Aboriginal Entitlement.

As if feminists weren't bad enough, even they have much to learn from some other primitives in Hillary's Village.

The talk over the past session since opening time has been a constant whinge about Aboriginal matters. It has covered ground from old comic songs to spear fights in the street, and I scratched my old grey head wondering where it was all coming from.  

It was the terrible twins, Bolt and Blair, and then along comes the Prof, JJ.  He pointed out some salient matters.

Aboriginal ethics (said JJ ) are a form of Communism.  They really do practice, "From each according to his ability and to each according to his need". A windfall for one Aborigine does not stay with him alone.  It must be shared with others of his tribe. 

And a windfall received today is used up today.  There is no sense of saving for the future.  And those ideas are totally contrary to mainstream Western ideas.  Why?

There is mention of it below but in summary, it all goes back to tribal life. Those ethics were logical and served Aborigines well in a tribal state -- when a windfall consisted of catching a large and tasty animal.  You shared your  catch with the rest of the tribe in the assurance that others in the tribe would share their catch with you next time. And in the absence of refrigeration, nothing could be saved for tomorrow so it all had to be used up straight away. 

Unfortunately for the do-gooders, the tribal life is quite recent in the Aboriginal experience so they still have the old ethics and attitudes.  So what is described below as profligacy and corruption is in fact by Aboriginal standards right, ethical and proper.  

Giving Aborigines stuff always ends up the same way. It all tends to be glossed over now but the first big example of giving stuff to Aborigines was probably the Lake Tyers experiment in Victoria.  In 1970 a large rural property was handed over to the Aborigines living there in the hope that they would run it as a going concern and become largely self-supporting.  They promptly ran it into the ground and put their hands out for welfare.  They have been wailing ever since about how the white man doesn't treat them right.   

And there have been other handovers of rural properties with similar results. Will anybody ever learn anything from such episodes?  Not when policy is formed by urban whites who know nothing about Aborigines

So why is readily available anthropological knowledge about Aborigines ignored?   

It is ignored because of the Leftist "All men are equal" gospel.  That Aborigines are different cannot be allowed. 

  Aborigines must be seen as "just like us only browner".   

To say otherwise is to be branded a racist.   

So what is on trial in Darwin at the moment is Leftism:  The stupid gospel that Aborigines are the same as us. It is that gospel that has led to the great waste described. 

 Aboriginal and Western ethics collide

What happened to $34 million from Aboriginal fund on Groote Eylandt?  It was millions of dollars in mining royalties that was meant to be spent for the benefit of the Groote Eylandt community.

 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-04/groote-eylandt-trust-fund-what-happened/6905600

Instead, tens of millions were spent on 156 cars and boats, fridges, a barge, gambling at the casino and charter flights.

The latest chapter in the extraordinary saga played out in the Darwin Supreme Court on Monday.

The former public officer of Groote Eylandt Aboriginal Trust (GEAT), Rosalie Lalara, had earlier pleaded guilty to misappropriating almost $500,000. Her bail was revoked and she is now behind bars awaiting sentencing.

If you don't know where Darwin is, there's no helping you.

A total of $34 million disappeared from the GEAT coffers between 2010 and 2012, leaving just $400,000 remaining in the account.

While Lalara has pleaded guilty to a fraction of the missing millions, exactly what happened to the rest remains a mystery.

But those involved in the case said little of it appeared to have been spent on housing, education or the needs of the community.

Jacqueline Lahne was brought in as the interim operations manager at GEAT when the trust was put into administration in 2012.

"My initial impression was that there was a group of people [on Groote Eylandt] who were literally living like rock stars," she said in an interview with the ABC.

"Chartered planes, vehicles waiting for them at airports, they owned multiple vehicles and boats themselves. They had access endlessly to cash for their lifestyles and then for their families."

Groote Eylandt, a remote island off Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, regularly appears at the top of the Northern Territory's richest postcodes. 

It earns millions each year in royalties from the nearby South32 manganese mine.

Since its inception in the early 1960s, the trust has earned more than $200 million in royalties.

Lalara told the ABC she is not responsible for all the money that went missing.  "They accuse me of being a thief and I don't steal," Lalara said in an interview with the ABC.

Lalara was the community's go-to person on the trust and said not everyone was happy with the trust's rules on how royalty money should be spent.

"They say, 'Oh, it's our money, you should spend this money on us. Why you keeping the money, what for? It shouldn't be up there in the bank, it should be down here spent'," she said.

Court documents in a separate case allege Lalara was involved in the purchase of 156 cars and boats at a total cost of $5 million.

A barge and real estate in Cairns were also bought with trust money.

The documents alleged cash cheques to a total value of $3.5 million were written from the trust account and fraudulently recorded against funeral costs.

