We Fear Change

A Quote From Those Master-Philosophers Wayne And Garth

The reason you're reading this in Times, rather than my usual Trebuchet font, is because I am working with the new Blogger, and it doesn't seem to allow one to choose a different font, the default being Times <sigh>.

     Can one select text and change it?  Let us see - nope.  Well, it's not too big a problem - er - so far, said Conrad, crossing his fingers and looking over his shoulder.

     I bet you want to see proof of these changes, don't you, you skeptics?  O go on.  Art?

The new world map

     This is a change of colour and is slightly larger than the old one.  And look! - the South Canadians like me!

More statistics for you.  South Canadians still loving the blog.

The re-jigged front page

     And once again the pictures I loaded up have vanished AGAIN, so it wasn't an artefact of the old version of Blogger <sighs with a tinge of anger>.

     There you go, a brief look into the world of the internet blogger.  You see the tribulations we have to put up with?  Although to be fair this is the first change in 7 years, so I really shouldn't complain.  It's just that I love doing so.

      No, motley, put down the axe.  This is a blog, not a log.

"NADIR"

This was an answer in the Manchester Evening News's cryptic tonight, and - Conrad being Conrad - I wondered where it came from.  It means, in general usage, to be the lowest point and is the opposite of "Zenith".

     It comes, unusually enough <small fanfare> from the Arabic - gasp not Greek or Latin for once! - and "Nazir as-samt", which means "opposite the zenith".  Art?

If "3" is the Zenith then "1" is the Nadir

     There you go, BOOJUM!'s didactic purpose being evidenced.

Back To Polemos

Conrad is enjoying his pernicious replaying of the English Civil Unpleasantness and is going to try and bring in a picture, so if Art can -

The battlefield from my comfy chair

     Here you see the Parliamentarian army's infantry standing still and awaiting the King's infantry attack, whilst their cavalry move to the flanks.  I have left the Parliament's leaders with their "Bad" rating, as they don't need to manoeuvre or advance and are merely staying still, which doesn't require much tactical nous.  I did wonder about having them behind some defensive works, as they might otherwise crumple a bit when under assault.  I do have stone walls and fences in this scale, so if things go unduly pear-shaped, there may be a rematch.  I bet you can hardly wait, can you?

This is hilarious!
(Not entirely true, however)

More Of Mars

You

     As you can plainly see, it's ENORMOUS, big as a car, although no car I know of comes with 23 cameras and a drill.

     Since the mission is going to take a decade to complete and requires several other pieces of kit, I'll break down the post in order to avoid sending you to sleep.  There is a really good animated feature on the BBC's website, which I'll post a link for -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53553623

     Okay, so Perseverance is to be dropped onto the Martian surface, it's descent slowed by rockets, that will allow it to arrive in one large piece instead of many small ones.  This is the first big test and Mission Control will be biting their nails over it; the distances and radio lag between Earth and Mars preclude any real-time corrections being made.  Art?

A perspective nobody will ever get

     Let me see if this copied image comes over properly - Art!

Moving images yet - we surprise ourselves

     Don't forget, also, that the Martian atmosphere is much, much thinner than Earth's, which complicates the business of slowing down before landing.

     Watch this <ahem> space.

Cheesy

The blog tries not to be this, which my Collins Concise defines as "banal or trite".  I don't think either very applies to BOOJUM! as where else will you find plaintive cries of "Sharks Are Our Friends", gloasting about atom bombing the Moon and articles about seminal punk rockers The Skreeming Voles*?

Back to these again

     For yes indeedy Ally Sheedy, we are looking to make Syrniki, Russian cheese pancakes again.  Conrad plainly failed miserably with cottage cheese as the cheese substitute for "Farmers cheese", which produced a yellow glop.

     A more detailed look at substitutes for Farmers cheese variously mentioned ricotta, goats cheese and paneer, so last night I got all three on the weekly shop AND WE'LL SEE ABOUT YOU, SYRNIKI!

     Incidentally, I can explain why there's a virus spike in Rochdale: it was like feeding time at the zoo in Morrisons around the chiller unit where the reduced-price food goes on sale at about 19:00.  Half a dozen people all scrambling over each other to get cheaper garlic bread.  Hom. Sap. hmmmm?

O I Say!  Conrad Can Get Behind THIS!

Quite by chance, I was perusing the BBC's website pages, as I like to keep up with how the world is misbehaving, and came across a page that pondered upon superheroes.

     Who are the superheroes in question?  Why, none other than "The Umbrella Academy", which Your Humble Scribe knew existed as a comic book (Darling Daughter had a copy or two as it's the brainchild of Gerard Way, crooner with My Chemical Romance), but which has been far better realised as a television series.  Art?

Cool and groovy.  Wait - there was a calendar?

     And, O Frabjous Day, it is returning to Netflix as of 31st July, which is tomorrow.  Also, I believe "The Boys" is soon to return, which is good news; the television series is different enough from the comic books that I don't automatically know what's going to happen ... except that Billy Butcher will swear a lot.

Finally - 

More compelling details from Peter Caddick-Adams "Sand and Steel", where he quotes a Teuton officer writing up a history of the Teuton intelligence services.  You know that reputation the Teutons had for ruthless efficiency?  Pshaw right.  According to this officer - let's see if I can get a name for us - ah!  the splendidly-monickered "Horst Boog".  Art?

Horst, Booging it.

     According to Horst there were twelve different Tueton intelligence agencies, which were run by the army, the SS, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, the Nazi party and some government ministries.  They most emphatically did NOT co-operate or collaborate with each other, as they were all fighting to establish and retain their own little empires.  There was no overall co-ordination of intelligence, even within these different agencies.  The Luftwaffe, for example, possessed eight different constituent intelligence branches, none of whom talked to each other.  This wasn't the most extreme example; the Sicherheitdienst, the SS intelligence service, had it in for the Abwehr, the Army's intelligence service, and waged open warfare against it (apart from really shooting people.

     This lack of co-ordination or oversight had disastrous consequences for the Third Reich's intelligence operations and is symptomatic of it's 'divide and rule' policy that Herr Schickelgruber followed, so that nobody got powerful enough to challenge him.

Admiral Canaris, head of the Abwehr.  Executed - by his own side.

     And with that we are done!

*  Who, let us be plain, do not exist.  Not even a little bit.