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conspiracii-theorii · 6 years ago

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Tall Whites Alien Conspiracy

Alright, the first (of hopefully many) post in which I research a conspiracy theory is here! It’s a bit lengthy so stick with me....

The Tall Whites are one species of extraterrestrials most famously known for their earthly presence being outed by American veteran Charles Hall in 2009 and Canada’s Paul Hellyer in 2017. ‘Tall Whites’ are also seen to be referred to as the ‘Nordic Aliens’ or the ‘Blonde Aliens’, but for the purpose of this post, I will stick with Tall Whites. The name implies that these extraterrestrials possess a taller stature than man, but most of the interactions showcase that they average a height of about 5’10” to 6’5” (155cm to 198cm) with an ability to grow up to 8’ (~244cm). They are described to have white skin, long and straight blonde hair, and impossibly blue eyes. They are believed to be working with the US government, and according to Charles Hall, who claims to have spent two years among them at Nellis Air Force Base, “They have large blue eyes that wrap part way around their heads, small noses and tiny ears pressed tight to their scalps. Their thumbs are small with four long slender fingers. Their skin is completely white, like chalk. They all have thin, straight blond hair. Their hips are shaped liked ours, but they walk quite differently since they are used to a stronger gravity pull” (source here). Hall also claims that their lifespans are much greater than ours (about 800 years), but because of this it also takes them much longer to heal from injuries. Their circadian rhythm is also different from ours because their home planet, which is believed to be somewhere near the start Arcturus, has longer days. It’s estimated that 4 earth days are equivalent to 1 day on their home planet, meaning that they are awake for roughly 2 earth days and then sleep for almost as long (lol literally me tho)

Now, about the two whistleblowers mentioned above- Charles Hall. Hall is an American nuclear physicist, ex-military, weather specialist that worked on the Nellis Air Force Base located near Las Vegas, Nevada (similar to the notorious Area 51). Hall worked on the air force base from 1965-1967 and claims to have been in close contact with the extraterrestrials living on the base. He later wrote a series of books based on his experiences, but initially told the public that they were science fiction. He claims that he did this so that his children could complete school without the public’s perspective on their father holding them back. While it is shocking at face-value that nuclear physicist who worked for the US Air Force is claiming that there are extraterrestrials living on earth, there are tons of skeptics, and with good reason! The community and research field of alien life has been flooded with hoaxes and con men from the beginning, and some believe that Hall is one of them. People who have read his book have critiqued that there are many scenarios in the book where he seems to be boasting of his own skills or understanding he seems to have with this alien race. Why would he lie, though? Why would he risk his reputation? Reddit user CaerBennog explains, “Maybe he wants to be the centre of attention. Maybe he requires validation for his rich fantasy life…”. The issue with Hall’s claims is that his books are written purely on his experiences. While insightful, he offers no way of proving or validating his claims. While this could be an attempt to remain safe (look at Snowden hiding in Russia), I would take his claims with a grain of salt.

The second person I will discuss is Paul Hellyer. Paul Hellyer served as Canada’s Minister of National Defense from 1963 to 1967 and has long claimed to be a believer in the existence of the Illuminati and extraterrestrial visitation on earth. He claims that there are 80 different species of aliens and that 4 of them walk among us here on earth. He even goes so far as to say that the Tall Whites works with the US Air Force in Nevada, seeming to corroborate the claims of Charles Hall. Hellyer is by far the highest ranking government official to make these claims, which people tend to see as proof of his credibility. In his speech, in which he claims to be unearthing government secrets, he says that during his service a few UFO reports had come across his desk. Exciting right? Wrong. At the time, he says, he was too busy to really look at them. Then he was asked about two cases of extraterrestrial interaction with the human race, both of which occurred in 1967. The first was the Malachek case. On May 20th of 1967, Stefan Michalak claims to have been badly burned by the exhaust port of a UFO, which at the time he believed to be an American aircraft. A few months later, on October 4th, there was reports of a large impact of a UFO (in its most literal interpretation of the title) in the waters near Shag Harbor. Both incidents were investigated by the Canadian Armed Forces at the time, but Paull Hellyer claims that he did not know about these incidents at the time. A little sus in my own opinion,

but I’ll leave the information for you to decipher yourself! You can listen to his claims straight from his mouth here.What do you think? Do you think this alien race is real? And not only that, do you believe they could be working with the United States? Most importantly, what could their motives be for working with us? Let me know your thoughts!

This is your fellow conspiracy theorist signing off. Keep questioning x

#mine #conspiracy #conspiracy theory #aliens #tall whites #extraterrestrial #government #canada #usa #secrets #creepy #theory #alien #paul hellyer #humor

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brookstonalmanac · 4 years ago

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Events 11.2

619 – A qaghan of the Western Turkic Khaganate is assassinated in a Chinese palace by Eastern Turkic rivals after the approval of Tang emperor Gaozu. 1410 – The Peace of Bicêtre suspends hostilities in the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War. 1675 – Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow leads a colonial militia against the Narragansett during King Philip's War. 1795 – The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created. 1868 – Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally. 1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states. 1899 – The Boers begin their 118-day siege of British-held Ladysmith during the Second Boer War. 1912 – Bulgaria defeats the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lule Burgas, the bloodiest battle of the First Balkan War, which opens her way to Constantinople. 1914 – World War I: The Russian Empire declares war on the Ottoman Empire and the Dardanelles are subsequently closed. 1917 – The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities". 1917 – The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian Revolution, holds its first meeting. 1920 – In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the result of the 1920 United States presidential election. 1936 – The British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day. 1940 – World War II: First day of Battle of Elaia–Kalamas between the Greeks and the Italians. 1947 – In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built. 1949 – The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ends with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to the United States of Indonesia. 1951 – Six thousand British troops arrive in Suez after the Egyptian government abrogates the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936.[1] 1951 – Canada in the Korean War: A platoon of The Royal Canadian Regiment defends a vital area against a full battalion of Chinese troops in the Battle of the Song-gok Spur. The engagement lasts into the early hours the next day. 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: Imre Nagy requests UN aid for Hungary. Nikita Khrushchev meets with leaders of other Communist countries to seek their advice on the situation in Hungary, selecting János Kádár as the country's next leader on the advice of Josip Broz Tito. 1956 – Suez Crisis: Israel occupies the Gaza Strip. 1959 – Quiz show scandals: Twenty-One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance. 1959 – The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway. 1960 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley's Lover case. 1963 – South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm is assassinated following a military coup. 1964 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia is deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal. 1965 – Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war. 1966 – The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States. 1967 – Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and "The Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war. 1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 1984 – Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962. 1986 – Lebanon hostage crisis: U.S. hostage David Jacobsen is released in Beirut after 17 months in captivity. 1988 – The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT. 1990 – British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television plc merge to form BSkyB as a result of massive losses. 1999 – Xerox murders: In the worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii, a gunman shoots at eight people in his workplace, killing seven. 2000 – Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. 2016 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years.

#Events

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thebibliomancer · 8 years ago

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100 Days of Comics! 045/100: Legends of the Dark Claw #1 (1996)

So today’s pull from the box of mystery brings us... Amalgam.

Oh dear.

Okay so once upon a time, Marvel and DC had a crossover and then the universes were poorly jammed together. No, I’m not talking about JLA/Avengers.

So a bunch of Marvel and DC properties were smooshed together into a new Amalgam Universe. I’ve heard that the majority of the Amalgam titles were Not Very Good and kind of half-assed. I’m not expecting much. Maybe some yuks.

Then again, Dark Claw is what you get if you squish together Wolverine and Batman which seems... like not the natural two choices for characters to be squished together. They mostly only have three things in common: a tendency to mentor the youth (although Bruce usually mentors boys and Wolverine girls), saying they are the best there is at whatever they do, and being incredibly popular.

So yeah. That third point is why they were probably jammed together.

So who else has been jammed together? We have Dark Claw’s young ward Sparrow - Jubilee dressed as Robin. Unclear whether she has her firework powers still.

There’s Huntress - Carol Danvers dressed up as Huntress. Since she lost her powers in the deal, its not really worth it. And I can’t figure out what exactly Carol Danvers contributed to this mix aside from the name.

The Hyena - Joker plus Sabretooth WHICH SEEMS LIKE A TERRIBLE IDEA.

So with all of that established, what kind of plot do you get by mashing up Wolverine and Batman?

Mostly a batman plot with references to mutant healing factors, adamantium, and two of Wolverine’s supporting cast dressed as Batman’s supporting cast.

We start off with Dark Claw attacking Hyena at the Gotham Gazette printing plant, having deciphered his fiendish riddle of “black and white and red all over.”

... Is Hyena part shitty Riddler in addition to Joker Sabretooth?

Anyway, they tussle for a while and Dark Claw threatens to slit Hyena’s throat but Hyena’s gang shows up and uses bullets until Dark Claw has to run away to his Claw Copter. As piloted by Sparrow. Who remarks that she would have preferred to be called Death Urge Overdrive instead. Which leads me to believe that Sparrow is Robin + Jubilee + Negasonic Teenage Warhead DESPITE THE DATES NOT MAKING ANY SENSE FOR THAT.

