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Stu Savory's Blog
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Monday, November 28, 2005
The Ultimate BLA-ging Keyboard™ Carried over (sic!) from the days of the mobile mechanical typewriter, as used by gossip columnists and political commentators the world over, now reissued especially for use by BLA-gers everywhere, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you - The Ultimate BLA-ging Keyboard™ ! Painted halfway between envious-green and British racy green, this German artist's construction is ideally suited for BLA-ging on 3 key subjects. Note the double-barrelled cigarette holder on the left for sinister writers and on the other side, a place to put down right wing fags (like Karl Rove). The keys, applied by using uncivil-service triplicate forms, bear all the letters needed for regular BLA-ging, viz, BLA-ging about :-
P.S. FYI, the Urban dictionary has several definitions for BLA-g. Saturday, November 26, 2005
Wot U sedAnna Pashen (Brisbane, XXXX) liked the Bulldog photo and pointed me to some in Oz. She wrote "If you go to the Deviant Art main page, you can search for 'bulldog' and find a lot more - sketches and paintings as well as photos."In the early nineties there was a flood of detective stories WITHOUT explaining the solution. Like the poor policeman in Agathie Christie's works you were given all the clues, but had to work out who-dun-it yourselves. I joined the trend at the time and wrote one myself. Now, 14 years later, a girl called Nadja phoned me out of the blue and said she'd just read it ( it's online here) and wanted to know who-dun-it? 14 years on? I'd have to work it out again myself :-( Betsy Devine and I have been swapping Bushwhacking acronyms , viz:
Punny Peter points me to a link with "more goddaming "heavy dents"... this is going to play on my mind now... 'armygettin'", his link goes here. Gitta, who works at Polo, tells me I should have waited to buy the Schuberth C2 helmet from them, they have it on special offer at 289 Euros, not the 333 that I paid at Louis :-( She also adds that helmets are also available in XXXL (size64/65), even larger than I need, so there are bikers even more big-headed than I am ;-) A search engine sent French student Dee-Ann here, although she was looking for the poem that is cited by the teacher (played by Robin Williams) from the movie "Dead Poets Society". So I mailed her Walt Whitman's "My captain, my captain". Presumably she got her homework done, because I heard nothing else. Gratitutude, thy name is silence. Here's a link I sent to hamster-lover Jeneane Sessum; macabre, idnit, Jeneane ;-) For Haggiswurst here are some D-I-Y bagpipes :-) Got my first Phishing telephone call yesterday! From someone who must read my blog. Well sir, let me assure you that I know no-one! NO-ONE!!, called Zebediah, nor would I want to, it sounds too too redneck to me. No nigerian accent though, and the callback number didn't even have the digits 419 in it ;-) And finally, Caroline read the flight log and asked for a final (sic!) photo of my home airfield...  Thursday, November 24, 2005
Schuberth C2 crash helmet review
I'm a big-head!
Size 63+ actually. That means a circumference of 63+ cms around the brow (=XXL).
Since I fell off my motorcycle in June, I decided I needed a new helmet. Even although it had no visible damage, a helmet is only built to take one knock. So this helmet review is for any other bikers amongst my readership, like :-
For the past eight years I've been using a BMW system 4 helmet, the best available 8 years ago. This time I went to both the Polo and the Louis helmet shops and soon narrowed the choice to the Caberg, the Nolan 101, the Schuberth C2 or the BMW System 4 (again). The Nolan 101 doesn't seem to be available in the size I need, although I could see immediately that requirements 1,7,8,9 and 10 were fulfilled. The sales person, a knowledgable biker himself, said the Caberg would fail on 2,4,5, it being more for the Chopper and Gold Wing fraction than hard FJR1300 pushers like me. So I ended up comparing a new Schuberth C2 with my existing BMW System 4. The shop had to order one for me on trial, as they had nothing in my size. Just a 3-day wait though :-) The largest size Schuberth do is a 62/63, so I wore it for 20 minutes in the shop, both with and without a thin winter balaclava. OK, but rather airtight in winter, until they showed me where the extra vents were (gasp, gasp) :-) After adjusting the chinstrap, I shook my head around to check that the helmet was not loose and, as usual, checked that it couldn't be pulled off. The salesman then agreed to a 3-day test-ride period, once I had shown my ID. This is important, because the things are rather expensive (the Schubert cost me 333 Euros (listprice is 420 Euros)), and it's the only way of verifying that reqirements 2,3,4 and 5 are met. Here are the results:- Noise. The Schuberth C2 is VERY quiet. About 6 to 8dB quieter than my BMW System 4, I would estimate. I rode it on the autobahn at full speed (over 250kph) without earplugs for 5 minutes. Just tolerable. The BMW helmet is