Book Review - Phoenix Squadron

Phoenix Squadron: HMS Ark Royal, Britain s last Topguns and the untold story of their most dramatic mission by Rowland White

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
First of all, this introduces an era of British Naval (and colonial and military) history of which I was only vaguely aware. Of course, I knew we had a military presence in Belize post-independence, but this book sets this in its historical context.

As a book, I found this to be a bit unfulfilling. It came across more as an eulogy to the passing of the great Royal Navy aircraft carrier fleet, than just the flight to Belize and back. In that way, I found the book to be less satisfactory than Vulcan 607, which did have me on the edge of my seat.

Interesting though.

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Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

oh wow!



"In this tightly cropped image, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from Florida. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope.

The photographer made this image using a solar-filtered Takahashi 5-inch refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera.

Image Credit: NASA/Thierry Legault"

And yes, the music nerd in me was instantly reminded of this.....

Blowin in the wind

"How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind."

Bob Dylan

Manufactured Landscapes

Last night a documentary about Edward Burtynsky was shown on Sky Arts- especially his "Manufactured Landscapes" work. I've been catching up with it this evening (thanks Sky Plus...). I have to say that although the photos are very good, and often very thought provoking as well, they have made me think deeply about what we want out of modern society. Pollution in all its senses - environmental as well as individual - is very prevalent in his work.

But the documentary is far too long. It didn't really know what it was for - a social justice documentary or about the artist. In trying to serve both audiences, my feeling is that it failed to satisfy both.

Here is the trailer for the film....

Book Review - Vulcan 607

Vulcan 607 by Rowland White

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I've known of this raid for years, and also the other raids in the "Black Buck" series. This book brings it all home how such a close run thing it was to make the mission succeed. The book doesn't just concentrate on the Vulcan crew, but many of those involved in the planning of the mission, and also the intimate involvement of the Victor crews.



In a planning sense, the need to build in contingency after contingency is highlighted by the plan unravelling during the flight from Ascension to the Falklands, and the flexibility and bravery of those implementing it in enabling the mission to succeed.



One small point is that, personally, I would have liked to hear more about the subsequent raids, but I understand why the author decided to concentrate on the initial raid - the one that got all the headlines.



Finally, not many books have been for me "unputdownable" over the past few years. This was. Praise indeed!!!


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Reach Out

I'll be there....

Hanging Colours

Colours captured, hanging on a line
blowing in the wind
drifting past.......

Standing Out From the Crowd

....for a friend.....

"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world."
-- Virgil A. Kraft

F1 Teaser

After a break of far too long, F1 Racing (cars, not on ovals!) returns to the BBC at the end of the month.... but why have they made a sub-sweeney trailer?

Oh..... just wait until the last few seconds - for the sound :)))

(link may not be playable outside the UK - sorry, BBC not me!)

dummmm dum de dumm dumm dumm........

All The Worlds A Stage

".... And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts..."

William Shakespeare, As You Like It....

Caged

trapped
seeking escape
I see it unclearly, far away
and try to reach the outstretched hand I see

getting there......

Permission To Do The Same

My CD Cover Meme.....

1 - Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 - Take a fresh image to illustrate the album - any image will do, but be creative (the original challenge was to use a random image from flickr, but I was dubious about copyright infringement...)
4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Palm Grove

sometimes it is truly difficult to see the wood through the trees, and at other times there is 20/20 clarity.......

I wish there were more of the latter than the former...

A burst of snowdrops

Jetty, Roatán

So, there was me, thinking that this ramshackle, ricketty jetty (pier) was looking very picturesque.

What I hadn't fully noticed was how ricketty it actually was, and also slick with rain from a recent shower.

In lining up my photo, I stepped back, and put my left leg through a gap in the planking.

Result: one left leg covered in bumps and scrapes, a sore bum from where I fell backwards, and a badly bruised ego....

be careful out there!

Unpresidential Language

I subscribe in Google Reader to the whitehouse.gov rss feed. I saw this story earlier....

which I thought wasn't quite the most respectful way of putting it....

A few hours later, the same story was reposted as

and the first link is 404'd!

Empowerment

Country Life

Dartmoor ponies braving the wind

Seven Photographs That Changed Fashion

The other evening, while multiplexing through the channels between programmes, I discovered one of those hidden gems (at least to me) that are tucked away on BBC4.

I do think that this sort of format could be easly adapted to other genres.

The fashion photographer Rankin was recreating what, in his opinion, were definitive fashion photographs from each decade since the 30's.  Now, I had always understood Rankin to be a punk-like, gruff personality but he came over as quite eloquent, not to say passionate, about the task in hand.

Highlights included

• recreating a David Bailey image with DB in attendance and heckling - an example being "I was better looking than you are, you need makeup, Rankin"
  
• Rankin and his assistants struggling to remember what to do with "film" - I was convinced that a camera was going to be dropped at one stage!
  
• nude photography on the backstreets of Paris - a la Helmut Newton..... 
  

oh.... and something for the ladies....

now, what was that about a spare tyre???

A link to the BBC page about the programme.... this may only work in the UK

Seven Photographs That Changed Fashion

Watching Me, Watching You....

Death masks from Borneo.....

Alien Entry

On the day that ESTA has been introduced as a mandatory requirement for visitors to the USA from countries that are part of the visa waiver scheme, there has been the predictable outcry from the media and some UK politicians that seem to have missed the news about this over the past many months.

All I can say is that the scheme itself is a doddle to use, I just wish that I didn't have to use the green form that is thrown at you to fill in on arrival, as the questions are identical.... The proof of the pudding will be seen by me next week....

And whatever Moral Torpitude is - I haven't done it!

Earthrise

Possibly one of the most famous photographs ever was processed 40 years ago......

NASA image

Read an account of the image here.  Of particular interest to me, today, is the account of the Kodak employees entrusted with the film (see the second half of the article).

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/forty-years-since-the-first-picture-of-earth-from-space-1297569.html

Stuck together

Today is

National English Toffee Day

watch out for getting your teeth stuck together! or worse, pulling crowns out!

Frozen In Place....

Be careful when touching bare metal with your bare hands...... it is a long time since I have seen ice like this in southern England. This is what happens after a few days with the temperature below freezing.

Images are now being blogged from flickr - after a few hiccups with clashing templates.....

Let there be light!

Snow? no! Sand!!!

Drying tonight

Racetrack

Collision Course

Being resolute....

Feel better about myself

Enjoy life

Lose some weight - today doesn't count does it? :)

Take more and more, and better and better photos!

and just maybe blog a lot lot more!!!!