Open Thread – Weekend 2 Dec 2023


The Annunciation, Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1899

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Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 5:42 pm

Rool Dool at 3:44
Thanks for the podcast tips, although I think I would also like to read the book again in my Ops Hut with all my WAC charts of Antarcita laid out.
Yes, I am of the view that both the airline and the crew on the day share culpability. Even for the 1970’s the idea of an airline having a Navigation Section seems a little odd, and I wonder if they weren’t regarded as a little bit superfluous by flight crew.
As for flying into a mountain in fairly clear conditions?
Firstly, the mountain isn’t a steep “wall of rock” like the Himalayas. It is a gently sloped inverted cone some 12,000′ high (think Mt Fuji). They hit at 1500′, so presumably on a very shallow lower slope. The mountain was completely covered by snow, and they thought they should have been flying over sea ice in McMurdo Sound, under a cloud cover. The theory is they experienced white-out, where they had visibility below, but couldn’t distinguish “ice” from the cloud on the horizon. This is a weird phenomenon. I kind of experienced it once coming back from Tassie. Cloud starts to roll over, and even though you are below it and can see the sea below, you have no horizon ahead where low sea mist and cloud intermingle. Point was, I turned back and landed at Smithton and waited for it to clear. What I can’t figure out is the crew were spotting landmarks off to the sides, but no-one said “Jeez, that is further away/closer than I thought” or, more pertinently “Hey, if that is X it is on the wrong side of us.”
This all came up in response to the mid-air over Port Phillip Bay a couple of weeks ago. Just like Captain Collins, no-one likes to blame a dead guy, but, in that case, the inescapable truth is that the responsibility for that one lies somewhere between the pilots, the owners and operators of the aircraft and the Chief Pilot of the outfit. Guess what? Those three people occupied three out of four seats on those two aircraft.
In a strange way, a bit like the shooting on the “Rust” film set. If Alec Baldwin was not culpable as the person who pulled the trigger because of slack practices and poorly trained personnel, he is then culpable as Executive Producer for employing dodgy staff.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 5:45 pm

Remember, Cats, the “mistrial” was declared after a Court Officer had blundered into the Jury Room and discovered a “secret diary” of one of the jurors, thus rendering the whole monstrous farce moot.

Yeah, no. Again.

Tom
Tom
December 2, 2023 5:46 pm

Granddaughter of Communist writer Frank Hardy.

Like all leftards, Merieke Hardy’s main measure of success is how fashionable she is. And the current fashion she craves is being a supporter of genocidal terrorists.

She will never be raped or murdered by the human scum she adores who butchered 1200+ Jews because, as an archetypal hypocrite, she is protected by the left’s rules, which don’t apply to her.

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 5:46 pm

As an aside, I see one of the actors is the son of Hugo Weaving (although doesn’t go by that surname). Isn’t it interesting that the offspring of the usual suspects always seem to land these jobs out of (literally) a cast of thousands.”

Indeed, it’s no accident. No doubt the Weaving sprog went through NIDA. Nepotism is rampant in the arts in this country, and particularly in the theatre.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 2, 2023 5:48 pm

Although he deserves to, for being a fat, stupid badly bearded “gliberal policy advisor” and willingly hanging around drunken knickerless skanks.

What did you do after going to the footy at the G? Clearly there are some downsides.

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 5:49 pm

Like all leftards, Merieke Hardy’s main measure of success is how fashionable she is. And the current fashion she craves is being a supporter of genocidal terrorists.”

She along with and that other grotesque Jew hater, Chlamydia Ford.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
December 2, 2023 5:53 pm

“Far from being just like “a dose of the flu”, getting Covid multiple times can cause premature ageing, hair loss, reduced sex drive and ejaculation difficulty in men”.

Indistinguishable from marriage then.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 5:53 pm

What did you do after …

Bear, even I was not that desperate. Those Parliament House “advisors” were just toxic.

The arrogance and the ignorance was astounding.

Yet here we are.

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 5:53 pm

I’ve done some acting here in Sydney. I’ve known quite a few men and women who’d trained at NIDA and/or RADA. They were good actors, but they struggled to find work here in this city because it’s captured by the “in crowd”, of which the ruling king and queen are Cate Blandshit and her ugly duckling cartoon looking husband, Andrew Upton (both of whom are graduates of NIDA).

One women said to me that the nepotism in the theatre world in this city is rife. It is just impossible to get acting gigs.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 5:55 pm

Rafiki Avatar
Rafiki
Dec 2, 2023 4:36 PM

Jury verdicts in the ACT must be unanimous.

Yes.
But a juror doing a quick search would find plenty of examples of majority verdicts (in other jurisdictions) where the judge had pushed for a unanimous verdict.
The juror may have mistakenly believed it could happen in this case. And, if you have no hope of turning it around, why sit there for days or weeks when you can sink it with one well placed printed page off the innernet?

Rabz
December 2, 2023 5:57 pm

by the “in crowd”, of which the ruling king and queen are Crate Blandshit and her ugly duckling cartoon looking husband, Andrew Upton

Or, as good ol’ Sir Les Patterson might refer to them as, “Yaaartz Luvees” 🙂

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 5:57 pm

One women said to me that the nepotism in the theatre world in this city is rife. It is just impossible to get acting gigs.

Big fish…small pond.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 5:59 pm

PS, Rafiki, many lay people have a full LLB (TV) with First Class Honours.
How many times have you heard someone use the Americanism “Oh, but he/she might not press charges” in a criminal matter.
Bzzzzt.
In the UK and Australia it is not the prerogative of an alleged victim to lay charges.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
December 2, 2023 5:59 pm

I still like the Etihad, I think it was, pilots that put an Airbus at Toulouse during a test flight into the tarmac. Taxiing so fast the computer thought the thing was flying and pulled the undercarriage up.

Johnny Rotten
December 2, 2023 6:00 pm

Interview: How The World Really Works

https://youtu.be/tbtZW_lIWaI

A long Interview.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
December 2, 2023 6:01 pm

This doesn’t make sense.
If a significant number of private benefactors are Jewish and political funding is influenced by “Big Money Judaism”, they would have rissoled the actors toot sweet.

You may be looking at it from the perspective of a normal person.
From the perspective of the Hamas-supporting yarts commune, Jews have seized the narrative in Australia & are influencing govts.

Jews successfully undermined the great victory of the 7th October by influencing the NSW govt to defile the Sydney Opera House by beaming the colours of the repulsive Zionist regime onto it.
Furthermore police have been used ever since to suppress & arrest peace-lovers who simply wish to demonstrate their opposition to the cold calculated genocide perpetrated by the Zionist occupiers.

They see things like Albanese, through gritted teeth, taking the side of Jews in parliament & etc etc etc.

The power of the Jews is greater than first realised, if Albanese is forced to condemn a simple protest outside the hotel room doors of Zionist propagandists.

He & the Jew-sympathiser Minns may be influenced to cut funding.

That’s how they see it. I hope they’re sweating bricks, panicking that their dough may be cut off.

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 6:01 pm

I’m so glad the Beloved hasn’t had Covid even…once!

😀

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 6:05 pm

By the way, I was never in the league of auditioning for the STC however I know people who were/are. I’ve done some television advertisements but that isn’t nearly as satisfying as being on the stage.

Zatara
Zatara
December 2, 2023 6:07 pm

Has anyone asked what is going to happen in the next 3-5 years?

The same thing that happens any time the market demands goods?

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 6:08 pm

I suppose you could argue that Johannes Leak has benefited from nepotism however he has real talent…BUT…no doubt being the son of the late and very wonderful Bill helped Johannes’ career.

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 6:08 pm

Seven running Hamas porn.

Who broke the ceasfire?

Who refused to release more hostages?

*crickets*

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 2, 2023 6:08 pm

So Cassie, I can call you a drama queen within you being insulted?

Rabz
December 2, 2023 6:10 pm

I’ve done some televisual advertisements

Sacré bleu! 😕

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 2, 2023 6:10 pm

From 1882 until the present, the two feuding parties to this conflict have compiled extraordinary records of sterile continuity. The Palestinians maintain a mentality of rejectionism (no, no, and never to everything Jewish and Israeli), while Zionists stick to conciliation (accept us and we will enrich you). The two go around and around, hardly evolving or making progress. Change will only come when Israelis break with the traditional Zionist mentality and seek Israel Victory.

