You'd Probably Tut And Shake Your Head
Convinced that I was going to go on a rant about the humble Hawker Hurricane, the mainstay of Perfidious Albion's air force at the beginning of the Second Unpleasantness, and also an airframe capable of being adapted to many different configurations. "Dr Peter Caddick-Adams" of Twitter posted an unusual and colour photograph of a Hurricane just today. Art!
Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum
We did cover this on the blog, eighteen months ago, and your memorymay be a tad deficient, so I shall repeat myself for your elucidation.
What looks like a Hurricane mounted on the world's shortest railway track is the 'Armed' part of "Catapult Armed Merchantman", which was a civilian freighter of considerable length, able to support a rocket-sled that propelled said Hurricane off the deck at 160 miles per hour. Art!
This is a test run of the catapult on a ship at anchor. Note that the Hurricane pilot did not control the catapult ignition; that was done by another officer entirely. An interim measure, yet an effective one. Art!
I shouldn't waste word count on what the Intro's not about but I couldn't resist this Hurricane, nicknamed the 'Flying Can Opener'. It mounted two 40 mm cannon under the wings and was used to strafe Afrika Korps vehicles, whom did not enjoy being under deadly attack from the skies (remember this for later). Art!
The there's this unlovely melon-farmer, which is predictably Ruffian, known as the "Uragan", which is their barbarous version of the noble British "Hurricane", as if th
ANYWAY
HURRICANE: "A severe, often destructive, storm, a wind of force 12 on the Beaufort scale, with speeds of over 72 m.p.h." from the Amerind "Hura" meaning "Wind", which is still less barbarous than Uragan. Art!
Say a hearty "Hello!" to Kyle, of his "Geography King" Youtube channel, who has put up an interesting, if rather gloomy, vlog on The Most Dangerous Places In South Canada. You're probably ahead of me here, as the first type of natural disaster encountered are -
HURRICANES: A cautionary word to those of you who anticipate visiting Florida between August and November inclusive, because this is Hurricane Season for these tropical cyclones. They are, á la Kyle, the most numerous of all the natural disasters that befall South Canada. Art!
Before After
What you might call the 'engine' of a hurricane is warm water, which is what cranks up the Category, thus the areas at biggest risk are those on the Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts, and Kyle has a handy-dandy map showing the hurricane-heavy areas. Art!
Purple is where a hurricane may make landfall, and Florida really looks like a target here. Notice that the risk area extends way up the Atlantic coast, a lot further than I realised. Kyle, ever the voice of reason, explained that these waters aren't as warm as Florida - the clue is in the name - so any tropical cyclones that hit will only rarely get up to Category Three. On the down side, these areas are far less prepared to host hurricanes, both in terms of emergency procedures and resilient architecture. Can you imagine FEMA* trying to convince bolshy New Yorkers that they need to get their grab-bag and move inland? Art!
Yes, conceptually it looks like an AI was prompted by "Do Jackson Pollock over a map of South Canada". This is the tracks of 45 hurricanes that made landfall on continental South Canada over the past 20 years: 18 were Category One, 9 were category Two, 9 were Category Three, 7 were Category Four and (only, thankfully!) 2 were Category Five. Art!
This is one of the Category One storms that hit New York. The effect was compounded by them not being prepared or experienced in hurricane mitigation.
So - beware when holidaying in South Canada and be wary of the time of year and your location - stay safe! Don't forget to run if you hear a siren going off when you're pretty sure it's not the Ruffians attempting to start the Third Unpleasantness, because that's the hurricane warning. And you're welcome.
<Conrad leaned back in his chair, appreciative of This Sceptred Isle's frequently disgustrous yet very rarely dangerous weather>
"The War Illustrated Edition 197 5th January 1945"
Let us see what photographs the censor has allowed through, shall we? Conrad confesses he's usually forgotten what these are as it's ages since I took the photos of the photos. Art!
That map at lower starboard (helpfully enlarged above) indicates what the Teutons found so unpleasant about fighting Tito's partisans; they could whistle up air support from the Brylcreem Boys of the RAF at short notice. Not only that, Perfidious Albion was close enough across the Adriatic, which it ruled, to send troops.
At top a huddle of nervous Teutons lie down under the eyes and rifles of watchful Partisan guards. Lower port, we see a Teuton stronghold that had been visited by the RAF, who came to say hello with rockets and machine guns. To starboard is a Partisan machine gun team, harassing retreating Teutons, and at bottom the Royal Artillery have landed at Risan (see map) to deliver the good news. Art!
No, Vulnavia, nothing about the Battle Of The Bulge. Patience, my sweet, patience!
Celebrating Today, It Being -
November the Fifth. Art!
What's this? Why, none other than a Liebherr jib crane in action, putting together a skyscraper in the
Blogger Still Algorithm Hogger
Conrad did think the traffic algorithm had re-set, thanks to us starting a new month, and for a couple of days the traffic figures were believable. Not now! Art?
First world problems, hmmmmm?
Dog Food
One of the most acutely-observing commentators on the Norc soldiers turning up inside Modern-day Mordor is Jake Broe, on his vlogs under his Youtube channel "Jake Broe". This is because he spent 6 years in South Korea and both speaks and reads Korean. He pointed out how very formal and polite conversations between Koreans are, thanks to both culture and language, and that their Ruffian liaison officers are going to inadvertently trample roughshod over this necessary behaviour. Art!
That's Korean labelling for 'Dog Meat', not that any Ruffian soldiers can read it, they just open up the tin and begin scoffing.
Until they find out what they've been stuffing their faces with. Art!
This particular Fido will never wet the carpet, steal food or bark at the postie. The Ruffian soldier who posted this was disgusted, although it's not clear if that was merely the concept of eating dog, or anger at man's best friend being turned into canned spam.
Finally -
Night has fallen, it's quite dry yet the artillery barrage of fireworks is very muted so far. Good! says Edna.
*Federal Emergency Management Agency, the sinister organisation that conspires to send South Canadians to death camps and has done so for the last 25 years, according to the swivel-eyed loonwaffles.
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