Macau~
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Susan Boyle YouTube Video: 100 Million Hits, So Where’s the Money?
It is a dream in the Susan's heart!
Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent video is on track to become the most popular video in the history of YouTube, amassing nearly 100
million views in its first nine days and earning the producers of the program a serendipitous, potential windfall that should already be in the millions.
Update, 6:58pm EST: Hours later, a Google spokeswoman responded to our e-mail and phone queries with some surprising news:
"That video is not being monetized." We’ve contacted Sony (Simon Cowell’s label) and FremantleMedia (the show’s producer, owned by RTL Group not Sony as appeared in this update earlier) and now ITV to try to determine why the $500,000 or more Boyle’s video should have generated so far is apparently being left on the table — despite the fact that both companies are confirmed revenue-sharing partners of YouTube.
Update, 5:55pm EST, 4/21: A Fremantle spokesman said via e-mail, "No comment is our official position." 4/23: Waiting to hear back from ITV, which apparently could not come to an agreement with YouTube over how to share ad revenue.
The YouTube clip got massive play on U.S. cable television and made the 48-year-old Boyle — whose performance was a mere first-round audition, after all — into an international star whose career in an instant seems assured, no matter what the outcome of the British talent show she is the odds-on favorite to win.
As a contestant, Boyle would likely not have a piece of the action — yet. And it isn’t clear what deal Cowell, a judge and producer of the show, and his label, Sony have with YouTube as part of their revenue-sharing deal. If it were half a cent per play — a typical figure for such deals — that would translate into a $500,000 payday so far. And if Google sold a decent amount of video overlays on the video (earning an estimated $20 per thousand views), Cowell and company would be owed millions more in revenue sharing. [Again, Google says it somehow didn't sell a single ad against these 100 million or so views; see update above.]
The tsunami of interest in a single YouTube clip could not have come at a better time for YouTube, which is aggressively trying to shed its reputation as a repository for mindless clips uploaded by self-absorbed users. It appears to be a platform where Hollywood and advertisers can do serious business, without alienating the millions of people who have made it what it is today.
This might be the perfect storm: A feel-good story that generates a wild amount of traffic and attracts new users precisely as the company doubles down on its reputation as a music destination as well as a nascent TV and studio film portal.
All of this happened in under a week and a half. By comparison, Avril Lavigne’s "Girlfriend" — YouTube’s current reigning champion — took more than two years to accumulate its tally of 118 million views (and required some gaming of the system by her fans to do so).
Boyle’s rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables currently has 70 million views on YouTube’s first search-result page alone, and multiple estimates have pegged the total number of views at around 100 million and still climbing steeply over the weekend. If YouTube’s audio fingerprinting technology works as advertised,
Cowell and company should be paid when people watch the user-uploaded videos, in addition to the official version.
Avril’s manager suggested last summer that she would earn $2 million from her YouTube video views, as part of the labels’ revenue-sharing program (which almost certainly offers more favorable terms than those offered by the standard YouTube Partners program). But despite breakaway successes like Lavigne’s and Boyle’s, some licensing deals between music copyright holders and Google have broken down over revenue-sharing disagreements — an indication that the labels see YouTube as an important source of revenue. As a result, Warner’s pulled its videos, and all official music videos on YouTube are blocked in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Assuming Boyle continues her run without succumbing to a fan backlash, she’ll win the Britain’s Got Talent
competition’s $200K first prize and a possible a recording contract with Cowell. Will she see a piece of this YouTube action? If her lawyer has any sense, he or she will insist that
Boyle receive a share of YouTube revenue going forward.
Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent video is on track to become the most popular video in the history of YouTube, amassing nearly 100
million views in its first nine days and earning the producers of the program a serendipitous, potential windfall that should already be in the millions.
Update, 6:58pm EST: Hours later, a Google spokeswoman responded to our e-mail and phone queries with some surprising news:
"That video is not being monetized." We’ve contacted Sony (Simon Cowell’s label) and FremantleMedia (the show’s producer, owned by RTL Group not Sony as appeared in this update earlier) and now ITV to try to determine why the $500,000 or more Boyle’s video should have generated so far is apparently being left on the table — despite the fact that both companies are confirmed revenue-sharing partners of YouTube.
Update, 5:55pm EST, 4/21: A Fremantle spokesman said via e-mail, "No comment is our official position." 4/23: Waiting to hear back from ITV, which apparently could not come to an agreement with YouTube over how to share ad revenue.
