NOW A Retrospective

Just Not The Kind We Post On A Sunday -

Looking back over the past 13 years of BOOJUM! and how far we've come from 200 words of text with no pictures, to screeds that may hit 1,400 words and include my own photos and ones culled from teh Interwebz.  No, today we are going to look back at the history of the Special Military Operation as it enters it's fifth year, thanks to the copious notes I took of Pyotr Kurzin's 'The Global Gambit', which is well worth checking out.  Art!

     That's Pyotr with a background of Washington, South Canada, where he now lives.  In case you were wondering, and even if you weren't, he's half-British and half-Ruffian, and has a lot of contacts behind the <thinks> Tin Curtain.

     The rather indigestible title of his vlog here is 'What's really happening inside Ruffia after 4 years of Putin's war'.

     First observation is that this war has lasted longer than the Great Patriotic War, which is what the Sinisters used to call the Second Unpleasantness after their great chums the Nazis attacked them.  We are now on Day 1,446 of the Special Idiotic Operation, as compared to Day 1,416 that brought the Red Army into the heart of Berlin.  This total is about 1,000 times longer than anyone speculated on 24/02/2022.  Art!

     The front lines have essentially been frozen for the past 3 years, with a magnifying glass or travelling electron microscope needed to see where the orcs have prevailed and conquered.  As various pundits have observed, a snail setting off from the orc's front lines in 2022 would be in either Vienna or Warsaw by now.

     SO Pyotr offers to look at what is really happening on the battlefield, the myth of Ruffia's 'Inevitable Win' and what the near future will bring.  Art!

     QUESTION: If Ruffia is advancing at the heady pace of 70 metres OR 76 PROUD IMPERIAL YARDS per day, is this classed as 'Strategic Momentum' or 'Slow-Motion Implosion'?  Especially as their daily losses amount to 1,000 on average.  Doing a little calculation, at this rate it would take 54 years for Mordorvia to conquer Ukraine at a cost of about 20 million casualties.  Conrad has used other metrics to calculate this end result, and they always end in gigantic Ruffian casualties expended over years, if not decades.  Art!

     Talking of snails.  The Strugatsky brothers wrote some impressive sci-fi novels and short stories whilst having to try and accommodate the restrictions of the Sinister Union, which regarded them with a great deal of suspicion.  Please take their opus as proof that not all Ruffians are orcs, and that back in the day their audience passed around samizdat publications that punctured Sinister lies and pomp.

     ANYWAY AGAIN.  Back to Pyotr.  On 24/02/2022 NOTE SENSIBLE EUROPEAN DATE CONVENTION the Kremlin Barad-Dur launched the invasion of Ukraine, seeking three things: 1)  Conquer Kyiv, i.e. do a thunder-run into the capital of Ukraine as the South Canadians did in Iraq; 2)  Topple their government, by stringing their politicians up from lamp-posts, and 3) Instal a puppet regime that makes Lukashenko look free and independent.  Art!

The Kremlin in 2022

     
     None of this happened.  

     What did happen was the bloodiest war since 1945, with Ruffian casualties hitting 1.25 million and Ukraine's probably at a third of that total.  Over the expanse of 4 years Ruffia advanced 50 kilometres into Ukrainian Donetsk, or about one kilometre per month, with the weighting of this advance being at the start of the SIO.  As Pyotr points out, the nature of warfare in Ukraine has changed markedly; from manoeuvre warfare with large mechanised and armoured formations at the start, to positional warfare dominated by trenches, mines, artillery, barbed wire and small infantry infiltration groups.  If you didn't know this blog was being written in 2026 you might think we were discussing trench warfare of the Western Front in 1917.  Art!

     The photograph is in colour, which means it's unlikely to be WW1, but the defence line here is as it would have been in France circa late 1917.  An anti-tank ditch, that will cause enemy AFVs to bog down and stall, requiring engineer assistance to extricate themselves.  Dragon's teeth, to further block any vehicles from getting through.  Barbed wire, to slow or completely stop enemy infantry.  All this defence terrain would be covered by artillery in a previous life, and now - you may be ahead of me here -  drones in 21st century warfare.

     What has made the difference?  O I'm so glad you asked!

     Drones.

    We're only about 1/4 through Pyotr's vlog, so I'm afraid we'll have to come back to it.  I bet you can hardly wait.

