Welcome to rascott.com
This is a
personal site that reflects my interests in news,
current affairs, aviation and travel.
email me:
robert@rascott.com
rascott.com
Home Page
Note that each Jan/Feb link leads to the remaining AOB
pages for that year. 10 years of diary keeping!
Photo Albums
My photographs have been moved off this site and are now stored on Picasa. They
were simply taking up too much space on my web host.
Please use
this link to see my list of photo albums.
Some
Useful links:
Information:
World Time
Clock
Exchange Rates
Journalism:
ForeignPolicy
Nationsonline.org
Project Syndicate
Amnesty International
Reporters w/o borders
The Guardian
BBC World News
CNN Asia
Bangkok Post
Daylife.com - news
Gulf News
Arabian Business
World News
WSJ - Asia
SCMP
Good causes:
Sister
Joan - Bangkok
Regional Info:
BKK Magazine
HK Magazine
In
Singapore Magazine
TimeOut Dubai
Back in the UK:
Newton Ferrers
And for fun:
EarthCam
History
BBC Archive
National Media
Museum
The British Library
Imperial War Museum
There are many other links on my AOB blog page.
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An Occasional Blog |
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Dubai based Airine bloggers
TampaxTowers Egypt Thailand Blogs Thai-blogs.com - rather serious
2bangkok.com
-
not really a blog but always up to date on Bangkok news
Thai
Girl The exotic adventures of a literary
sexagenarian.
Thai Films
Asia Unbound - CFR
Dubai Blogs
dxbae
- picture blog - also Gerald Donovan
The Gulf Blog
Grumpy
Goat Arabic affairs blogs
The Arabist
Hong Kong Blogs
Hong
Kong Outdoors In China: Danwei - media and advertising news from China
Shanghaiist.com
Hong Kong Cinemagic
Chinageeks
In Singapore: Xiaxue - self-confessed mean, bitchy, sex goddess who says "wah" a lot!
Mr Brown
- colourful commentary from Singapore
In Burma:
In Canada:
Media:
Tabloid
Watch (UK) Aviation: Amadeus (airline schedules) Airline meals - see it b4 you eat it!
Airliners
- aviation forum, trip reports and pix
archive Planenation - commercial aviation news Airchive - a web museum of commercial aviation.
CrankyFlier - mainly US commentary
Sharjah -
1937
KPAE - Paine Field Blog
Johnny Jet News: The Guardian - UK
Arabian
Business Bangkok info sites: Worthy Sites:
Rconversation - from Rebecca
MacKinnon, ex-TV reporter-turned-blogger.
What
Matters - McKinsey
Golf Sites:
Cricket sites:
Alternative
Cricket Almanac
Other Sports
Fun Sites:
Fun signs
Cooking
Technology Ideas:
Stuff -
gadgets
TNooz - Travel Tech
ViralBlog
Photography
The Rest:
Black
Flamingo - recipes and life (no golf!)
Author
Robert Scott lives and works in Dubai; born in England I have since lived in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok. I am very happily married to Tai.
If you want to know more you only need to ask! ask.
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29 October 2014 Fleet changes at Emirates: B777 A6-ENV was delivered today and A345 A6-ERG is flying to LFBT for storage (it is the 2nd A345 to leave the fleet. ERG was the A345 in the Melbourne take-off incident. LFBT is the Tarbes - Lourdes Pyrenees Airport. 27 October 2014 Ultimate Airport - Dubai - Season 2 - every episode here. 24 October 2014 There are far too many people in Thailand and Hong Kong trying to explain why so called western style democracy either des not work or is not suitable. This nonsense argument is even picked up by western friends who have benefited from growing up in open societies but who seem to think that it is ok for elites to rule at the expense of democracy and freedom of speech,
Democary works when the
core values of the "four estates" are all in effective place. The judiciary should be able to prosecute the executive if they abuse power, the legislature should be solely responsible for defining legislation (preferably with a strong house of review), and the judiciary for interpreting that legislation in accordance with social norms and the principles of justice. The "fourth estate", the media, should have unfettered access to report on the activities of the government and judiciary, to highlight abuses and negligence. It is the separation of powers that allows a strong society built upon the rule of law, and prevents abuse of power. Voting plays its own part - primarily serving as a way to dismiss administrations who are out-of-touch or performing poorly. It is the separation of powers that ensures Western Democracy works. Whenever it is encroached upon, corruption and mismanagement arise as a result. 0 October 2014 Palermo is an interesting city. Very different from anywhere else we have seen in Sicily. It is a big city for a start - some 1 million people. But it is also a melting pot - it is where Italy meets Africa with a sizeable number of people from South Asia as well. Colourful and lively. But old and unkempt. Too much garbage. Too much graffiti. A town that is rotting with age rather than growing gracefully with age. 18 October 2014 The A19 from Catania to Palermo is a fun drive!
*********************** 15 October 2014 Just so you know - Jumeirah Beach Park to close until end of 2016. The SZ Road diversions will start from 25 October.
