http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/2009/12/27/tsa-security-directive-sd-1544-09-06-the-fallout-from-nw253/

Damn. Let's run around and try to prevent something that's already happened, so it looks like we're DOING SOMETHING. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

So we're going to piss off the traveling public, who will now cancel any non-critical flights (I'm not flying anywhere until they come to their senses, for work or otherwise). This will (as usual) cause more economic problems.

How in the hell does "keep people in their seats during the last hour" stop someone from blowing up the plane, oh say - WHEN IT'S TAKING OFF? How about randomly in mid-air? Supposedly the PETN that the NW 253 terrorist tried to light would have blown a hole in the side of the plane - but that's only effective when the aircraft is fully pressurized (like in the middle of a long flight - not when it's descending for approach). It would probably also be effective during the stress of takeoff (witness the concorde crash and others). So what are they going to do next, handcuff everyone to the seats before taking off? Provide same-sex chaperones for the lavatories (hope mine is extra thin...).

Plus, what the hell does "disable all communication equipment" have to do with stopping a terrorist attack? Supposedly the NW 253 terrorist was "in a daze", and I didn't see any reports that he tried to contact anyone. So, we have to make things especially uncomfortable for the 99.9999% of OTHER people when there isn't any reason to suspect this as a problem?

Finally, I'm pretty damn sure that a "full pat down, concentrating on the upper legs and torso" is a violation of a person's rights. Unless, of course, we're all getting arrested for being crazy enough to try to fly in the first place. I always thought it was "innocent until proven guilty" and they needed "reasonable cause" to violate someone's rights. I don't think they have "reasonable cause" to pat down every passenger just to make sure they're not bruising someone's feelings or causing someone to feel like they've been profiled. I think there's a big difference between a traffic officer profiling individuals (which has been an valid issue in the past and possibly still today in some jurisdictions) and security agencies profiling classes of individuals based on specific, valid intelligence. Of course, it seems like the security agencies are afraid to apply any intelligence.

So, count me out on commercial flying for the foreseeable future. I think I'll drive, even though driving is statistically more dangerous than flying. At least they haven't figured out a way to strip search me before I get in the car to drive.

Wow. Although the TSA has apparently began to ease some of these restrictions, all they have done is changed "must" to "at the discretion of the flight crew/airline". I still don't think it's going to make much of an actual difference, just like making everyone take off their shoes wouldn't make a difference if someone had a PETN bomb (not detectable by normal means) in their shoe - which they get to put back on after the security checkpoint. Just sayin'

I just submitted my final exam (which was due before 8am this morning) for my 2nd class this semester. First class is already over (I earned an A - yay me!).

They were good classes, and I actually learned things (surprising but true), but I am SO glad this semester is over. Being short staffed at work has really made everything more difficult, and finishing the classes is the first step to reclaiming my life...

Next Monday we get part of the staff back - we're getting an admin 1/2 time, which is substantially better than NO time. He's replacing the admin who left earlier this fall, but the good thing is that he's a re-hire moving back from a branch office (thus the 1/2 time - he still has to support them). That means that I'm not going to have to retrain him from scratch, and that is a very good thing right now.

I'm still very unlikely to get to take the 5 days of vacation I have left - there's not many days left, we're short staffed through the end of the year, and vacation days go bye-bye on the 31st (unless I can get approval to carry them over to January, but that's very unlikely). I might get a couple of half-days, but I won't get to stay home when the kids are finally out of school (they're in until the 23rd).

I'm hoping to start getting to catch up with my personal life this weekend (I'm *way* behind, so it's going to take a while).

Courtesy of Nathan Fillion (who attended the B&N in Oceanside with Alan Tudyk - curse the expensive plane fare)

Go to pjhaarsma.com, get the coupon, any Barnes and Noble buy any book, and 25% of proceeds go to KNTR. ALL WEEK!! Kids Need To Read!

You can get a printable PDF coupon to take into ANY Barnes and Noble to help Kids Need to Read!

Grand Prize: $100 GC to Amazon.com
Runner Up: $25 GC to B&N and a box of surprise paperbacks and other goodies (like chocolate, bath goodies, ect). This is going to be a NICE prize!
Runner Up: $25 GC to B&N and a box of surprise paperbacks and other goodies. (same as above)

Plus chances to win books (almost) every day for a month!

Go to http://www.anyabast.com/blog/ for details on how to enter.

[Edit - Bumped the date because it releases tonight :) - Although most bookstores apparently already have it]

I have this pre-ordered and waiting. I really like Ann's style of writing, and I'm curious to see where she goes with the Urban Fantasy genre.

Don't forget to check out the contest on her blog!

I was hoping this would happen. All of the applications are unlocked, which means that over $500,000 is being sent to charity.

If you're at all interested (you kind of have to have a Mac, though), please buy through my link here: http://www.macheist.com/bundle/u/270073/

It's the same price for you, but I can get one or two additional applications.

