Is a spade a spade?

I just went to the toilet at work to be greeted with the sign,

"Restroom closed. Cleaning in progress".

"Restroom"!? The only things I'd rest in there are my sphincters!

It is a toilet.

The trend we see to use "non offensive language", for example "restroom" instead of toilet, or "vertically challenged" instead of short, is a form of control that should be fought at all times.

By limiting the adjectives or nouns in a language we limit the precision of meaning that can be conveyed. If you are unable to convey a specific meaning then conceptually that specification doesn't exist!

The classic example of this is that of the number of words in a language for snow. In Britain we have very few, Snow. A skier will be forced to use adjectives to make his meaning clearer for example "powder snow"

So, for the average Briton there are only two kinds of snow. Snow and powder snow.

An Eskimo will tell you that there are many more types of snow. He is able to be sure of this because in his language there are many more nouns for snow, distinguishing completely different types of snow. He probably has many more adjectives to refine the meaning yet further.
(for further study why not start here http://www.princeton.edu/~browning/snow.html )

A similar refining of language happens in all areas of specialisation. For instance, to a lay-person a hammer is a hammer. But to a craftsman there are many types of hammer, claw-hammer, ball-peen-hammer, sledge-hammer, mallet etc.

If you limit the vocabulary you limit the precision of meaning that can convey and hence you also limit the complexity of ideas that can be discussed and hence perception itself. Are you still sure there are only two kinds of snow in the world?

It is for this reason you should fight to use your language as you want and not succumb to "political correctness".

The powers that be like to use politically correct language because if they can remove "bad" words from the language then the "bad" things vanish with them. It is a semantic trick!

If the word "black" vanishes from the language then conceptually "white vs. black" racism has also disappeared! If there are no toilets and only restrooms then presumable there is no more shit in the world?

Power brokers of all kinds love this trick, because by doing nothing but removing your words they are able to fix all societies problems without doing anything! It also limits your ability to resist their tricks because if you stick to their limited language you will be unable to frame a powerful argument against them!

Take back your language!

Call a spade a spade! (or a shovel or a trowel .... ;-)

6P's

I was in a panic on Monday 11th April. The FA Cup semi final between Newcastle united and Manchester United was on at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium at 2pm on Sunday the 17th of April.

I Had booked out an aeroplane from the Northumbrian Flying Club, based at Newcastle International Airport. I had arranged for three Geordie mates and me to Fly down to Cardiff for the Match. They had already bought the tickets and Not bothered arranging alternate mode of transport. The reason for my panic was that I'd just read a NOTAM (notice to airmen) that Cardiff was not going to be allowing any more air traffic to land other than that traffic that had already booked a slot.

I had not booked a slot. I felt very stupid about this. I had checked and Cardiff's normal operations didn't require General Aviation (GA) to pre-book. Unfortunately, on Cup final days the traffic is a lot heavier and they did require a slot to be booked.

I rang the air traffic control tower at Cardiff and they informed me that I did indeed need to pre-book and were not to hopeful about my chances as all slot bookings went through the airport and he thought they were all taken, but they gave me the number of the guys at Dragonfly Executive Air Charter, based at Cardiff airport and said I should give them a call.

The fella there took my details and said he'd get back to me and let me know if he could get a slot for me.
He didn't call back so at 4.30pm I rang them again, to be greeted by the answer-phone informing me that the office was shut for the day! Aaargh!

I left a message, but in my heart I knew we were screwed.

I had to hunt for alternatives. Scanning the charts I could see that Swansea was close and there was also a farm strip near Newport. Both towns had a train service, that If we landed on time would be able to get us to Cardiff in time for the game. I called Swansea and provisionally booked there because the weather forecast was not looking good for Sunday and at least they had an instrument procedure published, albeit a tricky one.

I was still worried because the procedure (NDB/DME approach) was trickier than Cardiff's one (NDB/ILS approach), which meant that I didn't want to fly if the weather was bad, and we'd only know a decent forecast at 6am on the day of departure, and by then it'd be too late to drive it!

