Lockdown Distractions

[Seeker]

I only got 3/10 but did much better the second time through!  Would have been better (easier) if the pictures were larger.

[Malcolm]

Seen from the air: Pilot films dazzling aurora over Canada (bbc.com)

[J.O.]

On 11/12/2023 at 4:49 AM, Kip Powick said:

Been on a few cruises...A ship this size doesn't interest me.

Would be like cruising with over 8600 Torontonians on a barge.. 

On the technical side, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the size of the bow thrusters - and the fact that there are four of them!

[st27]

With a surface area like that above the waterline, I think they would be essential……saves on the cost of tugs.

[J.O.]

1 minute ago, st27 said:

With a surface area like that above the waterline, I think they would be essential……saves on the cost of tugs.

Absolutely agree, it's just mind boggling to me that they have more water movement capacity than the pumping station that was supposed to keep the Sumas prairie in Abbotsford from flooding two years ago.

[Kip Powick]

2 hours ago, J.O. said:

On the technical side, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the size of the bow thrusters - and the fact that there are four of them!

Each  one of the four thrusters  has  7,380HP my bow and stern thrusters are each 15HP  

 

Interesting link about the electric motors on that vessel.........

https://global.abb/topic/azipod-30-years/en/30-facts-for-30-years#:~:text=The largest cruise ship in,to traditional shaftline propulsion systems.

 

[st27]

Whatever happened to…….?

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canada-aviation-and-space-museum-receives-rcafs-last-operational-buffalo-aircraft

[Kip Powick]

31 minutes ago, st27 said:

Whatever happened to…….?

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canada-aviation-and-space-museum-receives-rcafs-last-operational-buffalo-aircraft

Doesn't the link tell you ???

[deicer]

No explanation required...

 

[Seeker]

Wow, zero diversity and no plus-size models.  What's up with that?  Also, no tattoos, nose piercings or blue hair.

[st27]

How some Canadians spend their money……(it is used though !)

 

https://boattest.com/article/lady-jorgia-biggest-brokerage-sale?utm_medium

If your wondering about the home port of this yacht….it’s the Marshall Islands, a common sight on the stern of large yachts. Also, CI …..Cayman Islands is another. Why would billionaires want to pay taxes like normal Canadians? Most large yachts fly “flags of convenience” for the same reasons commericial ships…

[Falken]

TAXES - The same reason Brookfield Corp. ( BN on the TSX) moved their headquarters out of  Canada!

[Kip Powick]

Liam and Ted

 

[Seeker]

For those who don't subscribe to Netflix take a look at this site.  Free, full length documentaries with no signup or account required.  It's basically an index site which links to videos on other video sharing platforms such as youtube but useful because it's sorted everything in nice neat categories.

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

[deicer]

1 hour ago, Seeker said:

For those who don't subscribe to Netflix take a look at this site.  Free, full length documentaries with no signup or account required.  It's basically an index site which links to videos on other video sharing platforms such as youtube but useful because it's sorted everything in nice neat categories.

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

Thanks for that!

[Kip Powick]

[Kip Powick]

[Malcolm]

For me it would be watching basketball or golf on TV

27 minutes ago, Kip Powick said:

 

[Kip Powick]

With  basketball, just tune in to get the last one minute, during a commercal from the program you are enjoying.

[Kip Powick]

[Malcolm]

When this film airs, it might just be worth going to see.

John Travolta recalls near-death experience in the sky

24th November 2023, 06:00 GMT-7

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By Steven McIntoshEntertainment reporter

John Travolta stars in the short film adapted from Frederick Forsyth's novella The Shepherd

The London screening for a new Disney+ film is already running late - but it isn't John Travolta's fault.

de Havilland Vampire - Wikipedia (google.com)

The star of the short film in question, The Shepherd, is already sitting in the audience, patiently waiting to see the story on a big screen for the first time, 30 years after he first dreamed of adapting it.

When it becomes clear that there are more people entering the screening room than there are seats, he happily gives up his chair and perches at the end of the row.

