BALLISTIC MISSILE FROG

No, That's Not Simply Word Salad

You see, Conrad was on the horns of a dilemma, because I had two potential Intros to create: one would deal with The Biter Bit, and the other would deal with the torments and travAIls of what people are calling 'Generative AI', and both would feature unions.

     So, in a fit of whimsy, I went off to that AT Art Generating website and decided to see what would come up with the Text Generator "Ballistic Missile Frog".  Because why not?  Art!

      It looks more like a Ballistic Missile Mole, in my opinion.  Don't look too closely at the wheels and suspension, the AI never seems to be able to get those correct.    For those of you who are shaking your head and tutting that Conrad has most definitely been at the cooking sherry, let me disabuse you: 1) We don't have cooking sherry as Conrad would rather go sober than drink sherry, and 2) Conrad is going sober as August is a dry month.  Art!

     Behold the old Sinister artillery rocket 'Luna', known to NATO as 'FROG', which I was told stands for 'Free Rocket Over Ground'.

     Okay, let us abruptly jump track and divert to the subject of The Biter Bit.  This comes from a Reddit tale as related on Youtube, where Original Poster worked in an unpleasant and toxic office environment, where he was sacked for having time off on the sick.  The currency in this tale is the Euro, so this wasn't in South Canada or the UK, perhaps Eire, or more likely the Continent.  Art!

     OP went to their union - more proof this isn't South Canada - and they mournfully confirmed it was a legal termination, time to wear sackcloth, rub ashes into your hair, hire a -

     Hang on - what's this? the clued-up union rep queried.

     Foolish OP!  They had completely overlooked details in their contract that stipulated commission payments, which they had thus neglected to ask for.

     To the value of €3,000, which is a tidy sum.

     So, OP went along to his boss, indulged in a bit of ambient chit-chattery and brought up the missing commission, to the instant response:

     "Conversation over.  Deal with my lawyers.  Goodbye."

     Unlike some, OP did consult with a lawyer, because they were ticked off and highly motivated.  Together they went through all OP's payslips - this must be a while ago since they're all electronic now - and found numerous minor errors, which added up to a lot more Euros over time.  This was officially notarised and a bill sent to Old Bottomhole Boss, on legal headed paper, which can't have improved either his digestion or temper.

     OBB then said he'd be delighted to settle for €3,000.  OP's lawyer informed him that ship had sailed long ago.  What they were after now was the full amount plus all those 'minor errors', which now amounted to <ahem> €10,000.

     Plus refund of pension payments.  Making a guesstimate of OP being on €25,000 p.a. and working for OBB for 5 years, at €500 p.a. paid into the pension pot, that's another €2,500.  Art!

     O, and 15% in compensatory damages - say another €1,500.

     Plus all the legal fees, thanks to OP having no choice but to take this legal action to recover what they were rightfully owed in the first place.  I can only guess what the hourly rate is for an employment lawyer in Europe, but it's going to be swingeing, Assume €100 per hour, with 10 hours worked, and Hay Pesto! another €1,000 added to the bill.

     This comes to a total of €15,000, or five times what OBB would have shelled out if he hadn't been so dismissive and arrogant.  "Call my lawyers" ought to have been put on the back-burner until he'd consulted his own counsel, who would have advised him to settle immediately.  Art!

BALLISTIC MISSILE CROCODILE

Rather Overshadowed By Terrestrial News

It does happen, in the middle of 'interesting times' other news that's not as dramatic or kinetic gets overlooked.  Thus - Art!

     This is big news.  We know that, up to three billion years ago, Mars had surface water in the form of rivers and lakes.  It's been a desert - on the surface - since then.  What the canny staff at NASA did was analyse over a thousand 'Marsquakes' as detected by their Mars Insight Lander.  Art!

     That's the tool which did the work, a seismometer (they seem to have given up on adding an 'ares-' prefix to things).  The splendidly-named Professor Michael Manga explained that analysis of the Martian seismic data, as used on Planet Earth to detect oil and gas deposits, reveals the presence of liquid water from six to twelve miles beneath the Martian surface.

     Epic stuff!  As I put it, there may not be life on Mars but there is liquid water.

"The War Illustrated Edition 192 October 1944"

I had considerable trouble getting a photograph from said publication to load yesteryon, Blogger wasn't co-operating at all at lunchtime.  Let's see if the jinx can be beaten this morning.  Art!

     Well now, who's finally admitting that the Arnhem part of Operation Market Garden was a failure?  There is a text article to go with this that I've not read yet - still wrestling with that biography of Himmler and another work on British supply in the Second Unpleasantness - which may cast further light.  Here, at upper port you can see an airborne drop going in, shot from one of the Dakotas doing the dropping.  At upper starboard is a still from a famous film clip; a British 3" mortar giving the Teutons some glad news.  This kind of firepower was an unpleasant novelty to the Teutons, who assumed the paratroopers would be but lightly armed.  Not so.

     At port bottom troops from the Border regiment line a ditch and hedgerow as cover, awaiting glad news themselves, and at starboard bottom comes evidence of the slow and costly urban warfare Arnhem devolved into.

"Just", Said Thom Yorke, "- Do It To Yourself"

I was minded of this lyric from Radiohead because of a certain Ruffian gas metering station in the Kursk Oblast.  This is known to be a strategic choke-point for gas export into Europe, or at least it was, before all those mean nasty Europeans sanctioned and embargoed gas exports from Modern-day Mordor.

     Well well oil well, whose territory does it now lie within?  That's right, Kyiv's.  This means the VDV deems it to be a legitimate target, so - Art!

    They glide-bombed the main process building and one of the four above-ground pipe access stations.

     Oooops.  

     The pilot responsible is used to flying.  I wonder how he likes his windows?

Now For A Much More Wholesome Item

Here at the blog we do intermittent items from "Geography King", which is Kyle's Youtube channel, usually featuring South Canadian geography because there's an awful lot of it to go around.

     This time it's "Even More Interesting US Islands".  I think I've already watched it once, since the islands seemed familiar, yet there doesn't seem to be any trace on BOOJUM!  So - Art!

     This is Rhode Island's (the state) 'Rhode Island', more usually known as 'Aquidneck Island' after the Native American name.  It's a fair size, 38 square miles with a population of 60,000, capital Newport.  Home to Naval Station Newport, which conducts all kinds of sinister technological experiments there.  Art!

     Unlike a lot of the other islands Kyle described, Aquidneck is close enough to the mainland to merit bridges, rather than just being serviced by ferries or small airports.  Art!