Year: 2009

Maybe Dogs should be in charge?

While dishonesty, in all its forms, is ultimately counter-productive (well, that’s the thesis of this Blog) sometimes integrity, as in a steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code, is complicated.

Take, for example, something very clear.  A person pays for an item in cash at a checkout and is short-changed.  That person has every right to point out the error and receive the correct change.  A person pays for an item and is given too much change.  A person with intergrity points out the error and pays back the excess change.  A person without integrity thinks this is a lucky day and walks out the store feeling pleased. Read the rest of this post

Flying

I just saw the video of Concorde taking off on it’s last departure from Heathrow. The first flight was in 1969. Man’s first landing on the moon was 40 years ago today. Hey, I remember that day! I left my home near Gatwick shortly after 3am to cycle some 100 miles to Bournemouth to see some relations. It was a beautiful clear night and I could see the full moon very clearly as I cycled along. Passing various houses I could also see people huddled round small black and white televisions watching man’s  first landing on the moon. As I continued to cycle west the sun shone and it turned out to be a beautiful day. The other thing I remember is getting sun burnt on the left side of my body. Strange that, and I never worked out why dogs howl at a full moon….

By Bob Derham

Baseline Scenario

This is an impressive Blog.  Impressive because of the number of subscribers and commentators.  Impressive because of the credentials of the authors, Simon Johnson and James Kwak, and impressive because of the quality of arguments presented by the authors and commentators and the force of reason that pushes back against the establishment.

Some of the content is quite technical although the Blog does have a good supply of articles to help those starting into the subject of the global economy.  But you could do no worse by starting with the article written by Simon and published in May 2009 in The Atlantic.  Called The Quiet Coup it is a masterful attempt at trying to explain where the real power lies in the US.  (And, as a Brit, I would not be surprised to see the same situation in the UK.)

Then ask yourself the questions: Is there any political integrity left?; Where is this ‘integrity’, or lack of, taking the US (and UK)?; What does the end-game look like?

By Paul Handover

Dogs and flying.

Anyone who has owned a dog will know that there is something very special about the relationship between a dog and humans.  Dogs have the ability to provide the purest form of unconditional friendship and for us complicated humans this closeness is so precious.   I mean who would have thought ……

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Resting and Playing

Few people go through their lives without periods of great angst and emotional pain.  Many at this very moment will be in the middle of situations that, perhaps, could be described as hopeless.  What on earth does that have to do with resting and playing?  Because, however grim life may look like just now, a period of rest or play makes things better.

Dogs (and many other warm-blooded animals) are masters of resting and playing.  Now, of course, it would be wrong to see these behavioural traits in the same way that we regard resting and playing but nonetheless they are great examples for us.  When dogs used to live their lives in packs, within the pack would be an Omega dog, the joker dog, whose role was to keep the pack ‘happy’.

One of the things that is apparent when travelling on the European Continent is how many countries still preserve Sunday as a day of rest.  Sadly not England and, it is suspected, nor America.  Maybe having a day of rest from whatever stresses and strains are in a life has much to recommend it.

So to with play.  And here’s a wonderful example of a group of humans having incredible fun and producing a remarkable result.  What’s the point?  Who knows.  But you can be sure that not one of the participants came away from that stage feeling worse than when they went in.

By Paul Handover

Concorde – the aviation icon, that is.

Health warning.  If aircraft and flying don’t give you a buzz then give this post a miss!

There’s a Forum in the UK that is subscribed to mainly by private pilots but also has a decent share of members from all walks of aviation including pro pilots and Air Traffic Controllers.  Love of iconic events in flying is often talked about.

Recently there has been a thread about the last flights of the Concorde including links to radio calls between aircraft and London Controllers.

Read on if you enjoy flying nostalgia big time!

Where’s the truth about our economy, Part 2

This may be Part 2 of an unending series! It simply beggars belief that no one in Government (I bundle at least the US and UK Governments together, in this regard) appears to have sufficient trust in their peoples to acknowledge the very significant risk of much worse to come.

Nouriel Roubini (aka Dr Doom) has just published a convicing argument that Mounting Job Losses Will Hurt Consumption, Housing, Banks’ Balance Sheets, Public Finances and Lead to Protectionist Pressures

Here’s just a small extract from the article:

If you include partially employed workers and discouraged workers who left the U.S. labor force, for example, the unemployment rate is already 16.5%

(Not sure if the above link can be accessed if one is not a (free) subscriber to RGE Monitor’s regular updates so the full article is included at the end of this post.)

But it’s the same old, same old.  Politicians don’t understand the huge damage that is being done to democracy by an apalling lack of political integrity.

Read the rest of the Post

The Moon, 40 years on.

Probably one of the highlights in my life was watching the Apollo 11 flight to the moon and back.  I took a week off from my job at ICI in Sydney, rented a TV and hardly slept during the whole event.

For those who shared those feelings of excitement as man reached out beyond his home planet, NASA has some wonderful archives including the Apollo 11 audio in real time.

America and mankind at its best.

By Paul Handover

The English are a funny lot

I refer to the English sense of humour.  There seems to be nothing like it from any other part of the world.

The roll call of British comedians is long and glorious but some of the strangest humour (from a non-English perspective) is typified by Monty Python and David Adams, the latter writing The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

From which very funny book comes the following quote,

There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. Its knack lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that provides the difficulties.

By Paul Handover