Millions remain unaccounted for due to poor record keeping

In court documents in civil proceedings against Darwin's Skycity casino, it is alleged Lalara gambled more than $1 million of trust money.

"If I had a million dollars would I be gambling it? No, thank you. That is all bad," she said. "We went and bought a whole heap of stuff ... maybe fridges, washing machines, even air conditioners, yeah, beddings, beds, mattresses, yep."

But what exactly has happened to the remaining $33 million is unclear.

Ms Lahne said that many millions remain unaccounted for because GEAT kept poor records. She believes non-Indigenous businesses who preyed on the trust received a large percentage of the missing millions.

"I guess we'd call them carpetbaggers wouldn't we?" she said.  "They're people, or sharks, that prey on vulnerable populations.

"They find that organisations are limited in their governance structures and capacity, they work their way in there."

Court documents alleged one operator who did business with the trust regularly charged 30 per cent commission to the trust.

"Vehicles that had been purchased by the trust weeks before for perhaps $35,000, were sold on for $5,000 or $10,000 in cash," Ms Lahne said.

"So the trust automatically lost a portion of cash and the vehicle disappeared, plates were destroyed, it's gone."

Purchase of cars for teens triggered 'distrust'

Not all of the community were benefiting from the largesse. It was the purchase of cars for kids barely in their teens that caused the community outrage and made them act.

"Thirteen-year-old girls getting bought a car and 15-year-old boys getting a boat," said Keith Hansen, who has lived on the island for 25 years. "That's when the distrust really came into place, when they were buying for a birthday for a 13-year-old girl a flash Ford Falcon sedan."

Groote Eylandters told the ABC that 300 locals confronted Lalara about the trust's finances on the oval in the town of Anuragu in early 2012.  Punches were thrown, the police were called and there were multiple arrests.

On March 12, 2012 more than 500 locals signed a petition which was sent to the Northern Territory Attorney-General, saying "many millions of dollars have been wasted and corruption is rife ... no-one is game to do anything for fear of retribution".

The Government stepped in and a statutory manager was appointed. Ms Lahne worked alongside the statutory manager and said she was "shocked" when she arrived on Groote Eylandt.

"I would have expected with all the years of royalties going into that island to see more supporting infrastructure, better local health services, better support agencies that the trust might be investing in but there was no evidence of that," she said.

But Lalara said she was put under great cultural pressure by beneficiaries to keep buying things for them with money from the trust. 

"I reckon I was stuck with the two worlds. White-man world, white-man way and blackfella way. And what I was trying to do was to do it our way, and it's not written in the book," she said.

Not that she is 'racist' for saying that of course.  

"We try to balance the both sides so it doesn't how you say ... ruin things. But it obviously ruined [things]."

Lalara is angry that the community has not defended her since charges were laid against her in 2013. "The community is the fault and I say they are gutless and they are coward and it's their fault all this happened," she said.

"Now everybody's ... happy sitting behind their cars and steering wheels and that they don't even want to help [me]."

Groote is a long way from Tasmania and our Aboriginies were all wiped out a couple of centuries ago by the racist white fellas.  That's why we never hear of corruption and  misappropriations of aboriginal benefit monies here.  Hah ! That or the ABC keeping quiet about it. That's what all the Aboriginies here say, anyway, although I have no idea how they came back from the total and utter genocide they suffered.

They all vote labour of course.

Drink up.

Pax

Relax away your Tensions

We try to offer a variety of experience in the Tavern.  

After the ABC fiaso earlier and the resultant choking and spluttering, we thought to try some relaxation techniques.

I am not sure it is going to work, but hey, we cater for all sorts as long as they don't soil the carpets.

Ve heff vays......

Peace, tranquility.

The Reliable ABC

If only one could laugh. 

The whole Tavern groaned at the ABC this weekend.

So let me get this straight. (said Tim)

Having a picture of a critic of the ABC having sex with a dog on national TV is ok?

Having a convicted felon, woman hating Muslim on national TV is ok?

A harmless song that offends one person is bad?

Your ABC folks. What a joke!

 http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/now_it_will_never_come_back/

A goofy old novelty song is forever banished by the ABC: 

Complaint: A 936 ABC Hobart listener complained that an offensive song was played on the Weekends program.

Complaint Finding Status: Upheld.

Audience and Consumer Affairs response: The broadcast of the song ‘My Boomerang Won’t Come Back’was not in keeping with the ABC’s editorial standards for harm and offence; there was no editorial justification for playing it. The song was not on a regular ABC playlist but was aired because it was requested by a listener. This error was due to staff not being familiar with the track’s lyrics. The ABC apologised to the complainant,removed the track completely from the system and took steps to ensure that this would not happen again. 

