FLAT EARTH

They censor air crashes out of in-flight movies, which can make them hard to understand: I think I once saw Pierce Brosnan lassooing a helicopter in Goldeneye, but we weren't shown what happened next.

There is nothing to stop you carrying an aviation thriller like Michael Crichton's Airframe on to the plane, as I did recently to nervous glances from one or two fellow passengers, but you don't expect to find many references to metal fatigue or mid-air collisions in the airline's own magazine. Unless, it seems, you fly on Garuda, Indonesia's national carrier.

Leafing through Garuda's in-flight publication on the way to Bali, a colleague found a double-page spread on Indonesia's first world-class stunt pilot, extolling his feats and the credit he had brought on his nation in international competition. A photograph showed the bold airman with one of his friends.

Turning over the page, readers encountered the same picture, only this time with the friend cropped out. It accompanied an obituary of the stunt pilot, sadly taken from us in a crash.

Norbert the nice

Norbert Blum, the 62-year-old Christian Democratic Labour Minister, is reputed to be the nicest man in the German government. He has a heart of gold, say fans. Compassionate, warm and endowed with a wonderful sense of humour, Mr Blum is the emblem of a party often accused of being Christian in name only.

He has his detractors, of