The eclipse will begin on Monday morning (May 21st) as the sun rises. The eclipse will then pass over the international date line which will allow the yanks to see the end of the eclipse on the evening of the 20th. Yes that’s correct as it passes over the date line!

I hope to get some good shots as the sun rises and the moon moves into place to give us a nice ring of fire. Hopefully, I will be able to use my 18x optical zoom to be able to zoom in and see some activity on the sun. I have been practising this morning with the shutter speed as the sun rose this morning.

The eclipse should last 5 minutes (NASA claims) but I would assume that would depend where you were on the earth.

I already have everything setup on my roof so that I have a clear view of the horizon when the sun comes up tomorrow morning. By 8am I should have the photos uploaded to this post, so make sure you check back.

Updates

03:30 – The sun is due to rise at 05:27, but that is the time it rises above the horizon. I should be able to see rays before it rises as I did yesterday, but today the sun will be partially eclipsed when it rises, so it will be interesting to see how it looks.

When the sun rises at 05:27:09, it will be eclipsed by the moon 29.9%, increasing to a max of 61.3% at 05:58:32.

Time for a quick nap so I can be up again in an hour.

Anders Behring Breivik, the extremist who murdered 77 people in Oslo during a bombing and shooting rampage has received a medical assessment just 6 days before due in court for trial. The assessment concluded that he was “Sane”.

Wooohoo! This means the fucker will get the maximum penalty.

But the maximum penalty is just 21 years!

Does this mean that the government is saying that an innocent persons life is only worth 3 months and 9 days in jail? Because this fucker will get less than that (3.27 months).

Is this insane or what?

Just 21 years for murdering 77 people, most of whom were children, in cold blood.

He could be out when he is 54!

Navy F/A-18 Hornet

A Navy F/A-18 Hornet took off with an instructor and student on board and then seemingly lost power, the occupants ejected and the F/A-18 Hornet crashed into a nearby apartment building, causing a large fire and killing at least 7 people.

The reports state that fuel was found on nearby houses and cars, which suggests that the fuel was dumped to prevent a large explosion and fire when the plane crashed. I am not too sure if Navy planes are allowed to dump fuel over the land, but I do know that commercial planes are not allowed. A case involving a swissair flight which had faulty wiring onboard that caused a fire to break out on board, behind the panelling was told to fly out to sea before dumping the fuel. That was the last that was heard from the plane. Before they could dump the fuel, the fire burned through critical wiring and the plane plummeted into the sea. However, that being said, the airforce and navy use a newer form of jet fuel which is designed to prevent fires on impact.

It has been suggested that the reason for the fuel dump was likely a malfunction, but I have my doubts. Look at the rear of the plane in the crash photo above. It seems as if it lot power or had one turbofan exhaust open more than the other. If this happened in flight, it would result in more power on one side than the other, causing the plane to turn. Below is a photo of the plane moments before it crashed.

Full Story…

Ryanair Rapid Decompression

On a Ryanair flight from Milan to East Midlands, just twenty minutes or so after taking off, passengers reported a loud “bang” followed by cold rushing air at their feet from front to back. The pilot immediately executed a rapid decent, following the correct protocol. This is one terrifying experience for passengers as it seems that you are going to crash. The manoeuvre is designed to reduce risk of hypoxia, which is caused by the lack of oxygen at high altitudes and can cause death. The plane will get down to an altitude where the pilots can safely breath so that they can take off their cumbersome oxygen masks and begin to troubleshoot the issue at hand so that they can figure out what it was and determine if a safe landing is possible. For example, has the loud bang caused any damage to engines or the landing gear.

My guess: Part of the plane towards the rear broke, causing it to either tear or shear off entirely. This would cause a rapid decompression that passengers would think was cold air rushing from the front of the plane when in reality, it would be the air in the plane rushing out of the rear at high speed, giving the impression of cold air going from the front of the plane to the back. With the difference in air pressure, you would not get air rushing into the plane, it would be rushing out.

What puzzles me is that the passengers claim that the pilot called “mayday mayday” over the passenger announcement system, which is very odd. Maybe they had left it on and were calling “mayday” over the radio.