Curiously, in recent years only the ABC has bothered to even reference Charlie Drake’s elderly tune (although Andrew Denton mistakenly thought it was performed by Rolf Harris). This may be the first George Martin-produced track to be banned by the ABC following one complaint from a solitary Tasmanian.

The song was by a comedian 56 years ago.

Alan spluttered into his ale and said:

How about Phillips Adams’s theme song: 

“Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. 

A song poking fun at Christ’s crucifixion. 

I’M OFFENDED! 

BAN IT IMMEDIATELY. 

Take Phillip Adams off the air for so offending so many people over such a long period!

Now there's a thought.

Meanwhile, something else that does come back with fierce regularity.....

Tribal trouble

A NERVOUS peace hangs over Angurugu today as senior community people meet in an effort to prevent a repeat of yesterday’s violence that left two men — aged 19 and 29 — dead and more injured…

Commander Tony Fuller said the spear fight of 50 to 60 residents of Angurugu began as a family feud…

“Police attempted to disperse the crowd but were forced to retreat due to the overwhelming number of armed persons who had gathered on each end of the street brandishing spears at each other,” Commander Fuller said…

Groote Eylandt has a troubled history of intra-clan violence and while yesterday’s deaths were sparked by new sequence of events, feuds go back generations. 

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/tribal_trouble/

We didn't see that on the ABC in Tasmania.

Hey, blackfellas, its Oz and the 21st century. Write a friggin' song.

I suppose it makes a change from Muslims.

The mind boggles. 


Pax, dammit !! 

If Looks could Kill.......

Islamists to the right of us and Commies to the left, and here we are stuck in the middle, a target for both. That neither like one another is frankly neither here nor there. Our best strategy is to see both for what they are and avoid them like the plague.

And, perhaps have a bit of chocolate. 

Everyone likes chocolate.... but more of that later.

The warriors amongst us may need to confront both plagues. I have personally faced off against the commies  in recent decades and who knows when my aging bones may have to wield a sword again against the Islamists as in days long past.

But many in our world are determined to deliberately not see the dangers and even laud some aspects of both awful social systems, ideologies and creeds.  Do not be fooled.

In the west we have suffered from fools disguised as wise men. We continually elect such fools even when we can see their stupidity staring at us. Hope and Change eh?  Looks can Kill but refusal to look and see the bus about to run you over has the same result.

When all we get is decline and filth, lies and manipulation, things quickly become dark and dirty. 

Like Sump Oil.

Looked at in some sunlight and we can be fooled by the rainbow colours of 'Hope and Change', 'environmental care', 'compassion for refugees' etc. Much of modern life is not a 'Forrest Gump' box of Chocolates.

His Mum is no sage - just look what she produced.

It is still old sump oil.

So, we 'see' that President Putin has quickly become the great Western hope when it comes to Islamist wickedness. Obama, the western leader by default, and the rest of the hangers-on such as Merkel and Cameron have failed miserably in confronting Islam.  Each in his/her way has welcomed chaos and mayhem into our cultured homes. One might as well have sent Boudicca's washerwomen to do the job.  And along comes Putin to muscle in and everyone and his dog cheers.

Hello!  Putin is no Eiesenhower. He is a KGB Colonel to his bones.  No friend.

And even my Catholic brothers can be fooled into thinking that Russia is Christian. It ain't.

You would think that in our scientific age we just might be able to discern the sump oil from wholesome Olive oil. But even science has turned to sludge and is subject to manipulation and decline.

Customers in the Tavern were taking a look at Russia and at Science today. Neither are our saviours.

'Slick Willy' Clinton ain't got nothin'

Marko Dumančić is and assistant professor of Cold War, Modern Russia and Eastern Europe studies at Western Kentucky University, and he had a few observations about 'post-communist' Russia. Frankly he confirmed by rhuemy-eyes view that it is a mafia state now.

Russia's Conservative 'Family Values' Are a Sham.

Western observers should be careful not to play into Putin's hands by rehashing the tired propagandistic image of Russia as the protector of global family values — whatever these might imply.

If the recent coverage of Russia is anything to go by, the country appears not only to be stuck in the past but actually sprinting backwards. So seemingly regressive is contemporary Russia that, among Russian liberal intellectuals and Western commentators, even medieval comparisons do not seem too far-fetched.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/506555.html 

"Russia is like a block of ice floating back into the 16th century," asserted controversial Russian novelist Vladimir Sorokin in a BBC interview. 

14C or 16C. Be careful what you think 'Improvement' means.

Sorokin went on to compare President Vladimir Putin to Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who summarily and arbitrarily murdered hundreds of thousands of his compatriots when he unleashed a bloody reign of terror in the second half of the 1500s.

