Back To Normal!

With The Proviso That "Normal" Is A State Of Mind
 - which you are unlikely to find here, since it is an inherently boring state of affairs.  After all, why settle for the gentle trilling of birds in the trees when you can have the ear-splitting shriek of diving dragons?*
     I refer, of course, to the traffic figures, which of late have gone potty.  There were definitely not 13,000 visitors here last month! despite what Blogger would have you believe.  Such figures may flatter, though they also prevent genuine feedback.  They also provide a constant worry that someone, somewhere, is going to resort to legal action over copyright or slander or nuclear proliferation or - you get the picture.
     Just a moment, there's a strange noise outside, let me -

Erk!

     Quickly, to the fire extinguishers!  And in the meantime, lash the motley to a pole and stick it outside, for that kebab experience!

The KILLER KOWS From The MURDER MEADOW!
 - is the title of a blog posting way back in 2016, which turns out to be all about cows in a meadow (though not how you'd expect them to be described).  I exaggerated a little with that title**.  In the interests of boosting my traffic now as then, I shall append a link to that very post - 

https://comsatangel2002.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-killer-kows-from-murder-meadow.html

     There you go.  I re-read it, something I rarely do with BOOJUM! and at one point thought "Blimey! what is this bloke drinking or smoking?" until I remembered he was me.
     The reason I reference old tat is thanks to a website article on that font of all that's fit to be writ, the BBC, with their article on reducing global warming.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46214864

     Another link!  To a site eminently more practical and sensible than that first link.


     Back to the old tat.  I vaguely remembered the title, which is a wonder given it's two year's old, and believed that it also referenced global warming and cows.  Cows and sheep, you see, fart tremendously all the time, which methane is helping to drive global warming.  So, sitting down to eat your vile rubber burger at that South Canadian fast-food joint is KILLING THE PLANET!!  I realise two exclamation marks is pushing it, but they're there because of cow farts and deforestation, a double-dose of whammy.
     I bet that Happy Meal tastes of ashes and canker now, eh?

The slayer of ecospheres

"A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Boy" - By James Joyce
Don't worry, this venture into haute escrit won't last long.  I remembered a line from it after typing "Canker", which goes - 

     "Cancer is a disease of animals, canker one of plants."

     Or something approximating to that.  I think it was a quote itself.
     That is all.  Oh - for an English "A" Level in Literature, since you ask - certainly not for enjoyment.

The chap himself.

Now, a break for lunch, after which we will return with POISON GAS.  I can hardly wait -

More Dangerous Stuff!
Oh yes indeed.  Today, quiver with fear at Aluminum Phosphide, because it's pretty deadly stuff.  One of it's more dull uses is in semi-conductor applications for microcircuitry, which is rather uninteresting; nobody is ever going to helm a summer blockbuster film about gallium arsenide thin-layer applique technology.
     However!  AP redeems itself in being used as a pesticide, herbicide, rodenticide and insecticide, by which you may gather that it is fearfully toxic, because it is.

All the -cides, all the time.

     What makes it so lethal is that, when wet, AP gives off phosphine gas, which is incredibly toxic in it's own right.  Not only that, phosphine is flammable and self-igniting, making it a bifecta of terror.  
     Sadly phosphine isn't radioactive or it would tick all three of the Really Exciting And Dangerous boxes.  No, for that you'd need an isotope of Phosphorus, which I can't see happening any day soon because which research lab is going to blow £££ simply because of BOOJUM!'s abject pining?

Mind you, it would depend on the lab in question ...

Finally - 
I think today's blog lacks tank.  As far as your modest artisan is concerned, it is impossible to have too much tank in your life, but since other people's opinions differ - sometimes quite markedly! - he does limit the amount of space this Splendid British Invention gets in these pages.
     You may not be aware, but the M8's had their own tanks during the First Unpleasantness, one of which was the rather poor Saint Chamond.  It was fundamentally handicapped by having a whacking big overhang at front and rear.  Art?

Behold

     This meant it got bogged-down in rough terrain or stuck in trenches fairly frequently, much to the dislike of their crews, who then became immobile targets for Teuton artillery.  The M8s, being canny and adaptable, converted almost 50 Saint C's into supply vehicles by taking all the guns out and welding a plate over the frontal gap thus created.  Art?

Behold again

     A role in which it was much more successful. I think we shall return to the M8s tanks tomorrow, as surely everybody will be thirsting for MORE TANK by then, right?



*  This is a metaphor, and I am quite happy to live without scaly aerial flamethrowers trying to barbecue me, thanks.
**  Okay, okay  -a lot.  There.  I admitted it.  Happy now?