Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Doobs]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43803340

What an awful story.

Someone died, but they landed it and it is the first US plane accident death since 2009?   Surely that isn't so bad? 

[Tal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43803340

What an awful story.

Someone died, but they landed it and it is the first US plane accident death since 2009?   Surely that isn't so bad? 

The crew did fantastically to land it, sure, but it must still have been a terrifying experience

[RED-DOG]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43803340

What an awful story.

Someone died, but they landed it and it is the first US plane accident death since 2009?   Surely that isn't so bad? 

The crew did fantastically to land it, sure, but it must still have been a terrifying experience

I've seen TV series, sandwiches and hairstyles described as awful so I'm sure this qualifies.

[RED-DOG]

When the Air crash investigation programmes started I thought they would quickly run out of incidents to cover but there seems to be a nice steady stream of new material.

[Doobs]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43803340

What an awful story.

Someone died, but they landed it and it is the first US plane accident death since 2009?   Surely that isn't so bad? 

The crew did fantastically to land it, sure, but it must still have been a terrifying experience

I've seen TV series, sandwiches and hairstyles described as awful so I'm sure this qualifies.

Surely relativity matters?   If you describe a hairstyle as awful, nobody expects to see that the person has died when they click through.   If someone describes a news story as awful, nobody expects to see a wonky haircut?   I accept that somebody died, but this seemed to be a mainly positive news story relative to a lot of news I read.

On a more positive note, I just saw a Jay out of the window.   Relatively unusual bird sighting for me.

[RED-DOG]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43803340

What an awful story.

Someone died, but they landed it and it is the first US plane accident death since 2009?   Surely that isn't so bad? 

The crew did fantastically to land it, sure, but it must still have been a terrifying experience

I've seen TV series, sandwiches and hairstyles described as awful so I'm sure this qualifies.

Surely relativity matters?   If you describe a hairstyle as awful, nobody expects to see that the person has died when they click through.   If someone describes a news story as awful, nobody expects to see a wonky haircut?   I accept that somebody died, but this seemed to be a mainly positive news story relative to a lot of news I read.

On a more positive note, I just saw a Jay out of the window.   Relatively unusual bird sighting for me.

Can't disagree, I'm only chewing the fat. Imagine how dull this diary would be without conversations like these.

I very rarely see jays around here.

[tikay]

As you can imagine, I'm all over this.

Strange how a single, albeit horrible & tragic death, can arouse so much interest. One passenger dies, it's on every news feed. 1,000's of migrants & their entire families, including infants, die every year in the Med or wherever, & it barely gets a mention.

An inquest yesterday ruled on the death of a 3 year old child in Harlow, Essex, who was in a Bouncy Castle which blew away, due to a combo of wind & lack of restraining ties. Her Father witnessed the whole thing. Almost impossible to imagine his thoughts. Minimal press coverage.

I think the airline thing gets attention because most of us can associate with it, we have all been on a 737. A ghastly way to die for the poor Lady.

For real geeks, the developing story is here;

https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/607900-swa1380-diversion-kphl-after-engine-event.html

Note over 100,000 views on a specialist aircraft Forum in under 18 hours.

Jaw-dropping moment at work;

As an aside, imagine you were the Air Traffic Controller responsible for this flight, & it's a routine day at the office really. Then the Southwest Airlines Pilot - a female pilot, very calm & softly spoken, says.... (this is from the ATC - Aircraft spoken transcript).

PILOT - "I require an emergency landing. Part of aircraft missing, hole in aircraft, passenger out of hole".

ATC - "Uh, err, repeat, did you say someone out of hole?"

[tikay]

The missing fan blade can clearly be seen here, by the Inspector's right elbow;

Click to see full-size image.

What a mess the whole thing is. When a fan blade departs, the aero-engine guys describe it as having "infinite velocity", which sounds improbable. The velocity must be enormous, for sure.


 

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

For context, I read somewhere that in the last 5 years, we are more likely to win the lottery Twice than be killed in an air accident.

There are over 10,000 Boeing 737's in service, & Southwest Airlines - the biggest Operator - has 718 of them. (Ryanair is probably the 2nd biggest operator, with over 400 of them).

Last year, there were 4 billion passenger journeys in commercial aircraft, with zero fatalities.

So it's as safe as safe can be. But when things go wrong, they can go really wrong.

I feel almost bad for being so fixated by the story, but I am.

[tikay]

Hi Tony

Pretty sure you are not a fan of Colin Murray on the tv. I agree with you, however his at home podcasts are brilliant listening. Bobby George and Kris Akabusi the highlights for me.

Give it a try not like your usual interviews

Thanks John.

No, I'm not a Colin Murray fan, but I will try & listen to that. Not sure I've ever listened to any podcast, ever, don't even know where to buy one.