What does “mayday” mean?
It is a quick one word method of saying “shit’s happened, dunno what, seems pretty fucking bad, check the radar to see where we are and vector us the fuck in to the nearest god damned runway that can handle our plane and has sufficient resources. Tell all the other planes to move out of the way and give us landing priority immediately.”. One pilot would be assigned to fly while the other handled the radar and other special functions if needed.

In my opinion, the pilot has done an excellent job. The plane suffered rapid decompression, but the pilot followed procedure and landed without any loss of life.

The passengers will now be bitching and moaning about how horrible it was. I always hate it when they do. Yea yea yea so what, it was horrible, but you are alive.

My hat goes off to the crew of the plane, especially the pilot and co-pilot, you did an awesome job.

On march 19th 2012, a report suggested that the Boeing 737 was prone to cracks in its skin. I assume this was due to metal fatigue as the plane skin stretches and compresses during flight, as all plane skins do. This report was the result of Southwest Airlines Flight 812 which suffered identical issues. It was climbing to a cruising altitude when part of the skin tore off, causing a loud bang and rapid decompression.

Full Story…

Today, this is an odd one, I was watching a report about the conviction of an arms dealer and towards the end, there was a piece to camera from the reporter. The shot was beautifully framed, the picture was crisp and the reporter was wearing vibrant red which matches the BBC logo. Maybe they have visited my website!

This video is really nicely framed and looks fantastic. Unfortunately, this is unusual for the BBC, but it should be taken as a shining example of what the BBC can do when they get it right.

When I got there, there was no in depth report.

There was no report at all! (see image)

Here are the two issues that have happened to me where Freelancer.com acted illegally and attempted to defraud me of my money.

The Milestone Payment Incident

After spending no less than 3 hours talking to Freelancer.com about their milestone payments, none of their support staff (except the 4th person I talked to) could explain what milestone payments were or how they worked.

When we created a milestone, the support staff told us to do it from the “Milestones” page as they did not know how the milestones worked on the projects page and as such could not tell us how to do it.

So, we went to the milestones page and created a milestone based on the instructions there. As the milestone was not for the first two options, the only one that seemed relevant was “other”.

All seemed fine until the project collapsed as the worker had used someone elses work and claimed it as their own.

I went to create a dispute, but the project was not listed. I contacted Freelancer.com support staff who told me that a dispute could not be opened as the milestone was under “other”. I explained that based on the reason for the milestone, it was the most logical selection.

Naturally, I wanted the money back as it was not a small amount. Freelancer said that they would hold the funds for 1 year before releasing them. I was furious and asked where in their terms it stated this and they pointed me to the section that refers to inactive users. I emailed their legal team and argued that they could not hold me to this as I was not an inactive user and their terms did not state anywhere that the funds of milestones would be held, therefore they could not hold me to terms that did not exist.

Freelancer finally released the funds to my account after a few emails back and forth.

The initial withdrawal issue

Today I was checking my account and we had around $230 available, so I decided to pull some of it back to an account so that I can use it. We will not be having any large projects for a while, so the funds would be of better use if I had the cash in my hands.

I decided to withdraw $201 as I had to pay a $1 fee to withdraw the funds, even though I paid freelancer a fee when they took the money for the project and then another fee when the project was disputed. So, this is essentially at least the third fee for the same money that they are forcing me to pay.

I completed the withdrawal and was presented with a confusing message:

Your withdrawal request has been successfully submitted.

Its status is ‘ Delayed’ for processing between Thu, 19 – Fri, 20 Apr 2012.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? It will be processed between the 19th and 20th, but today is only the 4th. That means that the earliest that they will send the money to my paypal account is in FIFTEEN DAYS!

I contacted their support staff and a very annoying member of staff called “Sunshine” told me that this was a security measure, even though I had used paypal to send them thousands and thousands of dollars in the past, they would hold my money for fifteen days before releasing it to me!

I asked where in the terms this was stated and she replied:

You will find it under “Payments and Billing” using this link: http://www.freelancer.com/faq/view.php

I pointed out that they can not hold anyone to their FAQ as they are not terms.

But know that these are applicable to all users on their very first withdrawal for security purposes. As mentioned earlier, it is clearly stated on our FAQs. Which you agreed upon signing up and using our Site.

