Taking A Break

We Cannot Constantly Post About -

BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM, because too much of a good thing can cause irritability, skin rashes and an urge to pass the port to starboard.  SO! today we will be reverting to that other recent cause celebre, namely the film 'Greenland', especially because I've already taken photos of it thanks to the 'No Snips' software policy at Netflix.  Art!

     That's co-star Morena Baccarin, the Brazilian-born actress capable of dialogue in either Portuguese or English*.  And no, the camera goes no lower you disgusting perverts.  Besides, it's September and cold.  AND HORRORS her role in 'Firefly' was 22 years ago.

     ANYWAY let us recap.  There had been idle speculation amongst the cast about the entirely inconsequential impact upon planet Earth of fragments of the comet Clarke, until suddenly they are extremely consequential.  Art!

Consequential traffic jam

     John, Allison and their son Nathan are then required to travel across Florida to a rendezvous with South Canadian military aircraft that will loft them to safety in Toad Suck, Arkansas Greenland.  Of course - obviously! - things do not go smoothly or we'd be talking about a film that lasted for 34 minutes.  What you see above is the South Canadian public on the move, since it is better to move hopefully than to sit and fester grimly.  Or something.  Art!

      John's response to being stuck in a traffic jam is to reverse out of it, then connect backwards to a feeder road and head off in a different direction.  You can tell this is a film because nobody else copies his move, as they would surely do in real life mimicry in order to get anywhere.  After all, who is going to enforce a traffic violation when the violation database (and police station) no longer exists?  Art!

     My notes describe this as 'Seething scrum at gate' which is Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.  The South Canadian military is so inept it allows an enormous mob of 99% people who cannot get passage to besiege the gates.  Once again, this is within 48 hours of an Extinction Level Event and they are still bothering about being seen as awful human beings, if they dare turn people away, their next 53B Personal Audit Qualification will be C+?  Tut!  Art?

     This is more of a beauty shot, showing what it going on overall across the airbase, namely that masses of people judged suitable by the Eeeevil Gubmint are being evacuated to Toad Suck Arkansas Greenland.  Art!

          In this NOT AT ALL FORESHADOWING SCENE we see supposedly competent members of the South Canadian military sweeping our protagonists with metal detectors, and not finding anything.  This, gentle reader, is why South Canadian casualties were so high on Oma

     ANYWAY 

     Please note that so far we have seen absolutely 0% evidence of the Eeeevil Gubmint policy of NOT ALLOWING ANYONE WITH AN INCURABLE DISEASE onto the evacuation aircraft.  Nathan has diabetes, and has had for seven years, yet nobody in the organisation managing this evacuation noticed?  This is why South Canadian casualties were so high on Omah

     ANYWAY Art!

     This is a tender touching scene establishing a bit of mother-son bonding, and another excuse to put Morena up in an illo.  Whilst checking in and going through their kit, John and Allison discover that their son's insulin pack is missing, doubtless left behind in their car.  Ooops.  You can tell this is a film because normal parents would carry an insulin pack each.

     ANYWAY AGAIN John, being the Alpha Male he is, decides he's going to jog back to their car with 15 minutes to spare.  Art!

-

     This is he, arguing to get out of Robins AB, and nobody bats an eyelid - getting away from the evacuation flight? yeah fine whatever sir.  Nor does he explain about his son's insulin, being deliberately vague or it would spoil the next plot point, which has only been foreshadowed since about 5 minutes in.  Art!

     The hapless Allison inadvertently gives away the fact that Nathan has an insulin pump, which is where the 'No chronic illnesses allowed' policy suddenly comes into play.  We still haven't seen ANY evidence of such a policy anywhere and the officer grilling Allison seems determined to execute said policy even if it means the death of a seven-year old child, as if anyone is going to be alive in 48 hours to give her a medal for following procedure.

     Meanwhile John has returned with the insulin pack and boards one of the two cargo jets about to leave, only to find out by Amazing Wild Coincidence that a 'No chronic illnesses allowed' policy exists.  He exits the aircraft as Allison and Nathan are being expelled from the base, which is a good job as another Amazing Wild Coincidence  occurs.  Art!

     Apologies for the low-quality resolution here <shakes fist at Netflix no Snipping software>.  This is a 'perimeter breach', where a howling mob has broken into Robins AB.  Clearly, security is an unknown concept here, which is one reason South Canadian casualties were so high on Omaha 

     Conrad is not sure what they intend to do there as this mass of Hom. Sap. clearly exceeds the lifting capacity of the planes present.  However - that word again! - they are required to set the stage for the next plot point.  Art!

     A slightly better picture garnered from teh Interwebz

     We shall pause in our citric analysis and continue at a later date.  I bet you can hardly wait.


The Deeds Of A Dirty Dog

About a decade ago, when I was working in HR at the Co-Op in their Old Bank Building, all the official guff was about our 'Three-year journey to integrate with the Co-Op Bank'.  Then I went on jury service.  When I returned a fortnight later the topic of integration had been dropped like a glowing coal.  The Bank, it seemed, had acquired billions of toxic debt By Mysterious Means that were never clearly explained.  Art!

     " after splurging elderly friend's cash on wine and holidays"

     It all becomes a lot clearer now.

BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM
You  don't get off scot-free, matey.  Yes, more of our day at Bovvie.  Art!

 

With humans for scale

     This is a Matilda Mk I, an infantry tank in use by the British Expeditionary Force at the start of the war and which was sent to France in 1939.  By 'infantry tank' I mean a class of tank intended to accompany infantry into an assault, which meant it was slow yet heavily armoured.  It's moment of triumph was during the counter-attack at Arras in 1940 during the battle of France, where it's 60 mm frontal armour simply shrugged off Teuton anti-tank fire.  The Teuton anti-tank crews, though, were not bulletproof.

     The Matilda Mk I had only 2 crew, a driver and gunner/commander who sat in the turret and worked the machine gun.  Lest ye be unaware, this was a 0.50 calibre Vickers, a bigger version of the machine gun that fired armour-piercing rounds.  Art!

     Stick a pin in this, we'll come back to it.

Let Us Ladle A Little Invective -

O'er the Boorish Orange Oaf Himself.  Conrad will be sad when he shambles off this mortal coil as he's a never-failing source of hilarity, schadenfreude and epic cringe.  Art!

     This time, in front of the assembled world leaders, he blathered on about how he'd offered to build a new UN Assembly building and the UN cruelly turned him down, and it was all because of Covfefe.  Or something.  Gee, that worm in his brain must be working overtime to generate all these wonderful stories.  Keep on bloviating, Old Man! for Conrad needs the content.

You What?

This is one Conrad can get behind.  Art!

     No, not by 2030, the BBC article claims they can be ready to go by February 2026, which made my jaw drop.

     We'll see.

*  ENGLISH.  ENGLISH, not South Canadian.  Just so we're clear.