Last weekend, I should have been going down to London to visit Family.  But the West Coast Mainline railway was closed!   I couldn't even drive to Preston and catch a London train from there.  It was because a motorway bridge was being replaced 40 miles north of here, just south of Penrith. Abroad, we see major civil engineering being accomplished in a ultra rapid time, and bewail the interminable duration of such projects in the UK.  EG the Smart Motorways, especially the M6.  But this time, it has taken one weekend to knock it down and one weekend to erect the new bridge!     Completion work still pending to get the line running again, but I think this is remarkable!   And I found a video of "Howedidit":  

Two more for your collection Spitfire Garage Banner 1.pdf Spitfire - Round Tail Garage Banner.pdf

Gosh, Steve!   Thank you, so much! And as you have put it up here, it's free to anyone else too. A Very Happy New Year to you! John

John, You've always been so helpful to me that I could not ignore your call. I've done a bit of photo editing and reproduced this as a Pfd file so that you may enlarge it without distortion. Hope it helps. ................ Steve from across the pond.  Cut-A-Way Garage Banner 4.pdf

Yes!    Gotta be true!  Go, Hamish!  But have a word with the AI about the name on the bonnet! Conversely though, I've seen 'hallucinations' where the two competeing cars are facing in opposite directions, and neither is spinning!   On another level, for a local theatrical group I wanted some lines in cod Shakespeare, when for reasons I need not detail I didn't want the real thing.  I gave "CoPilot", Word's AI editor, a brief synopsis and it came up with this.   It generated two pages of what sound convincing lines, but I'll only give you a few, about brothers, studious and roistering: Edward: What ho, sweet brother! Dost thou bury thy nose In dusty tomes, whilst life’s sweet ale doth flow? Come, cast aside thy pious parchment, Earnest, And join thy twin in revels by the quay! Earnest: Good Edward, thou art ever thus inclined To chase the fleeting pleasures of the flesh. Yet virtue’s path, though narrow, leadeth on To peace that drunken laughter cannot know. Even the metre is (more or less) right!   It's disturbingly impressive. John    

Someone mentioned using chatgtp to create pictures.  I know nothing about this stuff  but thought I’d give it a go  with the briefest of descriptions  of  triumph TR3a in black reg white helmet driver roll bar beating a McLaren at Silverstone  and  

It's true, those of us who respect history, have studied it and learned from our mistakes are in the minority here in the States. This is a very scary time in our world.  I truly don't recognize MY America, the country I grew up in, the land of my parents. A free and welcoming country that my grand  parents immigrated to at the end of WWl.  Trump is an Amoral bigot who is only interested in enriching his friends and family.  I believe that with another 3 years of this tyrannical rule, America may come out looking totally different. Even if this MAGA /Tump movement is defeated it could take 30 or more years to return to anything resembling the America I knew. At 78 years old, I fear I may not see the America I love ever again. Trump is waging war against Americans. He is having innocent and peaceful protestors shot in the street. Trump has recently cut the government funding for helping people in States that did not vote for him. He has dissolved the Department of Education on the Federal level . He is trying to re-write history to ignore the crimes and wrong doing of Americans who tried to overthrow the free and fare election of 2020. He is letting his criminal supporters out of jail so that they can continue to support his regime.  Those of you in Europe had better join together now and commit to a European Military. Trump will not honor NATO  NATO's core principle of collective defense, outlined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Trump wants to divide up the WORLD. He gets the Americas, Putin gets Europe and Xi Jinping gets Asia.

I don't think it is a lack of knowledge that is the problem, John. There are plenty that have it, however they are currently in the minority/on the wrong side and therefore have no sway. Those in 'power' (I don't just refer to government but also all the supporters of the current regime here) either simply don't care, or are operating in the belief that they are superior and therefore the lessons of history don't apply to their situation. For a while now I have been expecting some sort of civil war/disobedience to kick off within Europe somewhere first, however more recently I have started wondering if maybe America might not be closer to this point than Europe.

Does no one in America have any knowledge of European history?

Yes, but in the student houses the machines get used 15-20 times a week! (females deffo do a lot more washing, except the 6 goths in one place I look after where stuff seems to get worn and simply left on the floor. I am not keen on that lot, they have a serious attitude issue too.