A Great Big Ruck

Excuse Me -
Sorry, I was off researching.  You remember when I was doing those calculations about putting an aircraft carrier on tracks?  I came across an illustration for a large toy from the Seventies, which, if Art can rouse from his coal-induced stupor - 

You have to admit, it looks pretty cool

     I did wonder about having small planes whizzing around the room, until reading about the toy in more detail on a website that displayed the picture above.

http://plaidstallions.blogspot.com/2013/09/1978-mattel-flying-aces-catalog.html

     The link, lest we fall afoul of their legal team.  The planes were made out of some variety of plastic foam, so probably safe to whiz about the living room, though Mum would probably not be impressed if you hit her in the face with a Marine Corsair doing the equivalent of Mach 2.  Art?

In the plastic

     Only two planes were supplied, so you couldn't assault Mum with a full squadron <sad face> which might have been a strong selling point.  The whole caboodle cost about £8.00 back in the day, and probably goes for a pretty penny nowadays, collectors being what they are.  I see the FA "Advance Island Base" with 2 extra aircraft (look out, Mum!) is going for £175.
     Okay, motley, time for the bucket of ice challenge; I'll hold your feet once your head's in the bucket, alright?

It Means "A Large Fight"
Today's title, that is.  It appears to be a corruption of "Ruction", which itself was a nineteenth century variation of "Insurrection", which is fitting because we are once again referring to the Battle of Lower Spleine.  Art?

     You can't see yet another two Royalist bases that have been removed from the table after Routing, but you can see a squadron of Aston's Loyals who'll be Routing off the board next move.  To port the Royalist horse can be seen trying to outflank the Parliamentary cavalry squadrons in a stalemate.  In the centre - Art?

     The Royalist foot has been absolutely hammered here; all four bases of Gerard's Brigade have routed off the field, after recoiling into their fellows in Fielding's Brigade, who are putting up a better fight.
     One problem is that the 'Polemos' rules don't allow any kind of backward movement, so those last three Royalist bases are just sitting there, hoping nobody recoils into them and keeping apart to ensure that doesn't happen.

The Sealed Knot getting it hot

     This is quite realistic, at least for Raw troops, because the discipline and experience and tight command needed for troops to change direction by 180 degrees, maintain coherence and stay together and then march off the battlefield was practically absent for the English Civil War armies, certainly at the beginning of that unpleasantness.  For these units they would have to "Wheel", which would require about 8 Tempo points (from a maximum of 18) and lots of space to manoeuvre in, which they don't have.

From "Heretical Gaming"'s blog

     I have observed, as has HG, that what the rules call "Ranged Combat", or shooting, is pretty ineffectual at anything bar almost point-blank range, which is as it should be.  The firelocks of that time were woefully inaccurate for one thing, and produced clouds of roiling smoke when they fired, so you might not even be able to see your opponents.
     One thing not apparently covered in the rules was when a Recoiling cavalry unit would have passed over an Officer's base.  In a hastily-created house rule, I had the Officer Rout for that turn, then Rally the next turn when 1 Tempo Point was spent on them.
     Overall, things are not looking very promising for Charles' finest!

That Rings A Bell -
There was an hilarious anecdote on the Plaid Stallions blog about the longevity of toys, Micronauts being mentioned.  The poster said that he'd had a Stretch Armstrong toy as a kid, which his pet dog hated with a passion.  Every chance it got, it would assault the toy, until they came home one day to find Stretch ripped apart and weird jelly strewn around, the dog hiding shamefacedly under the kitchen table.  The poster said he seemed to think he'd killed a real person.  Art?

Stretch going through a shredder*.

     Of course he got away with it, as a dog has more going for it than a stretchy plastic toy.  I have witnessed Edna behaving in a similar manner, after she gets into the bin and finds some disgusting mouldy rotten foodstuff and gobs it down.
     "Yes, I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry I'm not sorry at all and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I got the Yes, so very very sorry -"

Plotting to get at the cat's food bowl

A Visitor From Afar
No, I am not referring to De Burgh's schmaltzy opus.  Instead, I am referring - obviously! - to an alien popping into the Solar System.
     Not a live entity, in case you were panicking and getting out both the guns and tinfoil hats; we are talking about a comet, 21/Borisov, which is so-named because Gennady Borisov, amateur astronomer, first spotted it.

Go go Gennady!

     You may recall that other interstellar visitor that we had a while back, Oamumoomoo or some such.  At the time it was thought to be a comet or an invading alien space probe looking for whales, though by comparison with 21/Borisov it lacks a lot of the salient features of a comet.  One theory is that it's a fragment of a planet torn apart by gravity, meaning IT'S FROM KLENDATHU!  KLENDATHU!  IT'S A BUG RECON VESSEL! meaning - O good grief - Art?

Bristling with brain bugs NO IT ISN'T!

     Meaning that what we know about comet composition needs to come from 21/Borisov, which has been imaged by two different telescope systems, showing that it's composition includes the regular and expected Hydrogen Cyanide (surprisingly, a common molecule in comets) and oodles of Carbon Monoxide, far more than is normal in Solar System comets.
     This is food for thought.  And we may come back to it.  Art!

There you go

Finally -
This will all make sense on Facebook, honest.  Art?
                       
     - and, just to make sure we bash every scrap of humour out of the article, let's also have - 

     Grommets!

     And because we can, let's have a herd of Evil Cows -

Add caption

*  There are a worryingly large number of Youtube clips of Stretch being tortured to death.