Today We'll Be Covering Autocracy, Architecture And Asteroids
Also more "Silicon Curtain", because this Intro's intro will be another one of those cunning tangents that zig-zag from truth to fiction, before doing a full 270º.
You see, I wanted to lead with 'Palladium', because it does come into play later on. My "Collins Concise Dictionary" defines it as: "a ductile malleable silvery-white element of the platinum metal group", and I recall that sci-fi opus by Pohl and Kornbluth - Art!
The extinct aliens who created their own destruction, and whom therefore dropped Hom. Sap. into it, preferred palladium to gold.
Incidentally, the London Palladium is not named after the metal. No, it's named after the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, who revived classical Graeco-Roman designs and styles, especially symmetrical planning and harmonic proportions. Art!
The name 'Palladium' itself is a derivation of Pallas, an alternate name for Athena, which title had been bestowed on a recently-discovered asteroid.
Why is this relevant, and how can we beat Ruffia over the head with it?
Well! because there is now talk of placing sanctions on Ruffian exports of titanium and palladium, is why, and here is where Jonathan Fink of "Silicon Curtain" put a very well-turned question to his guest, Prof Sonnenfeld. He defined Ruffia as an "Extractive autocracy" which relied on creating dependencies, fear of scarcity and an ability to 'Limit the pie', a diametrically opposite view to that of the Global West, which manifests an 'Expand the pie' ethos. Was this attitude a problem for the future? Art!
This septic midden is Norilsk, one of the dirtiest cities on the planet, thanks to how it completely ignores health, safety or pollution as it extracts palladium and nickel ores and smelts them.
The Prof joked that it was a good job he and Johnathan were sitting on different sides of the Atlantic, otherwise he'd have delivered a hug and a kiss, because Ol' Johnny's question is one nobody else has been asking, when it definitely needed asking. Loudly! Art?
Latest Ruffian Lada, hot off the production line
As the Prof cogently explained, Ruffia in terms of economy and industrial output doesn't have any "Value Added", their entire economy is based on the extraction of resources (food, fuel and minerals) not the production of finished goods, which has already been identified by Big K. of "Inside Russia". Nobody goes to Muscovy to get the latest in pharmaceuticals, or medical technology, or cars, or fashion.
Nor is that all. The departure overseas, from where they are never going to return, of 2 million highly-qualified, experienced, skilled IT workers has also sounded a death-knell for any Ruffian intent to move beyond their Extractive Autocracy. Art!
The Prof reckoned that Ruffia has been set back by 20 years in terms of broadening and deepening their economy by this brain drain.
What you see above is an example of extraction gone mad. The European market for Modern-day Mordor's gas has dwindled to a miniscule fraction of what it used to be, but Gazprom dare not shut down it's wells, because doing so means immense hardship in re-opening them, if that day ever comes. So, as above, they are now burning off 88% of their extracted gas thanks to no storage and an inability to process it into Liquid Natural Gas. Art!
This is the other side of the coin. What you see above is one of six big deep-water ports the Teutons built last year, in the space of nine months, in order to off-load LNG tankers and re-liquefy the fluid into vapour. The orcs of Muscovy could only dream of the technical prowess that allowed this to occur. And, suddenly, their Extractive Autocracy's feet turn into clay. No, the Teutons don't have the extractive capacity of Ruffia, but they don't need to, because a collection of 26 countries have been able to supply the market with their LNG, driving the price down. Art!
Who do we know who lives in a Pallas? I wonder how the central heating's powered.
Conrad Is ANGRY!
Yes, again, what, you think there's a limit? Still working through the Codewords I made a note of, because when I take over not only will the compilers get dropped from orbit - a punishment that allows plenty of time for reflection - but what's left will be sent on a touring display as A Dreadful Warning.
CRIBBAGE: The collective noun for a bed of cabbages? No, it's a game of some description, isn't it? My CCD declares it to be a card game, in which players try to <dull drivel redacted>. Art!
A cribbage bored
AXIAL: Let me guess, being along the axis of an object? Because I'm familiar with the 'Co-axial', or 'Co-ax', which is or was the machine gun mounted alongside the main gun in turreted tanks. Art!
Apparently this, too, is a co-axial gun, as using in the construction industry. You' put a tube of liquid what-not into the guide and, when you squeezed the trigger, gunk would come out of the nozzle.
ERSATZ: From the Teuton, and admit it, how many of you have ever used this word in either conversation or written communication? It just doesn't come up, unless you're going for the Pseud image <hack spit>. Let me see what CCD has about it: "Imitation or substitute" from the Teuton "Ersetzen" meaning "To substitute". Art!
Gets excellent mileage, though
"The War Illustrated Edition 196 22nd December 1944"
Following on from the rather pathetic mock 'panzer' above, let's see what the censor had permitted to be published in the pages of this hallowed magazine. Art!
They aren't very helpful in identifying exactly, or even vaguely, where these photos were taken, apart from possibly being south of Bologna. Perhaps a map - let us prod Art into his normal semi-sentience with this obsidian scalpel -
A Mystery Solved
As you know, Conrad is an inquisitive chap, who wants to know everything all the time everywhere, so naturally I picked up on a photograph posted on Twitter by "Farmer Marv Bot", who is a genuine South Canadian farmer. He posts occasional clips of him doing farm stuff from his tractor, and put up one of his wife in a cow costume. Art!
Takes all sorts
Of course - obviously! - my interest focussed on that large rusted heap of junk in the background, and I asked FMB what it was.
"An old broken-down square baler" he informed. Art!
So now we know, and are much happier for it.
The next puzzle to be resolved is what a 'Square Baler' does, although I suspect there's a clue in the title and it will not only bale hay, but do so in cubes rather than cylinders. We shall see.
Finally -
Currently watching Season Four of "The Umbrella Academy" and, really, I ought to have watched Season Three, because I remember very little of it, apart from the ending. O well, one can always go back. The past is another country, but you can still Netflix it.
Cowabunger.
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