Paul's blog

A KLM Boeing 747, flight 4805 taxied to the only runway at Los Rodeos airport and took position for takeoff. The weather was terrible, they could only see part of the runway. They also knew that there was another plane taxiing on that runway when they lined up for takeoff, but couldn’t see it. Probably due to language differences, the communication with the tower was not clear. There was some confusion between the captain and the first officer, but the captain decided the runway was clear and started the takeoff. After all, he had heard the tower order the other plane to take the nearest exit off of the runway … plus he was in a hurry. If he waited a bit longer, Dutch regulations would have required a change of crew: they would have been on duty for too long. That would mean hours, if not a day, delay. So he pushed for it.

All this happened on March 27, 1977 on the Canary Island of Tenerife. The other plane on the runway, which, coincidently, missed the exit they were supposed to take to clear the runway, was Pan Am flight 1736.

583 People died that day in the resulting collision of the two planes.

There were a few different incidents that led up to this accident, but the main one was, what is now called in the aviation world, “getthereitis” (get-there-itis .. get it? It simply means: being in such a hurry to get somewhere, that safety regulations are ignored: just GET there, no matter what.)

Guess which word went through my head when I read this today on CNN:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) — Caught in a scheduling squeeze, NASA decided to try to launch space shuttle Atlantis on Friday without replacing a troublesome electrical component.

Friday is the last launch day available before the U.S. space agency runs into a scheduling conflict with the Russian space agency.

On Thursday, NASA decided not to change out an electricity-generating fuel cell whose coolant pump had given erratic readings, causing a scrub a day earlier. Replacing the fuel cell could have delayed any launch attempt by several weeks.

I’m glad I’m not an astronaut: I mean, can you imagine being in that thing, while NASA is going to try to launch the damned thing with known faulty parts (and we’re not talking about a broken light over its license plate here!)?

See this article.

“Pet peeves” is a new ‘category’ in my blog.

It will deal with minor things in my life that bug me, irritate me, annoy me or piss me off. They’re always petty things, nothing earth shattering and mentioning them here probably makes me come across as a whiner. It’s just the little stuff.

My first one is this:

If you pump gas, the nozzle usually has a little doohickey that keeps the handle in the ‘pump engaged’ position so that you don’t have to hold the nozzle all the time you’re pumping.

This is very handy, since it allows you to do other things while you’re pumping gas, like washing your windows, lighting a cigarette (hahahaha… just kidding) or looking on the map to see where the heck you are.

It’s also much appreciated by people with arthritis.

So, it annoyes me to no end, when I’m at a gas station, and someone has, for some completely insane reason, removed these handy little doohickeys! Why on earth would people do that? It’s there for a reason! Removed them to prevent spillage perhaps: utter nonsense, all the nozzles have some very sophisticated mechanism to make it stop pumping when your tank is full. Someone broke off these things just to annoy me. And it works. I have gotten very childish about it: when I get at a gas station and they removed these doohickeys .. I leave. If I’m driving on fumes (this is often the case, when I enter a gas stattion) I will pump gas for 2 or 3 bucks, and drive to the next gas station.

I told you it was the little stuff!

The Catholic church recenty appeared to start embracing some subtle rationalism by saying they were sorry about the whole Galileo thing, and that, perhaps, our star system is heliocentric after all, kinda, sorta. And yes, evolution, hmm..  it probably could have happened.

But the new Pope seems inclined to steer the Catholic church right back to the middle ages. Assisted in the attempt by some of his loyal followers:

Father Gabriele Amorth, who is Pope Benedict XVI’s senior exorcist (no really!! I’m not making this up!), takes issue with the Harry Potter books.

Please read this article about Father Gabriele’s insights.

Too silly for words, really.

“Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil“

Well, yes, nobody denies that, in fact Harry always takes on the “king of the darkness” and always wins, he’s the good guy. He defeats the devil, so to say, in every single book. How is this different from any other fantasy book that deals with the same theme and is read to kids as bedtime stories all over the world, like, for instance, the bible? What’s the problem?