not tolerable above 200 kph without earplugs for more than 2 minutes. Wearing the Schuberth C2 WITH earplugs is quite silent; you can't hear the engine (a 1300cc 4 cylinder FJR1300), and below 120 kph (country roads) you can barely hear the wind of your passage. Excellent! In town though you can hear car horns, well damped. So, apart from autobahn-burning rides, earplugs are not needed :-) Nor would they be needed in any other country, but Germany has no speed limits on the autobahn :-) Comfort. My BMW S4 is slightly more comfortable than the Schuberth C2. That is because the BMW has adapted to my head-shape over the years, whereas the C2 is still a fairly tight fit. The C2 should improve with age, though :-) Aerodynamics. The BMW S4 helmet has uplift at speeds above 180 kph, pulling up on the chinstrap somewhat. It also buffets in the fairing vortices if you turn your head even slightly (e.g. to look in the mirrors). FYI, I'm 182 cms tall and I had the variable windscreen of the FJR1300 set to the 'full-up' position. The Schuberth C2 is neutral (no uplift, no downthrust, even at over 250 kph) and has NO buffeting, a definite improvement here. I did max-speed runs in both directions to check the aerodynamics. Non-biker readers may not know this, but it's the bits that stick out of the fairing which dictate your top speed. So tuck in your elbows, feet and shoulders; then the helmet has the top (sic!) influence on aerodynamic drag. Well tucked in and wearing the BMW S4 helmet, the FJR would pull to the red-line (it's slightly undergeared solo, being optimally geared for a tourer with 2 people plus luggage). Wearing the Schuberth C2, the FJR would pull solo 300 rpm into the red zone, so the Schuberth C2 is a better faired helmet, causing somewhat less aerodynamic drag, for what it's worth. Operability. I've gotten so used to the BMW S4 over the last 8 years that it took me about 300 kms (½ day) to change my (instinctive) feels for the different position of the various levers on the Schuberth C2. The main air ventilations are central on the chin and above the visor. Good ventilation, with a clear cutoff. However you need to make sure the visor is seated properly and air/water-tight before setting off; the BMW snap-shut was easier here. The Schuberth C2 has a sun-visor, operated by the sliding lever behind the left ear. My BMW S4 has no sun visor. The Schuberth C2 has a single red button for opening, the BMW has 2 (one on each side). In an emergency, a non-biker would thus find the Schuberth easier to open. I'll need to put a sticker on the right, saying 'open other side' ;-) Visibility. This was such a non-problem with the BMW S4 that I forgot to include it on my requirements list :-( However, it is a point with (minor) disadvantages for the Schuberth C2. The C2 is a BIG helmet, wider than the BMW. This means that when you turn your head (e.g. in town) to look over your shoulder when turning, pulling out etc, the helmet can be obstructed by your own shoulders. You need to get into the habit of lifting your head slightly (1cm?) to ensure shoulder clearance. Maybe this was because, wearing the BMW helmet, I'd gotten into the (bad) habit of tucking my neck in, to avoid any of the buffeting as described above. The Schuberth C2 also comes down deep over the brow, in my case just touching my eyebrows! This means that I need to wear spectacles with smaller frames. With the BMW S4 (no sun visor) I'd had to wear sunglasses in summer and autumn (low sun). My sunglasses are large wrap-around glasses. If I wore these with the Schuberth C2, it would touch the glasses at my brows, pushing the glasses hard onto my nose, rather uncomfortable. But because the Schuberth C2 has that neat internal flippable sun-visor, I did not need sun-glasses and my normal (smaller) clear spectacles could be worn. In fact this a better option! I can ride with the sun-visor down, just flipping it up when entering tunnels or going through a dark wood etc :-) Decision. Yes, I bought the Schuberth C2 as you may have guessed, as it seems better overall than the S4. One tip though : get yourself a can of RAIN-X and apply a little to the outside visor. It ensures that rainsdrops run off easily at slow speeds (< 70 kph). At faster speeds the wind clears the helmet of rain. The anti-fog internal coating works as expected, BTW. So yes, I can recommend the Schuberth C2 helmet, hoping I never need its primary function :-)
PS: I see that you henpecked 'Merkin guys are allowed to stuff your birds today, Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Many, many Merkel up-Arsin'
"Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin", the writing on the wall, means "thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting". Today we got a new government here in Germany, a coalition between the socialist SPD and the conservative CDU/CSU. A coalition because neither party got a clear majority in the elections some 4-5 weeks ago. In fact both did so badly that they didn't even have enough votes to form 51%+ coalitions with their favoured minor parties, thus having to cooperate with their previous opposition to get over 50% in toto :-( You can imagine what a lousy compromise this will be; many up-arsin' indeed :-( Under the chancellorship of Angela Merkel, one of those rare women so awful that men get a soft-on, the coalition have decided to increase taxes (VAT, income tax), reduce subsidies, stagflate pensions, cancel Xmas pay for draft soldiers etc, pare down unemployment benefits, reduce housing subsidies, increase the national debt by an illegal amount, etc etc. They naively hope to kick-start our economy again with these moves. Some hope! She would be better off listening to the advice of Mary Harney, Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, who runs her country along completely different lines." Ireland’s advice is very simple: Make high school and college education free; make your corporate taxes low, simple and transparent; actively seek out global companies; open your economy to competition; speak English; keep your fiscal house in order; and build a consensus around the whole package with labor and management - then hang in there, because there will be bumps in the road - and you, too, can become one of the richest countries in Europe." "It wasn’t a miracle, we didn’t find gold," said Mary Harney. "It was the right domestic policies and embracing globalization." I wished Merkel & Co had listened to Ireland's Mary Harney, or even read the writing on the wall. Theoretically, if all the members of the coalition had voted for Merkel, she would have got 448 votes. She actually got only 397, meaning that 51 of her own coalition don't actually want her!
Fiftyone! Many, many Merkel up-Arsin', indeed!
And, for what it's worth, today is November 22nd, the day Aldous Huxley died. Sunday, November 20, 2005
Dogblogging Bulldog Puppy "Goomba's Happy Miss Frieda", quite an armful already at 5 months :-) Can't just have Frank Paynter showing you a photo of Molly Bloom now, can we ;-) Friday, November 18, 2005
. . . if pigs could fly . . .Burp; too much Guinness yestreen and/or geeky arguments ;-)Discussion down at the nearby city Irish Pub ( The Auld Triangle) wandered from sound going faster than light), via Blair withdrawing troops from Iraq, and the 193 digit number RSA-640 being factored, to Herforder Xmas beer tasting better than Guinness (sic(k)!) The most commonly expressed opinion was "If pigs could fly!" :-) Well, in each case, I said, pigs CAN fly, and I have the photographic evidence to prove it. So I had to promise the lads to post this photo in my blog. For pigs CAN fly, but they fly so high that you need a really big telescope to see them, which is why most people have never seen one :-) This particularly PIGGY photo was taken by someone HOGGING the Hubble space telescope.
 On the iPod : "Pigs on the Wing", from the Pink Floyd Album "Animals" :-) Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Faster than the speed of light?C++ is objectionable (Albert Einstein) ;-)Fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels will be well aquainted with a world wherein sound travels faster than light. But in our world light travels faster than sound. Usually. But now Dr. Joel Mobley of the University of Mississippi ( N.B : not the the Unseen University of Ankh-Morpork) has an experiment in which sound travels faster than light, Einstein notwithstanding.
Run the Stop-Light with relatively cool Bose-Einstein condensates :-)
During the past few years we have seen light slowed to 60 kph in a Bose-Einstein
condensate (a cold atomic gas) and indeed later even brought to a complete halt therein.
But Mobley has a different approach. Let me sum up herein what I understand of his
research today.
Mobley put 400,000 plastic pearls 1/10 mm in diameter into 8 ml water and pulsed 7 MHz ultrasound into the water. The waves are not only strongly damped, but the wave propagation speed also increases strongly with the frequency. By adding a few more pearls each time, Mobley achieved superluminary, then infinite, then negative speeds for his bell-shaped ultrasound pulses. This means that a detector at the far end of his water tank registers the ultrasound pulse BEFORE a detector at the near end of the tank!! Ultrasound going faster than light?!?!??? Now, courtesy of Albert Einstein, we know that no information can be propagated faster in a vacuum than 299,792 km/sec . So what is going on here?
No warp drive there, Scotty :-(
The front of the pulse cannot go faster than C. The maximum of the pulse cannot
overtake the front (Einstein was right).
However, the attenuation and different velocities of the multiple overlayed
frequencies in the pulse mean that the maximum of the distorted pulse gets nearer the
front (and the distorted pulse gets a longer tail) the further it travels in the water suspension.
The detectors trigger when the maximum passes. So the far-end detector gets its maximum earlier in the distorted pulse than the near-end detector in its undistorted pulse.
Q.E.D . So Mobley can get superluminary results but Einstein is not contradicted :-)
Dispersion-related superluminal propagation does not allow faster than light signaling,
because it's merely a group-velocity.