The YouTube clip got massive play on U.S. cable television and made the 48-year-old Boyle — whose performance was a mere first-round audition, after all — into an international star whose career in an instant seems assured, no matter what the outcome of the British talent show she is the odds-on favorite to win.
As a contestant, Boyle would likely not have a piece of the action — yet. And it isn’t clear what deal Cowell, a judge and producer of the show, and his label, Sony have with YouTube as part of their revenue-sharing deal. If it were half a cent per play — a typical figure for such deals — that would translate into a $500,000 payday so far. And if Google sold a decent amount of video overlays on the video (earning an estimated $20 per thousand views), Cowell and company would be owed millions more in revenue sharing. [Again, Google says it somehow didn't sell a single ad against these 100 million or so views; see update above.]
The tsunami of interest in a single YouTube clip could not have come at a better time for YouTube, which is aggressively trying to shed its reputation as a repository for mindless clips uploaded by self-absorbed users. It appears to be a platform where Hollywood and advertisers can do serious business, without alienating the millions of people who have made it what it is today.
This might be the perfect storm: A feel-good story that generates a wild amount of traffic and attracts new users precisely as the company doubles down on its reputation as a music destination as well as a nascent TV and studio film portal.
All of this happened in under a week and a half. By comparison, Avril Lavigne’s "Girlfriend" — YouTube’s current reigning champion — took more than two years to accumulate its tally of 118 million views (and required some gaming of the system by her fans to do so).
Boyle’s rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables currently has 70 million views on YouTube’s first search-result page alone, and multiple estimates have pegged the total number of views at around 100 million and still climbing steeply over the weekend. If YouTube’s audio fingerprinting technology works as advertised,
Cowell and company should be paid when people watch the user-uploaded videos, in addition to the official version.
Avril’s manager suggested last summer that she would earn $2 million from her YouTube video views, as part of the labels’ revenue-sharing program (which almost certainly offers more favorable terms than those offered by the standard YouTube Partners program). But despite breakaway successes like Lavigne’s and Boyle’s, some licensing deals between music copyright holders and Google have broken down over revenue-sharing disagreements — an indication that the labels see YouTube as an important source of revenue. As a result, Warner’s pulled its videos, and all official music videos on YouTube are blocked in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Assuming Boyle continues her run without succumbing to a fan backlash, she’ll win the Britain’s Got Talent
competition’s $200K first prize and a possible a recording contract with Cowell. Will she see a piece of this YouTube action? If her lawyer has any sense, he or she will insist that
Boyle receive a share of YouTube revenue going forward.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Bet dieting takes hold in the UK
A new method of losing weight by betting on your own success is gaining popularity in the UK.
Bet dieters join a website and make a commitment to lose a certain amount of weight over a defined period of time.
Then, if they fail to meet their targets, money is withdrawn from their account and paid to a charity of their choice.
The scheme started in the US, but already has more than 1,000 followers in the UK.
Not only are people who sign up hit in the wallet if they fail, their friends can get to hear about it via a group e-mail.
In the US the scheme is said to be achieving success rates of up to 85%.
All weight loss must be verified by a referee.
The founders say a particularly effective way to encourage people to lose weight is to get them to nominate a charity with whose views they disagree to receive money should they fail.
Jordan Goldberg, co-founder of the StickK bet dieting website, said: "The anti-charity aspect is where we take your money and we send it to an organisation that you oppose should you fail.
"We chose some highly contentious issues, for instance global warming, abortion and gay marriage.
"The idea is you choose an organisation whose views are contrary to your own as an added incentive to stay motivated to succeed."
Mixed results
Robert Carter, an investment analyst from Dorset who has been bet dieting for over a month, says his experience has been mixed.
He said: "I passed the first week, I lost my pound and half. I only lost a pound in the second week and so I failed, so I have given my £3.60 to the charities.
"I think I will lose the weight, it is certainly an incentive. I'm not sure I if have over-gambled, I might end up giving them £3.60 every week, and falling slightly behind.
"But I think it is certainly a good project."
Doctors remain to be convinced by the long-term effect of the schemes.
Professor Richard Ashcroft, of the Centre for the Study of Incentives in Health, said: "When somebody is in the middle of an incentive scheme they can be quite effective.
"People can be quite good at their weight loss programmes, eating less or taking more exercise.
