Want a Beer?

Posted by George Brown on 26/05/2014
Posted in: Entertainment, Humour, Technology, Uncategorized, Views. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Here’s an ingenious battery operated ice bucket that is capable of moving up to six bottles of beer to your co-drinkers so you don’t need to fetch another cold one. The RC Remote Control Cooler has a large 5 litre capacity – simply load it up with drinks and ice, and away it goes!

This RC cooler operates on the 2.4GHz frequency, allowing up to 6 units to work in the same time and place. So why not buy a couple more for your mates and you can have a terrific time trying to race each other to see who can get their beer the fastest! Easy to navigate – move the RC Cooler forwards, backwards, left and right with the bottle top shaped controller.

The RC Drinks Cooler features four sure-grip wheels great for both indoors and outdoors, made exclusively with the intention to speed up the delivery of cold lager. Now you can put your feet up as you transmit its beer contents to your fellow boozers by means of a bottle top motivated handheld transmitter.

Drinks are not included and are for illustration purposes only. Video shown is for demo purpose only and is not representative of the actual item or the general attitude of users of the product.

Concerns over Cabin Air Quality?

Posted by George Brown on 26/05/2014
Posted in: Aviation, Health, Safety, Technology, Uncategorized. Tagged: . Leave a comment

CONCERNS about the air quality on planes are nothing new, but a recent lawsuit reignites a debate over whether it could potentially be harmful. British Airways (BA) defended its safety protocols after a posthumous court case was filed on behalf of one of two former pilots who claimed that they had been poisoned by toxic cabin fumes.

The BA pilots, Karen Lysakowska and Richard Westgate, believed they had fallen victim to “aerotoxic syndrome” towards the end of their lives. They accused BA of breaching health and safety guidelines for monitoring cabin air quality—a claim that the airline strenuously rejects. Aerotoxic syndrome is the name given to a mixture of physical and neurological symptoms that some experts believe could arise from exposure to toxic fumes on passenger jets. This could happen, it is alleged, if there is a malfunction in the aircraft’s bleed air supply, which compresses air from the engines and uses it to pressurise the cabin. Almost all commercial aircraft use these systems, with the notable exception of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The alleged risk comes from “fume events”, whereby faulty seals allow oil particles to enter the bleed pipe. When the air is subsequently compressed and heated, additives present in the fuel allegedly form neurotoxic aerosol particles. The British Civil Aviation Authority says flight crews have to don oxygen masks around five times a week in response to such fume events. So far, efforts to establish whether these incidents pose a threat to aircraft operations or long-term health have proven inconclusive.

Westgate’s lawyers are suing the airline. His doctor told the British Sunday Express: “Some of the symptoms are like the early onset of Parkinson’s Disease or MS. There needs to be an understanding of this, but it’s wilfully not recognised. The airline industry knows how huge the implications would be.”

BA cites independent studies commissioned by Britain’s Department for Transport which found “no evidence that pollutants occur in the cabin air at levels exceeding available health and safety standards”. It added that numerous peer-reviewed research papers found “no increase in overall cancer or mortality rates amongst cabin and flight crew”. The British government concurs, saying “concerns about significant risk to the health of airline passengers and crew are not substantiated”.

There have been other instances of pilots claiming ill effects from fumes. In December 2010, for instance, two Germanwings pilots became disorientated after smelling fumes while on approach to Cologne. Germany’s air accident authority later confirmed that the pilots, who described their own mental state “as surreal, and as within a dream”, had abnormally low blood oxygen levels. Whatever the current thinking, further research into this condition would be welcome.

Young Iranians Arrested for Appearing in “Happy” Video

Posted by George Brown on 22/05/2014
Posted in: Entertainment, Humanity, Law, Legal, Media, News, Opinion, Religion. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

It was saddening to learn about the arrest of the young performers that appeared in the video below.

The photographer and her friends was arrested for what Tehran police chief Hossen Sajedinia called a “vulgar clip which hurt public chastity”.