No warp drive there, Scotty :-(
Want to know more? I recommend Mobley's eminently readable website (incl. videos) on the subject. Perfectly understandable, even to non-physicists. Well done, Joel, sound work indeed :-) At OleMiss, Doc Joel just might
Make sound go much faster than light. He pulsed water some days, in ultrasound waves, that arrived on the previous night :-) On the iPod : "Interstellar Overdrive", from the Pink Floyd CD "The piper at the gates of dawn" :-) Sunday, November 13, 2005
Flight Blog*WIFE : What a magnificent day! Let's go to the beach on Juist island!
MET : Meteorology
CAVOK : Clouds and Visibility OK
DOG : woof, WOOF, WOOF!!
ME : Good, idea! Let me call MET and check the weather ....
 FS: Paderborn Ground, this is Delta Echo Hotel Foxtrot Sierra. GND: Fox Sierra, go ahead.
PAX : Passenger VFR : Visual Flight Rules
FS: Fox Sierra is a Piper two eight, VFR to Echo Delta Whiskey Juliet, one PAX plus a dog,
with Information Bravo, request startup.
GND: Roger Fox Sierra, startup approved. Call Tower on 118.20, Out. FS: Paderborn Tower, Foxtrot Sierra, ready to roll. TWR: Foxtrot Sierra, standby. TWR: Foxtrot Sierra, cleared to taxi to 24 and hold clear. FS: Cleared to taxi to 24 and hold clear, Fox Sierra. . . . FS: Fox Sierra, holding short of 24, ready for takeoff. TWR: Foxtrot Sierra, here is your clearance, ready to copy? FS: Go ahead. TWR: Foxtrot Sierra is cleared to climb straight ahead to 2000 feet, turn right exiting control zone via November not above 3000 feet. Read back. FS: Foxtrot Sierra is cleared to climb straight ahead to 2000 feet, turn right exiting control zone via November not above 3000 feet. TWR: Foxtrot Sierra cleared for takeoff. FS: Taking off. . . . FS: Fox Sierra overhead November at 2500 feet. TWR : Foxtrot Sierra, roger. Call Düsseldorf on 135.35, Out. FS: Düsseldorf Information, this is Delta Echo Hotel Foxtrot Sierra, over. DÜS-INF: Foxtrot Sierra, go ahead.
Flight Level 65 : 6500 feet above the 1013 hp isobar. 1013 =29.92" Hg
FS: Foxtrot Sierra is a PA28, VFR to Juist, just airborne from Paderborn-Lippstadt,
position November, out of 2500 for Flight Level 65, squawking standby.
DÜS-INF: Roger Foxtrot Sierra, squawk 1200 and ident. FS: Transponder ident, mode Charlie.
QNH : pressure at the theoretical sealevel here
DÜS-INF: Roger Foxtrot Sierra, identified at 2900 feet, area QNH is 1028 hectopascal. Say heading.
FS: Foxtrot Sierra, 1028, tracking 337. DÜS-INF: Roger Foxtrot Sierra. . . .
GCA : Ground Controlled Approach
DÜS-INF: Foxtrot Sierra, traffic alert, 11 o'clock, 4 miles, Harrier on a GCA
and overshoot at Gutersloh airbase, speed and altitude unknown.
FS : Roger on the traffic, we're looking for him, Fox Sierra. . . . DÜS-INF: Foxtrot Sierra? FS: Go. DÜS-INF: Foxtrot Sierra, you are leaving my area, call Bremen Information on 135.70. FS: 135.70, wilco, out. FS: Bremen Information? Foxtrot Sierra.
Squawk 1200: radar transponder code setting for VFR
BRM-INF: Foxtrot Sierra, go.
FS: Foxtrot Sierra is a PA28, VFR to Juist, level at FL 65 abeam Melle, squawking 1200, mode charlie.
Mode Charlie: transponder with altitude encoding
BRM-INF: Roger Foxtrot Sierra, area QNH is 1026, squawk 1834 and ident.
FS: 1026 and 1834, ident. BRM-INF: Foxtrot Sierra identified at FL65. . . . BRM-INF: All aircraft, new altimeter setting 1027 hectopascal.
 BRM-INF: Foxtrot Sierra, call me on 133.55 Mhz FS: Bremen, Fox Sierra with you on 133.55 BRM-INF: Roger, Foxtrot Sierra. . . .
PIREP: PIlot's REPort, e.g. on a navigation hazard.
FS: Bremen, Fox Sierra has a PIREP.
