A Blank Page

That's What's Staring At Me
So I had better fill some of it up, as per now, hadn't I?
First of all, some more of those 51 Bucket List Books -

Another nope

     Not read this one, and in fact haven't even Googled about it, and I certainly can't read the background blurb on Bookbub as it's so blurred it looks like someone poured water on an inked page and left it for ten minutes.  Hang on - <Googles> Hmmmm, you know, this one sounds rather interesting.  Sound plot, although it is meant for <ahem> "Young Adults".  One of those "Everything Is Wonderful On The Surface, But -" kinda novels.
And let us not forget -

I have heard of it

     Nothing to do with the Commies (I think), this is rather one of a trilogy about the terraforming of Mars.  It sounds terribly worthy, and also rather dull - see "The Left Handedness of Dark" or something up above - and is probably horribly realistic about Mars.  Give me Edgar Rice Burroughs anyday, and I've not even read any of his Barsoom novels.
     I say, motley, that was a very short Intro.  Shall we make up the balance by playing in the sandpit?

Meanwhile, Back At The Food Fakery File -

Remember those posts earlier this week that deal with 'food hacks' that don't work?  Well, there's more of them here.  The first suggestion is so silly that it might very well be a joke, except if they don't explicitly state so you can't be sure.  Art?

"If you've run out of popcorn, why not just shove an ear of corn in the microwave"

     Why not?  Because IT WILL NOT WORK.  If you've ever been so monumentally bored that you've studied popcorn, you will recall that it's very dry and hard, utterly unlike the corn you find on a cob.  All that will happen is that you end up with a very hot corn on the cob.
     But wait - what's this?  Turn ice cream into a form of icing by melting it and merely adding icing sugar?
     Nope.  Because IT WILL NOT WORK.  As the food scientist below explains, there's simply no way to make this happen as there is not enough fat in ice cream
     "But - but - how can people post lies like this!" I hear you expostulate*.  Lady Food Scientist?

     £££ the reason, it seems.  These chancers post stuff that seems credible, in order to generate revenue thanks to curious people clicking on their sites. 
     But wait!  There's still more!  Apparently 'So Yummy' reckoned you could create a spun-sugar confection by pouring molten sugar onto the blades of a whirling electric whisk.  Because molten sugar is pretty dangerous stuff, Chris Fox et al did this experiment behind a plastic screen.  Below their unsuccessful attempt:

 

 

     And below is what SY lied about creating.

 

     Your Humble Scribe is not entirely surprised that people will lie for money, and wonders if there are other food hack debunking videos over on Youtube, in which case I will add details in here.  Together we can smash the liars!

Can't Stop The K-Pop
Yes, more of those Asian funsters, this time with Girls Generation, an 8 piece ensemble, and I'm not sure if a Google search for them will be SFW or not.  Let us see ...

Fairly SFW

     I have noted that their stuff has plenty of orchestral backing, and that, though their titles are in Korean, their lyrics are in Korean - apart from "Lion Heart", where the eponymous chorus is in English, just to confuse things.  I think the description for them is "Bubblegum pop".  They are, or were, hugely successful in Korea and Japan, and that's the past tense since they have been on hiatus since 2017.  Passable enough if you like that sort of thing, but rather too lightweight for Your Humble Scribe**.Of course the usual suspects are waiting in the wings with a bucketful of verbal offal, quoting screeds about how GG are actually as bad as war criminals combined with nun murderers and puppy drowners.  Some people ought to stress less.  They might live longer.
     Anyway, after Conrad has pronounced his judgement, we move on to Yoon Do-Nyeon, who have no presence on Spotify, so that's all she wrote.

Can't find any pictures of them, so have a look at a Backhoe Dredger.

How To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower Without Even Trying
Not that Conrad is advocating doing any such thing, it just kind of grew out of a photo someone posted on the Space Opera Facebook page, which, if Art can put down his nuclear fuel rod and fork -

Thus

     People were then speculating on the STTNG timeline and when the Third Unpleasantness started, and whether WW3 included the Eugenics Wars, and surely Paris had been destroyed in one of those conflicts?  So how come there's an Eiffel Tower looking all pristine and undamaged?
     Your Humble Scribe, being an idiot, had to chime in and derail things, asserting that the Eiffel Tower had been destroyed, but that Blackpool Tower hadn't, and that the French had bought it as an impromptu substitute.

Identical in every way.

     But then again, thought I.  What about the Chain Home radar masts during the Battle of Britain?  Art!  Less coal more goal!

Chain Home to port.  Giant mutant chimneys to starboard.

     The Luftwaffe were not daft - apart from that whole picking on Perfidious Albion thing - and realised the masts above were an integral and effective part of this island's radar network, so they had to be destroyed.  This was a lot easier said than done.  They were a small point target and thus difficult to hit from high altitude.  Dive-bombing from low altitude risked hitting the masts themselves, and anything less than a direct hit was useless, since the masts were mostly open space, and what wasn't was solid metal girders, so the force of an explosion was wasted.
     Sooooooooo - maybe the Eiffel Tower survived anyway.  For which we can be grateful, as otherwise there would be a lot of upset and angry French people around, and they'd probably blame Perfidious Albion, even if it was the Ruffians who were responsible.

Tsar Putin's handiwork, I bet***.

     And with a leap and a bound we are free!


*  This is not a rude word
**  My musical snobbery is showing, isn't it?
***  This will probably really upset him, but BOOJUM! does not care.