The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Perfect Bailout Metaphor Achieved

Posted on | May 13, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Daniel Hannan on Twitter points to The Telegraph with a story of classical, titanic impact:

Maiden voyage of Bronze Age boat founders
The crew of a half-sized replica of a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age boat had to abort the vessel’s maiden voyage after it sank as soon as it entered the water.

Hannan relates an oversight in the Telegraph story within the Tweet:

Ah, so the Muscles in Brussels are blowing money from the rest of Europe on perhaps interesting, but ill-fated, projects. Vasa up with that?

Category: Europe, Foreigners, Great Britain, Uncategorized

Comments

8 Responses to “Perfect Bailout Metaphor Achieved”

  1. Pathfinder's wife
    May 13th, 2012 @ 10:35 am

    The Vasa — nice metaphor of your own there.

  2. richard mcenroe
    May 13th, 2012 @ 12:50 pm

    Looking at it, I’m wondering if the “specialists” realized you can’t just scale down a boat design because the freeboard, displacement and length-to-beam rations don’t necessarily work, and–
    –did they caulk the bloody thing?  Don’t see any evidence, and

    — did they make allowance for the fact that the boat builders might have allowed the boats to flood initially to tighten the hull up through the wood’s swelling?

  3. richard mcenroe
    May 13th, 2012 @ 12:53 pm

    In short, don’t trust “experts” who haven’t actually done the work before.

  4. smitty
    May 13th, 2012 @ 1:15 pm

    Or, trust reality to deliver even the most ‘expert’ expert the same bollockings everyone else gets.

  5. Proof
    May 13th, 2012 @ 1:59 pm

    Note to ship builders: Next time use hollow bronze design. 

  6. richard mcenroe
    May 13th, 2012 @ 2:29 pm

     I’m reminded of when Stalin ordered a battle-damaged B-29 that had landed in Soviet territory in WWII impounded for inspection and copying of the design.

    The Soviet engineers found several holes in the wings they could find no purpose for.  Stalin declared the Americans must have had a reason for putting them there and ordered them copied without question.

    So the Reds built their next generation of heavy bombers with pre-installed Japanese machine-gun bullet holes…

  7. gahrie
    May 13th, 2012 @ 8:08 pm

    Maybe it was supposed to be a bronze age submarine?

  8. Pathfinder's wife
    May 13th, 2012 @ 8:42 pm

    That would be Brussels in a nutshell.