"The problem is once the incentive scheme has finished we don't know if they carry on being successful after that - we don't know if people manage to stay with the weight loss or exercise regime once the incentive is taken away."
Do you want to try it?
Bet dieters join a website and make a commitment to lose a certain amount of weight over a defined period of time.
Then, if they fail to meet their targets, money is withdrawn from their account and paid to a charity of their choice.
The scheme started in the US, but already has more than 1,000 followers in the UK.
Not only are people who sign up hit in the wallet if they fail, their friends can get to hear about it via a group e-mail.
In the US the scheme is said to be achieving success rates of up to 85%.
All weight loss must be verified by a referee.
The founders say a particularly effective way to encourage people to lose weight is to get them to nominate a charity with whose views they disagree to receive money should they fail.
Jordan Goldberg, co-founder of the StickK bet dieting website, said: "The anti-charity aspect is where we take your money and we send it to an organisation that you oppose should you fail.
"We chose some highly contentious issues, for instance global warming, abortion and gay marriage.
"The idea is you choose an organisation whose views are contrary to your own as an added incentive to stay motivated to succeed."
Mixed results
Robert Carter, an investment analyst from Dorset who has been bet dieting for over a month, says his experience has been mixed.
He said: "I passed the first week, I lost my pound and half. I only lost a pound in the second week and so I failed, so I have given my £3.60 to the charities.
"I think I will lose the weight, it is certainly an incentive. I'm not sure I if have over-gambled, I might end up giving them £3.60 every week, and falling slightly behind.
"But I think it is certainly a good project."
Doctors remain to be convinced by the long-term effect of the schemes.
Professor Richard Ashcroft, of the Centre for the Study of Incentives in Health, said: "When somebody is in the middle of an incentive scheme they can be quite effective.
"People can be quite good at their weight loss programmes, eating less or taking more exercise.
"The problem is once the incentive scheme has finished we don't know if they carry on being successful after that - we don't know if people manage to stay with the weight loss or exercise regime once the incentive is taken away."
Do you want to try it?
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Obama moves to curb car emissions
Advertisement
Obama: 'The cost of driving these vehicles will go down'
US President Barack Obama has announced tough targets for new fuel-efficient vehicles in order to cut pollution and lower dependence on oil imports.
Describing the move as "historic", Mr Obama said the country's first-ever national standards would reduce vehicle emissions by about a third by 2016.
The plan aims to replace overlapping rules on emissions and efficiency set by federal agencies and states.
US carmakers and environmental groups have expressed support for the move.
Under the proposed standards, manufacturers would be required to begin improving fuel efficiency by 5% a year from 2012.
By 2016, they would have to reach an average of 39 miles per US gallon for passenger cars, and 30 miles per gallon for light lorries.
The new targets would increase the average fuel efficiency of all US cars and light lorries to 35.5 miles per gallon, about 10 miles per gallon more than the current standard.
Announcing the plan at the White House, Mr Obama said the status quo was "no longer acceptable" and led to dependence on oil exporting countries and climate change.
The new standards are expected to raise the price of new vehicles by about $1,300 (£839) per vehicle by 2016.
But the president said this would be offset by lower fuel cost within three years.
The US is the biggest car market with more than 250 million cars and light lorries on the road.
The proposed nationwide standard for exhaust emissions is expected to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced by new passenger vehicles by 34%.
Obama: 'The cost of driving these vehicles will go down'
US President Barack Obama has announced tough targets for new fuel-efficient vehicles in order to cut pollution and lower dependence on oil imports.
Describing the move as "historic", Mr Obama said the country's first-ever national standards would reduce vehicle emissions by about a third by 2016.
The plan aims to replace overlapping rules on emissions and efficiency set by federal agencies and states.
US carmakers and environmental groups have expressed support for the move.
Under the proposed standards, manufacturers would be required to begin improving fuel efficiency by 5% a year from 2012.
By 2016, they would have to reach an average of 39 miles per US gallon for passenger cars, and 30 miles per gallon for light lorries.
The new targets would increase the average fuel efficiency of all US cars and light lorries to 35.5 miles per gallon, about 10 miles per gallon more than the current standard.
Announcing the plan at the White House, Mr Obama said the status quo was "no longer acceptable" and led to dependence on oil exporting countries and climate change.
The new standards are expected to raise the price of new vehicles by about $1,300 (£839) per vehicle by 2016.