The arrest on Tuesday of these young performers sparked a media frenzy and a storm on social media, with many Iranians expressing shock at the arrests. Some observers question whether it is a “crime to be happy in Iran.”

In the video, the girls are seen not observing the hijab, a series of rules that oblige women in Iran to cover their hair and much of their body when outside. Further, dancing is prohibited in the Islamic republic, while mingling with the opposite sex is strictly frowned upon. The clip was seen as an affront to public morality and decency by Iranian authorities.

Iranian conservatives are wary of young Iranians abandoning Islamic teachings in favour of a Western values – a phenomenon authorities and leaders describe as part of a “soft-war” against Iran.

This clip should be seen as an expression of youthful exuberance and happiness, and not an attack against the state.

Budget Airline Fails in New Zealand

Posted by George Brown on 20/05/2014
Posted in: Aviation, Finance, Opinion, Tourism, Transportation, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

If the latest information on Jetstar NZ is true, full service carriers might start sending teams from all over the world to study and if possible replicate the benefits that the Qantas budget subsidiary is unintentionally delivering for Air New Zealand.

Consider the fundamentals behind this story:

  • Jetstar NZ can’t give its seats away at around $NZ 100 for a short one way flight, leaving Air NZ to charge up to $340 for the same trip.
  • Yet on the face of it, New Zealand, comprising two islands, and one mobile and prosperous society, could not have been better set up to suit the advent of high frequency short distance low cost flying. 

It is the last place on earth that a full service carrier could successfully compete with a low fare carrier, especially where some fares may be three times as high on the former as on the latter.

It is the last place where a low cost carrier could fail. But while we can’t measure the monetary extent to which Jetstar NZ is a failure, its Head of New Zealand, Grant Kerr, says in the interview that at best on some major routes he has only 24 per cent of the market.

What this means is that Jetstar NZ has mopped up the lowest paying quarter of the passenger uplift on those routes, thus lifting the average fare being collected by Air NZ for the other three quarters of sector in terms of head count.

Air NZ has every reason to be grateful to Qantas for the manner in which it is conducting its business in New Zealand, a golden windfall which it must wish will continue indefinitely.

The article suggests that unpunctuality is the major reason business travelers avoid the huge savings to be made flying Jetstar NZ.  The incident in which a check in clerk jumped the counter to punch out a passenger, a radio station shock jock, in 2010  seems to have faded with time.

However the real lesson from Jetstar NZ’s admitted lack of traction with higher yielding passengers may be that the unintended value of low cost competitors is to lift average yields for those carriers that have developed a strong brand following among customers who will not shift their support just because of price.

If this lesson is applicable in Australia it means that over time Qantas and Virgin Australia would be better off letting someone else compete in the low fare domestic market rather than their self owned or controlled budget brands of Jetstar and Tigerair respectively,  and deal with that external competition from the position of strength that comes from keeping the higher paying customers for themselves.

At the moment in NZ, everything Jetstar does can be seen as directly benefiting Air New Zealand.

Source: http://www.crikey.com

Abbott’s GST Stunt Backfires

Posted by George Brown on 19/05/2014
Posted in: Finance, Politics, Uncategorized, Views. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey

That would have been preferable, of course, from the federal Coalition’s point of view. Because, under the proposed plan, Mr Hockey would get to keep the $80 billion for federal coffers and then look like a white knight, riding to the rescue of the struggling states when they begged for a higher GST to be imposed on the entire Australian population.

There are obvious problems with that, however, from the states’ point of view.

For a start, the cuts are more or less immediate, while any boost from extra GST funds would take years to appear. Trying to get re-elected when they’ve had a massive budget cut foisted on them would be challenging for the state governments, to say the least.

Not only that, but the state governments would also then be cast as the villains behind the push for a GST increase – another bad look.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the idea of raising the GST or with broadening its application to cover some goods and services – such as food – that are currently exempt.

But any changes in the GST should occur in the context of broad tax reform. They should not be enacted in isolation and they should certainly not be enacted as the result of what many will see as a piece of bullying by the federal Coalition.

Prime Minister Abbott appears to believe that he can afford to make enemies in his first budget, since he has the rest of his term to make up lost ground in the popularity stakes.