I don't have a rational excuse for disliking Colin, & I am not proud of myself for disliking anyone really. It might be his thick regional accent, I don't like regional accents on the wireless, & I can imagine, say, someone in Belfast or Liverpool despising a London accent, just as I dislike their accents on the radio. In real life, I enjoy them, on the wireless, not at all.   

Completely irrational really.

How is your health now John, getting slowly better?

[tikay]

Talking of accents on the wireless, Chris Evans has the perfect "no accent accent", and on Monday he delivered the news that he & Mrs Evans are to be the parents of Twins. Lovely story.

Chris used to be something on an enfant terrible, but it strikes me he has settled down & is now a good parent & husband. Does a ton of charity stuff too, with CarFest North & CarFest South every year.

Most of all though I like him for his unbridled happy tone & cheerfulness, he sees the optimistic side of everything, & it cheers me up to listen to him. He's AWOL today, sadly, so we have the dreadfully banal Sarah Cox deputising, prattling on about her hair & such trivialities. In a regional accent.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Morning Pops,

You got any idea what % of SkyPoker users are playing on a phone/tablet compared to regular computers? I'm doing a feature on it soon and I figured Sky would have an interesting perspective given how browser based you folks are.

Hope all is well next door and beyond

Sorry I missed this Barry. I've been Diary AWOL for a bit for one reason or another.

Don't really want to quote %'s, but yes, the advent of phone/tablets for Online Gaming ("Mobile" as the trade refers to it) has had a colossal impact. When Sky Poker introduced their Mobile product, there was an instant upsurge, & soon a significant number of users were on Mobile.

In Sports Betting, of course, the effect was much more dramatic, & SB&G's startling success owes much to Mobile, which, to all intents & purposes, never existed 10 years ago.

Me? I play Online Poker almost every day of my life, but never on Mobile, it just does not feel right to me.

Life Next Door? Great fun. I was up I Leeds last week, days before the Grand National, & the place was like a static electricity factory. When I have occasion to visit the office, I always find time to go have a wander around the Sky Bet areas, it excites beyond belief, such a buzz.

The Grand National is a huge day of course, biggest day of the year in some ways, & above all else - forget profit or loss on the day, think wider - they aim for a stable platform. It's hard to imagine how many bets are placed, &, rather like the tide, money flows in by the million, then (mostly) flows out again hours later. It's a really weird cash flow profile unlike almost any other Industry.

A few weeks earlier, it was Cheltenham Week, another monster event for a Sports Betting operation. Very unlike the GN though. The GN is a single event at a given time, Cheltenham is 28 big events spread over 4 days.

We all get a list of what horses we want to win or lose, so that adds a bit of fun, too, especially when 2 or 3 favourites come in back to back & we see the run-ups (liabilities) escalating.

After both Cheltenham & Grand National, both of which were resoundingly successful, as you may have heard, all the Staff were invited to a party with a free bar. Nice touch for the Staff.

When I look back on life, I regret not being either a train driver or a bookie. Either would have done nicely tyvm.

[tikay]

On a sad personal note, Gill was made redundant 2 weeks ago, which has put a dampener on things, & saddened me more than I care to admit.

She's been at the same place 10 years or so, never missed a day through sickness or absence of any sort, works unpaid overtime regularly & generally been a good egg. Life's unfair sometimes.

It's not an immediate crisis, she's got 10 years redundancy & 12 weeks wages, so no immediate financial pressure. As it happens, today is her last day, so it's all a bit emosh right now.

Fingers crossed she gets fixed up soon. It might cause problems with our annual Vegas jaunt, too, but hopefully we can work round that.

[tikay]

This guy @CarlBovisNature is well worth a follow on Twitter - takes some lovely photos and he's a gooner to boot.

For those who are not afficionados this is a chiffchaff amongst some spring buds

What a beautiful photo that is Ralph, thank you. I have "Followed" that chap now. I liked that "Old London" photo you posted a week or two back, too, though I already follow that Twitter account.

You posted a pic of, I think, Compton Street in the West End, & there was a sign advertising a "Nosh Bar". It was not until I read the wonderful Giles Coren rant at his sub-editor about unstressed syllables, whatever they are, that I became aware of the alternative meaning of "nosh".

Back to that bird photo. There was a chap who used to play at Luton, Steve Kirk, & he owns a bunch of Forums including BirdForum. Well worth a look.


https://www.birdforum.net/


Bloody love birds. They can be brutal buggers, mind. Down the hatch.....

[tikay]

several weeks of dithering before final package presented methinks

My lather of indecision is approaching it's climax now Mr MANTIS.

Had to clear some things with the Office first, & that's sorted now.

One final dither & I'll be ready to make a snap decision.