Almost Literally
Conrad has a note in his notebook - I don't write on walls, thank you very much - about "MOUNT ETNA" because I do mix in upper case with my scrawly longhand. There were a couple of other volcanoes in there, too, but for the moment let's concentrate on Mount Etna. Art!
The picture at top shows Etna as of November 2023, from an European Space Agency satellite. You can see the Sicilian coastline to starboard, though at this scale and in daylight you can't really get a sense of how many people live in close proximity to
The lower photo shows a closer view of Etna doing it's thing, as it has been doing for as long as people have lived near it - possibly going back to 1,500 BC. This volcano is known to be one of the most active in the world, and is always popping off. If you Google for "Etna eruption" you'll find endless results. Art!
Sicily by night
The white dots here are communities as shown by infra-red photography, and if we can prod Art into wakefulness with this handy white-hot toasting fork -
There you go old Neanderthal, you can do it if you try. O put a bit of Sudocrem on it and stop whining.
ANYWAY what you can see here it the glow - worryingly large in my non-vulcanologist opinion - from Etna, and a plume of gas and smoke being blown over the Mediterranean (actually the Ionian Sea). That large white glowing region is the city of Catania, second largest city on Sicily and a major port and industrial hub. There are well-established trails that lead directly from Catania to the volcano, should the (demented!) desire to go have a look at "A Muntagna" ("The Mountain") take you. Art!
A rather moody shot of the Cathedral Sant Agata in Catania
The city has a somewhat tumultuous relation with The Mountain, as it has been destroyed both by lava and earthquake in the seventeenth century.
You can tell that Catanians aren't especially bothered by Etna, as there was no evacuation during the recent eruption; indeed, they were probably rubbing their hands with glee at all the Disaster Tourists who came flocking. After all, if you reduce a permanently-active volcano to simply a big hill, there's not a lot people can teach you about sneering disregard, is there? They didn't even shut the airport. After all, how are you going to exploit those Disaster Tourists if they can't arrive conveniently and quickly? Art!
I am pre-empting one of the questions undoubtedly sitting upon your lips: why on earth would this many people live next to a
As you can plainly see, there is no shortage of viniculture on the lower slopes of Big Fire Hill, nor other agriculture either. This is because volcanic soils are extremely fertile thanks to the mineral enrichment from their ashy benison.
The downside, of course - obviously! - is that your vineyard or farm might get obliterated by earthquake, pyroclastic flow or lava or all three on a bad day. Art!
Close enough to Big Fire Hill for Cowardly Conrad
Thus endeth Lesson One on currently active volcanoes. And you're welcome.
Remember This?
Conrad came across a story on the BBC News website about a fortification from the Second Unpleasantness that had been scoured clean, thanks to recent storms, of an overburden of sand. Art!
"What's wrong with this picture?" I asked
The most obvious thing is that it's on a beach. Originally, about 83 years ago, it had sat atop a cliff in order to, apparently, cover the beaches below. Thanks to erosion it fell off the cliff and onto the beach, managing to stay upright.
What Conrad finds curious is that it's made entirely out of bricks. Small domestic house-building bricks. These are all very well at constructing a two-up-two-down terraced house - but not a fortification. A single rifle bullet will fragment an entire brick, and heaven help it if impacted by a cannon round or high explosive shell. Art!
They do mention such pillboxes being faced with brick, but this one seems to be brick inside and out.
The structures were built to resist grenade and artillery attacks, which might explain how it is still largely intact
I will grant that the workmanship is excellent, as falling from thirty yards is enough to shatter most structures. The only way to determine if this is faced inside and out with brick would be to split it in half <sad face>.
How Very Apt!
Completely serendipitous, I assure you. The feed was scrolling through articles interspersed with adverts, and this came up. Art!
This is a persistent problem on the east coast of This Sceptred Isle. Erosion means that houses once well-inland are now in peril of falling off a cliff as the cliff-face retreats inland. Typically the only way to prevent this is by creating extremely large (and expensive) barriers on beaches, usually well down the coast from the affected area. Art!
1993 2015 2023
One feels for these unfortunates, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"City In The Sky"
Things are going more pear-shaped than an acre of perry orchard.
‘Plastic!’ he confirmed. ‘What the hell is this thing! A robot designed to operate like a human
being?’
Chewing the inside of his cheek, he turned the object over, to see if
any clues were hidden beneath it.
Nothing there – but it was ridiculously light, far lighter than a human
being ought to be.
This thing that had masqueraded as a human being was going to get the
Doctor into deep water. It was also
proof positive of aliens here on Planet Earth – nobody Upstairs had the
technology to create it and the Australians could only dream of technology like
this.
Coming to a decision, he hefted the awkward thing – not a body, not any longer – over his shoulder and trotted out of the room.
CHAPTER TWELVE: Flesh and Blood
One reason the Doctor had decided to begin his informative and
illuminating lecture at seven, not eight, was because it would wrong-foot
whoever had been trying to kill him.
Being the target of an unseen assassin lost it’s charm very
quickly. Then, too, the travelling
parties from up and down the coast would be so eager to hear him that they’d
probably all turn up well in advance.
This turned out to be partly true; of the forty people assembled half
were townsfolk from New Eucla.
Crikey Dick Van Dykey!
"The War Illustrated"
We're taking a closer look at one of the double-page montage photos that TWI likes to put in their middle pages. Refer back a couple of days for the original complete photo. Art!
 |
| Ignore the spine! Ignore the spine! |
As you have already realised, this is a British 6 pounder anti-tank gun, lurking in the ruins of San Angelo. The Teutons didn't like these guns, as they were small enough to hide easily, and light enough that their crew could (just!) move them around by hand, and in an urban environment like this, with short engagement ranges, it could knock out anything the Teutons possessed in terms of armour. One has to wonder what would happen if it got fired, because the 'spades' at the end of each trail ought to be firmly embedded in the ground to prevent the whole thing scooting backwards. Hopefully braced against large bits of rubble.
Finally -
I think that's enough for this afternoon, I need a shave as my bristles look quite sinister, and Edna is pining for the streets.
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