More Of Robots, Honest

Apologies For A Distinct Lack Of Robots Yesterday
You did have a selection of books to wonder at, however, which almost makes up for a paucity of evil tin men.
     Anyway, from the Anti-Wizard Of Oz to "Elementary", which we might have been discussing yesterday - memory's hazy - and Sherlock's return to the Pond of Eden.  I did mock the programme a little earlier for one of the previous season's episodes attempting to pass a New York street off as the English article.  Well, they solved that problem by filming in the Pond itself.  Oddly enough, they managed to get dry weather, which Conrad feels renders it less authentic.

A pond in the Pond

       Oho - what's this?  Forsooth, is it not the Coincidence Hydra, licking it's lips in eager anticipation of sinking teeth into your humble scribe's posterior?  Of course it is, who did you think it was, Terry the Ten Ton Terror Toad? 
     Because, what do we see as one of Sherlock's possessions but a novel titled "Langdale Pike".  Do you remember your modest artisan banging on about a novel full of talking cats called "The Hunting of Wilberforce Pike", set in the Lake District?  Well, Langdale is in the Lake District.  What are the chances, eh?
     We were also introduced, once Sherlock had safely returned to New York, to a Mathematical problem:  "P vs. NP".  Which means, if a computer can verify that P is correct, can it also solve P on it's own (the "NP" bit)?  
     Well, if it can, we are one step closer to Our Robot Overlords.
     Talking of which ...

The Dyson Eye
Eye, foot and snout is more like it.  Philip K. Dick, that most prescient and modern of prophets, always held that when the robots take over, it will be incrementally by a billion household appliances rather than a metallic monster, big as a skyscraper, clomping down Main Street*.  

Er - subverting expectations?

     Here an aside.  Yes, another!  Do keep up, this is Business As Usual here at BOOJUM!  To operate in a dispersed manner, as the kitchen appliances above, makes a great deal of sense, as you split your vulnerability betwixt countless minions whom you can safely regard as expendable, yea even by the thousand or tens of thousands.  Whereas, if your Existential Threat is couched in terms of a monolith five hundred meters high, it's simple enough for the USAF to hit it with a tactical nuke.  Bad news for the residents of Miles City, perhaps ...
     Anyway, back to the Rise of the Robots.  This was announced yesterday by Dom, who has purchased one of these vile electro-mechanical contrivances.  The fool!  The mad, impet -

Yeah, watching you with it's unblinking blue eye.

     Oh yes, the hoover.  Technically, the vacuum cleaner, as hoover is a trademark.  You won't tell the Copyright Police, will you?  The Dyson Eye scans it's surroundings electronically and then sets off to eliminate ALL HUMAN LIFE - er - no, sorry, dust.  Eliminate all dust, without any human intervention, before returning to it's docking unit, to recharge.  And to silently plot against it's frail, unsuspecting human masters.
     Thank you, Dom, for heralding the Apocalypse.

Is that enough Robot for you?  Let us move swiftly on.

Oh, Just To Verify That Facebook Default Description
You may not be old enough to remember when the Hubble Space Telescope first took to orbit, with a faulty mirror.  O how the comedians laughed.  Until it got replaced, and the subsequent photographs reworked your understanding of the Universe**.
     Well, have a picture of the Horsehead Nebula, taken in infra-red.

Impressive, non?

     There is no sense of scale here, so you might imagine you're looking at nothing more than a jar of water that someone's swilled their paintbrush in.
     Hardly.  This thing is 3 light years high and 2 light years wide.  Some paint brush!

I Had It Bad
Or, more of bad films.  One of the positives of wandering around Morrisons on the weekly shop whilst armed with a pen and paper is that one can note down DVD titles that catch your eye***.  The idea is that, rather than pitch in and buy them, one returns home to check what either Mark Kermode or the IMDB says of them.

I've no idea, but it's one of the best shots of Mark Kermode's "How To Scare Cats" methodology

     Thus I came across both "Cell" and "Somnus", which both score Sub-Meh over at IMDB.  Somnus in particular comes in for a whole ladling of odium, whereas Cell merely suffers a lauding of opprobium.
     You never know.  Today marks the date I can start to consume alcohol again, so perhaps either or both won't look so bad filtered through a tin or ten of two of Old Speckled Hen.

"Cell".  Hmmmm.  Perhaps not.

* That's Main Street, Miles City, Arkansas.
** My understanding's just fine, ta.
***  HUMAN eye, that is, nothing to do with sinister hoov- vacuum cleaners.