You know me, a terrible fibber, and ever one to lie, steal, cheat or mention science fiction authors in order to boost blog traffic*.
And what about "From the Earth to the Moon"**? The protagonists in that particular novel are shot to the Moon from a giant cannon, which would have the same result as the Space Gun in "The Shape of Things to Come", that is, rendering the crew into a species of human slushy an inch deep across the floorboards. Not anything as safe or efficient as Apollo 11.
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| Pureed human is a bit gross. Here's a Compsognathus instead. |
Heliotrope
A flower, yes, and you must be wondering why Conrad, who is not especially known for a love of greenery unless it is edible or pickled, is banging on about flowers.
Examine the word, if you will. It's actually from the Greek "Helios", meaning "Sun" and "Tropeis", meaning "movement towards". It was thought that the inflorescences*** of the flower turned to follow the sun as it moved in the sky.
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| The purplish Heliotrope |
"Horologium"
I don't often post twice about that hideous yet fascinating zombie language, Latin, but once again, it's my blog and I'll post what I like.
| Here, for example, is a horse playing golf |
Clocks.
Yes, it's that simple: a collection of clocks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d020hcWA_Wg
There's the link to Coldplay's ditty of the same name^.
And here's a collection of clepsydra:
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| Sorry, no golfing horses here. |
Who's he? Just the author of "Let the Right One in"^^, and just as that was a new and unusual take on the vampire, so this novel is a new take on the zombie, and it took 103 pages before the Z-word even gets mentioned.
Coincidence De Jour
What do we have being reviewed in The Metro today? A zombie computer game!
What we do have is an analysis of the dead in terms of age, i.e. most of the re-animated are old, and also the psychological impact on families of having their recently expired granny turning up on the doorstep, rotting a bit and unable to speak.
Also In Tomorrow's Chip Shop Wrapper
Today's "Sixty Seconds" is about Jason Flemyng, who is charmingly unpretentious and open about his film career - he gets gigs because he's "cheap and cheerful" and always says "yes" when asked a question. The luvvies probably hate him, which makes him an okay kind of bloke in Conrad's eyes.
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| A "diamond Geezer", as I believe the street argot has it |
Doesn't everybody know about Sputnik? No? Well then it falls to BOOJUM! to educate you, gentle reader.
October 1957 - the Soviet Union puts a satellite into orbit, named "Traveller", "Sputnik" in Russian. This begins the race for space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXbsfk29TrQ
and there's the link to Public Service Broadcasting's track of the same name.
| Gluing it together |
August 1957, and under Operation Rainier, the US is testing nuclear warheads, including a safety-test code-named "Pascal B", where the warhead is in a mineshaft, the shaft capped by a steel plate 4 inches thick.
After the explosion, no trace of the plate was ever found. It might have been vapourised, or disintegrated, or - though serious scientists discount this - it might have been propelled by a 4.7 kilotonne explosion to exceed escape velocity and go into orbit.
Makes you think, rather!
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| The Pascal-B plate. |
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| May weather? |
Maybe it's just me. After all, I know nothing about this bock-sing sport.
They're Still Out
I posted about these bulbs being burnt out several weeks ago. I return to work after a week off and -
- they're still burnt out and unreplaced. How long can Conrad string along this very meagre fare into blog posts before the dead bulbs get replaced?
A very long time indeed ...
* Truly, I am a despicable person (not a despicable human, though).
** This is a novel by Verne. I didn't just mention some book at random.
*** "Flowers" - non-poseur translation courtesy Mister Hand
^ "Clocks". Do keep up!
^^ I'm not sure if the word "vampire" is ever used in this novel.
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