The blog of Steve Root

  • ATC – Venture Adventure!

    When I was young, I was an Air Cadet. It was great being an Air Cadet. I learnt a lot about flying related things (eventually getting my own pilot’s license), first went camping and learnt how to become a little self sufficient and met a lot of nice people.

    Times moved on, children and work meant that I left as a cadet and lost contact with a lot of people. As the business has developed and there are less demands on my time (hey, I now only work a 6 Day Week!) I thought I’d like to get involved again but hadn’t got round to doing anything about it. On Thursday there was a small article in the local paper asking for help at the local ATC Squadron. I decided to turn up and see what I can do. The article mentioned a name that was familiar and after 12 or so years I met my friend Clare who I first met on Annual Camp at RAF Coltishall. She’s now the Flying Officer on the squadron. It was great to see her again, and Nick (Flt Lt and Commanding Officer) also made me feel really welcome. It turns out several of my old friends are Officers, NCO’s and CI’s around Kent.

    So, it looks like I’m back in the ATC again but this time as a Civilian Instructor. “Plus ca change, plus la meme chose” (If I remember my French lessons after all that time, now there’s some more memories…).

  • Annoying DVD's

    i-d947d54cfa32ae3e069289692efbe527-dvd_logo.gif
    Is it me, or are DVD’s getting really annoying?

    In the olden days of video cassette you’d put it in the machine and fast forward until the film started, ignoring all the trailers. With DVD’s it seems that the producers can force you to sit through all the trailers. May be I’m just getting old 😉

  • Shell Profits

    Here, I’m going to moan about how the media mis-interpret and then mis-present business information. Like Shell declaring a large figure for it’s annual profit. 1) It’s meant to make a profit 2) If you want, you can set up in competition to them and try and make more profit than they do. A more detailed essay will follow when i get (make?) time.

    9.3bn profit
    9,300,000,000 Profit
    Captial needed to make that profit = 14,900,000,000
    It can also be said that;
    = 78,000 per employee
    = 0.62p profit for every 1 invested in the company
    What’s typical for a company?

    captial employed

    From Shell Websites:
    With approximately 119,000 employees in more than 145 countries
    and territories around the world, the companies that comprise the
    Royal Dutch/Shell Group are engaged in Exploration and Production,
    Gas & Power, Oil Products, Chemicals, and Other industry segments
    including Renewables, Shell Consumer and Shell Hydrogen.

    Excerpt from BBC News
    The size of Shell’s profits has prompted renewed calls for a ‘windfall tax’ on the earnings of multinational energy companies.

    Martin O’Neill, Labour chair of the Commons trade and industry select committee, said a windfall tax should be considered as a way of helping the thousands of people who struggle to pay their fuel bills.

    “It is not unreasonable to assume that the profits that come from these companies should be directed, at least in part – either voluntarily or fiscally – to the UK’s disadvantaged energy consumers,” he told the BBC.

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