The Mathematics Of Misery

Once Again, A Touching Trawl Along The Ocean Bottom Of Life

I think I once described that Nick Cage film about him trying to drink himself to death with this line.  It has a certain resonance, because the Bad Guys in that film were Ruffians, and - guess who the Bad Guys in today's Intro are?

      NO!  Not the Sanjak Of Novi Pazar Judge Department.  Ruffians!  I'm not sure if the Sanjak had enough of a population to sustain a Judge Department.  Mega-City One does have 800 million inhabitants, after all.  Art!

     What am I yarking on about again?  Well, the combined economic and data assault by "Inside Russia" and "Prune60" on how bad the Ruffian economy is as of now, the former on Youtube and the latter on Twitter (suck it and see, Elong Tusk!).  I have also annotated "Joe Blogs" on YT for a more general overview.

     Please bear in mind that all the data and information quoted comes from official Ruffian sources; there is no home-made BS present, as Big Konstantin from IR likes to say.

     We have already covered 'Inflation', so let us now turn to 'GDP' which is the acronym for 'Gross Domestic Product' and no jokes about Ruffia being gross in the first place, please.  Art!

Charlie Chipmunk Cheeks looking a bit peaky

     Putinpot likes to boast about the GDP of Ruffia, which is now calculated as increasing to 4.6% in the week ending 26th August 2024.  There are a couple of problems with this, apart from it making it sound as if Ruffia's economy is booming as did The Populous Dictatorship's in the Noughties.

     ONE:  The Deputy of the Ruffian Central Bank, Zabotkin - whom we have met before - predicted Ruffian growth in 2025 would be 0.5 - 1.5%.  Why such a disparity with Bunker Grandad's figures?  Because this is the RCB's 'Base' projection, and there are other projections with far worse figures.  Bloaty Gas Tout has chosen to use the most wildly optimistic figures available, when reality looks far, far worse.  Art!

Senile incontinent criminal fatso fantasises he won.  Yeah right.

     Why is this an issue?  O I'm do glad you asked!  Because there are hard limits to the Ruffians' ability to cope.  For one thing, about one and a quarter-million Ruffians left their nation at the beginning of the SMO, followed by others SUCH AS BIG K, who will never return.  These people were educated, experienced, qualified and transferrable and they won't return to the Sinister Union 2.0, meaning a net loss to Ruffia.   Ooopsie.  Art!

     

How to strangle cats the Elvira Nabuillina way!

     As Elvira above has announced, there is NO increase in physical output possible, Ruffia has reached a hard limit on this total.  Nor do they have access to the technologies that would alternatively allow them to increase productivity, because all such technology is Western and thus sanctioned.  This daring openness and willingness to buck the trend, expose the problems and kick Putinpot in the <redacted> is illuminating and worrying, because if these RCB people are happy to risk flying out of a window, how bad are things, really?

     It is also entirely possible that the '4.6%' total as posted by the Fun-Sized Foot Fiddler is completely bogus, and he just made it up to make Ruffia (and himself) look good.

TWO: Budget Expenses.  These figures and totals are from 'TASS', not Big K's imagination, and they are published in 'TASS' because the Ruffian government wants them published there.  Thus official.  Art!

'Informatsionoe Agenstvo Rosiii"

     According to figures published in TASS, the 8 months we are so far into 2024, as compared to the figures for the first 8 months of 2023, have resulted in a budget increase of 23%.  This budgetary information is available - because official government mouthpiece - but not discussed, because that would earn you a five-year sentence in the gulags for whatever the courts vicariously decided you were on about.  This, children, is what we call a 'Deficit', where a country spends more than it earns, and which will result in an individual declaring bankruptcy.  For a whole nation?

     We are only at 3 of 11 items.  Bear with us.

I Say!

As you may know, Conrad has a general interest in how the armies of Perfidious Albion performed in the First and Second Unpleasantness.  Preference on the Western Front post-1916 and North Africa before New Year's Eve 1942.  "AfricanStalingrad" on Twitter makes me look like an idling piker, because not only does he have a Sekrit Layr of his own, which is absolutely stacked to bursting with books and files and maps, but he goes out to Tunisia annually to walk the battlefields.  Some of these, because the locals have absolutely 0% interest in battles fought by foreigners on their land 80 years ago, are utterly untouched.  Art!