Daniel Pipes on Middle East Forum – “Everything changed in Israel on Oct. 7. But did it?”

The Rapid Return of Israel’s Disastrous Policy

cohenite
December 2, 2023 6:12 pm

If it’s Trump v the scabrous corpse in 2024 Red Eagle predicts Trump up by 297 to 241. Of course that ignores Trump being killed in jail and massive cheating:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR-3Ww_64mw

Dot
Dot
December 2, 2023 6:12 pm

As long as people don’t do radio ads…

Heelllloooo….!!!

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 6:12 pm

…many lay people have a full LLB (TV) with First Class Honours.
How many times have you heard someone use the Americanism “Oh, but he/she might not press charges” in a criminal matter.

Prominent suspect in Brisbane murder case told his barrister he intended to “plead the 5th.”

“Well, of course it’s your prerogative not to answer police questions, but, in Australia…oh, never mind.”

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 6:13 pm

No, because I’m not a ‘drama queen’.

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 2, 2023 6:14 pm

Zatara
Dec 2, 2023 6:07 PM
Has anyone asked what is going to happen in the next 3-5 years?

The same thing that happens any time the market demands goods?

My wife’s gran worked there. She ended her days making dolls in the backyard.

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 6:15 pm

Sigh!

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 2, 2023 6:16 pm

I was never in the league of auditioning for the STC

I worked on the production side of the stage for many companies since the Pram factory in the 1960s. In Sydney during the early 1980s, after I spoke a little about the Lebanese war and the part PLO played in it, for some reason never explained, I wasn’t called in any more for casual work with a couple of theatre companies, including STC.

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 2, 2023 6:17 pm

I’m not a ‘drama queen’.

Oh OK then.

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 6:18 pm

Lol, Cassie! I’m picturing you as a Lady Macbeth, no simpering Ophelia! And definitely not Desdemona.

😀

Rabz
December 2, 2023 6:18 pm

Two adolfs did not like my recounting of why the whole knickerless/lehrmann imbroglio farce collapsed in court.

You stupid precious poofs.

Go and get a dead dolphin inserted up your house sized backsides, you irredeemable imbeciles. 🙂

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 2, 2023 6:18 pm

Bear, even I was not that desperate. Those Parliament House “advisors” were just toxic.

I’m pleased to say I do not have first hand experience, on both counts. I did share a house with a girl who worked in a former AG’s electorate office which is how there came to be photos of me with my feet up on his desk and going through the (empty) Classified Waste bin in Parliament House. That also marked the end of me trying to live with a fellow human, an arrangement that continues to serve me well.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 6:24 pm

They’re back!

Back, baybee, back … !

Dot
Dot
December 2, 2023 6:24 pm

The Two Adolfs.

Heil Honey, I’m Home meets The Two Ronnies.

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 6:25 pm

Although I have a lot of sympathy for Regan and Goneril, as did the Divine Agatha (The Moving Finger).

Imagine sucking up to a tyrannical father, day after day, all the while knowing he had a favourite in the wings.

No wonder they married horrible men.

Dot
Dot
December 2, 2023 6:27 pm

Miscreant.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 6:27 pm

There was essentially nothing wrong with the plane: the 737-MAX is still being flown without incident by Western airlines that spent the resources necessary to teach their pilots to fly modern aeroplanes.

Well, yes, quite capable of being flown in the conditions which caused the two accidents if you are trained.
That is the whole point.
Boeing deliberately downplayed the need for training because they wanted the 737-MAX certified as a simple variant of previous models, thus saving pilot transition costs for airlines, and making it more competitive with the Airbus A320-Neo.
This wasn’t airlines deciding whether or not to do discretionary training.
This was Boeing telling them they didn’t need to and worse … hiding any reference to the flight characteristics which might present on climb out. Even a diligent pilot who read through the 737-MAX flight manual and compared it with the 737-800 manual wouldn’t see anything worth noting between the manuals. That was the whole point. “Steady as she goes, no need for any refresher/upgrade training”.
When you say they are flying quite OK in the Western world since, it s not the same aeroplane. Despite Boeing running heavy PR spin, they have altered the software and related systems (because it was shit, putting the aircraft into a kind of “porpoising” loop in certain conditions). Who the f-ck designs a critical stall control system in take-off phase which depends on one single sensor, when they have back up power for the f-cking drinks fridges and seat-back videos? More importantly, pilots are now aware of this characteristic and have clear direction as to how to handle it.
Imagine if Toyota installed a cruise control system which was prone to sudden acceleration but didn’t tell people that it was no good braking … you had to disengage the cruise in a certain way, then brake?
Boeing are fortunate to be still in business after that debacle.

Pogria
Pogria
December 2, 2023 6:27 pm

Calli,
I’ve always pictured Cassie as Norma Desmond/Gloria Swanson. Take no prisoners type woman both in her acting and real life. 😀

Real Deal
Real Deal
December 2, 2023 6:28 pm

Sancho at 5.42

Thanks for that. Good summary. Being at 1500ft would’ve afforded passengers a stunning view, a previous flight at that height is filmed on one of the old docos on YouTube. The landscape looks like an alien planet. But at 1500 with a pilot on his first trip and some uncertainty in the cockpit, the flight engineer said “I don’t like this” (the wording is contested) you wonder why they weren’t a little higher just to be sure. Also, I think the American flight controller at McMurdo Sound warned them about conditions (not sure about that). Either way, everyone should have been more careful in a place that some of them (including the Captain) hadn’t been to.

In the litany of lies podcast, they interview Collins’ daughter and wife, Maria Collins. Maria was very elderly but intelligent and well spoken. She wants to uphold her late husband’s reputation. And she makes some good points. What did happen to the ring binder’s contents? Or is that a red herring? Don’t know. But she remained very influential and most people felt sorry for her and therefore sided with her. Plus AirNZ were crooked as snakes.

I’m glad I never learnt to fly, too much detail for a slacker like me. My F-I-L was a flight instructor. It was because of him, I never tried training. A complete knob and narcissist. I flew with a mate once, he gave me the controls somewhere over inland NSW. I hated it, all that three dimensionality of it. Not like driving a car. I gave him back control (he always had it, really) after a couple of minutes..

Dot
Dot
December 2, 2023 6:32 pm

:rolleyes: from 4 days ago.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12799713/Debunking-myth-male-hunter-Prehistoric-women-BETTER-hunting-men-study-claims.html

Debunking the myth of the male hunter: Prehistoric women were BETTER at hunting than men, study claims

‘When you look at human physiology this way, you can think of women as the marathon runners versus men as the powerlifters,’ the researchers said

No offence, but men are objectively better at both athletic events.

The comments are S-tier brutal.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 6:38 pm

pictured Cassie as Norma Desmond/Gloria Swanson

Pogs, you would be correct – and she has the accent to match. She and Lizzie speak “High Ozzie”, as opposed to my banal “International Accent”.

Music to my ears, the former is. Ozzie womanages no longer speak like that, although pronunciation and clarity is always a give away as to SES*.

*Yeah, try and guess, Cats 🙂

Johnny Rotten
December 2, 2023 6:38 pm

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.

– William E. Gladstone

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 6:39 pm

I’ve always admired people who can get up on a stage and act. It’s a tremendous gift. Remembering lines, being “in character”, convincing an audience it’s all real…for a little while.

The wonderful rarities are the ones who know it’s a job, like any other, not a license to tell others what to do.

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 6:41 pm

I have performed Lady Macbeth, I love Shakespeare but my favourite plays are Noel Coward plays. I love comedy. There’s a bit of Lucille Ball in me which those Cats who know me can no doubt affirm. I cannot begin to tell you how hard the lines in Noel Coward plays are to learn because the language is difficult and precise, and it’s all about timing.

A few years ago I had to perform in a play called ‘The Female of the Species’ by Johanna Murray-Smith, who is a great Australian playwright (and Jewish). I channeled four women, Germaine Greer (who inspired the play), Maggie from Number 96 (remember her), Gloria Swanson and finally, my mother.

Johnny Rotten
December 2, 2023 6:42 pm

Dot
Dec 2, 2023 6:32 PM

Didn’t you get the message. No more bold type on posts.

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 6:43 pm

‘When you look at human physiology this way, you can think of women as the marathon runners versus men as the powerlifters,’ the researchers said.

Paleoanthropology has always been a very….interpretive science.

