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From the Silva Record article: “These two stars can clearly be seen between the streaks of light… to me this rules out a large structured body. Surely that can just be explained by image persistence, the same effect that blurs out the lights into streaks? 5:22pm is before sunset on that...

I saw this from the train this morning in west London. Not a square cloud but a square-edged hole in the clouds. At least one edge appeared to be formed by a contrail. I couldn't get great photos due to the direction the train was travelling, and the reflections on the windows. Looking at...

It just looks like a photo of some clouds, possibly a photo of a photo on a screen, with some "solarisation" effects added. I don't see any "writings"?

It's not a coincidence exactly - the sundog will appear when the contrail is in the right position relative to the sun. Contrail clouds are ideal for creating solar haloes and sundogs - a phenomenon that was being discussed back in the 1940s, in some letters to The Times newspaper I found...

Light travels in straight lines (refraction permitting), regardless of whether it is laser light or not. Any given light ray from a torch (flashlight) to an observer can be thought of as equivalent to a laser. The only difference is that a torch emits light rays in a wider range of directions...

A video is (still) doing the rounds claiming that Barack Obama "slipped up" and referred to his wife as "Michael" in a televised speech: Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JynPIhKcVX4 This was a speech given on September 30 2011 on the retirement of Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the...

My grandfather was a freemason. He died when I was quite young and I never spoke to him about it, but as far as my parents were concerned it was just a silly boys' drinking club, not anything sinister at all.

It seems to me it might work better with a "backstop", like a horizontal wire to catch the top part of the rod when it reaches the vertical position and stop it from carrying on through? Although that might introduce more vibration and make the whole thing wobble around too much.

I meant to detect any movement in the initial phase, when the rod is horizontal. It must be there for something! Edit: although the diagram's in Bucka's paper don't seem to include a mirror.

I can't find any videos of this experiment in operation. You'd think if it was that quick, easy and apparent, that it would be better known.

Yes, you beat me to it. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Bucka You start with the rod in the horizontal direction, rotating with the Earth. You cut the rope and then the rod falls vertical and the existing angular momentum now acts over a much smaller radius, so the rate of rotation should...

It's an astonishing kind of claim really. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the night sky has to be aware of how the constellations change with the seasons. One of the most obvious examples (at least from my fairly northerly latitude) is Orion. It's probably the most recognisable shape...

Aged contrails over London this morning. I’m not sure why sometimes contrails turn into these “bobbly” clouds (cirrocumulus?) rather than the more usual wispy cirrus.

Google Maps elevation is pretty low-resolution, so near the coast it is not very accurate. It averages out over quite a wide area - I think it uses Space Shuttle radar measurements for the most part. II found this pic which has a person stood by the wall. The person is 28 pixels high, and the...

This is another photo taken from the same location. If the tide is low then I suspect the elevation might be more than 9 metres, but it's hard to judge. Really need a photo from the beach with a person for scale...

The light of the nearer lighthouse appears to be almost exactly above the outer angle of the sea wall/breakwater, which agrees with the camera location: (white line is a Google Maps great circle to the lighthouse)

Yes, see the shape of the sea wall and the rocks: (brightness enhanced on the night-time picture) Zoomed out view and location...

I was going to suggest that the object on the left was the Ancienne Tour des Baleines (left in photo below), but if the photos are taken from Les Sables d'Olonne then that tower should appear to the right of the lighthouse, so the angles don't add up. Also the refracted hidden amount should...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if light could pass to you close to the surface of the sea from the lighthouse over that distance, "tunnelling" in a thin layer of colder air that bends the light rays.

A couple from the 1977 Blackbushe Air Festival. Blackbushe airport is very close to where I live. At one time it was a fairly major airport for the London area, and it was even considered as a candidate for the main airport, over Heathrow. These days there is only one runway still in operation...