But First…

The world could be ending but you can bet that any news items, especially those online rather than live TV would be preceded by the “But first, this message from our sponsors”.

In fact, advertising has gotten so bad now that it’s impossible to watch a ten second YouTube clip without being subjected to a thirty second advert, and even if you avoid the ad at the start, they’ll slip it in half way through.

Being a Brit originally I still get a lot of my news from the BBC but if you try to watch any video on the BBC website over here in the USA, you are subjected to at least a thirty second advert. So most of the time I don’t bother with BBC videos, easier and often quicker to find the same stuff elsewhere.

The Signal… (warning, spoilers)

It’s movie revue time again.

This time it’s the German Sci Fi movie Das Signal (The Signal) on Netflix.

I’ll keep this pretty short but beware there are spoilers.

There are four one hour episodes. You could probably skip about 20 to 25 minutes of the each of the first two episodes without losing too much which mostly seems to be ‘mood’ setting type stuff, or events that are drawn out way to long in an attempt to generate ‘suspense’. Sorry, did not work.

It gets more interesting from episode three although the acting, or at least the dialog in places was a bit sad. However if it was the dialog that ‘might’ have been down to the translation from German to English so I’ll give them a pass on that. In general though it was bearable.

There were a few of those “there’s no way anyone would do that in real life” moments and what happened to the old lady running a comms center the size of a NASA station in the middle of nowhere (and where do she get her power or afford it even?) Just too many of those questions.

Of course it has the usual Good that turn out to be a baddy, and a real bad baddy at that too but who is followed by a load unquestioning armed guards. Where do these super villains get their unquestioning armed forces? Beats me but every one seems to have them so it must be a good paying job!

So, on to the disappointments. This is where the real spoilers are so quit now if you’ve not seen it.

Really….. Voyager 1. The craft was Voyager 1 that had been sent back to us by ‘someone’.

The whole problem with this is, if you follow science even slightly, that Voyager 1 has only recently left what we might consider the very edge of our solar system and entered open space. There is NO way it has gotten anywhere near anyone else yet to send it back to us. At least In the Star Trek movie a few centuries had passed before someone found Voyager 1.

Then it crashes into the earth with pretty much just a thud. For starters it would have burned up on entry and what was left would have been destroyed on impact. Instead that bloody gold record was just still going round and round as though the whole thing had just fallen off a shelf.

Total fail.

Four yawns…

If…

Your entire political and/or life philosophy can be expressed in one sentence on a bumper sticker, maybe you need to take a long careful look at your life.

The ‘Not an Interview’ …

Tucker Carlson probably gave Vladimir Putin his biggest propaganda victory to date with his so called interview.

It was always my impression that an interview consisted of the ‘interviewer’ asking questions of the ‘interviewee’ and the ‘interviewee’ responding to those questions.

What we had here was little more than a puppet show with the Russian president pulling all the strings.

If they did not think it before, I am sure many of the Russian people (that is, those not in jail for disagreeing with him) now think of Putin as god and the west as a bunch of wimps. And based on the recent Congressional fuck up over western and American backing of Ukraine, I tend to agree. Certainly Putin has the political upper hand at the moment and Ukraine is struggling so unless something in the west changes and soon, to help Ukraine, I suspect the end is not that far off and this propaganda coup for Putin has no doubt bolstered his position within Russia.

Meanwhile, over here, we’ve got Trump and Biden preparing to face off, best described as “The Battle of the Pensioners” and about as exciting.

Alabama on my mind…

Yesterday, Alabama’s Department of “Corrections” failed in it’s task to correct anything when it gassed to death Kenneth Smith.

I just don’t see the point. The world is not any safer without him. In fact I’d go so far as to say the world is a much scarier place today than it was yesterday. State sanctioned murder is still murder and from what I’ve read, it was an extremely unpleasant death that has done nothing to change things, bring anyone back, and that will do nothing to prevent further murders in Alabama or anywhere else in this gun infested nation of ours.

