These Nudes Aren't Rude!

Honestly Your Honour
Firstly, they are present on the cover of a book and W H Smith wouldn't stock it if there were any questions of morality or probity, would they?  
     Secondly, it's art, and you can get away with an awful lot under the heading of "Art".  When First Bus and/or The Metro mount their inevitable legal challenge to have BOOJUM! silenced with an injunction, why, Conrad's rebuttal will be under terms of this blog's artistic licence.  "Post-modern irony" I will loudly declaim, which ought to get me off with a bit of stern finger-wagging from the judge because nobody, as far as I can see, has the faintest idea of what post-modern irony is.
     Thirdly, and this might be the most important bit, the artwork in question is from approximately 2,500 years ago.

  

     I shall leave the picture as merely "Medium" because otherwise we'd possibly become NSFW.  Anyway, this picture proves two things:  1) It isn't rude in the accepted sense of the word and 2)  I do actually possess this book and you can trust me when I say that I'm reading it.
     BOOJUM! - simultaneously slandering bus companies and providing you with a bluffers-guide to Classical Greek literature*.

Which inevitably leads on to -

Thucycides And The History Of The Peloponnesian War
Conrad notes that some terms and concepts as mentioned by Thuck are not elaborated upon, nor explicated by the translator, leading your humble scribe to ponder at length.  There does seem to have been an accepted code of conduct for fighting each other in the Classical Greek world, which also seems to have been so taken for granted that it isn't explained.  Bear in mind also that we're talking potentially hundreds of city-states across the Hellenic world. For instance:
     "A Herald's wand" - no more details given, so possibly similar in concept to a "Flag of Truce" in that the messenger is deemed to be inviolable, if he's carrying such a wand.  This makes sense, and also implies shared values across Hellas**.

NO! Art, for heaven's sake -

     "Truce" - carried out by negotiation between the opposing sides, in this case to retrieve the bodies of the dead for burial.  Abandoning the bodies of your slain seems to be regarded as repellent and uncivilised.  
     "Trophy" - the exact construction of these is not detailed and it seems to have been a procedure you carried out if you believed you had won the battle.

Art!  My tazer is within reach -

     "Paean" - a kind of battle song, delivered before you got down to the brass tacks of killing-off your opponent.  Perhaps each paean was unique to each city?  Again not detailed.
     "Tribute" - what might be thought of as "Colonial council tax".  If a mother city established a colony elsewhere across the Mediterranean, chances are it needed to pay an annual tax to the mother city.

Too many words!  More pictures!

You What?
Ah yes, as mentioned earlier today there are certain constants that carry over from 2015 into this new year of 2016.  Water remains wet, a fact we here in the North West can solemnly attest to.  The charge of an electron remains the same, which is good, as this is the underpinning of the Universe and were it to change we'd all die instantly.  And, yes, the Twits and the Foobs remain as intellect-free as ever. 
     Take this -

Great balls of fire, you might say

     I wonder how this came to be suggested, as Conrad has exactly 0 (zero) interest in either hydroponics or gardening.  Supermarkets sell fruit and vegetables so your humble scribe can spend his time reading or writing, not wrestling with weeds, trowels and fertiliser.
     BAH!

Then Again ...
Of course even a stopped clock can be right, once per day if it's digital and on the 24 hour system.  So, the Foobs got it almost right as viz this -

Yelling loudly: not a very effective anti-aircraft defence

     Conrad has seen all the films mentioned - you could probably guess that already - and concurs with the opinions expressed.  However, one of these Bad Films is "Red Tails" which is also listed in their supplementary "8 Overlooked War Films That Are Actually Quite Good", so NO! War History Online, you have just had your cake.  Make your mind up!


Let me leave you with this thought:

"FABULIFT EYES BLOCKBUSTER"

     I have no idea what it means, it was the title of a television programme.


* The artistic question of why Classical Greek statuary is clinically precise, yet two-dimensional art is not remains unanswered.
** Ancient Greek term for "Greece"