Also, Hyena throws Frolic Frags at Dark Claw but they just make normal grenade noises. That is a missed opportunity. They should have made laugh splode noises like the Green Goblin’s pumpkin bombs in Spectacular Spider-Man.

But I digress and digress and digress.

“Meanwhile, in the artsy-trendy section of Gotham” Huntress Carol Danvers in name only breaks into the swank penthouse of one Logan “techno-wizard, painter, sportsman and walking enigma.”

Yup. Instead of using the guise of an idle playboy, Logan does... a bunch of stuff sounds like. But he’s most famous for his distinctive art style “said by some critics to ‘possess the fury of feral slashes.’“

LOGAN YOU ARE BAD AT SECRET IDENTITY.

Honestly, most of the paintings we see look like he just paints slashes on top of amorphous blobs.

Huntress finds a bunch of photos that don’t jive with Logan’s public records - including a picture of him in the RCAF with Creed H. Quinn, alias Hyena.

And then she opens his closet and finds a bunch of Dark Claw outfits. YOU ARE BAD AT SECRET IDENTITY LOGAN.

There is no reason for them to be in this closet. Its revealed in just a couple pages that there’s a pneumatic tube down to the claw cave (actually called the Barrow, meh) behind a secret panel in the closet so why not have your costumes down there instead?

Well, so because Huntress can discover his identity.

Dark Claw pops out of the secret panel and demands to know what she’s up to. She explains she wasn’t after Dark Claw. She was investigating Logan’s ties to Hyena.

So Dark Claw decides to explain his whole backstory. And since he’s Batman + Wolverine, its twice as tragic. When he was five, his parents were killed in front of him by an armed robber. He was sent to live with his mountie uncle in Alberta who was then killed by some poachers. Then he was sent to an orphanage. And then as soon as he was old enough he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. That’s where he met Creed.

Him, Creed, and four others were chosen for a secret Canadian project to create remorseless killing machines devoid of all human compassion. Because Amalgam Canada is still a terrifying hellhole.

The project succeeded too well with Creed. Because the researchers forgot that the best thing about unliving weapons is that they are usually inert weapons that don’t get up and start doing harm by themselves.

Logan was a failure. BECAUSE HE HAD A CONSCIENCE.

Geez, Dark Claw has swung a huge 180 from saying he couldn’t let Carol walk out knowing what she knows to telling her everything she didn’t already know.

I’m also kind of confused what Dark Claw’s motivation is. Batman, of course, is motivated by MY PARENTS ARE DEEEEEEEEEEEEEAD. I guess he leans more towards Wolverine’s motivation. Or he just really hates Creed.

Anyway, Sparrow is outraged that Dark Claw let Huntress into the Claw Cave.

Sparrow: “This is totally uncool and unacceptable!! We can’t let her walk out of here knowing about all this--!!”

Dark Claw: “What do you want me to do, Sparrow--? Take her out in the woods and lose her?”

Sparrow: “Well--YEAH!!”

Heh.

And then Sparrow completely forgets about murdering Huntress when Dark Claw praises her for hacking into the typesetting computer at the Gotham Gazette and gives her an affectionate and painful looking punch in the arm. She seems thrilled.

They discover that shitty Riddler Hyena changed the morning’s headline to “AF1+NaCN=”

THE HYENA IS GOING TO POISON AIR FORCE ONE WITH SODIUM CYANIDE!

They take the Claw Copter and reach Air Force 1 just as its about to take off and Sparrow tells “the slut” to take her shot with the sniper crossbow grapple.

Because one of Jubilee’s prevailing traits at the time was a hatred for all other women, I guess? She definitely did not like Psylocke. Both out of ‘she tried to ninja murder us’ and ‘she has a much better butt than I do’ sort of thing.

Speaking of the portrayal of women in this comic, I don’t think we see either of the two female characters ever standing flat on their feet. They are always tippie toe. I hate 90s art with all of my hate.

Anyway, I digress and digress and digress, Dark Claw swings over to Air Force 1 and climbs into the wheel well. He SCHRIIP!s his way into the cockpit with his adamantium claws and tries to warn them about Hyena.

Hey, how do you think the secret service would react if an unidentified aircraft buzzed Air Force 1 as it tried to take off and then a man armed with very long claws that somehow retract into his arms seriously how do they do that ripped his way into the cockpit?

Did you guess 'they’d shoot him a lot’ in the less than one second you had between reading the end of that paragraph and starting this one? Because if so, you win the prize!

Meanwhile, Agent Sanderson is checking the potty for other interlopers and gets shot a lot by Hyena who tells the dead agent “This is no way to get a head, lad! This would probably put your career in the toilet -- that is, if you weren’t already dead!!”

Because the last thing someone wants to hear before dying of being shot a lot is shitty puns.

BADUM PISH!

Hyena sets off the shaped-like-a-masked-dog-head gas grenade filling the plane with sodium cyanide but Dark Claw adamantiums the hull open.

The explosive decompression blows them both out but also vents the gas. PRESIDENT CLINTON IS SAVED!

Because that’s totally Clinton.

Hyena has a parachute and gracefully parachutes to safety but luckily Sparrow is hanging nearby in the Claw Copter and manages to catch Dark Claw.

He thanks Sparrow and tells her to circle back so he can get another crack at the Hyena! Except the next issue box implies next issue we find who Huntress is really working for.

Although I think this was just a one-shot masquerading as the first issue for an ongoing series. Kudos to them for sticking with the illusion. They even have a bunch of fake letters in the letter section alluding to previous comics that don’t actually exist.

Implying that Amalgam didn’t only merge the main DC and Marvel continuities but their respective metatextual Earth Prime counterparts where the comics are published? Although in Marvel, that is in the main Marvel continuity. Marvel comics were even used as evidence in trials in the Marvel universe. Man, She-Hulk is great.

Geez, one of these fake letters even complains about the collector boom and big events and crossovers and metallic covers with die-cuts and holograms and thanks the creative staff for this book for writing a story for people who actually read it.

One goof though. If this is the first issue of the Legends of the Dark Claw book, where did these letters come from? Usually new books don’t get letters until the third or so issue, I think. Although I guess they were letters that were written to Sleuth Comics where Dark Claw got his start.

Amalgam! It put more effort into looking like a real ongoing than it did with the actual content sometimes!

#100 Days of Comics!#Amalgam Comics #Legends of the Dark Claw #Dark Claw #most of this was eh but i did like Robin Jubilee #i think jubilee as robin has better chemistry with wolverine as batman than robins usually do have with batman #i dunno #her not liking dark claw letting someone else in on their secrets is valid #but the way she reacts makes it seem like she's mostly upset that dark claw has another woman in his life #which in fairness comes from marvel jubilee #but what a waste of a carol danvers

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thatsnotcanonpodcasts · 5 years ago

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Comets, He-Man & DayZ

Welcome back for another amazing episode from the Nerds, it is full of fun stuff, amazing science, and some crazy stuff. We hope as always that you enjoy it and perhaps by accident or intentionally learn something cool. I remember when I found out about chemistry, It was a long, long way from here, I was old enough to want it but younger than I wanted to be, Suddenly my mission was clear… All about chemistry. OK, I know that is the song Chemistry by Semisonic, but it relates to our first topic from Buck, which is all about chemistry and producing oxygen on Mars, Comets, and interplanetary space travel. That’s right we are one step closer to science fiction becoming reality once more. Honestly, where would the world be without science, science fiction, or Nerds to think up the impossible dreams? Although we must apologise for the zombie apocalypse resulting from the advancements in technology; otherwise known as reality television, social media, or just uncontrollable gaming. But, all that aside scientist have found a way to change carbon-dioxide (CO2) into beautiful oxygen (O2). That’s right, you heard us correctly, and it doesn’t involve a chemical scrubber like those currently used on submarines. No, this alters the very nature of the chemical bonds on a molecular level in a whole new way.

By the power of Greyskull, someone has the power. That’s right folks, He-Man is coming back to our screens in the near future it seems. DJ has brought us news that a new extension to the story of He-Man is in the works, he says it is an anime, but we aren’t sold. But it is exciting that it appears to not be a rebirth or re-imagining. But then again that is those weirdos over at Disney doing all the remakes, except for the unfortunate incident with She-Ra. Whoever is responsible for that fiasco is a greater villain than Skeletor and Hordak combined. Seriously, it was traumatic to see what had happened there. With the contentiousness of is it going to be able to claim the title of an anime aside, He-Man is looking promising.

Next we have the Professor bringing us news about the censorship of a few games in Australia and the impact that is having on the world. Now we normally don’t agree with a lot of the issues in censorship, or Material Ratings as they are referred to, but this time there is some merit. This topic is one in which the Nerds have a heated debate, and Buck really gets fired up, DJ gets angry and the Professor needs a whip and chair to keep them apart. So if you feel strongly about the topic of censorship this might be a poignant topic for you. We apologise if we offend anyone during this section (I know we don’t normally, but hey). Let us know what you think on the matter, is Buck an old fart that needs to be exhibited in a museum, is the DJ taking the matter too light, is it somewhere in between (like the Professor).

