Where Eagles Fare

NO! That Is Not A Typo!
You are more likely to see a periwigged piglet playing poker than you are to see a spelling mistake amongst these electronic pages, as I have told you often enough before.
     So, no, the above is not a reference to that thriller "Where Eagles Dare", although don't you worry, we shall be revisiting the Second Unpleasantness later on.
     Anyway, what I refer to is nothing less than the Ruffians carrying out scientific research, an item I picked up from the Beeb's website.  Art?

Russian eagle about to carry off it's prey!
(Actually not; that's just it's handler*)

     Russian eagles emigrate from their native SIberia at this time of year, and some inquisitive Ruffian scientists had added GPS collars to these large, dangerous birds full of talons and beaks - no mention of how they managed that feat - to see where they ended up and how they got there.
     Iran and Saudi Arabia were two of the answers, which came at a literal price, for the inquisitive scientists hadn't realised how far their birds were likely to travel, nor what kind of cost the GPS tracking would amass, which came in at a pretty rouble indeed.

Thus

     Our hapless Russkies, all volunteers with day jobs, were thus saddled with a bill of R100,000.  
     Erk!
     There is a happier ending; the telecoms provider supplying the GPS service, Megafon, cancelled the debt and put our heroes on a much lower roaming charge for the future.
     So, there you have today's title.
     Okay, motley, let us commence Gin Checkers!

Oh!  I thought I'd made it up.  Apparently a real thing.  Who knew!

Those Of A Squeamish Nature -
May want to put their heads between their legs now.
     Okay, the Sinisters had an Antarctic base at Novolazarevskaya in the Sixties, which name I have trouble translating, the "Novo" definitely meaning "New", and the "-skaya" is a place name (though not "Town" as that's "Gorod"), and "Lazarev" might be derived from "Lazarus", except that's a bit Biblical for the godless heathen Sinister, and the alternative is "Leper", which seems - odd.

The base in question.  Be careful what you dig up, chaps!

     Anyway, the hero of our story is one Leonid Rogozov, who was a doctor, and the only such at the base.  Thus, he was easily able to diagnose his symptoms one cold morning as appendicitis.
     Erk.
     There was no question of evacuation.  The journey to Antarctica had taken over a month by sea.  Air travel was out of the question as they were into the winter blizzard season, which also counted out going cross-country to another country's base.  Oh, not only appendicitis, acute appendicitis, meaning a burst appendix in short order, followed by peritonitis and death.
     So our gallant doctor gave himself a general anaesthetic, then, with the help of a couple of queasy assistants, operated on himself.

Leo in action.

     Any doubts you might have about Ruffians being softies is put to bed here; he operated on himself for two hours, and was back on the job two weeks later, fully healed.
     The penguins applaud!

"Right, lads, on the count of three - 'Hip -"

     There you go, a couple of accounts that rather balance our regular and more usual mockery of Tsar Putin, and you're welcome, Moscow.

     Excuse me whilst I go put the oven and kettle on.  That loose-leaf won't brew itself!

More Pyramid Scams
I hope you don't mind my repeatedly tapping into the baser side of human nature, as I do find the repeated occurrence of failed pyramid schemes a fascinating comment on both greed and ambition, attributes used to ensnare the gullible and credulous.
     Today we look at Equinox International, which claimed to be a "Multi-Level Marketing" scheme, a camouflage most pyramid scams use.

Founder Bill Gouldd.  You can tell he's lying - his mouth is moving

     It began in 1991 and like most of these scams, was successful at first, being listed as one of the top 500 business in 1996 by Inc. - which entity had also bragged about how fantastic other pyramid scammers were.  However, in the wake of this success came a lot of legal challenges from EI distributors and the wheels began to come off when the Federal Trade Commission became interested, smelling something rather ratty.

Bill Gouldd - no, sorry, a rat

     They investigated and came down with the ban hammer, very forcefully: EI was wound up and it's £30 million assets liquidated to be passed back to those who had been defrauded.  Bill was banned from ever trying another MLM scheme again, and by 2003 had been reduced to trying to sell his business vision at rather sparsely-attended hotel seminars.  I notice his Facebook page hasn't been updated in  two-and-a-half years, and the last post was a rant about people who complain about Equinox International.  The past comes back to bite you on the ass, eh Bill?
     Fascinating stuff!

Excuse me, gotta go put those fishcakes in the oven before Jenny discovers them -

What Have I Stumbled Into?
Yes, we are back to Lego again.  From what I observe, there are differing levels of those involved in the hobby, ranging from ham-fisted five-year olds up to middle-aged men who compose positive sculptures in the medium, and there's probably another sub-sub-culture who make animated videos of their builds.
     Anyway, Your Humble Scribe wondered, idly, if there were any Lego builds or kits that involved the Second Unpleasantness, so he Googled, with no expectations.
     Holy Hopping Dog Buns!  Art?

<the sound of Conrad being speechless>

     This is indeed the Matilda II, "Queen of the Desert", and in Caunter desert camouflage colours to boot, and with the white-red-white recognition symbol, and the turret smoke mortars - wow!  I am impressed that a faintly obscure tank from the very early part of the Second Unpleasantness is represented by a kit.
     Not sure if that's a Sten gun, because the Western Desert Force were using tommy guns at this stage of the war**.


At this point I am going to finish off, as lunch is waiting.  Chin Chin!


*  I had you going for a moment, didn't I?
**  Hair-splitting pedantry at no extra cost.