Despite taking place on Christmas Eve and being called The Shepherd, the story is not what you might expect. Set in 1957, it follows a young Royal Air Force pilot returning home for Christmas who runs into trouble when his plane suffers electrical failure.

With navigational systems down and his radio not working, he accepts his fate. But through the darkness and fog, the pilot suddenly spots another plane, flown by a man who offers to help guide him to safety.

The story is an adaptation of the 1975 novella by Frederick Forsyth - one of the other famous faces in the audience at the screening. By the time Travolta came across the book, he had coincidentally just had a near-death experience of his own when piloting a plane.

"The kismet of the project is, I actually experienced a total electrical failure, not in a Vampire but a corporate jet, over Washington DC, prior to my discovering the book," he tells journalists after the screening.

"So when I read the book, it resonated more because of this experience I personally had had.

"I knew what it felt like to absolutely think you're going to die. Because I had two good jet engines but I had no instruments, no electric, nothing.

"And I thought it was over, just like this boy, portrayed so beautifully [by actor Ben Radcliffe]. He captured that despair when you think you're actually going to die."

The Grease actor recalls: "I had my family on board and I said, 'This is it, I can't believe I'm going to die in this plane.'

"And then, as if by a miracle, we descended to a lower altitude, I saw the Washington DC Monument and identified that Washington National Airport was right next to it and I made a landing just like [character Freddie] does in the film."

Travolta did not discover Forsyth's book until a few years after his own brush with death.

"I had just purchased a Vampire jet just like the one in the film. I had flown it for two years and I'm doing a film in Canada and I'm at a book store, and I see a small novella with a Vampire jet on the front of it, and I said, I have to read this."

When he read the novel, Travolta says he was struck by the feeling he had experienced the events in real life.

"I instantly fell in love with this book. And it was my dream to one day make it into a film. So a couple of years later I purchased the rights to this book, but because it was right after Pulp Fiction, I was doing one movie after another.

"So after 10 years, I let it go and decided I was never going to get to do it. Then this hero [director Iain Softley] came along who had also fallen in love with it, and brought me back into the group."

When Travolta first had the idea of starring in the film more than three decades ago, he envisaged himself portraying the young pilot who runs into difficulty.

Instead, the film sees him play the older man who helps him. "I was young enough then that I could've play that part," he jokes. "But I had to wait 30 years to play the shepherd."

The film was shot largely in the UK, which explains why Travolta was spotted in Wetherspoons and Morrisons in Norfolk last April, taking selfies with fans.

Thursday's screening - overcrowded because some are here for the second showing an hour later - is the first chance for an audience to see the story come to fruition on the silver screen.

Most viewers will watch it on Disney+ when it is released on the streaming platform in December, and at 38 minutes it is the kind of snackable, family-friendly tale that could make easy viewing over the holidays.ng

The film also stars Millie Kent, Simon Wilson and Steven Mackintosh, while Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón, who directed Gravity and Roma, serves as producer.

The Shepherd has previously been adapted for the stage and radio, including by the BBC. In Canada, the story has been read on radio network CBC almost every Christmas since 1979.

"One of the reasons I think it is so enduring is the genius of the story," says Softley. "It makes you question and examine what home means and what is important.

"And it goes beyond that. It's about the kind of sacred nature in a lot of religions of bringing people home and looking after the lost traveller.

"And it's self-sacrifice," he adds. "I think also at Christmas, you don't only think about your loved ones, it's a time when you think about other people who are less fortunate.

"I think it encapsulates all of that, and I think that's why people find it moving and resonant."

[deicer]

For our American friends...

 

[Kip Powick]

[deicer]

The only known photo of a Cessna 172 in formation with Concorde. Photo was taken at 30,000 feet. The 172 managed to catch the Concorde after diving on it but was only able to hold formation for a few minutes…

 

[Malcolm]

1 hour ago, deicer said:

The only known photo of a Cessna 172 in formation with Concorde. Photo was taken at 30,000 feet. The 172 managed to catch the Concorde after diving on it but was only able to hold formation for a few minutes…

 

Somehow the 30,000 ft just does not fit.A Cessna 172 has a service ceiling of 14,000 feet