Zatara
Zatara
December 2, 2023 6:46 pm

Despite Boeing running heavy PR spin, they have altered the software and related systems (because it was shit, putting the aircraft into a kind of “porpoising” loop in certain conditions).

The training that was lacking wasn’t aircraft specific. It was the simple step that poor initial training neglects to train and build confidence in.

If the electronics aren’t doing what they are supposed to… drumroll please…. Turn the damned thing off and hand fly the aircraft.

Give it back to the engineers when you are safe on deck, write up the discrepancies, talk it over with the Chief Pilot, file a report with CASA or the FAA, etc., etc., but first fly it home.

It isn’t magic, but pilots with shite initial “training” think it is.

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
December 2, 2023 6:48 pm

“Remember, Cats, the “mistrial” was declared after a Court Officer had blundered into the Jury Room and discovered a “secret diary” of one of the jurors, thus rendering the whole monstrous farce moot.”

Yes, ….., what the news said at the time, was:

“Whilst cleaning up the juror’s room, an attendant ACCIDENTALLY knocked a folder off the table and after a brief perusal, the document was found to contain …….”

Now, say after me,
“Men can have babies, there are 17 genders, Ukraine is winning the war and the vaccines are safe AND effective!”

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 6:48 pm

I love Lady Macbeth because she knows what she wants, she gets what she wants. And suddenly she realises that what she wanted was a chimera. And she’s honest enough to admit it.

Her husband, of course, was an opportunistic psychopath.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 6:48 pm

Although Lizzie, my erstwhile sister being a former schooltacher* always spoke the most perfect High Ozzie I’ve ever heard.

Zero accent of any description. There should be more of it.

But, hey, that would require an “edumacation system” that actually functioned as intended.

*Deliberate

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
December 2, 2023 6:54 pm

and socialal networks

Social networks which are politically correct according to Islamic law.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 6:54 pm

Rufus – you were not alone in spotting the absurditee, although it is always good to see people acknowledge it.

Great stuff. Give yourself a scrumptious li’l Miss Planet Star

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 6:58 pm

Her husband, of course, was an opportunistic psychopath.

Yep.

Pogria
Pogria
December 2, 2023 6:59 pm

Pogs, you would be correct

Rabz,
do I get a prize? 😀

I acted in school plays, as a grown up, I worked in make-up on several indies. Good fun.

In First Form, what we now call Year 7, I played the part of Beowulf. All the boys who tried out for the part were not “manly” enough. Poor things, what can you expect from 12-13 year old boys. The Monster, who’s head I tear off during the fight, was also a girl.
In one scene, I take off my helmet and my waist length plaits tumble out. A little voice cried out in the audience, “mummy, it’s a girl!!!”.
Good fun. Must dig out the photos. It’s been a long time since I have looked at them.

Johnny Rotten
December 2, 2023 7:01 pm

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

– Woodrow Wilson

And that was around100 years ago. It’s far worse now.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 2, 2023 7:02 pm

Bird’s on board. Take it to the bank!

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 7:04 pm

Her husband, of course, was an opportunistic psychopath.

The other way ’round; thus she says of her husband…

Yet I do fear thy nature,
It is too full o’th’milk of
human kindness
To catch the nearest way.

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 7:06 pm

And…

I have given suck and know
How tender ‘tis to love
the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling
in my face,
Have plucked the nipple from
his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out,
had I so sworn
As you have done to this.

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 7:08 pm

Yes, Roger. She incited him to do the unthinkable…regicide.

The result – conscience, horror, suicide.

And then Macbeth murders McDuff’s family.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 7:09 pm

I acted in school plays

As did I, learning and reciting Marc Antony’s speech after the “regrettable demise” of a certain Julius Caesar.

I used to cop a lot of flak at earlier iterations of this blogue for not being a fan of the Shakespeare.

By various “honourable men”, as opposed to Orally Men … 😕

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 7:09 pm

Rabz – not look good. We’ll just have to stay here on the open thread then.

Blacklight Shine – The Mars Volta (2022)

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 7:10 pm

By the way, I’m not excusing her. She’s a d*ckhead..

Macbeth* is an even bigger one.

* no, not our venerable commenter

Rabz
December 2, 2023 7:10 pm

err, 8:00pm, Bruce.

Patience, my friend.

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 2, 2023 7:11 pm

I’ve done some television advertisements but that isn’t nearly as satisfying as being on the stage.

Mrs. Marsh?, Rita the ETA eater?

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 7:12 pm

By the way, I’m not excusing her. She’s a d*ckhead..

Macbeth* is an even bigger one.

I must politely disagree, calli.

Macbeth is the weaker character.

As Bill is to Hillary, if you will.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 7:13 pm

In the meantime, let’s have some Hong Kong Munnee! 🙂

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 2, 2023 7:14 pm
Bespoke
Bespoke
December 2, 2023 7:16 pm

…of our time.

Pogria
Pogria
December 2, 2023 7:16 pm

I have one other I would liken Cassie to. Cassie, if you have ever owned an extremely long rope of pearls, and were known to whirl them dangerously about your self, I would match you to Tallulah Bankhead. The lady was known for her acid wit and withering putdowns.

Rafiki
Rafiki
December 2, 2023 7:21 pm

H B Bear
looking at the Federal Court explanation, a person served properly with a subpeona, and offered conduct money, must attend on the date specified. That’s 5 December in this case I think. If production of documents if required, (and maybe Fiona Brown’s notes have been), then there are grounds to object. Maybe some privilege is claimed.

So there may be argy bargy on the 5th, and Lee J will have to rule on some issues. Maybe the attendance date will need to be altered. The 5th is shaping up to be a very significant day. Lee J will rule on the issues I noted above, Brittany will be back in the box, and we will know if Brown will give evidence. (One question is whether Whybrow KC will be able to ask her leading questions. Even if technically she is his witness, Lee J has ample power to allow this.)

Rabz
December 2, 2023 7:21 pm

The lady was known for her acid wit and withering putdowns

Our Cass, in a nutshell.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 2, 2023 7:22 pm

Angry Uncle, earlier:

Suck it up, sweetheart!

Easy there, big fella. Eeeeeasy now…..

If you harrumph long enough you’ll swallow those dentures, and then I’d feel terrible*.

*Not really.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 2, 2023 7:25 pm

Ahahahaa.

Cold and timid souls.

P.S. Joe Burns is shit at opening the batting at Test level.

Indolent
Indolent
December 2, 2023 7:26 pm

The recent actions of this pathetic excuse for a king tells me that the monarchy does not deserve to continue. That’s even without the disgusting antics of the others.

That’s too kind. What he deserves is what was meted out to his first namesake. He’s a carbuncle on the body politic.

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 7:28 pm

By the way, I’m not excusing her. She’s a d*ckhead..

Macbeth* is an even bigger one.

I must politely disagree, calli.

Macbeth is the weaker character.

As Bill is to Hillary, if you will.

Chuckle. Nice comparison.

Depends on what you think is “weakness”. Greater d*ckheadery might be just that.

She dissolves through guilt. He dies defiant but ignoble.

Like Sophocles’ Oedipus cycle, always full of shadows and nuance. Which what makes them eternal mysteries of human nature.

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 7:28 pm

As Bill is to Hillary, if you will.

Or Megan to Harry.

In any case, we can leave it at that if you wish.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 7:29 pm

Hey, Miss Personage!

Your pretty face is going to Hell

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
December 2, 2023 7:29 pm

https://www.erebus.co.nz/Background/The-Flight-Path-Controversy

For the company, (Air New Zealand), to make an “adjustment” to the electronic flight path AND not advise the pilot, is the major contributor to this disaster.

As others have made reference, the pilot would obviously have to descend “visually” so close to the mountain. (There is no possible Instrument Approach, that close to a 16,000 foot mountain, even if a suitable Navaid was available, which there was not.)

The problem was, due to the effect of “white-out”*, the pilot, who thought he was over water, was not alerted to any danger.
*White-out occurs when the horizon is not visible to the pilot, due to cloud/snow/fog etc. In this case, Capt Collins thought he was over water, and probably suffered from “confirmation bias”, but the latter can only be conjecture.

What is certain, is that on descent, Captain Collins remained in VMC, ie clear of cloud, with an in flight visibility of the required minima. (It changes dependant on altitude).
Had he encountered cloud, he would definitely have “gone around”, (climbed back to Lowest Safe Altitude).