I cannot condone what he was involved in that led to this point and I can only hope it brings some peace to the family of the victim.

What gets me though is that the Jury voted for life imprisonment but the judge over ruled them. Personally I would think life in a box would be far worse than this, because now it’s over, at least for Smith while the rest of us struggle on with the rights and wrongs of it all.

NOT the same…

Nikki Haley recently likened death from Fentanyl overdoses to military deaths and said “We’ve had more Americans die of fentanyl than the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam wars, combined.”

While the absolute numbers might be true the reality is that one group died fighting for their country, while the other lot died because they were a fucked up lot of space wasters that the world will probably not miss that much.

So NO, it’s not the same Nikki Haley. Not by a long way is it even remotely close to being the same and how you have the gall to compare the deaths of military personal fighting in wars that this country sent them to the deaths of someone sticking a needle in their arm is beyond me.

Lose Five Pounds in your First Week…

While it is diet season, let me just comment on this bullshit advertising gimmick that various diet plan companies use to promote their diet plans.

Warning. Poop will be mentioned!

The secret to losing weight is to control your calorie intake and what you eat. You want a good mix of carbs and protein, even a little fat but don’t eat so much that you exceed your daily calorie allowance which should be around 2000 to 2500 calories per day, unless you are a serious athlete of some sort.

A little exercise does not hurt as well but it’s not an absolute necessity to do it to lose weight. Cut your calories to a level that is below your basic daily requirement and you will lose weight. Exercise either speeds up the process by burning more calories or lets you eat a little more because your basic minimum requirements goes up due to the calories you burn through exercise.

So back to the topic in hand.

If you limit your calorie intake as suggested you should be able to lose about TWO POUNDS PER WEEK on average. So where do the other three pounds come from and why do they say ín your first week’?

Here’s the lowdown. Before you started dieting you were eating your normal food intake. Your colon (large intestine) is probably pretty full of waste, waiting to be expelled (I.E. poop!). Before you start dieting things are in a steady state. What you poop out is replaced by the remains of what you eat.

When you start dieting, there is LESS food coming in and so less waste going into your colon. But all that stuff in there still gets expelled. But now you’ve got more stuff (poop) going out than is coming in from the remains of the food you eat because you are eating less.

Guess how much that poop weighs? Yup, about three pounds.

After the first week you are back to a steady state where what you expel matches what is left over after you eat which is why they don’t say ‘lose five pounds every week’ or even for the first two weeks. Because, quite simply. you can’t.

Oh, you’ll also probably notice (or maybe not) that you visit the toilet a lot less when dieting. This is simply because the capacity of your colon is the same as it was before but it now takes longer to fill, thus making you want to ‘go’ because there is less going into your intestine from your stomach because you are eating less.

Let the Dieting begin…

Now that the season of over indulgence has ended, it’s time for the annual dose of dieting adverts for products ranging from bloody useless to downright dangerous because food supplements, at least here in the US, are not regulated. So long as people don’t die, you can sell pretty much any sort of snake oil as a miracle weight loss aid.

So send me $50 in bitcoin (contact me for the bitcoin address) and I’ll send you my sure fire, instant weight loss program. Truest me, would I lie to you.

Actually, here is my ‘wight loss’ program for free..