As always we have the games played this week, which is looking interesting. Also the weekly shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and events of interest. As always stay safe, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

EPISODE NOTES:

Comet chemistry - https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/comet-inspires-chemistry-making-breathable-oxygen-mars

He-Man Anime - https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/08/19/he-man-anime-synopsis-kevin-smith-netflix/

DayZ Banned in Australia - https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/08/dayz-pc-ps4-xbox-one-banned-completely-australia/

Games currently playing

Buck

– Dungeons and Dragons - https://dnd.wizards.com/

Professor

- https://store.steampowered.com/app/861540/Dicey_Dungeons/

DJ – Mortal Kombat 11

- https://www.mortalkombat.com/

Other topics discussed

Chemistry – Semisonic

Published on Oct 7, 2009

Category Music Song CHEMISTRY

Writers

Dan Wilson

Licensed to YouTube by

LatinAutor - Warner Chappell, PEDL, LatinAutor, ASCAP, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, Warner Chappell, LatinAutor - PeerMusic, and 5 Music Rights Societies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgCVR2pjXc0

Rihanna feat. Drake – Work (2016 song)

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL1UzIK-flA

Comet

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet

Total Recall (1990 film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Recall_(1990_film)

Climate Change in China

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_China

Carbon Dioxide scrubber

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_scrubber

Solar Impulse (Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse

Canadian company sells bottled air to China

- https://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/15/asia/china-canadian-company-selling-clean-air/index.html

Most expensive bottle of water

- https://alvinology.com/2008/04/15/worlds-most-expensive-bottled-water/

Oxygen bars

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_bar

He-Man – What’s Up

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjVugzSR7HA

More details about He-Man

- https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/kevin-smith-creating-new-he-man-animated-series/

- https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/18/masters-of-the-universe-revelation-kevin-smith-netflix-to-continue-original-animated-series/

Western Anime TV shows

- Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005 series) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender

- Teen Titans (2003 series) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Titans_(TV_series)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018 series)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She-Ra_and_the_Princesses_of_Power

Comparison of She-Ra in the 1985 series and her 2018 redesign

- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/She-Ra_comparison.png

- https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5qOlZ2u2Duk/W_IqVYCvmpI/AAAAAAADlPQ/eYUrEFWP1vcr0ljMgVFsJZ-sLeASo2GDwCLcBGAs/s1600/shera-shera.jpg

Netflix fires Kids & Family Executives

- https://deadline.com/2019/08/netflix-layoffs-executives-kids-family-1202687407/

Netflix market value drops

- https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2019/07/24/as-growth-slows-netflix-market-value-drops-26-billion-in-a-week/

Acorn TV (American subscription streaming service)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_TV

- https://acorn.tv/

Reasons why Netflix are cancelling its original programs

- https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/08/20/4-reasons-netflix-cancels-its-original-programs.aspx

Game of Thrones creator: End of Game of Thrones on TV was a liberation

- https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/aug/17/george-rr-martin-game-thrones-writer-end-of-show-was-liberation

Game of thrones book ending will be different to the show ending – Geroge R Martin

- https://people.com/tv/george-rr-martin-game-of-thrones-books-end-differently-show/

Anime reboots to TV series

- Ghost in the Shell : Stand Along Complex (2002 series) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell:_Stand_Alone_Complex

- Appleseed - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleseed_(manga)#Anime

Samurai Jack (2001 TV Series)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Jack

Fallout 3 (2008 game)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_3

Joy Pill (We Happy Few game item)

- https://we-happy-few.fandom.com/wiki/Joy

Lisa Simpson taking happy pills

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxkDytaDI0w

Banned video games in Australia

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games_in_Australia

Banned movies

- Tender Loving Care (1998 Interactive movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tender_Loving_Care_(video_game)

- Nymphomaniac (2013 movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphomaniac_(film)

Other banned movies

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_films

Noddy the TV series banned

- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-truth-about-how-noddy-was-framed-1256823.html

Bill Henson (controversial art photographer)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Henson

Michael Atkinson (former Australian politician opposed to R18+ for games)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Atkinson

Mortal Kombat 11 new content

- New character: Nightwolf - https://mortalkombat.fandom.com/wiki/Nightwolf

- Kombat Pack Roster Reveal Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRjbIuJWtlg

Disney vs Sony standoff

- https://deadline.com/2019/08/kevin-feige-spider-man-franchise-exit-disney-sony-dispute-avengers-endgame-captain-america-winter-soldier-tom-rothman-bob-iger-1202672545/

Future Disney princesses

- Sarah Connor (Terminator character) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Connor_(Terminator)

- Ellen Ripley (Alien character) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Ripley

The Humour Experiment (TNC Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/thehumourexperiment

Shoutouts

19 Aug 1692 – Salem witch trials: In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft. More than 200 people were accused, 19 of whom were found guilty and executed byhanging (14 women and 5 men). One other man, Giles Corey, was crushed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America. Despite being generally known as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in several towns: Salem Village (now Danvers), Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover. The most infamous trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

19 Aug 1953 – Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the last Shah of Iran. While the coup is at times referred to in the West as Operation Ajax after its CIA cryptonym, in Iran it is referred to as the 28 Mordad 1332 Coup d'état, after its date on the Iranian calendar. Mosaddegh was imprisoned for three years, then put under house arrest until his death and was buried in his own home so as to prevent a political furore. In 2013, the U.S. government formally acknowledged the U.S. role in the coup, as a part of its foreign policy initiatives. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

19 Aug 1967 - Beatles' "All You Need is Love" single goes #1. In a statement to Melody Maker magazine, Brian Epstein, the band's manager, said of "All You Need Is Love": "It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message. The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything." Lennon later attributed the song's simple lyrical statements to his liking of slogans and television advertising. He likened the song to a propaganda piece, adding: "I'm a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change." - https://www.stereogum.com/2018942/the-number-ones-the-beatles-all-you-need-is-love/franchises/the-number-ones/

19 Aug 2013 – The Dhamara Ghat train accident kills at least 37 people in the Indian state of Bihar. At least 37 people were killed and 24 were injured. The accident triggered a protest by passengers who beat the driver unconscious, attacked staff and torched two coaches of the train. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhamara_Ghat_train_accident

Remembrances

12 Aug 2019 - Danny Cohen, a distinguished computer scientist who helped develop the first digital visual flight simulator for pilot training, early digital voice conferencing and cloud computing. Cohen was a graduate student at Harvard University in the late 1960s when he helped develop the first computerized flight simulation system on a general-use computer. The design re-created aircraft flight and the landscape it travelled above. He was involved in the ARPAnet project and helped develop various fundamental applications for the Internet. Cohen is probably best known for his 1980 paper "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" which adopted the terminology of endianness for computing (a term borrowed from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels). He died from Parkinson's disease at the age of 81 in Palo Alto, California. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Cohen_(computer_scientist)

19 Aug 1662 - Blaise Pascal, French mathematician,physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic theologian. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalising the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defence of the scientific method. Pascal was an important mathematician, helping create two major new areas of research: he wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of 16, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo Galilei and Torricelli, in 1647, he rebutted Aristotle's followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. Pascal's results caused many disputes before being accepted. He died from stomach cancer at the age of 39 in Paris. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

19 Aug 1822 - Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician and astronomer. He was also director of the Paris Observatory, and author of well-known books on the history of astronomy like the Histoire de l'astronomie from ancient times to the 18th century. Delambre was one of the first astronomers to derive astronomical equations from analytical formulas, was the author of Delambre's Analogies. He was a knight (chevalier) of the Order of Saint Michael and of the Légion d'honneur. His name is also one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel tower. The crater Delambre on the Moon is named after him. He died at the age of 72 in Paris. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Joseph_Delambre

19 Aug 1977 - Groucho Marx, American comedian, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star. A master of quick wit, he is widely considered one of America's greatest comedians. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show You Bet Your Life. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, spectacles, cigar, and a thick greasepaint moustache and eyebrows. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous novelty disguises, known as Groucho glasses: a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, a large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and moustache. He died from pneumonia at the age of 86 at the age of 86 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles,California. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx

19 Aug 1994 - Linus Pauling, American chemist,biochemist,peace activist, author, educator, and husband of American human rights activist Ava Helen Pauling. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time, and as of 2000, he was rated the 16th most important scientist in history. Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. Pauling also worked on the structures of biological molecules, and showed the importance of the alpha helix and beta sheet in protein secondary structure. His discoveries inspired the work of James Watson,Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin on the structure of DNA, which in turn made it possible for geneticists to crack the DNA code of all organisms. In his later years he promoted nuclear disarmament, as well as orthomolecular medicine, megavitamin therapy, and dietary supplements. For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of four individuals to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being Marie Curie,John Bardeen and Frederick Sanger). He died from prostate cancer at the age of 93 in Big Sur, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling

Famous birthdays

19 Aug 1871 – Orville Wright, one half of the Wright Brothers who were two American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1904–05, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft, the Wright Flyer III. Although not the first to build experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible. The brothers' breakthrough was their creation of a three-axis control system, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds. He was born in Dayton, Ohio - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers

