The Man Who Stole The Moon

And Mars, Too, While He Was About It
I am talking, of course, about that modern polymath Elon Musk.  I am pleased to see that it is not merely I who see him as akin to the hero of a Robert Heinlein novel circa 1955 - the Beeb have likened him to a character in "The Man Who Sold The Moon".  Musk is probably most famous as the owner of Space X, who build the Falcon rocket.  

It's not how he started, it's how he'll finish that worries me.

Which, in case you haven't heard, successfully flew a re-used 1st stage Falcon into orbit yesterday.  He also owns Tesla cars, those being electric ones, and is co-founder of Paypal.

Paypal is DULL.  Have a Falcon that's landed on a barge in the middle of the ocean

     Now, in a move patently designed to challenge my own bid for world domination, he's joined other folks to establish "OpenAI", a project intended to create the most advanced Artificial Intelligence possible - and then share it with the world.  To prevent wicked corporations from abusing their privileged position, he says.  Hmmm.  Well, won't that merely give wicked individuals the chance to take over the world?

The competition

     Or not.  There is no consensus that an AI will instantly threaten you puny humans, because a counter-AI can be used against it - shades of The Machine and Samaritan from "Person of Interest", eh?
     You mark my words, by the time NASA get to Mars, they'll find it already colonised by Musk Martian Enterprises ...

An Outing To Ur
That wicked and wanton city of biblical times remade as - well, Manchester, actually.  I fancied seeing a film, either "Ghost In The Shell" or "Logan"; since I've seen the anime of GITS umpteen times I went for Logan, arriving just late enough to miss the adverts, which is pretty much a win-win for me.
     Now, because the film itself is only just out I shall not review it as you don't want a load of spoilers.  The theme of declining old age comes across well, Conrad has to say; this Logan is beginning to suffer the long-term effects of his unique condition.
     "Phew," I hear you exhale.  "We dodged a bullet there."
     Not so fast - I can still bore you about the trailers.  And I shall!
     "Unlocked": spies, guns, biological warfare agents, the twist being that this is in London.  So you get to see some nice historical landmarks.  Expect Michael Douglas to be the hidden villain.
     "Fast & Furious Umpteen": Actually number 8, it just feels as if there's been eighteen of them.  They keep making these, so some of you out there are still human watching them.  Conrad's summation: car porn. With submarines.

One of these can be Vin Diesel

     "Guardians of the Galaxy 2": Featuring a tiny Groot.  I'm not sure what was going on here, but it looked fun.
     "War for the Planet of the Apes": Bang bang shooty shooty, with chimps.  And Woody Harrelson.

Battle for a pile of grapes.  That'll have to do

     "Alien Covenant":  No film that begins with the "A" word is going to feature butterflies and gambolling lambs.  Thanks to all the frenetic jump cuts I had no idea what was going on, but expect a lot of gore.

One is an evil alien, and the other is ET

Oh And One More Thing
As you should surely know by now, Conrad is an arch-spelling pedant of the very worst kind, who gets equally hot under the collar when he spots bad grammar, or incorrect punctuation.  So that Dog Buns! text language that the barely-literate youth of today use is a torment, I'm telling you.
     Anyway, some of the olders are not better.  Regard!

Do you see it?  DO YOU SEE?

     About half-way down - oh, this is the rear wall of the gent's toilets on the third floor of the Printworks, in case you were wondering and even if you weren't - you see the word "gigowats" which SIMPLY WILL NOT DO!
     It's "Gigawatts" thank you very much.
     I don't know about you but I feel much better now.

Finally -
As part of my outing to the decadent and deliriant big city, I had a Classic grilled cheese sandwich at Northern Soul, which was gloriously messy and sticky, and far better than any version I have ever made at home.

I remember when it was half the size ...

Santo Cielo!

Yes, This Is Italian
I judged it appropriate, as we shall be focussing on Italians, whom I have not yet come up with a gently-mocking name for.  Don't worry, I'll get round to it eventually.
     "Santo Cielo!" is the Italian equivalent of "Goodness Gracious!" in English, because we don't swear here at BOOJUM! except for the official blog exclamation of "Dog buns".

