Bull Profile picture
25 Nov
Don't care if you're a cat person or not. This kitty has had no affection her entire life. She's a feral cat who has fought to exist. We're not allowed to touch her. Or get near her. But she comes in now, and has decided we won't murder her.

Look at those eyes. She is boss cat❤️ Kitty sitting upright and d...
She was so hungry when she turned up. But she already had fire.

Y'all on Twitter worried about her getting preggo, but we watched her kick the shit out of all the bro cats who tried.

We hope she'll accept she has a home with us. But that means catching her which is hard.
In the meantime she will always find food here. She lets us get with a couple of feet of her which we accept is a big trust ask.

And if we don't provide food at the exact times she mandates she only chirrups in disappointment, not annoyance. Which we accept is an honour. 😆
Read 4 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
23 Nov
Little Stray Kitty's dinner today is Chicken & Salmon, with a side order of biscuit and warmed milk.

I have been meowed at with mild disappointment for going into the office today and thus delaying dinner from its preferred 4pm serving time. Kitty with three plates in ...
I don't have any pics to hand of how skinny and desperate she was when she first turned up, but long time followers can hopefully see how much healthier she is now.

She's getting a full winter coat, too. You can see her puffing up.
Still zero chance of getting her to stay in the house with the door closed, or let us touch her in any way.

The other night though she did meow outside the door when it was closed and she had decided it was dinner time. Which is a good sign.
Read 5 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
19 Nov
New Cowboy Bebop is deffo interesting. I mean, they've basically taken the Danger 5 approach but done it serious. i.e. "what if we LEGIT did live action like anime?"

Not sure if it's GOOD yet. But definitely interesting, and different.

Different is better than a lazy adaption.
It's definitely going to absolutely piss off the people who never realised the original was as much a spoof of a whole bunch of genres as it was an anime show though.

i.e. the people who want to BE the leads rather than realising you're meant to view them as human and broken.
watch for lots of "wwaaaaaaa they've made [Spike | Jet | Faye I Ed | My fave character] a bit of a dick. don't watch."

Pro-tip: they were in the original too. You just don't really spot it as much because we're conditioned not to see it through the anime tropes/medium.
Read 8 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
19 Nov
No.

TfL is a Local Authority in all but name, both in scale and complexity, and the political and legal framework under which it operates.

So it would be like trying to privatise Hackney.

It's why TfL defaulting on loans would have terrible impacts on other council's borrowing
Have TfL THEMSELVES privitised services?

Yes. Sometimes under government pressure: most notably Tube maintenance (Metronet/Tubelines) under PPP deals. These were a disaster and bringing it back in house cost upwards of £5bn.
More commonly though, most TfL services you use that AREN'T the Tube are essentially privitised. Overground, buses etc - all are delivered by private companies operating under heavy sets of consistent rules set by TfL.
Read 9 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
18 Nov
Worth noting that the last time London Underground had to enter a period of managed decline, the ultimate consequence was the King's Cross fire.
Wasn't the only factor of course, but it was a major contributor.

Railways, like air travel, rely on the "Swiss cheese model" of layers of error protection. All layers have holes, more layers stops them lining up and causing disasters.

Proper funding is one of those layers.
And yes.

I know what day it is.
Read 9 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
17 Nov
Ewart, who captures the Eagle, survived and had kids.

His family emigrated to Australia and his grandson George, served in the Australian army in WW1.

He fought and died breaking the Hindenburg line in 1918 and is buried in Bellicourt Cemetery, less than 60 miles from Waterloo.
You've got two men here, from the same family, who both fought for their countries. Separated by just one or two generations.

One was British. One was an Aussie, who grew up 9,000mi away.

Yet they fought only 60miles from each other. And only one survived his brush with history
I wonder if George knew who his grandfather (or possibly great grandfather) was. I assume that he did. He captured an Eagle and is buried next to Edinburgh Castle.

Did that influence George signing up? Did he feel pressure to do so? Was he excited about his own chance at glory?
Read 9 tweets

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