     This is the perspective from the other chap's point of view - these are Teuton troops a-marching in Tunisia (you can tell by the road signs), forage caps on rather then helmets, moving past a pylon with signage.  AT asked if anyone knew what that "A.K.P." meant, and Hay Pesto! along came answer - "Armee Kraftfahr Park" - "Army Motor Park".  Which would make sense as they are now on foot having dropped off their trucks.

Our Journey With Mister Right-On

Or Bernie Wrightson.  Actually I can't think of an environment less 'Right on' than his, because who wants to deal with zombies, vampires and gigantic tapeworms on a daily basis?  Not Conrad, for one.

     Okay, let us now bring on the next image.  Art!

     Thank you for explaining about the physical process, Berni, but can you explain how what ought to be a big pile of dirt has suddenly grown arms, a head and a murderous complexion?  There's a lot of teeth being bared there.

A Pox Upon You, Clickbaiter!

I realise Conrad should not castigate those who use the very same techniques I do, but what the heck, I cannot resist.  Art!

     Surely, in order to work, these clickbait items ought to use a person I have some recognition of?

     Conrad has no idea who this is, and thanks to the whole item being clickbait, is not interested in finding out, either.  "Surprising facts"? - she is in fact 187 years old.  "Unexpected truths" - she is in fact a he who weighs in at 239 kilos and cannot leave their bed due to gigantic size issues.  Am I warm?

How To Annoy 1 Billion People

Across the globe, that is.  Not merely in South Canada, where there - you may be ahead of me here - is an election taking place in November, featuring The Amazingly Normal Harris and Donold Judas Trump, who cannot tie his own shoelaces because that would necessitate bending down.  Art!

     Ohhhhhh boy.  Taylor is quite the musical phenomenon, with an immense reach across Planet Earth, and certainly a lot more fans than the Farting Fraudulent Felon, whom has just imperilled 53% of all South Canadians and 16% who claim to be utter devotees in a manner akin to the MAGA cult.

     Conrad cannot claim to be a fan and has never heard any of his music.

Finally -

We begin our new work schedule today, where the start time is 15 minutes earlier, and the end time is commensurately - not a word you ever expected to hear today - 15 minutes earlier.

     We shall see how it goes.

Loug loug! - which is the Estonian for 'Chin chin!'

Pühapäevane Karm Pilk

Which Is So Obviously Estonian

For 'Sunday's Sternward Glance' that it's almost insulting to explain it to you.  Why Estonian?  Because Romanian cannot hog all the translations, that's why.  You also need to know that the Baltic states exist, as well as Eastern Europe.  

     Right!  What we need is a nice click-baity picture, so if Art will stop sucking the insides out of that spent nuclear fuel rod* - 

     Well, it's an inversion of the usual trope, where you have scantily-clad young women posing on the magazine cover, as these aliens are horrified at the appearance of a fem Hom. Sap.  Pale skin!  No aerials!  A nose! <Cont. Page 96>.

     Let's trot out the links, shall we?

2023

BOOJUM!: The Towering Internal (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2022

BOOJUM!: The Super Seven (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2021

BOOJUM!: Smokin'! (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2020

BOOJUM!: Woohoo! 3,200 Posts! (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2019

BOOJUM!: Massive Attack (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2018

BOOJUM!: The Hurricane! (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2017

BOOJUM!: The English Breakfast Tea Club (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2016

BOOJUM!: Complaining! (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2015

BOOJUM!: Jonathan Frakes - He Eats What He Bakes (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2014

BOOJUM!: A Whole Lot Of - Slug (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

2013

BOOJUM!: After The Rain* (comsatangel2002.blogspot.com)

*I reassure you that this is an occasional treat.