Sorokin argued: "Again we are living under a centralized government, like in the time of Ivan the Terrible. This power vertical, which Putin keeps talking about, is a completely medieval model for Russia. There is no accountability, no transparency."

The Putin-supported revival of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose ceremonies and doctrine have changed little since the Middle Ages, seems to confirm that Russian culture is actively turning away from modern liberal values.

It even appears that the Kremlin has warmly embraced its medieval past, particularly when it comes to matters of gender and sexuality.

In his most recent presidential address to the federal assembly, Putin noted that the world supports Russia's "defense of traditional values" against the "so-called tolerance" that he accused of being "genderless and infertile." 

'Traditional' ain't what you think it means. It refers to the traditions of the Steppes, where ripping off your neighbour and stealing his wife is an age old custom. 

LOOK carefully.

And Russian officials, clearly seeing which way the wind is blowing, have begun propagating dubious views with such frequency that Western media outlets have a hard time keeping up.

News of the radically feminist Pussy Riot members being — literally — whipped by Cossack police during the Sochi Winter Games appalled Western media but did not surprise Russia watchers. 

After all, only 14 percent of Duma representatives are female, domestic violence is rarely reported and/or prosecuted, and women continue to face alarming rates of workplace discrimination.

This is the dark and violent side of Putin's casual sexism. The Russian state is bent on actively propagating a pro-family, pronatalist policy; any complaint or lawsuits that distorts the image of the nationwide domestic bliss is discouraged or silenced.

Recent surveys of Russians superficially support the notion that official declamations about moral conservatism constitute an expression of the popular will. 

For instance, an IPSOS MORI Global Trends Survey in June that polled 500 Russians found that 79 percent of men and 67 percent of women believe the woman's role in society lies in her domestic responsibilities toward her husband and children.

Similarly, a 2013 Pew poll concluded that about two-thirds of Russians consider homosexuality and extramarital affairs to be morally reprehensible. 

Russia's VTsIOM pollster conducted a survey in March 2012, the results of which showed that 93 percent of Russians consider their primary goal to be to start a family and raise children.

Almost anything looks good compared to Obama's profile.

But despite Russians' earnest declamations, the strict maintenance of traditional values is more propaganda than sociological reality. Far from living out a monastic, medieval, and sexless utopia, Russians are, in some senses, less family-oriented than Western Europeans.

For instance, Russia has the highest divorce rate in the world — hardly a qualification for a nation that proclaims itself as the defender of traditional values. 

All the more ironic is the fact that one of the chief factors for divorce are extramarital affairs — the very same practice that Russians reject as only slightly less reprehensible than homosexuality.

Russia's abortion rate also remains one of highest in the world — partly because contraception remains expensive or unavailable and partly because families are not necessarily women's top priority.

The level of irony is equally evident in Russia's condemnation of homosexuality. Russia's public space is no stranger to cross-dressing, drag, and unorthodox gender-bending. 

However vocally Russians denounce homosexuality, anyone familiar with Russia's entertainment scene can promptly enumerate many celebrity figures that purposefully cultivate sexually ambiguous identities and have even become famous because of it.

Although it would be foolhardy to refute the fact that Russians do, in fact, believe themselves to be virtuous, I do have to point out that Russia remains — as per Churchill's assessment — a country of paradoxes.

I do not doubt that Russians would like to cultivate ideal families and embody normative sexual identities, much like Victorians and Puritans wished to remain above their carnal desires. 

Reality, however, bears little similarity to the ideal. Even as they publicly embrace Putin's support for traditional values, Russians' actions betray their true inclinations.

Western observers should be careful not to play into Putin's hands by rehashing the tired propagandistic image of Russia as the protector of global family values — whatever these might imply. 

Should commentators believe Putin's wishful thinking over the inconvenient facts about Russians' actual practices, they will only be doing Russia's bare-chested strongman a favor.

Yes, we must look at the evidence rather than simply who says what we want to hear. That is what Scientists (used to ) say. But even that once-reliable 'art' is fast becoming rainbow coloured like an oil slick.

William Reville is an emeritus professor of biochemistry at UCC and he was telling the crowd in the Irish room between sob-songs. 

Something has gone very wrong with science

The modern world depends on science, but as much as half of the literature may not be fit for purpose

Chief concerns with the way scientists do research include inadequate understanding of statistics, publishing studies that can’t be reproduced because they used shoddy procedures or didn’t have enough data, or because they ‘spun’ the data to please sponsors

 http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/william-reville-something-has-gone-very-wrong-with-science-1.2245846

The1960 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine, Peter Medawar, famously remarked in 1983: “In terms of fulfilment of declared intentions, science is incomparably the most successful enterprise that human beings have ever engaged upon.”

Compare Medawar’s sentiment with the 2009 statement made by Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and quoted in PLOS Medicinein October 2010: “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.”

