30 Pilots And Flight Attendants Confess Their Best Kept Secrets

 3057 These questions were asked on Reddit. My mind has officially been blown. I travel a lot, so some of this is pretty scary if you ask me. Maybe I’ll start taking the train…

1. The true story behind those oxygen masks.

That if the oxygen masks drop down, you only have about 15 minutes of oxygen from the point of pulling them down. However, that is more than enough time for the pilot to take us to a lower altitude where you can breathe normally.

More important – at altitude, you have 15-20 seconds before you pass out. Put yours on first, then do your kids. Passing out for a few seconds won’t harm the kids.

John Pilger - Stealing A Nation 2004 (MUST WATCH)

Corfu Nightscapes - A Company of Stars

BREAKING: GREECE TO GET NEW €8.5bn EURO AID TRANCHE TO AVOID MAY DEFAULT

By John Ward March 27, 2014 Antonis Samaras full of shit €8-8.5bn tranche to avoid Greek default Merkel lied to German people New EU relief for Greece granted

US Embassy sources in Athens confirmed to The Slog tonight that a new sum around €8-8.5bn will be handed over to the Greek Government in the next five weeks to enable it to avoid the May 21st default exclusively predicted here on January 17th this year.
I have no more detail beyond this, and so will stick to these four pertinent observations:
1. Cyprus was raped by the EC last year because of a debt sum just €3.5bn larger than this one.
2. Cyprus got into that situation by showing loyalty to its Greek compatriots being financially repressed by the Troika.
3. The news comes just two months after Antonis Samaras told the Greek people that Greece would “be freed from the EU aid program and begin its recovery in 2014″.
4. As I predicted, Angela Merkel lied to the German People about future bailouts.
If there is anyone out there who still has faith in the eurozoners, europhiles and collaborators, I have but one question:

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/breaking-greece-to-get-new-e8-5bn-euro-aid-tranche-to-avoid-may-default/

Sneak peek: The Rock becomes Hercules

Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY 

"I was born to play this role," says the 6-foot-5 action star.

(Photo: Kerry Brown, Paramount Pictures)

Sometimes special moments strike like Zeus' thunderbolts on a movie set.
For Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, a massive jolt came on the set of Hercules (out July 25) during a scene when his Greek hero was chained to stone pillars.
"It's when Hercules breaks through the chains and becomes the demi-god he was born to be," says Johnson. "I was actually yelling with all the power I could muster, 'I am Hercules!' I gave it my all and made myself pass out every time we did it. But I honestly felt in that moment that I was born to play this role."
From the looks of it, he might be right.
Even as a child, Johnson, 41, idolized the Herculean legend — "He was the first superhero." But with his 6-foot-5 frame and his famously heroic stature, Johnson is one of the few actors who could legitimately portray his hero onscreen.

Independence Day and the Feast of the Annunciation

A dual holiday enriches the March travel season

By deTraci Regula

Traveling in Greece this March? Independence Day on March 25th will fill the streets with parades and celebrations, both secular and sacred. In Athens, military parades for Independence Day will vie with Feast of the Annunciation church celebrations and anti-war demonstrations, keeping the streets both busy and sometimes blocked.

History of Greek Independence Day

In 1821, Greeks vigorously rose up against the oppressive Ottoman Empire which had occupied Greece for nearly four hundred years, embarking on the ultimately successful war of independence. Bishop Germanos of Patras boldly raised the Greek flag at the monastery of Agia Lavras, inciting the Peloponnese to rise against the oppressors. While the exact date probably was not March 25th, it did occur in late March and it was gradually associated with the religious feast of the Annunciation.

The Feast of the Annunciation

On this day in the Greek Orthodox calendar, the archangel Gabriel appeared to the maiden Mary and announced the news: she was pregnant with the divine child. Bishop Germanos chose this day to deliver a different but not unrelated message: a new spirit was about to be born in Greece. The churches celebrate the Festival of the Annunciation with pomp, ceremony, and joy. The spectacle is especially vivid on the islands of Tinos and Idra (Hydra). Hydra, a maritime merchant power with a swift, well-maintained fleet, was a determined and effective supporter of the War for Independence, doubling the celebration there. You can also expect colorful religious ceremonies wherever the local monastery or church is named "Evangelisimos" or "Evangelistria", such as Panagia Evangelistria on Tinos.

More on Greek Independence Day & the Festival of the Annunciation

Travelers who don't throw themselves into the spirit of the day may be frustrated with delays, unexpected site closures, and a general lack of attentiveness by the Greeks, who are busy with the dual holiday.