This too, may prove to be a miscalculation.

The states’ mostly Liberal premiers and chief ministers appear unanimous in their condemnation of the federal government’s tactic, which they insist contradicts everything they were led to believe before the budget.

NSW Premier Mike Baird, who has described the cuts as ‘‘a kick in the guts’’, will host his interstate counterparts at a weekend meeting to discuss a response. Mr Abbott has already hinted at some form of compromise, but it isn’t yet clear what this might be.

Meanwhile, the widespread backlash against a number of aspects of the budget may have emboldened the government’s parliamentary opponents, some of whom have sworn to block particular measures in the senate.

Mr Abbott has also stated that if the Senate (which his Party does not control) do not pass the budget (or parts thereof) then he will petition the Governor-General for a double dissolution of parliament.  This may prove to be the biggest miscalculation he could make.  Since coming to power, Mr Abbott has made few friends on either side of the House, with continued gaffes, unfortunate comment and sexist attitudes.  Mr Abbott cannot afford a double dissolution. Such an action may well end his Prime Ministership and would certainly would cost some of his Liberal Party colleagues their places in Parliament!

Such a move would be surprising if even as bold a punter as the Prime Minister would risk a gambit with such an uncertain outcome.

Source: http://www.theherald.com.au

Anti-Violence Training for Paramedics

Posted by George Brown on 19/05/2014
Posted in: Education, Emergency Services, Opinion, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

The NSW Ambulance has introduced mandatory anti-violence training for ALL operational officers.  This training involves face-to-face training with an education officer and a 20 minute video to impart skills and knowledge to identify and avoid high-risk situations which may lead to violence.

Health Services Union Hunter ambulance sub-branch president Peter Rumball slammed a 20-minute video being used to train paramedics in the region to cope with and avoid violent situations following another attack against paramedics in Newcastle.

It comes after a paramedic was assaulted in Civic Park on Wednesday night – the ninth attack to occur in the Hunter this year.

Police say the 26-year-old woman was receiving treatment for a laceration above her eye, at about 6pm, when she struck a paramedic in the rib area before fleeing.  She will face Newcastle Local Court in June.

Mr Rumball said ‘‘It’s becoming more frequent and we need the ambulance service to step up and provide greater training than a 20-minute video,’’ he said. ‘‘The members have described it as ticking a box and that’s coming directly from the members.’’

Mr Rumball called for paramedics to get training more akin to what police received.  ‘‘We need full awareness and more concern of what we’re sending our officers into,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got patients who are affected by LSD, ice and PCP.  ‘‘We’ve also got people with mental health problems who would normally be in institutions out in the community.’’ This suggestion lacks merit as paramedics are not exposed to the same level of violence as police.  Paramedics have the option to “stand off” from locations were violence is occurring or suspected, the police do not.

Mr Rumball also said he was disappointed by the lack of offenders being sent to jail for assaulting paramedics.  ‘‘No one will go to jail for assaulting an ambulance officer,’’ he said.  ‘‘It is going to take a paramedic to get killed for someone to go to jail. This may be so, but this is his opinion.  This is still a matter for the courts and the judicial officers involved.  Furthermore, ambulance has demonstrated that they will appeal a sentence that they perceive as being too lenient.

Cartoon: Peter Lewis

Lewis’ View – Cartoon: Peter Lewis

NSW Ambulance deputy chief executive Mike Willis said they didn’t consider Mr Rumball’s comments as representative of the greater paramedic population. ‘‘This criticism of the video is surprising given that the paramedic unions – HSU and EMSPA – were shown the video and had no issue with it,’’ he said.  ‘‘Internally, NSW Ambulance is currently providing anti-violence training for all paramedics. ‘‘The training assists with situational awareness, de-escalating difficult situations, and understanding patterns of behaviour to help a paramedic avert violent situations. ‘‘NSW Ambulance also produced a video to assist paramedics with decision making in circumstances that could become volatile.’’  Mr Willis acknowledged paramedic assaults were increasing.  He said criminal charges had been laid in 35 of the 67 alleged assaults that have occurred in the state between January and April this year.  ‘‘With the majority still before the NSW courts,’’ he said.  ‘‘NSW Ambulance has a zero tolerance policy towards any form of abuse, be it physical or verbal. ‘‘We are committed to ensuring the health and well-being of our entire workforce, with support provided to all of our paramedics.’’

