A Strain Of Thought

Not, That Is, That I Strain To Think
Rather, it's the other way round - the grey matter never switches off.  That's why I keep a notepad next to the bed, to write down whatever inspiration has struck during the night.  Where do you think the village of Eden Underwood came from?  Certainly not a Gazetteer of the British Isles!
     <excuse me whilst I go check on the gluten-free chocolate brownies>
     <they're looking good, just had to tent them and up the Gas Mark>*

Never resorted to!

     Let me illustrate.  There I was, checking to see if Tomorrow's Fish & Chip Wrapper (a.k.a. The Metro) contained anything of use to BOOJUM! and predictably not finding anything of note.  However, I did come across this article - Art?

"The Bridge"*

     It is a constant theme here that your humble scribe does not think the way you humans do, and here is a case in point, because what immediately sprang into my mind was another construct known as "The Bridge" (or "Der Bruck" in Teuton*).  Art?

 - but first, they shall have bridges.

     This is The Bridge, constructed on Jupiter, and just coincidentally the biggest engineering project ever undertaken by humanity.  It was anchored by the sacrifice of several hundred flight crew aboard specially-designed shuttles, all of which were lost, but whom established a solid foundation in the Jovian atmosphere to build upon.  The purpose is to undertake scientific research into sub-atomic particles, and you need something on a Really Big Scale to achieve that, and in the atmosphere of a gas giant.
     There you are.  That's what I think of when I read that phrase, and not some gloomy Scandinavian police procedural.

More Of Gas Giants
By a strange coincidence, this - oh, okay, it's completely staged and not accidental at all, there, are you happy? - this also brings me to a recent very interesting article on the Beeb's website, which is about gas giants, except probably not the kind brought to mind by Jupiter.  O no.  Art?

Behold the behemoth!

     This is the Shell 'Prelude' and if this is the prelude I shudder to think what the main event is going to be, for this is the largest ocean-going vessel ever built.  It   over 00 yards in length, and weighs 600,000 tons, and is intended to collect gas from well heads on the ocean floor, then freeze and liquify said gas.  You will recall - or you ought to - that the blog did go into the function and design of LGV - Liquid Gas Vessels* - a few weeks ago.  The 'Prelude' is not alone, because a competitor will also be operating in the same gas fields:  the Inpex 'Ichthys', which lacks the freezing capacity of the 'Prelude' and which will therefore operate in conjunction with an off-loading facility dubbed 'Venturer'.  Art?

Sight of the slightly-smaller monster

     There you are, I don't think you can quibble about this item including "gas giants" in the title, can you?

Hang on, we've not tormented the motley today - we'll leave it in suspense until today's second post.  Dear me, I'm getting soft in my old age!

Nets, Booms And Flying Dooms
Yesterday I went into more detail about anti-torpedo netting than you are ever likely to need in your life again, unless you happen to be gainfully employed as an anti-submarine warfare officer, in which case it was probably a bit sketchy.
     I did hint that there was more to come, and here it is.  Art?

Perfidious Albion strikes again!

     That is one of the unprepossessing Swordfish torpedo bombers giving some Italian battleships what for in their anchorage at Taranto.  The British, you see, had rejigged their torpedoes to run extremely shallowly, since normally an air-dropped torpedo dives down deep considerably before running true.  In this way the horrified Italian crews watched Perfidious torpedoes skim over the top of protective nets and booms, before causing some booms of their own.
     Despite the picture above filling the night sky with tracers and explosions, only two Stringbags were shot down, for two reasons.  One, they were an extremely tough aircraft that could absorb a ton of punishment.  Two, they flew so slowly that modern anti-aircraft guns were not calibrated to accurately engage at such low speeds.

Oldie but goldie

     Some other people took careful note of what Perfidious Albion had been up to and how, because they were the Japanese and they had a problem with this place called Pearl Harbour, you see ...

Time to post this and brew another pot of tea.  Later!

*  I like to keep you informed