In 1983, looking back on the history of science since the 17th century, we could all justifiably salute Medawar’s sentiment, but today we must face up to the fact that in recent times something has gone fundamentally wrong with science, perhaps our greatest human creation. On April 1st and 2nd, a UK meeting was organised by the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Medical Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Wellcome Trust to discuss this problem, specifically as it applies in biomedical research.

The Chatham House rule was applied at this meeting; that is, participants are free to use the information they receive but neither the identity nor affiliation of any speaker nor any other participant must be revealed.

Ask yourself, from where do YOU get 'science' news?

Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the Lancet, attended the meeting and wrote a memorable account in the journal (April 11th), illustrated by the following quote: “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, 

science has taken a turn towards darkness. 

As one participant put it, ‘poor methods get results’ . . .

“The apparent endemicity of bad research behaviour is alarming. In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Or they retrofit hypotheses to fit their data. 

Journal editors deserve their fair share of criticism too. We aid and abet the worst behaviours. Our acquiescence to the impact factor fuels an unhealthy competition to win a place in a select few journals. Our love of ‘significance’ pollutes the literature with many a statistical fairy-tale. 

We reject important confirmations. Journals are not the only miscreants. Universities are in a perpetual struggle for money and talent, endpoints that foster reductive metrics, such as high-impact publication . . . and individual scientists, including their most senior leaders, do little to alter a research culture that occasionally veers close to misconduct.”

Science is supposed to Illuminate, not lead you to a dark place.

Shoddy procedures. John Ioannidis, director of the Meta-Research Innovation Centre at Stanford, is a respected critic of science. His chief concerns with the way scientists do research include their inadequate understanding of statistics, publishing studies that can’t be reproduced because they used shoddy procedures or didn’t have enough data, or because they “spun” the data to please sponsors. University scientists are compelled to publish prolifically, which favours quantity over quality, and the pre-publication peer-review system is no longer fit for purpose.

Much of this could be tackled effectively by improving the training of scientists. Young scientists receive little formal training in how to carry out reliable research. You spend undergraduate years studying the established body of knowledge in your subject and you learn how to research only later, during your PhD project, when you are apprenticed to an established scientist. 

But this latter learning is an informal, hit-and-miss affair, largely absorbed by osmosis. All science students should have to undertake rigorous coursework on how to carry out effective scientific research.

Neither is there any formal code of ethics in science. 

Ethics should be taught at undergraduate and graduate levels and a code of ethics should be assented to by graduates at all graduation ceremonies.

We can no longer doubt that a crisis looms in science. The modern world is utterly dependent on science, so this crisis must be resolved. That great cathedral of scientific progress, the peer-reviewed scientific literature, is beginning to crumble. We either restore the cathedral or we will soon stand in its rubble.

In all aspects of modern life we must open our eyes. 

There are fools, charlatans, clever buggers and crooks galore who can lead you right into the oil slicks, and worse.

Into the Tar Pits.

Drink up and look deep into your tankards. 

Ah yes, and have a bit of Chocolate. 

Everyone likes Chocolate, as I said. We eat masses of it. And it makes us 'feel' good. 

Some can be very easily convinced that it is the answer to life, the Universe and Everything. (We all know that is really '42') 

But science can convince us ...... John Bohannon knows !

I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.

“Slim by Chocolate!” the headlines blared. A team of German researchers had found that people on a low-carb diet lost weight 10 percent faster if they ate a chocolate bar every day. 

It made the front page of Bild, Europe’s largest daily newspaper, just beneath their update about the Germanwings crash. 

From there, it ricocheted around the internet and beyond, making news in more than 20 countries and half a dozen languages. It was discussed on television news shows. It appeared in glossy print, most recently in the June issue ofShape magazine (“Why You Must Eat Chocolate Daily,” page 128). 

Not only does chocolate accelerate weight loss, the study found, but it leads to healthier cholesterol levels and overall increased well-being. The Bild story quotes the study’s lead author, Johannes Bohannon, Ph.D., research director of the Institute of Diet and Health: “The best part is you can buy chocolate everywhere.”

I am Johannes Bohannon, Ph.D. Well, actually my name is John, and I’m a journalist. I do have a Ph.D., but it’s in the molecular biology of bacteria, not humans. The Institute of Diet and Health? That’s nothing more than a website.

Other than those fibs, the study was 100 percent authentic. My colleagues and I recruited actual human subjects in Germany. We ran an actual clinical trial, with subjects randomly assigned to different diet regimes. And the statistically significant benefits of chocolate that we reported are based on the actual data. It was, in fact, a fairly typical study for the field of diet research. Which is to say: It was terrible science. The results are meaningless, and the health claims that the media blasted out to millions of people around the world are utterly unfounded.

