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'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

bbc.co.uk

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Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#171

Post by Cullinet »

btilly wrote: post #165
lostlogin wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone doesn’t get the reference, this is required viewing. It’s gold. https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirki_(tanker) for the real life ship that inspired that piece of comedy.

under the related articles is the 1990 spill of the tanker "Mega Borg". After reading the first time about "the front fell off", I am given to think that the earlier comedic opportunity has gone sadly missed. [Ed. but I don't know if Scorpio Tankers Inc took the ticker STNG for related reasons...]

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#172

Post by balabaster »

Thomashuet wrote: post #9

The title should be 'Hovering ship', as it is in the BBC article. There is nothing special about a floating ship.

To be fair, there's nothing particularly special about hovering ships either given the invention of the hovercraft...

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#175

Post by iso1631 »

arghwhat wrote: post #53
M2Ys4U wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The BBC is not a government news source. It's not even funded by the UK government.[0] It is - by law[1] - required to be completely editorially independent. The BBC is primarily funded by the TV Licence. The licence is levvied on anyone who watches live TV (any live TV) or uses BBC's SVoD service, BBC iPlayer. The BBC does operate a commercial subsidiary (BBC Studios), and the main BBC does have other revenue source…

Same in Denmark, but the collective opinion is that the structure makes the license a TV tax (a yearly fee you must pay by government mandate as a result of owning a type of device irrespective of use) that goes to the media company, thus making it state funded by that tax, regardless of what the company and government claim. If it was independent it would have to sell its services on its own, with citizens purchasin…

> a TV tax (a yearly fee you must pay by government mandate as a result of owning a type of device irrespective of use

That's not the case in the UK. You only need a TV license if you use equipment to receive a live TV programme (which is something that falls under the remit of OFCOM[1] - not a livestream of Everyday Astronaut), or if you use BBC's iplayer.

[1] Specifically from 2003 communications act

  “television programme service” means any of the following—
  * a television broadcasting service;
  * a television licensable content service;
  * a digital television programme service;
  * a restricted television service [consists in the broadcasting of television programmes for a particular establishment or other defined location, or a particular event, in the United Kingdom, which is licensable by OFCOM]

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#176

Post by kerblang »

lebuffon wrote: post #69

Very nice picture, but how does this advance the "flat earth theory"? :)

I know you're joking, but this is highly useful in this regard, because flat-earthers often swear up & down that they can see beyond the "ostensible" horizon limit without understanding that refraction effect. This one is kind of unique but it demonstrates refraction nicely.

Really, I think we're usually so busy being dismissive and condescending towards flat-earthers, it's easy to forget that proving the spherical earth is kind of a tricky matter without putting people in spaceships (but if I could afford it, I'd happily buy a few tickets for them...)

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#177

Post by iso1631 »

seneca wrote: post #46
M2Ys4U wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The BBC is not a government news source. It's not even funded by the UK government.[0] It is - by law[1] - required to be completely editorially independent. The BBC is primarily funded by the TV Licence. The licence is levvied on anyone who watches live TV (any live TV) or uses BBC's SVoD service, BBC iPlayer. The BBC does operate a commercial subsidiary (BBC Studios), and the main BBC does have other revenue source…

> It's not even funded by the UK government.[0] > The BBC is primarily funded by the TV Licence. The licence is levvied on anyone who watches live TV (any live TV) Who mandates the payment of a TV License and allocates the funds from it to the BBC? I would assume that's the UK government. These terms may be used differently in the UK, but in the US that would be considered government funded.

The license is mandated (in certain circumstances), however the funds are collected by the BBC directly.

The US mandates obamacare I believe, does that mean it's government funded?

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#178

Post by iso1631 »

statstutor wrote: post #75
hardlianotion wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although historically it seems very rare that the BBC view on any international politics differs from that of the UK government. I know a lot of Britishers that would dispute this version of affairs. To my mind the typical BBC point of view is mildly left-of-centre, well-to-do and urban.

> the typical BBC point of view is mildly left-of-centre Many people would claim that the BBC is left-of-centre, but if you look at their most prominent/best paid journalists, that is near-objectively not the case. Andrew Neil was been one of the highest paid BBC journalists 2003-2020, having previously worked for Rupert Murdoch, and has gone on to be Chair [correction: Chairman] of "GB News". GB News hosts the most…

On the flip side you could argue that Andrew Neil leaving the BBC shows evidence of it not being right wing.

Fundamentally the BBC is definitely left wing[0], with enourmous right wing bias[1]

Everyone agrees [2] it's biased.

[0] https://www.cps.org.uk/files/reports/original/130814102945-B...

[1] https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/bbc-left-right-wing-b...

[2] https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/bbc-left-right-wing-b...

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#179

Post by iso1631 »

M2Ys4U wrote: post #123
stjohnswarts wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, hold up, the Parliament is not the government? That's a very confusing take.

What's confusing about it? The government wields executive power, Parliament legislates and holds the government to account.

The confusing part is that the government has to maintain the confidence of the house, and is comprised of members of parliament.

Normally the government whips mean that parliament does whatever the government tell it to do, so "holds the government to account" is a laughable statement.

Unlike the US system where the president can easily not have the confidence of the Senate or House (R president, D House, D Senate for example), and appoints his own secretaries from a pool of 300+m people, in the UK, the prime minister appoints ministers from parliament (usually the house of commons but can appoint from house of lords). Technically the PM could make a new lord (like Blair did with Sugar), but it's convoluted, and conventionally the main jobs must go to MPs

Most people think "I like Boris, I vote for him as PM, he runs the country". In the last 5 years this has broken down and parliament has asserted itself more -- this independence was punished at the ballot box in December 2019.

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#180

Post by unloco »

globular-toast wrote: post #128
cs702 wrote: post #35

I've seen this optical illusion in person, with large container ships, off the US Mid-Atlantic coast, and it's really cool. The photo in this article is fantastic. It shows an extreme example of the illusion. The ship appears to be, not just hovering over the water, but actually suspended in mid-air. In my view, it's worth clicking on the link just to see the photo.

Something just occurred to me. Is this actually an optical illusion? My idea of an optical illusion is one where your brain perceives something that is different from reality. Indeed, when I look it up I see examples of that (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_illusion ) But in this case your brain isn't doing anything wrong, the light reaching your eyes is what's "wrong" and your brain is correctly interpret…

This is a false horizon.

Your eyes are seeing the reflection of the sky on the distant water or fog, making it appear the horizon is closer than it really is.

So it is an optical illusion, as your brain is what is perceiving a horizon where it is not.

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