19 Aug 1921 – Gene Roddenberry, American television screenwriter,producer and creator of the original Star Trek television series, and its first spin-off The Next Generation. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II, and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Los Angeles Police Department, where he also began to write scripts for television. As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun–Will Travel, and other series, before creating and producing his own television series The Lieutenant. In 1964, Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being cancelled. He then worked on other projects, including a string of failed television pilots. The syndication of Star Trek led to its growing popularity; this, in turn, resulted in the Star Trek feature films, on which Roddenberry continued to produce and consult. In 1985, he became the first TV writer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was later inducted by both the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Years after his death, Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have his ashes carried into earth orbit. The popularity of the Star Trek universe and films has inspired films, books, comic books, video games, and fan films set in the Star Trek universe. He was born in El Paso, Texas. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Roddenberry

19 Aug 1944 – Charles Wang, American businessman and philanthropist who was a co-founder and CEO of Computer Associates International, Inc. (later renamed to CA Technologies). Wang grew Computer Associates into one of the country's largest software vendors. Wang authored two books to help executives master technology: Techno Vision and Techno Vision II. He was a minority owner (and past majority owner) of the NHL's New York Islanders ice hockey team and their AHL affiliate, an investor in numerous businesses, and benefactor to charities including Smile Train, the World Childhood Foundation, the Islanders Children's Foundation and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, among others. He was born in Shanghai. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wang

19 Aug 1967 - Satya Nadella, engineer and Indian American business executive. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014. He led a giant round of layoffs and flattened the organization (getting rid of middle managers). Before becoming chief executive, he was the Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise Group, responsible for building and running the company's computing platforms. His tenure has emphasized openness to working with companies and technologies with which Microsoft also competes, including Apple Inc.,IBM and Dropbox. Under Nadella Microsoft revised its mission statement to "empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more". In comparison to founder Bill Gates's "a PC on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software", Nadella says that it is an enduring mission, rather than a temporal goal. His key goal has been transforming Microsoft’s corporate culture into one that values continual learning and growth. Nadella's leadership of Microsoft included a series of high-profile acquisitions of other companies, to redirect Microsoft's focus. His first major acquisition was of Mojang, a Swedish game company best known for the popular freeform computer building game Minecraft, in late 2014, for $2.5 billion. He followed that by purchasing Xamarin and LinkedIn in 2016, then GitHub in 2018. He was born Hyderabad, Telangana. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Nadella

Events of interest

19 Aug 1887 - Dmitri Mendeleev makes a solo ascent by balloon to an altitude of 11,500 feet (3.5 km) above Klin, Russia to observe an eclipse. - https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0819/

19 Aug 1940 – First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber. Named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in every theatre of World War II, and after the war ended, many remained in service, operating across four decades. Produced in numerous variants, nearly 10,000 B-25s were built. These included a few limited models such as the F-10 reconnaissance aircraft, the AT-24 crew trainers, and the United States Marine Corps' PBJ-1 patrol bomber. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_B-25_Mitchell

19 Aug 1964 – Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, was launched. The satellite, in orbit near the International Date Line, had the addition of a wideband channel for television and was used to telecast the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to the United States. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncom

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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How Israel became a cybersecurity power — and what Canada can learn from it

In 2011, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an ambitious promise to turn a country with less than a quarter of Canada’s population and GDP into a top-five global cybersecurity power within five years.

Now, less than a decade later, Israel has far outstripped those goals: it is recognized worldwide as a cybersecurity innovation hub that continues to produce not only some of the best products and services — but the best minds.

Israel currently has 450 cybersecurity companies, some of which are publicly traded in North America, and approaching US$10 billion in exports in the sector, according to Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute chairman Adiv Baruch.

The success has been fuelled by what one Israeli CEO described as “an ecosystem that feeds itself.” The government, the education system, the military and the commercial market all work in unison to power a multi-year cycle that sees the government heavily invest and then profit from the services and the exports they’re generating internationally.

For Canada, which is looking to make a mark in innovative industries such as artificial intelligence, it’s a model that some say is worth studying.

Innovation Nation: The AI advantage of overlooked global partners

How to finance a Canadian tech startup, from pre-seed to series D

Canada risks losing its artificial intelligence edge as adoption lags and the tech goes mainstream

“It’s a massive machine,” said Tyson Johnson, the chief operating officer for CyberNB, a government of New Brunswick agency working to help the cybersecurity sector grow in Canada. “That level of integration should be imitated here in Canada.”

Canadian cybersecurity firms got the chance to meet some of their Israeli counterparts last week, when an Israeli delegation visited Toronto to attend the Canada-Israel Business Forum. Many of the Israeli firms already have contracts in Canada, but with exports always in mind, expressed the need for further collaboration between the two countries.

While Canada’s cybersecurity industry has not seen anywhere near the same level of government or military co-operation, it has also lacked the same motivation that has been the driving force behind Israel’s transformation.

Geographically, Israel is surrounded by enemies. Iran, in particular, Netanyahu has said, launches cyber attacks against his country every day.

“We have a beautiful house in a dangerous neighbourhood,” said Baruch, who is the former president of Israeli cybersecurity firm Nyotron Information Security Ltd.

One of the program’s hallmarks has been the government’s emphasis on developing human capital and not just companies themselves.

The process begins at a young age — kindergarten classes involve lessons in computers and robotics. By Grade 4, students are learning computer programming and in Grade 10, they’re learning the coding and encryption skills necessary to stop hacking attacks.

The goal is to encourage them to think outside the box, Baruch said. For those who are successful and show promise, there are government-sponsored after-school programs that can advance their training before they take the next step and enter the military.

Military service is mandatory for all Israelis at the age of 18 but instead of serving as infantrymen, some are funnelled into Israel Defence Forces Unit 8200. The cyber intelligence unit which acts as an incubator where they spend three years learning on the job about how to attack Israel’s enemies and protect it from threats.

When their terms are over, they can continue their education in university; Israel was the first country in the world where students could obtain a PhD in cybersecurity as an independent discipline. Otherwise there are two choices, according to Asher Abish, the regional director for marketing and sales of ELTA Systems Ltd., a subsidiary of the government-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, which provides cybersecurity defence services.

“They go out from the military and they either join the industry or they develop their own startups,” said Abish.

If a young recruit joins a company immediately after serving in the military, the government already begins to recoup its initial investment. That person will already be contributing to Israel’s growing cyber exports while adding to the pool of talent and products the government can call on for its own defence.

But for those looking to launch their own startups, the government is still willing to double down on its initial investment. Between 2015 and 2018, Israel’s National Cyber Bureau and the Office of the Chief Scientist distributed more than US$37 million to cyber firms developing what it considered to be groundbreaking technology. In August, it booked another US$25 million in funding over three years for companies in the early stage of funding.

Israel spawned 60 new cybersecurity companies in 2018 alone. With assistance from the government, these companies have been allowed to continue to grow to a point where they’re attracting the interest of international venture capital funds. Last year, Israel’s cyber companies raised more than US$1.03 billion across all stages of funding. That accounts for 20 per cent of the total venture capital funds invested in cyber companies worldwide, second only to the U.S.

Tal Bar Or co-founded Octopus Systems six years ago and while he didn’t use any government funding to start his company, he immediately drew attention from international venture capital firms, including one based in Toronto where the company has since opened an office. Octopus focuses on developing software that fuses how companies respond to both physical and cyber threats in order to lower response time. Bar Or’s company already has contracts with Brookfield and the York Regional Police in Canada and others in Singapore and India.

In Israel, Bar Or is one of many executives hiring young talent directly out of the army. He spent five years there himself before moving on to the Israel Security Agency.

“We welcome it because it’s giving us the ability to get great people coming with experience, doing it in a large scale for a large organization and embedding them inside our company in order to have the ability to grow and be more sophisticated,” Bar Or said.

“All the Israeli companies are competing for those brains.”

Bar Or will put potential recruits, whether they’re coming from the army or from another company through a rigorous testing process that examines both their knowledge and their response time in handling simulated threats.

The transition isn’t always smooth, Abish said. In particular, IAI and Elta have to push their military recruits to focus more on development of new products and services than simply deploying them. IAI and Elta have a cyber academy which it uses to train its own recruits, Abish said. Its usefulness doesn’t end there. The company also provides its training services to any interested international parties, once again finding a way to boost Israel’s exports.

It’s the constant addition of new talent that allows IAI to continue to innovate. Abish, for instance, mentions taking the algorithms for early warning aircraft, which have systems that can detect threats from a long range and direct strikes, and incorporating them into cyber early warning systems. When young engineers and programmers are in a position to offer up these kinds of ideas, the Israeli government begins to recoup its investment.

This isn’t just done through exports, Abish said. The country’s top companies have been known to temporarily put competition aside when the government calls on them to solve an internal problem.

Asked how each company is able to put their own interests aside, Abish’s answer was simple.

“It’s Israel,” he said.

