Flying is on the Recline

Yes I did spell the heading right. It’s this article that I read that caused that heading.

It was a bit over the top by the Yanks in my opinion.

Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept an airliner when a fight broke out over a reclining seat.

The United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger objected to a fellow traveller putting his seat back.

What were they going to do? Shoot him through the window with  20mm cannon round? 

The Washington Post reported that the fight began not long after take-off when a passenger lowered his seat and a passenger behind him objected, inciting him to fury. A fist-fight broke out before a flight attendant and another passenger intervened. The pilot then decided to turn the plane around.

A United spokesman told the Washington Post that the pilot made that decision rather than carry on, being unsure of the scope of the problem.

Couldn't the pilot have just asked the cabin crew if they had it under control?

If I was the airline I would seriously be thinking of how to retire that pilot.

I see that there are  ethics to observe on seat reclining.

This is a low carbon footprint?

My favourite green movie.

 

Holiday entitlement.

I really can’t believe that our politicians are so out of touch with what the average commuter has to put up with, and come up with this.

We’re buggered if we are going to be inconvenienced by the Olympics.

Those poor MPs are going to take extra holiday because they are going to be put out by the road/rail chaos that will ensue during their puff piece that I for one never had a say in.

I mean , really, how many private companies would stay in business if every worker was allowed to take time off to see his/her (I must be PC here) entertainment of choice.

And the Nub is here.

Parliament will rise on July 13 to avoid the tight road restrictions being put in place for the Games.

So what. The public that pays their wages can’t just pick and choose to down tools when the local roadworks inconveniences them. Definitely a case of we are above you plebs.  They really haven’t a clue of how they are held in so much contempt.

Some comments on the article.

One rule for them... one for us. 'Twas ever thus.
- Abie Vee, Hendon NW££, 31/05/2011 16:17

We could pay off the deficit if all 650 of them went on gardening leave - and not one of them would be missed.
- R.F.Yorke, Yorks,, 31/05/2011 15:02

Why don't they shut down for their summer break and never come back? Parliament is an outmoded and useless institution that costs the taxpayer an obscene amount of money. Why do we need these parasites?
- Joe Blow, Wales, 31/05/2011 13:37

They obviously need the extended holiday so they can stick their snouts in the Olympic trough and not have to worry about getting back to 'work'
- Johnny Reggae, south east, 31/05/2011 12:42

What a joke!
They take 2-3 weeks at Easter, 6-7 weeks in the summer and 2-3 weeks at Christmas along with all school half-term holidays. This totals some 3-4 months holiday breaks per year. Maybe we should put them all in school uniform, pay them £30 per week and send them off with a packed lunch on the bus with their free pass.
The job does not end because it's a weekend, holiday or some form of anti-social timing. Get on with the job and start sorting out UK's mess. You could begin by scrapping your gold-plated pensions, reducing your holidays to maximum of 5 weeks per year and it would make a very pleasaant change for MP's to be affected by their decisions.
- Guy, Croydon, 31/05/2011 11:49

Strange? There was not one comment in support.

Signs of the future

If the country travels much further down this road of oppression, the sign below will likely become the norm.

The trouble with modern Britain is that so many laws have been passed in the last decade, no-one knows what is permissible and what is not. Where is the repeal bill promised to us after the election? That little stunt seems to have faded away into obscurity.

It’s the slow change from “innocent till proved guilty”, to “guilty until you damn well prove yourself innocent” which has overturned the fairness in our relation with the state apparatus. Parking fines, speeding in front of a camera, etc.

Oh and of course don’t swear at this article.

I’d like the Britain I used to know, back again.

They might not get him for speeding, but……………………….

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ELECTORAL COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE
CHRIS HUHNE'S ELECTION SPENDING

A complaint from the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics has triggered an Electoral Commission case review into Chris Huhne's election spending.
They state:
"Our assessment of the information indicated that there may be the possibility of an offence under Representation of the People Act 1983."

Their case review will report by August 24th.
--Ends--

The consequences of getting old

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests itself:
I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway,   I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.
As I head towards the garage, I notice mail on the hall table that I received from the post man earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.
I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the recycling box under the table, and notice that the recycling box is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the recycling first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the letterbox when I take out the recycling paper anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.
I take my cheque book off the table, And notice that there is only one cheque left.
My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the cup of coffee I'd been drinking.
I'm going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the coffee aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over.
The coffee is getting cold, and I decide to make another cup.
As I head toward the kitchen with the cold coffee, a vase of flowers on the worktop catches my eye - the flowers need water.
I put the coffee on the worktop and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers.
I put the glasses back down on the worktop, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote control. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.
So, I put the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.
Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:
The car isn't washed
The bills aren't paid
There is a cold cup of coffee sitting on the counter
The flowers don't have enough water,
There is still only 1 cheque in my cheque book,
I can't find the remote,
I can't find my glasses,
And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all damn day, and I'm really tired.
I realise this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail....

Kyoto dead?

Maybe not dead yet but certainly a possibility.

There’s some pretty big players in the game that are becoming sceptical in this new age of austerity. The USA, Japan, Canada, & Russia are all starting to rail back from the biggest con trick of the last fifty years.

The governments from all three countries opposed a new round of binding GHG cuts even before climate change negotiators from nearly 190 countries arrived in the Thai capital for the current round of talks.