Sataysfaction

NO!  That is not a typo, it is an hilarious pun I tell you, hilarious!

     For no apparent reason, Your Humble Scribe wondered about 'Satay Sauce' on Saturday, possibly whilst walking Edna and giving time to Thinking Deep Dark Thoughts.  Art!

     This, gentle reader, is Satay Sauce.  Made from peanut butter, coconut milk, mashed spring onions,  brown sugar, soy sauce and a scattering of chili flakes.  I tried it with my Cheapo Chicken Skewers last night and it went down well.  Over on the Continent they feature this kind of sauce in the Netherlands, whom recall their long-lost Indonesian empire the way we here in the UK recall Indian cuisine.

Speaking Of Which -

Another of those 'Ex-Manchester' experiences that Conrad did not take part in, for no very good reason.  Art!

     You can tell this photo is from decades ago as the bus in the background has a red livery - as mentioned about the Manchester Arndale bus station, they used to be orange and white.  The DPH stood on the corner of St Peter's Square, where the huge memorial obelisk stands, and Oxford Road, which was the direct route to Student City Central.  Art!

     That's the thing about Manchester - if you stand still in the city centre for more than fifteen minutes, you'll be immediately built over by a new skyscraper or office block, economic downturn or recession be damned.  Either that, or those jib cranes springing up all over the place are alien spies*.

Karma Komes Kalling

We recently mentioned the Supreme S****** Of Iran, Ayatollah Khameini, and wished him a lingering dispatch thanks to ingesting five pints of live sticklebacks.  Well.  It seems that the Israelis and South Canadians knew where he was hiding in plain sight, and at the inception of their Bomb, Assault & Blast & Missile Iran, hereafter BAMBI, they knew where he was and introduced him to a whole lot of high explosive.  Art!

     This, lest ye be unaware, is the political leader who gave permission - nay, ORDERED - that Iranian protesters be murdered by the thousands.  To the upper bound mentioned of 36,000.  O ho ho, how the piper comes for payment, hmmm?

     Conrad is not remotely superstitious but can happily imagine this boakbag simmering in Hades for the next 624,335 years.  And if the HR Department of Hades functions at all, they ought to put him alongside Leonidas**.  

     

Finally -

Better go box up that Sunday Stew and see if Edna is willing to sit and watch 'Stranger Things' in the lounge with me.

*  Prove they are not.  Go on.  I'll wait.

**  Legendary leader of the Spartans at Thermopylae, fighting versus the Persians.

Pink Dog Nest Being Utilised

Some Of The Time

Since Your Humble Scribe is now the official dogsitter at The Mansion, Edna has been cast upon her own resources and is now deciding to use the fluffy flamingo bed that has rested, unused, in my Sekrit Layr for Lo! these many years.  So, for those who want to keep up with the little sprout's daily routine, and you know who you are, here she is.  Art!

     We end up later in the evening sitting in the lounge watching 'Stranger Things' where she spurns the charcoal dog bed and instead plumps for the doggy blanket.   After I've posted this blog I'll be taking her for her second walk of the day, hopefully whilst the rains keep away.

     ANYWAY after that domestic tranquility (which Blogger is incorrectly flagging as being spelled wrong), let us proceed to list the links.  

2025

BOOJUM!: If I Were To Say 'Doge'

2024

BOOJUM!: Serendipity!

2023

BOOJUM!: White City

2022

BOOJUM!: How Jonathan Swift Created The Who

2021

BOOJUM!: Only Hair-Splitting Pedantry Can Save Us Now!

2020

BOOJUM!: This Will Be A Somewhat Martial Post

2019

BOOJUM!: How To Impress - With A Killer Mattress!

2018

BOOJUM!: A Tidy Atomic Pile

2017

BOOJUM!: Baby Hippopotamus

2016

BOOJUM!: Car Scar

2015

BOOJUM!: I HAD To Buy A Bottle of Beer

2014

BOOJUM!: I HAD To Buy A Bottle of Beer

When Scummy And Scammy Got A Double Whammy

We Are Back On The Fruitful Topic Of Mendacious Mechanics

I have garnered these tales from Comments on the tale of CHINS and SCUM, which, as is often the case, are equally as entertaining as the original.  Which, if you remember AND YOU OUGHT TO concerned a criminally-enterprising garage mechanic trying to rip off CHINS to the tune of $3,700 and failing badly.  They were arrested and fired simultaneously, the kind of twofer you really should avoid.  Art!