The Snowball Effect

No!  I Am Not Talking About The Drink

Although, having mentioned it, I am now curious as to what, exactly, a 'Snowball' is.  Art!

     I see.  Equal parts of advocaat and lemonade, possibly with a dash of lime juice added.  So, Conrad has consumed same in the past.     

     ANYWAY no more of what this Intro's not about.  Instead I refer you to the effect of a snowball accelerating downhill, accumulating more snow along the way, until it becomes a monster as big as a house and capable of destroying one. Art!

     I am talking, of course - obviously! - metaphorically, because here in the high hills we rarely get snow in decent amounts, and if we do then Tandle Hill Park is immediately mobbed with sledgers.  Today's Intro concerns a horror story from Youtube's Reddit sagas, which begins inauspiciously enough.

     Disbelieving Poster, hereafter DP, explained that she had lots of houseplants in her houseplant room, as she inherited her mother's love of same.  Over the course of six months about one-third of her plants had died, for no obvious reason.  She ruled out lack of light, erratic watering, lack of nutrients or an affliction called 'root rot', which I'd never heard of.  Art!

     This is a 'Monstera Albo', which her sister bought as a birthday present, and it's death really upset DP as they cost hundreds of pounds.  So, she unpotted it and was diligently inspecting the roots when SURPRISE! she noticed the smell of bleach.  Red Flag Number One.  Because the only person with access to the houseplants was her husband.  Ooopsie.

     When she confronted hubbo about this he initially denied it but 'caved' as she put it when she persisted, eventually admitting that he'd been putting bleach in the feed solution she used on the houseplants, without giving a reason or apologising.  Red Flag Number Two.

Life can be a bleach

     DP was, entirely unsurprisingly, unhappy at this behaviour and immediately lost all trust in Abusive Hubbo.  Here she got a lot of advice from readers on Reddit, bringing up the issue of who owns their house?  She and her sister, as an inheritance.  Plus, there is a small daughter involved.  Ooopsie again.

     During the daytime DP texted AH, because she stated he communicates better via text than face-to-face.  Red Flag Number Three.  When he responded, his reason for poisoning the plants was that, quote, " she needed to be taken down a peg or two".  Red Flag Number Four.  See what I meant by 'snowballing'?

     DP then left work early and got home well before AH, and she trespassed in His Room, which apparently was his Holiest Of Holies Never To Be Disturbed.  This was because many, many people on Reddit had warned her that AH's behaviour was only going to escalate, or already had.  SURPRISE!  DP found a drawer full of her four-year old daughter's dolls and toys.  AH would routinely shout at his tearful daughter for 'losing' toys, which he had in fact stolen himself.  Red Flag Number Five.  Art!

Discordant families

     DP then texted matey and told him not to come back home, like ever, and that he could pick up his essentials at the weekend, when her father and brother would be escorting him.

     Despite this, DP posted an update where AH screamed abuse at her, punched her and kicked her in the face.  I rather think we've gone past red flags at this point, don't you?  During the inevitable divorce proceedings he then decided to cut all contact with his daughter, and ghosted all his college friends.  This, it seems, is the real him coming out, rather than the mask he displayed for years.

     The final update DP posted was one where she felt so much better now that AH was out of her life, and daughter was also feeling much, much happier.

     One of the Comments came from a criminal psychologist, who said the plant poisoning was a dress rehearsal for far more sinister happenings.

     Snowball, anyone?

Conrad's Critical Calumny

As you should surely know by now, Your Humble Scribe is reading through all his back-issues of "Judge Dredd The Megazine", going from what you might call Volume One, which ran for 20 issues as a monthly publication, and I'm now on Volume Two, which made a big splash about going fortnightly.  Art!

     I never took the badge off the cover, honestly.  The thing is, this issue is over 30 years old and the adhesive on the sellotape had perished, so the badge, no longer constrained by a couple of kilos of back issues, has come astray.

