The Stig’s American Cousin
Just watching a repeat of Top Gear!
Very funny, but I suspect that the team might not be welcome in the US after this!
Simon Calder
Simon Calder is my favourite travel writer and I spent quite a bit of the journey from Peterborough to Newcastle reading the travel section in The Independent. Or should I say his travel section, as a lot of it seems to have been written by him.
For a start there was a piece about how to spend two days in San Francisco, although I don’t think it was written by Simon. And as I am going there in May, it is something that appeared at the right time.
Simon’s editorial was entitled “The week of travelling dangerously” and was about the problems of the Icelandic volcanic ash. The last two paragraphs of a very good article sum up why we ended up in such a mess.
Travel, like life, is about risk management. Flying is far safer than travelling by road. Britain has the best aviation record in the world over the past 20 years, thanks to an obsession with safety on the part of pilots, air-traffic controllers and engineers. But there are limits, which were overstepped this week by a spokesman for the aviation regulators who insisted that only “complete safety” was acceptable. The only way to achieve zero risk: ground all flights, forever. If we all switch to cars, the increase in risk to us, and other road users, increases dramatically. This was the week of travelling dangerously.
“Complete safety” is a laudable but unachievable aim. To suggest otherwise gives credence to the assertion among some pilots that CAA actually stands for “Campaign Against Aviation”.
Taking up Simon’s point about increased risk in cars, how many people have been injured or perhaps even killed in their journeys home by perhaps dubious methods? Thank goodness, I’ve not heard of any yet.
He also had a marvellous article about travelling on a container ship. I’ll do that one day.
Around the World in 33 Days
Well not quite thirty-three days, but a give or take a night or two, that is how long I’ll take to go round the world.
The purpose includes the following.
- I need a holiday and want to have some fun and relaxation.
- I want to see a few old friends.
- I want to take pictures of any old Heidelberg printing machines, still working.
- I want to talk to various people about my new project management system.
The last reason is probably not as serious as the others, as I don’t need the money and the hassle. But if I can find the model that makes the software sell and get market share, then I’ll go for it like a rat up a drain pipe!
So what is the route?
Stop 1 – Hong Kong – Arrive Wednesday, May 12th at 16:05
I need to break the journey and what better place than Hong Kong. I will probably stay in the Mandarin Oriental. My late wife and I always did and it’s worth every penny.
Stop 2 – Melbourne – Arrive Saturday, May 15th at 06:15
Of all the major cities in the greater south-east of Australia, Melbourne is the only one I haven’t visited. I suppose I haven’t visited Canberra either, but then my Aussie friends say it isn’t worth it.
I also want to play real tennis in the city and see the sights. I’m also going to see some old Metier mates.
Stop 3 – Brisbane – Arrive Tuesday, 18th May at 14:15
Seeing an old mate that I’ve never met! We’ll talk about Artemis, Metier and the new project management system.
Stop 4 – Hawaii – Arrive Friday, 21st May at 09:25
Now I’ve never been to Hawaii, but it looks like a place that is worth a stopover as I make my way across the Pacific. I also want to visit Pearl Harbor. After all, I’ve stood on the dock at Taranto, where the Fleet Air Arm proved the concept for the Japanese. Read the Attack on Taranto by Lowry and Wellham for more details. Note that the book is an American publication.
Stop 5 – San Francisco – Arrive Monday, 24th May at 20:35
I’ll probably spend a day or so in San Francisco and then it will be a mix of trains, plains and automobiles across the United States until I get to the other side at Boston.
The first leg is planned to be a drive to Las Vegas
Stop 6 – Las Vegas – Arrive Thursday, 27th May
I was in the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, when I heard about the massacre at the real Luxor in Egypt. To me it has the ultimate bad-taste that sums up Vegas to me. I don’t gamble, except occasionally on horses, so it will be a short stay.
Stop 7 – Route 66/Grand Canyon – Arrive Friday 28th May
There are places in this area that I want to visit again, like the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Route 66, the meteor crater at Winslow and the ruins of the pueblas.
Stop 8 – Phoenix – Arrive Saturday 29th May
Phoenix is somewhere I’ve been before but only for a change of flights.
Stop 9 – Houston – Arrive Monday 31st May
This will be a flight from Phoenix, probably getting in around lunchtime.
Stop 10 – New Orleans – Arrive Thursday 3rd June
I’ve never been to New Orleans, so I’ll drive from Houston.