Greek Independence Day Abroad

Greek Independence Day is also celebrated by many of the Greeks of the diaspora, and large parades are becoming more common in United States cities where Greeks have made their homes, including Boston and New York City. Each year, the U.S. President marks Greek Independence Day with a proclamation reminding citizens of the contributions of Greece to democracy, and of the ongoing contributions of expatriate Greeks in their new communities throughout the world.
http://gogreece.about.com/cs/folkloreevents/a/greeceindepend.htm 

Hope: Cancer patient Panoulis, 4.5, to finally receive treatment

 

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society

It needed two months of ‘promises and mockery’, the mobilization of a whole island and the public outcry until 4.5-year-old “Panoulis” -as his friends and supporters call him -could safely step into the path of his therapy.  Greek Health Ministry finally approved to cover part of the money needed for the treatment of Panoulis at the Memorial Hospital in New York.
Panagiotis Georgotas has been suffering from neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer, quite common during infancy. Therapy in Greece was not possible, the child needed to be treated in USA where doctors gave him extreme high chances to beat the cancer. Apparently Panoulis had 0% chances to be healed in Greece and Europe, but 70%-80% in the USA even though the therapy is still at experimental stage.

Five things 300: Rise of an Empire gets wrong

By Paul Cartledge

Let’s be clear of one thing right from the word go: this is not in any useful sense a historical movie. It references a couple of major historical events but is not interested in ‘getting them right’. It uses historical characters but abuses them for its own dramatic, largely techno-visual ends. It wilfully commits the grossest historical blunders. This is in fact a historical fantasy-fiction movie and should be viewed and judged only as such. But in case any classroom teachers of Classical civilization or Classical history should be tempted to use it as a teaching aid: caveant magistri — let the teachers beware! Here are just five ways in which the movie is at best un-historical, at worst anti-historical.
(1) Error sets in with the very title: the ’300′ bit is a nod to Zack Snyder’s infinitely more successful 2006 movie to which this is a kind of sequel, and there is not just allusion to but bodily lifting of a couple of scenes from the predecessor. But which Empire is supposed to be on the rise here? I suppose that it’s meant to be, distantly, the ‘Athenian Empire’, but that didn’t even begin to rise until at least two years after the events the movie focuses on: the sea-battles of Artemisium and Salamis that both took place in 480 BCE.

Bankers kill each other as Greek default looms, Carney & Osborne engage in light fisticuffs, Crimean War restarts without Florence Nightingale, Malaysian plane hijacked to five places at once, and Osborne prepares for Alamo remake

By John Ward

Slog visual of the Month

Events have been fast and furious over the last six weeks, and far too often devoid of humour. In recognition of this, The Slog offers below a digest with links for all those starved of time and chuckles. The latest score from the Big Match stands at Dragons 9 Slog 0. I had a goal disallowed for offside when it was 1-0. It could’ve changed the entire face of the game. But as they used to say in New Labour, forward not back.

February began in  triumph with the Slog’s prediction of Greek default confirmed by the Wall Street Journal. There was no tickertape parade, and life in denial continued as normal.

Two days later, I offered the 907th debunking of wind power (courtesy of the German Government) but the de facto acceptance of all things Green carried on, with the evidence presented remaining in loco parentis.

The somewhat murky past of David SonoJim Prior in private health skullduggery was Slogged soon afterwards (he’d been chosen as head of an NHS enquiry, in much the same way that Jeremy Hunt was chosen to ease through, sorry, monitor, the BSkyB bid). The news was ignored in favour of Wayne’s loverat caper with 3-in-a-bed call girls, and so we must regard Prior’s blatantly political appointment as still in parentheses.

Athens: Police arrests Alzheimer’s patient, 90, for €5,000 debt to the tax office

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society

An Alzheimer’s patient had to experience an incredible and cruel adventure, the moment she stepped out the door. The 90-year-old woman left her home on a February night and started wandering in her neighborhood. When policemen found her they took her to police station. In a search apparently to find her relatives and some home address, the computer spitted the information that the woman was owing 5,000 euro to the tax office. According to the latest laws, debtors owing more than 5,000 euro to the state have to be detained and prosecuted.

Instead of bringing the Alzheimer’s patient to the safe environment back home, the police had to apply the law and detain her.