     Now, those cover stories - Ol' Stonyface is as reliable as ever.  "The Bad Man" is far too close to a rip-off of "The Terminator" to be successful, and it seems like a prologue to a much longer story that never got told. "Devlin Waugh", on the other hand, is quite the revelation.  The narrative blurb about it invites you to imagine Noel Coward in the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger - as he was thirty years ago.  Waugh is also very camp and implicitly gay, which was pretty daring for a British comic in 1992.  Art!

"The War Illustrated Edition 194 November 1944"

One collection of comic art is enough for the blog, so nothing of Bernie Wrightson in this one.  You do get more pics from TWI, you lucky people.  Art!

     This construction concoction is the British 'Mulberry' harbour, a pre-fabricated port that was shipped or sailed across the Channel and set up on the Normandy coast.  The South Canadians had one, too, which was destroyed in the storms of late June, which might sound like a catastrophe and the Teutons might have been rubbing their hands with glee.  Ill-advisedly.  Through very heavy use of DUKWs, the South Canadians managed quite handily.  The British one was a temporary expedient until a major port such as Cherbourg could be captured and renovated, but it was critical for that temporary period.  Plus, once established it instantly rendered the Teuton fortifications elsewhere along their occupied coastline obsolete.

Ho Ho Ho!

I couldn't help but snigger in delight when reading this by-line on the BBC News website.  Art!

No, he's not having a fit, this is what passes as 'dancing' for Donold

     Donold Judas Trump used the music without permission of the songwriter Eddy Grant, which now makes him liable for damages AND Ed's legal fees.  Being the blustering oaf he is, he will either refuse to pay, hoping to drag things out further, or make an appeal, hoping to drag things out further.  At the end of the case, if he's still alive by then, he will, once again, refuse to pay his lawyers because they didn't win, and then they will sue him to get paid.  Which will serve them right for having him as a client.

     The item does get reality confused, rather, much as Donold himself does.

Mr Grant's battle with the former President began in August 2020, before his election to the White House, when the songwriter's counsel, Wallace E.J. Collins, issued a cease and desist letter to Donald Trump's campaign team.

     Only in Pumpkinhead's mind, dude, only in Pumpkinhead's mind.

Finally -

It's been raining steadily for the past five hours so I'm not strolling down to Lesser Sodom, especially since I got remaindered chicken drumsticks and beef meatballs yesteryon.  Edna, however - that word again! - is pining to get out and I could do with getting my step count up.  I never seem to towel her off properly afterwards, mind.

Barclay James Harvestless

I Got This Title Idea Whilst Walking Into Lesser Sodom This Morning

It works into the Intro later on.

     Okay!  So the prog rockers BJH originate from Oldham, which I never suspected, as it is possibly the least-sexy origins site for a band, barring Hampton Parva.  Your Humble Scribe actually had one of their albums waaaay back in the days shortly after the dinosaurs were nuked, when music technology had barely-evolved from the wax disc.  Art!

     It might have been this, because one of the tracks upon it is "Child Of The Universe", which I remember, partly because it mentions Northern Ireland and  Vietnam as locations of warfare, which hasn't been true for a generation now.  Nothing ages faster than politics, hmmmm?

     I also remember the song "Mockingbird", which is surely poetic licence as I'm pretty sure the skies of Oldham have been innocent of these avians since Day One.

     O the name?  Apparently composed of the last three names left in a hat.  Art!

     

     I have a feeling the album was worked-up around the title.

     About twelve years ago I remember Jo, a lady I worked with, going on about a concert she and her hubbo had been to.  Hubbo had contacts in the music industry and she'd gone along with him to watch BJH, whom she described as 'Old men lumbering about on stage', rather to the offence of Gavin, my manager, who had a definite yen for prog rock.  Given that a couple of them have, indeed, died of old age, she has a point, if a cruelly sharp one.

     ANYWAY of course - obviously! - this has nothing to do with the rest of this Intro, which is about, SURPRISE! how badly the Ruffian economy is doing.  Today my information comes from Big Konstantin of the "Inside Russia" Youtube channel, who has left Ruffia but whom still has family, friends and associates living in Modern-day Mordor, and also "Prune60", the self-proclaimed "Queen of Anglo-Saxonia", who posts looooong Tweets detailing the Ruffian economy and how badly it is doing.  Art!

