Space Rock

I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING!

Only because I'm so clever, I keep telling you that the D.A.R.P.A. Telepathy Helmet got returned to their laboratory after merely being 'borrowed' for a couple of weeks.  Well, months, actually.  Thirty-six of them.  Okay, okay, years.

     ANYWAY I've been haranguing you over recent weeks with various items and Intros to do with Pink Floyd, especially before their breakthrough in 1973, when they were very much seen as pioneering psychedelic space rockers.  Art!

     A song whose lyrics have nothing to do with surfing the sun, central or otherwise.  Then there's 'Interstellar Overdrive', one of their Syd-inspired instrumentals that is unambiguously space rock.

     However - O that word again - you'd be wrong.  WRONG!

     For in this Intro we are going to cover 'The Sky At Night', and their coverage, in turn, of the risks involving asteroid impact upon Planet Earth: rocks from space.  Thus we arrive at today's title.  Now, Conrad originally knew TSAN when it was fronted by Sir Patrick Moore alone; nowadays it has female presenters and subject matter experts.  What happened?

     O I thought you'd never ask!  Art?

     This is the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013, causing extensive damage to windows, especially, and injuring 1,500 people.  Nor was it particularly large: 20 metres across at most, and an estimated 9,000 tons mass, and it exploded miles above the ground.  Art!

     Shame the meteor didn't hit Norilsk, it could only have improved it.

     ANYWAY ANYWAY TSAN decided to concentrate on asteroid 2024YR4, one of those Near Earth Objects that are tracked as they may impact Earth in the future, and this one had a 1% chance of an impact in 2032.  YR4, being informal, is one of the mid-size asteroids that aren't going to extinguish life on the planet if it does hit, but which will vapourise a city if said environs are unlucky enough to be around when it impacts.  Art!

     This unlovely object is 40 metres wide and 90 metres long, and clocks in at about 100,000,000 tons, give or take.  If it hits then say goodbye to a whole county and everything within the borders.

     Unusually, the chances of an impact actually increased after YR4 was detected, rising to 3%, which tended to get the un-informed knees knocking, but not us here at BOOJUM! for we are both made of sterner stuff and know how these things pan out.

     TSAN came up with an unusual analogy I've not seen used before about this phenomenon.  Art!

The 1% phase

     Here Gabe has just kicked the ball and all that's known about it is the velocity.  It may go into the back of the 'onion bag' as they call it, or it may miss completely.  Art!

The 3% phase

     Another datum point has now been added and the trajectory of the ball can now be predicted with greater accuracy, yet not with complete confidence. Art!

     Gabe's punt is now destined to miss completely, which is great when the analogy is with YR4 striking Earth, now that a lot more data has been added in and we can calculate trajectories verrrry accurately.  TSAN gave polite thanks to the Very Large Telescope, which is located in the Atacama Desert of Chile.  Art!

     'Twas the observations of this array that refined the trajectory of YR4 to the point that we know, with certainty, that it will NOT hit Earth.  Hoorah! and also Phew.  If any of you who want to see the world burn are disappointed in doomsday-deficiency, be of good cheer, for there is still a chance it will hit the Moon.

     Of course, that probably won't be apocalyptic.  

     Except that's how 'Life As We Knew It' experiences an apocalypse, as the asteroid turns out to be incredibly dense and shifts the Moon's orbit appreciably closer to Earth, triggering tsunamis and volcanoes and -

      I think it's time to draw a veil over the rest of TSAN for today, as we can always come back to it, the date not being 2032.

     Now I shall hie me to the kitchen to sort out that laundry.  O my rock'n'roll lifestyle.

Conrad's Continuing Cakery Cookery

Yes, I baked a cake based on the recipe for 'Black Currant Cake' in my Ukrainian recipe book, substituting blueberries for blackcurrants as the latter are only available frozen, and blueberries were available fresh.  Art!

     There were differences in the recipe from other cakes I've baked, namely that they used sour cream.  I've used yoghurt in recipes before and sour cream fulfils the same requirements.  No creaming together butter and sugar; the butter is instead melted and mixed into the sour cream with an egg.  The recipe called for 'Baking soda', which is South Canadian for 'Bicarbonate of soda', and - another twist - it needed mixing with vinegar, which made it froth up.  Conrad worried this might have stopped cakey from rising, but all was good.

     One major omission was mention of the tin to use.  Your Modest Artisan guessed a 1 lb loaf tin based on the photographs in the book and as you can witness above, guessed correct.

     Next time we may use GF flour and Canderel, this attempt was a 'proof of concept' as Adam Savage would have it.

"The War Illustrated Edition 208 June 8 1945"

You can't blame this publication from enthusing about VE Day, it was the culmination of six years-worth of suffering and torment, where the Allies (and we shall continue to ignore the Sinisters, tee hee!) finally crushed Nazi Germany.  No nonsense about an Armistice and being able to create and peddle another 'Dolchstuss' myth*.  Art!

     This is Monty being addressed by the Teuton representatives of the Third Reich, who were eager to discuss terms and conditions with him.

     Monty, peppery little sod that he was, refused point blank to discuss anything except unconditional surrender.  In fact he savoured this meeting by being as horrid to the Teuton reps as possible, bringing one of them to tears.  Given that it was just under 5 years since Monty's 3rd Divison, of which he was GOC, had been evacuated from France, he doubtless felt like getting a bit of a verbal shoeing in himself.

Wait, What?

Conrad is into the first episode of "The Boys" Season 4, and they have introduced another new character who wasn't in the comics: Sister Sage.  Art!

NO!

     <sounds of Tazer>

     Try again after you stop smoking.

     The recidivist redeemed.  Here she is, the smartest person on the planet, allegedly, voluntold by Homelander to join The Seven.  Hmmmm a perilous position to be in, as The Biggest Bully In The Schoolyard can only resent another person who is demonstrably smarter than he is (which is a pretty low bar).
     My jolt of recognition came because this is not her first series featuring superheroes, that was adapted from a comic.  The ill-fated series 'Powers' had her in the role of Dena, and if Art has finished putting Sudocrem on those burns -

     Yes, that's the great Sharlto Copley.  They only made 2 seasons and I don't think I watched any of Season 2.  Great.  Another drain on my time, along (potentially) with Season 6 of "The Expanse".

     O, one advantage of Amazon coming up with new characters and storylines is that people like Conrad, who have read all the comics, are quite unsure what's going to happen next.  It restores suspense.

Whilst Still On Pop Culture

Conrad is about 1/3 of the way through 'Elevation', a post-apocalyptic thriller where human civilisation has been forced to relocate above 8,000 feet, or be chased down and killed by monsters that have remained out of shot so far.  Art!

     When I saw the trailer I thought someone had done an adaptation of 'Plague Year', the sci-fi horror thriller novel by the late Jeff Carlson, but no: his nemeses are nanobots.  Given the plot similarities and the fact that he jitterbugged off this mortal coil years ago, I doubt whether anyone will ever option PY as a film.  So, the life of PY may be over before it's begun.

Finally -

More of train demolition to come.  I bet you can hardly wait.

*  As promulgated by the Nazis, who claimed the Teutons had never been defeated in the First Unpleasantness.