Golden Dawn supporters rally for imprisoned leader's release

• Helena Smith in Athens
• theguardian.com, Sunday 1 December 2013 17.54 GMT

Golden Dawn supporters held a massive protest in front of the the Greek parliament. Photograph: Nicolas Koutsokostas/Demotix/Corbis

Thousands of supporters of Greece's neo-fascist Golden Dawn gathered in front of the country's parliament this weekend to demand the release of their imprisoned leader Nikos Michaloliakos, in the party's first high-profile rally in months.
Holding burning torches and blue and white Greek flags, black-clad sympathisers converged on Syntagma Square in Athens on Saturday night almost two months after revelations emerged of the extremists' criminal activities.

EUROBLOWN BREAKING…..Writing on the wall as Troika, ECB split on Greece, and Spanish bank lending collapses

By John Ward November 29, 2013

BUSTED FLUSH IN THE HOUSE OF CARDS

For some time now, The Slog has been pointing out the inevitability of Greek default next Spring unless there is a change in the stony-faced attitude of Brussels-am-Berlin. A week ago, a Merrill Lynch note at last started debating the ‘inconvenient truth about Greece’. Now it transpires that secret negotiations between Athens and the Troika are under way about the promised then unpromised debt relief, and whether a further bailout of banks will be possible.
Nobody as yet wants to acknowledge the stream of urine bursting forth from the elephant to drown everyone in this room: that the ‘recovery’ hype is exactly that, and under the terms of Bailout2 the Greek debt just keeps getting bigger.

Athens Tech Demo Siggraph 2013 from WHISKYTREE on Vimeo

Reena Patel Checks Into The Westin Resort Costa Navarino

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A colossal luxury development bursting with five star resort flair and authentic Mediterranean flavour.

A wondrous realm lies in the sun-drenched and rich historical region of Messinia in the southwest Peloponnese of Greece – Costa Navarino.

Navarino Dunes, the first area, is home to two totally geared up hotels: The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort and The Westin Resort, Costa Navarino. Inspired by old Messinian mansions and traditional rural houses, clusters of low-rise villas set within lush landscapes vividly conjure up a suitably appropriate Mediterranean village vibe. The entire plot also faces an unspoiled sandy beach, the shade of light muscavado sugar, overlooking the sparkling Ionian Sea.
I got to stay in one of the more classically luxurious rooms at The Westin. Heavenly bed: check, Wi-Fi access: check and most impressively, an outdoor patio with large infinity pool to take a private dip: check and check.

Why non-Christians and even non-believers should fight to preserve Hagia Sophia

  Georgia Logothetis

 

Help us send a strong message that Hagia Sophia should not be converted into a mosque. We’ll deliver this petition directly to UNESCO and other interested parties to make clear that the world needs Hagia Sophia to continue to be accessible and appreciated by all.  http://hellenicleaders.com/HagiaSophia
On November 24, 1934, the Turkish Council of Ministers decreed that Hagia Sophia, formerly a Christian church and at that time a mosque, would thereafter operate as a museum for all. Nearly 79 years to the day of that proclamation, there is a serious movement in Turkey to undue that decree. When the decree was made, the decision to shed Hagia Sophia’s mosque status and convert it into a museum was rooted in an appreciation for the building’s history and architecture. As the Turkish Council of Ministers declared at that time:

Tomorrow's cities: The Venus Project

The World's Rudest Nations For Travelers

Congratulations, my fellow Americans! We’re not the rudest nation on the planet. We’re not even in the top 5. USA! USA!

The travel search site Skyscanner.com surveyed its users about where the locals never smile and people are particularly unfriendly, and the nation with the most votes for rudest locals was…

Wait for it…

France (félicitations, mes amis!), followed by Russia. The survey received over 1,200 responses, 65 percent from the UK and Ireland, plus elsewhere in Europe, North America and Australia.

Rounding out the top five rudest countries were the UK, Germany and “Other” (those Others are the worst, don’t you think?). The US placed 7th, behind China.

Some of the perceived rudeness may be attributable to cultural differences rather than anything intentional. For example, says Tatiana Danilova, Skyscanner’s Russian Market Manager, “the Russian language is not as polite as English, so when Russians translate directly from Russian to English, it can sound rude to an English speaker even if they don’t mean it to.”

“We were surprised to see Russians come in second place,” says Skyscanner’s Travel Editor, Sam Baldwin. He attributes this in part to the “familiarity breeds contempt” phenomenon. Although Russia doesn’t compare with the Mediterranean as a tourist destination, as visa regulations have relaxed, Russian holidaymakers are increasingly flocking to the Mediterranean and coming into contact with people from other countries.