The Mighty Prune's avatar

     "It's all about the money", proclaimed Big K.  He had 11 separate items to discuss, which would probably bloat the blog to 12,000 words if done altogether, not to mention Mighty Prune's additions, so we are going to focus on the first one, which comes under the handy title of 'Inflation'.  PATIENCE ABOUT LACK OF HARVEST.

     Inflation in Ruffia has been a problem since the start of the Special Idiotic Operation.  Currently there is a glut of money being spent on the war industries and to contract soldiers.  The catch here is that the products being made for war do not add value to society at all, given that there is little demand amongst Ruffians for T-90M tanks or Su-57 fighter jets.  Prices thus increase.  Art!

How to strangle cats the Alexey Zabotkin way!

     This is Ol' Zabby, one of the deputy directors of the Ruffian Central Bank and a key player in the Ruffian economy.  As Big K noted, officials of the RCB are getting bolder and more honest in their descriptions of problems with the economy, and they are both too valuable and too experienced to suffer a sudden fall from windows.  PATIENCE ABOUT LACK OF HARVEST.  Mind you, if you read about Ol' Zabby suddenly getting tired of life and acting like a - like a mockingbird, and trying to fly from a window, then things are realllllly bad.  Art!

A bit dated, but it gives you a flavour

     Ol' Zabby confirmed that inflation is not being tackled, despite interest rates being hiked.  Mighty Prune broke the news on Friday, after Big K had already published, that the Ruffian interest rate is now 19%, and may - for which read 'will' - be raised again in future.  I should point out that the big blue spike in the chart above was immediately the SMO began, at 20%, and the planned rate is now only 1% below this.

     Given that banks are now lending at 22%, businesses must be having kittens themselves having kittens at the prospects of trying to invest and increase their profits.

PATIENCE ABOUT LACK OF HARVEST.

     Here is where Big K has an advantage over non-Ruffians; he can get practical and accurate information from his contacts back in Modern-day Mordor.  Art!

     The figures for August inflation had it decreasing by <drum roll cymbal crash trumpet toot> 0.02%.  Essentially staying static.  However - O! my beautiful word again! - food prices did NOT drop.  Normally late July and into August is the harvest season in Ruffia, when prices for <draws breath> cucumber, plums, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, apples, apricots and cherries fall dramatically.  They become ridiculously cheap, which Ruffians take advantage of, buying stuff by the bucketful in order to preserve or pickle it.  Not this year.  Art!

     Prune Mighty Prune also posted information about a poor wheat harvest in 2024, thanks to bad weather, which seems to have alternated between drought and flooding.  She posted - yes, she is a female engineer, get over it - that the official Ruffian 'Institute for Agricultural Market Studies' had warned that the harvest prediction had been decreased by 1.6 million tons, from an original forecast of 83.8 million tons.  That's a 2% drop, which is going to eat into - forgive the pun - overall profit margins and allocated internal tonnage for Ruffians themselves.  Barley harvest totals have been reduced by 400,000 tons to 16.8 million, and corn by 1.1 million tons to 12 million tons, with the same provisos as for wheat.  Art!

Barely barley

     Thus a shortfall in grain exports and therefore less revenue.  Ooopsie.

     Okay, okay, perhaps Wild Church Bottom instead of Hampton Parva.

Deconstruction Of The Tables

Nothing to do with the REM album whose title closely resembles this one.  Perhaps it would be closer and more accurate to say 'On The Tables' and if Art will put down his bowl of coal - 

     Yes, this is the hex-and-counter board game "The Great War In Europe", which I have gamed through several moves.  Problem is, I left it so long I cannot remember which point I'm at.  Not only that, in learning the rules whilst going on, I missed out on a few important ones that significantly disadvantaged the Allies.

     So -  I am now removing all the counters and will eventually put them back onto sheets of A4 with a bit of Blu-Tak securing them.  I may try the Italian Front next, because it seems to be the smallest possible scenario.  FYI, in real life it only involved the Italians and Austro-Hungarians, with a few Teutons, British and French coming into play late in the game*.  