     That's the AI Art Generator coming up with a 'scummy auto-shop', which is what South Canadians call garages, because <long rant about the American Revolution redacted> burned so it was rebuilt as the White House.

     ANYWAY this tale concerns Telling Electrical Auto Mechanic, hereafter TEAM, and his father, Wise Irreplaceable Notable, hereafter WIN.  TEAM had been an auto-mechanic for 20 years, and WIN for 40 years, they were experienced, skilled, honest, diligent and responsible for the auto-shop's repeat custom to the tune of 75%.  So they really were TEAM WIN and I had to really reach to get that acronym pairing.  Art!

     That's either TEAM WIN or a pair of modern alchemists at work.

     ANYWAY AGAIN their employer was one of those people who love love love to cheat people, cut corners, rip employees off and variously behave in the manner befitting one whom passes port to the right*.  What is an apt acronym?   Auto-Shop Scumbag, hereafter ASS.

     TEAM and WIN were unaware of this skulldiggery - which is like skullduggery but worse - until TEAM began going through ASS's paperwork 6 months later, in order to build a case against him for non-payment.  There it was, evidence of used parts being used for repairs instead of new ones, which is a GIGANTIC NO-NO lest ye be unaware.

     There is no mention in this narrative of where, exactly, ASS was when TEAM was doing his sleuthing as one would rather expect a bottomhole employer to shift heaven, earth, hell and the entire Solar System rather than let his underpaid employees discover physical evidence of wrongdoing.  Art!

Conrad unsure exactly what this is.

     Spurning his first impulse, which was merely to inform the relevant authorities of ASS's illegal activities, TEAM decided to go for a longer game, instead copying all this incriminating paperwork, cross-referencing information about parts and receipts, He then informed his regular customers that he and WIN were leaving ASS's employment for another auto-shop - a tad prematurely, since they gave ASS the chance to pay TEAM WIN what he owed them, which they now knew thanks to TEAM's file investigating.  

     SURPRISE!  ASS paid them all he owed them.

     Only joking.  No, he refused.  TEAM WIN had anticipated this and had backed their truck and trailer into the shop, into which they proceeded to load all their toolboxes and major bits of kit and depart.  Art!

Possibly overstating a little

     That's 75% of ASS's repeat trade gone.  Ooops.  

     Things got worse for him.  TEAM WIN retained a labour law attorney, and then advised all the ripped-off customers to seek legal redress with another attorney their own had recommended.  Thanks to all that copied paperwork, TEAM WIN won, as did all the customers who had been scammed.  Obviously this was a pretty big hit for ASS, even if there is no detailed mention of legal fees, either what he was forced to pay or recompense the plaintiffs for.

     That's one whammy.  The other one came from an entirely unexpected direction.  Art!

     You see, there are VERY strict regulations in South Canada about disposing of waste motor oil.  The Environmental Protection Agency has a justice <redacted> for businesses that disobey their rules, and then some.  Art!

     ASS had built a heater that ran on waste motor oil, which was highly illegal in the state of Alabama, where the story is set, rather than spring for a proper heating system for the auto-shop.  The EPA imposed fines, which are not detailed in the narrative but I checked the ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) website and they can impose swingeing totals, $25,000 being mentioned in one case, and potentially $70,000 PER DAY.

     It gets worse.  ASS had previously declared bankruptcy three years earlier and in South Canada there is a date criteria before one can claim to be bankrupt again, in this case eight years.  So, to satisfy his legal costs and fines, he had to sell both the auto-shop and his own house.  That might make it a triple whammy.

More Of Ex-Manchester Experiences

Another one that Your Humble Scribe visited back in the day, though not by choice - I was the Required Male Supervisor for a clutch of children from Wonder Wifey's school, and the event was going to Granada Studios.  Art!

     I can only vaguely recall the sets, which included a large interior for Baker Street, where 'Sherlock Holmes' had been filmed, and we must have seen the 'Coronation Street' set which I don't remember as I hate the program.  They were filming an external scene for 'Sooty' which involved a miniature bus and I can't remember if they were trying to have it blow up in a puff of smoke or I just hoped it would.