What happened next was the worst possible scenario.
He went from VMC and then entered white-out, thinking he was over water.

That fact the company IMMEDIATELY threw Collins to the wolves was an absolute disgrace.
That is a low act, that only dicks like the vile ex “gnome in charge of Qantas” would do. Air New Zealand will live in infamy forever, like the flying kangaroo, but for different reasons.

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 2, 2023 7:31 pm

Cassie of Sydney
Dec 2, 2023 6:15 PM
Sigh!

Indeed, worked in an ammunition factory while the husband served over seas. Dirt poor but still managed to raised six kids after he died.

A truly remarkable lady.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
December 2, 2023 7:32 pm

I already know which music clip I’ll be suggesting for tonight’s Cat Music Show – whether it’s on topic or not!

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 7:39 pm

Like Sophocles’ Oedipus cycle, always full of shadows and nuance. Which what makes them eternal mysteries of human nature.

And that was his chief interest – human nature.

Everything else was a prop to that end.

As much or more a psychologist (psyche = soul) as a dramatist.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 7:39 pm

Patience, my friend.

Oh well, I’ll just have to wait then.

Sneaker Pimps – 6 Underground (1996)

Indolent
Indolent
December 2, 2023 7:40 pm

What this clearly demonstrates is that, at least in the case of these batches, the death rate from the vaccine is far higher than from the disease itself.

New Zealand Government Data Administrator who worked on Vaccine Payment System Exposes Shocking Data on Vaccine-related Deaths

Indolent
Indolent
December 2, 2023 7:43 pm

NPR Poll Tells Us What We Already Know

The bottom line is this: the modern home of antisemitism is the Democrat Party.

Indolent
Indolent
December 2, 2023 7:46 pm
rosie
rosie
December 2, 2023 7:47 pm

I will not stay in Gaza. I will go from Gaza. And I will leave Gaza forever,” he said.

Their ABC.
Gazans fleeing the Israel-Gaza war say even with a visa to Australia, it’s a struggle to cross the Rafah border

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 7:48 pm

While waiting for the Show here’s some Aussie pop rock.

The Temper Trap – Fader (2009)

rosie
rosie
December 2, 2023 7:49 pm

Tourist visas?
Still choosing to stay in North Gaza?

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 2, 2023 7:50 pm

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The content safety team for the social media site X (formerly Twitter) has announced major progress in fighting child grooming on the platform. According to their statistics, child grooming content on Elon Musk’s social media app has plummeted by 83% since Disney pulled ads in an effort to boycott X.

Indolent
Indolent
December 2, 2023 7:50 pm

Andrew Laurence

F**k off, it’s Christmas

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 7:52 pm

She dissolves through guilt. He dies defiant but ignoble.

Exactly; so she is the actual chief protagonist who is key to this study of good and evil.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 2, 2023 7:55 pm

Cheers Rafiki. Sounds like it will be well worth tuning in on the 5th. May provide something of a steer on Lee J’s thinking (subject to the usual caveats).

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 2, 2023 7:57 pm

One women said to me that the nepotism in the theatre world in this city is rife. It is just impossible to get acting gigs.

Similar then to jobs in the ABC or as young political ‘advisers.

cohenite
December 2, 2023 7:59 pm

Golly there is some anti-Israel filth on Twatter. So I channelled Elon and told them all to go fuk themselves.

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 8:00 pm

Fascinating, roger. i always saw it the other way around.

Dumb ambitious chick load the bullets, husband fires them. Chick feels guilty, husband grows in wickedness. Chick tops herself, husband becomes mass killer. Husband gets his comeuppance.

Zatara
Zatara
December 2, 2023 8:01 pm

Gazans fleeing the Israel-Gaza war say even with a visa to Australia, it’s a struggle to cross the Rafah border

If Australia was on the other side of the Rafah checkpoint they would be sorted. But it’s not. Egypt is.

They obviously have no Egyptian visa, probably no airline tickets, and most importantly, Egypt isn’t willing to let Gazans enter their territory as there is no guarantee that they will actually leave.

Frankly, they might have a better chance surrendering to the IDF and telling them their story.

This is yet another FAFO moment I’m afraid.

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 8:02 pm

I will not stay in Gaza. I will go from Gaza. And I will leave Gaza forever,” he said.

Would it be too much to ask that you leave your prejudices there as well?

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:06 pm

Dover – seriously?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 2, 2023 8:07 pm

Husband gets his comeuppance.

Yes indeedy:

MACDUFF Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o’ the time:
We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a pole, and underwrit,
‘Here may you see the tyrant.’

MACBETH I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet,
And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, 30
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn’d be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’

Shortly afterwards:

[Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH’s head]
MACDUFF Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands
The usurper’s cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!

Moral of the story – listen to the misso and you might get a nicer house, but there’s a bigger price to pay.

shatterzzz
December 2, 2023 8:08 pm

Someone earlier this afternoon suggested that Israel should create a website dedicated to hunting down all the scum from HAMAS & Gaza they have identified be pixxed & listed for extermination ..
what a great idea! .. bookmark it and opened 1st up in the mornings to see who’s got a big red X thru their pix overnight ..
wonderful start to the day! ..

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 2, 2023 8:08 pm

The lady was known for her acid wit and withering putdowns

The lady who looked at the happy snaps of the new bride, and groom, and declared them both “lousy in bed?”

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 8:09 pm

Fascinating, roger. i always saw it the other way around.

To my mind, the give away in regard to her moral character is when she says she could dash her suckling child’s brains out.

By comparison, regicide is relatively humdrum as human history goes.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 8:09 pm

No Radio. Oh well. Since we’re talking Christmas…

The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York tops new Top 10 poll of UK’s favourite Christmas songs (1 Dec)

Bye Shane, you did good.

The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York (1987)

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 2, 2023 8:10 pm

Cassie

I was never in the league of auditioning for the STC

My maternal grandfather was a theatre cleaner.

We were never short of hankies, dropped during the performance and forgotten. Boil up in the copper, iron and there we were.

Dot
Dot
December 2, 2023 8:10 pm

LOL

Old World’s Strongest Man comp.

Run around with a metal cage on your person so you can piggyback a 400 lb fridge and sprint in a 25-yard dash against another competitor: whilst resting, rejuvenate on a refreshing Malboro. The truly competitive will dive using the frame as an extension of their musclebound, blubberous hulking frames.

Things haven’t changed a bit, Anyhow…

shatterzzz
December 2, 2023 8:11 pm

I will not stay in Gaza. I will go from Gaza. And I will leave Gaza forever,” he said.
Definitely, a candidate for one of Luigi’s ‘temporary” visa’s, then ..
“plenty wrong” will have had all the character check boxes ticked before lunch ….

Dot
Dot
December 2, 2023 8:12 pm

Ah yes…the goil lift, a favourite of Rabz’s!

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:13 pm

No Radio Show

Yes, it is regrettable … 😕

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:15 pm

Did someone mention Goils, I asks ya?

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 8:16 pm

To my mind, the give away in regard to her moral character is when she says she could dash her suckling child’s brains out.

Talk’s cheap.

Macbeth actually does the deed to another man’s children.

She’s a hyperbolic b/s artist. We see them all the time. Then reality hits them fast.

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 8:17 pm

What was the theme, Rabz?

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 8:18 pm

No Radio Show

Yes, it is regrettable …

At the risk of displaying my ignorance in such matters, could it be that posting vids uses too much bandwidth?

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:19 pm

It shall remain a mystery, calli – however for now, the blogue master is seriously testing my legendary patience … 😡

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 2, 2023 8:20 pm

She’s a hyperbolic b/s artist. We see them all the time.

Indubably, calli. And weak men find them attractive.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:23 pm

Jump around, I asks ya! …

calli
calli
December 2, 2023 8:24 pm

Okay. Then here’s something lovely from the remaining two Carthusians and their drummer.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 2, 2023 8:26 pm

Rabz

Dover might be concerned that the many links will kill the blog?

Roger
Roger
December 2, 2023 8:26 pm

Macbeth actually does the deed to another man’s children.

Yes, but I would put it that the mother-child bond is an even greater, more sacred boundary to transgress, and Shakespeare was steeped in the Gospels & knew that we are culpable for our evil thoughts as well as our deeds.