     What I didn't appreciate is how long it would take to deconstruct the game, which has taken over an hour-and-a-half so far and we're only about two-thirds done.

     Wish me luck!  Art?

More Of Contusions

If you read this afternoon's blog AND YOU SHOULD HAVE FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR DESCENDANTS then you'll recall Conrad whanging on about "SIG" and "SIR", those being acronyms that I'm not going to go into.  Read the earlier blog. 

     So, imagine my surprise when my titanium underwear resisted an attack by the Coincidence Hydra, because - Art!

     You can see from the timestamp that this was recent.  Obvs Ian McCollum thinks the same way as Conrad, which is worrying for one of us.

Hmmmmmm

I think this sets a dangerous precedent.  Art!

     If I recall correctly, this is how the "Termite" empire of "Nemesis The Warlock" begins, with the establishment of subterranean housing.  Art!

The strange and fantastic beginnings

Finally -

Time to rock it, sock it dock it, and also to indulge a sneaking regard for the designers who made 'Polly Pocket'.

*  Do you se - O you do.

A Bit Of Contusion

I'm Not Sure How Long This Intro Will Be

I did make a note last night when an idea struck me, but it might only make for a couple of hundred words.  Perhaps it would have been better to begin this Intro under the banner "If I Were To Say 'Spectrum' -" because that allows for more creativity.  Art!

     My first computer.  Yes, it possessed an awesome 128K of RAM, which was a huge improvement on the original 48K.  The advantage of the 128 was that the tape player was built in, so there was no risk of accidentally dislodging the cable connecting th

     ANYWAY that's not what I mean, fascinating though early computer history is.  Art!

     I've been re-watching this series on the <coughcoughpiratecoughcough> DVDs I rediscovered a couple of weeks ago.  You ought to be familiar by now with the organisation 'Spectrum', which has a tranche of colour-coded personnel with pseudonyms that conceal their real identity. Conrad uncertain how that will fare against an alien super-AI on Mars, but fingers crossed.

     Okay, so there are a couple of phrases that Spectrum personnel use at the end of communications.  "Spectrum Is Green", usually acronymed to "S.I.G.".  To those who pontificate about how that's a longer and less efficient usage of words than "Ok", please refer back to "Roger Wilco", which was RAF usage for "Affirm I've heard and understood, will conform".  Art!

This is relevant

     If we can get back on track?  Thank you, too kind!

     The second end-of-comms used is "Spectrum Is Red", again acronymed into "S.I.R.", which means Very Bad Things About To Happen.  Like, "That tanker of aviation fuel the Mysterons retrometabolised is now sailing into New York harbour" level of bad.  Art!

     

     This is Ryan Kinel, whose vlogs on Youtube are entertaining and, most relevantly, succinct.  Ryan's always fulminating about something, and whilst he doesn't manifest any overt political views, I doubt that his and mine would mesh very well.  He is the one who ripped into "Star Wars Outlaws" with relish that I took my gaming info from, as contemporary games are a mystery to Conrad.

     ANYWAY he did mention 'shilling for ESG' in his description of SWO, which your aged non-gaming creator immediately mis-identified as "EGA", which is 66% correct.  I wondered if this was a sinister gaming corruption scandal akin to that time when critics were being paid by games companies to post positive reviews?

     Well, no.

     After quite a bit of digging, I realised that "ESG" is in fact a reference to "Environmental, Social and Governance" and means just how green, diverse, touchy-feely and inclusive a business is (what Ryan would probably sneeringly dismiss as 'woke').  Art!

PSG.  Close enough.

     What this means for games is that you get a slipcase, a DVD and that's it.  Long gone are the days of physical manuals.  They probably have printing disabled, because only dinosaurs like documents, right? typed the dinosaur.  The next step is to make everything online, so the manufacturers have no overheads for physical products, meaning a larger profit margin.  And they seem to be agitating for a 'lease' model for games, where you never actually own anything.  Entirely at the mercy of big business.  Art!

