11:00

Sully

I went to see Sully with real interest as to how they were going to make a good story out of two minutes of action when Captain Chelsey Sullenberger, the eponymous Sully, lands a passenger jet into the Hudson  - where you know the happy ending. The crash scenes (it is repeated) are terrifying but the dramatic action takes place in the investigations afterwards where there are serious questions raised about whether he could have made it to one of two airports in range.
In the public investigation, they are taken live to the Airbus simulator in Toulouse where the facts of incident are replayed and in each case the pilots made it onto dry land. The case looks damning against Sully. But he defends himself by pointing out that first they (unlike the simulator pilots) had not practiced this before and secondly that there had to be factored in the 'human' factor of two pilots having to make life or death decisions within a few seconds. They replayed the simulations with a 30 second 'human factor' delay and in the simulations end with catastrophic crashes into buildings. Sully is the hero again. Great film. Thank you Clint Eastwood.
But the logic of what happened is that the killer in this instance (it was a miracle that the aeroplane didn't break up) was the human factor. If a computer had been flying the plane and not had the delay of human pilots, with their slow motion thought processes, the aircraft would have landed on dry land. Far from celebrating the triumph of the pilot, the film actually demonstrates his or her redundancy. The passenger would have better off without a pilot - but this film is sadly only going to embed the opposite conclusion. It will take a lot of 'pilot error' crashes to persuade the flying public otherwise.
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12:48

Cats

Cats
I don't like cats. Well I didn't until Indah turned up. She was a street cat in Mersing in Malaysia and is on her way to Mexico (it&...
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13:45

Productivity

Productivity
Economists are baffled as to why UK productivity is so low. It seems pretty obvious to me. There's the holidays - most egregiously Chris...
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10:13

Liberal values

Liberal values
As a general rule, heated up leftovers don't make the best meal. With that in mind, I re-read a blog I wrote in 2012 about Jonathan Haid...
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15:21

Castro

Castro
Castro: let's get the good things out of the way first. The Cuba that he captured after what must have been the most unpromising start o...
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13:49

Farming - a 'processor's' point of view

Farming - a 'processor's' point of view
The blog on British farming has bought out some interesting views - this is from a 'processor'. "Further thoughts on farming . ...
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11:02

Farming - another view

Farming - another view
My friend Sophie Alexander is a farmer in Dorset and has some strong views on farming and subsidies that were prompted by my last blog. I ca...
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20:32

Farming in the UK

Farming in the UK
I  went to a presentation by Savills on the future of farming in the UK and there were a number of slides that were unexpected - and soberin...
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17:13

St Pancras

St Pancras
St Pancras has been in the news recently. Well actually it is the Gare du Nord at the other end of Eurostar that has been talked about for a...
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12:19

Hillary's technophobia

Hillary's technophobia
With the latest, maybe disastrous, FBI investigation into Hillary's (not even Hillary's, her aide's) emails, an interesting fact...
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12:03

Running the bulls in the Camargue

Running the bulls in the Camargue
The  Camargue is the extensive marshland that is formed by the  Rhone delta as it debouches into the Mediterranean.They are beautiful and re...
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06:23

Obama cool

Obama cool
 As Obama's presidency slides into interregnum we  are reminded daily just what a class act he is. I admit it; I have a man-crush on him...
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10:40

William Hague on central bankers

William Hague on central bankers
William Hague was the best prime minister we never had - and nearly always talks sense; never more than here... "I  am not an economist...
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17:38

Heavenly Flight

Heavenly Flight
OoThe morning was perfect: a few clouds and a warm, but not hot, sun. We drove past Assisi in the van and wound our way up Mount Subasio, t...
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05:17

North Cape or Bust: The road home.

North Cape or Bust: The road home.
The following day could not have been more different. I had tried a sightseeing flight with our hosts at the guest house the day before but ...
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