Mr Rumball has a long history of opposing steps taken by ambulance to improve the service to the public, and also to training provided for officers to improve their already difficult and stressful occupation. It is likely that this view is not a true representation of paramedics views.  Membership in the HSU has been decimated in Newcastle and indeed throughout the NSW as a result of the corrupt practices demonstrated by HSU senior management. Paramedics have deserted the HSU in droves, some moving to EMSPA, and with many others deserting the union movement all together.  This incident would appear to be the Hunter HSU trying to discredit an effective training program provided to combat increasing risk of violence to paramedic officers.

I personally applaud the efforts of ambulance to better prepare officers to manage potentially violent situations that may confront them.

Acknowledgments: The Newcastle Herald; Cartoon: Peter Lewis

MH370 – Malaysian PM Speaks Out

Posted by George Brown on 15/05/2014
Posted in: Aviation, Humanity, News, Politics, Safety, Technology, Transportation. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

“The disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flight on March 8 has been one of the most extraordinary events ever to befall Malaysia – and one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries,” Mr Najib said.

Najik Razak

Najib Razak

Mr Najib said one of the most astonishing things about the tragedy is the revelation that an airliner the size of a Boeing 777 could vanish, almost without trace.

“In an age of smartphones and mobile internet, real-time tracking of commercial airplanes is long overdue,” he said.

Mr Najib, writing in the Wall Street Journal, urged the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which has been meeting in Montreal, to act on a Malaysian recommendation to implement real-time tracking of aircraft.

He said the communication systems on aircraft such as transponders and the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting Systems (ACARS) should be changed so they cannot be disabled mid-air.

Mr Najib said the systems on board the missing plane “were deliberately disabled. MH370 went dark.”

He said that policy makers need to reconsider the capabilities of airliners’ black box recording devices.

“At the moment, the location pingers – which are activated if a plane crashes – last for only 30 days. This should be increased to at least 90 days, as the European Union has proposed,” he said.

Mr Najib said it was “wholly inadequate” that today’s black boxes only record the last two hours of cockpit conversations, meaning the important minutes and hours after the plane vanished will not be available.

“Given that a standard iPhone can record 24 hours of audio (Unlikely, Ed,), surely the black box should have sufficient memory to record cockpit conversations for the full duration of any flight,” he said.

Mr Najib also said that airliners’ emergency locator transmitters – which emit a distress signal when the plane is in trouble – could be improved.

“Currently they don’t work very well under water and their mandated battery life is just 24 hours.”

Mr Najib said the aviation industry failed to implement changes after Air France flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 and the changes need to be made to help reassure the travelling public and reduce the chances of such a drawn-out disaster reoccurring.

He said experts have identified that MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean, discounting dozens of other theories and reported sightings.

“Yet, despite the efforts of the world’s brightest minds and best militaries, the search area remains huge,” he said.

“Finding the plane will be neither quick nor easy.”

Mr Najib said without physical evidence or a clear explanation for what happened, people’s attentions turned to the authorities – and Malaysia has borne the brunt of the criticism.

But he said in the passage of time he believes Malaysia will be credited for doing its best under near-impossible circumstances that involved overcoming diplomatic and military sensitivities to bring together 26 countries to conduct one of the world’s largest peacetime operations.

“But we didn’t get everything right. In the first few days after the plane disappeared we were so focused on trying to find the plane we did not prioritize our communications,” he said.  “Also, it took air-traffic controllers four hours to launch the search-and-rescue operation.”

But Mr Najib said the plane vanished at a moment between the air-traffic controls of Malaysia and Vietnam, causing maximum confusion.

“Nevertheless, the response time should and will be investigated,” he said.

