I Say, Bill, You Look Rather Ill!

Of Course I Don't Have To Explain Who "Bill" Is -
 - do I?
     We're not talking Shakespeare here, rather - you're probably already ahead of me here - since the theme for several weeks has been posting click-baiting references to "Star Trek", Bill Shatner -

Ill Bill

     He does look rather shocking, doesn't he?  This is from the episode "The Enemy Within", where a transporter malfunction splits Kirk into two, one good, one - er - not-so-good.  Alright, plain evil.  You can tell this because of the tears in his cheek, applied when he tried to get a bit too "unprofessional" with Yeoman Rand.
     Really, transporters seem to be wildly dangerous pieces of kit, temperamental as children and as risky as playing Chicken blindfold on the motorway in the dark.  One presumes that 23rd Century Health and Safety is a bit cavalier about signing off on them, although by the time of the Next Generation they'd tightened things a little.
     
Right, having padded out the Intro a lot more than intended, let's get back on track.

"Ministry of F.E.A.R."
No!  Not the Graham Green novel, not at all.  Not because that would be highbrow (and I have read it), but because I'm referring to an especially obscure comic strip from the early Seventies.  Once again I apologise for these things popping up in my head, can't explain why it happens except it does help to fill out the blog.
     Anyway, the title refers to "Federation of Extremely Advanced Research", to justify the slightly heavy-handed acronym.  I remember the head of FEAR had a prosthetic hand and a kind of band of applique metal that covered half his face - the price, we were told, of conducting such fearfully risky cutting edge research.
     Can I find a single image of, or reference to, this series?  No!  No, I can not!



     I think it was published in "Eagle" but it would take a pretty thorough search to locate it and in the meantime I've got a cake on the bake, the blog to write and the Pub Quiz at 9:00, so Thorough will have to wait.

Last Night
Busy boy was I - doing the blog, of course, and getting the ingredients ready for tonight's Halloween Pumpkin Cake made with butternut squash as it's not Halloween yet and you can't get pumpkins till then, watching Bake Off, getting a bit of writing in and finishing watching "Zero Effect".
     Not heard of it?  Well worth a watch.  A variety of take on Sherlock Holmes, with Daryl being the best private investigator in the world, aided by his trusty assistant Steve Arlo*.  Daryl is, shall we say, a little eccentric, unfocussed, socially inept and horribly out of tune when he's not on a case.  Arlo explains his failings at length to his friend Bill, and he really echoes a scene from "Mystery Men" when the rest of the Super Squad are trying to get Mister Furious* kind of - furious.  No visible connection that I can see, an interesting coincidence, though.

Daryl Zero and Steve Arlo.  No, hang on a minute -

"Geotechnical"
This is a privately-owned company based in Gloucester, who carry out geological engineering, including surveying, lab analysis, drilling, slope remediation and other technical tasks.
     "What on earth is the sad old duffer on about now?" I can hear you saying YES THANK YOU!
     I shall explain.  There I was on the bus, when a Geotechnical van drove past, and what caught Conrad's eye was the icon on the side:

Sic Transit dinosaur

     Why on earth would you choose a Stegosaurus as your company logo?  And does this count as a coincidence since yesterday I was banging on about the Dimetrodon?

DANGEROUS Chemicals!
Really, some of the stuff I post about is so incredibly, incredibly dangerous that you have to wonder at the mindset of the scientists who a) Invent them and b) Use them.  Today we have the strongest superacid in the world, in fact probably the Universe if it comes to that: Flouroantimonic acid.
     This picquant liquid is - well, you know sulphuric acid is really, really strong?  Dangerous stuff not to be trifled with?  Treat with respect, etcetera etcetera.
     Flouroantimonic acid is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger than sulphuric acid.
     About the only thing it won't disintegrate in a ravening instant is Teflon, so it's stored in Teflon containers.  Hopefully inside a safe inside a bunker in a cave under the Rocky Mountains, guarded by nuclear landmines and flocks of rabid Attack Weasels.
    If it is exposed to air, it gives off toxic fumes, and since it explodes on contact with water, only open the bottle in a stiff wind at the bottom of Death Valley.

I said in a breeze at the bottom of - oh what's the use.

* Played by Ben Stiller