BRM-INF: Go ahead Foxtrot Sierra. FS: PIREP 08:57 Zulu, flock of about 80 migrating cranes ten miles south of Leer, estimated altitude 4000 feet, estimated track 220. BRM-INF: Copied, Foxtrot Sierra. . . . FS: Bremen, Fox Sierra abeam Leer, out of FL65 for 1000 feet. BRM-INF: Roger, Foxtrot Sierra. QNH is 1027. When passing 3000 feet, squawk 1200. FS: Wilco, Fox Sierra. . . . FS: Bremen Information? Foxtrot Sierra. BRM-INF: Foxtrot Sierra, go ahead. FS: Fox Sierra is now 8 miles SSE of Juist at 1000 feet, leaving your frequency for Juist Tower. BRM-INF: Foxtrot Sierra, cleared to leave. Squawk standby, out. FS: Juist Tower, this is Delta Echo Hotel Foxtrot Sierra. TWR: Foxtrot Sierra, go ahead. FS: Foxtrot Sierra is a Papa Alpha 28, now 7 miles SSE, VFR from Echo Delta Lima Papa, with information Golf. TWR: Foxtrot Sierra, runway in use is 06, call downwind at 600 feet. FS: Foxtrot Sierra, wilco.
 FS: Foxtrot Sierra is downwind at 600 feet. TWR: Wind 090 at 18 knots gusting to 25, seagull swarm on left base, cleared to land. FS: Copied the traffic :-) Cleared to land, Foxy. TWR: On the ground at 09:38 Zulu, tiedown at the north fence please, next to the blue Cessna. FS: Wilco, out :-)
* Stu Savory has been a pilot and flying instructor (CFI) for
nearly 30 years. This blog-entry was written for those of you blogreaders who've always wanted to
play around in a cockpit (no! not THAT kind of cockpit!!).
Friday, November 11, 2005
Your comments this week.Back in September 2004 I ran a photo-meme for a month, the Skyline Meme. Over a year later, people are still sending belated contributions. This 360° forest view was sent by Gavin Gough.
 This reduction does not do this
photoblogger's
stitched (5524*300)
sylvan panorama justice.
Commenting on sunday's 'War Pigs' posting, Jane says she can't understand the
words in latin :-( Centuriones convenerunt, sicut magi sacris nigris - mentes malae destructionis, artifices omnis mortis. Campis corpora comburit bella machina laborans. Mors et lis humanitati perturberant mentes sanas. Commenting on my piece A Day without Oil last month, Kate (UK) points us to a BBC article that Britain is facing a shortfall in energy supply in the near future. Helen (USA) points me to a site helping hurrican victims
find lost pets, and writes
"A very good idea and especially so with the authoratative endorsement of that
lovely English Bulldog!" Taking revenge for my interview of HIM at the start of the month,
Luke interviewed
ME and
plugged it into his blog from whence a few extra visitors came here. Thanks!
Looking at my logfiles, I see that I also had a visitor from an Indian reservation in South Dakota. Let's see if I can remember enough Lakota (the Sioux language) to greet you folks :-)
Han sicesi,
As you can see, this German keyboard doesn't do the crescent accent over the S or
the Z :-( Apropos Meg, my code for the film strip last sunday was based on an idea of hers; credit where it is due! Good to see that you blogged again, Meg, you'd left a dark hole in the blogosphere!  Fifth season starts today :-) Today is 11/11, so at 11:11 hours the carnival season starts :-) Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Things to rememberWhen you talk to Americans about 9/11 they reply in a traumatised way about the attack on the WTC by Al Quaeda. That's because they write the date the wrong way around, as MM/DD ;-) Here in Europe - I'm writing this in Germany - we use the date format DD/MM, so 9/11 is the ninth of november. In Germany this is a traumatic date too, but third time lucky, I guess.The first traumatic 9/11 in Germany was 9/11/1923, the day after the Beer Hall Putsch, when Hitler and his mob marched on the Feldherrenhalle in Munich. Twenty dead, I seem to remember from school lessons, four police, a spectator and 15 Nazis to whom Hitler dedicated the first print of his boring book Mein Kampf :-(
The third traumatic 9/11 in Germany was 9/11/1989, but it was a happy night, the night the Berlin Wall fell. People crying for joy, celebrating, and drumming on the plastic roofs of the Trabbi cars as they streamed through the iron curtain. Been there, done that :-) Because Europe suffered under fascism and totalitarian regimes, we Yurpeans are concerned about America's current drift in those directions. So I would like my American friends to read blogger David Neiwert's 71 page pamphlet The Rise of Pseudo Fascism (300kB PDF) please. N.B. : Cast a look at the initial letter of this blog-entry, and note that 'W' is braun :-( Sunday, November 6, 2005
* Verres Militares : Latin for 'war pigs'. Listen to Rondellus singing 'War Pigs' in medieval Latin ;-) N.B. Each of the photos above can be clicked and has its own link. Friday, November 4, 2005
