Licence To K.ill

There We Go!

Conrad hopes you appreciate his consideration for you, the gentle reader, by making sure that the third word of our title is not rendered obscure or puzzling thanks to trouble distinguishing between upper and lower-case Verdana (I have given up on ever getting Trebuchet back <sad face>).  The "K" in this sense also applies, since it is being used as shorthand for "Okay".  Thus our title means to have permission to make a person's day miserable.

Atomic cufflinks - a staple of any spy's arsenal

     However, ART, this title has absolutely nothing to do with James Bond, so I don't know why you added that portrait in there, since this Intro is about James Dickens, and you can't get further from Twenties spy-fi than that.
     "Charles Dickens?" I hear you say - that is, I hope it was you, and not that reverberating echo without a source that can't possibly be a ghost - in a tone of mock wonder, or wondering mock.  Yes.

Quickly! A comb for Mister Dickens!

     Ol' Chas and Conrad have a trait in common, it seems.  For in "Bleak House" Chas soundly skewers the legal profession, although in Conrad's case the skewer would have been welded to an anvil and the anvil dropped off in mid-Channel followed by a volley of depth-charges for good measure, and he came up with an invented word (as I like to do): "Wiglomeration".  Art?

Going biggy with the wiggy

     What he was referring to was the ability, propensity and incessant tendency of the legal profession to stick it's long, pointed nose into anything it could, most especially if there was the prospect of MONEY to be had.  For our overseas cousins, please note that British leec - lawyers, I meant lawyers - lawyers go about in court wearing a wig, just as they did back in Ol' Chas' day and for a century or so before then.  Hence "Wiglomeration".  Essentially Chas is cocking a snook and pointing a finger* at the legal profession for being certificated killjoys and bloodsuckers only interested in lining their own pockets, for better or <drum roll and clash of cymbals> ill.

An honourable exception

     Motley!  For our court experience, you're going to stand in this bucket (because we can't afford a dock) and then we'll bring on - no, stay right there!  STAY!

A Life On The Briny Brick

Did you know that the Ockers had an Antarctic Program?  Me neither.  One supposes they draw lots to see which lucky person gets to go cool off for several months at a time, in an environment that has no poisonous snakes or venomous creepy-crawlies or the hideous HUNTSMAN <shudders in mute terror>.

     Not only do they have just such a program, they also have a dedicated ship to travel hither and yon: the RSV Nuyina.  Art?

     Continuing with the Antipodean theme, what else does Australia have?  Yes, spiny anteaters and platypi.  Also Ryan McNaught, a.k.a. "Brickman", the Southern Hemisphere's only licenced and certified Lego construction artiste.  Could Ryan possibly resist the lure of creating a Lego version of the Nuyina? Of course he couldn't, or this would be a very short item.  Art!

With puny humans for scale
(Note terrible punnery in background**)

     Of course you want some statistics about this mighty marine model, so allow me to inform you that it is composed of 113,098 pieces and took 237 hours for a team of three people to complete.  They will, of course, have been working from plans developed over considerable time prior to that, because Making It Up As You Go Along is not an option for replicas on this scale.   It is also cut-away on the starboard side, allowing vision of all the interior.  Art?

     As for how much it cost to have this created or commissioned - how dare you be such a Philistine (and also there's no mention of same).

The Huntsman: not found in Antarctica
(Nor This Sceptred Isle, thank all the deities)

Today I Learned -

 - thanks to the M.E.N.'s Cryptic Crossword, that the Latin <spit, hack> for "Silver" is "Argent".  Well well William Tell, fancy that.  This is where the name for "Argentina" comes from, as there were persistent legends in the sixteenth century that a mountain of silver was located there.  There wasn't.  And if there had been, then the value of silver would have dropped to nothing, and it would be as common as brass.  Market forces, you see.  Art!

Silver tongues?

     This also has a bearing on music, as there used to be a group called Argent, named after their founder (I think) Rod Argent, who was (or is, let me go check on this) ah yes still is, that's it about keyboard players in rock bands, they tend not to have self-destructive lifestyles and are less in the public eye than the singer or lead guitarist.  Art!

- but just as much hair

     Mind you, guitar legend Jeff Beck is also still around and in pretty good shape, thanks to not living a riotous lifestyle, and we seem to have gotten a little off-topic, so -


The Opposite Of Idiot

For the past couple of days we've had stills from Youtube channels showing how not to to carry out a demolition with an adapted excavator.  The numpties involved in these (and there were a lot of them!) typically try to collapse a building by cutting away the vertical load-bearing structures, using an excavator with a shear attachment. Art?

Counting down to an accident in 5 - 4 - 3

     So how is it done properly?  O I thought you'd never ask!  Let's look at the most dramatic way: explosive demolition.  Art?

     The aim is usually to bring the building down into it's own footprint, so that there's no damage to property around it.  In the picture above the central portion of the building has been blasted first, so that it pulls the sides and they collapse inwards, besides any charges set off underneath them.

     It's not quick, despite what you may think.  There are plans to be studied first, then the building inspected, then selective load-bearing structures removed, then blasting holes have to be drilled, then charges laid, then the whole lot linked together with detonation cord, then the area has to be evacuated - no, not so quick.  Thus not so cheap, either!

BUT O SO SATISFYING!

     This is obviously only a quick skim.  Hopefully it hints at what the professionals arrange***.

* It can be done although it requires concentration and excellent  muscle control

**  That's my job, dammit!

***  Anyone mentioning "9/11" will be taken outside and thermited!