1. Do some exercise. Does not have to be a lot, a good long walk every day is fine. The secret is to be consistent. Whatever you do, do it on schedule, even when the weather is crap or you don’t feel in the mood. MAKE YOURSELF DO IT !
2. Have a calorie goal for food. Notice that I do not say, eat less. IF you eat 4000 calories a day and drop to 3500, you are eating less but it’s still too much. Try aiming for 2500 calories a day, 2000 if you can do it. You’ll find it’s not a lot! You will be hungry at times. Drink water or UNSWEETEND drinks. Avoid sugary stuff. A few grapes can help offset the hunger pangs without killing the diet.
3. I have found intermittent fasting on a 16:8 schedule works best for me. That is 16 hours of not eating then I only eat between 1:00 and 9:00 pm. Most of the 16 hours is being asleep so it’s not as bad as it seems. Have a drink in the morning, coffee or unsweetened tea (I am English so it’s hot tea with milk for me). Intermittent fasting works because it’s easy to see if you are cheating or not. You are either in your eating window or you are not. It’s that simple really. Just don’t go nuts when the window opens because 2500 calories is not a lot and you need to be able to eat later on. I save the bulk of my food intake for my evening meal.
4. You will feel hungry at times. GET USED TO IT. A slight hunger pang does not mean you need to eat. In the west we are so used to the easy availability of food that at the slightest hint of hunger we satisfy it with a sugar laden snack so we never get used to the feeling of being hungry. If you struggle with that feeling, think of it this way. That feeling is you body saying it wants you to eat but by not eating you are forcing your body to use its reserves and it is those reserves, I.E. fat, that you are trying to lose. So being hungry means the diet is working!
5. Don’t starve yourself. If limiting yourself to 2500 calories is good, 1500 must be better and 1000 even more so right? Nope! That’s not how it works. If you don’t eat enough your body goes into starvation mode, you’ll feel tired and crap and as soon as you start eating normally, your body will pile all that weight back on as it tries to store reserves (fat) for the lean times! It might sound daft but you really do need to eat in order to lose weight. It all boils down to WHAT you eat and controlling how much which is where the calorie limit comes in.
6. What to eat. Well, avoid calorie heavy stuff. That McDonald’s double quarter pounder with fries is probably your daily calorie allowance in one gulp. Sure it tastes great but it’s laden with fat, little protein and what are you going to eat for the rest of the day? So, what to eat, yogurt is good, a banana is filling and slow to digest, grilled chicken or other meat, etc. Eat what you like but keep in mind it’s calorie and protein content. Aim for a good balance and stay within your daily calorie limit.
7. Water. Drink water. Lots of it. I will admit I fail badly at this but it’s also a good way of suppressing the hunger pangs. I tend to drink hot tea (with milk, no sugar) instead. I drink a LOT of tea!
8. Sleep. Get a good night’s sleep. Avoid alcohol if you can. Moderation is OK, like most things but don’t go overboard.
9. Weigh yourself at a consistent time each day. I get up, go to the bathroom and THEN I weigh myself. This is the lightest I’ll be all do and it’s consistent. I also like to keep track of my weight on a Google sheets spreadsheet that I put a graph on so I can visually see what is happening. Once those first few pounds go, it become very motivating to keep that line going down.
10. Set a target wight and time frame. Be realistic. Average weight loss on a diet should be around 2 to 3 pounds a week with 2 being preferred. Much more and you are starving yourself. Set a time frame, say 12 weeks which would give you a 20 to 25 pound loss target. 12 weeks is not a long time really in the big picture. 
11. Once you hit your target do NOT go nuts eating food again because it’s all just go back on. Increase your intake a little until the loss stops and then keep your intake at that level.
12. Maintaining a healthy target weight is about your lifestyle. If you are not where you want to be weight wise, you adjust your diet and activity level to change it. You can diet to increase your weight as well. Diet doe not mean weight loss, it means controlling your food intake. Once you get to where you want to be you adjust again to maintain that level. After a while it becomes a habit and so you are no longer dieting but simply mainlining a healthy life style.

Predictions for 2024…

Unless Congress gets it head out of it’s arse (unlikely) and sends more aid to Ukraine, Ukraine is fucked and Putin is going to walk all over that country. After that I suspect Belarus will become a ‘protected’ province, a bit like Crimea, whether it wants it or not.

The world will turn against Israel enough that it stops it’s campaign against Gaza. Hamas will thumb it’s nose at Israel. Some, but not all of the remaining hostages will be released. Gaza will become a bigger breeding ground for Hamas soldiers.

