Big Bang Theories

Once Again, This Theme Is A Little Tenuous
Not quite akin to the rarity of hydrogen atoms in deep space, yet not far off.
     First of all, allow me to introduce the Gerry Anderson Youtube channel, devoted to the futurologist and his predictive so-called "children's television programmes".  Here is the relevant link -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Eqew1mXO30

     - and here is what your humble scribe tuned in to watch every week - Art?

Explosions!

Even more explosions!

     If it was anything from the Anderson studios, then there would be great big explosions involved.  Big bangs, if you will; at least, such way my youthful supposition.  And hence today's title.
     Now, the link I posted is that of a 7:28 minute video clip, where John and AC pose an uninterrupted stream of questions about Thunderbirds continuity, plotting and sets, which is both highly impressive and desperately sad at the same time.  The first clutch of queries concern The Hood, the series' eeeeevil criminal mastermind, and his temple hidden away in the jungles of - is it Malaysia?  Art?

Fixer-upper opportunity

     They wonder if he bought it or built it; even if he built it himself.  Bafoons!  This temple is obviously hidden away in the trackless wastes of the Pantai Timur mountains, long lost to the jungles, and Mister Hood is merely a variety of squatter who would hastily move out if the authorities rediscovered it.
     This is an interesting topic of conversation and I may come back to it, as the hair-splitting pedantic analyst in me is never very far from the surface.
     Okay, time to put the motley into a swimming pool containing a glass maze and a hungry shark!

Gosh.  Underwater mazes actually exist.  Who knew!

Still With The Big Bangs
If you have a memory longer than that of a goldfish, then you will remember your modest artisan going on about the 1918 T-Gewehr, a Teuton anti-tank rifle of the First Unpleasantness.  It was the very first such weapon, and as such suffered from - er - teething troubles.  Like breaking your shoulder if you fired it incorrectly.
     Well, by the late Thirties the designers of such weapons had gotten much better at creating a gun that wouldn't harm you almost as much as the tanks you were shooting at, which is where we meet the Solothurn 18/1000.  Art?

- a VERY big bang.

     This monster fired a 20mm anti-tank round, which was quite capable of stopping tanks at the beginning of the Second Unpleasantness.  After circa late 1940, however, tanks had armour sufficiently thick to defeat even a 20mm tungsten-cored round.  Let's see one in operation.  Art?

With puny human for scale

      That's Ian from Forgotten Weapons, and you get an idea of how big this puppy was.  It weighed over 100 lb. so moving it was a two-man job.  It's a working model and was up for auction (only in South Canada could you ...) so if you had about $10,000 it could have graced your mantelpiece.*

Big Band Theories
As you should surely know by now, Conrad is a big fat dinosaur, for whom nothing is real unless written down in black ink on white paper.  As an example, I have written down in my diary that I shall be working from home on Saturday 15th September, for otherwise I would have forgotten.

Art! NO ad-libbing!

     Just so it has been with a thread over on The Flop House, where a plaintive post asked for Canadian band and musician recommendations.  I went through all 125 entries and made notes of 70 bands or musicians, whom I shall check out in batches over on Youtube (don't ever mention S*****y in my presence).  On the rule of 4, this ought to yield 17 potentially decent bands.  Art?

I don't think there's any naughty names there, but I'm not enlarging it any more.

     So, there's a big list, of bands, and my theory.

Finally -
Just finished "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov, and am about half-way through "First Lensman" by E.E.Smith (PhD),** and noticed A Thing about personal names.  Let's have a picture to break up all this text.  Art?

No tasteless jokes about cho - you know.

     The characters in FL all have manly names, names redolent of square jaws and broad shoulders - Conway Costigan, Virgil Samms, Roderick Kinnison - whereas Ol' Ise's characters have names not noticeably derived from anything contemporary.  Hari Seldon?  Hober Mallow?  Gaal Dornick?
     I suppose when The Future arrives we'll see whose predicted names were more accurate, eh?

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*  After considerable structural reinforcement
**  Will this satisfy the old grouch?  I suppose we'll see.