Stop 11 – Washington – Arrive Sunday 6th June
A flight here to the capital.
Stop 12 – New York – Arrive Tuesday 8th June
I’ll probably take the train.
Stop 13 – Boston – Arrive Friday 11th June
I’ll probably drive from New York, going slowly from New York.
Stop 14 – London- Leave Boston on Saturday, 12th June at 21:30
And then it’s back to London.
This will get filled out as the time unfolds.
Harry Markopolos – 2
I bought the book from Waterstones yesterday and I have read the first few chapters on the train home from London.
Brilliant!
He spotted what Madoff was up to in 2000, but the SEC wouldn’t listen and took no action. He also alleges that others felt the same about Madoff, but were happy to take the money.
My respect for Harry grows.
Reading his book, just increases my distrust for financial advisers. I think it is why I like Zopa. There the money is under MY control and I live or fall by my decisions. I know nothing about stocks and shares, so I keep clear of them.
Harry Markopolos
Harry Markopolos is the sort of man I like.
In 2000, he was asked if he could find out how Bernard Madoff made such high returns. So he reverse-modelled Madoff’s results and concluded that he was either running a giant Ponzi scheme or he was illegally trading clients money.
He stuck at it and in 2005 to sent a document to SEC regulators stating.
Bernie Madoff is running the world’s largest unregistered hedge fund. He’s organized this business as “hedge fund of funds privately labeling their own hedge funds which Bernie Madoff secretly runs for them using a split-strike conversion strategy getting paid only trading commissions which are not disclosed.”
No action was taken and we all know now that he was right as in December 2008, Madoff confessed and he is now spending the rest of his life in jail.
Harry has just written a biography called No One Would Listen; A True Financial Thriller.
I shall be buying.
As to Madoff, he just proved that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. It’s just that when people do what Madoff did, no-one listens to the Harrys of this world.
The Cost of the Death Penalty
I have an axe to grind over capital punishment, in that I think it’s wrong. Well not just wrong, very very wrong.
My main reason is that by taking someone’s life in retribution for something they have done, is just stooping to their level. We should be more humane than that. After all, dictators like Hitler were all for capital punishment, so that’s a pretty good reason too. And what happens with a miscarriage of justice.
But Parade Magazine in the United States has just published an article with a poll about the Death Penalty. One of the arguments in the article is that the death penalty costs more than life imprisonment. It is also a bit more convenient, if the judgement was wrong in the first place.
So vote early, often and many times.
Global Warming Denial
The junket at Copenhagen is about to start and we’ll get all of those global warming denial stories. Usually, they are from selfish, overweight people, who are addicted to 4x4s, private jets and all other wasteful indulgences.
But before you embrace what they say, read Johann Hari in the Independent. He analyses all of the evidence and comes to the conclusion that global warming is man-made.
These are the last two paragraphs, which if you can’t bother to read the rest, you should read.
So let’s – for the sake of argument – make an extraordinary and unjustified concession to the deniers. Let’s imagine there was only a 50 per cent chance that virtually all the world’s climate scientists are wrong. Would that be a risk worth taking? Are you prepared to take a 50-50 gamble on the habitability of the planet? Is the prospect of getting our energy from the wind and the waves and the sun so terrible that’s not worth it on even these wildly optimistic odds?
Imagine you are about to get on a plane with your family. A huge group of qualified airline mechanics approach you on the tarmac and explain they’ve studied the engine for many years and they’re sure it will crash if you get on board. They show you their previous predictions of plane crashes, which have overwhelmingly been proven right. Then a group of vets, journalists, and plumbers tell they have looked at the diagrams and it’s perfectly obvious to them the plane is safe and that airplane mechanics – all of them, everywhere – are scamming you. Would you get on the plane? That is our choice at Copenhagen.
Now, I’ll add another thought.
Look at the major countries that are lukewarm on climate change; the United States, China and Saudi Arabia. All have a lot to lose if climate change is accepted. America would have to change its lifestyle much more than any other country, China would have to generate its energy in different ways and poor old Saudi would lose all those oil sales. None of these countries have large areas of low-lying land.
On the other hand, a lot of those countries who believe that action should be done on global warning have a lot of land that will soon disappear. They should know!
So just as the fat bloke in his 4×4 is a denier, so are the United States, China and Saudi Arabia. It is just plain selfishness.
The Anonymous Widower 