But the president said this would be offset by lower fuel cost within three years.
The US is the biggest car market with more than 250 million cars and light lorries on the road.
The proposed nationwide standard for exhaust emissions is expected to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced by new passenger vehicles by 34%.
The things you may interested in
Disney stickers
Hello Kitty Stationery
If you are interested in it, please feel free to contact me!!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
get hurt
I want to be the one with you!!
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend Lyrics
[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
No it's not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend
You're so fine
I want you mine
You're so delicious
I think about ya all the time
You're so addictive
Don't you know what I could do to make you feel alright?
(alright alright alright alright)
Don't pretend I think you know I'm damn precious
Hell yeah
I'm the mother (*****ing) princess
I can tell you like me too and you know I'm right
(I'm right I'm right I'm right)
She's like so whatever
You could do so much better
I think we should get together now
And that's what everyone's talking about!
[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
No it's not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend
I can see the way, I see the way you look at me
And even when you look away I know you think of me
I know you talk about me all the time again and again
(and again and again and again)
So come over here, tell me what I want to hear
Better yet make your girlfriend disappear
I don't want to hear you say her name ever again
(And again and again and again!)
She's like so whatever
You could do so much better
I think we should get together now
And that's what everyone's talking about!
[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
No it's not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend
In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger
Cause I can, cause I can do it better
There's no other
So when's it gonna sink in
She's so stupid
What the hell were you thinking?
In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger
Cause I can, cause I can do it better
There's no other
So when's it gonna sink in
She's so stupid
What the hell were you thinking?
[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
No it's not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend
No Way No Way....
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend Lyrics
[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
No it's not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend
You're so fine
I want you mine
You're so delicious
I think about ya all the time
You're so addictive
Don't you know what I could do to make you feel alright?
(alright alright alright alright)
Don't pretend I think you know I'm damn precious
Hell yeah
I'm the mother (*****ing) princess
I can tell you like me too and you know I'm right
(I'm right I'm right I'm right)
She's like so whatever
You could do so much better
I think we should get together now
And that's what everyone's talking about!
[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
No it's not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend
I can see the way, I see the way you look at me
And even when you look away I know you think of me
I know you talk about me all the time again and again
(and again and again and again)
So come over here, tell me what I want to hear
Better yet make your girlfriend disappear
I don't want to hear you say her name ever again
(And again and again and again!)
She's like so whatever
You could do so much better
I think we should get together now
And that's what everyone's talking about!
[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
No it's not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend
In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger
Cause I can, cause I can do it better
There's no other
So when's it gonna sink in
She's so stupid
What the hell were you thinking?
In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger
Cause I can, cause I can do it better
There's no other
So when's it gonna sink in
She's so stupid
What the hell were you thinking?
[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
No it's not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend
No Way No Way....
Saturday, May 16, 2009
How safe are US regional airlines?
BBC NEWS
Seven of the last eight fatal commercial plane crashes in the US involved regional airlines.
The most recent accident, in which a Continental Connection plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, left 50 people dead.
Investigators have not yet said what caused the crash, but central to their inquiry have been questions about the crew's experience, training and working conditions.
And safety experts are asking the very same questions about the regional airline industry as a whole.
Second jobs
Alex Lapointe loves flying, which is fortunate, because he cannot be doing it for the money.
Just 24 years old, First Officer Lapointe has been a regional airline pilot for the last three years.
Like many regional carriers - which typically operate planes carrying fewer than 100 passengers - the company he works for pays a starting salary of around $20,000 (£13,256).
Some of his young pilot friends are saddled with more than $100,000 in student loans and he says many of them have taken second jobs.
"A lot of people I know have trade jobs or construction work they do electrical work. Some still work at the airport they grew up with pumping gas or working the line - anything they can to make an extra few dollars," he says.
He thinks that the new recruits are tiring themselves out and it is having an impact on safety.
"They don't have enough time to enjoy their days off and they're constantly working - they're doing the grind 24/7. When it's the fourth leg on a heavy flying day and the first officer's flying and the captain's working the radios and there's a hundred things going on, you're going to want both people in the cockpit well rested," says First Officer Lapointe.
Fatigue has long been of concern to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal agency responsible for investigating plane crashes in America.