     Long gone now, demolished to make way for the Aviva Studios building.  Art!

Fortunately -

Those with any degree of recall will note that Conrad carefully noted the ingredients that go into making Sour Cream and Chive Pringles, and there's an awful lot, most of which are probably not good for you.  Though they taste good.  Art!

They bake them?

      Conrad is safe as I've scoffed the tube I got last week.  Phew.  No, I am not going to click on the link.  Let's guess what it says - 'Too many Pringles make you fat?'

Iran Away

As expected, South Canada and Israel have started an air campaign against the Iranian regime, beginning earlier today, as all the air assets that had congregated there over past weeks go into action.  Conrad's not an expert in aerial warfare but can predict that the Iranian air defence systems will manage exactly nil shootdowns if they function as well as the last mass air attack in 2025.  Their response seems to have been 'Missile everyone else in the Middle East and cross fingers'.  Art!

     This is the best they can retaliate with. Who knew an F-15 floated?

     One significant player missing is - Ruffia.  They didn't bother to arm or equip Tehran after their last spanking, instead signing a deal that won't take effect until 2027.  Rather than using an air bridge to bring in SAM systems, they are telling Ruffians in Iran to leave soonest as it's dangerous there.  The Venezuala pattern is being woven again**.  The most Mordorvia is willing to do is wag fingers and sound stern.  Art!

     Conrad rather doubts this will stop either Pumpkinhead or Bibi in their tracks.  As for Putinpot?  "I ran away".  I wonder if The Only Fat Man In North Korea is beginning to sweat a little?

     We shall see if any of these 'decapitation' strikes have vapourised that evil old excremental Khameini.  On that day even devout Muslim Iranians will probably crack open a bottle of champagne.

      O - Donold?  This is not how you win the Nobel Peace Prize.  Just a heads-up.

Finally -

Ending with another citric Bierceism.

"Liar, n:  A attorney with a roving profession.  A journalist of any profession, trade or calling."

     How shocking! that he omits any reference to politicians.

*  The signature move of an utter bounder.

**  Yes, lifted as a quote from 'Forbidden Planet'.

If I Were To Say 'Cart Rubble'

You Might Be Forgiven For Thinking Of The Below

If we can gently persuade Art with this cattle prod and get him to stop sucking the good stuff out of that spent nuclear fuel rod -

     In fact I would like to point you towards that classic 'The Two Ronnies' sketch where one Ronnie, being the Barker, comes into a hardware shop to purchase goods.  Art!

     The proprietor gives him what he asked for - 'Four Candles.'

     Except no.  Art!

     What he wanted were "Fork 'andles.  'Andles for forks."

     Just so here, for we are dealing with 'Car Trouble' and NO nothing to do with the song by Adam and the Ants, whom Your Humble Scribe could never stand in whichever iteration they came.

     Onto the first part of the story.  Art!

     Our narrator described herself as a 'chick nursing student', hereafter CHINS, who was intimately familiar with vehicle repair and maintenance, not least thanks to her stint in the South Canadian army.  She came back from a 6-month tour in a hot sandy place and performed maintenance on her truck: oil, air and fuel filters were replaced; checked the fan belt; drained and exchanged both oil and radiator; checked the battery; checked the brake pads and swapped a winter survival kit for a summer one - no mention what the difference is between these two.  Extra water?  Art!

     ANYWAY the one thing CHINS couldn't do was balance her tyres, so she took her truck along to an enterprise called 'Les Schwab'.  Before doing this she went all-out - or possibly all-in - on her appearance, grateful to be able to escape her uniform after six months of sweating inside one.  Art!

     Two staff began to balance her wheels, and a third man got into her driver's seat and began making notes on a pad.  At no point did SCribbling Unctuous Mechanic, hereafter SCUM, get out of her truck or inspect anything, not realising that CHINS had stuck around in the garage and could see what he was doing (or, rather, not doing) thanks to large picture windows.

     Ten minutes later SCUM came up to her and informed that he'd done a 'free assessment' and discovered numerous safety issues.

• Fan belt needed replacing
• Oil and radiator needed replacing
• Brake pads needed replacing
• All filters were shot and needed replacing
• Wheels out of alignment, hence worn out and - guess what! - need replacing

    These rendered the vehicle unsafe to drive and he 'couldn't release' it back to her without $3,700 in repairs and replacements.  Art!