Regardless of who gets the GOP nomination and who winds the presidential election. The US is fucked. The partisan split in congress will just get worse and nothing will get done. Meanwhile, the rest of us just suffer.

There will be at least TWO mass shootings in the US. I’m surprised we’ve not had one already to be honest. Tears will be shed, hands wrung, vigils held, statements made and fuck all else will happen. Just like always.

China will continue it’s expansionist policies, threatening Taiwan more and more. Tensions in the China sea will continue to rise.

They are still hostages…

As the world slowly turns against Israel for it’s attacks on Gaza I notice that there is bugger all mention in the coverage of the remaining hostages. Excpet that Hamas said there would be no more hostage releases until Israel stops it’s attacks.

That to me just says that Hamas is more interested in forcing a prisoner echange, oh, and maybe release a few hostages as well, than it is about it’s supposedly own people.

And let’s not forget who and what started this fuck up in the first place.

Me? I’m still siding with Israel on this one. I am sorry there have been so many deaths in Gaza and the people are facing hunger but maybe instead of running away they should rid themselves of Hamas and release the remaining hostages.

The Israel would hopefully stop and aid could get in.

It seem to me this world is full of groups of people asking the rest of the world to solve their problems. Over the last few hundred years, nations figured it out themselves. They fought each other or, in some cases, the people rose up and took control. The really does not seem to happen much anymore. The so called Arab Spring never went anywhere and there’s not been much else like that since.

Anyway, back on topic. Hamas really needs to let the hostage go instead of trying to negotiate the release of their fighters from Israel because Hamas and the people of Gaza are not in a negotiating position really are they? Except that Hamas thinks they are. Good to know delusion is not limited to Trump!

Leave The World Behind…

It’s movie review time again! This time it’s this Netflix adaptation of a book by the same name.

I’d like to say there are spoilers but I can’t really because I have NO FUCKING CLUE what this movie is about.

The world seems to be ending or at least society is collapsing or a war is breaking out or it’s a cyber attack or the animals are taking over or any number of other possible scenarios might be happening but I have no idea which if any, are true because bugger all is actually explained in this move.

All I can say is that that ‘might’ be the whole point. If all communications were suddenly cut off and travel became difficult, how would you know what was going on or what to do? Most of us would wander around in fog unsure of which direction was the right one to go in because in reality there are no ‘right’ directions.

Five yawns….!

The Forgotten Few…

Most of the world is condemning Israel for bombing the fuck out of Gaza but no one seems to be mentioning the remaining Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas. It was Hamas that started this mess. It was the people of Gaza that let Hamas grow, even if only by inaction, and it is Hamas that can end it.

Personally…

I think that Israel should just keep going and not stop until all the hostages are released. Hamas started this bullshit. I am sure they knew what would happen so in my view, Hamas are responsible for all the deaths.

You might argue that the Palestinians are innocent but they put Hamas in power, they let Hamas build all those tunnels because don’t tell me they did not know it was happening and they let Hamas stockpile weapons.

And Hamas has said their aim is to destroy Israel. would you negotiate with someone that has sworn to destroy you?

Preply.com – A review

I have been looking for a German tutor from myself as we are going to Germany next year and I thought it’s be good to be able to speak at least a few words. Google kept throwing up this preply.com online tutor website so I th9ught I’d give it a try.

I am scheduled to have my first lesson tomorrow so this is NOT a review of the tutors but rather just a summary of my experience using this web site so far (it’s not great!).

Since I am in the USA on the East coast and the majority of the German tutors are naturally in Europe there’s a time difference. I’d like my lessons in the early evening which puts them into the early hours of the morning so not a great situation.

While it is possible to filter the tutor search by my desired lesson time, it’s very general on their side. If just one of their available slots hits my desired time they show up in the result list so while it does filter some tutors out, you still spend a good deal of time double checking their schedule. It’s no good doing a trial lesson at your desired time if you can never et another regular lesson at that time.

I just feel like the time slot filtering needs refining somewhat.

As I mentioned trial lessons, lets look at that mess.