My dinner is going cold; I’d better go! 😀

shatterzzz
December 2, 2023 8:29 pm

Halfway thru ARNHEM by Anthony Beevor and an excellent read .. he seems to have caught on to the idea of leaving all the unit/commanders histories and lists of accompanying statistics for the back chapter notes and appendices instead of his earlier books habit of clogging the narrative with them .. makes for far better understanding and ease of reading when it flows ……

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 8:30 pm

Time for a haircut.

Pavement – Cut Your Hair (1994)

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
December 2, 2023 8:32 pm

Nepotism is rampant in the arts in this country, and particularly in the theatre.

That’s why shit is being delivered as art these days — you can smell it driving past the NIDA monstrosity on Anzac Parade

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:33 pm

Rabz’ Radio Show November 2023: Theme? What Theme?

Cats, this is not necessarily a point of zero inspiration. Imposing a “theme” on a Saturday night Radio Show seems unnecessarily restrictive, racist and hoplophobic*.

So there will not be any of that.

On a personal note (again) I’ve been lately listening to this album by Matt Johnson, which essayed themes that were simply not conscious in soft decadent Western minds back in the early Nineties.

Good Morning, Beautiful” is a track that predicted this bizarre fusion of Western decadence and mohammadenism that we are finding ourselves plunged into, whether we like it or not. Listen out for the “call to prayer” at the beginning, which is strangely seductive – see also its prominent featuring in “Fauda”.

A fantastic album despite (or probably because of) the involvement of various personnel, including the late Sinead O’Connor and the greatest guitarist of his generation, Johnny Marr.

Again, there is no theme, Cats, so get in there and post your favourite songs.

Before Armageddon Days (are here, again) …

*Discriminating against peoples that are just hopeless.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
December 2, 2023 8:35 pm

She along with and that other grotesque Jew hater, Chlamydia Ford.

. Irrelevancies with Daddy issues, they cling to the latest controversy like limpets. I wonder if Child Protection Services has called on Chlamydia to check on the physical and psychological well-being of her little boy.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
December 2, 2023 8:38 pm

It is past 8pm in Catworld and no official topic has been revealed by ringmaster Rabz, so I am throwing this suggestion in the ring before it can be ruled off-topic!

TOP 10 AC-DC COVERS ON THE VOICE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dx0e7pQEG8

The tv franchise The Voice had many localised versions around the world, from Chile to Thailand and seemingly everywhere in between. This video clip assembles many of the best covers of AC/DC songs by upcoming vocalists from around the world.

Kindof incredible that a band from Australia could rock the world so hard that they spawned 100s of imitators. It’s possibly a source of some credit-by-association (aussie pride) in seeing how many foreigners pay homage to these greats.

Each performer adds their own flavour to the notes and so you should not expect exact reproductions – and really who would want that when nothing ever could be the same as the originals. So enjoy these covers for what they are.
And yes, quite a few chick rockers do a pretty good job of growling like Brian Johnson.
That’s perhaps the best takeaway from this 20 minute clip.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:39 pm

Gee, thanks, adolph …

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 8:44 pm

Okay.

Prog rock is awesome.

Electric Light Orchestra – The Diary of Horace Wimp (1979)

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:48 pm

The hitler twins are not happy, being inbred Jew hating morons.

Two heads, one body.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 8:53 pm
calli
calli
December 2, 2023 8:54 pm

Illusions in G Major. You might want to turn up the volume.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 9:00 pm
calli
calli
December 2, 2023 9:01 pm

And…I was at Greig’s home in Norway two weeks ago. Here’s the boys from ELO having some fun with an old favourite.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 9:05 pm

Bucketing down in Sydneystan.

Bluddee Gerbil Broiling, again. 😕

Rabz
December 2, 2023 9:07 pm
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 9:13 pm

You might want to turn up the volume.

Might have had some vinyls these guys, once.

Nights in White Satin – The Moody Blues (1967)

Rabz
December 2, 2023 9:13 pm

I’m just a big fat beyond parody seventies dinobore predicting the existence of the McLaren, I tells ya! 🙂

Cassie of Sydney
December 2, 2023 9:15 pm

Irrelevancies with Daddy issues,

Indeed, and Chlamydia’s daddy is a One Nation member and voter.

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 2, 2023 9:16 pm
calli
calli
December 2, 2023 9:18 pm

Raining in Sydney, did you say? You need a concerto for a rainy day.

eric hinton
eric hinton
December 2, 2023 9:19 pm
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 9:24 pm

Rabz – I’ve always thought it was “Don’t bring me down Bruce”. Sadly seems I’m wrong.

Alex the Seal (1996)

If you know you know. 😀

Rabz
December 2, 2023 9:24 pm

Hey, Goil – We can be Heroes, I tells ya! 🙂

Rabz
December 2, 2023 9:25 pm

I’m on the mondegreen, bowling away, Bruce …

Rabz
December 2, 2023 9:32 pm

Two of my heroes – allegedly Q as F, but I don’t care – they just brought the greatest hits evah!

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 9:32 pm

Zafiro

Dec 2, 2023 5:25 PM

Air France flight 447

The button pushers that put this Airbus in the drink weren’t worthy of being called bus drivers.

Now that was a strange one.
They had a relatively long time to get it sorted.
The Captain was on a break and was recalled to the cockpit. He recognised what the problem was (stall and spin) and took the proper corrective action (full forward pressure on the stick and opposite rudder).
However, his opposite number incorrectly thought they were in a high speed spiral dive and was pulling on full back-pressure.
In an old school aircraft with linked flight controls, that couldn’t have happened.
The compuda saw the conflicting inputs and decided to split the difference.
An example of fly-by-wire getting a little ahead of the requirement to be an aid to the crew, not to usurp the role of the crew.
Boeing repeated that with the 737-MAX software.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 9:35 pm

The definitive Seventies Hippie Babe

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 9:39 pm

We haven’t seen Monty for a few days, so here he is in action.

Spiderbait – Monty (1995)

The visage at 2:00 is quite something.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 9:42 pm

Cassie of Sydney

Dec 2, 2023 6:08 PM

I suppose you could argue that Johannes Leak has benefited from nepotism however he has real talent…BUT…no doubt being the son of the late and very wonderful Bill helped Johannes’ career.

Honestly, when Johannes first got the gig, I thought, “Oh, shit, this could be embarassing.”
But he has turned into an absolute star.
At least as good as his old man.

Marty
December 2, 2023 9:44 pm

Lady MacBeth seems to leave the play early. She is all over the place to start off with then she disappears only to come back to die off stage so that MacBeth can do his spine tingling “Tomorrow” speech. I am not sure that Shakespeare believes in the afterlife.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 9:45 pm

Cassie of Sydney

Dec 2, 2023 6:13 PM

No, because I’m not a ‘drama queen’.

Did you stamp your foot whilst you typed that?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 2, 2023 9:46 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By4D1NI_4XM

The IMMORTAL Richard Clapton..

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 9:47 pm

The definitive Seventies Hippie Babe …

She’s very good with a baton though. Amazing.

Crazy single.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 9:54 pm

allegedly Q as F, but I don’t care

Flash! Aarrr, he’ll save every one of us!

Flash – Queen (1980)

Loved the movie. Any fillum with Max von Sydow, Topol, Timothy Dalton and Brian Blessed (in tights) has to be fun.

(I might’ve had the soundtrack on vinyl, once, in my younger days.)

Rabz
December 2, 2023 9:54 pm
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 2, 2023 9:56 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSTc2h0i-lY

Number three, front rank, wasn’t wearing knickers – take her name…

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 9:56 pm

Cassie of Sydney

Dec 2, 2023 6:41 PM

I have performed Lady Macbeth

Would that have stretched the method acting to the limit?
🙂

Gabor
Gabor
December 2, 2023 10:02 pm

Roger
Dec 2, 2023 8:18 PM

At the risk of displaying my ignorance in such matters, could it be that posting vids uses too much bandwidth?

I’m not a whizz either but I doubt it, you only post a link to the vid, and then play it in a separate window that has nothing to do with the blog.

I think!?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 2, 2023 10:02 pm

Zatara at 6:46.

If the electronics aren’t doing what they are supposed to… drumroll please…. Turn the damned thing off and hand fly the aircraft.

The point was that the crew got these repeated sudden and violent pitch changes.
They didn’t know they had an “electronics problem” as distinct from, say, sudden uncommanded actuator movements in the elevator.
Because Boeing didn’t tell them.

