Feynman's Ferret

SIT BACK DOWN!
First of all, this blog is nothing to do with raising ferrets, polecats, mink or any other slinking carnivore.  
     Here an aside.  The army of Perfidious Albion used a scout car called the Ferret, as well as exporting it abroad, and it's still in use in places like India.  It weighed in at under 4 tons, was robust and reliable, had low ground-pressure (meaning it could traverse soft ground without getting bogged), and came with a machine gun in a one-man turret.  Art?

Make a joke about how it smells - go on, I dare you!

     They were intended to go and nosey about the battlefield, finding out where the enemy were or were not, and they could shift like stink - 60 m.p.h. on a good road surface - making them difficult to hit if spotted.
     Okay, aside over.  It was very slightly to do with what I really want to talk about, which is the European Space Agency's planned Mars rover, due to land on the Red Planet in 2020.  If you are imaging an article the size of a toaster, think again, because this thing is the size of a four-poster bed.  Art?

Attractive blonde added for scale

     The idea is that the rover, currently dubbed "Exomars", will stooge around the sands of Mars, seeing if life ever developed there in the past.  Given that we know Mars had liquid water in the very very distant past, this is a distinct possibility, and having life develop on two of the worlds of a single solar system would be quite the show-stopper.  Why so?  Well, because we now know extra-solar planets of the gas giant type are extremely common, and that smaller rocky planets like Earth exist also; so that old question "Are we alone?" may have an answer sooner rather than later.*
     Thing is, Airbus are now canvassing the general public of the entire ESA membership (which includes Canada; I don't mind this inclusion since Israel can enter the EUROvision Song Contest) for a name for Exomars.
     I shall now introduce you to Richard Feynman, arguably one of the cleverest people ever to walk the Earth.  He was so clever it was ridiculous.  If he was still alive we'd probably have anti-gravity and flying cars by now.  He was also great at entertaining anecdotes. Art?

I have NO idea what he's explaining here.

     His enthusiasm for science was infectious, and, even if you cannot add 2 + 2 together without an abacus, a calculator and a tutor, his breezy exposition would make the most complicated concepts of quantum physics comprehensible.**
     So!  "Feynman's Ferret" is my suggestion for the Exomars rover, as it is intended to <ahem> ferret things out.  I think it's a brilliant idea!
     Of course, I could be overthinking this ...

Right!  There will now be a short pause as I go to check out the contents of the fridge, for I am hungry.

Conrad Is Peeved
You may remember that I got a copy of the IWM's "Victory In Europe" on Saturday, and I am sorry to say it continues to repeat a few of the myths about the campaign in NW Europe.  Art?

Bad Julian!  Naughty Julian!  No biscuit for Julian!

     Specifically they reiterate all the old legends about Teuton panzers being so much better, having bigger guns and more armour and how the British divisions with extensive desert experience were tired and reluctant and didn't change their tactics -
     Excuse me?  The work quotes from the unpublished diary of Leslie Skinner, padre to the Sherwood Yeomanry - one of those regiments with extensive desert experience - whose Captain David Render penned this work - 



     Which details how the regiment immediately altered it's tactics upon landing in Normandy, how the Sherman completely outgunned the Teuton panzers when in contact in the bocage country, and - look, just go read my earlier blogs about his book, okay?

Okay, enough about tanks and armoured fighting vehicles!  Something light and frothy is needed next.  LITHIUM WAFER BATTE - maybe not that.

<thinks>

The Trencor Trencher
If you want to lay a pipe or cable, you have to bury it pretty deep to avoid the artillery fire passage of traffic messing it up.  Enter Trencor, and their trench-digging trencher (the clue is in the name).  Art?


     Do not blench if you want a trench.  Simply call Trencor! and all your trench-digging worries are over.  
     (Also good for anti-tank ditches and infantry field fortifications)
     Okay, so it's neither light nor frothy - what do you want for free?  A Bakelite cookie?


*   Whether you want or like it - that's another matter.
**  At the time.  30 minutes later you'd be baffled again.