Hark Hark - It's Arthur C. Clarke!

Only Because - 
There seemed to be a great big surge in traffic when posting with Larry Niven in the title.  So, being of low moral fibre yet with high expectations, Conrad prepares to ruthlessly exploit one of science fiction's most illustrious names.
     He postulated the communication satellite, you know.  In 1945 - twelve years before the Russians put Sputnik into orbit, which is pretty impressive, da?  
     Not only that, J. G. Ballard, another British sci-fi author, used the contracted form of "communication satellite" for his story "The Comsat Angels".  This was read and taken on board by a young Stephen Fellows whilst at Purley Art college, and his band thus became "The Comsat Angels".*

Arthur C. Clarke hard at work in Iceland.  No, hang on a minute -

Your Nuclear Education Continues
Yesterday we briefly ran over the ICBM, the biggest missiles around with whacking big warheads, designed to give the opposition the worst Bad Hair Day of all time.  Today we look at the S.A.D.M. - "Special Atomic Demolition Munition" - this was a very small warhead with an adjustable yield of between 10 and 250 tons, capable of being carried in a backpack by a single soldier, viz:

A fairly hefty soldier, mind ...

     They're a product of those ingenious South Canadians, and Jerry Pournelle probably had a hand in designing them, too**.  The idea was that they would be taken into action if the Warsaw Pact got a bit too invade-y, used to blow up bridges, dams, motorway junctions, point targets like that.
     Now, we're told that they were discontinued decades ago.  We're told ...

"Mason And Dixon" By Thomas Pynchon
Aha!  I've been waiting for today's coincidence to arrive, and here it is.  Remember me dismissing "The Enfield Haunting" as a load of codswallop, ancient more than old?  Well, Tom makes mention of the Cock Lane Ghost, a supposed haunting of 1762.  It was huge news at the time, until a Committee of Investigation carried out an - wait for it! - investigation.  It was a fraud.  Both perpetrated by young girls, actually.

The Cottingley Fairies.  Proof that fairies exist.
They do exist, don't they?

     And that's it, all 773 pages read.  The blurb on the back calls it possibly "The Great American Novel", which Conrad would argue about.  A third of it is set in South Africa, the protagonists are two Englishmen and a lot of dialogue is in Geordie slang.  
    "Inherent Vice" hasn't arrived yet, so I am tempted to watch the film, which sounds suspiciously straightforward.  

Blog Statistics
STAY WHERE YOU ARE!  This stuff is fascinating, simply fascinating I tell you!
     Okay, earlier this Sunday we reached the 13,000 hits mark, days earlier than I expected.  Not only that, we've had over 60 hits before I posted anything new - i.e. this post.  And a lot of visitors are Russian.  Mention of "Arthur C. Clarke" might bring more of our Slavic friends in, as Arthur never had time for the political nonsense of the Cold War, and you simply don't find Stereotypical Evil Russians in his stories.  Although one does try to do the Sabre Dance in a spacesuit.

"13,012  pageviews"

     It has taken 22 months to get to this point; BOOJUM! has needed to build a reputation for crafting high-quality nonsense.  None of that inferior stuff here!

The Pets At Home
Here we see the essential difference between the domestic dog and cat:
    

Despondent Dog

     This is Edna, sulking after being left at home with the obviously insufficient Conrad.

Contented Cat

     This is Jenny, happy as Larry at being left on her own in kitchen to bask in the sun on a chair.

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword
Just be careful to watch those spacings, or the blog post becomes NSFW.  Allow me to present this morning's quill scratchings:

The delusions captured for all to see.

     I then wondered when the fountain pen was invented, which turns out to be mid-nineteenth century, although it was decades before they became common.  So Charles Dickens might very well have been transcribing court hearings with a quill pen.
     Here's a date and event you never knew about - the first Friday in November is International Fountain Pen Day.
     For more about fountain pens than you knew ever existed, herein the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_pen

     Here's a picture of some of my fountain pens:

     The one on the left is for using with red ink, the steel one is a Schaeffer so expensive I rarely use it, and the one on the right is 28 years old, built like a tank and handles wonderfully.  My favourite.
     So, take that Digital Technology and Key Pads!  Some of us dinosaurs are still happy to use pens.



* One of this country's finest rock bands ever.  There is no discussion on this point.  
** He might have written about them, you know.
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