If I Said "SADAM" -

Then Of Course I Wouldn't Be Talking About The Late Dictator
You know BOOJUM! - no politics.  Although Mr Al Tikrit wouldn't really be current affairs seeing as how he is growing flowers from underneath.
     No, what I mean is Conrad's take on an acronym that he came across in an Io9 article about the film "Repoman": SADM.  
     "Not good enough, Conrad!" I hear you say.  "Proof!"
     Okay.  Art?

You asked, you got

     The "Cohen" here is the inventor of the neutron bomb, more formally known as the Enhanced Radiation Weapon, and he's got his acronyms wrong.  It's always sad to see a former genius getting upstaged by a disguised alien blogger, so you may want to move on to the next article.
     If you're staying then take note of what Cohen describes: Strategic Area Denial Munition.  That wouldn't be applicable to a neutron bomb - they are strictly tactical in use, that is over a comparatively small area.  What Cohen describes also sounds more like a radiological weapon rather than a nuclear foofoodilly.
     "What?" I can hear you asking, "Is one of those?  And do we really want to know?"
     Welcome to the wonderful world of non-nuclear weapons!  Kind of.  A radiological weapon is one that uses a radioactive payload that is scattered by an explosive charge; no knowledge of nuclear physics needed, just how to make an IED.  If set off at height and with a prevailing wind, such a weapon could contaminate square miles - hence the "Strategic" part of our acronym, and it would certainly "Deny" it to people.  Can't really see people queuing up to enter a zone where every breath risks cancer.

More Of SADAM
Now, Conrad knowing entirely too much about atomic foofoodillies, he can actually confirm that there is a "Special Atomic Demolition Munition".  Art?

To give scale

     This is technically a backpack nuke, although the yellow press* delight in calling it a "Suitcase bomb".  Small enough to be carried by one man, although he'd have to be pretty husky to manage it, it had an adjustable yield of between 0.15 kilotons and 0.05 kilotons.  Considering that the normal yield of a Minuteman III is 150 kilotons, you might think the SADM a bit sad, except that's still 50 to 150 tons of explosive equivalent that your man would be carrying.
     They were intended to be used against static point targets like bridges, tunnels, airports, vehicle parks, ammunition dumps and so on, and would have been sneaked behind enemy lines** by South Canadian special forces.
     That claim in the Io9 article about "hundreds" of SADMs being stolen from the former Sinisters is a load of spindizzy whistle, incidentally.  None have gone off in the 25 years since the Sinisters collapsed.  Not only that, they only remain viable for about 9 months before having to be dismantled, overhauled and re-assembled.  In a lab.  By experts.

General Lebed.
Give the Sinisters their due, they were good at hats.

Right!  That's entirely too much doom and gloom.  Let's have a lighter subject <studies notes>  hmmmm an article about the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce - perhaps not - the Czech ZK383 submachine gun - pass on that - Keith Douglas's wartime biography - not really - ah!  The gig!

Monday Night's Gig
As mentioned earlier this week, Ian was promoting a gig at the Castle Hotel with three acts, one of whom I already knew about.  So I bought a ticket and turned up for the performance, also incidentally necking a whole lot of real ales along the way***.  And yes, I was once again the oldest man in the room.
     Up first was Nick Hudson with a female violin-playing partner.  He cautioned that he might change pitch occasionally as he kept getting electric shocks from the microphone.  Art?

Didn't get the lady's name.  Sorry!

     Sombre yet melodic stuff, and a brave choice to have only melody, no rhythm.  I told Nick how I'd enjoyed it and he was humble enough to appreciate the feedback - and having played 36 gigs together he and the lady were really exploring the arrangements.
     Next up was an immensely tall young man - "DBH" - which might be his initials.  He played finger-picking guitar very melodically, and you could tell it was live because of the hissing and popping interference that cropped up.  He covered a Hendrix song that your embarassed auteur didn't recognise^.  Art?

One man and his hat

     Finally Toby (Driver) and his drummer.  Less facially-furred than we were led to believe.  Atmospheric stuff indeed, helped along by Toby on his guitar and with a laptop playing keyboards for backing (and tracking).  Not precious at all, he bothered to thank the audience for turning up; there were about 40 of us at this point in a very small venue that might have accommodated perhaps 5 more people.
     He also made a comment about seeing the same faces returning in his Manchester gigs.  Not I! First time for me.  Being old and all that.

Toby Driver.  Aptly named - he's been gigging across Europe

Toby gets two photos as he was headlining

Now, time to go shop!

* And The Metro, which is less classy
** Let's not be coy: behind the Sinister's lines
*** SO untypical
^ It wasn't "All along the watchtower"