Insane right? What they are saying is that I agreed to their FAQ when I joined the site, which is complete bullshit as nowhere does it state that you have to agree to their FAQ. Even if it did, I highly doubt it would be legal.

At this point, their staff did something that is common for Freelancer.com. They refused to answer my questions, ignored me, pretended there was a problem with the system and then slammed in the following replies in the space of a few seconds. Here is the last section of the chat I had with them so that you can see exactly what was said and what they did.

Me: Where in your terms does it say that I need to agree to your FAQ?

Me: And now you are ignoring me as your staff all do when asked a question of this nature.

Me: Where in your terms does it say that I need to agree to your FAQ?

Me: Hello?

Sunshine: Unfortunately there are limits to accessing issues here on live chat, please lodge a support ticket to request further information and to consider the withdrawal for you.

Sunshine: Is there anything else I can help you with?

Sunshine: Hello! Is there anything else I can help you with? If you’re temporarily away from your computer, I’ll wait 2 minutes and then close this conversation.

Sunshine: It’s been two minutes and I will now consider this conversation closed. Thank you for contacting Freelancer.com. Please don’t hesitate to contact us again.

I was naturally furious that they had done this again. Not only am I an employer who has spent thousands of dollars with Freelancer, but I am also an affiliate and regularly refer new users to them.

In short, Freelancer.com acts illegally, binds users to terms that either do not exist or do not relate to the users situation and their support staff seem to be trained to get rid of people with issues of this nature, asking them to open a ticket which gets the same blank responses stating that users are bound to their imaginary terms or FAQ.

I believe that the best solution would be to open a chargeback dispute as my card was used to pay paypal who in turn sent the money to Freelancer. This will be based on the fact that Freelancer.com are illegally holding me to terms that do not exist and therefore the service they provide is significantly not as described.

It is a hard enough job to make money online without scammers like Freelancer.com trying to rip you off along the way. My account will be closed as I will be taking my business elsewhere.

Updates

I wanted a reply from Freelancer, so I contacted them via facebook and twitter. Below are the tweets I made and received.

4th April: “Why do you illegally hold your customers to your FAQ and terms that do not exist?” sent to Freelancer via Twitter

5th April: “we’ll be getting our customer support manager to get back to you and sort everything out.” Received from Freelancer via Twitter.

Sure enough, I was emailed by the Marketing Manager who attempted to address some of the issues within this post. I replied to the Marketing Manager and asked the following questions:

1. Why do you hold users to terms that do not exist?
2. Why do you claim that users are bound by the FAQ?
3. Why do you claim that users agreed to the FAQ when they registered?
4. Why do you hold “other” milestones for 12 months when your terms state nothing of the kind?
5. Why do your staff always refuse to answer questions of this nature?
6. Why do your staff always do all they can to drop the live chat when faced with issues of this nature?
7. Why do you charge a fee to send you money, a fee to list a project, a fee to dispute when the project falls through and a fee to withdraw the funds that were sent to you for a project which fell through and was disputed? While I understand that you have fees, this is just insane as I am paying you fees left right and centre when it is not my fault. Are any of these fees refunded? If the project falls through and I win the dispute, I would have imagined that you would refund the project and dispute fee as well as maybe allowing me to recall the funds back to my funding source without another fee.

After 8 days and no reply, I emailed the Marketing Manager again who replied within an hour explaining that he was off sick after the office was closed for 4 days. How am I supposed to know he is off sick and no one else can deal with the issue?

In his reply, he did not answer any of the questions but did state the following:

You have highlighted a range of issues which we need to address.  All of the feedback that you have given is valid and in some cases concerning.

I do understand the issues you have experienced and apologise for them. As a token of our appreciation for your business and also for reaching out to let us know of the support issue I would like to offer you $100 credit to your Freelancer.com account.

What is your opinion? Leave a comment below…

Woohoo! I think I may be the first to post this story. I’m too lazy to do a search to check, so please feel free to shoot me down if I am wrong!

I have a post where I include a video by the Nine Inch Nails of their song “Closer“. My system notified me that there was an issue with the video. I checked it and saw a large message saying “This video contains content from UMG. It is not available.”. Essentially, it had been flagged by youtube, probably after UMG requested it to be removed.

