'Cos Of Baldwin Hills
Rather than air-conditioning at The Mansion, which would be a neat trick, because we don't have any. I don't think you can count a 4" fan on my computer table as the equivalent of an air-conditioning plant.
Aeryn: Sunshine she's not.
This is bad news for Aeryn Sun. She is a Sebacean, a species who have utterly deficient metabolisms when it comes to heat; above a certain temperature she slowly falls apart until eventually going completely hat-stand.
Yes, I can see where your filthy minds are going with this. NO SHE DOES NOT TAKE ALL HER CLOTHES OFF! In fact Zaahn ends up helping with a cold shower AND THEY BOTH KEEP THEIR CLOTHES ON. Just so we're clear. Conrad, however, did wonder about the fact that they are whizzing about in the depths of deep space - Art!
Moya
Would it not be childishly simple to open a storage bay or two to the vacuum of outer space, thus rendering it close to absolute zero? And then shuffle Aeryn into said storage bay, probably wearing breathing gear so she doesn't inhale sub-zero air? Or, just put a large container of water in there before exposing it to vacuum, which will turn it to ice, upon which Aeryn can lie?
Of course, I may be over-thinking this ...
And now back to our regular broadcast: Baldwin Hills. This was a dam constructed in Los Angeles in 1951, created in order to supply drinking water to the urban conurbation, see if you can make any temperature-related jokes out of that. Apart from "The Cool Pool" because I've got dibs on it. Art!
Here you see the ground level in yellow, with a pea gravel drain between the earth and that membrane, which is quarter-inch plastic, upon which is laid clay, all to prevent any leakages.
It worked for 12 years. After which a constellation of different problems resulted in -
Not quite a surprise. That above is the dam's inner wall breaking down, as filmed from a helicopter on the site, which was a vanishingly rare event in 1963. The dam watchman, bless his rhythmic inspection routine, discovered there was a leak and raised the alarm, which led to the dam's water level being lowered and people downstream being evacuated. Art!
Art - what are you playing at?
Oh. No, no: this will not do as an example of Bald Win. This situation is Bald Lose. There were 5 fatalities after all. If the watchman hadn't been on the ball, and if the evacuation hadn't been smoothly handled, we'd be talking ten times that many. Art!
Here you can see the size of the breach in the wall, the reservoir empty - I cannot find any pictures of it at all prior to the disaster - and an overhead shot of the breach with puny houses for scale. There is no consensus about what caused the failure, and a whole lot of theories about what did; if you pay your entrance fee you may choose accordingly. Which, frankly, does not bode well for the future!
Motley, how many times do I have to tell you! "Fusel Oil" is emphatically NOT the same as "Fuel Oil"!
In a turmoil, about fusel oil**
Conrad: Frothing With Righteous Apoplectic Rancour
Hmmmm do you know, I may adopt that as my go-to description of current anomie and angst in respect to the modern world, because "Frothing Nitric Ire" has probably run it's writ.
"Er - what?" I hear you query.
O do keep up! Descriptions of how I feel thanks to the current Codeword conundrum OF COURSE. Not sure it could be anything else***.
"EXUVIATE": ??? Another word I'd never heard of. It means, according to my Collins Concise, "an action that Aeryn Sun should have executed, in that -" HEY! - okay, okay, it means "to remove or strip, as of skin" or IN THE CASE OF PERVY SCI-FI NERDS the removal of an outer layer.
This is as exuviatey as we get.
"GEURDONS": ???? Nope, nothing to do with banners or flags or pennons, this is a medieval term that means one is being recompensed, and, given that it went out of use in the fifteenth century, OF COURSE it would make perfect sense to include it in a quiz five centuries later. Art!
Go go Lego.
I'm too annoyed to continue on this topic. My Righteous Apoplectic Rancour is showing. Tomorrow, after I've consumed a quantity of tranquilisers.
Ranks of tranks
Still No Response From Jonathan Ware
You remember, about his work "Jocks, Dragons And Sospans"? Conrad has now moved out of the procurement window where this could have been delivered sight unseen by Wonder Wifey, and is beginning to wonder if either the book or author exist in our world. Could Jim and Al on "We Have Ways" have created a completely artificial author with a fictional book, in the interests of <thinks> signing up more Independent Company members?
Have you seen this man at the same time and place as either Jim or Al? We the public deserve to know the truth!
Let's Have A Little Heavenly Hair
You may not be aware that the astronomical comet's name derives from the Greek, and "Kometes", which means "wearing long hair" because this fashion item is something the ancients did. The Spartans took good care of their long hair, I'll have you know.
ANYWAY here's another APOTY photograph, being of a comet. Art!
"The exceptionally active ion tail of Comet 20208 Swan" by Gerald Rhemann
For your information, that glowing nimbus around the comet's head is caused by outgassing from the core as the Sun heats it up. The long, long tail is created by matter being heated into fluidity and then left behind as the comet moves forward. This process can be repeated until there's nothing volatile left to outgas, in which case it becomes hard to distinguish between the object becoming an asteroid or remaining a comet.
Finally -
I've just bodged up another big batch of Bigos, which has been quietly sitting, soaking up the jalapenos and chestnut - what's that? No, green jalapenos are not part of the recipe. I keep telling you, we like to mix it up here and, going out as we came in, "I Got Chillis ..."
* Don't worry, we'll get back to Baldwin Hills. Just you wait.
** Absolutely true, go watch the film if you doubt me.
*** We're not catching the bus into work, so it can't be either First Bus or The Metro.
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