Hoax Slayer 'proves' Gibraltar Airport runway exists!

An article on Hoax Slayer today, focuses on an email going the rounds, showing photographs of Gibraltar's Airport Runway and questions the veracity of these photographs.

Hoax Slayer is a site I use regularly. It is renowned for debunking email hoaxes and exposing Internet scams. Articles normally give a summary of the subject, then proceeds to either prove it is a hoax and debunk it, or as in the case of Gibraltar's airport runway, shows evidence that proves the original premise in the article summary is true.

In its findings, Hoax Slayer concludes:

According to this 'email forward', the attached photographs depict the runway at Gibraltar Airport - a very unusual runway in that it is traversed by a busy road. The photographs show that traffic on the road crossing the runway is controlled by traffic lights and boom gates thereby allowing aircraft to land unhindered.

Although, such a runway configuration is certainly unusual, the photographs are genuine and do depict the Gibraltar AIrport runway.

As a born and bred Gibraltarian who has walked and driven across the runway thousands of times, flown in and out of it more times than some have had hot breakfasts... now and then in very 'hairy' weather conditions... and been stopped at the barriers on more occasions than I care to recall, I'm wondering... what's all the fuss!!

The article goes on to comment on the fact that these arrangements are currently being changed with the reconstruction of the airport terminal following plans unveiled by the Government of Gibraltar, in May 2007, which will include a new tunnel that will eventually carry the road under the airport runway.

The report also carries the following YouTube video of the road crossing Gibraltar Airport's runway and of a flight taking off:



As you can see, the video firstly shows a British Airways airbus flight taking off, then the arrival of the daily Spanish airline Iberia flight from Madrid landing, with the road crossing barriers down as it stops the road traffic and pedestrians for both flights.

The viewer is then taken on a flight take-off (actual airline not seen but my guess is it's probably BA) in a Westerly direction and shows some nice views of one of the Marinas, the Rock of Gibraltar itself and the Bay of Gibraltar. As the flight circles around the Rock firstly going South over the Strait of Gibraltar (with some views of Jebel Musa and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco in the distance), it then banks left to head East over the very western limits of the Mediterranean Sea towards Malaga and the Costa del Sol, on it's way for the couple of hours flight over Spain, the Bay of Biscay, France and final destination in the UK, either Luton, Gatwick or might even have been a Manchester flight.

The Prince's Rainforest Project

The Prince's Rainforests Project (PRP) was set up in 2007 by HRH The Prince of Wales to promote awareness of the urgent need to take action against tropical deforestation, a major contributor to climate change.

Their work falls into two main areas: A proposal for an Emergency Package of funding for rainforest nations and a global awareness campaign.

The PRP has carried out a number of other activities and research studies.

Awareness campaign

Today, the PRP launched a global awareness campaign and you can help to support it.

View the video or click on any of the links below to find out more about how YOU can help:

The Shipping Forecast... more than just bad weather

Call me weird (many often do) but for me, BBC Radio 4's Shipping Forecast is not just about weather... good or bad... it is also always a singularly wonderful, emotive and nostalgic experience to listen to!

The Shipping Forecast is a four-times-daily BBC radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the UK Meteorological Office (part of the Ministry of Defence) and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (part of the Department for Transport). (These forecasts are also sent over the Navtex system using a similar format and the same sea areas).

There are four Shipping Forecasts broadcasts per day:

• 0048 - transmitted on FM and LW. Includes weather reports from an extended list of coastal stations at 0052 and an inshore waters forecast at 0055 and concludes with a brief UK weather outlook for the coming day. The broadcast finishes at approximately 0058, and is followed by a short goodnight message and the National Anthem.


• 0520 - transmitted on FM and LW. Includes weather reports from a coastal stations at 0525, and an inshore waters forecast at 0527.


• 1201 - normally transmitted on longwave only.


• 1754 - transmitted on longwave only on weekdays, as an opt-out from the PM programme, but at weekends transmitted on both FM and Longwave.

The Shipping Forecast - A Distinctive Appeal

Because of its unique and distinctive sound, the broadcasts have an appeal beyond those solely interested in nautical weather!

The waters around the British Isles are divided into sea areas, also known as weather areas (see map above) such as Forties, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Humber, Thames, Dover, Wight, etc.

