No! That Should NOT Be "Endurance"
Which name Your Humble Scribe will long associate with "The Red Plum", not a kind of fruit that goes into a pie, but a vessel of the Royal Navy, painted a bright red to stand out in Antarctic waters. Art!
Yes, she does look a little worn, and so would you if you'd been stooging around the bottom of the world for months on end, keeping a weather eye open for hordes of savage penguins and only slightly less savage Argentinians. We will come back to this naval theme, honest.
ANYWAY, Conrad, who cannot be accused of being especially tasteful, was struck by a book title that came whizzing in from silly leg on (conceptually) this afternoon, egged on by today's horrid headlines, to wit: "Eyeless In Gaza".
Of course - obviously! - there had been a band of that name already, way back in the heady days of the Eighties. Art!
Conrad, mind like a skip, had heard of them, just not their sound. Hang on - okay, got them on in the background on Youtube and the production instantly yells "Eighties!"
Er - where were we? O yes. The novel is by Aldous Huxley and appears to be terminally dull stuff about matey growing up in four parts into a life of privilege and riches, etcetera etcetera, mysticism, custard pies, broken zips or whatever. Art!
From the preçis, I have the boredom to report that the novel goes nowhere near the Middle East, nor does anyone suffer any major opthamological damage. The title, you see, is taken from "Samson Agonistes" by (it says here) John Milton. A poem, in other words <shivers in disgust>. The quotation goes: "Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves". Art!
This is where the durance vile*comes in, because the 'Eyeless' chap is Samson, blinded and used as a beast of draught, pushing around a mill-wheel. A prisoner, in other words, which is what 'Durance Vile' means; in prison, for a verrrrry long time. So long, in fact, that his hair grew back .....
Now, I did mention that we'd be getting back to naval matters, and indeed we will, because O who's this just passing by? Why, none other than Winston Churchill, First Lord Of The Admiralty. Good morning, sir! Art?
What's that, sir? You've just resigned the position - and are leaving politics for the moment? I say - this is unheard of - a politician taking responsibility!
Yes indeedy, R. J. McReady. You see, the Gallipoli Expedition had been very much the brainchild of Winnie, and when it came to a costly stalemate and was then abandoned, he did the decent thing and resigned his post. Nowadays a politician in such a situation would have to have their snout forcibly removed from the trough and be thrown down the steps of the House. Or they would lie, deny and drag it through the courts. Art!
A long way to go for a paddle, chaps.
"But prison? Where is the prison?" I hear you quibble.
Since you asked -
Winnie, as you may be aware, was a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and his following the British Army abroad as a journalist frequently had a lot more to it than merely scribbling in a notebook. If it was possible for him to get mixed up in action then he'd manage it.
Thus he found himself aboard a passenger train in South Africa, during the Boer war in 1899, heading for the front lines. Art!
The Boers had other plans for that train. It was derailed and wrecked, and the successful ambushers descended upon it and took the survivors prisoner, amongst whom was Winnie. Thus began his acquaintance with durance vile.
I think we'll bring this Intro to a stop right there, we've done a whistle-stop tour of the globe going back to Biblical times and we have more to come. O my lord yes, Eliott Ness.
"The War Illustrated"
Welcome to Issue 180 and the last edition in Volume Seven, which has been with us for Lo! these many months. There are another three to go, which I can stretch out for years and years. Go on, just dare me. Art!
Here you see an infantry patrol (New Zealanders) very cautiously moving forward in the aftermath of the battle of Cassino - or at least one of the battles, there were several of them - to see what's what and where's where. Conrad suspects this to be staged, or at the least in a quiet area, to judge from the position and height of the photograph, especially as it's at such close range.
Crazy In Ruffia Is Normal
I'm just laughing at Konstantin of "Inside Russia", who is fake-fulminating against entertainment to be provided in the centre of Moscow - Harry Potter and Disney films, and James Bond soundtracks. "But these are the evil Americans and English!"
Yes, but as he points out, this is being provided to the families of the rich and powerful. Erk. Art!
Make the most of this signage, English signs are going to be banned. That's us, just so eeeeevil!
Ah, now he's excoriating India and Pakistan, who want Ruffia to fund infrastructure development in their own countries with Ruffian money because - well, because it means they don't have to use their own.
"City In The Sky"
The denizens of sky and earth are getting a crash course in how to get on with each other in the first instance.
Disappointed, the watching crowd slowly broke up. Don took the lead, his fellow walking
alongside them, looking each of them up and down with interest.
‘Don, I reckon these togs is made from artificial fibres. We ain’t seen any of them in a generation.’
The leader merely grunted, turning down a side-street towards a building
partly made of sandstone blocks at ground level, with more timber and glasswork
on the upper level.
‘Your Town Hall?’ guessed the Doctor, to a nod from Don.
Once inside the town hall, they were led to a small office that flanked the main hall, where Don seated himself at a desk. Piles of papers and sets of fountain pens cluttered the desk, calendars and charts were pinned to the walls.
‘Lenny, go get a few seats from the hall.’ The elderly man returned with a stack of five
seats and crammed them into the office, allowing a middle-aged woman to bustle
in and take a seat, holding a pen like a dagger.
‘This is them!’ she exclaimed.
Don handed her a sheaf of blank paper.
‘Can it,
‘Ace and I are merely passing travellers trying to help those in
trouble. Alex is from Arcology One,
raised aboard one of the spheres in orbit.
We are here because all those in orbit are desperate to return to
Earth.’
And to follow, we have more of getting into the heavens.
We've Not Had One Of These For A While
You ought to remember that we have featured a few images from the Youtube vlogger "Hazegrayart", who is a consummate animation artist, and who creates films that focus on astronomy or rocketry. Here is one that's only just been put up. Art!
Hydrofoil Albatros Rocket
I've not played this clip yet, so what it does will be as much a mystery to me as to yourselves. Art!
The front hydrofoil has submerged and the main rocket engine is firing up.
The hull has now reached sufficient speed to lift the bow and stern hydrofoils clear of the water, which means it's hitting quite a rate of knots.
T1 T2 Low Earth Orbit
Conrad is not sure how practical it would be to launch from a floating barge, given that you have three separate masses to accelerate. The bonus is that the Orbiter is already in a LEO before it expends an ounce of fuel, and can thus concentrate on manoeuvring and delivering a payload before conducting a powered descent.
And it looks good. Art!
Finally -
I may have to venture into Lesser Sodom tomorrow morning, as my supply of sugar-free sweets is running low. Wish me luck and we can both cross fingers that the storm will have at least slackened a little. Or, hopefully, a lot.
* Okay, confession time: I stole the phrase from a Biggles novel. Sue me.
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