This One Is Going To Take Some Explaining
Because it involves English vernacular which dates back a good few decades, meaning you young whippersnippers won't be familiar with it. We are talking, of course - obviously! - about the differing claims of lawnmower manufacturers, whom used to put out rival adverts over our laughably-named 'summer' here in the Allotment of Eden. One marque was your traditional motor-mower, where the engine both propelled it forward and rotated the blades. Art!
As you can see, the mown grass got collected in a bin at the back. Then there was the hover-mower, which floated on a cushion of air to trim the greenery. Art!
As you can see, it is a far less substantial beast than the rotary, with the drawback that you cannot collect the cuttings thanks to them being spewed out across 360 degrees. Even a mere slip of a girl could handily operate one of these, with their tagline on adverts being "It's a lot less bovver with a hover", Conrad not exactly approving of mutilating "bother" like that.
We now jump 78 million miles, because that above is only an Intro to the Intro, for Lo! we are back with the Martian helicopter Ingenuity. Art!
The little chopper that's not a whopper
NASA has done it's proof-of-concept flying and is now going to use Ingenuity for further scouting missions, meaning it can carry out reconnaissance of more distant terrain for Perseverance, looking out for potential problems, as well as assaying vertical features beyond the rover's reach. This is work that Perseverance as a rover simply cannot do on it's own, whereas 'twill be child's play for Ingie. It will also be a valuable early-warning system should the rover encroach on any potentially hostile wildlife, although I think they are restricted to the Martian highlands*.
The idea is to keep going for at least the next Martian 'month' of 30 Sols, and NASA is prepared to work Ingenuity to destruction if need be, as the really big question, Will A Marscopter Work? has been answered.
With puny human for scale
If you reinforce the ribs on a golfing umbrella with angle-iron, so that it won't immediately invert, could you jump off a roof using it as a parachute? Motley!
The Loneliest Boy In New York The Solar System
Conrad noted the passing recently of Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who'd had a good innings at 91. The BBC had a fantastic photograph of him in the Command Module, which I need to try and dig up. Art!
Nope, can't find it and don't want to start looking or I'll get distracted and it'll be 3 hours later before I come back here. Let us try a combined approach. Art!
Mike does a Codeword to pass the time in orbit
Of course, Apollo 11 was stuffed full of the wonderful electro-mechanical gadgetry that they had at the time, and I found an excellent example of same. Art!
So many dials!
While Buzz and Neil were playing golf and planting flags on the Moon, Mike was whizzing round that celestial body in the Command and Service Module, keeping the seats warm. No, actually he had to ensure that the CSM rendezvoused on time and at the right location and altitude with the Ascent Stage of the Lunar Excursion Module, because the latter didn't have much fuel to manoeuvre with. Art!
The Command Module is the conical bit
Whilst Neil and Buzz had each other for company, Mike was entirely solo, and when the CSM entered radio-shadow behind the Moon, he didn't even have radio contact with anyone. He was, at that point, genuinely the loneliest Hom. Sap. in the Solar System. Food for thought!
So much astronomy - let's have something more down-to-earth.
Apocalyptic Fury!
Conrad is, as per usual, erupting with all the rage of a 55 megaton warhead, and the cause is, as per usual, Codeword solutions. SIT BACK DOWN! This is important, because I say it is, and also because though I froth at the mouth at their effrontery, it also generates a fair bit of content for BOOJUM! So -
"VERBATIM": Doubtless Latin in origin <checks Collins Concise, correct, hacks and spits>. It means to repeat or recite in exactly the same words as someone else uses, and the Latin it derives from means "Words" and is "Verbum". Your Honour, I rest my case.
"Green" being "Virid" in Latin and thus close enough
"ULNA": This is the medical term for one of the bones of the human forearm, and if Art can put down his plate of coal -
WHAT ARE WE DOCTORS AND ANATOMISTS NOW?
Really. You can see my point, can't you?
"JAZZIER": You see? You see how they try and put 2 of the least-used letters in a Codeword into a single solution? Conrad is not convinced this is even a proper word. Nope, I shan't look in the Collins Concise, I shall merely carry this conviction with me forever.
"CRUX": Yes yes yes, Latin for "Cross", which is what Your Humble Scribe is at the moment. Art!
The Crux Australis, or Southern Cross
Fortunately I have run out of solutions to be offended by or my blood pressure would be off the chart. Motley! Run out the gin tank and a couple of pint glasses.
Finally -
Conrad came across another interesting Youtube channel by a chap called Martin Zero, which seems to be concerned with industrial archaeology in the North West, and which Your Humble Scribe will almost certainly be mentioning in the future. The video I selected was a hike by himself and two colleagues to Chew Reservoir, which Conrad had heard of but knew nothing about. Art!
Back in the day
It was built between 1907 and 1912, being a major construction undertaking since it was at the top of the moors in the Peak District, in other words the middle of nowhere, and remained the highest reservoir in England until 1971. The water in it, as Martin pointed out, is almost black thanks to the peat it travels through, and it was intended as a 'compensation' reservoir, to refill rivers that had been used for industry. Not for drinking, although a filtration plant was also built to be used for drinking water, in times of drought. Right. Drought. In the Pond of Eden.
And with that we are done!
* Don't play dumb. You know what I mean.
MARTIAN ROCK SNAKES!
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