I Think Today's Theme Is "Dangerous!"

Although Perhaps "Stupid" Ought To Be Added In There
Conrad is no stranger to Hom. Sap. performing stupid tasks and killing themselves in spectacular fashion; the case of the incredibly dense maintenance worker who looked inside a petrol tanker to see if it had been cleaned out, using a lit match as a light source, remains one of my defining moments*.

Nope, not photoshopped at all

     Anyway, what I encountered today on ask/reddit was "Car surfing", a term I have not come across before, because i) I am not an idiot and ii) even if I were, I value the inherent sanctity of my hide a great deal.  'Car surfing' comes in two varieties, one only extremely dangerous, and the other practically suicidal.  In the first variant, the idiot involved is a passenger, who gets out onto the roof of a moving car, and a car moving at speed.  Art?

I shouldn't have to say this but DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
(Or anywhere else)

     The second, even risker iteration is for a solo driver to put their car into cruise control, then get out and <ahem> 'bust some moves' on the roof before climbing back in.  Even if done at low speed, dear Imminent Darwin Award Winner, those other cars around you are moving at speed.  Nor are you wearing protective headgear if you fall from five feet onto tarmac.  Or into parked cars.  Or a lamp-post.  Or a bollard.  Or a parking meter. 

Not long for this world

     "The Drive", a South Canadian website that specialises in all things car, illustrated how dangerous car surfing is with a crash test dummy.  After the second fall, whilst the surf car took a corner, the crash expert pointed out the two broken legs, and the melted plastic scraped off the face and chest thanks to tarmac-surfing.
     Conrad suspects this might be a self-correcting problem.
     Motley, shall we wax down our surfboards and challenge the briny deeps?

The healthier iteration

Even MORE Danger!
If you recall, Conrad has an unhealthy interest in toxins, poisons, explosives and radioactive substances, and is surely already on a couple of CIA and MI6 watchlists.  Hello chaps!  <waves> I've not bought anything more lethal than a jar of peanut butter, so you can't touch me!  I also relocated my Wiki list of Extremely Hazardous Substances, which is a bit of a let-down; on some chemical compounds all it does is list "Toxic".
     

Disappointed face

     Like today's Chemical Of Evil - "Acetone Thiosemicarbazide".  All you get is "Toxic".

Sorry for the lack of drama

     However!  I did discover an excellent internet website that lists lots and lots of dangerous chemicals, together with all sorts of internationally-recognised ratings and ruling about them, which gives a lot more background to this compound.  Looking up ASCA, it has the "Danger" icon and the Hazard codes H300, H312 and H330.  Looking up another list of Hazard Codes, that means this stuff is: Fatal if swallowed (H300); Harmful if in contact with skin - acute dermal toxicity (H312); and fatal if inhaled (H330).
     Now we have a better understanding of why you should never make nor consume a ASCA milkshake.
     Oh, I ought to mention that it's used to stop the polymer process that creates PVC, so it does have some utility and is not merely deadly for the sake of it.
     You can bet your stoutly constructed foot protectors that we've coming back to revisit DANGEROUS chemicals!

What could possibly go wrong?

Hmph
Well, my ex-colleague and all-round pretty awesome feller Jason is having a combined leaving and birthday get together in central Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell tonight, starting at Eden and probably ending up with the shattered remnants crashing out at his pad at 04:37 tomorrow morning.
     I'd like to have gone, as we had no chance to say goodbye, and a few jars and chinwags outside work is always welcome, but No!  For I have a dog to sit, and I'm still not over my cold.  
     So, getting constant reminders of who's going and where they are, and what they're drinking cropping up via Facebook Messenger is getting to be irksome.
     Bah!

Irked face

Tying Up That BookBub Bucket List
For yes!  we have reached numbers 50 and 51 on the list.  Thank you for listening along the way, you may have come across some worthy reads, I know I have, as they are currently sitting by the side of my chair.  Art!

Nope

     This one appears to be far-future space opera with AI thrown in for good measure.  It concerns a character, Breq, who is seeking vengeance for the treachery which destroyed her starship and left her the sole survivor.  It's been praised for both the characters involved and the larger world it creates, so possibly one for your Abebooks list.
     Also, note that the cover artist for the above is John Harris, who is the artist for our title page art.
     Next!

Finishing on another Nope

     Conrad knows nothing about the author but assumes that was not the name their parents gave them.  Reading a precis about the novel gave me a slight headache at how convolutedly confusing it was, so unless I get this one as a present (thanks!) or a dare, I don't think I'll be tackling it.  Though there was a BBC television series adaptation a couple of years ago, so perhaps I should track that down and watch before pontificating quite so much.

David Morrisey in the Beeb adaptation

Finally - 
How can we finish as we began?  Dangerously!  Art?

Caracas, Venezuela

     The murder rate here seems to have hit 111 per 100,000, and if it's gone down recently then that's only because so many people have fled abroad.  Apparently this is one of the most dangerous 'peacetime' cities to either live in or visit.  You can see the divide between the city slums and the apartment blocks above; well, you're not safe in either side if you're a foreign visitor.  Because both are DANGEROUS!



*  They found his shattered, battered, burned corpse thirty yards away.