Here’s how we did it.

Now, I could let his explain the ins and outs but you can find out that for yourself by going here....

http://io9.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800

Let me fill your glass while you go and take a look. 

It won't kill you.


Pax

One Last Roll

So an Era comes to an end. A grand old Lady pops her last Drogue chute, deploys those great slats one last time and rolls gently to the end of the runway.

But not before encore rollers, touch and go's, roaring climbouts and acrobatic turns.

The Vulcan  XH558 has made its last, final flight. And she will be missed by millions.

No more the 'Howl' past the Tavern patio.  No more the Roar overhead the UK Room.  No more the almost silent whispering high pitch near-whine as it slides past at 500 knots over the many roofs and rooms, turrets and gables.

I am sure I shall be back here again and again adding tribute.

And era ends.

Gentlemen and Ladies, raise your glasses and tankards.



Pax.

Encore: Terrific Sky 

More, Sir, More: 

What comes next?  The 'Team' tells us: 

The team that put Vulcan XH558 back into the skies and operated her successfully within one of the world's most demanding safety regimes is now available to help other heritage aviation projects happen. As one of the four pillars of the ETNA Programme we are building, the Heritage Aviation Restoration & Operation activity will pull together those skills that have allowed us to deliver the world's most challenging return-to-flight programme; so that we can help others achieve their historic aviation goals.

It's hard to believe, but the efforts to bring XH558 back to flight started over 18 years ago. Since that time, a huge amount of knowledge and experience across a wide range of disciplines has been gained, from the programme management and technical skills required to work on older aircraft, to the quality and safety systems necessary to ensure minimal risk, to the fund-raising models necessary to bring in the sizable financial resources required to successfully deliver an aeroplane to the air show circuit year-on-year.
XH558's new home will be a catalyst for other aviation and engineering related activities. (Artist's impression)

We are already embarking on a consultation process with other aircraft owners and restoration projects and the response has been enthusiastic; we hope to be able to make announcements in coming months on some important projects. It's worth making the point that we are not aiming to take over activities. We can lead, manage, restore, operate or simply advise. And of course, we may be tempted by a new project ourselves, if the right opportunity arises.
With the final flight behind us and XH558 safely in her hangar, we are picking up speed with our plans for inspiring, entertaining and educating new generations of engineers and aviators.

Let's have another......

The Grim Reaper and the Darkness

Halloween barely affects the Tavern. We don't get 'trick or treat' shennanigans here, very likely because the Bouncer is a scary fellow, especially when I hang a torch beneath his chin. But it is that time of year when Christian folk pay lip service to the departed and the less christian play games about ghosts and demons.

And Mrs Bouncer is even scarier !

My friend James had a few words to say about both All Hallows night and the more sober All Souls Day that followed.

You can catch up with his views just below before we turn to one of my favourite customers. James lookes at the Christian aspects and denominational disagreements and in amongst his musings says...

........That dispute is no reason not to put in a prayer for the departed – why not?  There’s a sort of oneness and closure in it, a recognition of past as well as present and future.  I feel a seamlessness with past, present and future, which those who respect nothing and regard anything people venerate as superstition – they do not have. I do not wish to be living in a vacuum like that.

Where I step off is the ghoulish whitening of faces and morbid preoccupation with the dead, the black pointy hats and all that. There is such a thing as perspective.

 http://www.nourishingobscurity.com/2015/11/all-souls-day-4/

But of course the popular pastime is less in prayer than in story-telling, and it is to this we turn now.

Nobody came in to give her opinion.

The Drummer lady, that is, was in to tell of her experiences with the ghosly otherworld. You may (or might not) know that the 'Drummer' part of Tavern's name is Joyanna Adams. 'Twas she who drummed up support for me when I ran against Obama the first time around. Had it not been for McCain splitting the vote, I could have been the President and a lot of troubles could have been avoided. As it was, some 47 solid American folk wrote my name in on their voting thingos. 

I will add that none of those who voted for me rose from their graves like Democrats and none were brain-dead either. 

She did well.

So, I shall let her do well again with this personal tale. I turned off the new-fangled electric  lights in the bar and all gathered around in the candle-light.

The Mystery of Death, OR Calling Mr. Feynman

Once upon a time, back when I knew my parents couldn’t afford to send me to college, and prostitution seemed a rather repulsive way to make a living, I taught myself the drums, bought a huge PA system, auditioned some musicians, and we went on the road.

I named my little five piece band “Coconuts” after the Marx Brothers movie, even though the guys in the band didn’t really like it, what were they going to do about it? I owned the van, the equipment, and booked the jobs.

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There was a very serious guitar player named Rich, a very serious bass player named Rick, a very serious keyboard player named Kelly, and a not so- serious black guy named Charlie, who was our lead singer. More about them later.

