Simon Yoxall

Cheshire born; Cheshire bred.
Strong in arm; Quick in 'ead.

[Maxi @AllForProgress_]

This past week, on a test bed in Britain, a Rolls-Royce jet engine ran at full take-off power on pure hydrogen, putting out water vapour instead of carbon.

Nobody on Earth had managed it before. It is the sort of thing that ought to stop the country in its tracks, and it will be forgotten by the weekend.

Leave aside the recent paroxysms of renewed net-zero insanity from Derelict Ed and the pervasive atmosphere of offended envy that greets much homegrown achievement nowadays in Britain. This engineering is a wonder, and it's British to the bone.

We gave the world the jet engine in the first place - Frank Whittle, a Coventry man and an RAF officer, patented it in 1930 while the Air Ministry assured him it was a curiosity. Rolls-Royce is today one of perhaps three firms anywhere that can build a large aero engine at the outer edge of the possible, and it has just done what most of the industry swore was twenty years away.

As usual, you marvel at how little the people who govern us had to do with it. The engineers in Derby are world-class; the stewardship above them is third-rate. They pulled off a global first while paying the most expensive industrial electricity in the developed world to keep the power on over the bench - a weight no German, American or Gulf rival has to carry. We produce frontier brilliance on the shop floor and fritter it away at the despatch box, and we have done for two generations.

That is the maddening shape of modern Britain: brilliance from below, sub- (or, indeed, ultra-) mediocrity from above. The people here who actually make things are still among the best in the world; the state that is meant to back them treats a firm like Rolls-Royce as a photocall today and a takeover target tomorrow, and prices its energy as though it would prefer the next plant were built in Texas.

Progress starts from the other end. Give these people what every rival government gives its champions and we beg ours to do without: the cheap, abundant power their competitors already enjoy, a supply chain built around them, and a state that guards a national asset rather than auctioning it. The hard part of a British revival - the talent, the nerve, the engineering - is already done, and was done again this week, by people who deserve a far better country than the one currently sitting above them.

We just taught an engine to breathe fire and exhale water. The least we owe the men and women who managed it is a government and a state as brilliant as they are.

[Simon Yoxall @SDYoxall]

@Dr_TheHistories @archeohistories Meanwhile the person behind him walks off unconcerned.

[Today I Learned @TodayiLearrned]

Expert cobbler at work! This is impressive👏🏼 👞

[Simon Yoxall @SDYoxall]

@VinnieSull1van Why are we filling our cities with dreadfully bland American architecture?. It's nearly as monotonous as the Soviet era horrors in Eastern Europe.

[Simon Yoxall @SDYoxall]

@Dickwith2dogs June Brownshirt.

[M. M. Arevuo, PhD #🟦 @arevuo_m]

After 40 years here I’m leaving. This was on my doorstep in Golders Green. My wife and children have already left. I have always believed in the European civilisation and I have been proud having been born as a European. My wife’s Opa was a proud German who got out by the skin of his teeth in 1939. I’m not going to make the same mistake.

[Simon Yoxall @SDYoxall]

@RagTagBrag @ScarredForLife2 I remembered the ghost knight and the old man ghost in the bed. For years I had forgotten what the actual programme was called until it appeared on my YT feed. I must have been 5 in 1981 when this was shown to us in school.

[Peter Clack @PeterDClack]

Is this the Islamic prime minister of the UK pretending British people are responsible for the massive rise in crime, the gang rapes, street violence, vandalism, destruction, theft and fear. These are now spreading across this once green and pleasant land? The UK will never forget Starmer's legacy of bringing this once great culture to its knees.

[Simon Yoxall @SDYoxall]

@archeohistories Sodium lights are better in foggy conditions and gives less strain to the eyes.

[Dr. M.F. Khan @Dr_TheHistories]

A then 118-year-old Sarah Knauss posing for a family photo, United States, 1998....

When Sarah Knauss was born, William McKinley was president, the Eiffel Tower had been standing for only a decade, and the average American life expectancy was just 47 years.

This remarkable photo captures six generations in a single frame — with Sarah Knauss at 118 years old seated at the far left. Born in 1880, she lived through almost three centuries, twenty-one U.S. presidents, two World Wars, and the dawn of the internet. By the time this photograph was taken, she had become the world’s oldest living person and the oldest verified American in history.

Knauss attributed her longevity to “keeping calm and not letting things upset her.” She witnessed a world that transformed from horse-drawn carriages to space travel — and remained sharp and dignified until her passing in 1999 at 119 years and 97 days.

© Reddit

#drthehistories

[Swearing Sports News @SwearingSport]

You won’t see a fucking better goal than this on your timeline today.😮‍💨

[Veterans’ Foundation @VeteransFdn]

We’re saddened to hear of the passing of John Barnes, one of Guernsey’s oldest WW2 veterans, who has died aged 104.🕯️

A Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander, John served for 23 years, flying Swordfish torpedo bombers, protecting convoys, and even sinking a German U-boat during the war.

After moving to Guernsey in 1961, he became bursar at Elizabeth College and remained a cherished part of island life.

Rest in peace, John. ❤️

📰: BBC News
📷: Sophie Rabey

[Gurkha Brigade Association @Gurkha_Brigade]

Congratulations to the five newly qualified Gurkha Commando Sappers from the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers (QGE), who have successfully completed the All Arms Commando Course. Special recognition is awarded to:

•Lance Corporal Pukar Gurung – Commandant’s Certificate
•Sapper Ashish Shahi – Commandant’s Certificate

Also qualifying:
•Sapper Prahlad Khadka
•Sapper Surendra Tamang
•Sapper Bijay Tamang

Outstanding achievements, reflecting exceptional determination, professionalism, and soldiering excellence reflecting the high standards and pride that define the ethos of the QGE and the Brigade of Gurkhas.

#Gurkha #Engineers #Commando #Soldier #Elite #BritishArmy #Army

[The Curious Tales @thecurioustales]

I worked at Geek Squad for 4 years.

92% of "slow computer" appointments were fixed with the SAME 8 steps.

We charged $149 for something you can do in 10 minutes.

I'm exposing the entire playbook:

[Historic England @HistoricEngland]

Look at that symmetry 🤩

The Grade I-listed Guildhall in Thaxted, Essex, is thought to date from the early 15th century and was probably built as a moot hall.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

How a book written in 1910 could teach you calculus better than several books of today

[Full text: https://t.co/55dkZAeGmv]

[Historic England @HistoricEngland]

Have you ever visited this famous street? 👀

Elm Hill in Norwich is a beautiful cobbled street with houses and speciality shops. It takes its name from the Elm trees that once stood in the square near the Britons Arms.

[Historic England @HistoricEngland]

Built in the 13th century by King Henry III, Newcastle's Black Gate served as the castle's main entrance. 🏰

It was restored in the 19th century after centuries of varied use.

📸 The photo on the left was taken in September 1864, and the photo on the right was taken in 2015.

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

Roald Dahl on Measles: Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.

'Are you feeling all right?' I asked her.

'I feel all sleepy,' she said.

In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.

The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was...in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her. On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles.

...I dedicated two of my books to Olivia, the first was ‘James and the Giant Peach’. That was when she was still alive. The second was ‘The BFG’, dedicated to her memory after she had died from measles. You will see her name at the beginning of each of these books. And I know how happy she would be if only she could know that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children.

Roald Dahl, 1986

[Andrew Fox @Mr_Andrew_Fox]

X has taken the video down, so here it is again. Don’t look away.