The user who uploaded is the official user on youtube for NIN. They describe themself as “official video channel for nine inch nails. maintained and updated 100% by trent and rob.”.

So it is likely a genuine account.

The Nine Inch Nails song “closer” was on the album “The Downward Spiral” which was released on released March 8, 1994, on Interscope Records. Interscope Records parent company is Universal Music Group!

Essentially, something has gone wrong with their system and they have accidentally flagged an item as illegal when it is indeed legal. Nice one guys!

Naturally I wanted to see a picture of one as they still exist today. A quick search revealed that the only website in the world that mentioned “Chan’s Metastick” was the BBC as the real name for the insect is “Chan’s Megastick”. Why the hell would it be called “Meta” when it is large and not “Mega”? Did no one check this article? FAIL! (see images below)

BBC, your journalistic integrity is getting less and less.

1)

Russian President Putin gives the go ahead for Zombie Guns! – Full Story

Err Mr Putin, the ear protectors are on the wrong way aroun… on nevermind!

2)

Prime Minister David Cameron has contributed a recipe for spicy sausage pasta for the Eton Cookbook, which is to raise money for underprivileged and sick children. Westminster insiders say this is the ninth time he has contributed the same recipe to a charity cookbook. Cameron, you cheap bastard!

3)

In an absolutely disgusting story, the NHS lets a 77 year old lie on a trolley in an Accident & Emergancy ward for 24 hours without treatment before realising he was dead. Even when they realised the poor bastard had died, they failed to properly notify the family. Even after that they failed to do an autopsy! Fuuuuuuuuuuuk! – Full Story

4) And finally…

Father Martin McVeigh was giving a presentation to parents at St Mary’s School in Pomeroy, UK, in preparation for their children’s Holy Communion. The laptop was hooked up to a projector. Father Martin McVeigh inserted his flash drive and the presentation began. Instead of the presentation, 16 indecent images of men were displayed.

“He was visibly shaken and flustered,” said the parents. “He gave no explanation or apology to the group and bolted out of the room. The co-ordinator and the teachers then continued with the presentation.

“The meeting continued in his absence, however, the parents who viewed the pictures were horrified and distracted.

“Twenty minutes later he returned, he continued with the meeting and wrapped up by saying that the children get lots of money for their Holy Communion and should consider giving some of it to the church.”

Hey kid, wanna see some cool pics?

Maybe, if the children give some of the money they get for their Holy Communion to the church, the father can afford two flash drives. One for his presentations and a second (very clearly marked) for his collection of gay porn?! – Full Story

The ATR-72 had just left Tyumen on a flight north-east to the oil town of Surgut when it disappeared off radar at 05:35 local time (01:35 GMT) a short time after take off.

As soon as I saw this story and the photos, I knew it was an ATR-72 and saw the heavy snow, a very bad combination. The ATR-72 has a problem with its de-icing boots. As a plane flies through clouds and rain, in extremely cold conditions, it causes a lot of ice to build up on the wings which can cause drag, slowing the plane down. The de-icing boots are sections of the wing that are designed to remove the ice and prevent heavy build up.

However, on October the 31st 1994, American Eagle Flight 4184 was coming in to land at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, but was placed in a holding patten while other planes landed. While in the holding pattern, the plane flew through a series of clouds and freezing rain. This causes excessive build-up of ice on the wings which went so far back that the de-icing boots did not have any effect. The drag became so great that the flaps on the wings snapped and the plane began to roll. The crew amazingly regained control, but unfortunately, the plane rolled again and smashed into the ground.

While the ATR 42 and ATR 72 aircraft are now compliant with all icing condition requirements imposed by those 18 Airworthiness Directives, the de-icing boots still only reach back to 12.5% of the chord. Prior to the accident, they had extended only to 5% and 7%, respectively. They still fail to deal with the findings of the Boscombe Down tests, conducted by British regulators, which demonstrated that ice could form as far back on the wing as 23% of the chord, and on the tail at 30% of chord. Both percentages remain well beyond the limits of the extended deicing boots, installed in compliance with those FAA Airworthiness Directives.

Wikipedia