This is the transcript of a radio conversation between the British and the Irish off the coast of Kerry, Ireland October 1998.

Radio conversation released by the Chief of Naval Operations 10-10-98.

IRISH: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

BRITISH: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

IRISH: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

BRITISH: This is the Captain of a British Navy Ship. I say again, divert YOUR course
.
IRISH: Negative. I say again, you will have to divert YOUR course.

BRITISH: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER HMS BRITANNIA! THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE BRITISH ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH. I SAY AGAIN, THAT IS 15 DEGREES NORTH OR COUNTER MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

IRISH: We are a lighthouse................Your Call

 

hahahahahaha


good one lol

fltsfshr

 

Britainnia rules the ... shore?

 

That was good!

 

Good story, but just one of many variations.

Here's what www.snopes.com has to say about it:

http://www.snopes.com/military/lighthse.htm

 

Kill Joy!

 

Reminds me of the conversation between Air Traffic Control and a Boeing 737.

ATC: Delta 1234 turn right to heading 090 for noise abatement and maintain Flight Level 310.

Delta pilot: Delta 1234 turning right to heading 090 maintaining FL 310, but I am confused by your instruction for noise abatement at (an) altitude (of 31,000 feet)?

ATC: Have you ever heard the sound that a 737 makes when it collides with a 747 in mid-air?

 

That's sort of the same arrogance the Brits had when they built cars. No wonder you can't buy an MG anymore.

 

[NotQuiteRant=on]

Gotta love the Internet's ability to promulgate falsehoods.

I'm running up against another such thing when I put on my editor (of a scientific journal) hat. People are using web sites for references nowadays, and it's become impossible to reject submissions out of hand because of it. So Internet references are sneaking into our archival journals.

And this creates two problems, the first of which is exemplified by this thread: what we consider to be the gold-standard of solid scientific accomplishment, the peer-reviewed archival journal publication, is at risk of being tainted by bad source material.

The second problem is related to this and possibly worse: web-site references sometimes vanish, unlike references to archived print journals. And in that case, you can't even check the references for accuracy or de-bunk them.

So, given that our civilization depends on its scientific progress, our friend the Internet is leading us to perdition slowly but surely. Oh, woe is us.

[/NotQuiteRant]

HPH

 

Print materials can disappear too. Library of Alexandria, for instance.

However, it is quite common for print materials hundreds of years old to survive, and thousands of years old is not unheard of. It seems unlikely our digital archives will last that long.