And Now For Something Completely Different

I’m not sure what to say about Ukraine except to say WOW their president is the most kick-ass president I have ever seen.

He was a comedian.

He was on Dancing with the Stars – on one occasion in a pink cowboy outfit that has to be seen to be believed.

And he did a parody video wearing.. well.. I’m not quite sure how to describe it. He’s the one with dark hair. He can really dance!

I don’t understand what is happening or how to make this war stop but I’m going to be keeping a good thought for this extremely talented man and his country.

In The News, Uncategorized

Isn’t It Ironic…

notnews

…that a website called news.com.au should contain so little actual news. Seriously? Your headline article is about a shopping fail? On a day when an Australian young person exploded themselves, killing 10 people in Iraq?

That news – and if you want to read about it, click here – does not even rate being in the top 4 stories listed on the site, instead, something about private detectives paid to have sex in order to bust illegal brothels, something about a pair of pants, and Maureen McCormick is evicted from a teevee show?

Well, the last one I am a little bit sad about because I did get sucked into watching the show and I loved watching Maureen on it, however this is the last week of the show so it isn’t that big a deal. It certainly is not headline news!

But it gets even worse. Check this out.

webgrab
Picture: web grab. Source – Snoskred – Life In The Country.

Web grab? Credit News Corp Australia? What the heck is up with that? So, we all can now go to any web site we like and grab a screenshot and then give credit to ourselves for taking it? I bet if I did that to a news.com.au photographer image, there would be threats of a lawsuit or something..

If the person who took the image happens upon this post, contact me with your name and I’ll give you *proper* credit.

I have long been thinking that news.com.au has jumped the shark and that it contained little news, but this is the day when I finally am giving up. I’m stating to you, out loud, that I intend to stop going there, foreverz.

Pretty please to hold me accountable on this statement. If I ever post here about news.com.au again, or link to a story on their site, I want you to slap me down hard in the comments section. SRSLY!

I don’t know how many more dress stories I can take, what with that blue or white dress last week, and now this. The only time I want to see clothes as a headline on a NEWS website would be if someone was killed by their outfit. A fashion site is a different story, of course.

So where can you get actual news now? Which sites do you go to?

Probably the only site I can think of is abc.net.au but if you have a decent news source, let me know. :)

Annoyed Snoskred, Aussie Culture, Fail Whale, In The News, Media

Perhaps Try Again

There has been all kinds of misinformation and bad reporting with this missing AirAsia plane, but I think we have a winner for the most incorrect press report thus far.

mediasilly

Hmm. Looks like a military helicopter to me. The fact that the press gets plane types wrong is something we Aviation Geeks are well used to, but I have never before seen them mistake a helicopter for a plane. This is a new level of wrong.

I have been nice and removed the name and twitter ID of this press person though others may not be so nice.

Some might see this post as a bit petty. While it could certainly be interpreted that way, I want to make the reason I am posting it clear.

When reporting anything, the press should TRY at least to get the things they say correct. When they cannot get something as simple as a helicopter VS a plane right, how can anyone trust the other words they say?

It will take time to find out what has actually happened here. In the meantime, this is my advice to you –

Take any reports re what has happened to this flight as pure speculation. Was it weather, was it X, was it Y, was it Z? We have zero idea and anyone claiming otherwise you should treat with enormous suspicion. The only fact we know presently is that the plane lost contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) and was no longer to be found on radar.

Ignore reports of the plane being denied to climb to a higher altitude. If the pilot had a reason to climb and he communicated to ATC that it was necessary and urgent, the request would have been allowed even if other traffic had to be re-routed as a result. I have listened to ATC scanners for years. Planes often make requests to ATC that are declined for a multitude of reasons. ATC have a job to do. If an emergency is declared their job is to assist the pilot to get safely on the ground. If an emergency is not declared, then their job is to manage the airspace. A request from a pilot to fly at a certain altitude or track is simply that – a request.

Ignore reports of “wreckage” found until you actually see it with your own eyes. We’ve been here and done this before with MH370. So much “wreckage” was found and none of it turned out to be related to MH370.

If you are looking for actual info, my advice is to forget the general media. They are clueless when it comes to aviation. You can try these sources –

There is a good article from Australian Aviation here if you are unfamiliar with the story thus far – Indonesia AirAsia A320 missing 24 hours (last updated 1040am AEDST)

The PPrune Thread

Aviation Journalist John Walton on Twitter. John often links to some other reliable sources as well, and if you have any questions he will try to answer them.

