Last weekend I listened to a WW II veteran recount a similar tale.  He was a wireless operator aboard a Lancaster bomber on its seventh mission over Germany.  The formation of bombers was over the target when one of the adjacent bombersturned too early and collided with his aircraft.  The collision ripped off part of the wing and the crew had no choice but to bail out.  He was taken captive and spent the rest of the war in two prison camps until Germany’s defeat meant he and his comrades could start making their way back to Britain.  Two days later he was able to telephone his parents from an airfield in Surrey and make the final stage of his journey home.

RAF Bomber Command lost 55,000 crew members during World War II.   Many of them were little more than 22  years old and those that weren’t killed instantly by fighter of anti aircraft fire died in burning and crashing aircraft.

A memorial to the lost aircrew is to be built in London and should be completed by 2012.

To learn more about RAF Bomber Command and the role it played in World War II click here.

To make a donation to the memorial fund click here.

In his new book The Shallows – What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr describes how this happening.  I haven’t read it yet but it’s high on my reading list due to the reviews it’s received.

It’s long been known that people read web pages differently from how they read books.  Surfers often glance at a few lines on a page before clicking on a link a going elsewhere to repeat the process ad infinitum and so minutes can become hours and nothing of any depth is learnt.    I noticed this trait in myself which is why, if I want to enjoy a story or learn about something I still buy a book about it no matter how much information there is about the subject online.

If you can’t be bothered to read the whole book then at least read Nicholas Carr’s article on this subject on Wired’s website.  Thought provoking stuff.

The BBC’s Have Your Say section seems to be run by people have a knack for asking questions and proposing topics which they know will polarise the debate.  The BBC has often been accused of a left wing, anti-war bias, but over the past few months that attitude seems to have moved back towards the centre a little.  However, they continue to (rightly and properly) report on the deaths in the war, but at the same give scant attention to military successes achieved by British troops.

The responses to the question ‘Can the Taliban be defeated?‘ have been divided between predictable lines of ‘Never, so bring the troops home‘, and ‘Of course, and we’re winning‘, but it’s interesting to note how events in Afghanistan over the past thirty years have become blurred in the minds of those who feel strongly enough about the situation today to post comments.

I’d be the first to admit that my knowledge of the complexities of this region is patchy and basic at best, but even a cursory look online can help clarify who each group is and just as importantly who they are not, and I know we shouldn’t rely upon Wikipedia and that we should always question the content but it’s often a handy reference for laying out the basics.

So even using only Wikipedia as our guide we might be able to put things into perspective a little.

Mujahideen – Islamist guerilla fighters best known as the loose coalition of warlord lead groups who collectively defeated the Soviet Union’s army and drove the occupiers out of Afghanistan in the 1980s.  They subsequently went on to fight among themselves during the Afghan Civil War before creating a united front made up of representatives from the seven separate groups.

Taliban – Formed in the early 1990′s by Mullah Omar they are a Sunni Islamist group whose ideology includes a the strictest interpretation of sharia law.  By recruiting from madrassas in north west Pakistan they grew large enough to take on the Mujahideen and gradually gained control of Afghanistan and ruled there from 1996 to 2001.

al-Qaeda – A stateless Sunni Islamist terrorist network calling for global jihad. Responsible for many bombings and attacks most notably the September 11th 2001 suicide bombings in New York.  Its goals include the creation of a global caliphate of Muslim countries.  They set up training camps in Afghanistan with the cooperation of the Taliban and it’s believed that Osama Bin Laden sent the suicide bomber who killed Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, on September 9, 2001.

Why would al-Qaeda want to kill Massoud?  Perhaps this open letter to the people of the USA would answer that question.  Written in 1998 he says:

“The country has gradually been occupied by fanatics, extremists, terrorists, mercenaries, drug Mafias and professional murderers. One faction, the Taliban, which by no means rightly represents Islam, Afghanistan or our centuries-old cultural heritage, has with direct foreign assistance exacerbated this explosive situation. They are unyielding and unwilling to talk or reach a compromise with any other Afghan side.”

September 9 is observed as a national holiday in Afghanistan, known as “Massoud Day”.

Today you can film some footage of a UFO on your phone and share it with the world within minutes.  You can broadcast your own theories, cut and splice footage to make your own documentaries and carry out hours of research in archives and record libraries now available online.  You can set up your own website, publish a book and make a DVD claiming that you have the real truth about UFOs.

I particularly like this footage.  Watch the way it disappears.  Nanjiing, China 2010

At the very least ufology is a harmless hobby, but it’s tarnished with the reputation that it’s a field that’s populated by nerds, anoraks, and gullible New Agers who are waiting for some benevolent extraterrestrial angel-like beings to descend and transform our bodies and souls into models of perfection.   Not that there’s anything wrong with hoping, dreaming, and wishing for a better world and the advancement of human concisousness, but it has to be real, definite, and measurable.

“If your philosophy doesn’t grow corn, then I don’t want to hear it.”
- Sun Bear, an Ojibway Indian medicine man

Then there’s the publicity seekers, conspiracy theorists, and ego-maniacs who use the subject as a vehicle for their own self aggrandisement, and often what begin as rational discussions can turn into back-biting arguments.

So what anyone who’s even mildly interested wants to to know is, “Is it all chaff or is there one grain of truth and reality in all this?”

UFOs have been sighted in so many ways and by so many people over the past six decades that there’s no shortage of testimony.  Many sightings have been made by reliable witnesses like airline pilots who are trained professionals with expert knowledge of weather phenomena, astronomical bodies, and aircraft types.  Then, over the years there have been periods in which sightings seemed to have diminished in number and the subject has ceased to be newsworthy.

UFO sightings, like crop circles, remain commonplace but unexplained so people grow bored with the subject and simply lose interest.  “So you’ve filmed another UFO?  Let me see – oh yes, not bad, but still very unclear.  Any idea what it is?  No, I didn’t think so.“

Every now and again the sightings and the interest they generate increase in frequency and quality, and ufologists suggest that we’re on the threshold of some new and profound revelation.  At the crest of this latest wave is Dr Steven M. Greer and the Disclosure Project.  If his website is to be believed the world is soon to learn that the USA government has known about the reality of extraterrestrial intelligence for years but has covered it all up because of the anticipated panic such a disclosure might cause among the world’s population.  They have also hidden knowledge about free energy technology in order to protect vested interests in the oil industry, the global financial markets and economies based upon oil.

Before you condemn those in the know who may have withheld such knowledge, consider that it’s not just the bank balance of an elite that depend on oil.  Economies are fragile and the slightest change can have a very real and painful effect on ordinary people whose lives rely upon the status quo.

A series of stills taken in July 2010 in Zhejiang’s provincial capital Hangzhou, China

This theory has been around for at least two decades so it’s not exactly new.  I remember reading (when the X-Files was first on TV, so in the 1990s) of a suggestion that the US and other governments were drip feeding information about extraterrestrial intelligences into the public consciousness in preparation for the day when the full truth would be revealed.  The idea being that they could prevent any mass panic by getting people so used to the idea that extraterrestrial exist that they just accepted it as fact anyway.

The suggestion was that this project started around the time of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and has been going on ever since.  Thirty years have passed and it could take a generation or two before the time was judged to be right for all those revelations to be made public, for the X Files to be opened.

Perhaps part of the shift in popular consciousness that both the governments and the extraterrestrials are waiting for is  a move beyond an understanding basic Newtonian physics and grasping the fundamentals of General Relativity or the concept of parallel worlds as introduced in books by the likes of Michio Kaku.  If half of what he writes about is true then truth is definitely stranger than fiction and it wouldn’t be at all far-fetched for things in the sky to appear and disappear seemingly into thin air.

Perhaps the time of the tipping point, of critical mass, or paradigm shift is soon, perhaps it won’t come for another thirty years, or never at all.  If you look around the world today you can see ample evidence of the barbarity of the human race so why would any advanced civilization want to associate with us anyway?  Besides, all the above is based on the assumption that the ETs are benevolent or at least beings open to negotiation.  What if they they’re not?

Life is very probably out there in the depths of the universe or in parallel worlds and I’m inclined to think that if they had designs on conquering, destroying, or harvesting us they would have done so by now.  With such advanced technology they have much to offer us that could solve many of world’s crises.  On the other hand, perhaps they’ve got better things to do and more interesting species with whom to do them.

ET may be in contact already, but perhaps we won’t know until enough of us calm down and do some thinking, or meditating., and if they don’t appear in your life time then at least we’ll have read some interesting books and enjoyed some moments of peace and relaxation while contemplating life in parallel worlds.

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” - Oscar Wilde

The story has all the hallmarks of a typical online dating scam, similar to the Nigerian 419 fraud.  The woman in question is described as an a emotionally vulnerable divorcee and the conman convinced her that he had a sick daughter who needed urgent medical treatment.

Once again the natural human instinct to help others has been exploited and another compassionate person has been conned by a criminal.  Intelligent and otherwise sensible people have fallen victim to this type of online dating scam before and will probably continue to do so simply because people like to believe the best about others and they have an inbuilt urge to help.

The victim in this case, Brenda Parke of Sussex, has bravely admitted her gullibility and has divulged the details of her story to the newspaper in the hope that others will take note and avoid being similarly conned.  She goes on to say that she hopes dating sites will take more responsibility for the people who join their sites.  This point is backed up by comments made at the foot of the online article.

However, there is a limit to what dating site administrators can do and the ultimate responsibility lies with those who use the sites.  For example, many of these cons come about because the victim agrees to communicate with the criminal outside of the site using direct emails and phone calls.

Dating sites can have hundreds, thousands or millions of members.  It would be totally impractical to monitor every message that passes back and forth between members, not to mention an invasion of privacy.  Online daters need to be alert to the warning signs that someone might be planning to con them.

The clues have been described in detail many times and the information is readily available online.  Check out this article about the 419 Advanced Fee Fraud which explains how to keep your wallet (and your heart) out of harm’s way while still enjoying all the online dating has to offer.

P.S.  If you’re looking for some recommended sites, check out these reviews of professionally run dating sites.

Six years ago I started an online dating site for aviators and cabin crew called Love Air.  It’s been through several incarnations since and just lately I’ve given it a new lease of life as a free social network for the aviation community.

It wasn’t a huge success as an online dating site mainly because this particular niche is smaller than many and consequently it requires a lot of capital outlay in order to market and promote such a site to a level where enough people join in order to make it pay its own way.

In keeping with the changing and evolving nature of social networks I’ve relaunched it on SocialGo.com so that the backend support is there (rather than it being self-hosted and left up to me) and the standard features & functions that people have come to expect from a modern social network site are in place and bug free (fingers crossed).

So,  Love Air has been through another metamorphosis.  Will it be more successful this time?  A lot depends on those who are willing to use it.  Free or not any such site needs a healthy membership to breathe life into it, which is where you, dear reader, come in.

If you’re at all aviation inclined why not give it a go?  Registration is quick and simple and once completed you can sign in next time using your Twitter or Facebook details so you won’t have to remember another user ID and password.

You can upload all your aviation related photos and videos, and tell us about your flying trips and adventures in your own blog, or even promote your aviation business.

An online community is whatever the community members want it to be so if you see something you don’t like or anything you’d like added then say so and Ill see if it can be changed.

Such is the din that a crowd can create by blowing into these horns that some of the millions of football fans watching the World Cup are beginning to complain that the noise is spoiling their enjoyment of the matches.  Others are saying, “Get used to it.  They’re not going to stop.”

Maybe it’s because I am getting used to the sound or maybe it’s because the noise fades into the background in proportion to the quality of the match.  They weren’t very annoying during the England v USA game and I could only hear them if I tried during the Germany v Australia game.

Some say they are dangerously loud, spread diseases more quickly than coughing and sneezing, and are generally a pain in the ear.  Others say they are an essential part of the enjoyment and celebration of football in South Africa and anyone complaining is a killjoy.

Whatever your opinion, I’ll bet the person who is selling these trumpets and earplugs is laughing all the way to the bank.

South African Dating Site
Over 50′s Dating South Africa

Store all your GA PDFs in one place

While I’m the first to admit that the sensual pleasure of hardback and paperback books is one that no amount of electronic media will ever replace there are times when gadgets come in very handy for storing information that can be retrieved and read in just about any location.

Take for example the Sony Portable Reader System (or PRS-505 for short). I was given one of these for Christmas a couple of years ago and I’ve made very good use of it. The screen is clear and glare-free in bright sunlight, it’s light in weight, and it has plenty of storage space without any additional memory cards. So it’s an excellent addition to the suitcase while on holiday and saves several pounds in weight which otherwise would have been generated by half a dozen books.

As well as ebooks it can display PDF files, images, and store music. You can charge it from your notebook or laptop so there’s not need for an additional mains charger (but you might want to buy one anyway for added convenience). If you run out of books while on holiday you can buy a couple more online and load them onto your reader. The only other add-on I bought was a cover, and they come in a variety of colours.

For the aviator there’s the added bonus that you can download all those CAA General Aviation Safety Sense Leaflets (or any other publication available online from the CAA’s website), store them on your Sony PRS-505 and read them whenever you’ve got a few minutes to spare or just to refer to them whenever you need them.

I’ve added the entire collection of 27 leaflets to my Reader along with the other miscellaneous ones. In this way they are to hand and less likely to be lost in the constantly growing mound of paper that surrounds my PC. Even when the desk is tidied they are likely to be filed away and therefore forgotten about, but by being on my Reader they are so much easier to retrieve.

Developing good airmanship and safe flying habits is something we all (should) aspire to. There’s plenty of information freely available on the net but it’s often widely dispersed and easy to forget even when you bookmark sites and download files. Once you’ve got the hang of downloading and adding PDF files to the Reader you’ll find all kinds of useful guides that you can add to it and by having it all stored in the one portable device means there’s more chance that you’ll actually read it and make use of it.

However, the comments he made afterwards in private could be interpreted in many ways.

• Why was a chat in the street with a straight talking northern pensioner such a disaster as he put it?
• Why was Sue to blame?  Just for introducing Mrs Duffy or was it because she hadn’t vetted Mrs Duffy first?
• Does he always look around for someone else to blame when things go wrong?
• What’s the point in electioneering if you can’t handle spontaneous outbursts from voters?

It was interesting listening to the comments on Radio 4′s PM program yesterday when a reporter asked two Asian women if they thought immigration was an issue that should be debated.  Unsurprisingly they thought it a topic worth discussion.  Those who live in the real world have known for a long time that mass immigration is a phenomena that affects everyone, not just white people.

Immigration is the kind of topic that people assume only those with bigoted views want to discuss.  Political correctness has stifled the debate for years and has patronised the very people it sought to protect.  Those who feel ignored have given a boost to the far Right. Now, we have the odd spectacle of the Labour Party telling us that immigration is a perfectly legitimate subject of debate.  Good of them to give us permission.  There was me thinking we had to check with them first.

Any sane, rational, and compassionate human being can recognise the equality, dignity, and human rights of any other human being regardless of race, creed or colour, but equally every individual is capable of forming prejudiced and bigoted views about another.  Racism and bigotry are human weaknesses and are not exclusive to white people.

The ebb and flow of human beings has been going on for centuries.  People travel, work, get married, have children and form communities, but a country as over populated as Britain needed a strong and rigorously enforced immigration policy years ago.  The strain put upon the infrastructure by the sheer volume of people in certain parts of the country has  become intolerable.

Yes, there are work-shy individuals who claim every benefit going and employers have no choice but to employ foreigners who are hard working, polite, and efficient.  These are the kinds of immigrants that Britain has welcomed all along.  However, do we also have the right to persuade nurses, doctors and other professionals to leave developing (i.e. poor) countries outside the EU to work in the UK?  What kind of a brain-drain does that cause in their home countries? Shouldn’t a teacher from Malawi stay and teach the children of  Malawi and not those in Manchester?

I don’t feel sorry for Gordon Brown though.  Unlike the gaffe he made with the deceased soldier’s name a few months ago and for which he was given some unnecessary pressure, this one is a spectacular insight into his opinion of voters and his entourage who seem to get the flak on a frequent basis.

It’s hardly surprising then that the British love of the past is growing during these difficult and uncertain times.  We look to the past to wonder how we arrived at this point, but also to reflect on periods of recent history in which there appear to have been more optimism and hope.

A common mistake is to see only the success, happiness as our selective memories filter out the problems of the past, but even so there is a strong case that some of these times were indeed better than today if only because there was a stronger sense of ethics, of community and of common purpose.

However, nostalgia needn’t be about wistful yearnings for happier times, it can also develop into a celebration of achievements and giving due recognition to the successes and milestones reached on the journey to the present.  Take for example the popularity of the Goodwood Revival which has grown from a few thousand petrol head attendees who could indulge their nostalgia for cars to an annual event that attracts tens of thousands who love not only the automobiles and bikes of the 1930-1970 era but also the fashion, style and music.

In August (2010) a new event will come to life on the Goodwood Estate – Vintage at Goodwood.  This three day event plans to celebrate the best of British style and design from five decades.  There’ll be music, cabaret, films, burlesque, shops, and glamping (posh camping) in a variety of tents from the traditional to the the luxurious.  If it’s successful then it may become another regular event on the calendar for vintage devotees.

The fifty years that the VAG event seeks to celebrate include the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s.  To see and be seen at this event it’s best to dress for the part so plan ahead and secure your outfit from the era of your choice:

1950′s clothing
1960′s clothing
1970′s clothing
1980′s clothing

and if you want to stay one step ahead as we move closer to the next decade of the 21st century then maybe now is the time to start collecting items that celebrate the subsequent decade and invoke 90′s nostalgia.

There’s also a site devoted not just to clothes but all the designs of the post war decade – 1950′s Fashion

Finally, there’s now a directory devoted to all things vintage and retro. Check out Vintage Clothes Shops, and you can keep up to date with all these sites on Twitter and Facebook:

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