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: VicF77

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newsfundastuff · 6 years ago

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A grieving father said on Sunday he had “never wanted” his “soft and loving” daughter to be on a plane that crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 passengers and crew onboard. Joanna Toole was one of seven Britons who perished when a Boeing 737 Max-8 jet, which was only months old, crashed just six minutes after take off. The US aircraft giant launched an investigation amid growing concern over the passenger jet’s design. The same model had crashed in Indonesia less than five months ago, killing all 189 people onboard. The cause of Sunday's crash is still unclear but the pilot of Ethiopia airlines flight ET302 reported difficulties shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa en route to the Kenyan capital Nairobi. It has also emerged that the US Department of State had released a security alert on March 8, advising all US government travellers “not to arrive or depart [Addis Ababa’s] Bole International Airport on March 10” although this advice was rescinded a day later. The family of Joanna Toole, who grew up in Exmouth, have been informed that she was on board an Ethiopia Airlines plane which crashed shortly after take off en route to Nairobi in Kenya. Ms Toole, 36, from Exmouth in Devon, was due to attend the United Nations Environment Assembly starting in Nairobi. She was, her father said, a committed environmentalist and animal lover who worked for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. “Joanna was a very soft and loving person,” said her father Adrian Toole, speaking to DevonLive website. “She had never really wanted to do anything else but work in animal welfare since she was a child. “Somehow that work took her into the international sphere... That involves a lot of travelling around the world - although personally I never wanted her to be on a single one of those planes... Up until now she had been lucky.” Ms Toole’s partner, who lived with her in Rome, had telephoned her father to inform him she was on the flight while her employers described her as “a wonderful human being”. China 'grounds Boeing 737 Max jets' The crash raises serious questions over the design of the Boeing aircraft and in particular its anti-stall mechanism. Within the first few minutes after take-off the plane’s vertical speed, the rate of climb or descent, varied dramatically. Its ‘unstable’ vertical speed, according to data from the flight-tracking website flightradar24, went from 2,624 feet per minute to -1216, suggesting the plane rose and fell rapidly in the minutes before it plunged into scrubland. Vertical speed should remain stable - or else increase - after take off. As the aviation industry reeled from the latest tragedy, China's aviation regulator has ordered domestic airlines to suspend their Boeing 737 Max aircraft. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said local carriers had until 6 pm local time to ground the 96 jets of that model that they operate. Ceremony marking 1st delivery of Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane to Air China in Zhoushan Credit: Reuters The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive in November last year, in relation to one of the flight systems on the Boeing 737-8 and 737-9 series of aircraft. That was published following the crash of the Lion Air flight 610 - another Boeing 737 Max 8 - on October 29. The FAA directive warned that an "angle of attack" censor, which is supposed to help to prevent a plane from stalling, could lead to an “excessive nose-down attitude, significant altitude loss, and possible impact with the terrain”. This “unsafe condition... is likely to exist or develop” in the Boeing 737-8 and 737-9 designs, the directive concluded. Ethiopia plane crash Photographs from the scene showed the devastation caused by the crash with harrowing images of body parts covered up by plastic bodybags scattered in the wake of the crash at 8.44am local time. Boeing announced it would send a technical assistance team to the site of the crash. It said it is postponing the “external debut” of its 777X model and related media events scheduled for this week because of the accident. There is no change to the plane’s schedule or progress, Boeing said. French-British woman among the victims Kenya’s transport secretary James Macharia told reporters there were nationals from at least 35 different countries on board, including the seven British passengers. It is thought to be the biggest loss of life of Britons in a passenger jet crash since the shooting down of MH-17 over Ukraine in 2014. A French-British polar tourism expert has been named in Norwegian media as one of those to have died in the crash. Sarah Auffret was an environmental agent for the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators. "Words cannot describe the sorrow and despair we feel. We have lost a true friend and beloved colleague," a statement from the Norwegian firm said. Among the 32 Kenyans who lost their lives was Joseph Kuria Waithaka, 55, who had lived in Hull for more than a decade working for the probation service and was travelling back to the region after visiting his wife and children, who still live in the UK. Joseph Waithaka has been identified by the WFP as a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 His son Ben Kuria said: “My dad was a private man but he also had a pastoral heart. He really championed people... he really rooted for his children.” His daughter Zipporah Kuria tweeted that her father “was the first man I ever loved. Believed in my dreams more than I ever could. Rest in peace daddy.” There were also eight Americans and 18 Canadians among the dead. Theresa May said she was “deeply saddened to hear of the devastating loss of life following the plane crash in Ethiopia”. In a statement, the prime minister said: “At this very difficult time my thoughts are with the families and friends of the British citizens on board and all those affected by this tragic incident.” As many as 50 people onboard were thought to be heading for the same UN conference. The UN confirmed a number of its staff had died while the World Food Programme said it was "mourning" the loss of its employees. Those included the one Irish victim who was named as Michael Ryan. Among those killed were the wife and two children of the Slovakian MP Anton Hrnko while hospitality company Tamarind Group said its chief executive Jonathan Seex, a Kenyan national, also died. Lucky escape A Greek man said he would have been the 150th passenger on the plane, except he arrived two minutes late for the flight. "I was mad because nobody helped me to reach the gate on time," Antonis Mavropoulos said in a Facebook post entitled "My lucky day" in which he includes a photo of his ticket. Mavropoulos, president of the International Solid Waste Association, a non-profit organisation, was travelling to Nairobi to attend the annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, according to Athens News Agency. Members of the search and rescue mission carry dead bodies at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu Credit: Reuters He was supposed to board the plane but he reached the departure gate just two minutes after it was closed. He booked a later flight but was then prevented from boarding by airport staff. "They led me to the police station of the airport. The officer told me not to protest but to pray to God because I was the only passenger that didn't board the ET 302 flight that was lost," Mavropoulos said in his post in which he admits being in shock. The airport authorities explained that they wanted to question him because he was the only passenger booked onto the doomed flight who wasn't on board. "They said they couldn't let me go before cross-checking my identity, the reason I hadn't boarded the plane etc." Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde Medhin, visited the scene of the crash where emergency worker Lenora Ayana told The Telegraph that officials were “having a hard time locating bodies with so much debris.” 'Everything is burnt down' The plane had taken off at 8:38am (0638 GMT) from Bole International Airport but lost contact six minutes later near Bishoftu, a town 37 miles southeast of Addis Ababa. The plane came down near the village of Tulu Fara. The pilot had sent out a distress call and was given the all clear to return. A massive crater could be seen at the crash site, with belongings and airplane parts scattered widely. An eyewitness told the BBC there was an intense fire when the plane crashed. “The blast and the fire were so strong that we couldn’t get near it,” he said. “Everything is burnt down.” At Nairobi airport, anxious relatives waited for news, many in tears and in distress. Devastated family members of the victims involved in a plane crash at Addis Ababa international airport Credit: AP “I am still hoping that all is fine, because I have been waiting for my sister since morning and we have not been told anything,” said Peter Kimani, who was waiting in the arrivals lounge for hours after the plane had been scheduled to land at 10:25am local time. His sister is a nurse who he said had been in the Congo. “We are still expecting our loved one from Addis... we have just received news that there is a plane that has crashed. We can only hope that she is not on that flight.” Ethiopian Airlines confirmed it had bought the plane in November and it had “undergone a rigorous first check maintenance in February 2018.” A statement from Boeing said the company was “deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302”, adding: “We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team.” Safety experts cautioned against drawing too many comparisons between the two crashes until more is known about Sunday's disaster. Boeing 737 MAX | Who has ordered the plane? The Ethiopian Airlines CEO "stated there were no defects prior to the flight, so it is hard to see any parallels with the Lion Air crash yet," said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted his “deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones”. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said: “My prayers go to all the families and associates of those on board.” A spokesman for António Guterres, UN Secretary General, said: “The Secretary-General was deeply saddened at the tragic loss of lives in the airplane crash. “He conveys his heartfelt sympathies and solidarity to the victims’ families and loved ones.” The crash came on the eve of a major, annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme opening in Nairobi. Rescue teams work at the site of the crashed plane, watched by hundreds of bystanders Credit: EWELDE Source: What do we know about the airline? The last major accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was a Boeing 737-800 that exploded after taking off from Lebanon in 2010, killing 83 passengers and seven crew. The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa, calls itself the Continent's largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to Africa. It has been expanding assertively, recently opening a route to Moscow and in January inaugurating a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity. Speaking at the inauguration, the Prime Minister Ahmed challenged the airline to build a new "Airport City" terminal in Bishoftu - where Sunday's crash occurred. Read more: The world's safest – and least safe – airlines for 2019

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7newx1 · 6 years ago

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jacewilliams1 · 5 years ago

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Adventures of a Canadian bush pilot

I arrive in Fort William-Port Arthur by train in mid-May. Pop has paved the way and I obtain an interview with Orville Wieben, owner of Superior Airways. The company is well known as a major charter air service in Northwestern Ontario. The headquarters base in Fort William includes a seaplane facility on the Kamanistiquia River and operations at Sioux Lookout and Armstrong. The company had several dozen aircraft including Norseman Vs, a Bellanca Skyrocket, a Douglas DC-3 and a number of Cessna 180s. They are also an official Cessna Aircraft sales and service facility for Northwestern Ontario and eastern Manitoba.