Aviation is difficult at the best of times. When you are taking people up into the air, a place we were never designed to go, there are always risks – as there are risks in anything that we do in life. Things can and do go wrong, people are lost, and that is utterly heartbreaking for their friends and family.

I cannot imagine how the families of MH370 must feel, so many months have passed and still that plane has not been found. I hope for a different outcome with QZ8501. Of course my present hope is that the plane landed somewhere and everyone is ok. The more time that passes, the less likely that hoped for outcome seems. :(

When things do go wrong in aviation, it would be wonderful if the media could report actual facts rather than hours upon hours of endless speculation, just because they have air time to fill.

I have written about air safety previously – Plane Safety – a must read for all – What Not To Wear In The Event Of A Plane Crash.

Fail Whale, In The News, life lessons, plane safety, things to remember

This one might be controversial.

I’m firmly of the opinion that if you want to stop school shootings, you need to stop people being able to get guns. Full stop.

What disturbs me when I look at those images of many people holding candles and sobbing like they knew the people involved which many of them do not, is that I know at least *some* of those people would turn around and defend the guy’s right to bear arms.

I’m not an American. And I certainly do not wish to preach at people who are hurting and in shock, but the ONLY way to stop this from happening in the future is to take away the guns. He could not have killed as many people with a knife or any other weapon, could he?

Think about it for a minute. The bill of rights which gave people the right to keep and bear arms was written in the early 1790’s.

Can you even consider what life was like then? Do you think the people who wrote it could honestly consider what life would be like now? Do you think they could foresee the rapper gansta’s who go around shooting each other? Do you think they would have considered that at any time in the future, homicide would become a leading cause of death in their country? Do people today need to defend their homes with weapons? Is it likely a grizzly is going to turn up on your doorstep?

If you want to change things you won’t do it with a candle and tears. You can only do it by changing MINDS.

And as far as the killer being a monster or evil or mentally deranged or any of those things – I firmly suggest you get a copy of The Gift Of Fear by Gavin De Becker. If you live in the US, you NEED this book. It very well could save your life.

Yes, it’s a sad and terrible thing what happened to those poor kids who were only trying to get their educations. It’s a sad and terrible thing that someone who was so young and seemingly had so many issues was able to get access to a weapon and then go on a killing spree. It has happened before. It won’t stop. This won’t be the last time. It will happen again.

Stop and think about this for a minute. If 9/11 was able to change things to such an extent – the patriot act, the airport security, many and varied changes across a wide landscape, why can’t this inspire the same kind of change?

When a person’s right to get an education and to live long enough to do so is directly at odds with a person’s right to bear arms, what happens?

If your country gave this man the right to bear arms, isn’t something very wrong here?

Gun Violence, In The News, US Politics

A challenge & housekeeping

You probably all know about NaBloPoMo – I got in too late and by the time I found out about it I’d already missed a day. However, I’ve decided to set myself a personal challenge of visiting every blog on the NaBloPoMo list, and leaving a comment, if I can. Want to join in the challenge? Say AYE in the comments.. I’ve already found a few great new blogs to read.

I’ve done a bit of moving stuff around on the sidebar today – the about me stuff has been moved to the top for a little while so you can read all about me if you like. Or ignore it, if not. ;) I’ve also added a bunch of new blogs I am reading. I don’t know if anyone uses the sidebar or finds it useful or looks at it, let me know if you think there’s too much there.

In other news

– A man in Adelaide said to his relatives that he thought he may have been bitten by a snake while gardening, and that he would go to the doctor “tomorrow” – he did not live to see tomorrow. Yet more evidence that some men would rather die than see a doctor.

– Britney Spears has dumped Kevin Federline. YAY! Good on you Brit. And ladies, let us not judge too harshly, we all have at least one K-fed in our past – as in a man who used you for money but you put up with it as long as he satisfied your needs.

– A young driver who was the only survivor in a nasty car crash has now been charged. Nothing the police can do to him will stop him from blaming himself for the rest of his life. Kids should not be allowed to load up a car with their mates and go driving. They need to focus on what they are doing. I feel sorry for this kid, his family and the families of the kids who were killed.

In The News, NaBloPoMo