Thanks!

Bundle Contents

Unlocked Applications
iSale $39.95
Picturesque $34.95
SousChef $30.00
World of Goo $20.00
PhoneView $19.95
LittleSnapper $39.00
Acorn $49.95
Kinemac $299.00
WireTap Studio $69.00
BoinxTV $199.00
The Hit List $49.95
Espresso $80.00
Cro-Mag Rally $19.95
Times $30.00
$980.70

[Edit - 10pm]
Apparently mom's stable, and the tests that they're running are coming back normal. I ended up not driving up since it was no longer an emergency and the weather is going to be very iffy tonight (it's just started sleeting/snowing here, and it's probably worse up there). So, I'm going to wait and see what the cardiologist has to say tomorrow. They're going to run some tests and see if they can figure out what in the heck happened, and what can they do to try to not have it happen again. May have been a potassium imbalance (too high/too low), although it's way to early to speculate yet.

---

I'm on my way to Aurora. Apparently Mom went into V-Fib earlier this afternoon, and they took her in the ambulance to the hospital. They're working on getting her heart rate down slowly, but it's apparently fairly dicey.

More as events warrant...

BoinxTV just got unlocked, so now the MacHeist bundle includes 12 applications for only $39.

If anyone is interested and hasn't bought the bundle yet, I'd really appreciate it if you buy it through my link here: http://www.macheist.com/bundle/u/270073/
It's the same price for you either way, but if I can get two referrals I'll get an interesting tool.

iSale - eBay automation tool to make and manage nice looking eBay sales
Picturesque - Quick image touchup tool for nice edits / effects without loading a full-up photo editing tool
SousChef - Digital Cooking Assistant / Recipe Book
World of Goo - Innovative puzzle game for the Mac (it's quite fun)
PhoneView - Gives you complete synch ability for an iPhone or iPod Touch. Good companion to iTunes - you can get to pretty much all of your data with this
LittleSnapper - Screen Shot snap utility with extras (capture part of a web page, annotate, etc.)
Acorn - Photo Editor 'for the rest of us' - Looks to be somewhat between Picturesque (above) and a full-size editing tool
Kinemac - Intuitive 3D Animation. Easily make 3D animations on your Mac
WireTap Studio - Good quality recording utility for your Mac - Can record from any audio source that you can hear on the Mac, and gives editing capabilities
BoinxTV - Just got unlocked TV Studio on your Mac - lets you record podcasts, seminars and other events with a single tool - full video production capabilities
Extras!
Cro-Mag Rally - Fun graphical racing game for the mac. Unlock courses as you improve :)
Times - I'm liking this one - it's a really cool RSS reader / aggregator for the Mac. It gives you a new UI - it presents all of your RSS feeds in a "newspaper" graphical format, and it really feels like an up-to-date, real newspaper.

http://www.macheist.com/bundle/u/270073/

If you have a mac, you really should check out the MacHeist bundle deal this year (it's good for only the next 14 days).

http://www.macheist.com/bundle/u/270073/

Truth in advertising - If you buy the bundle (only $39, and 25% goes to charity), then I get an extra application.

We're at the hotel, and everyone else is trying to sleep. Me, I'm trying to get caught up on homework, but it's not happening, so I think I'll join them and try again tomorrow evening after I get the guests from ORD and we get through opening ceremonies.

OK, I've got my ordnance purchased and loaded, and we're about to leave for the Abandon. We should be docking sometime later (after 8pm) this evening. See you all tomorrow :)

We've been to the moon and back, and now it's our turn in Mission Control.

Cindy and I are attending "Fly your sweetie to the moon" at the Challenger Learning Center.

Having lunch at Jimmy John's before going back to work.

This morning I'm leaving for Orlando to go to Lotusphere. It doesn't suck living 5 minutes from the airport...

I'm flying AirTran from BMI to MCO, so no worrying about frequent flyer miles or anything...

Don't miss the great Santa information on the internet this year. Start with the 2008 Flying Reindeer Forecast (FRF) from the Weather Underground.

Then visit Norad Tracks Santa for up-to-the hour radar tracking of Santa's journey - starting in just 11 hours and 40 minutes!

Really - if you have kids, you really want to look at this stuff - it's great!

Yes, yes I did! I was #600 at my polling place.

( Proof... )

As an added bonus, I found out what happens when you spoil a ballot and need a new one (my mind was moving faster than my hand when running through the judicial retention section).

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Update:

The city of Bloomington did well in the turnout category this year. My precinct ended up with 759 votes cast out of 964 registered voters, 78.73% turnout. The city (44 precincts) ended up with a 79.73% turnout, with the majority (26/44) of the precincts in the 80-90% category and one precinct had 90.26% of registered voters casting votes. I'm pretty sure this was one of the highest turnouts we've had on a percentage basis - 2004 was 76.35%, 2000 was 69.09%, 1996 was 65.96% (that's as far back as the on-line records go).