I found a tutor I liked (from their intro video) so I bought a trial lesson. Lessons can be 25 or 50 minutes but the 25 minute ones are really just for trial lessons (I think). I figure, what the heck, lets do a full 50 minutes and get going on this so I selected and paid for that.

Unfortunately the tutor thought that was to much for a first lesson so she cancelled the lesson as said to re-book and this is where the cluster fuck starts with this web site.

Once you’ve booked a trial lesson with a tutor, you cannot do so again, even if you never actually took that lesson because it was cancelled. The ‘trial lesson’ option never appears again.

You can book a regular 50 minute lesson and then change the time to 25 minutes and the site lets you change the time but when you hit continue, it reject the selected time as invalid (make your mind up, either it’s valid or it’s not).

So I tried to find some contact information.

Crickets……

There is NO support contact info on the web site, just help pages.There are links to their social media pages so I hopped onto Facebook and messaged them about not being able to book the trial lesson now.

Just the way it works apparently!

‘Support’ even suggest that I just pay for a full lesson and only do half of it. How fucked up is that for a solution.

They ‘support’ person on the other end of the FB message exchange even asked my if I thought he should raise it as an issue with their technical people. Hello…… YES. Fuck, do I have to tell you how to do your job now as well.

So I and the tutor were now left with the situation where we either do a full lesson initially, not what they wants to do, I pay for a full lesson and only use half of it which screws me, or the tutor gives me a free trial lesson which is not ideal for them either.

In the end it annoyed me so much I just gave up trying to get a session with that tutor because any way we resolved it, it was just going to annoy the hell out of me.

So I eventually found another tutor, better availability I think as well so it works out better for me although he is more expensive. So I booked the lesson then thought I need to get a camera and microphone set up, not something I’ve ever needed on my desktop.

For now I have ended up using a really old (think running Windows SEVEN) micro laptop I had lying around doing nothing. I hope it works because there’s no ‘real’ way to test it before hand. Like, on zoom you can join a test meeting to test your video and audio. With this site you just have to rely on the fact that it says it will all work when you do a test entry to the classroom.

Seems very hoky to me. I am hoping it will work tomorrow. If not I will try to switch to the app on my phone but that is going to be far from ideal. Looks like I need to buy a web cam for my desktop PC.

I’ll let you know how the actual lesson goes tomorrow and if any of this technology stuff actually works.

Lewiston…

May as well throw my two cents worth into the trash pile with all the other comments around the country on the latest mass shooting.

And just to be clear, this is not to take anything away from those that were killed or injured. This is just an observation on the state of things.

There will be a wringing of hands.

Three will be tears and cries of anguish.

There will be candlelit vigils and prayers.

Mothers Against Guns and everything else will make cries for gun control.

The NRA will issue a statement, guns don’t kill, yada yada …

There will be a bi partisan (in itself a miracle) inquiry into the shooting.

The Pope will condemn the shooting.

The President will condemn the shooting.

The new speaker of the house will blame it on gay marriage or abortion or probably both.

There will be endless ‘analysis’ stories on TV and radio about how this happened.

There will be endless interviews on TV of the friend of the relative of someone in the family of one of the victims.

Someone will try to sue the gun manufacturer.

Questions will be asked about why the ‘system’ did not catch this before it happened (you know, that underfunded system that the GOP want’s to strip to nothing to keep taxes down).

Everyone will blame someone else.

And in the end…….

FUCK ALL WILL HAPPEN that really changes anything.

The dead will still be dead.

The families will still grieve.

And we will all move on to the next similar event.

Hedging ones bets…

The US is sending arms to Israel wile sending aid relief to Gaza.

This is not a comment on who is right or wrong in this fight over a bit of land that probably won’t even be there, or it will be but the people won’t be in a couple of thousand years, but rather just an observation of the absurdity of the US position.

It’s Movie Review Time…

I’ve been having a bit of a movie binge lately so here’s my quicky and probably totally worthless review of three movies. Warning – There may be spoilers.

