Microbothered

You May Not See What I Did There -
Sometimes Conrad can be too clever by far, which means he has to spoil things by explaining to the lesser mortals exactly what he meant, a process that tends to take the fun out of things, which fun  would still be present if he weren't such a pretentious pompous jack THANK YOU MISTER HAND! You treacherous extremity - I swear, if we weren't attached, I'd happily beat you with a baseball bat.

The treacherous appendage

     Still, he may be right.  Today's title is a portmanteau version of "Microbot" and "Bothered" and "Microbot" is another word that Conrad invented, though since he never patented it, he won't see a single penny for all his creative endeavour.*  It refers, of course, to "Nanobots", those microscopic machines that will either see us all live out our centuries-long lives in idle luxury, or devour the Earth entire; there doesn't appear to be a middle option where they merely disintegrate China, Chekia and Columbia whilst the rest of us get by quite handsomely.

Nanobot in action

     The bother with nanobots is that people fear their endless replication, as assembler nanbots devour matter in order to create functional nanobots, who split their functions between building a De Tomaso Mangusta from thin air, and creating more assemblers, who in turn - and the whole infinitely regressive cycle continues until Earth is a hollowed-out charnel house, population 8,102.

But with five billion De Tomaso Mangustas!

     This fear of everything being consumed by an all-assimilating horde - which atavistic fear probably goes back to Genghis Khan - is known as the "Grey Goo" phenomenon, whereas living out your near-infinite life in paradise is known as "Greed" and is considerably less feared.
     However, there are definite constraints upon nanobots being able to eat your our planet.  For one thing, down at the microscopic level, processes like power generation and movement do not scale down directly, making any hypothetical nanobot unlikely to be able to accomplish much, if anything.

This one, for example, is surfing the bloodstream.  SURFING!  WHEN IT OUGHT TO BE WORKING!

     Although I haven't seen it mentioned, Conrad also thinks the robustness, longevity and complexity of nanobots will all militate against them.  These things are not going to be very tough, because you don't want indestructible microbots able to survive and thrive if you can't direct their development.  The more complex one of these molecular machines is, the more chances there are for it to break down, and there would be a synergy between one breakdown and the next nanobot, since the remaining machines would need to work harder, which increases the probability of a breakdown ...

Like this

       So, nanobots might be a worry in the very distant far future, yet I wouldn't bet on it.
       Okay, motley, let's give you a thirty second head start in that golf cart, and see if you can outrun that Challenger 2 firing armour-piercing fin-stabilised discardable-sabot rounds!

A Perfect Waste Of Time
Yes, I did nick that from an Elbow song, so sue me, I like it and it fits.  Okay, if Art will do the doings -

     I'm afraid the headline is out of shot, since I wanted you to experience the awe and wonder of the Outer Limits of that comic collection.  What you have is a collector who's been collecting since he was 5, who has now hit 63 with a heart attack.  This has caused him to rethink life's little priorities, and he now intends to travel the world, which is to be financed by selling his 36,000 comics.  These are expected to fetch £350,000 - yes, yes, yes, I'll get to that waste of time in a minute - with top sterling going to a first-edition "Spiderman" expected to fetch £10,000.




I bought this for £10.

     One wonders how such a collection will be sold off - in one giant lump, in which case it might take ages to find a buyer who can afford it, or individually, in which case it will - YES! ENOUGH INTERRUPTING! TIME-WASTING TOPIC APPROACHING! - in which case it will take years to flog off.
     Okay, if we estimate that it takes circa 20 minutes to read a comic the Conrad way,** and there are 36,000 comics to get through, and if you also stop to eat and drink, take moderate exercise, sleep and occasionally interact with other human beings (the postie and milkman come to mind) then Your Humble Scribe reckons it would take you about two years to get through the lot.
     Like I said, a perfect waste of time.

Guy Garvey: has a way with word

Dog Buns, Auntie!
Auntie Beeb, that is.  You know Conrad's allusions to the Bus Stop Rule - if you're waiting on one side of the road for an omnibus, then three will pass by on the opposite side before yours turns up (if it ever does - yes, First Bus, I'm looking at you).  Just the same principle applies to the BBC's website, which invariably - INVARIABLY I SAY!  has lots of interesting stuff that I can only glance at before having to re-promote BOOJUM! and then run for the bus.
     For instance today there was an article on working for Mexican drug cartels, and now there's on about being able to live on the Moon -

Not the Beeb article but close enough

Finally -
We need only a short dither on a subject to hit the ton and Publish, which will no doubt delight the fans out there (both of them) who come along on Blogger and read the daily posts before they get posted.  What it is to have an audience, eh?
     Anyway, I would like to look at the word "Synopsis" today, because it came up at least twice in yesteryon's BOOJUM!  I take it that you realise it means to encapsulate a larger body of work in a shorter version or digest.
     Of course it comes from the Greek (absent the squeaking).  From "Sun" meaning "Together" and "Opsis", meaning "Seeing" (where did you think "Optician" had it's roots, hmmm?).  These two were bolted together in the 17th Century to form - Synopsis.

See?  Together.

*  Other, smarter people thought of it first, you know THANK YOU HAND THAT'S ENOUGH!
**  A first read, reading and paying close attention to the lettering, then a slower second read, paying attention to the artwork