Orville Wieben is an excellent pilot and savvy aircraft owner-operator with a fleet of high-performance bush planes. These aircraft had to be relatively low maintenance, easy to fly, and carry a diverse cargo of passengers or freight. Two aircraft are the workhorses of the Superior Airways fleet. The first is the Noorduyn Norseman, almost a flying truck. With a 450hp Pratt and Whitney radial engine, it can cruise at 120 mph on floats with a 2,700- pound payload. The other is the fairly-new Cessna 180 on floats. It has a 230hp Continental engine, consumes 11 gallons of gas per hour with an 800-pound payload, and competes nicely with the de Havilland Beaver, which is a bit slower than a Cessna 180 and consumes twice as much gas.

Mr. Wieben reviews my logbook, asks questions about my southern Ontario flying experience and in particular, my float endorsement for pontoons I earned at Orillia Air Services. He apparently has a high regard for Orillia’s Harry Stirk and his pilot training.

He also says my 200 hours with a commercial pilot license represent a modest experience but hires me and sends me off to the Sioux Lookout base.

Superior Airways operated a thriving seaplane business in Northwestern Ontario for many years.

There I would be under the guidance of chief pilot and manager Ranny McDonald. On May 25, 1957, McDonald checks me out on Cessna 180, CF-HZY, on floats. We fly to several nearby lakes where I perform a float plane landing, a pilot’s most difficult maneuver on water. They are glassy water landings and docking in an adverse crosswind—difficult, as the aircraft wants to weather cock into the wind. Being on the controls requires aileron, water rudder, and power manipulation. Ranny says I did well. Before he assigns me to my own aircraft, I am scheduled for familiarization and navigation of our extensive Northwestern Ontario charter air service territory as a co-pilot.

For the next six weeks I fly co-pilot for Captain Gord Norell in the Norseman V. I also co-pilot a Bellanca Skyrocket, similar to a Norseman, with Captain Alex Maxwell. Flying with these senior pilots, I learn a lot. Our jobs are very diverse and include flying prospectors to find mineral ore. We augment the Ontario Provincial Air Service and fly people requiring Sioux Lookout Hospital medical help. The company has four or five hunting and fishing camps throughout our territory. Flying fishing and hunting parties with an Indian guide for a week’s fun in the bush is big business.

There have been various books written about bush pilots. We are great storytellers about our many escapades, but a lot of what has been published does not get to the crux of what makes a bush pilot. So here is my take. When I visited Orval in his Thunder Bay office in the mid-70s, we reminisced about my experiences with his company in the 50s. I was proud when he said, “George, you are one of the last real bush pilots.” So, this is my definition:

A bush pilot should be categorized as an adventurous, resourceful Grade A pilot-cum-mechanic/technician. He or she should have the instincts of an explorer to fly and navigate over Canada’s vast geography of forests and lakes above the 49th and 50th parallels north of Lake Superior and James Bay. By comparison, most of southern Ontario straddles the 44th parallel.

“Be Prepared” as the Scouts say, often seven days per week. Pushing the limits responsibly to get the best power and fuel efficiency to reach the destination. Bush sense includes how to fend for yourself when downed by weather in a remote area. A fishing rod, 410 shotgun, Arctic sleeping bag and camping on the shore under the wing while waiting for weather to clear are a part of the job. So is fuelling the aircraft by oneself from a cached 45-gallon drum of gas with a wobble pump and chamois in a funnel.

Bush pilots need to have the courage to face hardships and danger. Bush pilots flew aircraft at the time with basic flight instruments: an airspeed indicator, turn and bank and sometimes an artificial horizon, if it worked. Navigation equipment was a magnetic compass and directional gyro. Reading and interpreting the VFR nav charts over wide swaths of barren terrain is vital. In some aircraft, we were lucky to have a UHF radio to communicate with our base. These signals were often erratic and dependent on us trailing 200-foot antenna.

An essential ingredient of being a good bush pilot is having strong self-discipline and in its modern sense flying and working with situational awareness. Today, pilots have the luxury of advanced high-tech satellite, GPS, transponder, T-Cast, and glass cockpit instrument panels to aid their flying.

In late July 1957, I was assigned my own airplane, Cessna 180 CF-JEV. Flying engineers and equipment to the headwaters of the Great Divide along the 51st parallel was one of my jobs. The streams and rivers flowing from this terrain’s high point descend north into Hudson Bay. A series of dams was devised to divert the water southward to Lac Seul and Lake Joseph’s hydro projects. By mid-August, I had done this trip many times. One day I took an engineer who had not flown with me before and he asked if he could follow our journey by reading my map that was on top of the instrument panel. After a while he remarked, “you are going straight to our destination.”

I said I hope so and why do you ask. He said, “I was recently flying with one of your other pilots and he got lost. We had to land on a lake and ask an Indian in his canoe where we were.” I recalled the pilot he referred to. He would go out on a two-hour trip and come back four hours later. He was getting lost. Apparently, the Indian took the chart, turned it over several folds and stabbed his finger at the correct location which was about 50 miles away from the intended route. Quite laughable if it wasn’t so serious.

Ontario is dotted with over 250,000 lakes—perfect for seaplanes.

Our contract with the Federal Government Department of Entomology biologist meant that once every several weeks, one of us would fly the bug doctor, as we called him, to collect samples from various lakes in the territory.

Ours was an avid fisherman. We would take off early in the morning and go to three or four lakes, pull up on a sandy beach and the doctor would collect various insect samples from the trees and bushes and place them in tagged bags. He always scheduled our flights so that about 1 pm we would arrive at one of his favourite fishing holes. We would then de-plane and fish for pickerel for several hours. It was like being on vacation. We cooked some of our catch and had a shore-line lunch. I even became adept at landing fish from the teeming schools of prevalent pickerel. What a lot of fun amidst a very busy bush pilot’s week.

The Ojibway and Cree, indigenous aboriginals of Northwestern Ontario, are a special group of natives who are everything from fellow workers to customers of our company. The Albany River Oji-Cree have a good fishing business. Our contract requires we pick up freshly-caught sturgeon every several weeks. The Indians catch the fish, keep them alive and tethered by a rope through the gills to a stanchion on the riverbank. When they hear the aircraft arriving, they kill the fish and prepare them for transport. This means cleaning out the innards and saving the roe/eggs from the females.

I have the interior prepped for this cargo. All seats have been removed except mine and the interior lined with a waterproof canvas tarp. I have taken a 16-ounce glass jar with me to be filled up with eggs. It cost me only $.50 for a full jar. On returning to Sioux Lookout with my sturgeon cargo for the Fish Monger Warehouse, the company did not mind me selling my jar of sturgeon eggs which I do and earn the princely sum of $5. I later find out that when this is made into caviar for the big city restaurants, my 16 ounces of eggs are worth about $100.

Forced landings can occur at awkward times. Flying the Norseman with Gord Norrell, we are near Big Cat Lake when one of the cylinder heads blows off. Instantly, the windscreen is doused with oil and it is hard to see. We are flying at approximately 2,000 feet and losing manifold pressure so we determine that Big Cat Lake will be our emergency stop. I am on our UHF radio with a Mayday call but get no response. Landing safely, we pull up to a nice sandy beach in front of the only habitation we could see. We are warmly welcomed by a family of Indians who live in a hut. They help us tie up, clean off our oily overalls and invite us for supper and to stay overnight while we wait for a new cylinder and our mechanic. No doubt, our absence would be noted and a search made.

In the meantime, I really get to know these Indians. Their modest shack was immaculate. They hunt and fish and explain their spirituality and sacred respect for their land. The recent Federal Government Indian Act has not affected them yet, but they are aware of the potential of being relocated to another reservation and they are unhappy about that. They go on to explain that their ancestors taught them that they had the right to live on their land, which had been theirs for hundreds of years, but they were not entitled to squat or live on another’s land, which belonged to their brothers for centuries and is sacrosanct.

I find all of this very educational and subsequently become very sensitive to indigenous peoples’ relationships with the land. I learn more about this from my son Andrew, who reads a lot about our native people, and Dr. Robbie Keith from the University of Waterloo. I have become very concerned about our Canadian government’s management of our native Canadians ever since this experience. We spend two days there before a replacement cylinder and the mechanic arrive.

The post Adventures of a Canadian bush pilot appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/06/adventures-of-a-canadian-bush-pilot/

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myinformationforyouworld · 6 years ago

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esprit-de-corps-magazine · 7 years ago

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THE GHOSTS OF THE TIFFY BOYS: Mrs. Muir Tells The Story Of Canada's Typhoon Pilots

(Volume 25-01)

By Anne Gafiuk

Flight Lieutenant Harry Hardy, who flew with No. 440 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, is a proud Second World War Typhoon pilot. During my visit with him in May 2017, Harry had taken a pen and marked another ‘X’ on a list of 19 names. Dated January 17, 2015, this list showed only nine Canadian Typhoon pilots remaining.