Glafkos Clerides, Greek Cypriot Leader Who Sought Unification, Is Dead at 94

Cypriot president Glafcos Clerides, left, greets Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash at the United Nations as Richard Holbrooke, center, looks on.

Marwan Naamani/Agence France-Presse

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Glafkos Clerides, the president of Cyprus from 1993 to 2003, who as leader of his nation’s Greek Cypriot majority was a frustrated peacemaker in futile talks with Turkish Cypriots to reunify their long-divided Mediterranean island, died on Friday in Nicosia, the capital. He was 94.

Glafkos Clerides, former president of Cyprus, was regarded as a fair and skillful negotiator.

His death was confirmed by Yianna Shiatou, the press attaché at the Cyprus Consulate in New York.

In a land torn by ethnic, religious and cultural rivalries, tugged by Turkey to the north and Greece to the west, Mr. Clerides (pronounced cleh-REE-dess) was a national leader for more than four decades after independence from Britain in 1960. World statesmen and both sides in the Cypriot tinderbox regarded him as a fair, skillful negotiator, seeking compromises for the elusive goal of reunification.

THIS IS NO GREEK MYTH: New poll confirms Golden Dawn supremacy

By John Ward

Crunch time for Alexis Tsipras

The latest opinion poll from Greece has a more robust sample than the last, but confirms its findings….and establishes as clear fact that Golden Dawn is now the largest Party by voting intentions in the Hellenic Republic.

The results combine the findings of two online polls conducted by electronic newspaper Zougla.gr over the last two weeks.Golden Dawn has consolidated its lead with 22.6%, followed by SYRIZA with 19.2% and New Democracy (effectively the ruling Party) third with just 16.7%. Independent Greeks and KKE are on 4.9% each, with junior Venizelos-led Coalition Party PASOK near-insignificant at 4.5%.

Greeks collapse but MPs keep their salaries at existing levels

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Politics

Greek lawmakers are about to vote to keep their salaries and expenses at the existing levels. A draft bill will be voted in the Parliament next Monday. I write “it will be voted” because nobody would dare believe that any MP whether from the coalition government nor form the opposition would vote against.

Average salary for MPs in 2014 will be €5,805 per month net.

Average  extra per month €437.5 for participation in committees and parliament sessions in summer + €1,799 allowance for office expenses + €50 family allowance + 379 travel expenses

= € 2,665

350K Greek households without electricity thanks to property tax

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society

Living without electricity in Greece has reached enormous proportions as thousands of households are unable to pay their electricity bills that skyrocket due to several additional energy charges, municipality fees and the so-called “emergency property tax”.

More than 350,000 property owners and tenants cannot pay in time the amount on the electricity bills with the effect that Public Power Company (DEH) cuts off their electricity supply.

About 10% of these households (35,000) forced to live in the dark seeks the aid of ‘activists’ who illegally reconnect the power, despite the risk to face prosecution and criminal charges.

It is only 6:10 households (210,000) that pay the bill and reconnect power, while the rest remains also weeks in the dark.

Taxes and more taxes swallow Greek employees’ wages

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society

I am so glad that somebody sat down and summarized what KTG has been reporting about for the last three years. Τhat is all the reporting about taxes and more taxes, and regular and emergency taxes that become permanent taxes. Not to forget the social security contributions and the income taxation based on fictitious income the finance ministry calculates but the taxpayer does not have.

In the article below,  journalist Thanos Tsirou calculates how much an employee gets in his pocket after taxes and social security contributions are subtracted from his salary. Furthermore, the journalist of daily Kathimerini  adds utility expenses and comes down to the shocking amount of 500 euro, an employee has in month to cover other personal needs like food and clothing.

Tsirou takes as example the ideal -and almost utopic – Greek employee of the private sector, who has a very well-paid job with 1,500 euro gross per month and gets his salary in time.

How one salary perishes

Erdogan: There is no country called Cyprus

Dimitris Kyprianou11/11/201322:06

Speaking at a conference in Poland he said that Cyprus is a Greek Cypriot administration and its accession to the EU was not harmonized with EU laws, but a political choice

Speaking at a conference in Poland the Turkish premier claimed that there is no country called Cyprus and the "Greek Cypriot administration" as he called the Republic of Cyprus was accepted into the EU for political reasons and not because it was harmonized with the European laws.

