How Wizard! A Siberian Terrible Lizard

Since It Seems An Unholy Combination -
 - of Ruffian (particularly food) and dinosaurs goes together to draw in the curious, I thought I'd combine the two.
     We are talking about 'Kileskus', which is one of those terrible lizards whose fossil has been found in Ruffia, and the name itself is Siberian for "Lizard".  I think we can kick Art awake for an illustration.  Art?  Less coal more goal!


     There you go.  What the beastie looked like, and to scale against a human being, so imagine something along the lines of a very large Labrador dog, without the inbuilt cuddle factor, and sharper teeth.
     The unkind allusion to food goes back to the possibly apocryphal story of Trans-Siberian Railroad workers coming across the body of a frozen mammoth, buried deep in the permafrost and preserved for millennia.
     They roasted and ate it.*
     Another irony is present in the name for this critter - that legend at top right reads "Kileskus Aristotocus" and you know how Ruffians feel about monarchs, let alone foppish aristocrats.
     Just to further point out that most of Ruffia is, in fact, made up of Siberia.  The Populous People's Dictatorship, across the border, has a history of claiming that SIberia actually belongs to it, and that they only signed over the deeds when they were poor and feeble and their arms could be easily twisted.

'Ere ya, Siberia

     "Yes, but what has that to do with a fossil?" I hear you ask.  "I mean -"
     Be quiet!  Because of "The Omega Man" is why.  That film begins with bacteriological warfare breaking out between the Sinisters and China, and IT DID NOT END WELL!  Humanity almost went the way of the dinosaurs, in fact.
     Which is where we came in.

At The Door With A 4 x 4
One of the enjoyable things about 'The Omega Man' is that is doesn't spoon-feed you the story from the first frame; seeing Chuck Heston bombing around a deserted city, toting a Madsen K submachine gun, you know things aren't right; you just don't know how badly wrong they've gone.  The odd skeleton in rags here and there, and an armoured car spilling cash are further oddities, and what I like is where our strait-laced Air Force officer goes off to his own private showing of 'Woodstock'.  Art?

The scene at top.
Present day location at bottom.  Note the 4 x 4! 

     A celebration of muddy, drugged-up rock and roll, and about as far from his tastes as it's possible to get, except he's got no choice about what's playing - poking around gloomy cinema interiors in haunted Los Angeles for different canisters of film is bottom of his list of fun things to do.

     Quickly!  Take the head off that mop, get your duck tape and tape a pointed kitchen knife to the end, improvising a four-foot pike that will enable you to stay out of range of the zombies whilst being able to kebab them safely.

Meanwhile, Back In Dangerland -
Contemporary missiles and rockets tend to use solid chemical fuels, which are non-volatile, easy to store and transport and won't kill you half as easily as the vile chemical slurries cooked up in the mid to late C20.  Solid fuels require high-precision machining, however, and once you start them burning, they're rather difficult to stop.

     One of the more popular (because more energetic and therefore MORE DANGEROUS!) liquid fuel combinations was Nitrogen Tetroxide and Hydrazine.  Hydrazine is incredibly dangerous stuff and you need extreme precautions when handling it.  Art

Just another Hydrazine-handlin' day at the office.

     Hydrazine is the fuel component, and NO4 is the oxidiser.  Ah.  Sounds relatively safe, doesn't it?  Supplying oxygen for the combustion process, instead of being a ghastly combination of explosive poison.
     WRONG!  Nitrogen Tetroxide will cause severe burns if it gets on your skin, as well as being highly caustic and poisonous.  What makes it so dangerous is that you can inhale a lethal dose of NO4 without realising it.  Only after several hours do your lungs fill up with oedema, and you asphyxiate.  Lovely stuff.

Hoorah! for hydrazine
(if you see what I mean)

     That there's a launch from Baikonur, the Ruffian rocket and missile base they lease in Kazakhstan.

And there we shall leave it for tonight



*  As I always say, food safety warnings - are a challenge, not for safety!