Mr Najib said none of this could have altered MH370’s fate.

“Instead of heading to Beijing, the plane made a sharp turn across Peninsula Malaysia, travelled north up the Straits of Malacca, made a U-turn over the coast of Sumatra and ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” he said.

“Little wonder the words commonly used to describe MH370 include ‘bizarre’ and ‘unprecedented’.”

Mr Najib said the lack of definite proof – such as wreckage from the plane – has made the disappearance more difficult to bear for the families of those on board.

“I pledge that Malaysia will keep searching for the plane as long as it takes,” he said.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au

Cirrus SR-22 Crashes in Sydney

Posted by George Brown on 14/05/2014
Posted in: Aviation, Emergency Services, News, Safety, Transportation. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

A pilot and three passengers narrowly avoided disaster after a safety parachute allowed their light aircraft to gently crash-land in front of a house in Australia’s Blue Mountains.

All passengers on board escaped serious injuries after the Cirrus landed in front of a home in Lawson, west of Sydney, on Saturday. One passenger was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The aircraft (N-802DK S/N 4046)  built in 2014 is registered in the US to the Cirrus Design Corporation.

The Cirrus SR22 aircraft began spiralling towards the ground after suffering engine failure at an altitude of 4,000ft.

The pilot activated the light aircraft’s inbuilt parachute and drifted to the ground.

Local resident Robert Ross, who witnessed the plane landing, said it would have crashed into his house if it had not been for the parachute.  “I looked up and the engine started to splutter,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “He got it going again and then it went dead.

“It then started to go into a spiral. I thought the pilot was going to eject but it all happened too quick. I started yelling out to my wife: ‘There’s a plane going to crash into the house’.”

Soft landing: The site of the plane crash in Sayers Street, Lawson. Photo: James Brickwood

The crashed aircraft in Lawson. Photo: James Brickwood

Allan Bligh, president of the Sydney Flying Club, told the Herald that Cirrus light aircraft are fitted with a handle in the cockpit which releases a cover plate when pulled to deploy a parachute.  “Then the aircraft is supposed to drift slowly to the ground but it doesn’t always work to that effect – weather and other things can play havoc,” he said.

“There are a number of manufacturers who decline to use them and believe a controlled forced landing, which you are taught from your early days of flying, is a far better system than the deployment of a parachute.”

Cirrus says that its safety parachute has saved 87 lives as a result of pilots pulling the emergency lever in time to avert a disaster.

MH370 – One in Ten Americans Blame Aliens

Posted by George Brown on 09/05/2014
Posted in: Aviation, History, Media, Politics, Public Opinion, Safety, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

A poll conducted by CNN and ORC International revelled some strange and interesting beliefs in respect of the missing Malaysia Airlines B777 (9M-MRO).

Here is summary of the results:

  • 10% of Americans believe aliens were involved in the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The survey also revealed  that 9% of all people believe “space aliens or beings from another dimension were involved”. Yeah right! (Ed.)
  • 79% believe there are no survivors.
  • 52% believe we will eventually find out what happened to the flight, and authorities are not looking in the right place. You think! (Ed.)
  • 46% say we will never know.
  • 57% per cent of those surveyed say terrorists were involved, but none have come forward to take responsibility. This in itself suggests that terrorism was not involved.
  • 42% of U.S. respondents believe hijackers were involved.
  • 52% said a mechanical failure was probably involved.
  • 25% of those surveyed said it was very likely that the crew or plane’s pilots had something to do with the disappearance.

The Daily Mail revels that the Malaysian tourism minister has said the government will not inject any more money into the state-owned Malaysian Airlines after the MH370 disaster.  The ailing national carrier has suffered a sharp slump in bookings and £750 million losses since the disappearance of the flight two months ago and is undergoing “restructuring”.

Mohammad Nazri Abdul Aziz, Minister of Tourism and Culture, said the government will not put “any more money” into the troubled airline.  Malaysia Airlines – which is owned by the Malaysian government through a holding company – had already suffered $1.3billion losses over the last three years and it faced stiff competition and unprofitable routes.