We tried it slightly different in Utrecht ‘88:
Oh, there are big bells in this tower and unlike many bells they were properly tuned.
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Well spotted, the Pepper Pot, a place close to my heart for numerous reasons!
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I have always been a supporter of space exploration and I gather quite a lot of technical developments have come from it including satellites/comms, GPS, the further development of the hydrogen fuel cell, biro pens and yes memory foam mattresses. Personally I feel we are exhausting the resources of this planet at an alarming rate and thus it will be necessary (if we survive the next 500 years) to explore the universe in order to not have all our eggs in one basket (i.e. earth).
Going into space has also probably changed our perception of the tiny vulnerability of this planet, enabled us to survey the depletion of the ozone layer, the melting of the polar ice caps and perhaps will one day bring us closer to Gene Roddenberry’s vision of one global earth Government. Personally I think that’s probably the future eventually because just as companies tend to coalesce into larger groups in search of efficiency perhaps governments will do too. The EU was an attempt to do just that, so was NATO and the UN. Far too many petty wars have occured because of perceived differences in nationality, race or religion and as Carl Sagan pointed out in his monologue “The pale blue dot” it’s all just so pointless.
JonathanG
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So what is that edifice?
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Interesting. We were members of English Heritage a couple of years BC (before Covid) but let it lapse. And I confess that although I can see the IoW from two streets over ( providing it’s not raining), I’ve been there only three times in the last sixty years!
I grew up there and my family are from Chale which is in the same part of the Island as St Catherines, it’s a decent walk up to it on a sunny day 
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I’d like to go visit the Needles Battery. An ex-colleague** of mine apparently did some work down there on missiles, many years ago.
** I say ”ex” only coz I’m retired and he is still contributing to my pensions…… 
This later one looks more refined, but still failed to lift off (though given its location maybe it is just a matter of time!)
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That looks more “Buck Rogers” than anything that could fly!
At least St Catherine’s looked credible - central core plus four strap-ons.
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This really is also my take on what I believe is a waste of tax dollars that many, many less fortunate people in the countries could make much better use of. At least building the Interstate network provided thousands or millions of jobs for regular people (not all bloody physicists and rocket scientists). Hundreds of billions in costs, but a tad more worth while.
It will cost hundreds of billions worldwide to make the hot areas of the planet liveable, or to move all the peope there to cooler, unflooded, not on fire, areas.
Sheesh … us well-off types can do whatever, or go wherever the he*l we want, many billions of folk just can’t.
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