Back then in the 1970’s…you could actually make a living as a band on the road. People went out a lot to hear bands. Hard to believe it now, but they did. We were booked to play nightly, at I think it this story took place in a Holiday Inn, in Marion, IL..which was about a 2 hour drive from St. Louis. It was right off a main highway…and I remember bits and pieces of the time. I do remember being on a M&M diet. Really. It works when your about 22. Every diet works at 22.  

Now, being as I was the “leader” so to speak, I felt pretty much like a den mother to four bear cubs.  I had my own room of course, being the girl, and the guys each shared a room together. But one night, Charlie started BEGGING me to let Rick (the bass player)  stay in MY room because, you see hisgirlfriend, who I was told was really “HOT” was driving down from St. Louis and Charlie was DESPERATE to be with her…alone. In the hotel room.  Being as I wasn’t dating anyone in the band, it seemed ridiculous to me, (not being a guy) I wasn’t too excited about this arrangement, but being as it was the 1970’s, and who was going to talk anyway?

Rick was tall, and lanky guy. He had that Rick Springfield sort of look— dark hair, and a habit of smoking every time he could get a chance, so his left lip had a permanent snarl.  He was very quiet, and so, with not much to say, he went and laid down on the couch in my room…and then said, “I’m feeling really sick.”

Great. I felt his head, and he WAS burning up. So, to hurry up the story, I spent until about 2 o’clock in the morning (It was our night off) running to the bathroom, and wetting down wash cloths to keep him cool. I finally went to sleep, and when I woke up, Rick was stillsweating and looked pretty bad.

“Well, let me order you some breakfast, maybe after you eat you’ll feel better.”

So, I ordered him some room service: Bacon and eggs, toast and pancakes.

It seemed to take forever, and I remember looking out the window to the parking lot. “Where the heck was it?” I thought. It was at least 95 degrees out, mid-July….one of the hottest days I can ever remember.

And then, the knock came…the food was here. But so was…something else. Something I’ve never seen, or felt, or experience ever again in my entire life.

A young, good-looking blond boy walked in. He had a little red waiters coat on, pretty cute. I was struck by his handsomeness. I wanted to talk to him…to get him to at least notice me. In fact, I felt a strong urge to talk to him…to get HIM to talk. He came in and walked over to a table that was near the window…and I asked him, “How are you today,”

He said nothing. 

And then, that’s when the whole room, which was being bathed by hot July Sunlight, turned to complete darkness.

Yes. Dark. Like pitch black. Like HEY! Somebody turn on the lights! Dark. Scary Dark. Lost in the forest without a clue dark. 

Blacker than black dark.

It’s up in the corner and if that darkness comes down on you it will swallow you alive and YOU’RE DEAD! Dark.

As I tried to see the corner of the room, I couldn’t, but I felt a presence that was older than mankind, older than the universe, and it put absolute fear into my soul.  And it was up near the ceiling and staring down at me and so I kept trying to talk to this young boy, trying to ‘see’ this evil darkness coming out of everywhere…and trying to talk to him…it was a nightmare.

That young man would not talk. He looked..I don’t know how he looked, I’ve never seen a person look like he did. I tried to give him a tip, but he wouldn’t take it. I tried several times…but he just walked very slowly into the room, stopped and stared at the floor for a few moments, and then slowly turned and walked out.

Rick, was sleeping…but I HAD to sit down. I wondered if I was having a stroke, or a brain hemorrhage, I had no idea what had cause that scary, fearful, and POWERFUL ‘thing” that walked into that room with that young boy, but what I did know, is I wanted it to go away.  It was…evil itself.

Remember that, I was not into any supernatural stuff at that time. My main concern during the days and night were just living.

Being the practical person that I am, I woke Rick up and made him eat.

After the boy left, the room went back to normal…but slowly, But…even though the room was normal, my mind it seemed had the heaviest weight on it…as if that black dark matter had infiltrated it’s every crease. I couldn’t get it out. I was depressed, as if the whole world had been swallowed up before my very eyes.

Rick got worse.

“Come on, let’s get you to the hospital.” It took me awhile because he didn’t have the money, so I paid for it…(I wasn’t rich either) I told him he could pay me back someday.

Marion at the time was a small farming town, and the hospital was tiny. We were the only ones in the emergency room, so I couldn’t figure out what was taking so long. Rick was miserable, it was hot, and I was pretty worried about him. Back then, if one member of the band gets sick, everyone loses their pay checks. I have been in many a band where member play sick so that the other members can get paid.

I once played with pneumonia, and 103 fever. In another band that I had, the saxophone player one night got beat up and robbed on his way to the job, and yet he played all night, with a broken jaw.