Paradise

Another of those utopian future movies where a privileged, IE rich, few live long and great lives while the rest of us scrabble in the dirt to keep afloat. In this case our (IE the poor folk) can sell some of their lifespan to someone else. It can’t just be anyone though, there has to be some sort of genetic match that was never really explained and that limitation does direct the story to some extent.

Anyway, synopsis is: Woman sells 40 years of her life for money to buy a nice condo. Condo burns down, insurance will not cover it, Woman has to give up those 40 yeas and becomes old overnight.

Then, she and her (still young) boyfriend go off trying to figure out how to get her her 40 years back from the evil corporation and its woman CEO that put all this in place.

The movie starts of OK, slows down in the middle and just pretty much fizzles out at the end. Three yawns.

Reptile

Cop spends far too long figuring out that his cop buddies are corrupt. Is his wife in on it as well? I’ll let you watch it to find that out.

Too much use of well worn story device of the invisible ‘friend in the FBI or somewhere’ that can handily find stuff out without having to explain it.

This would probably make a good 50 minute TV crime show episode. As a movie, I give it four yawns.

Hypnotic

This is somewhere between The Matrix and rather long version of the “These are not the drones you are looking for” scene in Starwars.

It’s really just another one of those ‘What is real or is this a dream/illusion/the matrix/messed up reality’ movies.

Generally OK but the bit at the end where they show the ‘fake’ buildings that he we are supposed to believe he thought were real! Just too far fetched, even for me and I’m pretty good at suspending belief and giving a movie the benefit of the doubt.

The first half was pretty good, until you find out what is really going on. Then they do it all again but showing you ‘how it was done’ and it sort of works but not really.

I’ll let you watch it to find out if the good guys win or not.

Two Yawns.

Cuckoo…

According to this article by the BBC, Norwegian princess Martha Louise will marry her American partner, self-styled shaman Durek Verrett, next summer.

According to the article, and other sources a quick search reveals that these two are as nutty as a fruit cake. For example Mr Verrett apparently sells a medallion online that is ‘said’ to ward off Covid-19. Yeah, let’s not bother with all the research done by medical companies to develop a vaccine, just wear this medallion and you’ll be safe. Well, maybe if everyone around is inoculated then perhaps it might at least appear to work. He’s has also apparently suggested the childhood cancer is ‘a choice’. Well, obviously he didn’t get it because he chose not to. Hey, me too!, What’d you know, it’s true!

Meanwhile, the rest of the fruitcake (IE the princess) apparently started a school to help people ‘get in touch with their inner angels’ which is you know, ‘nice’ but really, this from a princess, albeit a non working one (just like Harry eh!, keep the title and all the advantages but do non of the work).

The king has welcomed the self-styled (that means he thinks he’s a shaman but no one else does) shaman into the royal family. This probably makes the King into the icing on the fruitcake.

The Norwegian people are like ‘What the f**k!’ or whatever the that is in Norwegian (probably the same!).

Just in case you’ve never heard of Norway here’s a little map to help:

For those of you in the USA that have no idea that anything exists outside of the USA except Mexico and Canada, Drive to the East coast then keep going until you hit Europe (or land, it doesn’t really matter) then go up a bit. Don’t do this in winter though because it’s bloody cold up there.

At least Sweden (next door) produced ABBA.

Winning a Scratch-off is NOT News

Here in sunny (and hot/humid) North Carolina we have the NC Lottery which, apart from allowing us to waste our money on the BIG lottery drawings also has a number of scratch off games.

Quite frequently I see a local headline that says something like “Man wins $100k on $10 scratch-off bought at local store”.

I have to wonder why anyone thinks this is news.

My reasoning?

The large prize winning tickets are out there. SOMEONE is going to buy one and win that prize. If it wasn’t the person that won it, it would be someone else that bought that same ticket. It’s one the roll of tickets. Eventually someone will buy it and win.