Your Friday FeedbackPeople from the four corners of the Globe (Oz, Scotland, Pakistan, USA) responded to my October 29th article A Day without Oil. I have extracted from their mails here :-Anna Pashen, blogging in Brisbane, Australia, wrote that water is also a scarce resource there : "For example: Presently our area is under tight water restrictions due to drought. Many of our neighbours are breaking the restrictions in order to keep their fragile lawns and gardens green :-(" About electricity, she wrote : "We do pay slightly extra on our bill for environmentally friendly elec ( where excess energy is bought off people who have installed solar panels by the electricity company, and sold to people who would prefer to use renewable energy sources). Solar panels are quite a money saver. One family I have heard of (3 kids, 2 parents) were selling their excess and were receiving $140 a month from the electricity company - who of course adds 20% before re-selling :-(" And on the subject of fuel for cars : "There's a competition on TV here at the moment for a family to win $55 a week in fuel every week for a year. I found this alarming as I can't conceive of any family that would require to spend $55 a week on fuel. If we are travelling every day across the length of the entire city we go through $20 a week - and we don't have the most fuel conservative car. My little Renault is a bit of a guzzler. On a calm week we may use $10-$15 of fuel. I must admit concern at the extreme fuel consumption of the average 4WD (SUV for Americans) which have become so popular. I wonder if they are perhaps the new badge of prosperity: 'I'm so rich I can afford to blow ridiculous amount of cash to drive around the city in a car built for off-roading, that can seat 7, but usually contains only one or two.'. " Blogging from Bonnie Scotland, Haggiswurst wrote : "Just a quick note to say that I found your 'without oil/electric' day experiment very interesting. Here in the Highlands, with the cold winters & SUMMERS, often there is a reliance on heating; it is Natural Gas here. And the public transport is very poor (and expensive) here; there is an absolute reliance on the car. The price of petrol and diesel here at the moment is around 1.47/litre." Writing from India, Ranjit reminds us all about the people in the Kashmir region, no oil, no electricity, no housing, nothing, after the earthquakes; and asks that we donate to help in the Kashmir region. Good idea, especially for the Brits who would otherwise blow it all on senseless fireworks tomorrow! In a similar vein, Khurram Pirzada writes from Pakistan : "My dears, on this happy occassion, upon the completion of Holy month of Ramadhan, I congratulate you for Eid ul Fitr. Do remember in your prayers, the Oct 8, 2005 victims of massive earth-quake in Pakistan. Do what you can in your capacity. GOD bless all." Oz 59-Club biker Shadow should be transiting through Germany this month; please drop in! Biker friend Doctor C42 points fellow bikers to a hi-res collection of historic motorcycle photos. I'd asked Helen(USA) for her current reading list & book tips; here they are : "It's sometimes tricky to suggest good books but I'll do it anyway: "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson, (wonderfully funny and there is a film of the story tentatively planned starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford). Another is "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. . . it won a Pulitzer for humor that year. An old one but it applies today and is good reading, "Trivializing America, The Triumph of Mediocrity" by Norman Corwin. I'm reading the new "The Assassins Gate" by George Packer and one last suggestion if you like comedian Bill Maher's political humor and have not seen his HBO comedy special "I'm Swiss," consider trying to rent it. Very funny!" Also very funny is Wendy's (China) pub joke, could have been about me :-) ' I was in the pub the other day and two blokes walked up to the bar. The first one said to his friend: "Your round," and his mate said: "And you're a fat bastard too." '. Diane (from the U-S. of A) also wrote punnily from the US about the interview with
Luke in my previous
post (Interview with a Bushwhacker™). Her pun?
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Interview with a Bushwhacker™My good E-friend Mandarin Meg named me a Bush-whacker many moons ago, due to the criticisms I sometimes make in this blog of that miserable failure the 'Merkin pResident.I am proud to be considered a Bushwhacker, may there be many more of us :-) Mild samples of my Bushwhacking writing this year (2005) are here, here, here, and here. There are lots more, just key in 'Dubya' or 'Bush' into my Search facility.
"... most of the Americans I know are decent,
honest, honourable people.