Japanese Self-Defence Force Anti-Giant Lizard Guns.
Maybe

     Anyway, aren't you the slightest bit curious about why - don't shake your head, you're going to get the explanation anyway!  Ingrates.
     In the meantime -

It will make sense on Facebook, honestly

     Okay, we all know that Conrad has a fascination with the war in North Africa during the Second Unpleasantness - I have to add that in as other pedants have pointed out that there have been many conflicts along the shoreline of North Africa - and that you merely have to nudge him awake for him to begin boring about - "The British 3.7" anti-aircraft gun used in a ground role" or any one of a thousand other topics.  What I like to focus on is the period between June 1940 and February 1941 when the only contestants were the British and the Italians.

A couple of Bersaglieri on a dusty joy-ride

     Here an aside.  "British" is a convenient shorthand, as even "British and Commonwealth" is inaccurate.  Yes, there were Australian and New Zealand troops present, and Indian, and South African, and Palestinian, and Maltese, yet there were also Free French, Polish, Czech, Greek, Yugoslav and German refugees fighting there; not to mention non-combatant volunteers from America who manned Forward Aid Detachments*.

Watching for the beer ration arriving

     So it is a matter of some concern for Conrad that there is almost nothing on North African from the Italian perspective in English.  I have one work, which deals with Italian uniforms, and that's pretty much it.
     Now, there is a seminal work by Paolo Caccia-Dominioni, which has been translated into English as "Alamein 1933 -1962: An Italian Story".  The thing is, there's been no recent edition and the cheapest one of the very few on Abebooks was going for £40, which is a bit beyond what your chiseling weasel of an author is willing to pay.  

Looks like a Sixties edition

Back To Beda Fomm
In case you don't remember me banging on about this, it was a battle fought on the coast road of Libya in January 1941, where a British battle-group entitled "Combeforce" blocked the road just ahead of the retreating Italian 10th Army.
     Conrad is thus minded of both Crecy and Agincourt; there on each occasion an outnumbered English force faced down the French and gave them a right shoeing.  The French, over-eager to get to battle, didn't bother to organise properly and simply sailed into the attack as they turned up, to eventual catastrophe.

"Italian tanks left flank at 500 yards!  Engage!"

     As with the Italians at Beda Fomm.  Although they outnumbered and outgunned the British, they never got organised properly until it was too late and the rest of the 7th Armoured Division turned up.  End of 10th Army; cue arrival of Rommel ...

"Archers, nock your arrows!"

Conrad Is Perturbed
More than a little.  Samurai Jack is back; they filmed a Thomas Pynchon novel, and Mystery Science Theatre 3000 is coming back in April.  

Result

     You may not be familiar with MST3K - IN WHICH CASE SHAME ON YOU! - so I shall detail it a little.  Initially it featured Joel Hodgson as a janitor trapped on the Satellite of Love, forced to watch awful B movies by a bunch of mad scientists, who wish to study his reactions.  Hey, everyone's got to have a hobby!  To help keep his sanity, Joel gimmicked up a collection of robot companions - Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo and Gypsy.  This helped to spread the load of watching the terrible films he got subjected to.  Later on Mike Nelson replaced Joel as the hapless vision-victim.
     Art?

Crow, Joel, Mike and Tom

     The series ran from 1988 for 11 years, going from local stations to - well, not quite global superstardom, but on the way - the Sci-Fi Channel.  As a series it cost pennies to make, since the real expense came in acquiring permission to show the target movies.
     It was very, very influential and won rafts of awards, and considering it ended 17 years ago, I never thought it would ever see the light of day again.
     A solemn warning:  many of the films that MST3K skits are nearly unwatchable without their running commentary.  Don't believe me?  Then try "Manos: The Hands Of Fate". 

Only giant flying cannibal turtles can save us now**!

Finally
Here's Leo Szilard, who is one of the people who warned about the planet-busting properties of salted nuclear weapons - which we mentioned yesterday.  Say hello Leo!

"Jo nap," replied Leo (he was Hungarian)

*  I did warn you; a thousand topics.
**  This is "Gamera vs. Barugon", nothing to do with MYHOF.