Which Is Not At All The Same As 'We Made It'
We are going to be travelling down a few sci-fi rabbit holes today so I feel compelled to immediately go off at a tangent and explain that 'We Made It' comes from author Larry Niven's 'Tales of Known Space', being a world orbiting Procyon, just over 11 light years from Earth. The title is derived from the original colonists crashlanding on the sole habitable world in the system and surviving. Art!
No idea, but it looks cool, doesn't it!
Actually, reading the blurb about this novel - and to credit Peter Jones for the cover art - I realise that this is a 'robot ramscoop' interstellar craft, sent out from Earth to We Made It. You know, a Bussard Ramjet back when they were all the rage in sci-fi.
ANYWAY there I was, attempting to determine the title of a Brian Aldiss short story, because it involved the re-settlement on Earth of an alien species who were verrry humanoid in appearance. Their technology was more advanced than Hom. Sap's, though not remarkably so apart from their Faster Than Light technology. I think. It's been decades since I read it. Art!
No!
You see, these aliens, named 'Riskians',although supposedly the advanced guard of hundreds of interstellar craft carrying their fellow asylum seekers, are Up To No Good. This initial group settle themselves in South East Asia, because they resemble the locals and can blend in, thus being able to carry out mischief undetected. Apart from having a noticeably higher body temperature.
Despite taking ages on Google, could I find the story? No, I could not. I wanted it as an example of a population fleeing environmental disaster; an imminent supernova of their local sun, I think. Art!
That is Conrad not being disheartened. Odd-looking guitar.
ANYWAY AGAIN I then remembered a Bob Shaw story that also featured refugee aliens, although once again it took Dog Buns! ages to track it down. Art!
In case you were wondering, this is a line from a poem by James Elroy Flecker, 'The Golden Voyage To Samarkand'. The aliens in Bob's case are refugees travelling in a mighty caravan of generation ships, fleeing their home system, directed to Earth as being a habitable biosphere. Art!
Quick, nurse, the mouthwash!
They turn out to be 15' long insectoids, who are actually quite pacific, unlike the smiling villainous Riskians. Unfortunately their breath is laden with incredibly deadly bacteria, which infects and kills Hom. Sap. in short order. So, Colonel John Fortune works out the most efficient way to kill them dead en masse. I won't reveal the ending or how Bob gets there, just to say that I still remember this story from probably 40 years ago. Art!
This one took a fair bit of digging since I've not read it at all, only the blurb on the back cover. The premise is that an intelligent alien race developing over time on a world that is part of a solar system traversing a rubble-strewn arm of the galaxy. Planetary impacts from meteors are commonplace, and I remember one line: "Today's superculture might be tomorrow's hole in the ground". Ooo-err Matron. A tad forbidding.
ANYWAY ANYWAY that's all by way of a preamble. Doubtless there are countless other sci-fi works dealing with this theme, except I haven't read them, so that above will have to do. Art!
For Lo! we are back on "S70"again, and I have skipped to the last section, because numerical sequence is for dullards. Art!
We finally get to the real matter of interest in today's Intro, and absolutely no apologies for taking so long about it, this is our modus operandi.
As the section introduction above cautions, simple explanations for the collapse of a complete civilisation are to be avoided, as there are usually more than one cause involved. The first culture that was extinguished is one I'd barely heard of since it sounds like a brand of chocolate: the Moche. Art!
Not a lot left. No, that's not a pyramid in the background, although the Moche did build pyramids of their own. Art!
Moche occupied what is now North-West Peru, in a coastal strip that lacked water. They created an irrigation system that provided crops and cotton, and depended on huge anchovy shoals offshore to sustain as fishing industry between 100 and 800 AD. Art!
What did them in? O I thought you'd never ask!
El Nino, compounded by a 30-year drought. The Pacific current scattered the anchovy shoals and caused immense storms to flood inland towns and irrigation systems. Then there were earthquakes, which again destroyed anything standing upright, which would then be washed away by the storms. The Moche, ordered by their rigidly intolerant warrior-priests, moved their capital inland. Only to be hit with even more flooding, leading to their culture's collapse under a triple whammy, with the addition of raiding by other, hostile tribes.
Not enough water and then toooooo much. A bit less exotic than your sun blowing up yet just as final.
Stop Trying To Empty My Wallet!
'Twould seem that the Youtube algorithm really likes to not only beat a dead horse, but to savagely chop it into bits and make glue out of it. Your Humble Scribe has noted various adverts that crop up with all the persistence of mould, until a hidden background date passes and - Pouf! - gone forever. Art!
This is an advert for 'Abebooks' on Youtube, as if a site selling millions of books needs any pimping to Conrad. There is, if I recall correctly, an Account page that informs one of how much you have spent/squandered/invested <delete where applicable> over the years, which I dare not look at. Of late I have been good and not ordered a new book for simply weeks and weeks. Honest.
Your Hair-Splitting Pedant Is Mildly Fretful
Rather than furiously angry, as we've been seeing the execrable Bob Semple tank serve as an introduction for completely different vehicles, thanks to 'Tank Encyclopaedia' not doing their due diligence. Now it's the turn of 'FactBytes' to fail miserably in their identification skills. Dog Buns! you're talking to someone fresh from BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM! Art?
No, that's not a Marder. Indeed, it looks nothing like a Marder. The callow crew at FB may have mistaken it for a 'Nashorn' (Teuton for 'Rhinoceros') but again, that looks nothing like a Marder. Art!
The 'Hummel' as seen in photo above 'Nashorn'
In fact there were several species of Marder. Art!
This Dada Dalek is a Marder I, a Teuton anti-tank gun mounted on a captured French artillery tractor chassis.
Bah!
Can The Can
Yes, we are back on the shredding and crushing and splintering Youtube channel, which is perfect viewing fodder for anyone with nihilistic or anarchistic tendencies. Art!
'Suny Group', as seen at top port, are a recycling business, which is a relief, as I'd be worried if they were into spa and healthcare. I notice that none of these cans have their paint jobs burnt off, which implies that their end state does not require being naked. Art!
Above are a few of the crushing systems maintained by Suny Group. Remember, your rubbish is another man's income.
"The War Illustrated Edition 214 31st August"
Here's a follow-up story. HMS 'Argonaut' had suffered the loss of most of her bow and stern due to torpedo hits. Thanks to her modern design and stout bulkheads, she was able to navigate across the Atlantic on two out of four propellors and one rudder instead of two, to be repaired. Art !
Here are the views of the battered old lady; her stern in the port photo and her bow in the starboard one. Yes, she made it to harbour safely - see below.
The stern still hasn't been replaced and I'm guessing the entire gun turret was replaced since the original one had suffered significant damage from the torpedo hit.
Allow me to up the Word Count and include an account of the Gloucester getting torpedoed.
14th During deployment with Force Q, hit on starboard side by torpedoes from Italian
submarine MOCENIGO west of
and stern structure which were blown off. Steering was unusable and the after two
turrets could not be used. Taken to
That was December of 1942, and she didn't return from repairs in South Canada until November 1943. By which time the RN Mocenigo would have become an ally after the Italian Armistice. Art!
RN Mocenigo
And with that we are done!
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