Zippster
Zippster
December 2, 2023 10:04 pm
OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 2, 2023 10:13 pm

Welcome to Diversity Brought to you by the Australian Labor Party, Labor PM Albosleezy & Labor Foreign Minister Penny Wong able assistted in the past by Malcolm Fraser (I Left my Pants In Memphis at The Peabody – I blame the Ducks!) Liberal

Diversity Rape of the Day

by Mark Steyn – Diversity Deathwatch – December 1, 2023

Have you ever been to Hamburg’s Stadtpark? They call it the “green heart” of the city, over 350 acres of woods and lakes and meadows, playgrounds and sports fields and concert stages, plus Germany’s largest planetarium. It’s also a great place to rape someone.

So a fifteen-year-old girl gets dragged into the bushes by a gang of four “youths”.

They rape her, and take the trouble to film themselves doing so.

Because, after all, if you gang-rape someone, you want to have something to show to the lads who weren’t able to make it.

When they’re sated and push off, the girl gets to her feet and staggers away only to run into five more chaps, who rape her all over again. And film it all over again, in what by now is enough video for a full-length feature – over two-and-a-half hours.

That’s getting close to Lord of the Rings – and with a cast to match:

the semen of nine different men was found in and on her body.

And from all over the map: Egypt, Libya, Kuwait, Iran, Afghanistan, Montenegro, Poland, Armenia…

That’s a lot of diversity: it’s like the UN General Assembly of semen …although officialdom was eager to characterise most of the rapists as “German”, with two said to be of “uncertain nationality”.

There’s a lot of that about.

The rape of a schoolgirl is a terrible thing – especially for the guys.

As the eminent lady psychiatrist assigned to the case, Nahlah Saimeh, was at pains to explain, “a migrant background can push offenders to the margins of society” and lead to “fantasies of grandeur as an attempt to compensate for one’s own misery”.

Yeah, but two-and-a-half hours? That’s some fantasy of grandeur.

But what do I know? On Tuesday the court rendered its verdict: Nine rapists aged between nineteen and twenty-three were found guilty, but only one will go to prison – for two years and nine months.

The other eight received suspended sentences, so walked straight out onto the streets, perhaps figuring they’d take the scenic route and have a stroll in the park.

During one hundred days of trial, none showed any remorse for their victim.

Why bother?

As the headline on that Spiegel story has it, they’re the real victims:

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 10:14 pm

I have performed Lady Macbeth

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!*

Witchery – Little River Band (1977)

(* It’s actually “double, double, but I prefer my version.)

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 2, 2023 10:15 pm

The Biden Family Grift and Hunter’s Fake Offer To Testify

COMMENTARY

By Charles Lipson – RCP ContributorDecember 01, 2023

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 2, 2023 10:16 pm

Now that was a strange one.
They had a relatively long time to get it sorted.

Indeed. Crazy really.

Wasps and masking tape

Two more pitot tube related crashes. A lot more sympathy for the crews here though.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 10:25 pm

I’m voting present.

Jesus Jones – Right Here, Right Now (1990)

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 2, 2023 10:25 pm

Top Gear and Grand Tour mastermind Andy Wilman: ‘Engines have character – EVs are just transport’

Jeremy Clarkson’s longtime right-hand man on the power of petrol, life on the farm and why the BBC is too Left-wing for Lamborghinis

All great motoring journeys must come to an end eventually, one way or another. Ideally you arrive at your intended destination on time and in one piece, before finding a neat and sheltered parking place, putting the handbrake on and locking the vehicle up safely.

A worse scenario is to drive on for too long and too far, spluttering to an ignominious halt when the engine gives out or the wheels come off.

But the worst way to finish, of course, is to crash out, especially if somebody’s hurt or the car’s written off for good.

The Grand Tour, the mega-budget Amazon Prime show in which Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond travel the world driving extraordinary (or sometimes extraordinarily ordinary) vehicles in extraordinary places, is no different.

It was reported this week that after five series, the trio have filmed their last adventure.

There will be no more touring. The race has been run.

But Andy Wilman, the show’s executive producer and Clarkson’s off-screen co-driver for almost everything he’s done on television since the mid-1990s – including 178 episodes of Top Gear and the now wildly successful Clarkson’s Farm – insists the journey is ending precisely as planned.

“The thing is,” Wilman says, “we don’t look at it as The Grand Tour, we look at it as Top Gear and The Grand Tour, so we’ve been doing this since 2002.

We’ve now got people working on the show who used to talk about Top Gear on the bus to school.

Which is a compliment, but you start to feel your age…”

By coincidence, news about the end of The Grand Tour came a few days after the BBC announced Top Gear will also be put in the garage under a car cover “for the foreseeable future” after its latest presenter, Freddie Flintoff, was severely hurt in a crash while filming last year.

With both programmes – the only two of their genre to have sizable audiences – going off-air, a reasonable question can be asked about the future of motoring shows.

“In an ideal world [the motoring show] just regenerates, like Doctor Who, because there’s still a lot of love for cars out there, despite electric cars coming along, which I don’t think will create any TV whatsoever,” Wilman says, declaratively. It’s difficult to disagree: there’s no such thing as an electricity-head.

A Top Gear with EVs is quite a bleak prospect.

Wilman laughs at the very idea. “There just wouldn’t be one. All they do is go quickly.

Designers can do things with the outside of them, but you’re f—ed with EVs on sound, that whirring compared to a Ferrari engine.

And then the dashboard is just a big iPad and some plastic.

It’s f—ing terrible. It’s the end of looking at a nice interior of a car, everyone will do [the same] because it’s cheap.

So no noise, interiors like that… Where is there a car show in that? Where can you celebrate the human input?”

A while after Wilman and the Top Gear gang relaunched the show in 2002, they hit on gold when they realised how much viewers connected with old bangers.

They didn’t want to see the new supercars every week, but a charming heap breaking down a few miles into an adventure struck a joyful chord with people – especially people who vaguely know how engines work.

“Engined cars give you that: they give you characters. They give you foibles and idiosyncrasies,” Wilman says.

“The Lamborghini Miura was built more or less in secret after work by a team of kids under 25, yet it’s one of the greatest cars of all time.

You’re never going to get those stories with electric cars. Because they’re transport, they just whizz about… F—ing dull.”

Wilman, Clarkson, May and Hammond (their production company is actually called W Chump & Sons Ltd) left Top Gear and the BBC in 2015, after Clarkson punched a producer over a row about the availability of hot food during filming.

Afterwards, Wilman watched “15 minutes” of the new iteration of Top Gear, hosted by six people including actor Matt LeBlanc and DJ Chris Evans, “before switching off”.

Not because he thought it was dreadful, he insists, but because he didn’t want to find out if he thought it was dreadful – then he’d have to lie to friends still working on it. “The BBC management at that time were obsessed with proving the idea that Top Gear works without Jeremy, James and Richard.

Actually, the incarnation of Top Gear we created 100 per cent was Jeremy, James and Richard.

It’s sad [Top Gear] has now ended the way it has.”

In 2006, when Hammond had a life-threatening crash while driving a jet-powered car at 320mph for Top Gear, the team naturally considered whether the show should continue.

Only briefly, though, for not only did Hammond recover, he joked about it at awards shows, footage was shown in the next episode, and it became a triumphant part of the programme’s legend. The Flintoff crash “feels different”, Wilman reckons.

“I don’t know the details, but we all know it’s been long and protracted, and the guy’s suffered terribly.

Richard suffered, it was huge, but there seemed to be a different mood around the events.

But what happened to Freddie seems to have been an awful accident and an awful recovery. That’s knocked the stuffing out of what’s meant to be an escapist, childlike show. And who’s going to take that job? Give the man some respect.”

Is it done, then? “I think it’ll go away for a good while, and I don’t think the BBC has the stomach to make a new Top Gear.

I don’t think there’s the will or the interest.

We’ve been talking about electric cars, and if the BBC has its Left-wing leanings, they’re not going to go, ‘Let’s create another car show with Ferraris and Lamborghinis and hijinks’. They don’t have the will to do it.”

Wilman, who is 62, first met Clarkson when they were boys at Repton School in Derbyshire in the 1970s.

He’s shorter and has an even more casual, roadie dress sense (today he’s in a black Rolling Stones Exile on Main St T-shirt with dark jeans and trainers), but otherwise doesn’t look dissimilar from Clarkson, and doesn’t sound entirely different either.

