It might not have quite the eye-catching quality of "Wheels of Terror", although it is a lot closer to the truth than you might imagine.
Before we continue with that, allow me to create an aside. Whilst sitting in the lounge, reading my "8th Division at War 1914 - 1918", I espied a bus going past sporting a poster for that film "The Festival", at which point I broke into laughter and startled Edna awake.
For why? Well, the weather outside has been truly dismal all day long. Art?
 |
| It was either raining or RAINING |
And there is a festival on in London this weekend, the 'Go! Organic' festival. Organic, eh? Well, any plants or greenery they have present won't wilt for want of water, eh?
Okay, back to tanks. I know I didn't mention them earlier, but that's what we're going to be talking about now, and Conrad will be poking caustic fun at the Wehraboos.*
One thing you cannot stop Wehraboos going on about is the heavier varieties of Teuton panzers of the Second Unpleasantness: "Oooh ooh the Tiger Tank, it was a war-winning wonder weapon" - frothing adulation only slightly spoilt by it not winning the war. Same for the Panther: "Oooh Oooh the mighty and indestructible Panther that single-handedly defeated the entire D-Day invasion" - please note tenuous connection to reality. Art?
Tiger Panther
Note the double-interleaved road wheels on both tanks. This is because they were heavy - 45 tons for the Panther - or extremely heavy - 60 tons for the Tiger - vehicles. Not only did this put enormous strain on the engines and transmission, that weight needed to be spread out to cover as much surface area as possible; hence the double-interleaved road wheels. They also served to give a significantly smoother ride than would single road wheels.
However - (you knew that was coming, didn't you?)
Mud, stones, snow or ice would inevitably get wedged in between the road wheels and jam the suspension, necessitating stopping to unjam things. Plus, if one of the inner wheels needed to be replaced, you needed to take off loads of outer road wheels to gain access, and the wheels weren't interchangable, so you needed to keep track of what had gone where.
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| An example |
Now, let us see if the motley can outrun a set of Giant Venezualean Carnivorous Snails pumped up on amphetamines!
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| Yikes! |
Now, I was going to put up yet more photographs of the Duke of Lancaster's Regimental Museum, but I think we've had enough of the Second Unpleasantness this evening. So instead -
All Your Thunderbirds Questions Answered
Even those you never thought to ask. Yes, I am referring back to the Anderson Youtube presentation and their next question is: "Why does Gordon never contact base? His portrait is never used in the entire series." Art?
| The swimming one |
There you go, and you're welcome.
Shall we do a musical critique of Turin Brakes "Painkiller" again?
Hmmm.
No.
It's dark, wet and raining, which has lowered my spirits quite sufficiently already, without talk of brains being blown out of skulls and the like.
2-Chloroethanol
So instead let's have another Extremely Hazardous Substance!
The thing is, all those molecular diagrams are deadly dull, and the best we can manage is a shot of a flask of the stuff. Art?
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| It smells quite pleasant, according to some |
Finally -
If you recall that photograph of the Walney Extension Wind Farm I posted yesterday, there was a definite geometric pattern there, which reminded me of something. Art?
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| Wind farm as far as the eye can sea.** |
| Blue Oyster Cult's eponymous debut |
Now, I have to go take off my human disguise and plug into the mains for a couple of hours. Later, Hom. Saps!
* German kit fan-boys who reckon it's the best ever simply because of it's Teutonic origins.
** Sorry. Couldn't resist.
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