After my visit with him at his home in Burnaby, British Columbia, Harry pressed me to interview all nine. “You have to talk to us before we are all gone. Combine our stories into a true picture of a Typhooner’s life and how the Typhoons contributed to the success of the Allied armies as we fought from Normandy to Germany during World War Two.”

He then added, “We are the ghosts to your Mrs. Muir. Do you know the story?” I told him I remembered the TV series featuring Hope Lange as Mrs. Muir and Edward Mulhare as Captain Gregg. “Watch the movie,” he suggested. “Mrs. Muir did a great job for the sea captain.”

Harry is a man on a mission. At 95, he is still spreading the word about the importance of the Typhoons from D-Day to VE-Day. He has spoken to numerous groups over the years with slide presentations generously illustrated by personal photographs and infused with his own first-hand accounts. (One of his talks can be found in three parts on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G23UB-QUdac.)

He approached Langley, British Columbia artist Virginia Ivanicki when there were 36 Canadian Typhoon pilots on his list. “The Typhoon was the plane that did the most to help the Canadian and British armies advance across Europe. As you can see, I push the Typhoon all I can and you would be a great help. My aircraft P for Pulverizer, was the most photographed Typhoon in Canadian squadrons 438, 439 and 440, probably because of her nose art.”

Ivanicki said of her illustration entitled Typhoon Bail Out, Harry J. Hardy, D.F.C., C.D., L.d’H., 12/25/44, (Christmas Day): “I did the painting purely as an homage to Harry to celebrate him and his squadron.”

Robert Bailey of Stony Plain, Alberta and Len Krenzler of Calgary, Alberta, painted pictures depicting the Typhoon in action: Typhoon Fury, Typhoon Warning, Typhoon Target by Bailey; Operation Varsity — Crossing of the Rhine and Clash of the Titans by Krenzler. Surviving Typhoon pilots signed each of the prints, but their numbers dwindled as each successive painting was completed.

As a writer, Harry’s plea to me could not be ignored, if only to leave some form of record for historians. To let this last chance slip by would be wilful neglect. I have joined Harry’s mission.

After my visit with Harry, we talk on the phone once a week, sometimes more, discussing what I have discovered about the men on the list. I tell him I was only able to contact five of the men: Doug Gordon (440 Squadron), Frank Johnson (174 Squadron), Jack Hilton (438 Squadron), John Thompson (245 Squadron), and Wally Ward (440 Squadron). Harry makes six. The seventh, Currie Gardner, also of 440 Squadron, is unable to speak with me due to medical issues. I leave messages for two other men, Norm Howe (175 Squadron) and Peter Roper (198 Squadron), but get no response. Emails are undeliverable or their telephone number has a new user. I find other men’s obituaries.

Harry tells me, “Talk to Wally Ward. He might know what happened to some of the Tiffy Boys.” Harry was in charge of the Tiffy Boys in the West; Wally was responsible for the men in Ontario and Quebec.

Doug, Frank, Jack, John and Wally are interested and keen to speak with me, share their stories. Their ages range from 94 to 98. “We’ll help you in any way we can.”

“Come visit,” I hear. If I lived closer they would be guaranteed a personal visit. Frank, John and Wally live in the Toronto area. Doug lives near Ottawa. Jack has just moved to Calgary from Airdrie, and I met with him.

“Send me what you’ve written.” I do. They are pleased. Harry is too.

Harry says to me, “You leave those other guys alone with no mention of those prima donnas! They got their due in the Battle of Britain,” referring to the Spitfire pilots. “This old surviving Typhooner is looking forward to reading your take on the role the Typhoon pilots played as we moved across Europe in the summer and fall of 1944.”

I had heard about Harry a few years ago, but did not meet him in person until I attended the memorial service of Bob Spooner, in Victoria, British Columbia, in August 2016. Bob and I became friends through Gordon Jones. Both Bob and Gordon were instructors at the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan’s No. 5 Elementary Flying Training School in High River, Alberta.

Bob was sent overseas eventually flying the Typhoon, with one of his stories depicted in Robert Bailey’s Typhoon Warning. Gordon remained in Canada as an instructor.

I recall Gordon telling me it was supposed to be him sent overseas, not Bob. He later admitted, “Staying in Canada probably saved my life.” Gordon knew the casualty rates.

Bob shared with me some of his more harrowing stories: the ‘almost’ bailout, the shooting of tanks, trains, railways, and truck convoys. He stressed, “I never shot at people.” He, too, knew the percentages were against him. Halfway through his tour, however, he realized — he knew — he was going to survive and re-established the romance he broke off in southern Alberta when he was posted overseas.

Harry explains, “Say 400 Typhoons roamed over the battlefields of Europe. Any target that was out of range of artillery, the Typhoons were asked to neutralize the problem. In doing so, 665 Typhoon pilots lost their lives, 151 of them were killed during the Battle of Normandy and 51 of them were Canadian. We were always understrength from D-Day to VE-Day. As the pilots were being killed, we could not replace them fast enough from the Operational Training Units in the UK.”

He has many ideas of what I should write about. “Pump the nine of us dry while we are still with you. Your questions rejuvenate our old memories.” Another idea: “Gold Beach (British), Juno (Canadian), and Sword (British) had a combined length of 20 miles. There were 272 Typhoons crisscrossing this area assisting the armies to gain a foothold of Europe. What was it like to fly 100 miles across the Channel, fight until you run out of ammunition and, if necessary, fly a damaged Typhoon back across those 100 miles of water to England? Talk to Jack and to Wally,” he suggests.

“I didn’t get there until August 10th, just in time to take part in the battle to close the Falaise Gap. Imagine the damage that 272 Typhoons could cause under those circumstances. I was involved in the Battle of the Bulge and the Crossing of the Rhine, too. We were involved in train busting, destroying bridges.”

Harry explains the Royal Air Force Typhoon squadrons had rockets. The Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons had bomb-carrying aircraft with cannons. “Each trip consisted of one dive-bombing strike. Our attack sign was ‘Going Down’.” It was like a synchronized dance in the sky.

“We could make four strikes or hits, but if we budgeted well, we could make five! We had 520 rounds. Most of the time, we went home with 20 rounds in each of our planes. After we had dropped our bombs, we went hunting in packs. We would strafe anything: enemy (stationary or moving) and transport was our favourite target. But we only had two hours of gas.”

Harry continues, “We worked on the ground with the army. We were the army’s extended artillery. What they could not hit with their big cannons, Typhoons were called in, sometimes 50 miles behind the lines. We flew 16 aircraft every day, twice a day, and sometimes three times a day! Thirty-two missions a day. Pilots had to double up. Sometimes we fought over who would do the second Op. We were daylight to dark on the beachhead.”

The army engineers also are not mentioned enough in the stories, he tells me. “They had to level the farmers’ fields and lay down a steel mat, approximately 200 feet wide and 1,000 feet long for us to land on. Give the army full credit for building those landing strips so quickly. Also, you might say a word about the forgotten landing strip defence crew.” He adds, “No one in books that I’ve read has ever given credit to our ground crews for the horrendous job it must have been to move the whole Wing with all its maintenance staff and equipment from strip to strip so fast.”

He asks me to “Explain our living conditions on the beachhead; write about how we lived when we moved into Holland.”

No email for Harry, only the phone and the fax. Harry sends me weekly memos via Canada Post. He writes, “You have caused me to lose a bit of sleep as I dredge the old memory for the facts.” His letters are reminders that time is of the essence for Harry and all other surviving Typhoon pilots:

To: The woman who is going to tell those who are interested in what the Typhoons contributed to the success of the armies as they fought from Normandy to Germany.

From: The Dimming Memory of an old Typhooner.

To: Our potential salvation.

From: One hopeful Typhooner.

To: The woman that’s going to tell OUR story the way it was while we are still standing beside her.

From: One of the nine.

From A potential thorn in your side and very interested observer.

Remember: I’m watching you. If I die first, I’ll haunt you if you let us down.

From: The guy that’s relying on you to bring the Typhoon out of the shadows...1000s of us are watching you. When you are interviewing a front line veteran, remember: the war may be over on the outside, BUT it will never be over on the inside. Dig deep.

Remember: Nine of us are hoping that YOU will tell OUR story the way it has never been told before.

Remember

You are our last hope

Tell it as it was

Don’t be squeamish

Mrs. Muir wasn’t.

Will you be our Mrs. Muir?

Last fall, I travelled to Ottawa to scour Library and Archives Canada and research the Typhoon pilots who did not make it home, adding their stories to the ones I heard from Wally, John, Doug, Jack, Frank, and Harry.

I will be their Mrs. Muir.

Author’s note: Since the article’s writing, two more names have been crossed off Harry’s list: Frank Johnson and Peter Roper.

