Conrad Confesses To Not Knowing Quite What A Bicuspid Is
Except that it's a tooth, and it begins with 'B', which is enough for our alliterative title today.
I have created the phrase 'Be careful who you bite, they may have the bigger teeth', which is a reflection both of karma and jaw muscle strength. This Intro concerns another case of both karma, having the upper hand and the very best - or should that be worst? - of manglement. Art!
This is a Massive Mystery MacGuffin, and will come into play later on, so put a pin in it, mentally. No, I don't know what it does or did, as this feature remains coyly unexplained by the narrator.
Woebegone Indispensable Narrator, hereafter WIN, was working at what Conrad guesses was a medical research facility, since he mentions both medical and non-medical consultants in the employment mix. WIN had been involved directly with negotiations for payment for a consultant and had been informed by HR that $250 per hour was the hard upper limit for a 'non-physician consultant'.
At no point, as remarked above, is there any detail about exactly what the business researched, because Conrad guesses once more that this would lead to them being identified very quickly, and lawsuits would follow. South Canadians love them some litigation. Art!
The judge gets $2,500 per hour
Back to the Massive Mystery MacGuffin, which, by interpolation, wasn't actually that massive. It was for use within the Medical Research Company's technology, which is why Conrad suspects Not Massive, and MRC had a set, limited, non-negotiable number of months to use the MMM, after which they would pay an, also non-negotiable, licencing fee of at least $40,000 per month.
The MMM was WIN's baby, so to speak, as they were responsible for the technology, for it's development, oversight and deployment, which they thought made them un-sackable.
Sadly, wrong. Enter Stupid-Level Assclown Manglement, hereafter SLAM, who promptly fired WIN, probably tweaking their moustache ends as they did so. Art!
The back-slapping about cutting costs didn't last long, because remember the 'limited number of months' issue about MMM? These rapidly elapsed, and then the $40,000 (minimum!) kicked in per month, for a product that was not being used, thanks to the project manager (WIN, do keep up!) being fired.
Ooops.
Cue frantic negotiations by MRC with WIN, wanting him to come back and do his old job whilst training up a replacement, so they could sack him again, one presumes. This is where he had the upper hand and background knowledge. He agreed, if he was paid $250 per hour, which HR jibbed at, until he revealed his prior experience of salary negotiations, and then they capitulated.
Your Humble Scribe has run the numbers here, and if we assume WIN did a 40 hour week, he'd be clearing $40,000 per month, which is a familiar-sounding number. Plus, there's the cost of his apprentice, who'd be on a far lower wage, thus perhaps $50,000 per month for both of them, which is a fair chunk of change, BUT MRC would be getting functionality out of Massive Mystery MacGuffin.
Alas no. WIN found a new job - delivering all the loyalty to MRC they had shown him - and left after a month, and the apprentice also left, probably getting the feeling that MRC were an excrement of an employer.
Who then had to fork out $40,000 per month to do nothing with MMM, until the terms of the contract either expired or were bought out; one presumes that there would have been at least a year built into the time MMM was to be used, perhaps even three or five, with an expensive (talking in the hundreds of thousands bordering on millions) clause to end things early. WIN doesn't seem to have kept contact with anyone remaining at his old employer as the tale ends there. Art!
A bicuspid tooth
Not a bad end result, mind, getting about six times normal pay and then <insert swear here> the employer who <insert swear here> you in the first place.
More Of Weeds
Conrad noticed this new item on the BBC's News pages earlier this week, and found it quite fitting, except it didn't quite fit into anything before today. Art!
Definitely a weedy matter! The item concerns an appeal by the Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside Wildlife Trust, for volunteers to clear away a particular invasive weed in parkland: the Himalayan Balsam.
If you were reading this blog nine years ago, you may recall Conrad's day out from work doing Community 'Balsam Busting' and here's a photo:
The link:Cheery as ever
The thing about the Balsam is that, like the Giant Hogweed, it was imported from foreign climes with no natural predators or competitors. Consequently, after it's introduction in 1839, it escaped from floral gardens and has been infesting the countryside ever since. Art!
Less deadly than the Triffid, agreed, but more troublesome because it's real. A small point but an important one, I feel.
"Gallipoli And The ANZACs"
Another of that 4 DVD collection I bought last year and have been watching intermittently of late. Art!
Once again, the title is a bit of a misnomer, as it covers the ANZACS in the Second Unpleasantness and on into Vietnam, although it retains the same sepia-tinted format for all three conflicts, which is a bit daft.
ANYWAY I did see an interesting collection of clips that I snapped to provide an illo. Art!
This is a fascinating little clip YES IT IS IT IS IT IS, showing one of a shipment of Swedish Bofors 37 mm anti-tank guns, which I think were 'acquired' by the British as they were being sent in transit via the Suez Canal. The timeframe was immediately after the fall of France in June 1940 and Perfidious Albion needed all the firepower it could lay hands on, legitimately or no.
First of all, note that it's being carried 'Portée', which is to say, on the back of a truck, rather than being towed. This way it doesn't get bounced and flung all over the landscape being travelled.
Secondly, note that the ANZACS correctly move it off the truck to get it into a firing position; all too often in later years crews would fight the gun from the truck, making it a highly-visible target.
Thirdly, by the end of 1940 this weapon was obsolete as an anti-tank weapon, since armour on tanks rapidly got thicker and thicker.
More to come. I bet you can hardly wait.
Hmmm I Shall Be Investigating This
There has been a plethora of adverts of late, and even before late, about the third film in Danny Boyle's '28 -' franchise and yes of course I've seen the first two. In fact I saw the first one twice and was thus the only person in the cinema who didn't jump when Jim triggers the car alarm.
ANYWAY - Art!
One wonders what can survive in the first place after the Rage virus gets loose again for a second time in the UK? How can the Infected possibly survive more than a few weeks, given that they vomit up a pint of blood at a time? No doubt there'll be some retconning to explain how the virus is still a threat after a generation.
ANYWAY ANYWAY I need to follow that link and see what they recommend.
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