But then, I know no neocons ;-) "
It turns out that some 'Merkin neocons cannot distinguish between Yurpean Bushwhacking and
Anti-Americanism,
accusing me - a mere Yurpean - of the latter. Nothing could be further
from the truth. I like America, most of the Americans I know are decent,
honest, honourable people.
But then, I know no neocons ;-)
No. We Bushwhackers like the US of A, and are APPALLED at what Dubya and his Junta are doing to it. So today I'd like to tell you about some American Bushwhacking blogs. Most of you will be aware of these three (chosen at random as a representative sample) :- But I'd like to point you to a less well known Bushwhacker, Luke de Selm's Apathetic Nation, and what better way to do this by using a traditional Frank Paynter technique, i.e. interviewing the author. Now I can never follow in Frank's illustrious footsteps and do not presume to do so, I'm merely using his popular interview technique. In fact, people interviewed by Frank proudly display a logo in their blog-sidebars "I've been Paynted". Presumably, if mine catch on too, we'll be seeing sidebar logos claiming "I got Stu'ed" ;-)Luke de Selm has been blogging Apathetic Nation about a year now, and I think his bushwhacking blog deserves more attention. Luke and I agree on many things (e.g about Dubya), but I sometimes despair and think he should have left a blank between the first two letters of his blog's name ;-) I think it is important that you see not only our Yurpean style of Bushwhacking, but get to see the homegrown US style too. So I posed Luke seven questions (the usual magic number) and here are his answers, on the road back to normality :-
 Ladies and gentlemen (drum roll), here it is : Interview with a Bushwhacker :- 1) Luke, I do my Bushwhacking from the distance of a Yurpean background, whereas you are in the thick of it, an American in the good old U.S of A. Readers worldwide thus need to know something about your (cultural) background, to see where you are coming from. Tell us something about yourself, e.g. where you grew up, age, class, colour, education, the languages you speak etc. I grew up in a military household, moving from one military base to another. I have lived in almost every region of the United States and thus have an understanding of the people in each of the regions. The bulk of my high school (secondary school, college prep) was spent in south-ern California, where the racial divide was not 'black and white' but 'brown and white' (massive Mexican/latin population). "... a tolerance that is not observed in much of the U.S."
There was a
tremendous number of diverse cultures and lifestyles present, and such diversity
required a tolerance that is not observed in much of the U.S.
My college years were spent at California State University, Long Beach, where I received both a BS and MS in biochemistry. More important than the degrees themselves, I truly learned to learn, to question the world around me, and to challenge myself. During my graduate studies, my mentor, other students and I would gather for lunch and discuss current events and politics. We often would question motives of politicians, the intelligence of the average citizen, and debate policies. It was here that I truly began to realize that the average American citizen was not interested in learning about issues, not interested in thinking for himself, but instead was quite happy to be told what to think, what to do, and how to act. It is this apathy that eventually became the origin of Apathetic Nation. 2) What is the manifesto of your blog 'Apathetic Nation'? (= AN)
"... Use your head for more than a hat rack!" It is the mission of Apathetic Nation to point out behind the scenes political news with
an emphasis on challenging the reader to think about the issues. You may see scattered
throughout Apathetic Nation the logo "Use your head for more than a hat rack." This, in a
phrase, is AN's sole purpose.
3) What led you to start this AN blog?
"Within one week of W's reelection ... I felt stymied"
AN actually was launched within one week of Bush's re-election. I felt stymied, baffled
by the ignorance of my nation, but unable to make my voice heard. I had never heard of
blogging, but there I was, starting a website doing exactly that: posting daily opinions,
links and discussions on politics and current events.
4) You've been blogging AN over a year now, how has AN evolved over this time? What has your target audience been, and how has IT changed? How does your real audience compare with the target you are/were aiming at? What does this imply? "I wanted to be heard. By anyone."
Initially I did not define my target audience. I wanted to be heard. By anyone. Now, if I
had to describe a target audience, it would be people that are interested in thinking
critically, in a common sense fashion. There would not be a set age bracket, ethnic,
political or economic background. Remember the goal is to give pause and start
conversation about a topic, issue, or candidate. All that is truly required is that the
reader has an open mind, and willingness to debate.
