Ha! Take That, Unambiguous Titles!
Conrad is making it up as he goes along - although the seeds of this Intro were sown earlier this morning, whilst walking Edna. And what a glorious contrast it was to dismal yesteryon, when we hurried by on speeding feet to beat the downpour. Bright and breezy and just a tad freezy.
ANYWAY you might be anticipating this Intro being about bagpipes, because - Art! And NO young Angela Lansbury.
Double awesome!
There's an important bit on a set of the pipes called - Art!
However, that's not what this Intro is about, because that would be simple and logical TWO THINGS WE HATE. Although we do love us some bagpipes. Must be the Scottish.
ANYWAY we might be referring to the "Chase Through Time" episode of "The Time Tunnel" because it has a hive society of the far future and ends one million years into the past with giant bees, some of whom might be drones. Art!
A yes, silver hats. You can always tell if a person is from the far future because they wear silver hats.
BUT NO! this Intro is not about that. Worth watching if you want to see Robert Duvall wearing a silver hat, though.
Or - could we be on about Manchester punk band The Drones, who were pioneers of the scene way back in 1976? Art!
No, we couldn't. Conrad never liked them and they only made the scene because they were first on it, not because they had any talent or ability. Harsh? Yes, the truth can hurt.
No, what I am talking about is the drone as used in warfare, which is not new as they've been around for years, just that they've been used in Ukraine in unprecedented numbers. There are a variety of models and purposes, ranging from what Justin Bronk termed 'loitering munitions', which are drones with an explosive payload that can hover overhead for an hour before mounting a kamikaze attack on a target of opportunity. Art!
The 'Switchblade'
Conrad has described these as being 'Intelligent mortar bombs' due to their compact size, since they can easily be carried and fired by a single human. Art!
There are simple commercially-available drones that do no more than act as eyes-in-the-skies, sneaking and peeking. Art!
Illustration thoughtfully provided with puny humans for scale. The Bronk is very annoyed by the casual use of the word 'Drone' as it tends to be applied across all models, and as you can see, not all drones are created equally.
These Bayraktars are the critters that humiliated the Ruffians in late February and into March, as they spied on invasion forces, provided artillery co-ordinates for Ukrainian gunners, and not least dropped bombs and fired missiles into the enemy ranks. The Ruffian garrison on Snake Island was largely destroyed by these drones.
"Yes yes yes, Conrad, you've blathered on about these flying bringers-of-death before, so what's rattled your cage about them today?" I hear you quibble.
Whilst we've seen all of the above in action, what we haven't seen so far is one drone fighting another drone.
Until now. Art!
This is from that splendid chap Suchomimus's Youtube channel. What you have here is a Ukrainian drone sneaking up on the Ruffian drone, which is oriented with it's camera facing away. It gets taken by surprise as the Ukrainian drone gets above it and abruptly drops down, knocking one of the enemy's propellers off as it hits the hard white underbelly. Here's the link:
(11) Two Drones Have a Dogfight! Must Watch! - YouTube
It's only a couple of minutes long. Ol' Such geolocates it taking place just inside Ukrainian-controlled territory, so they may have recovered the drone if it was damaged enough to crash-land. On the other hand, as a drone operator commented, these models usually feature a Return-To-Base function if they run into trouble.
Back to "Thunderstruck" on bagpipes!
I Say, Old Chap, It's Bibimbap!
I know, I know, it sounds like a pibroch bagpipe tune from the late eighteenth century, to be played after "Hielan' Laddie' and before 'Blue Bonnets Over The Border'.
Not a bit of it. Art!
It's a Korean dish of steak, rice, egg and sauce. The recipe is for two people and Your Humble Scribe, greedy rascal that he is, couldn't manage both, so I know what's for lunch today. It was pretty tasty, too, thanks to using tahini instead of white miso.
"The Sea Of Sand"
Guranteed free of bagpipes. The Doctor and his fellow captive Sorbusa are chewing the figurative fat.
"I wondered when you lack of curiosity would wear off!" chaffed the Doctor. For a good ten minutes he gave an overview of planet Earth, describing the abundant flora and fauna, whilst subtly trying to include the billions of humans, many at this moment in time armed to the teeth and busy waging war.
After he finished, the alien sat silent for what seemed an age, staring into space. Eventually he recalled himself, shaking his body.
"Oh, my apologies, thedoctor. Your planet's description matches that of our own, ten thousand years ago. Life energy in abundance. Now we are reduced to emergency plantations for oxygen."
"No wildlife?"
"None at all. Long extinct."
Finally asking the question that had been nagging at him, the Doctor tried not to seem too eager.
"How did this extinction take place?"
The explanation didn't take long. Bio-vores reproduced by asexual fission, the energy derived from living matter helping to create a smaller 'bud' from the parent adult, it's genetic material differing from the parent by virtue of the type and amount of energy ingested. The young bio-vore split off and became an individual, able to absorb energy immediately.
You see? Still SFW.
A World Of Wet
Another entry in the Underwater Photography exhibition, which, if Art will do the duties -
Courtesy Rafael Caballero
This one is from the seas off Gibraltar and shows a pod of pilot whales having an outing. Rafe explains that pilot whales are nosy and territorial, and will definitely approach human divers to see what they're up to and if they know that marine trespass is a thing?
Finally -
Wouldn't you know it, I went looking on Quora for a daft question to end this blog with a bit of creative mockery and - there aren't any. Let me refresh the page and see if anyone put up a question after coming back from the pub -
Aha! Gotcha -
The Canadians entered the First Unpleasantness with indecent haste even though they ARE NOT PART OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. They were, and remain, a member of the Commonwealth. The South Canadians, those poor benighted fools, threw off the mantle of British government in 1776, so if they subsequently became part of the UK I must have blinked and missed it.
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