 

     CHINS recognised a scam when she was presented with one.  Other mechanics in the Comments explained that it's illegal for any garage to threaten retention of a vehicle, unless the owner refuses to pay and even then the garage has to take out a lien on the vehicle.  If it was genuinely unsafe the owner might have to sign a waiver acknowledging they knew their car was unsafe but chose to drive it anyway, covering the garage.

     'The manager is out for the day,' excused SCUM when CHINS inevitably asked for the manager.  Making sure he had enough rope to hang himself and be buried in a wrapping of it next day, she asked for a written quote, which he was happy to provide.  Art!

NO ACTUAL HANGING PORTRAYED

     We do have some standards.

     ANYWAY the fraud was now quantified and in print, with SCUM's very own signature upon the fateful sheet.  This was to be important in mere minutes.  You see, CHINS had gone outside to supposedly call a friend to come pick her up, her now being car-less and all.  In reality she had called the Sheriff's office, and a deputy said he'd be over right away.  Art!

     It didn't take long for the deputy to dig down into the fraud, given that even a cursory examination would reveal absolutely nothing wrong with CHINS truck.  Plus, the offence was detailed on paper, rather than being 'he said-she said'.  

     Just as SCUM was being led in handcuffs to be put into the back of the police cruiser, guess who showed up?  No!  Not Elong Tusk and his Dancing Dalmatian Dogs troupe.  The garage manager, who had really been out of his office and was now returning, just in time to fire SCUM and void CHINS tyre-balancing fee.

     Once again, proof that it is hugely unwise to judge a book by either it's dust-jacket or cover.  If CHINS had merely worn her camo duds, SCUM might still have a job.  Unfortunately.

ART!  Not that kind of - O never mind

     As is often the case with Youtube tales like this one - from 'Dark Fluff's stable - there was another equally interesting tale in the Comments, which will have to wait for another day.  I bet you can hardly wait.

Point And Laugh

Various NAFO Fellas and Fellarinas, as well as other folks like myself, have been posting on Twitter about the hilariously inaccurate orc and vatnik predictions from 24/02/2022.  Here's one that's been widely shared - Art!

     According to other viewers, she deleted the post after 24/02/2022 and blocks anyone who refers to it.  I re-posted it to her Twitter feed but, much to my disappointment, have not yet been Blocked.  Still, I am hopeful.

Waiting For The Other Shoe (Store) To Drop

Since I have now mentioned the contretemps between Iran and South Canada, I think it's apt to share a graphic that 'Jake Broe' put up on his vlog about the build-up in the Middle East.  Art!

     These are various air and naval assets in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and there hasn't been a concentration like this since Gulf War One, hence the 'store' title rather than a single shoe.  None of the above includes any B2 stealth bombers, which are a kind of wild card; if they are due to be sent out on a secret strike mission, rest assured that Donnie Dorko will bray about it to the heavens before it happens.

     Also of note is the bottom port entry: WC-135R 'Nuke Sniffer' operating out of the South Canadian base at Mildenhall in the Allotment Of Eden.  Art!

     The real name is 'Constant Phoenix' but 'Nuke Sniffer' is far cooler.  One has to ask why this particular airframe is included in the TOE, because the Iranian's nuclear stockpile of enriched uranium was completely destroyed according to Donold Judas Trump.  The Sniffer is used to detect radioactive debris from nuclear detonations, or possibly radioactive debris from freshly-bombed enriched uranium sites?

     We shall see.  Jake himself may weigh in, him being a Nuclear Missileer of four years standing.

Point And Sneer

Conrad, as any fule kno, is immensely skeptical about cryptocurrency, dubbing it a 'scamble' and if that word makes the Collins Concise I want royalties.  Then there were 'NFT's, or 'Non-Fungible Tokens', which were a bizarre and brief flirtation with graphics that people couldn't really own but which they used the kid's college fund for (in South Canada anyway).  I think.  It was all petty stupid.  Art!

     "- you bought them in a state of mild insanity/greed/rank stupidity <delete where applicable>?"

