Would You Like One Scoop Or Two?

No!  We Are Not Talking About Ice Cream
Frankly, I think it's rather despicable of you to even refer to delicious delectable ice cream that I cannot even eat THANK YOU DIABETES THANK YOU SO MUCH.  

ART!  Do not taunt me with what I cannot have!

     No, I am referring once again to the concept of Bussard Ramjets, and spaceships so-equipped, known in the business as "Ramscoops", since this is what the spaceship's giant electromagnetic catchment does - it scoops up hydrogen molecules and rams them together, creating fusion that helps to power the spaceship.  Art?

Both rammy and scoopy

     That establishes the background.  Now, one of the more influential and better-known sci-fi authors who utilised ramscoops was Larry Niven, he of "Ringworld" fame*.  In his "Tales of Known Space" you have robot ramscoop ships that are sent out under the aegis of the United Nations, moving at relatavistic speeds.  They don't need to bother about acceleration or radiation or micro-meteorite impact - they're robots, without a human crew, so they can cover a lot of ground space quickly.
     "How fascinating!" I hear you respond.  "So what?"
     Because they are programmed to seek out worlds can sustain human colonies, and to land and confirm same before beaming back said world's stellar co-ordinates to Earth.  There are several glitches in these roving roaming robots; for example, the planet Plateau, where the ramscoop found an immense plateau (Mount Lookithat) rising out of the incredibly dense, corrosive, poisonous atmosphere and sent back the message "Hey!  Fit for purpose!"  Art?

Mount Lookithat on Plateau

     Long after the robot ramscoops departed Earth, more colony ships loaded with humans in cryosleep set out, moving at much slower velocities, because humans are delicate meatbags.  When they picked up the Go signal from a ramscoop, the "slowboat" would divert to follow that signal.  You can imagine the "O Fudge!" faces when they landed and defrosted on Mount Lookithat.
     Sadly, the motley cannot be with us tonight, as he has a severe headache from eating seven tubs of Ben & Jerry's, at which I pointed and laughed.

More Of "The Battle Of The Bulge" That Epic War Film
At least in it's own mind.  They certainly didn't stint when it came to star power, you have Hollywood stars of the era getting underfoot everywhere.  One thing they did avoid was representing any real people of the event, which was wise, as they would probably have gone bankrupt under the libel charges.  Art?

A post-war American M47 tank, pretending to be a Teuton one.
(wearing a Tiger's skin?)

     It came out in 1965, and so did Dwight Eisenhower, the chap who had been South Canada's top military dog during the battle, and President besides: right out of retirement, that is, and O my!  Did he lay into this film.  He was not a fan.  Not at all.  In fact it was a good job the filming had finished, or he'd probably have gone after them with a gun.
     Then you have this chap.  Art?

Feld-Marschal Gerd Von Runstedt

     He was rather ticked-off at having to command the Teuton army in it's doomed offensive, as he realised it stood no chance of succeeding.  His opinion was that the South Canadians fought rather well, even when surprised, outnumbered and outgunned.  Art?

"An epic battle in the snow-covered, hilly and heavily-forested Ardennes fo - hang on - no, wait a minute -"

     I could do a whole blog post on this film, it's so fruitfully awful**.

"Paroxysm"
Now that I am settled back in my mancave, working from home doncha know, I have access to my Chambers Concise <hastily removes a stack of books and comics from atop of same> once more, and since I used this word last night whilst doing some annotating - still working on "18 Platoon" - I thought I'd better look it up.
     It means, lest you be unaware, "to suffer an uncontrollable outburst of -" and in my case it was Major Garner suffering a paroxysm of rage.  

Just so

     As expected, it has Greek roots: "paroxunein", which means "to goad", which transformed into the Latin "Paroxysmus" and then the word which you've probably not heard used in casual conversation for at least a decade.

"Mad Jack" Churchill.  You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

When, By Comparison, Stupid Looks Clever
First, a little background.  There is a movement over in South Canada called "Sovereign Citizens", who believe that by using certain words and phrases and documents that they can opt out of paying taxes and Social Security; I think I've mentioned them before.
     They are wrong.  Every time they have gone to court they have lost.  Usually they are desperate people in horrible financial circumstances, who have discovered the piffling shizzle that gets peddled in the name of SC, and decide to take it up.  They do have to pay the piffle-purveyors a lot of money for the privilege, though, and the fraudulent piffle-peddlers know what they're pushing is utter bunk, but - Hey!  It brings the rent money in.
     Enter Randy Rosado.  Art?

Randy's current domicile:  Lee County Jail

     He really landed his ass in a jagged-edged crack.  He not only bought into the whole SC drivel, he attempted to make tens of millions out of it by creating his own international court, making up his own legal system, making up his own legal documents and defrauding people whom he acted as a variety of "Legal counsellor" for.  

The con in question

     As if that wasn't enough, he sent out fake litigation against judicial officials in Lee County when they started to investigate him, including several judges.
     This was massively unwise.  In the South Canadian legal system, judges are the big dogs, with big teeth and mighty jaw muscles.  You annoy them at your peril, let alone try to extort money from them.
     Now, Randy was offered a deal: five years probation if he gave up the people higher up the SC food-chain, because that's who the police and courts wanted, rather than himself.
     Remember the title of this post?
     Randy refused the deal, insulted his defence attorney, fired them, represented himself in court and is now doing a 40 year stretch on 19 felonies.  Since he has access via prison IT, he is now bleating about his sentence and begging for money to either raise bail (unlikely as it stands at £1.5 million) or hire an attorney.

O schadenfreude ...

          All details thanks to the Youtube channel "Lawful Masses", which did a deadpan deconstruction of Rosado's pathetic wibbling and lying.

Finally -
Rather cross that Thomas Pynchon has not come up with a new novel.  Come on, Tom, neither of us are getting any younger!


*  It is so famous!  It is!
**  And if you are bad, I shall do.