GeorgeRichard

I fear Seattle may be real. Pace Bostrom.

Because the caption says "LETTER SIGNED TO FERDINAND IV, KING OF NAPLES, VERSAILLES, SEPTEMBER 24, 1788" (I am quoting verbatim, not shouting) rather than, for instance, the Proust example which is captioned "AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT DRAFT OF THE OPENING PASSAGE, CA. MARCH–APRIL 1913" where autograph means written in the author's own handwriting.

I think the letter was written by someone else - the only part by Marie Antoinette being the rather less attractive signature.

> it seem quite "cacky" (I can't explain what I mean by cacky, but it sounds like what I mean).

From cack-handed (inept; clumsy)?

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cack-handed

Great photographs: it's really difficult to make a good photo of a black subject against a black background. The first three images in the photo essay---in particular the third---show that, with skill, it can be done.

> Each student in the human powered Van Unnik student building is responsible for generating the electricity that’s used in his or her individual room.

No elderly or physically disabled students need apply.

As man who has been diagnosed with heart disease (as well as an alarming variety of other medical problems) I find myself quite unwilling to be appraised of the date and time of my death. Everyone dies. I am not one of those dogs who wants to live for ever. But even I, quite comfortable with the idea of my own mortality, do not want to watch the clock tick out the remaining hours, minutes, seconds of my life - let it remain a mystery. Unless of course you can fix the problem for a price, a very low price, which I can afford.

I was in the Soviet Union for a couple of weeks at the end of the 60's. Our Intourist guide took us to see an exhibition having to do with the Soviet space effort. One of the exhibits was a spherical module which, given the date, I imagine was part of a Soyuz-A. The thing that struck me, and that I would be interested in having confirmed (or not) by someone knowledgeable, was that part of the thing (a porthole surround?) was made of/trimmed with wood. Could this be the case or is my memory playing tricks on me?

"... it changes in tone depending on it's angle to the sun ... the effect works ... even when the sun is below the horizon."

This sounds like magic. Have you observed this effect yourself and do you have an explanation for it or a reference to one?

>The Mountain View Computer History Museum is saying goodbye to one of its most unique exhibits, if not also its most priceless.

I know its poor form to mention such things but "unique" and "priceless" are both absolutes: something is unique/priceless or it's not. For example, if one thinks about two unique things it is not possible to say which is more unique than the other. (If one thinks about Difference Engines, since there is one in the Science Museum and one in the Computer History Museum, neither is unique.)

Usually when I see this sort of thing I shrug and remind myself that living languages constantly change. (It seems that "unique" has lost some of its force and is changing its meaning to something like "very unusual" or "very rare".) But two examples in one sentence apparently stirs the old fuddy-duddy in me to action...

I found this fascinating. I grew up in London during the 50s so the war and the blitz were still fresh in people's minds when I was a child.

My father, who was a member of the crew of a Sunderland flying boat, didn't talk about it very much. He was a moody bastard with a quick temper, probably as a result of several years of flying sorties over the Atlantic that lasted many hours—a dreadful combination of boredom and intense anxiety and fear.

My mum was more forthcoming. She told me once of going into work in Fleet Street—she was a sub editor on a magazine—and seeing a bomb caught by its tail fins in a tangle of wires, just hanging there above the street. The authorities had cordoned off the immediate area but people were just detouring around it and going to work as usual.

Of course I checked out the area where I grew up in north London—ten years before I was born a stick of four bombs appears to have fallen across the street I lived in. It's possible to see additional information about any of the bombs by clicking on the symbol of the one you are interested in.

Anyone interested in how civilians experienced the second world war in London could have a look at 'Civilians at War' by George Beardmore, who kept a journal between 1938 and 1946 which he later published.