I Know We Usually Avoid Politics -
- as if it were the Rage Virus ("28 Days Later" people, do keep up!) for the very good reason that being critical of one political persuasion will go down exceedingly well with their opponents, yet not with the Cats Should Get The Vote Party. And vice versa. Although I think we could perhaps trust the Dogs Should Get The Vote Party a little more, since cats have no intrinsic loyalty to Hom. Sap.
Case in point
ANYWAY this is not contemporary, quite, since it goes back to November in South Canada. Before we approach the meat of the matter, I ought to explain the exceedingly obscure reference to a "Pushmi-Pullyu", which won't mean anything to people under 50 or those who dote on bad musicals. Art!
The PP in person
From the epic financial disaster that was "Doctor Doolittle". As you can clearly see, it is a two-headed llama, and we shall leave rapidly before you venture into NSFW questions.
Let us now move to the South Canadian elections of November 2020, where you had the incumbent Ginger Minger versus Biden' His Thyme, or some such tomfoolery. The South Canadian security and intelligence services had gone over the run up and elections in a whole lot of detail, analysing which third parties were doing what and to whom. It transpires that various other countries (Ruffia and Persia we know it was you!) had engaged all sorts of dubious characters to attempt to influence the results. That's significant; neither of them dared to try and interfere with the administrative voting process, because 1) it's impossible and 2) they'd get found out.
Dimya, dreaming of the Seventies
The thing is, which thing Conrad found to be howlingly ironic, is that the Ruffians were trying to influence people in favour of Ginger Minger, whilst the Persians were trying to influence people in favour of Biden' His Thyme. Hence the Pushmi-Pullyu analogy; pulled one way then another. How effective any of this politically puling pettifogging was and what it achieved is questionable, and also probably highly classified. One wonders if the head of the FSB has mysteriously vanished since November ...
More Of Mars
Let us get another couple of Bonestell images in here, ones that do not deal in Death From Above if possible. In the spirit of the title of this item, let us get some Martian-relevant paintings. Art!
"Assembling the Mars expedition"
You can't fault the chap for not creating stuff that would look convincing today, because this painting was done in 1952, or five years before the first satellite even went into Earth orbit. From the picture we can see three large spacecraft, which have both streamlining and delta wings, implying that they are going to be landing on the surface of Mars. The smaller craft bimbling around in the background seem to be carrying fuel or oxygen or other liquid supplies, so they may be destined to fuel up the Big Three, or accompany them to Mars, or go ahead and act as a pre-located supply resource. There is a companion piece to this one. Art!
"620 miles above Mars"
YESSSS! None of those horrid metric measurements here. We can see that the Big Three have arrived, and are now undergoing detachment from the interplanetary boosters that got them to Mars orbit. Additional wing extensions are being added, because the Martian atmosphere is extremely thin and aircraft will need all the lifting surfaces possible. There are several space stations already in orbit (you can judge scale by looking slightly to starboard of centre at the bottom) which may have been constructed from those other craft in the first picture. Art!
"Exploring Mars"
We've used this picture before, in case you think it seems familiar. By the design of that landed spaceplane in the background, this ties in with the two pictures above. Don't chide Chesley for getting the Martian surface more yellow than red, this picture is from 1953! Given current technology, Your Humble Scribe can't see the equivalent of this taking place before 2050, and with only one ship, not an extravagant three.
Human Tourists Go Home!
More of Hom. Sap. messing up Mars. You may recall that the Perseverance rover got down on the Martian surface at the expense of littering Jezero Crater with various parachutes, a heat shield and the sky crane. Those aren't ever going to be collected, at least not until we have a functional colony on Mars and they decide to recycle. "Honey, we need a new dining room table" "Hey, that Perseverance Sky Crane would make a real doozy!" if you like.
The rover itself is still shedding. Art!
This is a cover that, I think, protected the miniature helicopter slung underneath the rover's belly, and which has been discarded in preparation for a test flight next week. Mission Control are too busy ooohing and aaahing at the rover to consider how DISGRACEFULLY they are littering the Martian surface. Guys, if we ever get to send an exploratory probe to Europa, just remember to bring your rubbish back home.
The Darwin Awards In Films
O joy unabounded! You ought to know that Conrad has been looking for examples of Incredibly Stupid Behaviour That Got People Killed in horror films, and has only an hour ago discovered a Buzzfeed list that does all the hard work for him, with 23 examples of same. This example is from "Scream 4" which I haven't seen, and on this basis am not likely to. Art!
From the description on Buzzfeed, these two ladies manage to escape from the killer and hide in a house. They seem to have beaten the killer off from the very doorstep as they slam the door shut, and then Victim Above decides to sit with her back to the door, with the letterbox at about upper shoulder height.
Yeah right. They don't bother to get further into the house, try to find weapons, a phone, sympathetic residents, the back door - no, one of them chooses to slump down against the door. Knowing that there's a vengeful knifeman out there who might choose to plunge his blade through said flimsy wooden door and into their quivering flesh.
Conrad always thought the premise of "Scream" was stupid. In a country with 150 million guns, this plonkoid bumbletuck never encounters anyone possessing or with access to one? Plus, in a community terrorised by a knife-wielding maniac, how many people would start carrying knives of their own? What about families with large, aggressive dogs? Vigilantes? Drone surveillance? Private security companies? Bah!
Finally -
I think we're done here and I'm off to get my meal ready. Remember, South Canada - Ambrose Bierce for President!
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