All Articles
More Heroic Failures
It’s part of the human experience that despite our best efforts “Things just don’t work”. Here we look at some amusing examples of how to fail with real elan.
Wordsmith – Indian wordpower
Improve and test your wordpower against some Indian words that have found their way into the English language.
Invasion – Rome’s Assault on Brittania
Rome’s invasion of Britain in 43AD would change the native Britons lives and culture forever. But this wasn’t the first Roman invasion. There was another nearly 100 years earlier. We look at both in this article.
Voyager 1 & 2 – Emissary to Alien Worlds
Voyager I & II has a strange payload. Messages from 1977 Earth to aliens !
How Does the US Presidential Electoral System Work ?
Hanging Chads, Electoral Collages, Primaries … the US electoral system can seem a bit confusing to Europeans. In this article we look at how the U.S. Presidential electoral system works.
Fireworks and Gunpowder
We all think we know how fireworks and gunpowder came about … but here we look at really how they came about.
Colemanballs, or a bad case of “foot in mouth”
Colemanballs – a term coined by Private Eye magazine to describe verbal gaffes perpetrated by (usually British) sports commentators. David Coleman is a British national treasure. During his time as a BBC sports commentator he frequently got completely carried away with hillarious consequences. Here’s a round up of some of this lovely man’s heat of the moment gaffs. Plus to prove the spirit of Colemanballs is not dead...
Power to the People – The Clameur de Haro
The ordinary Guernseyman, and indeed all Channel Islanders, have an extra-ordinary legal power at their fingertips, available no whereelse in the world. The “Clameur de Haro”.
Fusion Reactors – The Holy Grail of Green Power
Nuclear fusion is the energy source of the future. It promises to be a safe, clean and supply virtually limitless energy source. But how will it likely work?
The Zipper
The zipper is an indispensable little piece of technology that we’d be lost without. It was an out-of-the-blue invention. Nothing like it had ever existed before.
Pontifications – answers to the fluff of everyday life
Answers to some of the amusing questions and fluff we muse on from time to time like : Why are typewriter keys layed out as they are ? ; How exactly does asprin find a headache ? ; Why is the Earth’s core still hot ?
The Vacuum Cleaner
What was life like before the Vaccuum Cleaner .. unthinkable in todays obsession with ‘anti-septic’, germ free environments. It’s not actually been around that long … here’s how it came about …
Norfolk Island – A History
Discovered by Captain Cook during his second voyage in 1774, Norfolk Island is an island with an unusual & chequered history.
Locks & Keys – How did they come about?
Locks and keys are an everyday part of our lives … how could we secure anything without them ? Here’s some background on their development.