“What, do I end things with ‘…in the world’?” he asks, in an exaggerated Clarksonian drawl. Not quite, but you can tell why they get on.

We’re speaking in his office-cum-edit suite in central London. In one corner is a framed painting of David Icke, under the words “The Earth needs rebels!” (bought as a joke to annoy someone), but every other surface is covered with hand-written planning notes for Clarkson’s Farm.

He is currently editing the third series. A fourth has just been announced.

“LISA MUSHROOM PONDER” reads one curious entry. “PIG DEATH SOLUTION” barks another. I fear that one may be linked to “ABATTOIR” on the same whiteboard, but cannot be certain. “Well, I won’t give anything away,” Wilman says, grinning.

Clarkson’s Farm is, of course, the unexpected new chapter in Wilman and Clarkson’s already staggeringly successful television career.

“There’s a lot of joy in the smallness of everything. We can go, ‘Right, this episode is about mushrooms we’ve been growing.’

That’s counter-intuitive for people who’ve been sending cars down ski slopes that blow up for 20 years. But it’s a real delight to do, and we got so lucky with our cast of characters – Caleb, Charlie, Alan, Gerald – who were already there.”

Wilman felt grateful for the distraction of the new show after The Grand Tour finished filming in Zimbabwe in October, if only to distract him from the end of that era.

“There were lots of tears, and we had a big old party,” he says. As well as May and Hammond, a lot of crew members came with Clarkson and Wilman when they all left Top Gear.

That loyalty was the thrust of a speech Wilman gave after “cut” was called for the last time.

“I said a lot of massive numbers are thrown around when people talk about what we’ve done – the number of miles flown, the number of hours driven, the number of babies people have had.

But the smaller numbers were the most amazing.

In 20-odd years we’ve had eight cameramen, eight soundmen, four mechanics. Our dysfunctional family has stayed really loyal.”

Wilman and the presenters had been thinking about ending it for at least two years, and always wanted to stop when their programmes were still being well received (“which the last series was, in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe,” Wilman says).

Too often, he observes, people don’t know when to quit successful franchises. “Like that thing of people always being promoted one level above their ability, TV commissioners always commission one series too many.”

There were a lot of factors involved in calling it a day.

The world is simply “harder to travel around”, for instance. They used to film in Ukraine, Myanmar, Israel and Argentina.

That’s impossible now, chiefly thanks to conflicts, though in the case of Argentina it’s more that Clarkson et al have relentlessly pissed that country off over the past decade.

Then there’s age.

Hammond is 53, but the others are all in their 60s. “Jeremy said he’s not getting any younger, and he’s right.

It’s different clambering around in s–t nylon tents when you’re 63 compared to 40. And at our age, if we’re going to do anything else, the time is now.”

He and Clarkson aren’t good delegators, and don’t know any way of working other than “at the coalface”, even when they started making millions.

Occasionally it’s meant coming up with brilliant format ideas such as for The Stig or having celebrities race around a track; sometimes it’s meant walking in the desert or taking a cargo ship across a far-flung sea, having the kind of Boy’s Own experiences people dream about.

But it’s just as often meant 2am finishes in edit suites, or Clarkson feverishly writing scripts, or everyone tackling logistical migraines, or marathon meetings with lawyers, or dealing with tabloid attention.

(For the record, Wilman “will not be talking about Meghan Markle”, but will deny Clarkson’s incendiary column about her having anything to do with The Grand Tour winding up.)

With his wife, Amanda, he has two children who are now 23 and 19. “I missed sports days, all of that stuff.

And every cliché is true. I massively regret it,” he says. “Amanda wasn’t always forgiving, but I was really defensive about Top Gear and working. There was no balance whatsoever.”

There now is, sort of, with Clarkson’s Farm.

He and Clarkson both love it: learning a new subject, finding a new cast of characters, and only having to travel up the M40 (in the case of Wilman, who lives in south-west London) or step outside their front door (in the case of Clarkson) to film.

It could, in theory, run and run. “The seasons provide a bit of structure, which is unusual in TV.”

Wilman is a huge muso, and compares Clarkson, May and Hammond to the Beatles more than once in our conversation.

I suppose that makes him George Martin.

“I’ll take that, I’ll definitely take that,” he says, nodding with mock pride. He likes the idea of keeping working for years to come, like the Rolling Stones, but “doing that Status Quo thing of a reunion tour every few years? No.”

Hammond and May have their own TV projects. Clarkson has the farm.

But never say never to the band getting back together. “I just can’t see us doing it for cars. That’s us, but there’ll be a void for car programmes now, for a while.”

He sighs. “Do you think people will miss us?” he asks, suddenly sincere. There will definitely be a void, I confirm. “Yes, I know. But will they miss us?” Oh, I say, more than they know.

“Hmm. I’ll be OK if they do, because we gave it f—ing everything. The weight gain, the hair loss, the crashes, the having kids… We kind of lived our lives out on those shows. You always look for lightning in a bottle, and we had it with those three.”

The Grand Tour will return to Amazon Prime next year

cohenite
December 2, 2023 10:27 pm

Cops beat Chinese man after asking him his name.

“I’ve lost all faith in the police”, says fuk yu.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 10:28 pm

that other grotesque Jew hater, Chlamydia Ford

Collectivists: “Right wing [redacted] can’t dish out abuse like collectivists”

Oh yeah? Please see the top line above.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 10:33 pm

Cats, space was the place … 🙂

Real Deal
Real Deal
December 2, 2023 10:38 pm

Raining in Sydney, did you say? You need a concerto for a rainy day.

Side 3 of ELO’s Out of the Blue. One of my favourite sides of an LP. Superb.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 10:38 pm

Jeremy Clarkson’s longtime right-hand man on the power of petrol, life on the farm and why the BBC is too Left-wing for Lamborghinis

It’s a wrap.

Jeremy Clarkson breaks silence on show future as The Grand Tour host sparks fan concern (30 Nov)

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond have filmed their last episode of the popular motoring show The Grand Tour, after seven years on Amazon Prime.

Those guys can seriously entertain, but everthing has to come to an end. My favourite was when they launched a three wheeled car on a replica space shuttle. Ridiculously awesome episode.

Turning the Robin Reliant into a Space Shuttle (2007)

Indolent
Indolent
December 2, 2023 10:41 pm
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 2, 2023 10:44 pm
Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 2, 2023 10:47 pm

Nine rapists aged between nineteen and twenty-three were found guilty, but only one will go to prison – for two years and nine months

The last remaining decent beak in this wide brown land, now in all likelihood retired, knew what was what and handed out a 55-year sentence to Mr Skaf of Sidernee for a spot of gang rape.

Skaf still apparently can’t work out why he’s in jail. I suspect there’s still a bit of ‘he’s a good-a boy’ being thrown his way from Mummy.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 2, 2023 10:49 pm

The Oz today has a feature article on the young IDF recruits doing their nasho who were the only soldiers on the barrier job when Hamas came over on Oct 7th into the Kibbutzim. Heartbreaking stories of young men calling friends and home with all of their mates dead and still valiantly holding out knowing they were next in line, with no hope of relief. So very sad.

Also sad seeing some video that appeared genuine of young Palestinian kids being pulled out of the rubble after some new IDF strikes on Gaza. TV interviewer said they hadn’t time to get out as directed by the IDF and didn’t have the phones to check on the map the IDF offered re target areas. Funny, but I haven’t notice a shortage of smart phones in the hands of the local Gaza crowd yet. It seems Hamas is still telling people to stay put with their kids all in the cause of martyrdom and PR.

The moral case is that the IDF don’t intentionally do this to kids and go out of their way to avoid this, which also allow Hamas murderers to avoid being targets; whereas recent reports suggest that the little hostage 12 year old autistic girl was murdered in cold blood by Hamas, as was the hostage kid in a wheelchair, and the two little hostage babies and their mum – because they were all too much trouble.

Gemma Tognnini also had a good piece in the Review Section today on the deafening silence from Western feminists about Hamas’ rape and murder on Oct 7th, as well as outlining for the little adolescent luvvies at demos in Sydney how life would be for them, as girls, in Gaza under Hamas. I hope a few of them get to read it.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 10:57 pm

Gil Scott-Heron:

Winter in America

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 2, 2023 10:59 pm

Heartbreaking stories of young men calling friends and home with all of their mates dead and still valiantly holding out knowing they were next in line, with no hope of relief.