In a number of recent regional accident reports, they concluded that pilot fatigue was partly to blame:
When a Corporate Airlines flight crashed in Kirksville, Missouri, in 2004, the NTSB said that fatigue contributed to the pilots' "degraded performance"
It found that the captain of a Delta Connection plane which overran the runway in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2007, had slept for only one of the previous 32 hours
When later that same year a Canadair jet overran the runway in Traverse City, Michigan, the NTSB ruled that fatigue was the likely cause of "poor decision-making"
Now the NTSB is investigating another regional accident where fatigue could have been a factor. Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York in February this year. All of the 49 passengers and crew on board died, as well as one person on the ground.
Pilot hours
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, speculation focused on the idea that an ice build-up on the wings had affected the plane's performance.
While ice has not been ruled out as a factor, the NTSB - which is holding a public hearing into the crash this week - has announced that the "circumstances of the crash have raised several issues that go well beyond the widely discussed matter of airframe icing".
They are looking at the experience and training of the crew, whether standard procedures were being followed and the issue of fatigue management.
Roger Cohen of the Regional Airline Association (the regional airlines' trade association) acknowledges that pilot fatigue is an issue but he insists it is an industry-wide problem that is not unique to the regional sector, and points to strict rules limiting pilot hours in the cockpit.
"They shouldn't be tired and that's the responsibility of anybody and the rules prevent you from being tired. Let me ask anybody else - should they come to their job tired? No they shouldn't, no-one should."
Regional airlines now operate half of all flights in America.
Their dramatic growth is in part due to the economy - as fewer passengers fly, smaller planes have become more economical.
But industry insiders have told the BBC that the regional airlines - in their rush to recruit extra staff - have hired pilots with drastically fewer flying hours.
Patrick Smith is a pilot for a major carrier and writes a weekly aviation column for Salon.com.
When he started out 20 years ago, he needed at least 1,500 flying hours to get a job at a regional airline.
Now, he says, it is common for pilots to be hired with 200-300 hours, which, he says, though legal is "astonishingly low".
And he explained that being a good pilot is about more than training.
"There's no good way to teach good judgement - only experience really can develop that," he says.
Safety programme
But federal officials are not just worried about low pay and inexperience.
Robert Sumwalt, a member of the board of the NTSB, is concerned that regional carriers do not have robust enough systems in place to monitor the performance of their pilots:
"When you look at the safety programmes that some of the regional carriers have, compared to what most of the major carriers have, there is a difference."
For more than a decade, safety experts have been advocating that all the airlines implement a program called Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA).
Using FOQA, airline companies can check up on how everyone involved in a flight is doing and - if mistakes are occurring - develop a training system to correct them.
Following an NTSB guideline issued two years ago, almost all of the major airlines adopted the programme. But to Robert Sumwalt's dismay, only three of America's 50 regional carriers have it in place.
"Safety is not a luxury," he says. "I think that if it's good for the major carriers it needs to be good for the regional carriers and I think that the travelling public is entitled to that and furthermore they deserve it."
But Roger Cohen points out that it is a complex programme to implement and the Regional Airline Association is trying hard to put it in place:
"We've got carriers that are doing it - more are doing it every day. If we were to do this interview next week, we'd probably have more. If we do it in a month, we'd have even more... We are following all the rules."
Patrick Smith says following the rules is not enough.
Through his online column, he regularly hears from regional pilots suffering from low morale:
"I see red flags. I see very low-time pilots in hi-tech airplanes in miserable or at least unsavoury working conditions. And something needs to be done about that before there is a legacy of crashes."
At this week's NTSB Buffalo crash hearing, the issues of pilot experience, fatigue and working conditions are expected to come to the fore.
Seven of the last eight fatal commercial plane crashes in the US involved regional airlines.
The most recent accident, in which a Continental Connection plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, left 50 people dead.
Investigators have not yet said what caused the crash, but central to their inquiry have been questions about the crew's experience, training and working conditions.
And safety experts are asking the very same questions about the regional airline industry as a whole.
Second jobs
Alex Lapointe loves flying, which is fortunate, because he cannot be doing it for the money.
Just 24 years old, First Officer Lapointe has been a regional airline pilot for the last three years.
Like many regional carriers - which typically operate planes carrying fewer than 100 passengers - the company he works for pays a starting salary of around $20,000 (£13,256).
Some of his young pilot friends are saddled with more than $100,000 in student loans and he says many of them have taken second jobs.
