This is a fascinating and thoroughly involving Intro I'll have you know, and yes if we get to the meat of the matter we shall indeed be covering things being demolished in very bad form. First we have to broach the subject of silos, because Conrad likes to get grounded and establish a baseline. Art!
This is what you were expecting, weren't you? A Titan I missile silo, it being a cylindrical underground reinforced launch site, from which the Titan and it's nine megaton warhead would emerge to wreak havoc upon the Sinister Union. ICBM missile silos were all the rage in the late Fifties and into the current day, because whilst they are immobile, they are extremely robust and can take a hell of a pasting before being compromised.
I've gotten ahead of myself. Let's get down to definitions. Okay, 'Silo' is derived from the Greek, 'Siros', meaning 'Corn pit', mutating over time and Spanish into 'Silo'. Art!
This, gentle reader, is the first novel in the 'Silo' trilogy by Howey. Conrad has read it, and the sequel, but from synopses on teh Interwebz I may not have read the last one. The premise is that what remains of Hom. Sap. is encapsulated in fifty gigantic 144-level silos, none of which can communicate with each other, all convinced that the world outside their bunkers is irredeemably toxic. It was all triggered by one man wanting to ensure his overdue library books never got linked to him, that or atomic weapons and microbots. One of the two. Art!
It was also adapted into a television show, being broadcast on Apple+, which Your Humble Scribe does not have access to, so I cannot tell you how true or false to the novels it is. Only that it's going into a fourth season, which implies it has been moderately successful.
I got rid of both novels whilst working at Sainsbo's, so perhaps a janitor or call centre employee has been enjoying them for these past four years now.
Okay, then there is the organisational 'silo', which tends to not be a good thing, as it implies a business unit operating entirely separately from the main company, leading to inefficiency and duplication. Art!
ANYWAY I want to go back to 'When Building Demolitions Go Horribly Wrong' from that Youtube channel 'Be Amazed'. I have to give props to them, they actually take the time and effort to analyse various video clips, rather than simply playing them without context or date or anything much. Art!
Yes, this is another silo, normally used in South Canada for the storage of grain, and which has become surplus to requirements, so once again Farmer Kyle has gapped out a large section at the base to - hopefully! - cause the whole structure to collapse in the desired direction.
Why does this variety of demolition fail so spectacularly at different locations across geography and time? O I thought you'd never ask! Because what you see here is a structure NOT experiencing instability, despite all that gapping-out. It's totally static, as there is no exterior force acting to pull it in any one direction. Other demolition - ah - experts might have attached a chain to the silo to exert a positive pull in one direction. But not here. Because - because - because a six-pack of Schlitz is compressed demolition experience?
Enter Kyle. Art!
So, Kyle goes in with his sledgehammer, attacking a structure that is, up to now, inherently stable. He knocks in a panel, rendering it unstable IN HIS DIRECTION and has to run as it falls, although he makes the Loony Tunes mistake of running in the direction it's collapsing into. Art!
He outran it. Phew. Art!
The silo goes from high to low, and Kyle lives to laugh another day. Conrad is not impressed by the demolition planning skills of whomever arranged this event before Kyle and his sledgehammer, because when the whole thing comes down - Art!
That's the metal 'cap' of the silo, nearly hitting parked vehicles. One of the tricks of arranging a demolition is to keep passing vehicle damage to a minimum, nearly breached here. Art!
BA also provides a close-up of Kyle beginning his short but intense run, and we all appreciate he kept hold of his sledgehammer. What a trooper.
It Would Have Been Nice
As you should surely have understood by now, Conrad is fond of music, and occasionally ventures forth into Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell to experience said sonic susurrations live. Not, I have to say, very often, as the venues only tend to get going about 22:00 and the last bus home is 22:30. Art!
This is Robyn, performing live in Manchester as of 28th March. Yes, I have CDs of her musical performances and might not have not wanted to go see her playing live in Cottonopolis. Blimey Heck a musical event that I might have - Art!
- well, have wanted to attend, if only I had knew it existed.
This is apparently, Mandy. A band not a person. Which I have have to understand thanks to the BBC info about their '6 Music' event. Once again, I would rather have experienced this music on my own to make a judgement.
Roll on Sounds From The Other City. You know, the variegated music event held in Salford.
What On Earth?
I have to ask, as there is nobody out there to give an answer. We've had Portable Sawmills, and Log-Counting Software, but once again who on this blue spherical mass is promoting such dross - Art!
I am guesstimating from earlier experiences that we are talking of '25 Horsepower' and '724 Cubic Centimetres', the latter being how much this MacGuffin exists in real life.
What is it, and why on this big blue globe would I need or want it*?
NO I do not have a yacht or similar. Before you ask.
The Algorithm Has Been Drinking
To steal a Tom Waits line, because how else do you explain this? Art!
Conrad is unsure why they go with '13' unless it's to make the item's title look good, because we can most certainly come up with more than 13 films falling into that category. What they're working with here is 'Blade Runner', the dystopian noir that has been imitated by other sci-fi films across the past 50 years, and which allegedly put on screen exactly what author Philip K. Dick saw as his horrid imaginary child. It's kind of hard to put a dollar value on managing such an artistic feat as that, so - guess what! - I'm not going to look at the body of the article. So, beyond 'Blade Runner' we shall never know. They might have 'The Thing' as well as Buckaroo Banzai in there and we will never know.
Finally -
Heading into April Fool territory, I guess what extra-special nonsense DJ Tango spruiks will have to wait to be seen!
* Rhetorical only. Do not answer.
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