Author: Paul Handover

The truth about this crisis – and it isn’t pretty!

The coincidence of events

Today started like most days in that after a breakfast with Jean it was time to switch on the PC and review the news that had come in over night and think about what material might be appropriate for the Blog. But that’s as far as it went for a normal day.

Because a number of items came together in a way that left me reeling. Not because it was necessarily new information but because together they represent the most compelling evidence as to why this economic crisis happened and, more importantly, the terrible likelihood that our leaders aren’t go to fix it and that the future will bring an even worse calamity.

The US personal savings rate.

What, You Think The Savings Rate Can’t Go Higher?

This Post is entirely indebted to others. It is too important a message not to warrant dissemination on this Blog. (But read to the end to see a valuable tutorial from our own Dr.Jarrell.)

So thanks: First to Naked Capitalism for providing the link (Yves does such an amazing job). Then to Business Insider for the actual article, which is the bulk of this Post, as follows. Finally to David Goldman who provides the data behind the chart.

The article starts thus:

This chart should give chills to anyone hoping that Americans will stop saving and start spending again.

Postscript on reasonable men

In praise of thoughtful, articulate people who reason their way through life.

Let me say that I know no more about the person who is Neptunus Lex than anyone else who takes the time to read his Blog. And after I justify the sub-heading of this Post I will give you those links to Mariner Lex.

If you have come into the topic just now, then you may want to read the two Posts on fate.

The first Post was published on October 6th, the second Post the next day. In a sense, these Posts connect with the Carrier series by PBS that you can link to here.

Fate is the Hunter, part two

The introduction to this Post was published yesterday. The rest of this Post is Lex’s words and published with his written permission.

Fri – January 9, 2004 (post date)

The worst day ever

I don’t tell this story very often. Although the events inside it happened almost 12 years ago, the memory is still fresh, and still painful.

Over the years I’ve told it to two ready rooms, both by way of instruction – a kind of “been there, seen that,” in order to prevent anything like it from ever happening again. But it’s not one of those sea stories you tell over a beer, among friends. It’s a sad story. Maybe I post this one. Maybe I don’t.

Fate is the Hunter, part one

A theme about flying, pilots and fate.

Many, many pilots whether civil or military or private, have read the book by Ernest K. Gann entitled Fate is the Hunter. Ernest Gann was born a little under a hundred years ago, on October 13th 1910 and died, aged 81, in 1991. He is known, in the main, as an aviation writer and airline pilot pioneer but achieved much more besides.

Fate is the Hunter is a book about the workings of fate. And this Post is more than a reminder of Ernest Gann’s book and the message it carries, it is also about fate, as Part Two published tomorrow reveals.

Fate or serendipity has happened along to cause a number of recent Posts to be about flying. We had the Post about low-level RAF flight training in North Wales – Mach Loop. Then we had three Posts about air carrier operations prompted by the PBS Series, the first one being published on the 2nd October. Today, circumstance brought me to the Blog of another naval aviator, published by Neptunus Lex. More about him and links to the Blog later.

I want to set the scene by using the words of Ernest K Gann as he starts the preface to his book.

Defence forces and integrity

A personal reflection on the emotions stirred by the PBS series on the USS Nimitz

The last three days have seen Posts on the USS Nimitz. On the 2nd there was the first part of air carrier operations specifically looking at the challenges of a pitching deck. On the 3rd came the second part as the pilots and crew operated into night, still with the deck of the USS Nimitz pitching significantly. Yesterday, the Post carried links to background information including the excellent web site that PBS have on the USS Nimitz series.

So why raise the question of integrity?

Carrier landings: “A perishable skill!” Notes

Background information behind the YouTube Background videos shown on Learning from Dogs

Many will have found the video extracts about carrier operations on USS Nimitz thrilling, fascinating and superb watching. The first was shown two days ago and the second yesterday. In fact they come from an brilliantly executed

10-hour series from PBS in the US called Carrier. The film has an associated web site including the ability to watch all ten episodes in full. [NB – it has been discovered that the PBS videos may not be available in all countries due to licensing issues.]

The USS Nimitz was launched in 1972 and has an overall length of nearly 1,100 feet. WikiPedia has a good summary.

The final Post on this topic will be published tomorrow and will explore the questions of integrity and ethics that are associated with the emotions raised by the videos.

By Paul Handover

Carrier landings: “A perishable skill” Part 2

Carrier pilots learn about pitching decks, in the dark!

Yesterday we published the first of two 10 minute videos on YouTube about carrier operations on the USS Nimitz. Here’s the second video. Warning: Once you start watching you won’t be able to stop until the very end!

By Paul Handover

Carrier landings: “A perishable skill!” Part 1

Carrier pilots learn about pitching decks

A fellow author of this Blog, John Lewis, was chatting to me about a whole variety of items surrounding the Blog and future topics, etc. Our conversation strayed into flying and John asked if I had seen the YouTube extracts from the PBS Film about the USS Nimitz. I had not. They are gripping. Here is the first of the 10 minute videos. The second one is here.

A perishable skill? Watch and all will become clear.

By Paul Handover

Very few really saw this crisis coming; are we still in the dark?

Who really understood the forces of destruction building up in the global economy?

(This Post is longer than usual but doesn’t lend itself to being divided into multiple Posts – trust it is worth the read.)

Part One – How investing in the 80s was so hit and miss.

My education with respect to the sound management of one’s wealth came from a propitious mistake by a global insurance company, one of Britain’s largest insurance companies as it happens. Here’s the story.

Read the rest of this Post

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