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
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
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Good causes:
Sister
Joan - Bangkok
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In
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Back in the UK:
Newton Ferrers
And for fun:
EarthCam
History
BBC Archive
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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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Thailand Blogs Bangkok Pundit - politics Bangkok Metblogs - city life Thai-blogs.com - rather serious
2bangkok.com
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not really a blog but always up to date on Bangkok news
BKKOK.com
Thai
Girl The exotic adventures of a literary
sexagenarian.
Thai
Films
dxbae
- picture blog
Al - Emarati
- English language UAE blog
Grumpy
Goat
In China Danwei - media and advertising news from China
Shanghai
Diaries - self explanatory
My Olive Tree
- Macau blog In Singapore: Xiaxue - self-confessed mean, bitchy, sex goddess who says "wah" a lot!
Mr Brown
- colourful commentary from Singapore
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 News The Guardian - UK
Arabian
Business China sites Bangkok info sites Worthy Sites Niall Ferguson - my favorite modern historian
Rconversation - from Rebecca
MacKinnon, ex-TV reporter-turned-blogger. Fun Sites
Penguin baseball Technology Ideas
Stuff -
gadgets 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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31 August 2010 For some reason this makes me sad: they are not in the same league: apparently it was taken a few days ago. Though some people are already suggesting that it is a fake.
30 August 2010 Guess whose ears were burning today. No, not me. Mr. Thaksin. As Montenegro's President Milo Djukanovic met with Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya in Podgorica today. Kasit met today with high-ranking Montenegrin officials offically "in a bid to boost bilateral cooperation and relations." 29 August 2010 A sensible thought on what the Pakistan Cricket Board should do next from CricInfo:
"The PCB must suspend the tour and get on with the business
of finding the truth. Among other things, there has been talk of matches
in the ODI series being fixed. Cricket can't be played in an atmosphere
where even a fair result will be doubted. It's terrible for the fans and
even worse for the players."
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************************* "Robert Scott writes, and he's right: "The ECB should refund all ticket money for today's test. It is no longer a cricket match and even if it does start it will be over quickly. There is no way the Pakistan team(or England) can focus on cricket. The ECB, PCB and ICC have no balls of their own. If proven guilty there should be life bans on the players concerned. But it wont happen; they will get a ban and then get re-instated in 12 months. That is the history. The whole summer series looks tarnished : For instance how about the 11 dropped catches at Edgbaston? Most if them easy.""
*************************** 28 August 2010 How good was the cricket yesterday: From the Guardian: "As exciting a day's Test cricket I've seen along with all four days of Edgbaston 2005 and the Friday of the Lord's Test against West Indies in 2000. I think Jonathan Trott and Mohammed Amir are shoo-ins for two of the five Wisden Cricketers' of the Year now and I was mightily impressed by both. It was a wonderful day of cricket as England went from 102 for 7 to 334 for 7 at the end of the day - and carried on the morning, breaking almost every record for a 9th wicket partnership. Felt a bit sorry for Trott - he did not get the ovation that Stuart Broad got - but he came in at 31-1; batted through by far the toughest part of the day; survived and thrived and made 184. Broad made 169 and the next best score was 22 from Prior. Bizarre. Embarrassing stuff in the Khaleej Times - as one twitter writer said earlier: "Khaleej Times hires partially brain dead sycophant to write editorial." This is the article. 27 August 2010
A word of warning on aircraft deliveries - which could
significantly impact Emirates: Airbus SAS has slashed its A350 production
targets, according to French source Les Echos reported. Those old A330s will be flying for a few more years. 25 August 2010 Here is something to look forward to: it doesn't look like Tiger got much of a non disclosure agreement!
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"On April 30, 2010 the Pacific Palisades Hotel and Zin
Restaurant will say goodbye to our last guests as we close our doors
permanently to make way for an apartment building. Sad. It was a nice place to stay and I enjoyed by wet and windy walks from the hotel to the office - which was my other home for at least six days a week at that time. 23 August 2010 The sign at the end of the corridor in my hotel said - "This Door is Alarmed." Have to agree - it was quite a scary place! 21 August 2010 This site is too funny: www.cakewrecks.com
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**************************** And this is the RAF's page. And this is Churchill's famous finest hour speech. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," 20 August 2010 Nick Clegg - a true Tory - clearly believes in fair tales: he has rejected concerns that the Liberal Democrats are being damaged by their alliance with the Tories - insisting no one would be taking "any notice" of the party if it was not in government.
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This is my Air SouthWest flight - still sitting on the ground. 18 August 2010 Silliest pr message of the day: "More than 20 destinations in Europe with Emirates from LA, San Francisco, Houston & New York via Dubai " Why on earth would you fly from the USA to Dubai to get to Europe?
