Rapina

Rapina – theft with violence – was a delict of Roman law.

Form

This was erected into a special delict in the troubled times of the Republic, and the rules became a permanent part of the law. The action was in factum and condemnation involved infamy. The penalty was fourfold, or rather, as this included the value of the thing, for threefold and compensation. As it was penal and praetorian, it was annua, but, as it covered compensation as well, perpetua as to the single value. Hence it was said to be mixta by some jurists and Justinian so decides, but it had the main characteristic of penal actions that it was not available against the heirs of the wrongdoer. As the act was furtum there would always be the condictio furtiva. The principles were in general those of actio furti. Thus it applied only to res mobiles in commercio and owned. The contrectatio must be fraudulosa.

On some points, however, there are slight signs of divergence. Thus we are told that what could be recovered was a multiple of the verum pretium, not of the interest the aggrieved had in the thing (interesse), but as one text tells us this of furtum also, the import is doubtful. Though in general those who could bring it were the same, one text, probably due to Justinian, says that any sort of interesse sufficed in this case; in classical law the rule of interesse was the same as in furtum. One text suggests that mere encouragement was enough to make a man liable for ope consilio, which is consistent with the genesis of the action. The action was a bar to actio furti and any action ad rem persequendam. Probably in classical law it was barred by actio furti, but under Justinian it was still available for any excess recoverable by it. It is plain that, in manifest theft, furti would be the better remedy, but not in other cases. It does not appear that the action could have been barred by vindicatio, at least as to threefold.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (abbreviated as MGM or M-G-M, also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or simply Metro) is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs.

Once the largest, most glamorous, and most revered film studio, MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California. It is one of the oldest mini-major film studios and a former major film studio.

In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, a plan which never came into fruition. Over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3, 2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM emerged from bankruptcy on December 20, 2010, at which time the executives of Spyglass Entertainment, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, became co-Chairmen and co-CEOs of the holding company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

SS.10

SS.10 is the designation of the Nord Aviation MCLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile designed by the French engineer Jean Bastien-Thiry, who later attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle and was sentenced to death. In American service the missile was called the MGM-21A. The missile entered service in 1955 with the French army. It was used briefly by the US army in the early 1960s. The missile ceased production in January 1962 after approximately 30,000 missiles had been built.

Development

Development began in France in 1948, when the Arsenal de l'Aéronautique in Châtillon sous Bagneux began looking at the possibility of developing the German X-7 missile further. The missile was designed to be cheap: In 1955 the missile cost 340 Francs, the control box 1,750 Francs. The first rounds were test fired in 1952. Development was completed in 1955 and the missile entered service with the French Army under the designation SS.10 ("Sol-Sol" French for "Surface to Surface").

The US army procured 500 missiles and three sets of launching equipment to evaluate a prototype version of the missile between early 1952 and October 1953, but concluded that the missile was not currently ready for use, but that the continued development should be monitored. After development of the missile was completed, the US successfully re-evaluated the missile in mid-1958, and the later SS.11 (also by designer Bastien-Thiry) and Entac missiles were procured for Army use.

MGM-18 Lacrosse

The MGM-18 Lacrosse was a short-ranged tactical ballistic weapon intended for close support of ground troops. Its first flight test was in 1954 and was deployed by the United States Army beginning in 1959, despite being still in the development stage. The program's many technical hurdles proved too difficult to overcome and the missile was withdrawn from field service by 1964.

History

Development

The Lacrosse project began with a United States Marine Corps requirement for a short-range guided missile to supplement conventional field artillery. The navy's Bureau of Ordnance issued contracts to both the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in September 1947, for the study of design aspects pertaining to this mission.

The missile system was named the Lacrosse because it employed a forward observation station which had a direct view of the target. The forward observation station was mounted on a jeep and after the missile was launched control was passed to the forward station for final guidance to the target. Hence the name Lacrosse which is how the game of lacrosse is played with the ball being passed to players closer to the goal.