GREAT EXPLODING SOLAR SYSTEMS!

Bear With Me -
This one will take a bit of explaining, as is not infrequently the case here on BOOJUM!  
     Okay, first of all I would like to abruptly change tack and put up a photograph of today's haul, which arrived by post this afternoon.  Art?

More space opera than is good for you

     Those volumes at top are part of E.E. Smith's "Lensman" series, originally written in the Thirties and Forties and later retro-fitted to have all their bits align properly.  They are widely acknowledged to be one of the most influential works of Space Opera ever written, coming in at Number Two in the all time S.O. genre.
     The second set below, illustrated by the mighty Chris Foss, is Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy, voted as the Number One all time S.O. work; I had this collection as a teenager and read and re-read it countless times, though I've forgotten most of it by now.
     This isn't quite divorced from this evening's title - I'm sure both authors contrive to blow up entire solar systems in their works, even if <ahem> the title is a steal from "Forbidden Planet"'s Doctor Morbius, when he describes the Krell nuclear power plants buried beneath the surface of Altair IV.

"Man cannot behold the face of the gorgon and live."*

     Anyway, let us jump from an overdose just the right amount of science fiction to the matter in hand - the Sheer Puling Horror of - Nursery Rhymes!
     Okay, let's look at that litany of sin and wantonness, "Boys and Girls Come Out To Play".

"Boys and girls come out to play"

There's nothing wrong with this - but it's only lulling you in to a false sense of security I'll have you know ...

"The moon doth shine as bright as day"

And here is the root matter of the problem.  One: all you wicked neglectful parents are allowing your children out in the middle of the night.  Unacceptable!  and Two: if the Moon at night is giving off the Sun's normal amount of daylight time, then THE SUN HAS GONE NOVA! because that's the only explanation.  See Larry Niven's "Inconstant Moon" as a reference work.

"Leave your supper and leave your sleep"

Well, I suppose if the world's going to end tomorrow when this hemisphere rotates into view of the Sun, what's a little hunger and doziness?

"And come with your playfellows into the street"

A classic example of eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die, eh?

I'm too depressed to go on.

If only they knew -

     After being such a buzzkill I think I'll let the motley off with a bit of burnt toast and a stewed pot of tea.

But How, Exactly, Mister Anderson?
If you were paying attention this afternoon then you ought to have noticed a recurring theme, that of spacecraft being launched into orbit from a horizontal track that curves upward at the end, propelled by a rocket sled.  Quite when the idea originated in rocketry circles is a moot point, which you can go off and research later; what I wanted to examine was Fireball XL5, from the eponymous television programme.  Art?

Take-off!

     In a touch of continuity error, when FXL5 flies off the end of this launch ramp, the rocket sled merely plops off the end, implying that it isn't travelling at enormous acceleration.*
     Okay, now, if Art can provide us with an illustration of FLX5 in flight -

Artwork by the incomparable Mike Noble

     There doesn't seem to be any kind of landing gear, certainly nothing that would support the weight of a spacecraft massing several hundred tons, so how did it land, exactly?  Nor does there seem to be any kind of braking rocket for use in a horizontal landing.  Enquiring minds want to know!

Sorry, that was more science fiction, wasn't it?  O well, at least - ooops, hang one, someone's quibbling.  What is it, Mister Smith?

"It's DOC Smith, Connie, and don't you forget it!"

     Ah, yes, the good Doctor does get a bit precious about that - Okay, Doc, I'll remember.  Finished any more Lensman novels lately?***

Finally -
I did have an extraordinarily long essay to compose on the difference between Real Life versus "Journey's End", which I shan't post, as it would take half an hour and expand the word count to many thousand words.  Maybe tomorrow?
     I also need to point out that my absorbing - okay, okay, boring - study on timelines in "The Incredibles" has now reached over a page of A4 notes with another 36 minutes still to run.  The long section set on Syndrome's island - Nomanisan Island (catch the John Donne pun there) is pretty much ruled out - Mad Scientist Exclusion Rules. If it gets completed I will have to post in bits, because the whole thing would be horribly long.

Come on folks, those masks aren't hiding anything!

     It would also probably be a good solution for the hyperactive if presented in large doses.

Oh - more proof that some people have entirely TOO MUCH time on their hands -

Okay, I am impressed.