Many listeners find the well-known repetition of the names of the sea areas almost hypnotic, particularly during the bedtime (for Britain) broadcast at 0048 GMT.

Like me, many listeners regard these broadcasts with affection. In Great Britain the Shipping Forecast often comes up in general knowledge quizzes and is the butt of many affectionate jokes. It is also a subject that has often influenced many in popular culture. Due to its set rhythm, calm enunciation, and evocative names, the Shipping Forecast can sound quite poetic when broadcast and it is perhaps not surprising that it has featured in songs and poetry as a result. Artists as diverse as Radiohead, film director Terence Davies and poet Seamus Heaney have used it as literal and metaphoric inspiration.

You can enjoy the hypnotic quality of the Shipping Forecast in this very emotive (well it is to me) video here:



‘Sailing By’ Theme

In addition to the broadcast, one of the Shipping Forecast's intrinsic attractions is without doubt the beautiful and very calming theme tune, ‘Sailing By’. Played as a prelude, ‘Sailing By’ was composed by Ronald Binge and acts as a bridge between the end of regular BBC Radio 4 programming and the broadcast itself.

Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of British band Pulp, chose ‘Sailing By’ as one of his Desert Island Discs when appearing on the programme.

If you've never heard ‘Sailing By’, you can listen to it here... it's the first track of this video. If you are familiar with it, you will hopefully enjoy losing yourself for a moment in this beautifully calming, nostalgic and lovely piece of music... enjoy!



The end of this piece of music is normally followed by the BBC's time signal... the 'pip... pip.. pip...', followed then by the Shipping Forecast. Pity I couldn't find this properly reproduced on YouTube!

You may well be forgiven for wondering why the music is set to a background of the TV 'Test Card' and the CEEFAX page. Well, apparently, 'Sailing By' was also the title track of this CEEFAX AM tape which was in service between March 1983 and the summer of 1984 on BBC1 in the stand-alone slot pre-Breakfast Time. I chose this particularly video because it is the one that more faithfully replicates the Shipping Forecast's current theme music.

A different 'take' on the Shipping Forecast

Now... a slightly different and, for me, hysterically funny 'take' on the Shipping Forecast:



BBC Radio 4's Brian Perkins read Les Barker's version of 'The Shipping Forecast' from 'Guide Cats for the Blind'; a series of three CD's released to help raise funds for The British Computer Association of the Blind.

Fans of the 'Shipping Forecast' might also like to check out Charlie Connelly's excellent book 'Attention All Shipping'.

Sources

BBC > Weather Centre > Coast and Sea > Shipping Forecast

The Shipping Forecast - Information from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The BBC Shipping Forecast: A Unique Broadcasting Experience by Radio 4

Postcards from the World... my new blog

Just for a bit of fun... I have created a new blog today... Postcards from the World!

The idea of this site is for people like you to send me a souvenir tourist postcard from your part of the world. I would like you and people like you, to help me build an interesting collection of souvenir postcards from all across the globe!

If you wish to participate, all you need to do is to obtain a suitable souvenir tourist postcard of your town, city or country or any place you are visiting or have visited... just scan it into .jpeg format and send it to me... and I shall publish it in its own page in Postcards from the World.

If you would like to include a brief description of yourself and your town, that's fine. In fact, that would be very welcome and will add further interest to your postcard and the page I publish it on... don't you think? But please... I would like to ask people to be brief (unlike me)!

As and when I can, I shall also include a link (and brief description) to a page on Wikipedia for your location. For instance, in my case it would be for Gibraltar where I am originally from.

So... if you would like to participate and help me build a nice collection of souvenir tourist postcards from around the world, visit Postcards from the World now and just follow the simple instructions there.

I do hope you can help me build an interesting collection of souvenir postcards from all across the globe... so please do paricipate and send me your souvenir tourist postcard!

I look forward to receiving many great postcards from all across our wonderful world!

Thank in advance! :)

The 'Island of Gibraltar'... a geography lesson

As most people know, Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.

It is connected to the Spanish mainland by a 1.2 km (0.75 mi) wide (roughly from east to west) isthmus, much of which forms a land border with Spain.