Greek government survives confidence vote, kicks out one deputy

By Lefteris Papadimas

Supporters of the leftist main opposition Syriza party take part in an anti-government rally in front of the parliament in Athens November 10, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Yorgos Karahalis

(Reuters) - Greece's conservative-led coalition defeated, as expected, an opposition-sponsored motion to topple the government on Monday, but lost one lawmaker who was expelled after backing the opposition.
A total 153 out of the parliament's 300 lawmakers rejected the opposition's censure motion. But Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's coalition expelled one Socialist lawmaker who voted with the opposition, reducing the coalition's majority to four.

Greece's 'Robin Hood' journalists raided by riot police after working months for free

John Kolesidis / Reuters

Protesters scuffle with policemen as they try to approach ERT's headquarters in Athens on Thursday.

By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor

Riot police stormed the headquarters of Greece’s former state broadcaster early Thursday and evicted dozens of journalists who have been working for free since the station was closed by the government almost five months ago.
The country’s coalition shuttered the state-run broadcaster ERT in June because it said it cost too much to run during Greece’s economic crisis.

Greek Strike: Thousands Protest Austerity Cuts As Services Shut Down

By ELENA BECATOROS 

ATHENS, Greece -- ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Services across Greece shut down Wednesday as unions staged a 24-hour general strike and held peaceful demonstrations to protest further austerity cuts in the cash-strapped country.
The strike disrupted public transport, halted ferry and train services, shut down courts and state-run schools, and left state hospitals and the ambulance service functioning with emergency staff.
Dozens of flights were canceled or rescheduled as air traffic controllers walked off the job for three hours in support of the labor action.

Fear in Greece as shock new poll puts Golden Dawn in first place

By John Ward 

 Further extreme political murders in Greece Golden Dawn leading Greek Party on 22% Open Cafenion talk of chaos and Civil War

A regular Slog source late last night furnished me with updated opinion/voting behaviour research carried out secretly by senior political players in Greece. Astonishingly, the study has the Far Right Golden Dawn Party in first place, followed closely by the Leftist Party Syriza.
As I predicted last month, the attempt by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to frame neo-Nazi Party Golden Dawn in the case of the murder of a young Leftist has backfired. The last poll from this source had GD in 2nd place. The Party has now taken over the top spot.

Costa-Gavras: Cinema's Last Angry Man

Filmmaker Constantine Costa-Gavras made his first mark on world cinema with his incendiary 1969 political thriller Z, which told the true story of the assassination of a progressive Greek politician in the early 1960s. After the film won a host of awards, including two Oscars, Costa-Gavras spent his career tackling controversial, politically and socially charged subjects, the highlights being films like State of Siege (1972), Missing (1982), Music Box (1989) and Amen (2002). Before there were "issue" filmmakers such as Oliver Stone and Michael Moore, Costa-Gavras set the stage.
This year finds Costa-Gavras, at age 80, still at the peak of his cinematic powers. Captial focuses on the world of international banking as a newly-minted CEO (Gad Elmaleh) of a French bank finds his moral compass quickly going south as he tries to maintain the balance of power in his professional and personal lives. Co-starring Gabriel Byrne, Natacha Régnier, and Céline Sallette, the Cohen Media Group release arrives on U.S. shores November 1.

'Cycle of violence' feared in Greece after shooting kills 2 Golden Dawn supporters

A police forensic expert searches for evidence outside the local offices of far-right Golden Dawn party, following last night's shooting, in a northern suburb of Athens November 2, 2013 (Reuters / John Kolesidis)

A ruthless drive-by murder of two young members of the far-right Golden Dawn party may draw Greece into a “cycle of violence,” local politicians warned.
Two Golden Dawn supporters, aged 22 and 27 years old, were shot dead outside the party’s office in the capital of Athens during Friday rush hour.

Another man, wounded in his chest and stomach, currently remains in critical condition.

CCTV camera footage indicates the attacker got off a motorbike driven by his accomplice and fired at his victims from close range in front of many witnesses.

GREECE: The truth….Samaras is a liar, and the economy is still going backwards

By John Ward November 1, 2013 Full steam backwards for Greece

There are times when putting up certain posts strikes one as pointless. But then one remembers that – who knows – some of this information might be hidden from historians in the immediate future….and then pop up from some cloud somewhere in the far future, thanks to the archaeological skills of somebody from the Third Millennium.
The following data are from the Greek Statistical service.
Go to this link here (you may need to press ctrl and + at the same time to read it) and you will see that every indicator of economic activity in Greece has been in 5th reverse gear since the 2008-10 period,