Pre-Eminent Domain

No!  Not The Legal Principle

Which is the right of the state to confiscate private property for public use, usually for road or rail construction but sometimes for building purposes.  What, you think all the land that HS2 will cover didn't belong to someone?  They do get paid compensation, mind, unless we're talking about Ruffia, where they get vanished if they look like protesting.  Art!

     This is the Teuton 'IRIS-T' anti-aircraft missile system, and these here vehicles cost £150 million.  The aircraft-mounted version is capable of shooting down missiles behind the aircraft, which you have to admit is pretty cool.  Why is it here?  Because 'eminent domain' is a Dog Buns! boring term with an even more boring image attached t

     ANYWAY, this is another cautionary tale from Youtube, both about revenge and Malicious Compliance.  Original Poster was brought in at an engineering company by the owners, reporting in to the plant's General Manager.  The two of them did not get on, the GM always trying to put OP down and steal their credits and achievements.  Art!

Big industrial thing

     OP then decides that the business needs a website presence and goes to GM to get permission, getting the GM's standard dismissive response: "It's your division, do what you want."  OP does some research and creates multiple web domain names, to prevent anyone else from cyber-squatting on them.  When it came to paying, GM told OP to use his credit card and get the money back via expenses.

     'Are you sure you want to do that?' asks OP - which is  A GIANT RED FLAG to anyone paying attention.  Translated, it means THIS IS A REALLY BAD IDEA.

     GM tells him to do it and get out of his office, he has a business to run, yadda yadda Black Adder.

     Unfortunately for OP, his division is too successful.  In the space of four years it turns $3 million in profit, so GM decides he's going to take it over and bask in the glory, because the green-eyed monster was strong in this one.  To do this he needs to fire OP - who beats him to it and resigns.  Art!

Re: signs

     The kicker comes three years later, when the company OP worked for had sunk serious money into building an internet business website.

     That they couldn't use.  The web domain names were all held by OP, thanks to his using his own credit card in the first place.  The company rang non-stop for a week before OP responded.

     Signing off on their domain names was simple enough, but OP wanted revenge - and reimbursement.  They had to pay his running costs for the domain names, plus a finder's fee, made out in a cheque, and -

     Said cheque had to be hand-delivered to him by the GM.

     They were a bit leery on that point but OP had all the power here and they eventually caved.  The bottomhole GM did meet with OP in a coffee-shop, handed over the cheque and barked that he wanted the domain names released right then.

     "No," replied OP.  "They get released when the cheque clears."

     GM is livid and simmering with impotent rage.  I can imagine OP snapping his fingers under GM's nose, and he got further insulted with OP's riposte as he walked out "I'm just doing what I wanted."

     Tee hee!

     The GM got off lightly, in the Comments people were saying if it were them getting barked at in a coffee shop they'd have torn up the cheque, rung the company and informed them the price had doubled and why.

"All Quiet On The Western Front"

Conrad, because he is a Very Sad Man, has a comment on the end text that comes up at the end of the film, where they say the front lines hardly moved since trenches were initially dug in late 1914.

     Hmmmm this is being 'economical with the truth'.  Art!

     Once the big Allied counter-offensives began in August 1918, the front lines moved back a considerable distance, up to 100 miles in cases, and in fact one reason the Teutons negotiated an Armistice was because Germany itself was going to be invaded.

     ANYWAY props to actor Felix Kammerer who played Paul, the lead character.  He is constantly covered in filth once he arrives in the trenches.  Art!

     Poor bloke.

     Also, a little background.  The French 'Marechal' in the railway carriage at Compiegne was Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch, head of the Allied Armies, who was about as far from the 'Donkey' stereotype as possible.  Art!

Follow The Money Pit

Yes, once again we are gloatingly recounting the financial woes being piled upon Ruffia and the Bloaty Gas Tout.  Back in February the Ruffians declared an intent to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day (hereafter BPD).  This was a 5% cut in daily production, forced on them because they couldn't find anyone to sell to.  Art!

So many potential calypso bands ...

     Now they are saying that they'll be cutting production by 650,000 BPD later in March.  Thus the daily BPD will be down to 8.85 million, which is a reduction of 11.5%.  Again, because they cannot simply pivot and sell to India and China.

     Ah, but it gets worse!  You see, China and India have been buying all that crude oil at a whacking discount, then refining it and selling it.  This is in direct competition with Ruffia's trying to sell it's own refined fuel products.

     Ah, but it gets even worse!  Cutting production means closing down oil wells, and as we've said before, doing this is not like turning a tap on and off.  Because most of Ruffia's oil wells are in the inhospitable Arctic, turning one off for any length of time means the oil gels and clogs the wellhead and pipeline.  At that point it's cheaper to drill a new well.  Art!

     If this is 'all going according to plan' Conrad shudders at what things might look like if they went off the rails.

"The Sea Of Sand"

When last we left him, the Doctor was plotting how to get back into the bio-vore complex at Makin Al-Jinee.  Without being killed, preferably.

Sheer inevitability, as the Doctor knew.  The bio-vores came from a metal-deficient environment.  Those Sahariana’s represented an incredible free mineral bounty, too much temptation to resist.

          Which was why, an hour later, he hung underneath the hot, rusty, oily undercarriage of a Sahariana, roped securely to the exhaust system.  The plan was to sneak in, get the TARDIS and sneak out back to Mersa Martuba.  Simple, and no need to use the atom bomb just yet.  Simple if everything went smoothly.

 

Sarah joined Doretti on the viewing platform, using the Doctor’s own telescope to check on his situation.  The car he chose lay almost beyond view from Mersa Martuba, a static speck on the shimmering, baking gravel.

          Phew!  If I get home safe from this I promise never to moan about a London summer again! she promised herself.  Doretti took pity on her and offered his fatigue cap to shade her head.  Sarah regarded the dirty, greasy article with misgivings, but felt relieved when the Italian insisted she take it and put it on.

          Is it making my head buzz? she wondered.  There aren’t any flies out here.  So what is making that noise?

          Doretti, however, manifested an air of confused attention, casting around for the source of the noise Sarah could hear.

          ‘What could that be?’ he asked.  Sarah shrugged. 

          ‘Oh no!  It’s coming from the dig – have those monsters discovered the Doctor?’

     Tune in tomorrow, Bat fans!

Finally -

I did mention digging out my copy of "2017 War With Russia", and have re-read the Foreword by the author, General Sir Richard Shirref.  There's a fair bit to discuss about it, both where he was right and where he was wrong, which is far too large a topic to summarise in 'Finally -', so expect further pontificating.