#pioneerin a new world

[sublimerhymes]

Ten-Twelve Shebang by John O’Brien

She never had no side-doors, and she never had no screen, Such things were not invented when they built that old machine; The paint is none too clever, and her lines is none too flash, She’s ugly as a bag of mice with that four-cornered dash; Her back seat’s like a pulpit, and her hood’s no masterpiece, She’s knock-kneed in the hind wheels, and her diff. is leakin’ grease; And every dead-beat motor yarn, as fur as I can see, Is trotted out by some durned goat, and tacked on her and me. The cove that drives the limousine that’s standin’ by the kerb (A “thirty” job with wire wheels and finishin’s superb), He wears a cute, sarcastic sort of damned annoyin’ smile To hear me chug along on three, misfirin’ all the while; But, ’struth, he’ll be a hen-roost lookin’ silly in the sun Before he notches up the miles that this ’ere car has done. We’ve scoured the bush from end to end, together, her and me, And sampled every sort of road from Hillston to the sea. I’ve filled her up with mountain snow to keep her rady cool, And boiled her dry in black-soil mud along be Carrathool. From Bega out to Broken Hill, from Forbes to Dederang, They’ve heard of Lightnin’ Charlie and the Old Ten-Twelve Shebang.

“Lightnin’ Charlie”! Spare me days, but give a bloke his due, For Charlie earned the monniker when that old truck was new. The first car in the district, lad! You should have seen the fuss The evenin’ Charlie hit the town a-drivin’ that there bus! You should have seen the mob go mad! You should have heard the noise: The tootin’ horn, the wild delight of all the dogs and boys! At every window in the street you’d see a head appear, The thirsty blokes at Mrs Flynn’s ran out and left their beer. This joker in the limousine, with all his swank and power — He don’t know what it’s like to be the hero of the hour. To leave the crowd cafoodlin’ round dumbfounded at the show, And cockies gawkin’ underneath to see what makes her go, He don’t know what it’s like, he don’t, to take the girls for drives, And get them in a motor for the first time in their lives; To open out and let them have the thrill that beats the band, And hear them do their heads and say, “Ah, Charlie, ain’t it grand!” He never drove a governor, but this old gasophone It held his Nibship ’fore he had a motor of his own. It’s dinkum what I’m tellin’ you: you recollect the year They opened up the ’orspital, and all the nobs was here. The squatters with their spankin’ pairs were four and five abreast, And all of them were at the train hoping for the best. No charnce! They slipped a cog that day — the blinkin’ head serang He drove with Lightnin’ Charlie in that Old Ten-Twelve Shebang.

She’s noisy in the timin’, and she’s wobbly in the wings, She’s got a knock in every joint and songbirds in the springs; There’s no one wants to hire us now — them good old times are dead When every hour was paid in cash, booked up a week ahead. To picnics at the river bend, to dances done in style, I’d take ’em out and bring ’em home at one-and-three a mile. They’d start the echoes with their songs, their jokes, their gags and such, And here’s me fig’rin’ out the while a rattlin’ in the clutch. But when the bus was pullin’ sweet and jugglin’ with the load, The headlights larkin’ with the moon, and pickin’ out the road, The tree-trunks swishin’ as we went, the song of steel to steel, A sporty, rorty party up, and Charlie at the wheel, ’Twas great to hear them rise them tunes I knew when I was young — The sort that get you all the more the more you hear ’em sung. I’d listen like a bloke entranced, and feel me spirit soar, The engine revvin’ like a top, and firin’ on the four, And all the outfit joinin’ in and helpin’ things along, The tappets keepin’ bonzer time and vampin’ to the song. They’d start the feelin’s in me hair, and race ’em past control, They’d send ’em tremblin’ through me blood, and sparkin’ in me soul; And meltin’, too, the hearts of them that let the world go hang When ridin’ out with Charlie in the Old Ten-Twelve Shebang.

The first car in the district, yes! and still left in the hunt, Three figures on her number-plate and bucket-seats in front; She rattles like a tin of bolts, but yet when all is said, ’Twas her and me that done the bit to shove the game ahead: We paved the way for slap-up jobs like this ’ere limousine, With gadgets round her dashboard like a blinkin’ submarine. Fool-proof, with sweet-engagin’ clutch, the ladies drive ’em now, But stuck, and findin’ out mistakes, ’twas Charlie showed ’em how. And when, at swell club-dinners met, the big guns of the trade Puff out their chests and speechify about the progress made, Because some mad, well-meanin’ bloke has stonked the fast express, And chopped the standin’ record down by half a shake or less, They drink his health and pull his leg, and skite of what he done (On metal roads, with engine faked, and gearin’ three to one). But if they got the figures right, they’d handy them bookays To blokes who pulled the mot’rin’ on in pioneerin’ days, Before the service station came with stock of parts complete, When George the blacksmith helped you with the job that had you beat — The blokes who gave to later blokes the comforts they enjoy, And proved the car was somethin’ more than just a rich man’s toy; Then when they tumbled to themselves, they’d stow the wild harangue, And sling a cheer for Charlie and the Old Ten-Twelve Shebang.