     The article goes on at length about how NFT's are now effectively worthless, because they were only ever valuable when there was demand and perceived scarcity, without any intrinsic value themselves.  The two concepts that matey above ignored are: i)  Underlying worth, which is usually nil, and ii)  Long-term sustainability, which again simply did not exist.  Thus 95% of NFTs have 0 value.

     As with all investments-bordering-on-scams like this, the people who got in at the very start and immediately sold what they acquired will be the only ones who made a killing.

MAGA Still Does Not Understand Tariffs

These swivel-eyed loonwaffles all cheer Pumkinhead when he imposes 10% tariffs on every country across the globe.  They either do not or will not understand that tariffs are a sales tax, paid by the South Canadian businesses that import from abroad.  What do they do to recoup the tariff?  Why, they raise prices.  Art!

Monty Python got there first with Meaning.  

     Conrad is eager to hear this discussed on CNN or MNBC.  I bet you can hardly wait as well!

Finally -

Bring it on down, Ambrose!

"Senate, n: A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanours."

As depressingly true now as it was then.

The Glint Of OSINT

I Apologise A Little For The Jargon

In this intro to the Intro, I shall explicate about a few jargon terms and what they mean in plain English THE MOTHER OF LANGUAGES to avoid obfuscation*.  Okay, take it away.

SIGINT: 'Signals Intelligence' meaning information gained by intercepting or eavesdropping on your opponent's electronic communications, principally radio telecoms.  This classification didn't really exist before radios came into common use as it's verrrry difficult to eavesdrop telephones; not impossible, just difficult.  Art!

British WW1 telephone intercept kit

HUMINT: 'Human intelligence'.  Or what your spies glean, or informers pass on, or other members of Hom. Sap. tell you.  Potentially the least reliable means of obtaining data.  Philip Ingram of 'Frontline's Youtube channel, ex-MI6, said that HUMINT is classified as A, B or C and rated 1, 2 or 3, in descending order of reliability and accuracy.  A1, he said, with feeling, is rare.  Art!

OSINT: 'Open Source Intelligence'.  Or, whatever information you can gather from sources that are freely available to the general public.  Back in the Second Unpleasantness, British embassy staff in Dublin would subscribe to all the Teuton newspapers, which were freely available thanks to Eire being (nominally) neutral.  They would scour these for information that Nazi censors had either not noticed or insufficiently gutted.  Art!

     This type of INT is peculiarly relevant to Mordorvia.  Back in June 2024 they suddenly stopped publishing economic data, which had been heavily redacted yet still available for vloggers like 'Joe Blogs', who used it to create graphs and charts of how badly the Ruffian economy was doing, which is why they stopped publishing it.  Art!

     This headline is more of the same from only one day ago.  The Ruffian 'Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistics System' has just deleted 168 data tables that it used to publish, because - that phrase again - "of how badly the Ruffian economy was doing".  Putinpot doesn't want anyone, including Ruffians, knowing how badly he has shredded the economy of Mordorvia.

     Which segues nicely into a whole slew of annotations I made on Jonathan Fink's 'Silicon Bites' vlog from yesteryon.  Art!

The long-form vlog he also has

     The title of his most recent vlog was 'Russia Is Closed For Business' and consists of a series of OSINT reports from various publications, which I will detail below, with the sources.

Vladimir Milov: Vlad is an ex-Energy Minister of Ruffia, politician and economist, now an opposition member in exile, who was interviewed by the 'Kyiv Post'.  Art!

     As reported by JF, Vlad describes the primary economic function of the Ruffian state as 'State War Spending'.  The old parameters which applied to a market economy no longer exist as Mordorvia moves to a 'Permanent Wartime Command Economy'.  In other words, guns not butter.  Or, insanely expensive butter than has to be kept in security boxes.   Art!

     Milov also stated that the apparent stability of the Mordorvian economy was an illusion, as the state did not exhibit any real growth; any temporary increase in the GDP during 2024 and into 2025 was the result of budget reserves being burned through to prop things up.  With reserves expended, the true state of the economy is becoming readily visible.  For more details read on.

PISM: The Polish Institute Of International Affairs, in case you were wondering.  They pointed out that the cost of borrowing in Ruffia is still high, at 15.5%, which is needed to combat inflation.  This stifles any prospects for businesses, who simply cannot afford to take out loans at this rate or pay back what they took out earlier.  An 'Ooops' moment.  Art!