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brookstonalmanac · 5 years ago

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Events 11.2

619 – A qaghan of the Western Turkic Khaganate is assassinated in a Chinese palace by Eastern Turkic rivals after the approval of Tang emperor Gaozu. 1410 – The Peace of Bicêtre suspends hostilities in the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War. 1675 – Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow leads a colonial militia against the Narragansett during King Philip's War. 1795 – The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created. 1868 – Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally. 1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states. 1899 – The Boers begin their 118-day siege of British-held Ladysmith during the Second Boer War. 1912 – Bulgaria defeats the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lule Burgas, the bloodiest battle of the First Balkan War, which opens her way to Constantinople. 1914 – World War I: The Russian Empire declares war on the Ottoman Empire and the Dardanelles are subsequently closed. 1917 – The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities". 1917 – The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian Revolution, holds its first meeting. 1920 – In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the result of the 1920 United States presidential election. 1936 – The British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day. 1940 – World War II: First day of Battle of Elaia–Kalamas between the Greeks and the Italians. 1947 – In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built. 1949 – The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ends with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to the United States of Indonesia. 1951 – Six thousand British troops arrive in Suez after the Egyptian government abrogates the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936.[1] 1951 – Canada in the Korean War: A platoon of The Royal Canadian Regiment defends a vital area against a full battalion of Chinese troops in the Battle of the Song-gok Spur. The engagement lasts into the early hours the next day. 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: Imre Nagy requests UN aid for Hungary. Nikita Khrushchev meets with leaders of other Communist countries to seek their advice on the situation in Hungary, selecting János Kádár as the country's next leader on the advice of Josip Broz Tito. 1956 – Suez Crisis: Israel occupies the Gaza Strip. 1959 – Quiz show scandals: Twenty-One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance. 1959 – The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway. 1960 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley's Lover case. 1963 – South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm is assassinated following a military coup. 1964 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia is deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal. 1965 – Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war. 1966 – The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States. 1967 – Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and "The Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war. 1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 1984 – Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962. 1986 – US Hostage, David Jacobsen, is released in Beirut after 17 months in captivity. 1988 – The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT. 1990 – British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television plc merge to form BSkyB as a result of massive losses. 1999 – Xerox murders: Bryan Koji Uyesugi shot at eight people, killing six of his co-workers and his supervisor. This is the worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii. 2016 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years. 2018 – The Milwaukee Streetcar opens in Milwaukee

#Events

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rollinbrigittenv8 · 7 years ago

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Airbus Beats Boeing With $50 Billion Deal in Latest Aircraft Order Battle

Crowds gather to watch an Airbus A350 test flight during a demonstration at the Dubai Airshow. The company secured the biggest deal of the event. JV. Reymondon / Airbus Group

Skift Take: With no other real challengers, the big two aircraft manufacturers have really been slugging it out between themselves for the past few years. And while Airbus's megadeal isn't a knockout punch it at least gives it bragging rights over Boeing in the short term.

— Patrick Whyte

Airbus SE announced the biggest commercial-plane transaction in its history, securing an order for single-aisle aircraft valued at nearly $50 billion at the Dubai Air Show, outdoing Boeing Co.’s own $20 billion mega-deal.

Wednesday’s pact for 430 A320neo planes with U.S. investor Indigo Partners marked a turnaround for Airbus at the Gulf expo, where it had been trailing its rival. It’s also a crowning achievement for sales chief John Leahy, who is set to retire after a career in which he has struck deals for more than 16,000 jets and lifted the European planemaker into a duopoly position with Boeing.

For Indigo Partners, led by Bill Franke, the Airbus accord provides upgraded narrow-body aircraft to boost the fleets of low-cost carriers from Denver to Budapest. The planes will go to four companies in Indigo’s investment portfolio: Frontier Airlines, Mexico’s Volaris, East European operator Wizz Air Holdings Plc and Chile’s JetSmart, which began operating this year.

The deal features 273 A320neo jets together with 157 of the larger A321neo variant and is worth $49.5 billion before customary discounts, Airbus said. Leahy, 67, called the transaction “remarkable,” while Franke, 80, who co-founded Indigo in 2002, said it underscores his confidence in the A320 and the bargain fares, no-frills travel model he helped develop.

Airbus shares rose as much as 4 percent and were trading 2.9 percent higher at 85.93 euros as of 11:13 a.m. in Paris, taking the gain this year to 37 percent.

Boeing Retort

Boeing recovered some ground with the sale of 175 737 Max planes, the A320’s main competitor, to FlyDubai, a deal big enough to have dominated most air shows.

While that order will come as an irritation for Airbus, with the airline having been expected to split it between the two manufacturers, the Toulouse, France-based company wasn’t done at the Dubai event. It went on to announce EgyptAir Airlines Co. as the operator of 15 A320neos previously ordered by leasing firm AerCap Holdings NV.

The Indigo deal more than doubles Airbus’s previous order book for the year, which stood at about 290 aircraft as of Oct. 31, pushes the planemaker’s backlog above 7,000 jets and reverses expectations that orders will trail deliveries in 2017.

The haul will also help Airbus catch up to Boeing in the order tally this year, with the European planemaker having chalked up 343 contracts at the end of last month, compared with 690 for its Chicago-based rival as of Nov. 7. The order also trumps a 2015 deal for 250 single-aisle jets worth $27 billion by Indian budget carrier IndiGo. The two companies aren’t related.

The massive A320 win takes the sting out of a possible defeat on the A380 superjumbo, which has so far failed to clinch a follow-up deal with local carrier Emirates at the Dubai show. The companies have been in talks on a deal for about 36 additional double-deckers valued at $15.7 billion, people familiar with the negotiations have said.

The A380 has become all but a fringe product for Airbus, with a total order book of 317 — more than 100 short of the A320s that Indigo plans to buy.

The breakdown of the Indigo order is as follows:

Wizz — 146 planes (72 A320neo, 74 A321neo)

Frontier — 134 planes (100 A320neo, 34 A321neo)

Volaris — 80 planes (46 A320neo, 34 A321neo)

JetSmart — 70 planes (56 A320neo, 14 A321neo)

Boeing’s 737 deal from FlyDubai includes more than 50 of the largest Max 10s, with the balance to be made up of Max 8s and 9s, according to a statement. The carrier, which is due to integrate more closely with Emirates over coming months, also has options on 50 more aircraft.

Emirates itself snubbed Airbus on the first day of the show with a surprise $15 billion order for Boeing 787 wide-body jets, after also looking at the European company’s A350.

The Indigo purchase provides a boost to Airbus Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders, who has found himself on the defensive amid an investigation into bribery allegations at the company. Enders has warned employees that the probe is likely to be a drawn-out process that could result in “serious consequences” and “significant penalties.”

A German who has run Airbus for five years, Enders orchestrated another coup last month when he struck a deal with Bombardier Inc. to take a majority stake in the Canadian company’s C Series jet program. That will give Airbus access to advanced technology while throwing Bombardier a lifeline for its slow-selling aircraft.

Fly-by-Wire Pioneer

The A320 is Airbus’s best-selling product and the aircraft that put the company on the map when it was introduced in the late 1980s with cutting-edge technology such as fly-by-wire controls and a side-stick to steer the plane rather than Boeing’s central yoke.

Airbus was first to pioneer the new-engine variant of its existing single-body model. The A320neo first flew in 2014 and has been delivered to customers around the world. Boeing’s response, the 737 Max, only entered commercial service this year.

Narrow-body aircraft, which typically seat six abreast in economy class, are the workhorses of the global airline fleet. Burgeoning demand for air travel will push jetliner sales to more than 34,000 worldwide in the next 20 years, according to Airbus’s 2017 global market forecast. Almost three-quarters of that will be single-aisle models, the company said.

While a huge commercial hit, the A320neo hasn’t been without technical faults. Output is being disrupted by manufacturing delays at Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp., which supplies the plane’s geared turbofan engine. The A320neo is also powered by engines made by CFM International, a venture between General Electric Co. and Safran SA.

Airbus makes the A320 family at different sites around the world, including its main factory in Toulouse, France, as well as in Hamburg, Germany. The company also builds the plane at an assembly line in China, and has recently pushed into the U.S. with a plant in Mobile, Alabama.

This article was written by Julie Johnsson, Benjamin Katz and Mary Schlangenstein from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years ago

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Airbus Beats Boeing With $50 Billion Deal in Latest Aircraft Order Battle

Crowds gather to watch an Airbus A350 test flight during a demonstration at the Dubai Airshow. The company secured the biggest deal of the event. JV. Reymondon / Airbus Group

— Patrick Whyte

Airbus shares rose as much as 4 percent and were trading 2.9 percent higher at 85.93 euros as of 11:13 a.m. in Paris, taking the gain this year to 37 percent.

Boeing Retort

Boeing recovered some ground with the sale of 175 737 Max planes, the A320’s main competitor, to FlyDubai, a deal big enough to have dominated most air shows.

The A380 has become all but a fringe product for Airbus, with a total order book of 317 — more than 100 short of the A320s that Indigo plans to buy.

The breakdown of the Indigo order is as follows:

Wizz — 146 planes (72 A320neo, 74 A321neo)

Frontier — 134 planes (100 A320neo, 34 A321neo)

Volaris — 80 planes (46 A320neo, 34 A321neo)

JetSmart — 70 planes (56 A320neo, 14 A321neo)

Emirates itself snubbed Airbus on the first day of the show with a surprise $15 billion order for Boeing 787 wide-body jets, after also looking at the European company’s A350.

Fly-by-Wire Pioneer

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