Luckily for me whilst cycling to work on the Tuesday morning, my phone went off. It was Dragonfly, He'd had managed to get me a slot for Cardiff.

arrival slot 11.08a

I was reminded myself of the military saying, the 6P's, Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!

The Adventure was still on!

Swings and Roundabouts

One of my girlfriend's friends, and boyfriend, were visiting briefly and staying with us Friday night. They would be off camping in Northumbria on Saturday.
As a result my girlfriend invited other friends round for tea on Friday night.
While it was nice to have everyone round and chat, I had had a stressful day at work and had a bit of a headache. I wasn't my normal sparkling self, though I tried to join in and have fun until the early hours of Saturday morning.

Saturday came, with no lie-in. My girlfriend's friends left and I had to get on with end of year accounts. More headaches! To make matters worse I had to cancel a flying lesson that I'd booked for early evening, as I forgot that we were going out to see another one of her mates singing in a choir at the Sage Opera house.

Oh Joy of Joys!

I was on the verge of a big sulk, brought on from tiredness and the selfish feeling of wanting some me time. I resolved to keep an open mind and try to enjoy myself rather than sulk :-)

As it turned out the singing stuff was quite good, the Opera house acoustics were brilliant, and when one of the singers did a solo soprano opera bit, I was surprised to find out that I liked it! I never liked Opera singing, but then I've never heard any sung live before. It is hard to believe that such a sound can come from a human being, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up whilst listening.

I went to bed early and sober and left the lasses out partying.

Got up at 9.30 Sunday to go swimming at 10.30. Whilst eating my porridge I watched the early morning Match of the Day repeat on BBC.

When I arrived at the pool I found I was an hour early for my class! The alarm clock was an hour early. Oh well, a brief stroll around town in the sunshine, put a smile on my face.
I'd forgotten that Sunday training is an hour and a half instead of the usual hour, and half way through a very tough session, the coach asked me to move up a lane. Which was nice. Again this made the session even harder.

After training I went home. My girlfriend had left to watch the women's Sunderland FC game, so I was on my own.

Me time, at last!

I did a bit of hacking then went to the airport for my rearranged flying lesson. I was due to fly at 5.30pm but because of re-fuelling delays and people taking longer than their slots I was pushed back to 7.30pm! I didn't mind as I got to fly the simulator and practice the highly technical instrument flying that I was about to do for real. I was therefore much better prepared than usual for the flight.
After take-off the visibility dropped almost immediately and instead of simulated IMC I was now in the real stuff. My instructor asked me to perform various manoeuvres and navigation, then we took up the NDB (Non Directional Beacon) holding pattern, which I think is technically the hardest procedure in instrument flying, followed by an ILS (Instrument landing System) let-down.

It was dark by the time we were established on the ILS but it went perfectly. So, thanks to the delays getting airborne, I got an night landing as well as the Instrument time out of the flight .
After touchdown I went to the pub with the club owner, we had a couple of drinks and talked aeroplanes, helicopters, motorbikes and classic Ferraris. All of which he has! He has a few helicopters, he runs the helicopter flying school as well, and promised to show me round them.

So after a day and a half of not doing what I wanted to do, I had a fantastic Sunday of watching football, swimming (and getting promoted a lane), hacking, flying, drinking and talking engines and helicopters.

It was cool.

And by "cool" I mean totally sweet! :-)

Flying adventure

The adventure is on!

My friend has just SMS'd me to say that he has the FA Cup semi-final tickets between Manchester United and Newcastle United at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium on the 17th of April.

I have booked out a PA28 Piper Warrior from the aeroclub for the day.

So I'm going to fly myself and three Geordie mates to the match!

This will be my first proper excursion with a specific objective, where the flying is just a means to an end, as it should be. I can't wait, I'm going to book up some IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) refresher lessons so that my skills are sharp and barring storms we should be able to get in at Cardiff