That's the thing when you're on a late shift, you have baking to do and there is True Detective to catch up on, whilst doing the ironing and before annotating a novel or two - odd bits of written shorthand don't make it into that night's blog.
For instance: "Helium II". If you don't read Roman numerals, that's "Helium 2", mentioned a couple of times in Larry Niven's "Tales of Known Space". I could put this under a sub-heading of "Fun With Rather Dangerous Chemicals!" Helium is actually inert, which is why they use it to fill blimps instead of hydrogen. Helium 2 only come into being at a couple of degrees above absolute zero (minus 273OC) and exhibits a peculiar creeping ability; put it in a container and it will send out a thin film all over the interior. If there's a gap or crack or any kind of fissure, it escapes!
Don't worry, it's not sentient, it won't turn into a freezing fog monster and attack you. Not normally, anyway. So, you see, only a bit dangerous.
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| Of course, I could be wrong ... |
We have already been introduced to the Bathysphere, now it's the turn of the Bathyscaphe "Trieste".
I well remember my dad holding up a tube of strawberry sauce, pinching it until he found out how much of the interior was sauce, and how much was air - which he derisively dismissed as "so this bit is all kidology".
The bathyscaphe is rather like that. Not, I hasten to add, full of strawberry sauce. It looks rather like a submarine:
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| Trieste: now with 25% extra strawberry sauce! |
The Trieste carried ballast in the form of steel balls, which were held in place with electromagnets. When the flotation tank lost neutral bouyancy, the Trieste descended into the abyssal depths - all of almost 11 kilometres straight down into the Challenger Deep. When it was time to return to normality, the ballast was dropped and back up went the Trieste, going from nearly 7 tons per square inch to a mere 14 pounds (in round terms, about a 1,000 times difference)
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| A schematic for you, gentle reader |
I've A Little Teapot
In fact I have three Bodum teapots. The smallest one, by a handy coincidence - this time a happy coincidence rather than those worryingly creepy ones from a couple of months ago - makes just enough tea for my mighty Sports Direct mug, which is more a bucket-with-a-handle. Proof positive:
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| Telephone and A4 paper to give scale |
I overheard a snatch of conversation coming out of the supermarket this evening.
"I apologise about that. I couldn't breathe, so I couldn't tell you to stop -" and then the man on the mobile was out of earshot, so who knows what he was discussing?
Making The Baking
I made a batch of Neiman-Marcus cookies last night: chocolate-chunk, and white-chocolate-and-walnut. Tonight I've made a Lemon and Coconut cake, which will please Alison and Sophie***, who had somehow found out what I was considering making. I'm not sure how they managed this as I only mentioned it in passing to a couple of other people.
Unless - ah. Yes. I see it clearly now. They have bugged the kitchens!
I will have to be more careful - much more careful - about what I say when talking to myself, thanks to the eavesdropping buggers.
Hannibal
Well, culture knock me over with a clutch of Caran d'Ache! I happened to see a poster advertising "Hannibal", with a second season now due. Strange that I missed mention of the first.
Not sure which channel is broadcasting it, but kudos to them! The story of Hannibal Barcason, enemy of Rome and one of the ancient world's most successful generals, has long needed to be told. Once I've finished blogging I'll track down the first series.
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| Hannibal, son of Barca |
No! You've had a giant tank filled with petrol, don't be greedy!
And Finally -
Shamelessly abusing this lady's innate cuteness quotient, may I present Edna.
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| I'm going to leave this one as Extra Large to enhance the Extra Cuteness. Blog traffic increase ahoy! |
** "What On Earth". This is BOOJUM! We do not have "WTF".
*** Not, not that Sophie, another Sophie.
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