A Repast Of Blast

Or, If You Like, 'Tee H.E.'
This will prove to be amusing only to soldiers or military anoraks, and will require explanation for the rest of you.
     You are, I hope, familiar with the expression "Tee hee", which is universal shorthand for laughter, or malicious sniggering if you're the creative force behind BOOJUM!
     On the other hand, 'H.E.' is the abbreviation for 'High Explosive', that scourge of the modern age renowned for creating a blast.
     "But Conrad!" I hear you quake, "What on earth are you going on about?  And have you been stricken with a debilitating palsy?"
     Leaving aside your cruel comments about Conrad's lack of natural rhythm*, I shall explicate.

Boys And Their Toys
I have a new toy.  Art?

The computer, not the beer.

     This is my recently-acquired hand-me-down, at least 5 years out of date, which is still dangerously cutting-edge for your humble scribe, who worries that Velcro is the beginning of the end.  I mean, what next - cars that drive themselves?
     And yes, I can hear you lot yawning.  Yawning at the boring.  Fools!

For Here Is H.E.
One of the problems Conrad has experienced in the past is coming up with an appropriate and relevant screenshot to make a point.  A case in point is 'Castle Keep' where one of the South Canadian officers is playing an organ; you simply can't find this illustrated on the internet and I rather jib at paying $3.99 for an online film that I already own, just to get a single screenshot.
     Well guess what!  This new old laptop means that I can play a film and take a photo of the relevant scene, which is what follows.
     We shall be looking, as an illustration, at "A Bridge Too Far" from 1977.  Art?

Synchrony bars at no extra cost

     Please bear in mind that those are real aircraft, real parachutes and real people dangling off same.  This is in the days before CGI was just a strange collection of letters.
     Now, let us look at the unglamourous lads of the Royal Artillery, whose motto is "Ubique", which means "Everywhere"**.

The art of BANG!

     I may experiment at getting close enough to remove the black border.  Anyway, here are 25 pounder guns of the RA delivering the bad news to their opponents.  A purist, also known as an "anorak" or "picky dastard", would point out that the muzzle brake on these weapons indicates that they are actually post-Second Unpleasantness vintage; well, so what.  
     Now, ABTF does have the merit of displaying what a British artillery barrage looks like in real life - a wall of explosions from one end of the horizon to the other.  Art?

Akin to the real thing

     They leave out the air-bursting shrapnel as that might have been too risky to stage with live actors, whom the crew - and selves - want very much to remain live.  No trace above of the wretched flame-pot, that scornful resort of the cheap special-effects crew.

So - You Thought Ricin Was Bad?
It is bad, a horrid proteinaceous poison that, in refined form, requires only an amount pf the same mass as a few grains of sand to kill you.  Horribly, mind.  Derived from the humble castor bean.
     Well, guess what, there's even worse poisons out there!
     Stop blubbering, I haven't even got to Thallium yet.  This time I am talking about Abrin, which is present in the castor bean in vanishingly small amounts.

This should be warning enough!

     Surprise! abrin is toxic enough to make ricin look like aspirin or Mentos by comparison.  Similar method of Killing You To Death, except more so, that is by shredding your body's proteins apart.  Found in the hideously inaptly named "Rosary Pea".
     There's no antidote for abrin, unlike ricin.  Best advice about abrin poisoning is - don't get poisoned by it in the first place.

Danger Will Robinson!

Finally -
Conrad is not at all keen on how Facebook is describing the blog, as we have moved on several years now from that.  However, having seen that "Astronomy" is in there, and in the spirit of literality and hair-splitting pedantry, let us have a picture of the Trifid Nebula:

ART!

     <muted hum as mains-powered Tazer is activated>

There you go.

     The name means "Three-lobed", just so we're clear.  Not settled by sentient plants.

*  How many other 6 letter words do you know that have no vowels?
** To which might be added "Especially, dear Enemy, where you don't want us to be"