• Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more

Cont: Luton Airport Car Park Fire III

Status
Not open for further replies.
Vixen said:
When I looked up my other phrase, 'gilding the lily' which I said Smart Cooky was doing with his 19,000 burning cars I was surprised to see modern day google saying it means, 'do not paint the flower as it is beautiful enough already' (...as if that is what people do).
Click to expand...

Embellishing something that does not require embellishment because it is already satisfactory has always been the meaning of "gilding the lily," going back to when Shakespeare coined the phrase from which the modern (and somewhat non sequitur) saying was taken.

You defined it as :—
Vixen said:
You've never heard of 'gilding the lily' (gild = to make golden)? It is a common phrase oft used in the legal profession to mean over-egging the pudding, or embellishment to make something sound better.
Click to expand...
You did not establish that it comes from the legal profession. You did not show how Smartcooky unnecessarily embellished anything in his post. In fact, what you accused him of was embellishing a figure that you insinuated sorely needed it, and that he did so to a dishonest degree—mostly because you didn't understand what was written.

You did not understand the phrase at the time, and the meaning presented to you in contrast by your critics here has now been confirmed by your preferred source. Here is the part where an honest person simply says, "Sorry, I was mistaken," and the world will continue to spin undeterred. However, what you typically do is dig in and insist that there is no way you can possibly have made an error, and that at worst this is some personal or regional vernacular that no one in the forum would be able to refute.

Incidentally, we in the trades also use the phrase "polishing the cannonball" to have a related meaning. Spherical cannonballs that acquire corrosion while on the weather deck do not fly straight. It was common therefore to set idlers to chipping the corrosion away, to restore the spherical shape. However, hypothetically polishing the cannonball is not deemed to achieve a measurably incremental improvement in trajectory, but would come at considerable effort. It stands therefore as a metaphor for realizing when additional effort ceases to be justified by commensurate improvements in outcome.
 
Last edited:
Vixen said:
Er, the person who posted the video CLAIMS to be able to read the numberplate, although nobody else can.

https://x.com/sam35634560605/status/1712190548046450723

Note this guy has zero followers.

Feel free to point me to a reputable news outlet or broadcaster who has shared this - what should be a highly-sought-after - video.
Click to expand...

If I were trying to sow disinformation and I made a fake video to do that, I think I'd make the plate legible.
 
Vixen said:
That is because a Romanian lady who happened to be there, took a video of the back of the vehicle on her smart phone, and this was widely used in the national press and BBC et al as the possible offending vehicle.

This video came out AFTER Andrew Hopkinson of Beds Fire & Rescue Service saying it was believed to be a diesel as of this stage subject to verification.

The video LOOKS like a thermal runaway taking place, and not a fuel tank explosion, as suggested by the Romanian lady.

Simply repeating the same sentence by Mr. Hoskinson over and over, doesn't change its original meaning.
Click to expand...

So, our conclusion is that Hopkinson didn't rely on the video as evidence that the vehicle was a diesel. Maybe, just maybe, he had other evidence. Perhaps someone in the fire department had spoken with the owner and confirmed that, or some firemen were close enough to see the vehicle and the nature of the fire or there was some other evidence that strongly implied the vehicle was a diesel.

Or, of course, his handlers told him to say it was believed to be a diesel. These same handlers, mind you, have not noticed that the press release of March 21 went too far and sacrificed any hope of plausible deniability by stating without caveat that it was a diesel and not a hybrid or EV.
 
Vixen said:
It's the DAILY TELEGRAPH which is deemed to be a reliable source of information.
Click to expand...

Is it?

Why not go to the primary source, the actual fire service involved. They have said it was a diesel car and not an EV.
 
JayUtah said:
Incidentally, we in the trades also use the phrase "polishing the cannonball" to have a related meaning. Spherical cannonballs that acquire corrosion while on deck do not fly straight. It was common therefore to set idlers to chipping the corrosion away, to restore the spherical shape. However, hypothetically polishing the cannonball is not deemed to achieve a measurably incremental improvement in trajectory, but would come at considerable effort. It stands therefore as a metaphor for realizing when additional effort ceases to be justified by commensurate improvements in outcome.
Click to expand...

Coincidentally in my part of the world we frequently use the expression “polishing a turd” to describe activities that require effort for no possible benefit.

I will leave the question of the applicability of this expression to the current thread as an exercise for the reader.
 
JayUtah said:
However, hypothetically polishing the cannonball is not deemed to achieve a measurably incremental improvement in trajectory, but would come at considerable effort. It stands therefore as a metaphor for realizing when additional effort ceases to be justified by commensurate improvements in outcome.
Click to expand...

It's how they get them to go supersonic.
 
Andy_Ross said:
Is it?

Why not go to the primary source, the actual fire service involved. They have said it was a diesel car and not an EV.
Click to expand...

If it is not second hand info translated through a newspaper it is unreliable and cannot be trusted. Only newspaper reporters can wheedle the real truth from an official statement. Doncha know.
 
malbui said:
Coincidentally in my part of the world we frequently use the expression “polishing a turd” to describe activities that require effort for no possible benefit.
Click to expand...

Yes, we use that one too with roughly the same meaning. It arose frequently during the Ares 1 launch vehicle project.
 
phiwum said:
So, our conclusion is that Hopkinson didn't rely on the video as evidence that the vehicle was a diesel. Maybe, just maybe, he had other evidence. Perhaps someone in the fire department had spoken with the owner and confirmed that, or some firemen were close enough to see the vehicle and the nature of the fire or there was some other evidence that strongly implied the vehicle was a diesel.

Or, of course, his handlers told him to say it was believed to be a diesel. These same handlers, mind you, have not noticed that the press release of March 21 went too far and sacrificed any hope of plausible deniability by stating without caveat that it was a diesel and not a hybrid or EV.
Click to expand...

The owner did not seem to be around as he was not arrested until sometime later (if it was him). The story is, he dashed off to catch a flight, being a very important person and left the forelock tugging serfs to deal with his fire.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Share this page

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom