Aim high.

Amazon are still keen on the drone delivery idea.  They have unveiled their latest machine that they intend to try and make deliveries within 30 minutes of a particular site.  The machine flies at 15mph, so that gives it a 7.5 mile range, give or take depending on weather conditions.  It has collision avoidance, but crucially, does not get the backing of the US air regulator, who is insisting in 'line of sight of the pilot'.  All the testing is being done in Canada, who I assume allows such reckless behaviour.  Good job the US military don't have to comply with the rules.

I read that the UK is open to a more autonomous type of aircraft as long as it is within defined flying corridors.  For me, I really can't see it happening within my lifetime there are so many factors to overcome, or am I being too negative?  I can see the advantages of cost, speed and easing traffic congestion so there's no surprise that Amazon are pushing hard to get it implemented, but what about rival drones?  Kids with remote controlled toys buzzing/hitting them?  Birds?  Mechanical/battery failure?  Too risky for me.

Neck and Neck

There's an article in the Guardian about how one should wear a scarf, written tongue in cheek (I hope) and I can empathise with what they are saying.  You can't just sling it on and hope it looks right, it's one of the few items of clothing I wear that has to go on just right.  Practical, and stylish  - and that's very difficult I can tell you.

The UK political scene keeps getting surprised by Jeremy Corbyn.  Instead of persuading his cabinet to fall in line with one particular view on the Syrian bombing options, he has simply written to all his MPs telling them he will not support it.  This is in marked contrast to his predecessors from all parties, who manage to get the cabinet to toe the 'party line' whether they like it or not.  It will be interesting how this turns out i.e. will it be seen as a successful way to run the party, or will he end up being the 'weak leader' that the papers are desperate for.

Pillow Talk.

Pillow fights have been banned at West Point, the top military academy in the US, due to injuries suffered as a result of said fracas's.  They're obviously not hardening them up enough.
..or maybe the students are filling the pillow cases with something a bit harder than feathers.

The labour man John MacDonald has been defending his decision to quote chairman Mao in response to the Autumn statement, but saying that the reason he did was to raise awareness of the governments wish to sell off air traffic control (to the Chinese I assume).  It seems to me a bit of a strange excuse, will we for instance see him quoting Jimmy Saville just to raise the awareness of e.g. financing of child support agencies?
Maybe they should have pillow fights instead of prime ministers questions.

Running away with it.

I don't know much about Saudi Arabia.  When I was a lad, it was the place to earn big bucks in the oil industry, I even went for an interview once but they effectively talked me out of going, probably because they could see my heart was not really in it.  Good job really, because the more I read about it the less likely I will be spending a holiday there.
The latest one to add to the '100 reasons not to visit Saudi Arabia' concerns the sentencing to death of a poet for renouncing Islam, although if you read (and believe) the small print it doesn't look like that is the case anyway.  More likely he's upset a few clergy and they exaggerate some statement he made for their own justification.  Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like he deserves to die for it.

Another topic in the news that has attracted my attention is the intention of a council (was it Stafford?) to charge Park Run users a pound each as a contribution to the running of the park.  I think it's specifically the car park, so why they can't just put a parking fee on is beyond me, it just seems like it's an easy way to raise a few quid without doing anything.  If they succeed, I hope the park runners go somewhere else and carry on as usual.

Fly By Wire

If it was during the cold war, Turkey shooting down a Russian jet would be off the scale in the diplomatic stakes.  As it is, shooting one down over Turkey (or was it?) whilst engaging in bombing 'rebels' in Syria is probably not going to result in more than a semi-major spat.  At least we hope so.

There's some noise over the The Soaraway Sun's use of dodgy statistics to portray 1 in 5 Muslims as supporting jihadists, and rightly so (the noise, not the support).  Misuse of statistics is a daily fact of life for newspapers, and I expect Sun is one of the worst just to make headline grabbing claims.
It's a pity the 'I didn't actually really mean that...' that will inevitably have to follow will be tucked away amongst the adverts on page 15. ..or maybe Sun readers believe it and don't complain.

Read all about it!

There's something about ITV's breakfast show offering that makes me want to switch it off, but I'm not sure what it is.
I have a deep seated aversion to advertising breaks (of which there are plenty) even one's that advertise their own programs (a la BBC), and I loath ridiculous phone-in quizzes where the answer is so obvious that a 3 year old would struggle to get the wrong answer.  All 'serious' news items seem to be sensationalised by the use of tabloid language - probably written by headline writers rather than journalists (mind you, this is not confined to breakfast time, it crops up on most commercial news programming), and then, just as you think they are treating a subject with the seriousness it deserves, the slip in a trivial silly item designed to appeal to a knitting grandmother somewhere.

They have now shipped in Piers Morgan as a part time presenter, heralding his arrival with 'he's so unpopular he must be good' snippets.  I'm not sure he will help much, but I guess he's cheap.

Please Be Seated.

I spied a headline just before I left home this morning that looked like an ideal daily blog topic - International Toilet Day.  Unfortunately, I can't find any trace of it on the newspaper website, but fear not, thanks to the powers of Mr Google I find out that it's actually World Toilet Day 2015 sponsored by the auspicious UN.
I'm not going to 'waste' (geddit?) time delving into what it means, but I am sure there's a very good reason for it, probably highlighting the lack of facilities in the developing world.
So much better than world book day - the day when the UN highlights the lack of books in the developing world.

Pass.