For them, it’s a big event.

For the rest of us, it’s like a pig finding truffles. They are out there, the pig is going to find them. It’s not a surprise.

Now excuse me, I need to go buy some scratch-off tickets. It’s the only way I’ll ever make it big on the news!

Hijack…

Spoiler alert if you’ve not seen the end…

We’ve been watching this as each episode came out and it’s been quite interesting although I had to say I found the original hijackers to be somewhat unbelievable as in “Let’s hijack a plane but we have no idea how to fly one or how it even works at a most basic level”, but let’s not let that spoil the overall series and as say, it was quite entertaining, certainly entertaining enough for us (my wife and I) to watch each episode on the day it came out.

But I have to say, the ending… Well, what a load of crap. Almost as if the writers got fed up or ran out of ideas and said “OK, let’s wrap this up sharpish, gotta be at the pub for seven!”.

Let me first say that I have flown light aircraft ‘as the pilot’ and while I don’t do so anymore I still know a good deal about how aircraft operate and fly, so maybe that spoiled it for me and perhaps someone with less knowledge would not have the same issues with the episode, but this is me so here we go.

As the aircraft approaches London, it was said that it was at fifteen HUNDRED feet. So, pretty LOW!

Next, the engines die as it runs out of fuel and it was mentioned, just in case anyone did not get the implication of the engines stopping, that the aircraft was now a glider!

So, remember. We are now a (really big, heavy) glider at 1500 feet!

Also in amongst all the radio chatter was the information that the aircraft was on a heading of 315 degrees.

Air traffic control then said that the nearest available airfield was (I think) six miles away, on a heading of (I think) 280 degrees, so off to the left. Think of your 10 o’clock position when facing forward.

Still with me.

So the (hijacking) pilot cranks it over to the left and it’s not a gentle left turn, she hammers it. Any pilot will tell you that when you turn like that, you drop like a brick because half your lift is now being used to turn you. Remember that we are at 1500 feet and there is no thrust because the engines have stopped.

That right there would have put that aircraft into the ground but it makes the turn (how!!) and now heads for the runway that is six miles away.

Now, in aviation circles, when we say miles we mean nautical miles although it does not make much difference in this case but it does make the math (sorry) easier. A nautical mile is just over 6000 feet, so lets make it 6000 feet. Assuming we made that turn without losing any height (impossible but this is TV) we are at 1500 feet. To get to the runway, we need a glide angle of one in twenty four (6000 feet times 6 (miles) divided by 1500 feet altitude) which is not a bad glide angle for a older glider. You know, the sort of thing they pull up behind aircraft or launch using a winch. But we are i a fucking big, heavy commercial jet with the undercarriage dangling down, for the last bit at least.

I am sorry, but there’s no way on god’s earth (or in the sky) that aircraft made it to the runway.

And then. as for the graphics of the ‘crash’. I understand they cannot crash a real aircraft and it’s all CGI but I’m sorry, I’ve seen better graphics on cheap video games. It looked like something taken from a very old version of Microsoft flight simulator.

And after all that when everyone is safe (bit of an anti climax really) we have to have the bit where the lead hijacker decides he’s going to kill our hero (Idris) after all by chasing him around the freshly evacuated and now empty, aircraft cabin. Wat the f**k was that all about. It just seemed like the crash and rescue of the passengers was such a let down that the writers felt they needed another even just to “give us our money’s worth”.

And with that they all went down the pub for a beer!

Some final thoughts.

The scene where the police rescued Idris’ TV son from the ‘cleaners’ in his apartment was so naff and unbelievable, it really just confirmed my belief that the writers had gotten bored with the entire thing.

The schedule did say “Season Finale”. Does that mean there will be another season (and another hijacking)? Also, one of the bad guys did appear to get away after shooting his partner, who is now rich but dead, in the head. So maybe there’s a bit of a story there. Who knows. Not sure I really care at this point although I am sure if another season comes out, I’ll watch it.