In fact, Gibraltar is itself a peninsula. Wikipedia defines a peninsula as "a piece of land that is bordered on three or more sides by water, but is still attached to the mainland"... and that's precisely what Gibraltar is... so, it's a peninsula and definitely NOT an island!

I did say that this is what most people know. However, it seems that many people don't. Many think Gibraltar is an island... and that includes many, who have actually visited Gibraltar!

I can understand it if people who have never visited Gibraltar don't know our geography... or as often happens, they relate Gibraltar to Malta and make an assumption that Gibraltar is also another British island in the Mediterranean. This type of mistaken geography... one can accept!

But... I'm often very irritated (and much gnashing of teeth goes on) by the number of people who publish posts on blogs or websites and just assume Gibraltar is an island, for reasons that only they know best, simply because they can't be bothered to do a little bit of research and find out for themselves... what Gibraltar actually is!

The photograph at the top left, is a satellite view of the Bay of Gibraltar and shows very clearly that Gibraltar is indeed attached to the mainland of the Iberian Peninsula, and mainland Spain.

Here's a photograph, taken from the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, looking down and North into mainland Spain across the isthmus that attaches Gibraltar to the mainland. The image shows the airport, cemetery and the main road leading to the land border with Spain. In the background can be seen La Línea de la Concepción, the Spanish town which is Gibraltar's immediate neighbour across the frontier. The rest of mainland Spain can be seen receedeing in the distance.

It's all perfectly simple and clear right? One would therefore imagine, that anyone visiting Gibraltar, especially who has either driven (or particularly) walked across the border and isthmus (the piece of land that connects Gibraltar with the mainland) into Gibraltar, would know that they did not walk over water! One would think these people have noticed that they did not take a boat or ferry either... but actually came across dry land, in the form of a (normally very busy) road, which even more singularly, actually traverses our airport runway... right!??

So how come then... so many idiots, despite all this... still refer to the 'island' of Gibraltar?

It took Google 0.27 seconds to find around 17,200 sites for the "island of gibraltar".

A perfect example of this can be seen in this idiot's post today:

"Today we drove 65 miles to Gibraltar and it was shut. I don't like Gibraltar, it is very tacky, but we had heard crocs (sandals) were £17 on the island so 4 of went there today. We got onto the rock but the shops and banks were all shut because it was Commonwealth Day!!!!!!!!! So I like it even less now."

Naturally, I couldn't resist leaving a comment:

"So... you drive 60 miles to a place you don't like... to 'an island'... that you drive (or walked) across to over a large road... (which crosses an isthmus over a mile wide)... the only thing that's 'tacky' around here mate... is your brain! Oh and your cheapskate taste!!"

D'uh!!

Well, sorry... perhaps I'm being a touch too hard on Mike... but, if people are going to spout off such rubbish, they will have to accept the consequences and a little reaction from those of us who (perhaps strangely for those who may have no allegiance to anything much) have an affection for their homeland and don't like assholes running off at the mouth so dismissively of it!

Finally, I would like to concur with Donovan, who also commented on Mike's post and said:

"Wow. So you drove 60 miles to buy a tacky pair of rubber shoes but don't like Gib because they have a sense of loyalty to the crown. Hmm, you're better off in spain."

I'm with you Donovan!

Mike... stay in Spain mate... you'll be in good company!

Update - 11th March 2009 12:20

Readers may note with passing interest... that the comments, made by me and Donovan, published above, which were posted on Mike's blog post ('the idiot') have now been deleted by him! Readers will I'm sure, make their own judgement on this somewhat spineless approach to blogging!

For myself, I can't see what the point of having a comment system is... if the blogger is going to remove any unfavourable posts that readers may make from time to time. This is just an incumbent hazard... when one puts 'one's head above the parapet' and blogs!

A Blogger should stand by and live with the consequences of whatever one writes about. Something that I... am very aware of and no doubt will fall foul of... given time! :)

I think, when unfavourable posts are made, one either needs to be able to stand by one's story, opinion or view... and if necessary argue it... or if persuaded by the strength of argument, one simply has to hold one's hand up and back down and / or simply apologise for causing possible offence unjustly.

To my mind, simply deleting a comment... is just cowardly... and like the ostrich, hiding one's head in the sand of bigotry or hypocrisy... or just simply being wrong!

I expand on this here: A passing note on spineless blogging!