The General
The military culture is all about saying yes and executing whatever request that was issued from people above your hierarchy, even if it seems impossible to fulfill. Most do not accept “no” for an answer and are never bothered at the process as long as things gets done. There have been numerous occasion where I’ve witnessed the behavior and how uptight people gets, be it good or bad news.
I have absolutely no grudges against the high flyers in the organisation but what I find it disturbing is the lack of human touch towards the people, not to mention how the commoners tries very hard to leave a good impression for fear of repercussion. I’m sure there are guidelines as to how one should behave and the do’s and don’ts in order to maintain a certain status but this should not hinder the trust one should establish with the commoners.
Let me share an account from a colleague of mine whom had to deal with an unbelievable behavior of a senior commander while performing duties during one of the flight.
I was giving a safety brief to the passengers as part of the pre-boarding procedure, of which, there were two senior commanders. Throughout the brief, one of the colonel kept interrupting and attempted to challenge my professionalism and ability to control the passengers in the event of an emergency. The flight was carried out and during de-planning, the colonel tried to walk out of the aircraft when he was not suppose to. I gripped his arms and he was startled before grining at me.
On the contrary, here was what I recently witnessed while supporting a foreign unit for their operations:
A one-star general decided to board the aircraft with troops that were preparing to be deployed. He wanted to show his support and appreciate and to observe their operations. Throughout the flight, he refused to wear a headset connected to the aircraft communications system and sat near the rear of the aircraft observing the troops jumping off the aircraft with parachutes. This is on top of water from the aircraft leaking onto him due to a heavy downpour earlier on.
When the aircraft eventually landed, the general walked over to grab 3 bags of harnesses and walked out of the aircraft, leaving the jump-master chasing behind him.
Granted that the sight of this could be possibly random but such a small gesture from a one-star general would have easily gained the trust and respect of his men, as opposed to one whom is expected to be treated like a king.
Underwater free fall
Guillaume Nery, a french free diver performed an amazing base jumping at Dean’s Blue Hole without any tank while being filmed by another free diver Julie Gautier, who was also without tanks!
Classics of famous photos in Lego
Neat collection of classic moments recreated in lego. (via kottke.org)
The customer service nightmare
Fresh from the oatmeal – Why I’d rather be punched in the testicles than call customer service.
Sometimes they’ll bury the phone number deep within the website to discourage you from calling.
Wake up music in space
From NASA’s history office, here’s a list of wake-up music for astronauts on their mission in space. (via kottke.org)
Maintenance engineer who flew 13 years as a fake pilot
Just like Leonardo diCaprio who starred in Catch Me If You Can, a maintenance engineer turned fake 737 pilot flew more than 13 years before being caught.
I got the crackpot idea to apply as a co-pilot at a real airline so I made myself a Swedish flying permit with a logo out of regular white paper. It wasn’t laminated, and looked like something I’d made at home. It was surprisingly easy. The documents look different everywhere in Europe. An Italian airline doesn’t know what a Swedish licence looks like. And you can forge all the IDs you need. I’d train there for two or three hours at a time—at least 15 to 20 times over one and a half years.
via (kottke.org)
Review of Sex and the City 2 by someone who doesn’t know anything about it
First off, ladies, I get it. It’s your Star Wars. The opening credits make your tummy tickle the same way the Star Wars theme, to this day, gives me a boner. I understand. A pair of expensive shoes worn by Carrie is just like a metallic bikini worn by Princess Leia.
Tim SiedellWriter certainly said it well.
Making the perfect thin and crisp french fries
There are a few factors that going into the making of a perfect fry and J. Kenji Lopez explains it all:
- The exterior must be very crisp, but not tough.
- The interior must be intact, fluffy, and have a strong potato flavor.
- The fry must be an even, light golden blond.
- The fry must stay crisp and tasty for at least as long as it takes to eat a full serving.
After over 43 batches of fries in the last three days, and I’m happy to report that I’ve finally found a way to consistently reach crisp, golden Nirvana.
Here’s the full recipe for those who can’t wait to try it!
Timelapse of the European airspace before and after the volcano
A nice timelapse of the european airspace before and after the volcano.
Bullet train that doesn’t stop
A brilliant concept of reducing train traveling time. Could this be the future? (via kottke.org)
Inspiring, awesome and stylish mac setups
Featuring 50 beautiful and stylish workspace and mac setups. This tempts me to get an external monitor to complete the collection.
In the cold
Baggage handlers in the cold.
Hello Seattle
Beautiful day at Seattle’s Space Needle.
2010 chinese zodiac geomancy and horoscope forecast
If you are a big fan of feng shui (geomancy) and horoscope, Wayang Times has published a horoscope outlook for the 12 chinese zodiac sign in 2010 – the year of tiger, accompanied with a geomancy forecast.
I’m not exactly the superstitious type but nonetheless, I’ll attempt to heed the advice and make it a better 2010 (less moving the furnitures since they are already in the correct position as what the geomancy forecast predicts).