I Do Aplogise!

Make The Most Of This, It Doesn't Happen Often

Yes, a couple of days ago I had a post that included an item about a bear attacking a man who had rashly gotten close enough to kick it, and who lived to tell the tale, if a little bitten.  Art?

HUMANS: "Picture winner!"
BEAR: "Hello dinner."

     Then I had a punning picture of various ice-lollies, which if Art can oblige -

Made by - Lyons

     You can probably tell where this is going, can't you?

     All we lack now are tigers, and the podcast "We Have Ways -" tessellates perfectly here, as Al Murray was at Bovington Tank Museum - his second home, it seems - talking to David Willey, who is one of the head honchoes there, about -

Tigers!
     Specifically about Tiger 131, now the only running Tiger Mark One in the world.  There are only six in total, Vulnavia.  Anyway, David was giving a detailed insight into 131 and how it operates, tellingly coming up with the phrase "One hour's driving, ten hours of maintenance" as a rule of thumb.  The turret ring was damaged back in 1943 when it was shot up by Churchill tanks, and as a result the turret strains to rotate at a couple of points, so they only rotate it when absolutely necessary.  This is a whole lot more often than they'd like, as you have to rotate the turret through 900 in order to be able to get the engine decks open.  What price efficient design, eh?

     Al, minus pal (or partner in crime) James Holland, made an interesting point in that the Tiger's heyday was 1942, because come 1943 both Perfidious Albion and the Sinisters were fielding much bigger, more dangerous anti-tank guns*.  David said that the Tiger also epitomised the Teuton's paucity of material resources, as seen in the roadwheels.  These were originally rimmed with rubber to provide a smoother ride, a manufacturing luxury that was soon dropped as they didn't have access to enough rubber, natural or synthetic.

Preparing to move it for "Fury"

    And here we come to the meat of the matter.  All this preparation just to be able to come out with that exclamation from "The Wizard Of Oz" - 

    "Lions and tigers and bears, Oh my!"

    Well, it made me snigger.
      Motley!  Break out both "Kelly's Heroes" and "Saving Private Ryan", for I wish to contrast and compare their Tiger tanks with the real thing.

Moral Relativism

I know of late we have been taking the shine off Indiana Jones' halo, under the "Laws Broken" analysis; yet although he comes out of it as quite villainous, don't forget what kind of opposition he's up against, in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" alone.  To whit: the charges that can be levelled against his Nazi ne'er-do-well plotters: Arson, attempted murder (multiple counts); murder (multiple counts); battery (multiple counts); kidnap; negligible homicide; piracy; false imprisonment (multiple counts); possession of stolen property; exportation of foreign artefacts without proper licencing and certification; animal endangerment (the poisoned monkey); usage of cinematic recording equipment without prior permission; crossing international borders without passports; failing to pay standard contract rates to casual employees (the Egyptian dig); unsafe work environment practices (snake pit) and conspiracy to defraud a Protectorate of the British Empire.

Conrad is certain guns at work contradicts H&S

     Okay, one can understand Professor Jones' behaviour, if not exactly condone it.

You Want Weird Chemical Reactions?

You've got them, even if you didn't.  Conrad happened across another chemistry lesson on Youtube, and took pictures so that you, too, can learn what happens when liquid mercury comes into contact with aluminium.  Art?

    When the reaction proved slightly reluctant, our demonstrator ground out the depression, revealing new, bright aluminium and got a reaction almost straight away.

     This is the amalgam starting to form, and is one reason you are NOT allowed to bring any artefact containing liquid mercury onto a modern aircraft.  

     This picture has evolved after several hours of amalgam growth, where a tall yet extremely flimsy structure has 'evolved' over that time.

     Very easily broken away.  The demonstrator ("Red Tide") then cleaned off the base plate and began again, with another surreal sculpture rising from the crypt plate.

     When this one was scraped away and the base plate cut in twain, the surface had been clearly marked, yet to hardly any depth, so for this process to critically affect the cohesion or integrity of an aluminium construct, it would have to be left for a long time, hours and hours.  Which it would get if you'd put a mercury thermometer in your hold luggage and it broke, and guess who'd get the clean up and repair bill?     

O Marketa!

I'm risking this for you, gentle reader, in order that your stag or hen party in Prague may run that bit smoother, thanks to you knowing an impressively obscure word in Czech that will cause the police to think twice about booking you for sitting naked atop a statue in Wenceslas Square with a traffic cone on your head**.  What do you have for us today, my lovely Czech custard cream?

"Rozumbrada": a person who thinks they know everything.

     Now, I know what you're thinking - "This can only be Conrad, who claims omniscience".

     WRONG!

Conrad, aspiring to kingship

     Your Humble Scribe knows next to nothing about nearly all sports, which is why back in the days of Pub Quiz, I relied on Phil for anything to do with the ballfoot game, or golf, both of which are mysterious in origin and practice to me.  When it comes to TANK, on the other hand - I plead guilty, Your Honour.

Finally -

Only a short item needed before I descend to the kitchen and put that pizza in.  Perhaps a blast from the past, in a very literal way.  Art?

     O dearie me!   This is from "The Silent City" and concerns the last man alive in New York after an atomic attack.  We must presume that this is years later, as it would take that long for rats to mutate into Doberman-sized monsters rather than the mere days it appears to have been here.  Nor is it clear what a gorilla wearing a belt is doing atop a ruined skyscraper, since they are unlikely to find food up there.

     Of course, I may be overthinking this a little ...

*  "Tiger, tiger, burning bright -" you might say

**  One in every five stag/hen parties in Prague end in this way, according to the (rather cross!) Foreign and Commonwealth Office.