Autopilot my bunda.

Not much to report today... I am still making excellent progress with my Portuguese, and can now understand pretty much everything I hear, even from the other students with less-than-perfect skills, like me. It's getting better.

One thing I did want to comment about today was Air France 447, the unfortunate accident where 200+ people were lost a couple of days ago on the way from Rio to Paris. There is a tremendous amount of irresponsible, uninformed and frankly idiotic speculation coming from all quarters, including the as-usual irresponsible general news media.

If you really want to know what happened to AF447, I believe there is only one answer, and it's not terrorism, it's not an uncommanded autopilot dive as what happened to a Qantas A330 back in October. This analysis of the incredibly severe weather the captain of AF447 tried to fly through pretty much says it all. Look for yourself. It's technical, but crystal clear...