Mastermind.  As a verb it's the very summit of knowledge, or outstanding intellect according to some definitions.  As an adjective, it's someone who plans something ingenious or complex.
It's been used a lot in the media and by politicians over the last couple of days to describe the alleged ringleader/planner of the Paris terrorist acts.
For me, it's the wrong word to use altogether.  It was neither ingenious, or complex and didn't take much intellect to organise a few guns and gullible lads to blow themselves up after shooting a few Parisians.

It also undermines the proper use of the word mastermind, e.g. as used in the TV quiz show.  I have no arguments with that (although some of the specialist subjects don't appear too difficult to me, but that's another issue), as you can soon tell if the contestant is worthy of the title 'Mastermind'.  Put this so called terrorist mastermind in the hot chair, and he'll probably be like the permanently drunk priest on Father Ted shouting 'Guns!' and 'Allah!' or similar.

Maybe we should decide the future of civilisation via a quiz show, I'm sure that would work.

Radio Ga Ga.

A radio DJ is not a job I would relish.  Not only do they have to keep putting the needle on the records (do they still do that?), but they have to think about those gaps in between where the listener has to be entertained, informed and enlightened.
You will have noticed the regular 'features' in radio shows that are employed to fill the time, thereby reducing the amount of imaginative stuff that is required to pad them out.  I also think that although some of these features are pretty weak, we get used to them, even to the extent that we 'like' them...or maybe we just endure them.
However, I think the thing that makes one DJ standout from the others is 'delivery'.  The way they make even the most dull format sound interesting, and get enthusiastic about the most mundane topics.  You probably know the ones I mean, and not usually found on local radio stations.

Wonka.

Rolf Harris has a problem with chocolate evidently.  It's so bad, he had to go to visit a hospital from jail cell, entering 'by the side door'.  Well, you would wouldn't you if you had to go to hospital because of an excess of Galaxy or similar.
I'm a bit surprised that he could enough chocolate to get that bad, but maybe there's some sort allergy think going on - poor soul.

Other headlines include the possible death of who the media dubbed 'Jihadist John' - a particularly unlikeable character that starred in gruesome beheading videos published by ISIS/ISIL (delete as applicable).  He was probably splattered by a drone air strike last night, and not a moment too soon in my opinion, although my inner Christian tells me that these sort of thoughts are not particularly good for you, it's difficult to ignore them.

Leaving Present.

England rugby coach 'steps down';  'Leaves by mutual consent' and many other phrases mean the same thing - sacked, but with a wad of cash in the bank to ease the pain.
It's not confined to sport, business's do it all the time and the more senior, the less likely you are to see the 'sacked' word appear in any headlines, interviews etc. although we all know what's really gone on.
Interestingly, we don't bother with these statements for the more lowly worker, even if they do receive a relatively large amount of cash when they leave.  The 1000 steel workers recently made redundant in Scunthorpe will receive a nice redundancy package, but did not leave 'by mutual consent' but the outcome is exactly the same as Stuart Lancaster.

WADA Ya Know..

Well, the WADA report into athlete doping was published yesterday and it's not a pretty sight.  The Russians have been roundly condemned, with recommendations to bad a few athletes and coaches as well as close the doping lab down in Moscow until it 'conforms'.  Evidently there's more to come.

It seems to me that having a country's own lab testing their own countrymen's samples that could well influence national achievements one way or the other is not a very healthy state of affairs.

Jericho Road

There seems to be something big brewing in the athletics world regarding drugs, cover ups, and plain brown paper envelopes full of money changing hands.
It centres round positive drug tests that were covered up, but only if the respective athletics federation and/or the offending athlete coughed up some cash, some of it making it's way to the top man at the IAAF (retired).
It seems to be a very convenient, safe way of making money/keep on earning money (depending on which side of the fence you sit).  The offender can keep competing, thereby keeping his/her job and the athletics federation keeps a top athlete on it's books and doesn't get tainted by any doping controversy.  Neither side are likely to be found out, because it's in no-one's interest to blab about it.

..until you encounter a doping athlete that won't pay the cash.  Oops!

And the walls came crashing down.

Damp Squib

Fireworks displays are 'fizzling out' as austerity bites according to a report into the state of the British firework display.  It has always amazed me how much you have to pay for a decent flash and bang, and even more amazed that we watch so much money literally going up in smoke within a few short minutes.  Not that I don't like firework displays, but I also like to watch motor racing which also uses up copious amounts for cash for little reward, although it seems to have a modicum of purpose for doing so.
I would be no good organising a display - where/how do you end it?  It surely has to end with something spectacular, but if the previous few minutes were not spectacular, what's the point of them?  Therefore, at the really big displays (I'm thinking London Eye stuff here) it's a never ending, rolling finale from the first blue touchpaper to the last puff of smoke wafting out into the Thames/Clyde/local ditch (delete as applicable) and everyone drifts home or to the pub.

So we needn't worry too much about firework displays, it will be a holographic, digital image at a park near you in a couple of years.

Hot and Smoking

Conservative MP admits to being human shock!
Well, he didn't go that far but he admitted to smoking dope, watching porn and being sick after drinking.  He won't last long.

One of the more worrying revelations about the crashed Russian jet in Egypt is that an Egyptian official inially reported that the pilot had requested to make an emergency landing before it disappeared from radar.  They have now admitted that this was not the case.
So why the heck did someone think it was a good idea to make that statement?  It has proved to be an out and out lie - not even close to being true.  Not that it makes a jot of difference to those that died, or even the relatives, but it brings the whole of the Egyptian 'authorities' into disrepute so that we (well, me anyway) will immediately take 'official' responses as cobblers.