@Kleinefeldmaus Thanks for the Ovo cartoon which I tweeted

Ovo Canteen notice
"our vegetarian food CONTAINS MEAT flakes or even chunks of meat,
....but don't worry we've offset that ,
by sponsoring some animals that won't be slaughtered"

Caroline Lucas has got something right. Now would be a good time for John Bercow to spend more time with his nearest and dearest.

https://order-order.com/2018/03/12/parliaments-senior-women-tell-bercow-step-aside/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/4279566/commons-speaker-john-bercow-big-ben-romps-risk/

Mar 12, 2018 at 9:07 AM | tomo

Ken Dodd challenged Climate Scientists on the subject of sea-level:
- "An official went to ask my big Auntie Nellie to come off the beach because the tide was waiting to come in."

Mar 12, 2018 at 10:04 AM | Ross Lea

Diesel engines running electric generators power many big cruise liners already.

Rather than two massive engines with propeller shafts etc, an engine room may consist of many smaller engine generator sets, with electricity powered propellers fitted in rotatable pods beneath the ship, to deal with steering, and manoeuvring at zero forward/reverse speed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuth_thruster

Uibhist a Tuath

There was a tanker (T2) built during WW2 that was diesel elecric that was quite successful. I can see masive unmanned nuclear powered ships ploughing the oceans in future. Using satellite and drone technology.

Mar 11, 2018 at 10:22 PM | rhoda
The fact that submarines have been hybrid for over a century and the technology hasn't improved, and the fact that the submarine snorkel to improve submerged range was initially proposed in 1913* should have given the current USN engineers a hint that hybrid technology was a non-viable solution. My feeling is that it was little more than lip service and they hoped to quietly park it up a siding at some point.

I'm struggling with the concept of an energy saving hybrid surface vessel, just as the USN should. At what point is there surplus energy to charge the battery, anyone know?

*Another British invention wasted by a government agency, the Admiralty in this case.