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15 August 2010 Message to American golf crowds - please please stop shouting "get in the hole." Message to American golfers - read the local rules. If you are in sand - it is likley that you are in a bunker!
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**************************** Yep. Great place to do business!
******************************* "Vertical Expo Services Co., Ltd is an innovative exhibition organizer that has staged various international conferences and exhibitions covering a variety of industries such as adult entertainment, agriculture, elderly care and funeral."
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Sheikh Mohammed affirmed that the concerned authorities in the UAE do not
impose any restrictions on information or news about economic and
financial issues.
So if that is the case - just why does the media fail so miserably to do
its duty to investigate and report wrong as well as right! 13 August 2010 David Beckham has been written off by the clumsy England coach as being too old at 35 for international football. No one told Beckham instead it was announced on TV. Now Beckham is a guy who wants to play for England. He is not a fringe player who announces that he is no longer available for England in some fit of misplaced petulance - Brown, Robinson and Heskey please take note. And there was a nice tribute to him as an editorial in the Guardian newspaper today: "Famous, beautiful and very, very rich, David Beckham has travelled easefully from global celebrity to national icon. So his rude dismissal from international football by Fabio Capello, in a TV interview this week, provoked not surprise (he is 35 and injury-prone after all) nor particular regret, but the kind of outrage reserved for foreigners who are offhand about the Queen. Like the Queen, there have been moments when his public lost faith. There were the dog days after his sending-off in the 1998 World Cup, his public spats with Alex Ferguson, the times when he was lost behind the sarongs, ponytails and tattoos. And despite sublime moments, the football has not been as consistently wonderful as it promised to be. His career reflects the 20-year transformation of football from beautiful game to global product. Yet the more soulless his sport, the more down-to-earth Beckham himself seems to be. The physical beauty has inspired artists such as Antony Gormley and Sam Taylor-Wood, while the football inspired verses from the poet laureate, films and countless books. But what marks him out is the slow revelation of an engaging decency, an invigorating lack of self-importance unknown in celebrity-land. If he was fit, he was available, even for England's less glittering fixtures. Unfit, he travelled to South Africa as support staff. He fronts the English campaign to host the 2018 World Cup and he goes to Afghanistan to salute the troops. Today at least, praising Beckham could be England's common cause." 12 August 2010 This is a picture from an airliners.net report of an EK flight from Sydney to Dubai. This is the economy class breakfast mixed grill. Who on earth would want broccoli with a breakfast sausage !
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Hamburg Production (Outfitting and Painting): 11 August 2010 Am very confused by footballers saying that they have retired from international football - while they still play for their club. You are talented enough to be chosen to represent your country. Should be jumping for joy! Not saying no thanks. Very strange. There can be few greater honours whatever the sport.
****************************** A decent PR piece carried on BBC World.
******************************* 10 August 2010 The people who live above me seem to get noisier by the night. At what point and at what time is it right to tell them to keep the noise to themselves. The building does not appear to be that well sound-proofed and I am sure that the stone floor to not hlep. Every heel banged on the floor and every piece of furniture moved is noisy. Add that to music and loud voices. It is already 11.10pm - Tai has a 3am flight. Hope she is sleeping through the noise. If I was working tomorrow I would be pretty angry. 11.30pm and they are singing happy birthday.....sounds like a large gathering...many clunking high heels.
******************************* Sums it up pretty well. 9 August 2010
Why oh why do people do these things: Cathay Pacific
Airways passengers regularly take life jackets from the Hong Kong
carrier's planes, causing economic losses and potential safety problems, a
media report said Saturday.
****************************** 8 August 2010 I do not often flag something as a must read but The Crisis of Middle Class America by the FT's excellent Washington bureau chief, Edward Luce, is a must read. 7 August 2010
Thai Tiger Airlines (TTA) is expected to start flying in
the first quarter of next year with five new Airbus A320s leased from
Tiger Airways before another five joining the fleet a year later. Except for Chennai these routes are all well served by LCCs already. Expect a fare war with Air Asia. 6 August 2010 Google has finally confirmed that it has acquired social widget company Slide, a headline that first surfaced in the blogosphere earlier this week. The company didn’t give up any details on its plans for the product and how it will incorporate it into existing products, nor did it share any of the financial terms of the deal. TechCrunch, citing unnamed sources, reported earlier this week that the deal carried a price tag of $182 million, plus another $46 million in employee retention bonuses.