The MSM seem to have kept very quiet about that.

Meanwhile in the UK our Climate change Buffoon is pushing on ahead regardless.

There coming for you now, you filthy drinkers.

Of course you were delighted that those evil smokers were kicked out of the pubs that they had enjoyed for so many years. Well I’m sorry to say that now the health Nazis have realised, that by their drip drip of insidious propaganda, they can brainwash the feeble minded liberal elite into a knee jerk reaction to enforce a minimum price for your chosen beverage.

They will start the de-normalisation process that they so well perfected on the smoker. It won’t be rushed but it will be insidious and steady.

Just little things such as dubious findings to tug the heart strings, and of course somewhere they’ll be the usual “Think of the Cheeeldren.

FIRE

The study also found that alcohol impairment was a cause of the fire in 25% of cases, and a factor
affecting response to the fire in 26% of cases. Alcohol impairment was often associated with fires at
night and at weekends.

Source:

Arson Control Forum: Learning lessons from real fires: findings from fire investigation reports. Research Bulletin No.9. Department for Communities and Local Government. July 2006.

Then of course I’m going to be facetious and look at the statistics from the other side. It would, in mind be safer to be drinking, as then your risk is only 25% as against the risk of being as a teetotaller, 75%. (Yes I know that someone will comment that this is a misuse of statistics).

WATER

Evil, hateful stuff to you foul drinkers.

There were 525 drowning fatalities in the UK involving adults and children aged 10 and over in the
home and garden between 1993 and 1999 (excluding suicide), an average of 79 incidents per annum.
85% of the incidents occurred indoors and almost all in the bath. Alcohol was a factor in 13% of the
cases. Alcohol affected females more than males and in particular the age range 40 to 59. The most
common causes were tripping or falling outdoors, falling into or slipping in the bath, and losing
consciousness or falling asleep in the bath while intoxicated.

Source: Drownings in the Home and Garden.. Consumer Affairs Directorate. Department of Trade and Industry. June 2001

They don’t actually state any figures for how much Alcohol imbibed. Was it one glass of wine or a whole bottle. Stand away from the Bath, NOW.

 

WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS.

Don’t ever think of having a half pint at lunchtime on a hot day (Caused by AGW, Natch).

Referring to substance abuse at the workplace, The International Labour Organisation states “in many
workplaces, 20 to 25 per cent of accidents at work involve intoxicated people injuring themselves and
innocent victims”.
In 1979-80 in the UK, the Health and Safety Executive investigated blood alcohol concentrations in 35
of 92 fatal workplace accidents reported to them, of which 7 (20%) exceeded the drink drive limit.
However, there little work has been done to up-date that figure, and there is no reliable estimate of the
current number of occupational deaths and injuries attributable to alcohol.
Institute of Alcohol Studies 21 April 2010

Various so called learned articles by Doctor X or professor Y will be dripped into the public consciousness over the coming years, no, months, to start your denormalisation in earnest. Your time has come.

 

Expect to see the headline soon. “Woman drowns in Workplace bath, trying to put out the flaming drink spilt on her, ignited by  cigarette”.

Of course this is just fiction. Couldn’t happen could it?

*FE pours another stiff drink*

Ocean Acidification

I was just reading a post over at Biased BBC about an Article written by Richard Black where he is exhorting us with his usual lack of scientific knowledge, that we are all doomed by a rise in ocean acidification. Of course the science is settled in the mind of dear Richard as he links to this piece of garbage. http://royalsociety.org/Inter-Academy-Panel-statement-on-Ocean-Acidification/. Now, if you can be bothered to read that article, it in no way gives you any facts or figures. It’s just a broad brush propaganda piece.

Now I might not be a scientist, but I was a Marine Engineer for over forty years, and did  keep a close eye on the pH of that wobbly stuff that I was sailing across. In all those years, never did I see a significant change in the pH. In fact I never saw as much change as one paper suggest there should be. Cited below. We took a lot of notice of the condition of the sea water, not for esoteric “ Save the world” reasons, but simply for our own survival. The reason being that I was serving on one of her Majesty's grey ships. It is essential to know the temperature and other parameters in order to counter the threat from Russian submarines.

A simple summary of pH is given below.

pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance and is one of the stable measurements in seawater. Ocean water has an excellent buffering system with the interaction of carbon dioxide and water so that it is generally always at a pH of 7.5 to 8.5. Neutral water is a pH of 7 while acidic substances are less than 7 (down to 1, which is highly acidic) and alkaline substances are more than 7 (up to 14, which is highly alkaline). Anything either highly acid or alkaline would kill marine life but the oceans are very stable with regard to pH. If seawater was out of normal range (7.5-8.5) then something would be horribly wrong.

As you can see there is quite a range in the pH values allowed. pH at any location also depends on temperature (Don’t go there unless you have a degree in mathematics), as the pH is related to the absorbance of CO2. Now Ocean currents vary from year to year, making reliable permanent upward changes in CO2 highly suspect. I take the reader has heard of  El Nino and La Nina which has a cyclical relevance to sea temperatures.

Dear Richard doesn’t seem to realise the wheels are rapidly falling off his band wagon. I suggest, in the interest of humanity that he should jump of before a wheel spoke impales him on the reality that climate change is a dead horse that fell before the wagon.

The Debate is not over

H/T to Counting Cats