The film Amelia is about fame as much as it is about Amelia Earhart. Her story is an example of how publicity and the right slant can catapult someone into the spotlight. She was at the right place at the right time and happened to meet the right person, George Putnam. Her initial claim to fame was that she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. The fact that she was a passenger didn’t seem to make much difference. She was promoted as Lady Lindy and a star was born.
The title Fordlandiais not the catchiest title, but it is an appropriate title because it accurately reflects what this book is about. Fordlandia is the name given to a large parcel of land in Brazil purchased by Henry Ford for the purpose of growing rubber trees with the hope of using that rubber in his expanding automotive empire. It is also a story about what happens when Henry Ford tries to transplant a midwestern town in the middle of the Amazon.
When I first read about this documentary, I thought it was about the story of Eric Weihenmayer, who became the first blind person to scale Mt Everest. If you look at the image used to promote the film, you see a lone individual with arms upraised. But just minutes into the film it becomes apparent that this is not Eric’s story at all. This is the story of six blind children from Tibet who embark on a journey with Eric to scale a mountain next to Everest.
If you haven’t had a chance to see the MSNBC documentary Why Planes Crash: Brace for Impact, here’s a very good clip about the ALM ditching.
This month I am offering my first Windows 7 theme consisting of eight of the very best images from my collection. This theme is called cloudscape. To use this theme on you’re Windows 7 computer, just download the themepack to your computer (put it in a folder called my themes). Then doubleclick the file. That’s all there is to it.
I’ll say up front that I in no way take what happened aboard Northwest 188 lightly. The pilots made a very serious mistake that can’t be explained away. At the same time, they made a mistake. People make mistakes. They have admitted their mistake and, as far as I know, have been totally truthful in telling the authorities what happened. So while the media, and just about everyone else, is out to crucify these guys, I see it as an opportunity to learn from what happened and possibly make some changes that might help prevent a similar thing from happening again.