*  Knowing all these facts and quotes off by heart is impressive, isn't it?  Not sad?
**  To be fair, 5 year-olds are unlikely to pick up on this.
***  This would be a bit tricky, the man's been dead for decades.  How can he pop up and comment here?  Quite!

Fly Like A Beagle

If You Look Askance At Me - 
 - I shall reach down your broadband and slap you.  Yes, you read that correctly: "Beagle".  
    "But why a Beagle?" I hear you squawk.  "For as essentially earthbound canines they have little ability to fly, surely?"
     O ye of little faith.  Art?

Think of Dumbo, mate, on your way down.

     If an elephant with a magic feather can manage it, why not a dog?
     And, please, leave the mission to Mars out of it.  That was an autonomous probe, not a space-faring vessel.  No, the Beagle I refer to is this one.  Art?

As flying as it gets

     I don't know how three engines all pointing in different directions helps it along; if you have an issue, take it up with Chris Foss (the artist).
     None of which has anything to do with what I wanted to talk about first, namely the Orion III Spaceplane from "2001: A Space Odyssey" (hereafter 2001 as the full title is a bit of a mouthful).  Art?

A sexy bit of kit indeed

     Note something that I've only just realised - this thing is streamlined for atmospheric travel, rather than staying in orbit and picking up passengers from an orbiting ferry from Earth.  How does it take off?  Does it take off?
     The answer is in some pre-production design sketches, which that comatose sluggard Art had better sort out* -

Vaguely rude ...

     The Orion takes off from a vertical launch rail, carried aloft by a recoverable rocket booster.  Presumably it glides down to a landing a la the Space Shuttle? though I don't have time enough to go checking that out.  
     Incidentally, Fireball XL5 also took off from a launching ramp on a booster rocket, as imagined by futurologist Gerry Anderson.  Art?

Thus

      This came out in 1962, so it's definitely possible it influenced 2001, though of course the great-grandaddy of them all takes place in "When Worlds Collide".  Art?  Less coke more bloke!

On the grand scale

     This in turn is from 1951, so who's influencing whom?
     Ooops!  I only meant this to be a brief two-picture item about the Orion III.  See how I've rambled.**

"The Rezort"
I am currently 25 minutes in to this zombie film, which has an interesting premise: after 2 billion dead in global wars against zombies, humanity has finally won and is rebuilding.  There are no more zeds left, apart from a small island off the Australian coast, where wealthy tourists can come to hunt them down in safety.

Conrad predicts it'll all end in tears

     Now, we the audience have been to another nearby island, which houses 1) an airport and 2) a refugee camp right next to said airport.
     Are you familiar with Chekhov's Gun?  The Ruffian playwright pertinently observed that if, in Act One of a play, there is a gun hanging on the wall, then by Art Three it will be used.
     So I predict with "The Rezort" and 1) Airport, 2) Refugees and 3) Zombies.
     We shall see.

Nick Moran Contorts Himself Again
Nick, in case you are shockingly under-informed, is better known as "The Chieftain", and one of his pleasure in life is clambering over and inside various tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles.  This is no easy task, since he stands 6' 2", and there is barely enough room inside today's modern metal monsters for him.  He has found it very difficult to exit most tanks either quickly or without bruising, even when doing the "O b****r the tank is on fire" and simulating a panicked rush.
     Anyway, recently he has been doing his thing with an M5 Stuart light tank, so if Art -

O ta.

     Note the lack of sponsons, the single sloped glacis, the protecting metal cover that the turret machine gun folds down into.  Got that?  Let us now look at the M3 Stuart light tank.  Art?

T.V.M.***

     This has hull sponsons, a two-angled glacis and a turret of different shape and dimensions.  It also used a radial aircraft engine that gave terrific performance but which was a gas-guzzling monster, so the M5 has twin V8 diesel engines.

There we go - that's tanks and zombies covered, and if Art will just add in a picture from 2001 -

USAF Strategic Missile Platform

     - these things were all simply bristling with atom bombs.
     The BOOJUM! trifecta - tanks, zombie and atom bombs.  You know it makes sense!



*  He's been in the coke bunker again; it's too rich for him, but will he pay attention?
**  Of course, you love it really.  Right?
*** Ta Very Much