Demolition Child

No!  This Is Not About A Sequel To "Demolition Man"

Although it is one of Sly Stallone's better films, with a sly sense of satire to it, and of course we have a Character British Actor as the over-arching villain of the piece.  Art!

     We never found out what the three seashells were for, did we?  I bet there are some wild and freaky fan theories about this; let me see if I can hunt any of them up.  Art!

     Hmmmm there are some out there which would breach our SFW policy so we'll say no more about it.

     ANYWAY I was reading a thread on Quora yesteryon, and they mentioned the Sherman 'Crab', which was a mine-sweeping tank that used an enormous drum  rotating at speed, to which were connected lengths of chain.  This would detonate any mines in it's path.  Art!

     Someone commented that on "Top Gear" a flail tank was used to destroy a house, which of course - obviously! - Your Humble Scribe had to track down on Youtube.  One YT comment was about 'three middle-aged 8 year-olds on an unlimited budget', which is where today's title comes from.

     The three presenters (May, Hammond and Clarkson) were given carte blanche to purchase a military vehicle and use it to demolish a row of urban terraced housing, competing with a conventional demolition team.  Art!

Hammond's chariot

     This is the engineering version of the FV434 Armoured Personnel Carrier, complete with crane and rocket-fired grappling hook, weighing in at fifteen tons.  Art!

May's motor

     This is a Combat Engineering Tractor, basically a turretless tank with a huge dozer bucket and a winch, for doing engineer things on the battlefield and not getting shot whilst doing so.  Art!

Clarkson's chopper

     This is the modern version of the Crab, using rotating blades rather than chains, on arms that can be raised or lowered.  The driver's cab will adjust it's height to ensure said driver doesn't get clocked if a mine goes off.  The reason it's white is because it was in UN service.  It also comes with a handy remote control, so the operator can be safely out of range of any explosions.

     Jezza got to go first.  Art!

     His steel steed made short work of the outhouse, as you can see.  It turns out that tungsten-steel rotors going at 400 r.p.m. are not phased by brickwork or glass.  When it looked as if the roof might come down on top of the Armtrac, Clarkson introduced his secret weapon.  Art!

"You can drive it remotely with that?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how?"

"No.  But - how hard can it be?"

     If there was anybody from the insurance company present, their heart must have descended into their boots at this point.

     Next up was Rich.  Art!

     You thought I was joking about the harpoon, didn't you?  Conrad is unsure what use it would have on the battlefield; Rich is going to shoot it over the roof, connect up the cable to his APC and (hopefully) drag the whole roof off.

     What could possibly go wrong?  Art!

Cable connected

Richard was disappointed

Take two

     Meanwhile ...

     Jezza hits a water main.  Insurance person now swigging gin straight from the bottle.

     James intended to pull down the chimney breast in his target house, by using the winch and cable, and the sheer power of his CET.  His theory was that this central structure was holding the house up, and if removed then the whole thing would collapse into a nice tidy heap.  Hmmmm.  Art!

     Partially successful.
     We're now half-way through the video clip, so I'll stop there for today.

A Low Blow For Snow

When Conrad ventured forth yesteryon morning, there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground.  It made Edna's walk more interesting, as the grass verges she inevitably stops to sniff were covered with snow.

     I came downstairs in the afternoon to shovel snow off the back yard and the steps and - it was nearly all gone.  Art!

Yesteryon

Today

     It's snowing again, without settling.  If it continues into the night, we may end up with a couple of inches again.  Which would be good for a single day, as after that it gets trodden into ice and gets treacherous underfoot.

Behold!

Conrad did his savoury Korean seafood pancake yesteryon, and added in julienned leek, which was a bit of a mistake.  Art!

     Not that they weren't tasty, just that there was too much filling for the pancakes.  I shall know better next time.

More Money Machinations

Yes, still more!  You may be dimly aware of a certain unease in the air - no, hang on, that was 'Sheep' by Pink Floyd.  Okay, you may have realised that the crypto-currency market is looking a bit peaky at present, what with FTX turning out to be a giant scam, and Silvergate going bust.  Even Bitcoin has gone down in value.

     Then we come to Binance, another crypto in trouble.  They are suffering because of two things in the crypto market: Confidence and contagion.  Art!

     'Contagion' in finance like this means that the negative impact of FTX going toes-up has affected Binance investors.  'Confidence' means they're not sure it's going to manage to survive.  Last November they had $24 billion in assets, then there was a run and $6 billion was withdrawn in February alone.  Now their assets are down to $8 billion and they've suspended trading.  This is not a good look for any business.

     Not only that, they're being investigated by the South Canadian Department of Justice for possibly breaking anti-money laundering laws, with the prospect of a whopping big fine.  This would probably drive confidence down even further.

     Oo-err Matron!

"The Sea Of Sand"

The Doctor, after failing to get to his TARDIS in time, has been captured by the bio-vores at their desert complex, which is not conducive to long life and health.

Pinioned between two bio-vores, the Doctor felt that his life could be measured in minutes, at best.

          That means the chaps at Mersa Martuba might very well be tempted to use the “Porcupine Bomb”, he commiserated with himself.  Which was not a good thing.  He’d built the wretched thing as a last resort, assuming that he’d be there to decide what constituted a last resort.  He wanted to avoid blind bashing with sheer firepower.

          Well, if the TARDIS wasn’t here on Earth, it must be at the other end of the trans-mat, on Wastelandworld.  Probably with that pompous parasitical windbag Sur rubbing his hands – or analogues thereof – over acquiring it.  Damn, he came so close to getting back to it!

          One of the aliens dragged him around, to throw him at the feet of another bio-vore, one hung about with various equipments and a helmet, too.

          ‘Small alien,’ said the well-accoutured bio-vore.  ‘You are associated with previous incursions here at the Infiltration Complex.  Also sabotage on Homeworld - ’

          ‘That’s not the half of it,’ interrupted the Doctor.  ‘I own a large blue box your aristocracy have stolen from me.’

          For a second utter silence reigned across the roasting sands and baking alien architecture.

          ‘You!’ said a bio-vore, exhibiting what must be amusement, since they didn’t bend backwards for the non-verbal surprise gesture.

     Yes, him.

     The 'Porcupine Bomb' is a crude nuclear device the Doctor has cooked up using radium, which is impressive as radium isn't fissile*.

Finally -

Conrad hopes you found this blog somewhat lighter in tone than this afternoon's rather gloomy saga.  It wouldn't be hard.

*  Normally.  But, this is the Doctor we're talking about