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************************** Here: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/05/animated-map-of-nucl.html
*************************** 5 August 2010 Boeing revealed today that customers canceled 26 new commercial aircraft orders this week, according to the Chicago manufacturer's Website on Thursday. Those cancellations included the loss of one 737 jetliner, 10 777 and 15 787 orders. Earlier media reports stated Dubai Aerospace Enterprise may be forced to cancel aircraft orders because of growing financial difficulties. Its orders for 15 787s are no longer on Boeing's order book, though the company denied to comment. Further, its 18 777 orders has fallen to 8. No one was available at DAE to comment. The last line is typical Dubai - no one available for comment. DAE is a white elephant. And it appears that the Emirates order for new 777s was not enough to make up the DAE shortfall.
*************************** 7 pars and 2 birdies so I played decent golf. But am still drinking as much liquid as I can ! Tai is on her way to New York, again !
*************************** Better an inconvenience than being one of the thousands that he killed. Bizarre hearing really - at the International Human Rights Court. She said she was sleeping and answered the hotel room door to two men who she had never seen before who gave her a bag and told her this is a gift for you. I don't believe a word of this. Ms Campbell would not be answering her own hotel door. If she did there would be an army of paparazzi there. And she certainly doesn't take unexplained packages from strangers. 4 August 2010 This is wonderful: A visual diary documenting a flight from New York to Berlin (with a layover in London).
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****************************** That could remove most foreigners from Pattaya. Pity they don't also get tough on Thai criminals there as well !
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"Majority of bomb threat calls are made by drunk men and
mostly relate to their girlfriends, a top Dubai Police official said....Brigadier
Al Mansoori added that almost all the suspects were Asians. “Majority of
them do this for love. For example, many of them call the airport and
claim a bomb to be on certain flights.
********************************** "Suthep: Intelligence reports indicate possible sabotage in August, integrated intelligence works needed to prevent incident, ask public not to panic." If that is truly the case then other governments should be issuing travel warnings discouraging travel to Thailand. Of course all Suthep is really doing is scare mongering to support the continuing state of emergency and the continuation of the evil CRES. |
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3 August 2010 This is interesting - an English translation of the Khao Sod Interview with Robert Amsterdam
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********************************** 31 July 2010 Tiger is coming back to Dubai - Tiger Woods has confirmed that he will be returning to Dubai to compete in the 2011 Omega Dubai Desert Classic to be held at the Emirates Golf Club, the promoters and organisers of the event have announced. It will be his first visit since the 2008 tournament.
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You can read a review of Fesperman's lastet thriller here. 29 July 2010 Pakistan's 18 year oldfast bowler, Mohammad Aamer, has rapidly become one of the world's must-watch cricketers; on of those players that excite no matter which mast you've got your colours nailed to - Tamim Iqbal, from Bangladesh, is another who has shone in England this summer. Aamer is by far the pick of a good Pakistan bowling attack. I don't know why it is but I have always enjoyed watching Pakistan play cricket; perhaps due to the history of great fast bowlers. Perhaps because they seem to enjoy their cricket and really worry more about natural talent than coaches and fitness regimes.
*************************** 27 July 2010 Thank god for The Sun:
26 July 2010
******************************** Interesting!? 25 July 2010 Landed in Dubai at 1.40am. Immigration was fast. Bags were not. Out of airport about 2.55am - into 36C heat and a huge taxi queue. Unusually for this flight most passengers got off in Dubai - huge number of people coming back to Dubai at the end of the weekend from holiday. And the number of bags they have with them !! And before 8am the contractor was on the hoist drilling outside our window. Impossible to sleep through that noise. And at 2.30pm the upstairs apartment wants to have a Madonna disco. Have these people never thought about their neighbours ?
******************************* The images of recent royal events, archive pictures of the Queen, Prince of Wales and other members of the monarchy can be seen from Monday. Of course you cannot see those pictures if you are in the UAE as the Flickr web site is blocked. 24 July 2010 Totally depressed. Long story. Not one to bore my dear reader with.
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Today cannot go by without a hap-tip to one of the great
cricketers - Muttiah Muralitharan, a spin bowler with a disability
who survived years of allegations that his bowling action was illegal to
become the most successful Test bowler in history, has become the first
bowler to take 800 wickets in Tests. He finishes his test career with 800 Test wickets at 22.72 in 133 Tests. He took five in an innings on 67 occasions. What will Sri Lanka do without him?
******************************** How do you defame a system? The background: Alan Shadrake's new book is called "Once a Jolly Hangman — Singapore justice in the dock." The analysis covers cases from the early 1990s to nearly the present, many of them ending with the prisoner meeting Darshan Singh, Singapore’s hangman for the last half-century. But some of them do not meet this fate, and therein lies the twist. The book compares how one case was handled with another that had similar circumstances or gravity. What emerges is a very unflattering but not unusual pattern of inconsistent “justice”. Many nations have identical issues. Particularly in how justice is served differently to simply the rich and well connected as oppose to the poor and "low-class".
