Water, Water

Everywhere

At least that's what it feels like up here in my Sekrit Layr, for I have a view from my window of Oldham Edge, at least when the whole of the North Atlantic isn't paying a visit.  Art!

     If you look hard enough to strain your eyes, you can just see an outline beyond the precipitation.

     You have to look away and to the right and you can just pick out The Edge in the corner of your eye*.

     Conrad confidently predicts that you were expecting to hear more of "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", a poem of fearful length that has tormented generations of schoolchildren since it saw the light of day in 1834.  You know how the quote goes: "Water, water everywhere, nor a drop to drink" to which Conrad would add "Then build you a distiller and stop kicking up a stink".  Art!

Spelling, Coleridge, spelling!

     Ol' Cole wasn't too hot on his nautical terms, either, as one line reads:

The Sun came up upon the left,

     NO!  He's supposed to be a mariner, and he uses 'left'?  PORT! IT'S PORT! H

     ANYWAY of course - obviously! - that has nothing to do with what this Intro is about, which is rather about a lack of water, not a superfluity of it.  For Lo! are we not beginning Volume II of "Official History of The Great War: Military Operations; Egypt and Palestine"?  Yes.  Yes, we are.  Art!

     A new British commander has just arrived, General Allenby, whom is planning the Third Battle of Gaza.  It's not explicit from the top map, but the Turks have a defensive line running from Gaza to Beersheba and I've zoomed in on the part around Gaza itself. The British lost the First Battle of Gaza thanks to very bad staff work; they lost the Second Battle of Gaza because the Turks were well dug in behind wired defences, with plenty of machine guns and artillery.  Art!

     

Some rather sketchy Turkish defences

     One factor that made the Turkish defences more formidable was the lack of water in front of them, which would seriously affect any horses used by the British.  A man can get away with an allocation of four pints of water per day in the desert; a horse needs something like six gallons at minimum and more if doing anything especially taxing, like towing artillery.  Plus the British had the equivalent of three cavalry divisions, meaning at least fifteen thousand horses to water.  Art!

      The British line on it's right flank was quite distant from that of the Turks, because - lack of water, again.  " - absence of water to the east" as they state. This lack of water sources also meant that any attempt to outflank the Turks by travelling east of Beersheba would fail.

    In an appreciation created for the perusal of General Allenby, emphasis is placed upon capturing water sources from the Turks in any Third Battle of Gaza (which should really be "Third Battle of Gaza and Beersheba").  To quote: " - with water at Beersheba, with water at Essani, with water at Shellal, Fara and Qamle, with rail-borne water east of Shellal - with water at Sheria and Hureira (a little salt, but good enough for animals -" 

     As you can plainly see, water sourcing and supply was critical for any pre-battle planning in this theatre.  Art!

     There you have water water everywhere, said water being the Mediterranean.  There were no ports or harbours on the shoreline here in 1917, and bad weather in winter was frequent, making the landing of supplies on open beaches a tricky and dangerous operation.  Not a resource that you could rely on for supplying any great quantity of anything.

     In case you were wondering, the British were being supplied in their forward positions thanks to a pipeline laid from the Nile onwards.

     Water.  You won't go without H₂O.  Although, looking out of my window, you can certainly have too much of it at times.

DANGER! Will Robinson

Sorry, couldn't resist it.  The danger actually applies to everyone, not merely young Will.  Art!

     You would think warning signs like this would keep people away, wouldn't you?  Well more fool you, you don't know Hom. Sap. like I do.

     Welcome to Wittenoom, an Australian outback town that was centred around mining asbestos, back when it was thought to be as toxic as toffee fudge.  For thirty years, up to the mid-Sixties, they merrily mined away, until people began dying.  The mines were closed and the community of 881 people gradually dwindled until this time last year, when the last resident left.  Art!

     By now the whole town will have been demolished, and the surrounding 120 thousand acres declared dangerously contaminated.  Roads have been closed or re-routed, the town has been taken off all road signage and removed from maps to officially erase it from existence.

     Which hasn't prevented the usual idiots from using back roads to get into the town, so they can take edgy selfies and post them on Instagram.  Don't go crying to the doctor in five years time when your lungs fur up.

"The Marvels" Bounces Back!

Kinda.  Frankly, it's not very impressive, but let the figures speak for themselves.  Art!

     At this rate it would take another six months just to reach the break-even point of $600 million.  Heck, it would still take a week and a half just to reach $150 million.  Conrad's rule of thumb is that you divide the total box office by two in order to get what the studios receive in terms of their share.  So, on a budget of $300 million (provisional estimate, it may be even more) they have made $60 million back.

     It's not looking good for Marvel.  Still, what's a quarter of a billion dollars in loss between friends?  I hear there are rumours about them begging Robert Downey to come back as Iron Man, which will probably set them back oooooh thirty million or so.

     Bring on the buckets of popcorn!

"City In The Sky"

The Doctor has sworn young Billy Barakan to secrecy about the attempted murder attempt with a bag of Hunting Spiders, for devious reasons.

One end of the building lay open to the elements, allowing a view of the hot, smokey interior where men, stripped to the waist, toiled amidst glowing metals and coals.  Steam sprang like a living thing from water troughs where hot metals were being quenched, and a clattering, squealing steam engine hammered away at the back of the building.

     Only half-joking, the Doctor put a finger in each ear.

     ‘Can’t hear a thing.  I need a quick chat with you, young Billy.  Kindly walk with me a minute.’

 

     Mike had begun his guided tour with the agricultural and horticultural trades practiced in the town, before moving outwards to the semi-industrial buildings.  Most of these were built with brick, stone and wood, rather than the ubiquitous glass; for reasons of safety, where fire or steam or high-speed machinery were involved.  Alex judged the level of technology to be about mid-Victorian, the baseline that Mizz Branson had feared the world would devolve to in the Big Crash’s aftermath, yet he was reminded forcefully that his Downstairs descendants retained every iota of human ambition and creativity that his companions Upstairs possessed.

     Methinks Mike likes showing off a bit.

Blimey Crikey Captain Pikey

Hmmmmm Conrad coldly calculates that Blogger's tracking algorithm has gone potty - again.  It seemed to have gone sensible in October but as of now - Art!

 

     Flattering yet Conrad doubts BOOJUM! has that many fans who are willing to click in on a Sunday morning.  On the other hand it's raining, gloomy and there's not a lot else to do.

Finally -

It's been raining steadily since I got up with no prospect of ever ending, so my afternoon constitutional into Lesser Sodom is going to be as much a swim as a stroll.  O well.  A little suffering is good for the soul.

     Later!

*  Go on then.  Art!