Tweaking The Devil's Tail

Yes!  We Are Back In Dangerland
And today we are looking, once again, at exotic and dangerous - of course! - rocket fuels, because there is nothing like a corrosive, toxic and explosive combination of liquids simply itching to go BANG to make your day.*

A nuclear warhead isn't dangerous enough?  Add exotic fuels as well!

     Here an aside.  That mention of 'itching' made me look up 'Poison Ivy' just out of curiosity, because I am both inquisitive and easily distracted.  The Latin name is "Toxicodendron Radicans" and it's a plant that infests the eastern states of South Canada.  Whilst being liable to bring humans out in a rash with blisters that look as if you've been sprayed with mustard gas, animals can eat it quite happily, which is no compensation if you happen to encounter it in the woods.  Art?

The trefoil terror

     If you do happen to get poisoned by it, immediate and repeated washing with detergent is recommended, except if you're out in the woods on a camping trip when you and it meet, copious sources of water and soap are likely to be rather sparse.
     <excuse me, got to go see how the cake is doing>
     <quite well, actually - pictures tomorrow>
     Back to bang-making mixtures.  That picture above is of a Corporal missile, one of the stalwart defenders of Western Europe against the Sinister hordes back during the Cold War.  It was South Canada's first guided ballistic missile, fuelled by a combination of aniline and nitric acid, which was - of course! - toxic and unstable.  The aniline fuel was toxic if ingested (how or why you would ingest a liquid that stinks of rotten fish is beyond me), inhaled or came into contact with the skin, although it would probably remove any poison ivy traces.  Art?

A British Corporal

     The missile apparently had some accuracy issues, being only likely to hit what it was aimed at 50% of the time.  Yeah, well, it carried a 20 kiloton fission warhead, so it didn't need to be that accurate, matey.
      Here another aside.  You may be aware of The Chemical From Hell, Chlorine Trifluoride, because I've described it's jaw-dropping deadliness on the blog several times.  Once discovered, it took 140 years for anyone to find a practical use for it.  This stuff will spontaneously ignite things that have NO business igniting - glass, concrete, asbestos and even ashes.  Yes, ClF3 will cause ashes to burn, again.  And it was suggested as a potential oxidiser for use in hypergolic rocket fuel.  The Lord Aloft only knows what the exhaust plume would have been made up of.

The wonderfully poetic vision of a glass meeting ClF3

     Using this stuff in a rocket fuel is not merely tweaking Ol' Nick's tail, it's putting it in a mangle attached to an electric motor with no Off switch.
     Now to ask the motley to hold a jar of TNT, which has been covered with goose-grease!

More Dogsitting Reportage
As ever, you the reader are only tangentially the target today, for Wonder Wifey needs to be kept up to date on what her furry daughter is about.  Last night she successfully appropriated my lap.  Art?

Edna, queen of all she surveys

    This means, of course, that the laptop has lost the struggle for lap dominance.  
     Ha!  Take that, laptop!**   

Speaking Of Which -
The aged and venerable Toshiba laptop which I acquired well over a year ago is now beginning to shows signs of Computer ALzheimers, in that some keys no longer work.  Art?

The doddery item in question
(Note Episode 2 of "The Expanse" Season 3 playing)

     Nor is that all.  It no longer plays DVDs by default when you put them in the drive, although you can trick it into playing them.  However, it has also taken to opening the drive at random.  I left a disk in, confident that it wouldn't begin playing, and then opened up "The Expanse" as you can see above.
     Surprise!  On came "The Fighting Seabees" just when I didn't want it to.
     Bah!

Finally -
I need to be quick, that cake needs taking out of the tin before it gets soggy.  Anyway, have a look at what I found on teh Interwebz when looking for "Strange Ships".  Art?

Egad!

     I know it looks like a mobile theme park, but it's actually a pipeline laying vessel.  SO many wheels!

*  Or is it just me?
**  Edna 1: Laptop 0.  There's bound to be a rematch in the future.  Watch this space!