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************************ 12 October 2104 Horrible flight from Dubai to Milan yesterday afternoon. Firstly the airplane was freezing. 2 blankets were not enough. Plenty of passengers complaining - and being told by the crew that they could not change the temperature. I do get irritated when the crew lies because they are either too lazy or too badly trained to do anything. Very average meal. Old style IFE. And a crew that wanted to secure the cabin an hour before landing - including collecting all blankets, headsets and seats upright. There was an hour to fly. 10 October 2014 Am up to date with The Good Wife, Person of Interest and Homeland. The Good Wife looks set for a strong season. Person of Interest is great fun. Homeland - might have at least gotten past the Brodey romance but the baby is a real problem and was one of the dafter plot ideas. 9 October 2014 One of the most striking aspects of being in America last week was the depth and vitriol embedded in too many average Americans towards the Muslim faith. Tell them you live in the United Arab Emirates and a look of uncertainty appears. Listen to them sitting around the breakfast table and it is as though you are participating in a Fox News talkshow. The conversation is a mixture of fear, revulsion and misunderstanding. This is Nicholas Kristof writing in the NYT on the "Diversity of Islam." and he concludes that: "The great divide is not between faiths, but one between intolerant zealots of any tradition and the large numbers of decent, peaceful believers likewise found in each tradition." He is correct but he is the educated, rational, balanced, worldly view of the US media. For others IS/ISIL and Islam appear to be a common enemy.
************************* It is just a bit embarrassing. 6 October 2014 Notes from the West coast: I don't like Seattle much - another big American city that increasingly does not work and where too many people have been left behind. Downtown at night time feels more intimidating than it should. Portland is a fun city for right brained creatives. Someone actually said to me "I love your accent" - this was at a cafe in Roslyn, Washington. Small town America still fascinates me - and the small towns are so much more interesting than the endless urban sprawl of the big cities. The NW coast Pacific has some fabulous unspoiled beaches - surprisingly not over run by hotel and condo developments and where small towns such as Seaside and Long Beach still have a community feel. I do not much like the new 787. Over hyped. An accountants' airplane not a passengers' airplane. 3 October 2014 flydubai in Winter 2014 will add new services to Bratislava, Prague and Sofia. Planned launch dates and schedules as follow. eff 05DEC14
Dubai – Prague 4 weekly eff 06DEC14
Dubai – Bratislava 2 weekly eff 14DEC14
Dubai – Sofia 2 weekly 28 September 2014 Europe win the Ryder Cup - for the 8th time in the last 10 contests. The Americans really do struggle with team golf....
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27 September 2014 Emirates A380 A6-EOA was delivered Finkenwerder – Dubai this evening as EK7380. This brings the Emirates A380 fleet up to 53 aircraft. The registration is interesting - we went from EDA and EEA to EOA...
**************************** That is in between the arrests and detentions of all dissenters and sandwich eaters...
********************** And the point of the coup was all abut preserving this status quo. 24 September 2014 24 hours in Bangkok and have not yet heard the dear leader's happiness song!
********************* But it is not all bad - Jing Tian makes a very arresting Chinese police officer...
And there are a few more pictures of her here.
**************************** 22 September 2014 Simple reality on the Scottish independence referendum - post voting polls show that if voters up to age 54 only it's YES. If only voters over 54 it's NO. 16-54: YES 54%, NO 46% and 55+: YES 34%, NO 66%. More here : How Scotland voted, and why 20 September 2014 The airline industry and its cost saving efforts in a single sentence : "the fact that an industry can neglect people facing redundancy with huge experience and give plum jobs to 200 hour kids is an utter disgrace."
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********************** Why and who cares? 8 September 2014 Legoland Dubai and Dubai's new airport announced on the same day - I hope the contractors do not get confused!
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************************* I am sure this is correct - the quote is from Andrew MacGregor Marshall in this interview. 6 September 2014 Dubai-based flydubai has announced the addition of three new east African routes, bringing the total number of destinations in the carrier’s network to 80. With the launch of flights in September to Bujumbura in Burundi, Entebbe in Uganda and Kigali in Rwanda, flydubai will fly to nine destinations in Africa. 5 September 2014
Old Jokes Home: 3 September 2014
Watford have appointed
the former Brighton manager Óscar García as their new head coach. Emirates press release calls the company "a global enabler of trade and business." If anyone is confused it is just an airline. 1 September 2014 So Radamel Falcao will earn gbp346,000 a week at Manchester United where the club has agreed to pay Monaco gbp24million for a season-long loan of their player. The Premiership is just so disconnected from real life - it has become an exclusive sport - for players, officials and spectators - a corporate game where tv money calls the shots and corporate entertaining is so much more important than the fans that may have followed the club for years or for generations. It really is a shame. And while the Premiership is occasionally interesting it is increasingly hard to feel in any way connected to it.
Falcao, Rooney and Van
Persie = £866,000 per week in wages. I know which group I would prefer to watch. Man Utd are over-paying - and that inflates prices for everyone else.
******************************** It sounds as though he was battling intrigue and plpayer revolt....prima donnas that were not being selected by the manager. How can you be a prima donna in the Championhip? |
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