An interesting thing I didn't know until today

[WOM]

There’s a big office building in Scarborough that’s so non-descript that it draws attention to itself. No signs or logos…I don’t even think it has an address on it. I spent ages trying to figure out what it is. I mean, many hundreds of people clearly work there. Turns out it’s a joint-bank credit transaction processing centre. Must have just massive security throughout.

[Hot Pepsi]

That’s what they want you to believe.

[Ginger Yellow]

Way back when I really enjoyed Mark Thomas's show on the ludicrousness of MI6's headquarters, an incredibly prominent building, being a secret (not to mention MI6 itself). Turns out he did a whole documentary on the subject, including the Post Office Tower.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

The secrecy of the PO Tower’s existence ought to be better known. It’s the poster boy for the absurdity of the British official secrets culture. I mean, the barely credible ludicrousness of it is absolutely at the far end of the irrationality spectrum, but the policy of e.g. keeping stuff off OS maps in an utterly futile attempt at secrecy has been so widespread. The fall of communism in 1989 was swiftly followed by the revelation that Warsaw Pact militaries all had detailed maps of the omitted sites anyway.

[Sits]

That’s weird, I somehow had the idea that the Cakewalk was that fairground “ride” like the one Sandy and Danny dance along in the big finale of Grease.

[Hot Pepsi]

'Cakewalk', as in something very easy, is a racist term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk

That seems like a stretch. It's a traditional kind of dance. Yes, it was done in Blackface sometimes, but that seems like a separate problem.

[WOM]

'Cakewalk', as in something very easy, is a racist term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk

[Ginger Yellow]

The [Post Office/BT Tower] was completed in 1964 at a cost of £9mn. Its existence was then classed as an official secret, and was confirmed in parliament only in 1993.

[Janik]

Further digging on the above says that when the first Lasers were created they were initially called Optical Masers before someone thought "Laser, not Maser". Things have now come full circle and Laser has become so ubiquitous as a word that, if anyone wanted to coherent source of amplified radiation in the microwave frequencies now they would quite likely describe it as a Microwave Laser.

[Janik]

Lasers are a second generation concept, both the word and the physical embodiment.

What came first were Masers - Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A Nobel Prize winning discovery in fact. It was at least a decade later before someone, or rather two people (and there is still ongoing arguments, court cases and patent battles over who was first), figured out how to achieve something similar with radiation in the visible spectrum. Keying off from the already coined ‘Masers’ those new devices operating in the region of the electromagnetic spectrum we call light were christened Lasers.

You all knew LASER was an acronym, right? And it should properly be all Caps because of that...

[Sits]

The last convict deported to Australia died in 1938: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-...nvicts/9317172

[3 Colours Red]

As it clearly states in the article: the tins will still have the old rotting carcass logo whereas the squeezy bottles will have the new logo.

[WOM]

For the price of a press release and a package mockup, it’s not a bad idea.

[Discordant Resonance]

The Golden Syrup logo is great precisely because it's so bizarre and anachronistic. Nobody would ever try and replicate a logo of a dead rotting lion based on some half-forgotten biblical text these days. So I'm sad that it's changing.

Do we still get the classic Golden Syrup tin, or has it all been moved to plastic squeezy bottles?

My cynical side suggests it's all part of a marketing ploy to get customers to pay closer attention to their old stock, briefly "rebrand" to see if anyone particularly cared, then once the Telegraph, Mail etc kick off, quietly revert to the "old" logo which they never actually intended to ditch.

[San Bernardhinault]

The Golden Syrup logo is great precisely because it's so bizarre and anachronistic. Nobody would ever try and replicate a logo of a dead rotting lion based on some half-forgotten biblical text these days. So I'm sad that it's changing.

Do we still get the classic Golden Syrup tin, or has it all been moved to plastic squeezy bottles?

[WOM]

The Lyle’s thing is an odd one; it almost invites people to confuse its syrup with honey. Maybe that was part of the point.

[Hot Pepsi]

Longest unchanged, rather than oldest (the Bass triangle being a leading contender)

I'd suggest that the Hudson Bay four stripes blanket deserves consideration as a very old brand.
It's antecedents go back to late 18th century and the order of the stripes is mid 19th.
But I guess the Bay doesn't own that IP now. LL Bean, etc, sell the same pattern.
https://www.hbcheritage.ca/things/fa...-point-blanket

[Hot Pepsi]

I spent many decades thinking the Golden Syrup logo was just a resting lion, rather than a rather bizarre (if biblical) dead one swarmed by bees. I’m no certain the exciting changes proposed by brand consultants will see the massive uplift in popularity of the sticky sweet stuff…

That's so sad. I prefer the new logo.

[caja-dglh]

I learned about Tom Petty and the whole Maxwell House thing. Endearing.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Boooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

[slackster]

I spent many decades thinking the Golden Syrup logo was just a resting lion, rather than a rather bizarre (if biblical) dead one swarmed by bees. I’m no certain the exciting changes proposed by brand consultants will see the massive uplift in popularity of the sticky sweet stuff…

[ursus arctos]

Longest unchanged, rather than oldest (the Bass triangle being a leading contender)

[Discordant Resonance]

The oldest company brand in history has ended, apart from on the original tin.

[Benjm]

Almost certainly the tamest pair of kicks ever posted on an OTF thread, though Oi Polloi always used to champion the orthopedic comfort shoe look.

[3 Colours Red]

The Oscar “action figure” was referenced in 40-Year-Old Virgin. It is worth a lot of money, apparently.

Judging from the photo just posted, I'm guessing that having the shoes makes a lot of difference to the prospective value.