Cave Men

Okay, Not Technically True

"Cave Dwarves" just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it now?  For yes, we are back on the dual topic of Ol' Tolky and architecture, because once Conrad has gotten his teeth into a subject, he holds on grimly.

     Right, let's come up with a click-baity picture.  Art!

     A quick primer on mining.  When you carry out any mining operation you generate spoil, that being the earth and rock hewn away, and tailings, which is what's left after you've extracted the ores and minerals you wanted.

     'Khazad-Dum', to give it the Dwarvish name, or the Mines Of Moria, as it translates into Sindarin, is an immense underground kingdom.  In the film we get to see some indications of it's size, so if Art will grace us -

     Pretty obviously the dwarves used already-existing caves and caverns and voids and chasms, yet they clearly also carried out massive excavations.

     So, where are the spoil heaps and tailing dams?  Typically you dump this stuff close to your mine, because it's heavy and there's an awful lot of it.  Do you see any evidence at the Silvered Door (West Gate) entrance of giant conical waste tips?  No, you do not.  Art!

     Nor at the East Gate, either.  The chasm which was bridged by the narrow and unfenced stone walkway hadn't been used as a dumping ground, either, because when Gandalf falls into is, there's a lake at the bottom.  The amount of spoil and tailings excavated would have back-filled it several times over.
     You can, if you wish, invoke magic, were it not for the fact that the dwarves were hard-headed and practical, and not in the habit of using magic.

     Conspiranoid loonwaffles with swivel-eyes are likely to propose that the dwarves used a fusion-powered rock-melter to vapourise the rock, which doesn't cut it either, because this is 'Lord Of The Rings', not 'Star Trek'.  Art!

"I'm melting!"

    I know, I know, Conrad is a very sad man and one ought to appreciate LOTR for what it is, a romping adventure tale that was written by a professor of Anglo-Saxon, and not by a mining engineer.

     Whilst looking up details of spoil heaps and tailings ponds, I also came across a reference  to the spoil heaps at Loos-en-Gohelle, with a picture.  Art!

Courtesy of 'Hemmer'

   The spoil heaps are obvious.  That black metal structure is the pithead winding gear.  Why do I mention this?  Because this was where the British carried out their largest offensive of their war so far: the Battle Of Loos, September 1915.  Art!

     This is pre-war as the houses are all intact.  The irreverent British called the pithead gear 'Tower Bridge' and it didn't last long as it might have been used by Teuton artillery spotters.  You can see a ridge of spoil behind TB, which, with the upper photograph, proves what I said about not carting it off miles away.

     The motley, for those who are curious, has taken a leave of absence to make some repairs and get a software upgrade.

Possibly the motley

Here's One I Made Earlier

From Quora yesteryon.  

Why are there solid fuel boosters on rockets? Are there any advantages to using them over liquid fueled engines?

 Complete amateur here, spouting what I have learned from other sources.

Liquid-fuelled rockets are inherently dangerous, because you are loading them with an insanely flammable fuel and then leaving them standing around, which is the definition of an accident waiting to happen, thanks to things like toxicity and volatility. If you want evidence, Google ‘Nedelin Disaster’. Hypergolic rocket fuels are even worse, as they require no outside ignition source, because they ignite once combined. This is why the Me163 Komet was far more dangerous to it’s pilots than the enemy. People loading up rockets with hydrazine have to wear a full hazmat suit with an independent air supply.

Solid fuel is inherently stable. It does not corrode the systems that connect it to the rest of the rocket and can be left intact for years. After a couple of decades you might need to X-ray it to check for voids or shears, but it won’t blow up on the launchpad un-announced.

     Thanks to Jake Broe for explaining that the M56 rocket motors for the GLSDB are old, and need x-raying to see if they're still functional.  Art!

     There is a ghastly video of the Nedelin Disaster on Youtube if you feel ghoulish enough.  The rocketry team were being pressured politically to hit a launch date, and should have drained the rocket fuel, which was so dangerous it was nicknamed 'Devil's Venom', to carry out maintenance.  They didn't, hoping to save time, and the result was an explosive catastrophe.  All that was left of Marshal Nedelin was his gold badge.

Somewhat Lighter In Tone

It wouldn't be hard to be lighter, would it?  Art!

     This is Michael Palmisano, a guitar teacher, and he's about to listen to "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)" by one of my favouritest bands, The Mars Volta.  By three minutes in he calls it "An absolute onslaught, I don't know what to say."  Art!

     The band really nail it live for 20 minutes, after which a rather stunned Michael declares that there are actually eleven songs within the whole thing.

"The Sea Of Sand"

Lord Sur, the pompous yet dangerous bio-vore aristocrat, has ventured to Earth with a huge number of bodyguards, and is being introduced to the TARDIS.

The Detachment Leader turned back to the object, indicating it with an outstretched arm, ready to describe how unusual it was, and what dimensionally-transcendent qualities it possessed.

          Unfortunately he never got the chance, as Lord Excellency Sur Eviscerated Icono the instant the latter’s back was turned.

          ‘Nearest Sub-Leader!’ shouted Sur.  A heavily-laden bio-vore jogged over to him.

          ‘Assault Detachment Sub-Leader Kotani, Lord Excellency,’ snapped the new arrival, astute enough not to cast a look at Icono’s shrivelled remains.

          ‘You are now the Detachment Leader.  Notarise Homeworld with the next courier despatch.’

          Sur swirled his cape, looking with disbelief at the big blue box.  Conditions here must have unsettled Icono’s mind, to think such a thing was remotely interesting!

 

Group Captain Windermere, sitting propped on his chair, looked doubtfully at Major Hampson of the Royal Army Service Corps.

          ‘I don’t have any orders to follow,’ he pointed out to the soldier.  ‘And my chaps are fully stretched at the mo.  Ferrying aircraft to Crete and Greece, attacking Tripoli, establishing new airstrips in virgin desert, helping watch the Med.  I can’t really spare anyone to go scooting around on anything as insubstantial as a hunch.’

          Major Hampson sighed and nodded.  Very well then, it came down to bribery.

     Canny chap, that Hampson

Finally -

The clouds are being blown away, so we have blue skies, which is good, but it's also verrrrrry windy, which is why the cloud cover is breaking up.  Conrad may not be able to sit in the back yard and continue with Sherlock Holmes, not least because I'd lose my page thanks to said wind.  I do recall that when SH mentions a 'life-preserver' he's not talking about one of these - Art!

     
     Which does preserve life if one is in the water.  No, he meant one of these - Art!

     A club or other similar blunt weapon.

     And with that, Vulnavia, we are done for today.