The Wilson Centre: Which describes itself as a 'non-partisan think-tank' and if Art will do the honours -

     They pick up on the theme of high interest rates, and point out that they crater investment, drive down the available labour force, and cause very high uncertainty in markets that depend on predictability.  Not only that, the Mordorvian economy is now a '2-speed' variety, where investment in the military-industrial complex is ever-increasing from the state, whilst the civilian economy shrinks and there is nil private investment.

Moscow Times: Just to be clear, this is a publication from outside Ruffia, staffed by exiles.  Their take on the Ruffian economy is that financial reserves have been run down, corporate profits have tumbled, investment has tanked and there are warning signs of stagflation leading to a recession.  Art!

The Guardian: They focus on 'Missing In Action', meaning that the orcs sent to Ukraine do not return to the labour force in Mordorvia, thanks to being dead, or having deserted.  That musters a total of 1.25 million in terms of casualties, leading to a gross labour shortage that was 'only' 4 million in 2024 and which may be as high as 11 million overall.  Art!

Not strictly relevant but I couldn't resist

Reuters: They approach the problem as one of Ruffia becoming 'demodernised' thanks to a triple whammy of economic problems.  Number One is Expensive Credit, for which see above.  Number Two are Rising Taxes - not just an increase in tax but a dropping of the threshold tax becomes liable.  Number Three is the Vanishing Workforce, again.  One feels that the bad old days of the Nineties are returning, with a vengeance and a bullet.

     Ol' Jon has his own thoughts on the crisis, describing the Special Idiotic Operation as a 'Political and economic Ponzi scheme', where the promised infinite returns have proven to be illusory.  These economic mirages will collapse utterly if the war stops, since state investment will also vanish.  Art!

At the stroke of midnight -

From Ugly Duckling To Phoenicopteri

Conrad has held off commenting on the Ukrainian Fire Point 'Flamingo' missile, which was rolled out into serial production in 2025 with a whole lot of fanfare.  It's a monster of a missile, 30 feet long with a warhead massing over a metric ton.  Art!

With puny humans for scale

     It's had a lot of teething troubles, most especially as regards accuracy, and a Ukrainian spokesman explained late last year that they needed to make detailed TERCOM** maps for it over Ruffian terrain.  Otherwise it had to fly dangerously high to navigate to a target, meaning the chances of interception were greatly increased.

     Now, however - Art!

Before

During

After

     The target is the Votkinsk missile production facility deep in Ruffia, where they assemble Iskander missiles amongst others.  This is 1,400 kilometres inside Mordorvia, yet at least one missile got there successfully, evading any air defences en route - if there were any.  2026 just got worse for the orcs.

ENOUGH!  ENOUGH I SAY!

There I was, scrolling through the news feed, looking for a relevant picture, and seeing that half of the content was about Pumpkinhead and his whinging and boasting for 107 minutes live on television.

     Then - what do I see?  Art!

     I DO NOT CARE!  STOP PIMPING OSCILLOSCOPES!

     Sheesh, it makes me nostalgic for the days of Log Counting Software.

Here's One Conrad Can Get Behind

A news item from the 'Manchester Evening News', which, if Art can put down his lignite gruel 

          The image there is of the 'Warner Bros' store in the Arndale Centre.  It followed in the footsteps of Disney stores in selling overpriced plastic tat, meaning it didn't last and is now long gone.  In fact it's been gone for 25 years when it was only around for ten.  Point and laugh.

     ANYWAY what I wanted to mention was another opportunity lost to time.  Art!

Catch a bus from under the Arndale

     Yes, there was a troglodyte bus station within and underneath the Arndale Centre, which was horrid for passengers and I know because I was one of them.  It had no natural light, merely dimly ineffective fluorescents, and always reeked of diesel fumes, because - buses, lots of them, and insufficient ventilation.  It was so dark one had trouble reading whilst waiting for the PSV to exit the gloom.  Not missed one bit, and you can note it's design has not been repeated elsewhere.  Art!

Airy and bright in Babylon-Lite

Finally -

A quote from Ernest Hemingway and my 'QI Book Of Banter'

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk.  That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.!

     Quite!

*  No, I'm not going to go into this word's Latin roots.  Too much <hack spit> too early in the day.

**  TERrain COntour Matching