Well, the problem, as Father Gabriele sees it and explains to us, is, that “the books attempt to make a false distinction between black and white magic, when in fact, the distinction “does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil“.

Read that again: “magic is always a turn to the devil“

That is interesting! I have always been taught that Jesus himself performed quite some magic left and right. And isn’t it also true that in order to become a Saint, one has to have performed magic somewhere in ones life? In fact, doesn’t every priest during mass turn to magic, when he performs a cool trick by the name of transsubstantiation?

I will not spend any words on the lunacy of the  ‘remote exorcism’ of Hitler. Other than to remark that it utterly failed (why am I not surprised). That just has too high of a voodoo content for me.

I have posted about this lady before. I just read another article about her. I strongly recommend you read this article, but the main reason for bringing it up, is to inform you to I am going to borrow a ‘word’ from it. From now on, when I mean to write ‘fundamentalist Christian zealot, I will write ‘talibaptist’ instead. It’s shorter, and I’m lazy.

A few more links:

Time: “Katherine Harris’ comedy of errors”

Wikipedia entry (Not very flattering. Also interesting: “During her first 22 months in office, Harris spent more than $106,000 for travel, more than … the governor.”

Slate: “Jilted. The Bush brothers kick Katherine Harris to the curb.”

Slate: A blog overview

It’s always sad when someone dies, especially when it’s at a relatively young age and by a freak accident. But it’s extra sad when it’s someone you liked.

We used to make fun of Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter quite a bit, and would also mimick him (“isn’t she a beauty?” and “danger, danger”). When we would run into one of his programs while channel surfing, we would yell, OH NO, and pretend to run away, because, let’s face it, he was a little over the top. But we would watch his programs anyway, and we secretly loved the guy and his programs. His ‘drive’, enthusiasm and pure passion were inspiring.

We will miss him.

Just one word: Shit

If you believe in God and in miracles, I have a tip for you:

Leave the miracles to God

He’s a trained professional. Don’t try this at home!

If you really have to do that water-trick, then follow the bible: the correct order is:

first part the seas, then do your crossing.

 

I’m sorry, but this image of a nun laying in an MRI machine while having some kind of a religious orgasm .. is too much for me to take. I’m losing it.

The “ramped-up electrical activity in parts of the brain“ is the result of “feelings of profound joy and union with a higher being”? How about the result of feelings of extreme claustrophobia? Ever been in such a thing? Well I can almost envision anyone praying when you’re in one, but “feelings of profound joy” while every unpaired proton and neutron in your body is being spun around? You’ve got to be kidding me!

If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin

*wipes foam off mouth*

I will probably respond to this later. It’s too soon after I read this. I need to sit down a bit for a while. Get my heart rate and blood pressure under control. 

I mean:

“Separation of church and state is ‘a lie we have been told’“?

This candidate for the US senate *gasp* calls her own nation’s constitution a lie?

“separating religion and politics is ‘wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers‘”?

Lady, go look up the meaning of the word ‘democracy’. This is neither Iran nor the Vatican. US citizens choose our leaders (check that constitution again!). In any case, if God chooses our rulers, why are you campaigning?

“God and the nation’s founding fathers did not intend the country be “a nation of secular laws.”“?

To claim to know God’s intention is pure blashpemy, or stupidity, depending on your religiosity, but in both cases extremely arrogant. The intention of the founding fathers, however, can be known, since they wrote it down. Mrs. Harris clearly doesn’t have a clue about her own country’s history.

She means to tell me that the founding fathers didn’t mean to establish the strict separation of church and state after one of them, Thomas Jefferson, wrote this (part of a longer) letter:

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.“

 

I’m at work, in my office. I was just handed a black trash bag. “For over your computer”, I was informed. We don’t have windows in this building, so I guess they don’t particularly trust the roof.

Ernesto is coming!