Jumping Jack Flash-Spotting

Don't Worry!
It will all make sense, as much as anything does around here.  First of all, may I, in the spirit of mucking about with words, introduce a Cryptic Crossword clue?
     What do you mean "no"?  Whose blog is it?  Thank you.  Thank you so very much!
     "On which the remains of the weeds will be deposited (7)".
     I'm not going to give you a clue beyond that, you can try to work it out before you get to the end of this post.  And yes, I did get it.
     This is a very short Intro.  Let us proceed to the motley.  Giddyup!

Perfidious Albion
This is a rather sly way of saying that the Pond of Eden is utterly untrustworthy, treacherous and punches below the belt as a matter of course.
     Well yes!  How else do we win wars?
     "By deploying volunteer long-service professionals, backed up by hi-tec weapons systems and fast air assets with -"
     I actually meant the First Unpleasantness, not the small wars of recent memory - since they would be both Politics and Current Affairs - although most of that quote actually applies to summer 1914.
     Let us now refer indeed to the First Unpleasantness and the Western Front, where the British Expeditionary Force is gearing up to face down our Teuton enemies with gas warfare.  We came late to the game, without the necessary industrial base to generate the required amount of noxious chemicals.  Still, by 1917 the BEF had acquired sufficient amounts of these vile venoms to make the average German landser roundly curse Fritz Haber for ever considering gas as a means of warfare.

"Hey - we're okay!"

     Take, for example, the Livens Projector.  This was a British weapon of simple, even crude, design.  Basically a one-shot mortar that fired a thirty-pound drum of whatever frightfulness you cared to fill it with, the Special Brigade (BEF gas specialists) would fire these at the hapless Teuton by the hundred or thousand.  They could deliver such a terrific concentration of gas that the German's respirators would be overwhelmed, and the hapless victims expired where they stood.  Or they delivered a mass gas attack with no warning, meaning lots of expired German's who never got their masks on.

Digging for victory!

     This is where the "Flash-Spotting" comes in.  The Germans were so worried about Livens attacks that they had sentries continually looking for the muzzle flash of a mass firing, as getting a flash-spotting warning meant enough time to don gas masks.  Of course the Perfidious Albions countered this by digging their Projectors in behind cover or in dead ground.

Enough of ghastly!  Regale the audience with clever word-play!

More Of Crosswords
Conrad, as you should surely know by now, is a big fat coward fond of mucking about with words - else why would you be reading any of this?  Thus he enjoys tackling the Manchester Evening News, when it comes free.  Art?

Behold the awesome

     That's the Cryptic Crossword upper left.  I don't bother with the normal crossword, it's not enough of a challenge.  Then in mid-left you have the Codeword, and at the bottom two Gogen.  Over on the right we have the Easy Sudoku, then the Alphamuddle, and at the near-bottom Wordsquare; I got 22 which is better than Good yet not Very Good.  I could go back to it, I suppose, but there are other calls on my time.

Looking At The Future Via The Past In The Present Tomorrow, Today
I hope that confused you.  What I meant to say, is "2001: A Space Odyssey".  Which is the recent past for me now, yet the near future for those involved in making the film back in the mid-Sixties.  Yes, yes, I know it was released in 1968, but Stan had been working on it for several years already by then.
     Okay, Stan and Arthur had been working on a concept for a spaceship that had to look realistic and achievable.  Oh, sorry, "Arthur" is Arthur C. Clarke, British science-fiction author supreme.  They came up with the "Discovery".  Art?

HAL has apparently relented and opened the pod-bay doors.  Good HAL!

     It's not explicit in the film but the Discovery is propelled conventionally by rocket engines.  Stan had earlier looked at the possibility of having Discovery's design based on that of Project Orion.  This had been rejected as the concept of travelling across the galaxy going "put-put-put" seemed faintly silly to Stan.
     I suggest whomsoever explained nuclear pulse-propulsion as going "put-put-put" be thrown naked out of the airlock.  "put-put-put"?  More like BANGBANGBANG!!!
     Really!  And there are folks out there who agree with me.  They have taken it upon themselves to redesign the Discovery as a Project Orion spaceship.  Art?

The proof.

Oh Yes The Answer
To the crossword clue: ASHTRAY
I thought this was an especially sneaky question, although since I got it then you should have, also.