DC6 V5-NCG

One of my favourite aircraft, the infamous DC6. This particular DC6 is based here in Windhoek at Namibia Commercail Aviation (Pty) Ltd (NCA) Eros Airport. The company is owned and operated by Mr Chris Schutte. I shot these pictures today from my house with Sonja's FujiFilm S5700 FinePix Digital camera at 10X optical zoom, as it was quite a distance away. The shot with the landing gear out was taken just before they did a "beat up" on runway 01. If only I had know they were going to to a "beat up", I would have raced out to the bridge off the apron on the northern side of runway 01 to get some awesome pictures of this beautiful aircraft. Oh, and lets not forget the awesome sound of those roaring engines! It gives you goose bumps all over your body and you land up with a smile on your face that just stays there! I hope to get some closer pictures of her on take-off sometime soon.

How they steal money out your bank account these days (2008)

Here are some frightening methods used lately to steal money out of your bank account.
Take note that these attempts are currently happening in South Africa. Below is the exact description I received from a very reliable source via e-mail. This is what happens when you have offshore accounts or local accounts.


First tie they sent us an anti money laundering from to fill in (By post to fax back) from JP Morgan Bank (all details correct except Nigerian fax Number) As we had just moved an account to them we were expecting such a form as it is a legal requirement when you have a new account with a banking establishment. Fucking clever! That one was really close because they had all details including correct signature. They were only caught because they did not follow the correct procedure. They requested that they sell all our accounts, liquidate all share holdings and transfer the proceeds to a bank account in Beijing after the fees had been deducted. 90% of our life savings. We now have a red flag on our account and they wont process any transactions unless they see us face to face….requires an international trip!

Next they called HSBC and said that (after stealing a statement from our post box) they had forgotten the Internet logon and code and were dully given it… They tried to process a transfer to a bank account in New York! However because the account had not had any withdrawals from inception they phoned us to confirm (on the farm 3 days ago). We have now red flagged this account as well and deactivated all Internet and phone banking! Can only use account Face to Face….again. This was a substantial amount but not too bad. Incidentally, their fraud department said that they are having so many problems from the SA accounts that they are no longer willing to open any new accounts across their branches world wide for anyone living in SA.

Third one on all shareholdings in SA. Once again post stolen. They took a statement from our broker and photo shopped the logo onto a letterhead. Did their homework used all right names phone numbers etc. Attached a from an "auditing" firm and introduced them as the company auditors and that they required information from clients in order to complete their audit…..account numbers, signatures etc…..we called the company (did not fill form in) as by this stage we were very wise to what goes on …..this account is now also closed with face only visits for withdraws.

We have now put a withdraw stop on all our other accounts and red flagged them all as it is only a matter of time! We are watching our SA bank accounts with interest…..



Anyway after much thought we decided the following:

All finances are kept under lock and key at home (and the keys are locked in a locked box and the locked box key is locked in another cupboard….info theft from home not likely.

Copy made of hard drive at home by maid for mates…..password protected.

Hacking…both run up to date antivirus, spy ware etc. software, besides no passwords and half details not on either compute r.

Common denominator…all attempts were linked to a postal incident. We are now changing our postal address for sensitive documents and moving to email where possible. Failing that we will take up a PO Box in London!

Now run all my personal info off a memory stick which is never attached when on the Internet. Stays around my neck in case computer stolen…they just get work stuff… the lengths you have to go to. So anyway quite a complicated process.



And there you have it. Comments are welcome. Please note all comments are moderated.

Global Warming Tailspin

Global warming is a very real thing. Everyone is aware of it save for
the sceptics.
The worst reality of global warming besides the fact that it is real
is the fact that there is no way to curb it in any way, unless we
lower world population. Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" is very real
accurate and filled with undeniable truth. Some governments and
countries save America of course, are trying feebly to lower emissions
with energy saving bulbs, hybrid cars and wind driven turbines
etcetera.
Sadly however this is doing very little to curb global warming. Every
day there are more and more people on this planet. Our global
population is growing faster than you can imagine. With more people
comes more demand on the planet. The basic demands are food, water and
shelter. However in today's high tech world, our demands are hugely
higher. Everyone wants more and more, be it a house with electricity,
cars, televisions, cell phones, boats, planes and businesses. The
creation of all these modern day wonders demands huge amounts of
resources and energy, energy which results in generating heat warming
up the planet and resources which are slowly, but surely running out
at alarming rates.

Businesses mean economy and wealth. Wealth means more buying power
which means more products. More products, means more demand. More
demand means more energy and more resources. And so the viscous circle
is born.