Private Harold L. Langhofer edges into the ball-turret, March 9, 1943. Curled in this position, he can turn the turret so that it fires in any direction. The turret can also be swung around so that the hatch opens into the plane, and the gunner can crawl into it while the Flying Fortress is in motion. (Photo by AP Photo)

A humanoid robot named Kansei, meaning “sensibility” in Japanese, makes a facial expression depicting “happiness”, next to the word “Love” during a demonstration at a laboratory of Meiji University's Robot and Science Institute in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo in this June 4, 2007 file photo. Three-fourths of robot installations over the next decade are expected to be concentrated in four areas: transportation equipment, including the automotive sector; computer and electronic products; electrical equipment and machinery. Labor costs have climbed in countries such as China that have been popular for outsourcing production, while technological advances for robots allow them to be more flexible and perform more tasks. (Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)

A person sits in a chair next to the Garzweiler lignite opencast mine at the Luetzerath village near Erkelenz, Germany, Tuesday, January 10, 2023. Environmental activists were locked in a standoff with police this week around the hamlet of Luetzerath that's due to be bulldozed for the expansion of a nearby lignite mine. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A couple poses for a joint photograph in a photo booth (photomaton) at a metro station in Paris on July 24, 2024. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

A military aircraft flies low through the Mach Loop in west-central Wales on September 25, 2025 during Cobra Warrior 25-2, one of Nato’s largest multinational air exercises. The operation, running across the UK until October 3, brings together air forces from the UK, US, Canada, Italy and Germany for three weeks of high-intensity training in challenging low-level environments. (Photo by Tony Marsh)

While the lido was described as bringing “modernism to the masses” on the British coast it was just the latest example of a trend that had been developing since Victorian times – transforming seaside towns into resorts for leisure and entertainment. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the fashion was for local authorities to build great piers stretching from the promenade out into the sea. The Eastbourne Pier, pictured here in May 1931, was erected between 1866 and 1870 to an ingenious design by Eugenius Birch, which saw the structure sitting on special cups allowing the supporting struts to “move” in bad weather. Arranged on the pier's 1,000-foot length were kiosks, a theatre, a ballroom and a camera obscura. 1931. (Photo by Aerofilms Collection via “A History of Britain From Above”)

Swimmers in the Sky Pool, a transparent swimming pool suspended 35 meters above ground between two apartment buildings, during hot weather in Nine Elms, central London on Monday, August 12, 2024. (Photo by James Manning/PA Images via Getty Images)

Canadian singer-songwriter and dancer Tate McRae performs with dancers during the first day of the iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. September 19, 2025. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Reuters)