"A lot of people I know have trade jobs or construction work they do electrical work. Some still work at the airport they grew up with pumping gas or working the line - anything they can to make an extra few dollars," he says.
He thinks that the new recruits are tiring themselves out and it is having an impact on safety.
"They don't have enough time to enjoy their days off and they're constantly working - they're doing the grind 24/7. When it's the fourth leg on a heavy flying day and the first officer's flying and the captain's working the radios and there's a hundred things going on, you're going to want both people in the cockpit well rested," says First Officer Lapointe.
Fatigue has long been of concern to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal agency responsible for investigating plane crashes in America.
In a number of recent regional accident reports, they concluded that pilot fatigue was partly to blame:
When a Corporate Airlines flight crashed in Kirksville, Missouri, in 2004, the NTSB said that fatigue contributed to the pilots' "degraded performance"
It found that the captain of a Delta Connection plane which overran the runway in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2007, had slept for only one of the previous 32 hours
When later that same year a Canadair jet overran the runway in Traverse City, Michigan, the NTSB ruled that fatigue was the likely cause of "poor decision-making"
Now the NTSB is investigating another regional accident where fatigue could have been a factor. Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York in February this year. All of the 49 passengers and crew on board died, as well as one person on the ground.
Pilot hours
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, speculation focused on the idea that an ice build-up on the wings had affected the plane's performance.
While ice has not been ruled out as a factor, the NTSB - which is holding a public hearing into the crash this week - has announced that the "circumstances of the crash have raised several issues that go well beyond the widely discussed matter of airframe icing".
They are looking at the experience and training of the crew, whether standard procedures were being followed and the issue of fatigue management.
Roger Cohen of the Regional Airline Association (the regional airlines' trade association) acknowledges that pilot fatigue is an issue but he insists it is an industry-wide problem that is not unique to the regional sector, and points to strict rules limiting pilot hours in the cockpit.
"They shouldn't be tired and that's the responsibility of anybody and the rules prevent you from being tired. Let me ask anybody else - should they come to their job tired? No they shouldn't, no-one should."
Regional airlines now operate half of all flights in America.
Their dramatic growth is in part due to the economy - as fewer passengers fly, smaller planes have become more economical.
But industry insiders have told the BBC that the regional airlines - in their rush to recruit extra staff - have hired pilots with drastically fewer flying hours.
Patrick Smith is a pilot for a major carrier and writes a weekly aviation column for Salon.com.
When he started out 20 years ago, he needed at least 1,500 flying hours to get a job at a regional airline.
Now, he says, it is common for pilots to be hired with 200-300 hours, which, he says, though legal is "astonishingly low".
And he explained that being a good pilot is about more than training.
"There's no good way to teach good judgement - only experience really can develop that," he says.
Safety programme
But federal officials are not just worried about low pay and inexperience.
Robert Sumwalt, a member of the board of the NTSB, is concerned that regional carriers do not have robust enough systems in place to monitor the performance of their pilots:
"When you look at the safety programmes that some of the regional carriers have, compared to what most of the major carriers have, there is a difference."
For more than a decade, safety experts have been advocating that all the airlines implement a program called Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA).
Using FOQA, airline companies can check up on how everyone involved in a flight is doing and - if mistakes are occurring - develop a training system to correct them.
Following an NTSB guideline issued two years ago, almost all of the major airlines adopted the programme. But to Robert Sumwalt's dismay, only three of America's 50 regional carriers have it in place.
"Safety is not a luxury," he says. "I think that if it's good for the major carriers it needs to be good for the regional carriers and I think that the travelling public is entitled to that and furthermore they deserve it."
But Roger Cohen points out that it is a complex programme to implement and the Regional Airline Association is trying hard to put it in place:
"We've got carriers that are doing it - more are doing it every day. If we were to do this interview next week, we'd probably have more. If we do it in a month, we'd have even more... We are following all the rules."
Patrick Smith says following the rules is not enough.
Through his online column, he regularly hears from regional pilots suffering from low morale:
"I see red flags. I see very low-time pilots in hi-tech airplanes in miserable or at least unsavoury working conditions. And something needs to be done about that before there is a legacy of crashes."
At this week's NTSB Buffalo crash hearing, the issues of pilot experience, fatigue and working conditions are expected to come to the fore.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Free Air Ticket (Air Asia)
It is a good news to everyone!!!!!!!