Back in the good old days

     What does any of this have to do with S.I.G. or S.I.R.?

     O I thought you'd never ask!  Because of the possibilities of misinterpretation, that's why.  Imagine, there you are tooling along in your Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle - a really splendid bit of kit - and you absently pronounce it "Sig".

     Instantly your vehicle's AI - for we are talking of the 2060s here - routes a call through to - Art!

     - the Swiss company that makes armaments.

     Or, if one makes the other mistake and pronounces it "Sir", your vehicle's AI instantly puts you into a one-on-one call with Colonel White, the somewhat peppery head of Spectrum.

COLONEL WHITE: Yes, Captain Sepia?

CAPTAIN SEPIA: Ah - er - I think -

COLONEL WHITE:  Out with it, man, we're expecting a Mysteron attack on the London Stock Exchange any minute now!

CAPTAIN SEPIA: Sorry, sir, I said "Sir" instead of "Ess Eye Are"

COLONEL WHITE: <muted possible swearing>: That gap in the Antarctic Nuclear Warhead Cleansing Facility roster just got filled.

CAPTAIN SEPIA:  But - but I had a hot date with Harmony!

COLONEL WHITE: And - what's this invoice from Switzerland for two thousand pistols?

     We shall call an end to this hilarious yet illuminating Intro.  Two scribbled acronyms in my notebook proved fruitful.

It Was Only A Matter Of Time

Out of sheer necessity, Ukraine has become one of the world's foremost innovators when it comes to drones.  You can see them on land, in the air and at sea.  When it comes to UGVs - 'Unmanned Ground Vehicles' - you have ones that are basically an anti-tank mine on tracks, self-propelled machine guns -

     And this.  Art?

     Yes, one of those creepy cyber-dogs, armed with a flamethrower.  Those spoof warning signs about a guard dog carrying a Dillon minigun now look a bit pale and puny.

Take A Gander At This

They say Robert Kennedy Jr. has a worm in his brain.  Well, his bezzie mate Donold Judas Trump will never be so afflicted, or so I thought, because - lack of worm-sustenance.

     Now I'm not so sure.  Look at this - Art!

     This is him giving a speech about illegal Haitians stealing geese from lakes in order to eat them.

     Excuse me?

     Geese can fly.  If you try and approach them, guess what?  They fly away.

     Also, Conrad used to have a pet goose.  It would attack anyone not family and could only be kept at bay with a stout broom.  They make an excellent substitute for a guard dog.

     Perhaps a brain-worm with anorexia?

Uh-Oh

The Blogger tracking algorithm might be slipping a bit, after doing so well recovering from the flattering yet false statistics for August.  Art!

     I don't think all the shizzle-posting I do on Twitter (ha! take that Elong Tusk!) can possibly generate this level of visits.  Art!

     Perhaps BOOJUM! means something especially profound and witty in whatever language they speak in Singapore*.

Kyle's Isles

The last of this particular vlog as posted by Kyle "Geography King", and he picked on Mackinac (pronounced 'Mackinaw") Island, up near the border between South Canada and British America.  Art!

     Situated on Lake Huron, the island is pretty small, being only four and a half miles square, with 600 permanent residents.  Art!

     The 'MI' stands for 'Michigan' not 'Missouri', just to be clear.  Art!

     This is the aptly-named 'Grand Hotel', a typical piece of Victorian architecture.  Why so large an hotel on such a small island?  Because the island comes into it's own during summer, when lots of tourists descend upon it.  Art!

     There are no cars, which makes the presence of State Highway 185 rather a white elephant, considering - you may be ahead of me here - there are no cars to use it.  They also have a big Fudge Festival in August, the pikers, and the island is famous for it's fudge WHICH I CANNOT HAVE.  Art!

Anyway, I'm not at all keen on chocolate fudge

     That's the end of Kyle's 'Interesting Islands' vlog which has, I hope, demonstrated that not everywhere in South Canada is a despoiled inner city slum nor Beverley Hills.

Toodle pip!

*  Malay, English, Tamil and Mandarin.