Hey - It's Nathan Fillion Riding Pillion!

No, Actually, It's Not
Just me, lying again in order to i) attract more visitors and ii) fool the Hamster Vigilance Squads that oversee all human activity on the internet*.
     So if you're a fan of Nathan or that series he was in - "Serendipity"? - I apologise for misleading you, but as you know I have no scruples when it comes to generating blog traffic and indeed only last week I was served an injunction by the RSPCA**.
     Okay, let the motley commence!

Hey, he's very nearly on the pillion!

"MARV"
I know what you're thinking - and no, this is not a slang term within the American comic book industry for Marvel Comics, nor yet is it an abbreviation for anyone christened with the first name "Marvin".  Although, it could be, it could be.

Mr Gaye.  Not noticeably connected with nuclear missile technology

     No, this has to do with the Big Bang Bombs that I am trying to provide a little enlightenment about.  
     Human beings, it seems, never stop trying to find newer and more advanced ways of blamming the Dog Buns out of each other.  Those proto-hominid ancestors of Homo Sapiens probably only got down out of the trees to find convenient head-cracking rocks to fight with.
    "MAneuovreable Re-entry Vehicle" is what it refers to.  If you have been keeping up with the blog then you'll be familiar with the MIRV concept - a "bus" carries umpteen warheads on a single missile, which are then directed at different targets once it's in the post-boost phase.
     There are technical restrictions on warheads like these - they can only follow a ballistic trajectory to target, and their range has an upper limit.  This means their track can be predicted, and if The Other Guy has spent tens of billions on an Anti-Ballistic Missile System, he can potentially intercept these warheads.
     The MARV is a far sneakier option, and one has to credit the sinister intellect who came up with the idea***.  These warheads have control surfaces that allow them to steer in flight, so they can alter their trajectory.  This means they can cruise along a track that takes them nowhere near their target, then adjust and home in on a terminal dive.

DARPA! They invented the internet! And killer missile technology!

     This makes them far harder to target and also increases their range, to well beyond that of a simple dumb MIRV warhead.
     Good old Hom Sap!
     Conrad has to cross his fingers that you don't blow yourselves up before my invasion fleet arrives.  We'd like to occupy a nice intact biosphere, thanks.

What Is This?
A rhetorical question, I know what it is.  Edna has a very specific "killing ground" at the foot of the hall stairs, and here is evidence:

The Graveyard

     This is where she tore the Evil Blue Cushion to pieces, and here she repeats the action with an ice lolly wrapper.  Obviously an evil ice lolly wrapper.

A Little Gerry Anderson Ergonomics
I've not done one of these for a while.  The "Crablogger" item was responsible, I think, for a ridiculous amount of hits, so I try to repeat that word when the excuse arises.  What have we today?
     The Spectrum Patrol Car
     The technical specs for this baby are impressive:18 feet long (comforting to know that in the year 2065 they still use BRITISH IMPERIAL measures, eh?), four wheel drive, can seat up to four passengers, quartz headlights, independent suspension and a top speed of 195 m.p.h.

This puppy looks fast standing still!

     Powered by a gas turbine, it also comes with a machine gun in the front nearside, so you'd best get out of it's way should it haul up behind you.

Technical breakdown^

     The fin at rear is functional and helps to keep the car stable when cornering at high speed.
     As I commented, this beast looks a real goer, streamlined and all angles and intakes.  It looks the business, and I'm sure someone, somewhere, will have built a 1:1 scale version.  Unfortunately I don't have time to check today.  I'll let you know.

Shakeshaft
As you surely know by now, Conrad has random thoughts that pop into his head all the time.  Take Friday afternoon in the Blue Kitchen:
     "Isn't there a Russian ballet called "Petrushka" about a puppet that comes to life?"
     There may well be, but that's not what this post is about.
     No, I intend to incur the wrath of all Shakespeare fans with the following, adapted from "Romeo and Juliet":

"But soft, what light from yonder window shines?

It's a monster hedgehog with day-glo spines."

     And just to prove that some people out there are odder than I am, here is - well, let the picture tell the story:

No sense of scale, sorry, just take my word for it - it's a monster

Now, I was going to do a post about nuclear missile silos, but having two posts about the novelties of nuclear war-planning is a bit too much of just about the most bad thing there is, so instead -

Invincible!
Perhaps I should have left out the exclamation mark.  This is a comic book series about Mark Grayson, son of Nolan Grayson, who is one of Earth's premier super-heroes.  The first issue is actually quite light and frothy, not something you'd associate with a man who created "The Walking Dead" - hey it was a comic before it was a TV program - but it does get considerably darker later on.  It also ends up very complicated, and one has to read the things in sequence rapidly or else lose all hope of ever making sense of it.  Just like most Thomas Pynchon.
     One of the things I like about it is that they never compromise on the artwork.  Allow our resident idiot Art to demonstrate:

     This consistency is a big sell for Conrad.  I don't necessarily love detailed artwork ("Powers" isn't that intricate) but I like things to remain stable and constant - which is why I stopped buying "Scalped".

Let us end on that positive note.  Oh, and about the ending to the first season of "Z Nation", I don't think that ^^

* They do, you know.  Even now beady little rodent eyes are watching you ...
** Some nonsense about puppies in a sack and how you'd better read the blog or else, all entirely untrue, as this would put me in trouble with Anna.
*** On his track record of being Death By Design Inc., probably Jerry Pournelle.
^ Car?  Breakdown?  Did you see what - o you do.
^^ Ended by Mister Hand in the interests of brevity and sanity.