Booking Period : 11 May 2009- 15 May 2009
Travel Period : 5 Jan 2010 - 30 Apr 2010
Hurry! Get free seats to local and international destinations and be on your to your dream holiday
http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/page.jsp?reference=fs
Booking Period : 11 May 2009- 15 May 2009
Travel Period : 5 Jan 2010 - 30 Apr 2010
Hurry! Get free seats to local and international destinations and be on your to your dream holiday
http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/page.jsp?reference=fs
Monday, May 11, 2009
Funny Video 1
Basically, this is what the classic board game Operation would be like if it were a Japanese game show that involved breasts. It's brilliant.
EMBED-Don't Ram the Boobs - Watch more free videos
EMBED-Don't Ram the Boobs - Watch more free videos
Good news!! CX promtion
Now, CX offers a special fare to you!
'Weekend Smart Saver' online special
Cathay Pacific will launch "Weekend Smart Saver" online at 18:00 every Friday until noon on Monday.The fare includes a round trip ticket from only TWD4,050 to Hong Kong, TWD4,300 to Korea, TWD4,800 to South East Asia, TWD6,800 to Japan and TWD7,000 to China! This is a limited time and limited availability offer. Book now to seize this great opportunity!
http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_TW/offerspromotions/offerdetails?refID=f1c73885a4428110VgnVCM32000011d21c39____&WAcampid=TPE_OFFERS_HKGWKDSS08E&WAemail=SALES
'Weekend Smart Saver' online special
Cathay Pacific will launch "Weekend Smart Saver" online at 18:00 every Friday until noon on Monday.The fare includes a round trip ticket from only TWD4,050 to Hong Kong, TWD4,300 to Korea, TWD4,800 to South East Asia, TWD6,800 to Japan and TWD7,000 to China! This is a limited time and limited availability offer. Book now to seize this great opportunity!
http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_TW/offerspromotions/offerdetails?refID=f1c73885a4428110VgnVCM32000011d21c39____&WAcampid=TPE_OFFERS_HKGWKDSS08E&WAemail=SALES
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Chinese Cusine
It originated from the various regions of China and has become widespread in many other parts of the world.
Chinese food therapy
It is a practice of healing using natural foods instead of medications.
Cantonese people pay much attention to the body's reaction to food. Food items are classified accordingly, and diet is adjusted based on the body's conditions. In effect, many Cantonese people practice food therapy in day to day situations. The following is a list of common food classifications:
Some common food therapy items and recipes
Bird nest (燕窩)
Oral secretion of swiftlets, collected from the binding material of their nests.
Alleged effects: promote beautiful skin for women; "strengthen the spleen and open up the stomach" (健脾開胃 meaning improve appetite.)
vegetables and fruits are believed to nullify the effect of bird nest if taken within the same day.
The dried material is soaked in water to rehydrate.
The soaked bird nest is cleaned by hand to remove other nest building debris such as grass and feathers.
The cleaned and crumbled bird nest is double steamed with rock sugar as a dessert or with a small amount of pork as a soup.
Korean or Chinese ginseng (高麗參)
Root of a plant that has the Yang properties.
Alleged effects: promote circulation, increase blood supply, revitalize and aid recovery from weakness after illness.
The ginseng root is double steamed with chicken meat as a soup. (See samgyetang.)
American ginseng (花旗參)
Root of a plant similar to Korean ginseng, but it has the Yin properties.
Alleged effects: cleansing of excessive Yang in the body, aphrodisiac.
The ginseng is sliced, a few slices are soaked in hot water to make a tea.
Most American ginseng is produced in Wisconsin, USA.
A Cantonese cough remedy
Dried duck gizzards, watercress, apricot kernels (南北杏陳腎西洋菜湯):
Note: the following does not constitute medical advice. Please consult a physician.
Alleged effects: relieve both Yin (resulted from cold) or Yang (resulted from dryness) type of coughing.
Watercress (西洋菜) is for removing excessive yang in the body.
The sweet apricot kernels (南杏仁) and bitter apricot kernels (北杏仁) target the lungs.
The dried duck gizzards (乾鴨腎) are used to balance the Yin Yang of the recipe.
Watercress is available in most supermarkets while the rest of the ingredients can be found in most Chinese herb stores.
The ingredients are slow cooked for couple of hours into a soup, a small piece of pork is optional for flavor.
Do not use Yang type meat such as beef or chicken in this recipe because they nullify the effects of the watercress.
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