#australian poem #australian poetry #poem #rhyme #poetry

[megadarkbouquettidalwavethings]

A science news preview of 2018

From next steps in the commercial space revolution to a rocket-powered supercar, there’s much to look forward to in 2018.

BBC News looks ahead to some of the biggest science and environment stories coming this year.

World in motion

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 will follow in the footsteps of its pioneering predecessor — Photo: AKIHIRO IKESHITA / JAXA

2018 will see a raft of space missions that highlight the international nature of present-day space exploration. First up is Chandrayaan 2, India’s follow-up to its groundbreaking lunar mission launched in 2008.

While its predecessor was an orbiter, Chandrayaan 2 will comprise an orbiter, lander and rover developed by the country’s space agency, ISRO. The mission is currently slated to launch on a GSLV rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh around March.

In May, Nasa will launch its Insight spacecraft to Mars. Insight will use a sophisticated suite of instruments to probe deep beneath the surface of the Red Planet, looking for clues to how it formed. It will also listen for “marsquakes” which could shed light on the planet’s internal structure.

Nasa’s Insight mission will look for “Marsquakes” – Photo: NASA

In July, the Japanese space agency’s (Jaxa) Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will arrive at its target, the asteroid 162173 Ryugu, in an effort to return samples of this space rock to Earth. Its predecessor, Hayabusa, captured the world’s imagination when, in 2005, it reached asteroid Itokawa.

Although that mission suffered some mishaps, it managed to return to Earth with some tiny specks of asteroid material – enough for scientists to get information from.

Engineers have made several improvements for Hayabusa 2, which aims to build on its pioneering predecessor by returning even more asteroid material and successfully deploying several small landers to Ryugu’s surface.

Japan won’t be the only country to visit an asteroid next year. Nasa’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft, launched in 2016, is due to rendezvous with the object known as 101955 Bennu in August. Osiris-Rex will also aims to collect a sample of soil and rock and get it back to our planet for analysis.

Finally, Europe and Japan could despatch a mission to explore the first planet from the Sun: Mercury. The mission, Bepi Colombo, will seek to deepen and extend the knowledge gained at Mercury by the US space agency’s recent Messenger spacecraft.

BepiColombo consists of two spacecraft launched on one rocket; the mission will carry out detailed mapping and investigate the planet’s magnetic field. Scientists hope to shed light on key questions, such as why Mercury seems to consist of a large iron core with just a thin shell of silicate rocks on the outside.

Commercial space race

Elon Musk tweeted pictures of the Falcon Heavy under assembly — Photo: SPACEX

2018 should be the year Elon Musk’s private launch company SpaceX lofts one of the most powerful rockets ever built: the Falcon Heavy.

In December, Mr Musk tweeted tantalising photos of the huge vehicle under assembly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The heavy-lift rocket consists of two of the company’s existing Falcon 9 boosters strapped to a central core stage. The 70m-long leviathan has been designed to launch payloads up to 57 metric tonnes into space, allowing SpaceX to move into new satellite launch markets and – eventually – loft astronauts beyond Earth orbit.

Private firms could also take significant steps towards their goal of transporting crews to the International Space Station (ISS) – but it’s always possible the schedule could slip to 2019.

Under current plans, SpaceX and aerospace giant Boeing would perform the first crewed launches from US soil since Nasa’s space shuttle was retired in July 2011. Since then, the US has been reliant on Russia’s Soyuz launcher for transporting crew to the ISS – something that has rankled many who work in the American spaceflight sector.

Boeing’s Starliner could eventually transport astronauts to the International Space Station — Photo: BOEING

Both companies plan to test their launch systems, performing uncrewed demonstrations in the first instance to gather engineering data. Then, they are expected to launch astronauts in the vehicles. But with the lives of Nasa astronauts at stake on a brand new launch system, nobody will be taking any chances – so delays are not out of the question.

But successful tests (whenever they happen) should lead to both systems being human-certified by the US space agency, allowing SpaceX and Boeing to begin fulfilling contracts to transport astronauts to the space station.

These craft should later be joined by Nasa’s own launch system – the long-awaited (and expensive) Orion capsule and SLS rocket, which will be used to send people beyond low-Earth orbit. If everything proceeds to plan, Orion could be launched on an uncrewed test flight in 2019 and a launch with astronauts in 2021.

Need for speed

After several schedule slips, the UK’s Bloodhound car should step up its assault on the land speed record in the autumn.

Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the car was put through its paces on the runway at Newquay airport in 2017. That was “slow speed” testing – at just 200mph (320km/h).

Next, the team aims to exceed 500mph (800km/h) on South Africa’s Hakskeen Pan this coming October.

That’s still short of the existing world land speed record (763mph/1,228km/h), but it ought to provide the necessary engineering data to push the car to ever higher speeds in 2019 and 2020.

The eventual goal is to pass 1,000mph (1,610km/h).

Source: BBC

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