5) Much of the European community (and indeed the rest of the whole world) views Bush in a negative light. Explain your views of President Bush. President Bush, in his 5 year tenure in the White House, has shown himself to be self-centered, arrogant, spiteful, ignorant, a liar and a fool. In his initial Presidential Campaign, he made statements like "America is not in the nation-building business" and "As President, I will be a uniter, not a divider." He lied. Take the case he made for war with Iraq. He told the American public and the world that Iraq had WMD, that Iraq had trained Al Qaeda operatives, and made the conclusion that therefore Al Qaeda has WMD. Sadly, the conclusion is probably correct. Al Qaeda may have acquired WMD for use in dirty bombs from Syria or Pakistan, ultimately through the Russian black market. But both premises are flat out lies. Lies in which the 'supporting data' was fabricated, either by the White House or those on Downing Street (U.K.). There are widespread reports that 'Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, immediately after the 11 September attacks, called for justification for bombing Iraq, complaining that the Afganistan had no good targets. Recall that Afganistan's Taliban, in conjunction with Al Qaeda and Saudi Arabian operatives, were responsible for the WTC tragedy.
"... Bush will likely pardon
Libby in the likely event he is convicted."
When a White House insider (former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson) called Bush on a lie he made during the 2003
State of the Union address (see
16 words), Bush's
cronies saw to it that Wilson paid dearly by outing
his wife, Valerie Plame, who was at the time, a covert
CIA operative. That one of the Bush Administration
staffers have been indicted for the outing is of small
consequence. Libby, while a crony and crooked, is
still serving the Bush Administration by not revealing
anymore information. Besides, Bush will likely pardon
Libby in the likely event he is convicted.
Bush has deeply divided these "United" States. There is hope however. The Plamegate scandal has deeply scarred the Bush Agenda. His administration is now being scorned by his own political party, who are trying desperately to distance themselves from him. Conservatives running for election to Congress in 2006, the so-called midterm elections, are severing ties to Bush's Administration, for fear of political backlash. This bodes well for centrist and liberal Democrats who are competing for those same seats. In short, this scandal has prematurely begun Bush's 'lame-duckness.'
"In the eyes of the majority of Americans, Bush is
crooked and dishonest."
In the eyes of the majority of Americans, Bush is
crooked and dishonest. People are starting to see just
how horrible Bush has been. From the Iraq war, his
family has earned billions of dollars through oil
industry holdings. Using the 9/11 tragedy, he has
reduced civil liberties and individual's rights to
privacy by reducing requirements for wiretaps and
internet surveillance. By loopholes in the 'enemy
combatant' laws, he has completely eliminated rights
of the accused. If he had continued unchecked, I
believe Bush would have remade the United States in
the image of Stalinist USSR in terms of media control
and elimination of political rivals. Bush has been a
disgrace as a President, and is a perfect example of
the adage "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
6) How do you see the US developing in a post-Dubya era?
"... this is precisely
the track taken by the current administration, one involving pre-emptive war."
Looking at the recent history of the U.S., I can see a nation racked by massive inflation,
spurned by petrol and housing markets, augmented by a growing trade deficit. Two of
those issues some in the States may view as 'fixable' by international action,
meaning war of convenience 'to protect American interests'. Sadly, this is precisely
the track taken by the current administration, one involving pre-emptive war.
A common phrase uttered by Presidential and Congressional candidates here in the US is "it's the economy, stupid" meaning that this is the way to get elected. The problem with both branches is that the people in office are afflicted with short-sidedness (sic!) coupled with a complete lack of vision for the future. With this in mind, short term fixes, military actions, etc will likely be the result, as the attitude of the 'leader' will be one where they will view the long term problems as not their problem. Issues I would like to see tackled in the post-Dubya era include a renewed emphasis on alternative fuels to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, a renewed commitment to the environment, tighter control of our borders, and a fiscal responsibility that will be painful but necessary in getting our economy back on track. 7) OK, Luke, now I'll let you wrap up with a five-line summary, please. Thank you, Stu, for this chance to express the goals and philosophy of Apathetic Nation.
"I feel ashamed at times to be a part of a nation that
is as ignorant as mine."
I feel ashamed at times to be a part of a nation that is as ignorant as mine. America is
currently still very divided on a wide range of issues. The lines of debate are often
delineated by political party, though the vast majority of citizens have beliefs that
fall on both sides of the aisle. It is my hope that
Apathetic Nation reaches out
to both sides, and the middle, to foster honest debate about the issues of today.
Luke de Selm, in November 2005.
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Blogs that I read Apathetic Nation Betsy Devine Blogging in Paris Bulldog Blog D-Flat Chime Bar Dirk Rijmenants Doug Alder Easy Bake Coven Elaine Kalilily Frank Paynter Haggiswurst Jeneane Sessum Jonny B's secret diary Just My Opinion Make: Blog Making Light Mandarin Design Mercurial Mike Golby Noded Old fash. patriot Sane Scientist Special Constable TFS Reluctant The (UK) Policeman Neat Listening
Bushwhack Books
Dubya's NeighShun
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