*************************** So little has changed. There are new condo developments. Some new offices. But the infrastructure has not changed. The roads still flood as soon as it rains. The traffic is worse than ever. There is much to like and much that is simply annoying.But best of all I can walk out of the hotel and walk to a 7-11 or a coffee shop or to the local park at Lumpini. I cannot do that in Dubai. 20 July 2010 A day in Hua Hin - 18 holes golf - market - 2 hr massage - dinner - karaoke - shower show - street food. 4.00am it is time to sleep! My caddy was a Tom - My masseuse was her grandmother ! Do I detect Tai's influence !? Oil massage in HuaHin - she was trained at Guantanamo - and combined brutal thai massage with liberal use of cooking oil ! By the end I smelled like I had been deep fried. 19 July 2010 Dad would have been 77 today. Happy birthday. Miss you.
*********************** But it is good to get away and be here.
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Emirates now have the following fleet (and orders) Emirates airline is set to place a $5 billion order for 20 Boeing (BA.N) 777 wide-body jets, aviation sources said on Saturday. Sounds about right. And some will be for early delivery as EK takes over other airline's delivery slots. The order will be placed in the opening days of next week's Farnborough air show. 16 July 2010 A quick note for friends at EK - EK Staff Travel department have apparently stated that they are putting an Embargo on staff travel on the DXB-SFO flight with immediate effect due to Payload Restrictions. No great surprise after EK225 had to put down at Seattle this week to refuel en route to SFO.
********************** And McIlroy, so inspired yesterday, looks totally out of sorts today. And he should know how to play links golf - he is 6 over today after 11 holes compared to 9 under over 18 holes yesterday. He will struggle to break 80 today.
********************* Heaven forbid that you want to read anything pro red shirt or that questions the government's actions in killing at least 90 people back in April and May. Links from this web site are blocked. Including Thai Political Prisoners, New Mandala and ThaksinLive. If you are Thai (or I guess even foreign) media, you are expected to believe all and every statement from Suthep - the unelected Deputy PM; from the all powerful CRES and from other government sources. "Together we can" trumpet posters around the city. It is depressing. 15 July 2010 It is the 150th British Open and here is a guy who can play at St. Andrews - Rory McIlroy's last 9 rounds on the Old Course: 69, 69 (both as amateur), 67, 68, 67, 68, 65, 69, 63. ********************** Tai and I are in BKK - for Amp's wedding this weekend. A collection of friends all flying in from Dubai and trying to get on using standby tickets on flights that are already full. Challenging! 11 July 2010 Tai is back from Houston and a 48 hour stop in the rain. And when Tai goes to Texas the question is Who is JR? rather than Who shot JR? And no visit to the Houston Space Center either - why go to Houston and not go to the space center? 9 July 2010 Scary headline - Goalkeeper's lover 'fed to dogs' - it was in Brazil!
************************ It is a tax. And just makes travel more expensive. It will not apply to transit traffic. But presumably will apply to passengers on UAE stopovers. Maybe 20 million passengers at AED30 each is AED600 million for the UAE annually. 8 July 2010 At 11.30pm Skype is showing 19,856,418 online users. I wonder what is the number on MSN at peak times. !9 million users Impressive. 7 July 2010
A British man imprisoned in Dubai for kissing a woman in
public has spoken about his experience in jail. An excerpt from his interview is here.
***************************** Even at 6pm with the sun going down it is still 42C. And I tried to play golf today - it was way too hot to play - and a 7.00am start after 3 hours sleep did not help. The birdie on the 16th was spectacular - drive, 9 iron and a tap in putt. Tai by the way is on her first trip to Houston. 6 July 2010
Air Berlin from 03NOV10 launches 3 weekly Berlin Tegel –
Dubai service with Airbus A330-200. Schedule below: 5 July 2010 Move over James Bond - here is real life. Anna Chapman - my kind of spy !
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*********************** 2 July 2010 We started to move Tai out of Millennium Tower today. someone has to explain to me why girls like to hoard and keep everything and anything ! There must be something other than empty shoe boxes that can be thrown out ! 1 July 2010 Golf today as Al Hamra. It was so hot. And after a while it gets unpleasant as a mixture of sweat and sun tan lotion gets into your eyes! And then the glare makes it almost impossible to look at the ball as it sits in yet another bunker. Though the two shots into the green on ten were two of my best.
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