But…I’m getting off my story.

So, anyway, there we were, losing patient when I heard the most horrifying scream I’ve ever heard.

It was coming from upstairs.. …it was a woman’s voice …

“OH NOOOOOOOOONOOOOONOOOOOONOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

The woman was beyond hysterics…you could hear her screaming all over the hospitals and I’ve never EVER hear that sound since.

The only other sound that has ever scared me to the bone so much was a hungry lion’s roar. You know, one that is about two feet away from you?

Two men came running around the corner and up the stairs and for just a moment I saw an older woman who was fighting them both..and wailing and crying…and a nurse came down the steps and I asked her.

“What happened?”

“They just bought her son in..he died instantly on the highway, his car was hit by a big hauler truck. That’s his mother, we can’t control her. We need to get some more men up there.”

I don’t think I’ve ever felt such sorrow for another human being as I did at that moment.

What a day this is turning out to be I thought to myself.

Rick finally got into so see someone who gave him some pills, and he still wasn’t talking much. But the morning of strangeness still wasn’t over. As we pulled back into the hotel,  it looked like a scene right out of the twilight zone.

The staff…the waiters, the bus boys, the cooks, the maids, they were running all over the parking lot randomly as if trying to find an exist. Talking excitedly, “Did you hear?” “Jimmy!” “Did you hear!”

I rolled down my window “Hey…what’ going on?” I asked a cocktail waitress that I knew.

“Jimmy was just killed in an accident on the highway…they can’t even find his body it was so bad…OMG, everybody loved Jimmy!”

“Who’s Jimmy?” I asked.

Jimmy worked  in the kitchen.

“Was he working this morning…tall blond kid, about 19?” I asked.

“Yes” She said, “Somebody ordered room service this morning and he left right after that to go home. They said it was a big Semi, he was going really fast.”

It was then that I put it all together. That horrible evil entity in my room, the darkness that followed Jimmy into that room, was death, or destiny, or evil, or dark matter, whatever it was, I just happened to get a very small glimpse into its power.

Did Jimmy KNOW he was going to die? If so, this means that the future might very well be set..and what does that say about physics?

He walked into that room, like he was walking the green mile.

Anyway, that was the story I was going to tell on Coast to Coast. Odds are, I will never tell it. How do you make something scary like a “darkness?” In a movie you could do it, but not just talking.

It would sound like a K-mart shopper special coming from my voice. “We have a special scare today! Dark evil matter…served with a side of bacon!”

And that’s what’s great about Coast to Coast on Halloween…people call in with stories that are almost impossible to understand, but there is no doubt that they happened.

Synchronicity, people being talked to by dead loved ones, receiving signs–this stuff happens all time, and yet, there must be an explanation, right?

What happened to that band? Rick never did get better…he went home soon after that with a bad case of MONO, so that ended that band. Rich went to law school and became a successful lawyer, but still plays a solo act guitar around town on weekends. Charlie is STILL singing, and I heard Paul McCartney gave him a big tip one night. Kelly? Who knows? He was a hell of a piano player. The only white guy I knew who could wear an Afro and look normal in it.  I’m sure he still plays.  But when I think back on that band, it’s that one night that I remember. ..that night I saw death follow a young man, and snatch him and then smash him like a bug…

If ONLY he would have talked to me. If only.

Next Halloween, I’ll tell you about my wedding night at Lemp’s Mansion.  Who holds their wedding night in a haunted mansion?

Yeah. I wouldn’t advise it.

 Beers all round. Hahahah

Joyanna is the best Nobody I know. She decribes herself thus: 

I am a nobody. If the different classes of America were color-coded, I would be in the yucky brown, one rung up from the bottom. I grew up in Naples, Florida and live near the Mississippi River now with my husband and two dogs. I am part of the slowly disappearing middle-class. I was a musician most of my life: drummer/singer/keyboards—but I retired before the plastic surgery flu hit. I have no degrees, which could be a good thing…depending on how you view our educational system. I do have three patents…but that really doesn’t make me a somebody. The one thing that is constant in my life is my OPINIONS, which i have more than perhaps even Carl Sagan could have imagined…mostly political. (yes…my ancestors were crabby buggers) 

Hopefully other nobody’s will put their opinions on my site. But, if you happen to be a somebody, you’re more than welcomed to help out.
It’s my Nobody Opinion that Nobody’s Perfect, and Nobody Cares, that Nobody Knows why Nobody Wins, and when that happens, Nobody Wonders, why Nobody Flashes, why Nobody’s Fooled, but then Nobody remembers that Nobody ALWAYS Reports the truth. 

You can email me at joyanna_adams@yahoo.com

There is a special seat at a special table for Joy.

Drink up, and say a prayer for Jimmy.



Pax