Quiver With Fear -

Conrad's Here
The quivering and my presence are not connected, I assure you, since I am a great big cuddly marshmellow, honest*.
     No, I refer - obviously! - to "San Andreas", and the earthquake central to the plot, which DVD I bought at the weekend for the princely sum of £1, and which I intend to use as popcorn for the eyes.  It certainly doesn't stint on action, only 18 minutes in and we've already had a daring helicopter rescue alongside narrow canyon walls, and now the Hoover Dam has basically exploded.  Art?

Well well well**

     As you should surely know by now, BOOJUM! has long taken an interest in dams and how (or when) they collapse, and this scene is not very realistic.  Firstly, it takes place over the space of a couple of minutes.  A real collapse of the Hoover Dam, which is fantastically unlikely in the first place, would typically begin with the main structure being compromised in several places, as cracks were created.  This is not a swift process.
     Then, water pressure would erode the cracks, creating voids, which would enlarge over time.  Again, this process is not quick.  People would notice the cracks and water springing from them with force at different points along the dam's main structure.

Before
(and probably after, too)

     Once the water is surging through the body of the dam, a particular section is likely to give way first, and not the whole dam itself in an orgy of concrete and rebar.  This will progressively weaken and strip away other parts of the dam, until there is a general collapse or the water level falls to below the surviving structure.
     All in all, the first stages can take hours to unfold, rather than the mere minutes shown in the film.  The final collapse, however - that can happen in seconds.
     Next, you have Paul Giamatti's character with the teenager who survived the collapse.  Art?

He's a big fan of Yes

     He must be, because he hangs about so close to the edge!  Note to spectators: you are not safe at the very edge of a recently-collapsed structure merely because you are now standing on terra firma.  The edges will continue to crumble into the abyss, especially if there is additional weight added by gobsmacked onlookers.  Move away! as I kept telling him.
     Motley, shall we see what happens when you put a jelly in a vibrating plate and have it oscillate at 900 Hertz?

Yeah, I thought so.

And Now - Back To Books
You know, those things made out of wood pulp and ink, which need no batteries, emit no annoying sounds, and which can be used as a blunt instrument in the event of zombie attack***.
     For Lo!  we are indeed back to that list of the 51 greatest sci-fi novels of all time, at least up until now.  Who knows what the future will bring?

Nope

     Never heard of either author nor novel.  Look, I'm not going to add another 35 books to my next Abebooks order just because they're on this list.  Next!

Another semi-Nope

     Never heard of this one, either, though I have heard of Neal Stephenson.  Have I ever read any of his stuff, I wonder?   <Googles>  Ah yes - "The Diamond Age" which was all about nanotechnology, and nanotechnology taken to it's logical extremes.  I recall it as being very carefully thought out in it's ramifications.  Okay, TDA may mean another Abebooks order.
     I'm typing this up on Wednesday evening at home, since once in the office I cannot access the webpage this article is based on.  Pity me!  Pity me!

     Here I shall pause for tonight.

This Pope Has Hope
No!  Not the chap who sits in the Vatican - which is a very impressive architectural achievement, I can tell you - because that would be Religion, which we here at BOOJUM! are loathe to tackle, unless we think it can generate a bit more traffic.
     Here an aside.  The blog has been generating a lot of hits over yesterday and today, an awful lot of hits, 280 yesteryon, which is about four times the usual, and it seems to be due to the blog's Ruffian readership.  Thank you Ruffians!  <probably all troll farmers looking for blackmail material - the hideous truth courtesy Mister Hand!>

This would earn me 10 years in a gulag back in Za Rodina

     No, I - hang on, is that bumbletuck Mister Hand interfering again?  GET OUT OF HERE!  Treacherous appendage.
     Where was I? O yes.  The "Pope" I refer to is Nick Pope, who used to run an obscure branch of the Ministry of Defence which investigated UFO sightings within the UK.

A reassuringly normal-looking Nick Pope
(though he could have monstrous cyborg hands because why else is he hiding them?!)

     It was closed down in 2009 because, after 50 years, the RAF had failed to find any trace or proof of any kind of hostile intent from the UFO phenomena.  Not that they were looking for Martians; rather it was suspected that perhaps the Sinisters were up to something - er - sinister, by sending aircraft to test Perfidious Albion's air defence network.  Nick confirmed that 95% of all UFOs turned out to have an utterly prosaic explanation, and points out that the remaining 5% are highly unlikely to be proof of extra-terrestrial craft.  Okham's Razor in action.
     Sorry to shoot down all your Little Grey Men fantasies.  Heh.

Accountant: Little Grey Men

     At this point we have a fire alarm alert in the office so I shall have to pause until - 1) we are evacuated and the Dark Tower burns down or 2) we all troop down 34 flights of stairs, hang around in the cold and then all troop back again.




     We shall see!

     I'm back, utterly unsinged.  Your grateful appreciation is noted.

The Dark Tower.  Also unsinged.

Finally -
I was listening to another Reddit transcription of an "Ask Me Anything" subject on Youtube, this time the respondee stating that they'd been in the CIA.
     Erk.
     "Which is the most effective secret service in the world?" asked an attendee.
     "The Japanese Secret Service," replied our anonymous ex-officer, to general surprise, most people being unaware that Japan even has a secret service.  They certainly do: how else do they keep an eye on the Norks, the Populous Dictatorship, Vietnam, the Sorks, the South Canadians (just in case)  and the Ruffians.

The Public Service Intelligence Agency

     We anticipate that they are absolute hot-dog with all kinds of electronic eavesdropping and monitoring, given Japan's general electronic background.

And with that - we are done!

*  The murder charges were dropped for lack of evidence.  
**  Do you see wh - O you do.
***  Only if cornered and desperate.