The 10:30 At Platform 2: Now Boarding For Hell

 - Calling In At Armageddon, Apocalypse And Hades
(Passengers for Purgatory please change at Nether Whinstead)
     If you possess more memory than a planarian flatworm then you will recall that your humble scribe has been going on - and on - about train-mobile nuclear weapons, and what would be involved, and how they were a Sixties concept that may come back into fashion now that various treaties are being torn up.  Art?

The Sinister-era equivalent

     Parallel with that, I also mentioned in passing the concept of a nuclear-powered train, since modern reactor design is capable of creating one small (perhaps not the right word) enough to be fitted into a locomotive.  Is there any concept art out there?

Yes there is

     Someone has put a worrying amount of thought into the above.  You might also be interested to know that feasibility studies way back when calculated that an atomic-powered locomotive was not economically feasible, though practical to build, due to the high costs involved.
     You know your humble scribe; if he has to stand around unproductively at a bus stop, his fertile if unpredictable mind will start to churn lots of random facts together, and in this case he thought:"I know!  Why not have an atomic-powered train that also totes around a couple of ICBMs as well!"
     Exciting concept, eh?  
     It would be a bit of a hard sell, admittedly.  What kind of person wants to have city-busting nukes being hauled through their town centre at 04:37 in the morning?

     No, no, sane normal persons!  <sigh>  Anyway, these things would be heavily subsidised by the military, who use them to heft around the Big Bang Bombs, not to ferry passengers from A to B, so expense is not an issue.  Since they have no need to refuel, they can tootle along their tracks for months at a time, as long as one of their crewmembers has a computer to route them along backwater rails distant from populations.

Another feasibility study!

     Okay, if the Ruffians or South Canadians adopt this idea, I want both credit and compensatory £££!

You What?
Oh dear, I seem to have broken Blogger.  I knew it.  All that stuff about atom bombs and zombies and tanks and cakes would eventually create a synergy that would send all their hamsters round the bend.  Art?  The evidence, please:

     When I last looked, a couple of hours ago, that "Pageviews today" stood at the proud total of 19.  You can't tell me that's increased by over 200% in the space of three hours!
     Whilst this looks flattering, in real life I've no idea how many of those hits are legitimate ones and which are false positives.  O the travails and torments of a blogger.*

I Don't Think So, Matey
Conrad and team mates made a triumphant return to the Pub Quiz at The Pleasant Inn last night, winning two rounds, hurrah for us!
     Phil then produced a list of questions that he and Rosie had answered at The Turk's Head Pub Quiz, one of which he posed to your humble scribe, to wit:  Which is the least populous South Canadian state?
     "Alaska!" blurted Conrad, aware that in size alone this state is about a quarter of the rest of the continental United States, yet has a population of about 750,000 (this is off the top of my head).  Art?

Alaska

     "Er - Wyoming, according to the Quizmaster," replied Phil
     Of course a dyed-in-the-wool pedantic anorak like your modest artisan couldn't possibly leave this alone, so the first thing I did on returning home was to check the facts and yes, Alaska is the least populous South Canadian state.  Wyoming is SECOND in the least populous list.

Our local's signage

     If you think this geographical knowledge demonstrates sharp wits, take note of the above.  They changed that sign several years ago, yet I only noticed last night.  O the woes of getting old.*

Meanwhile, Back On E-Bay -
It is many a year since I took part in the bidding game on E-bay, and my lack of experience and - if we're honest - my bad memory caused me to miss a real bargain the other week.  A charity shop was selling all 4 mapsets from the "History of Naval Operations" for Perfidious Albion's official history of the First Unpleasantness, and for £10 the lot.  You'd be lucky to get a single one for £30 normally.

The whole lot, in their shabby glory

     I forgot all about them after the first bid and someone else got them for £20 <sad face> but I am bidding for another Volume 4 mapset and appear to be the only one interested at present <mildly happy face>.  We shall see, eh?
     WAKE UP!  THIS IS INTERESTING!  IT IS IT IS IT IS!

A ship.  With guns on.
(I shan't be an expert until reading the collected Naval. Ops.  Thank you for your patience)

Further On The Theme Of Impending Senility
Conrad's propinquity with exercise has been markedly enhanced with getting a Fitbit Flex, which Art will now illustrate.  Art!  Down spoon up to your room!


     The Flex at port shows the light display that occurs when tapped; the mobile display to starboard shows a sample dashboard.
     All day long I have been wondering why my Dashboard was stubbornly showing "0" for the number of steps taken.  I do well over 1,000 merely walking around the house, so this deficiency was baffling.
     "It'll update eventually," I consoled myself.
     Except it didn't.  Not once.  Here we are at 3 p.m. and for the first time today I tap the device to see if - 
     What's this?  No lights?  No Fitbit chip actually in the wristband?
     "O that's right, I took it out to charge up overnight," I told my idiot self.
     <fits chip back in wristband>
     6 steps!
     O what it is to be an absent-minded old git.*

Time, I think, to finish this before I embarrass myself any further.  Later, people.  If there is one.

*  Feel my pain.