The same as the young men, along the Bar Lev line, in October, 1973, sending messages to their parents “Goodbye, Mother, Goodbye Father, I hope I was a good son?”

Zippster
Zippster
December 2, 2023 11:00 pm
Crossie
Crossie
December 2, 2023 11:01 pm

Cassie of Sydney
Dec 2, 2023 5:46 PM
As an aside, I see one of the actors is the son of Hugo Weaving (although doesn’t go by that surname). Isn’t it interesting that the offspring of the usual suspects always seem to land these jobs out of (literally) a cast of thousands.”

Indeed, it’s no accident. No doubt the Weaving sprog went through NIDA. Nepotism is rampant in the arts in this country, and particularly in the theatre.

It’s not just here in Australia but in Hollywood, New York and London. Famous parents have unique leverage in the form of promising their own possible participation if their children are given an advantage. Even John Wayne’s son Patrick got jobs based on his famous surname.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 2, 2023 11:03 pm

I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for the Gazans. All the polls have been unflattering. And for the last twenty years they had plenty opportunities to get away, if they wanted to.

These days we see endless articles of people in boats travelling perilously from Libya to Italy. But never do we read of people perilously travelling from Gaza to Cyprus or wherever.

That, to my mind, is a tell.

Rabz
December 2, 2023 11:05 pm

In order to avoid another winter in America, Rabz and li’l Miss Yael hopped into their space ship and headed off to another planet that was much more climate friendly.

Needless to say, they existed happily ever after! 🙂

Rabz
December 2, 2023 11:09 pm
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 2, 2023 11:10 pm

Vicki, if you are around, apropos our discussion re social support yesterday. I went to a dance class this morning, don’t usually go on a Saturday, and at coffee sat next to a woman I’d seen there a while back but hadn’t spoken to then, and who hasn’t been around much lately. She’d mentioned when we started chatting she was a widow. We chatted about travel, places to go, and she and her husband seem to have done even more travel than we have. Glad to hear you’re still travelling, she said. Do it while you can, I’m glad we did, she added. When did your husband pass away? I enquired. On that her face crumpled at chin and lips but she bravely kept control. Two weeks ago, she said. We haven’t had his funeral yet.

She’d come to rejoin ‘the girls’ for some much needed support which is always freely given. I didn’t know her but on hearing that I hugged her and now we do know each other. In its own way I think it helped her to animatedly revisit all of the places they had been to together, which I might not have enquired about if I’d known that her loss was so recent.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 2, 2023 11:18 pm

I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for the Gazans.

I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for the Palestinians. They’ve had their own State since 1947 – it’s called “Jordan”, they’ve rejected five attempts at a “Two State” solution since that late 1930’s – nearly a hundred years – and they go on following every swivel eyed loon who demands the total annihilation of the State of Israel.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 2, 2023 11:19 pm

“War is hell” – no matter where and about whom. We watched another episode of Band of Brother’s tonight – the one about the Medics who had to patch up with field bandages the shattered remains of bodies and then drag them towards safety, and how Medics too, in the line of fire themselves, can go downhill with the stress of it all. Easy Company were finally relieved but claimed they were doing fine anyway – as part of ‘the Battle of the Bulge’.

Attapuss has had a bad night, what with the machine-gunning and grenades up loud on the teev and then a big electrical storm passing through. He’s been hiding under his blankie.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 2, 2023 11:24 pm

Health warning – this is a powerful and confronting article.

Silence is violence … but not for Jewish women

The #MeToo and Believe All Women brigade are publicly and energetically refusing to believe the first-hand accounts of Israeli women. But I cannot forget this image – as a woman, and a human. Warning: graphic.
By gemma tognini
From Inquirer
December 2, 2023
5 minute read
59

You can see her only from behind. In any other circumstances her long, dark, wavy hair would seem beautifully wild, untamed even. Here, it falls down her slender back, just above where her hands sit, bound and dirtied. Your eyes travel to the bottoms of her khaki pants. They’re filthy and bloodstained in places that speak of the unthinkable.

She’s being led by the elbow, paraded barefoot through a dusty Gazan street. There’s blood on her ankles and arms too. A person, I won’t call it a man (these are the actions of a coward, not a real man), pushes her head roughly as he shoves her into a waiting car to the jeers of bystanders lining the streets.

This image was captured, I think, in the wild 48 hours following October 7. It seems a blur now, and of all the terrible things I’ve forced myself to watch in the past month, of all the first-hand accounts I’ve forced myself to listen to and read, I can’t forget this image. As a woman. As a human. But I want to try to achieve the impossible. Put emotion to one side and take a clinical, analytical, surgical approach as I ask a question that many of you have been asking since this pogrom was launched.

Where are the modern-day feminists? Where are the #MeToo and Believe All Women brigade?

I’ll offer a couple of answers to start with. They’re publicly and energetically refusing to believe the first-hand accounts of Israeli women, Jewish women. At the very least they’re downplaying and diminishing, gutless in their mealy-mouthed responses to October 7. Or they’re silent altogether. Hiding, cowardly and complicit in their refusal to speak.

These are the progressive feminists who say rape is violence. Unless, of course, it’s the rape of Jewish women, Israeli women. Then, apparently, rape is resistance.

These women are immoral and without conscience. To these activists, teachers and academics who live in safe ivory towers, and to the ignorant and undecided, let me take you through some inconvenient truths about life for women in Gaza. It is a way of life that isn’t determined by the Israelis but by Hamas, the government so many of you love to point out was democratically elected, as was Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist party.

In Gaza, there are no laws prohibiting violence against women in a family situation, not even sexual violence.

So, when you’re throwing your fist in the air and yelling “From the river to the sea”, you’re championing a regime that says it’s OK for a father to rape or beat his daughter. A son is legally permitted to abuse his mother.

About 15 per cent of married women in Gaza experience sexual abuse from their husbands. More than half say the abuse is ongoing.

More than 63 per cent of Palestinian men agree that a woman should tolerate violence to keep the family together. One in five young girls is married before the age of 18. More than half of married women in Gaza admit to being subject to some form of violence at the hands of their husbands, be it physical, sexual, psychological, social or economic. Less than 1 per cent will report it, for fear of the consequences. If she does make it to court, then the law views a woman’s testimony as worth half that of a man.

A man caught in adultery will serve six months in prison. A woman will be jailed for two years and, if she’s granted a divorce, she must pay him for the privilege. A man? In Gaza a man can get divorced whenever he likes, for any reason he likes, and he won’t pay a cent to anyone.

There’s no safety for girls at school, either, according to the available data. As many as 16.7 per cent of school-aged girls report suffering physical and or psychological violence at the hands of their teachers or classmates. They don’t enjoy basic freedoms such as what clothes they’ll wear. Police enforce the modesty of women, the boundaries of which are decided by men.

People are marching in support of this. Sections of the media are bowing at the altar of this aberration, a way of life none of them would ever willingly submit to. They’re the same people who throw around phrases like “silence is violence”. But their own silence about the plight of Israeli women is OK.

They’ve lost their minds. But by refusing to denounce what happened to Israeli and Jewish women, modern feminists are championing a cause that denigrates Gazan women. You can’t make it up.

All of this information, this data, is embarrassingly easy to access. It’s freely available online on a variety of non-government organisation and academic websites. In the bitterest of ironies, I sourced much from the UN, specifically UN Women, the official offshoot that supposedly champions women the world over but whose social media and public comments have ignored the plight of Israeli and Jewish women. Case in point: it shared one post condemning the atrocities on October 7. One. It then deleted the post, using an excuse that the situation had moved on and the post was dated.

This same UN that adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza but voted down a provision that condemned Hamas’s murderous October 7 attack. It doesn’t even try to pretend.

The number of women and young girls defending Hamas’s femicide, savagery and brutal subjugation of women as a means of resistance is astonishing. I don’t understand it but I do believe it’s a telling window into both a person’s intellectual soundness and moral compass.

The main reason the image of that young woman continues to haunt me is because every so often, for a brief moment, I imagine it being me. Or my niece. My mother, aunty, sister-in-law or girlfriends. The terror of that thought leaves me breathless.

There is no middle ground here. No sanctuary to be found in sins of omission or words unspoken. The divide between those who deny and deflect and those with the courage to confront grows daily. There is one enemy women in Gaza deserve freedom from, and that enemy is Hamas.

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