Air travel rant #6 enough is enough is enough is enough is enough · Friday June 20, 2008 by colin newell
The airport in Kelowna, B.C., will be the first in Canada to test a new type of passenger scanner that creates a three-dimensional image of people’s bodies.
This equipment has been in use in the U.S. for some time now.
Why are we adopting it? Well. Because the U.S. told us to.
The security guard operating the machine sees a simplified image on a computer screen that sees where ceramic weapons, plastic explosives, grenades, Uzi’s, pop rocks or other suspicious items might be concealed.
But in a separate, private room, another officer sees the full detailed black and white image of the person’s body; boobies, pee-pee’s, tushies, implants, enhancements, warts and all.
Say it with me folks: F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ckity, F*CK!
Enough. Enough. Enough. Enough. Enough of this pointless bullsh*t security.
Since 9/11, there has been a total of 2 terror related fatalities in the Continental U.S. by Al Hoo-Hoo or terror wanna-be’s.
And taxpayers are on the hook for billions and billions of dollars spent on this electronic crap.
In the same time period, hundreds of people have died at the hands of angry bath-tubs… and nothing is being done about that!
Read the CBC article and the zillion comments here
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Saving the Planet one volt at a time · Thursday June 19, 2008 by colin newell
We had the Gem Car road show pop by the campus for a few hours today – and I had the opportunity to pilot the E2 and the E6. Top speed on the E6 is about 40km/hr – the E2 about 25km/hr – an electronic governor keeping it from achieving light speed in under a handful of nanoseconds.
I took these two muscle carts around the campus ring road, much to the amusement of senior-citizens with walkers who bravely (and easily) passed by… and various University staff who looked quizically at the over-sized Pilates ball on wheels.
The Gem looks like a golf-cart on steroids – It’s 12V Gel-Cell and 7 Hp motor giving it remarkable pick-up and range (something in the order of 30 miles between Gerbil feeds…)
The sleepy community of Oak Bay, near Victoria, is thinking of buying a few – We speculate for the Oak Bay Police Department – a community largely consisting of septuagenarian millionaires who, not surprisingly, move around this sleepy hollow… on much smaller electric carts.
I can picture these crime busters now – Racing to the scene of a bank heist in the Oak Bay Village as a 70-something Clint Eastwood wanna-bee tries to knock off the Credit Union. He flees the scene on his scooter reaching speeds of 10 km/hr as he races through the sleepy berg, putting life and limb at risk. Other elderly Oak Bay residents hobble and shuffle for cover. Soon, very soon, the Oak Bay cops give chase – reaching speeds of 15 km/hr. They catch up with the evil doers somewhere near Esquimalt – but not before running many red lights and frightening bystanders into mild strokes and heart attacks.
Yup. I can see it now.
Air travel rant #5 website of the month TSA Blog · Wednesday June 18, 2008 by colin newell
Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part.
The TSA Blog deserves a metal for effort, an Oscar for the acting and some kind of of American online literary award for a stunning, brazen and breathtaking piece of fiction.
The TSA Blog is the mouth-piece of the TSA and has voluntarily opened itself up to the wrath of the American traveling public with its open-comment system:
In a blog entry Why is ID important for security? – the readership takes the TSA to a verbal slaughter and it is so stimulating to hear America speak that it gives me shivers…
If the security systems actually worked then there would be no need to check ID. This is just another attempt to control the American people and steal more and more of our rights. We need to take back some more essential liberty.
Wake me up when the TSA actually does something that actually increases airport security! (Although I still stand by the opinion that if someone ever tries to hijack an airplane ever again, every person on that plane will stand up and beat that hijacker into a bloody pulp.)
Too many holes in this feeble attempt to say that it enhances security. Show me just ONE terrorist that you have apprehended. Or maybe you can use the argument that they are scared away.
And on and on and on and on and on – read for yourself
Someone summed it up on the radio today with a new expression: The militarization of the Canadian airspace has led to a dilution of civil liberties and freedom… There are now 3000 Canadians on a no-fly list, for reasons that cannot be explained to them without any opportunity for exemption. Over one million Americans are now on the no-fly list many for the crime of having the same name of someone else on the no-fly list.
Millions of Americans are now eschewing air travel in favor of alternative means of getting around their country – However, fissures are appearing in the economy of travel leading to airline bankruptcies and other similar crises.
And no one knows where this will lead.
Air travel rant #4 way up in the sky in my beautiful balloon · Tuesday June 17, 2008 by colin newell
For those just joining us… who paid for their pleasure or business flights some months ago… relax, the sky is not falling.
For those pricing out that Christmas vacation or trans-continental business trip, hold onto to your in-flight queasy bag real tight because you are going to need it.
Because it is not like the sky is actually falling – it is just that everything about air travel (and I mean everything) is going up, up, up…
Buying your ticket is the easy part.
Thinking of a flight to Calgary from Vancouver? Ok, that is easy.
$300 for starters.
Fuel surcharge? Could be anything from $75 to $300 depending on how far you are going? Baggage? You may by paying $25 and up for each bag in the near future. Toss in a security charge, an airport improvement fee and a wild and cryptic assortment of mystery fees that would take one worried looking travel agent an hour to explain (and that could cost you by the minute if you call the 1-900 help line!)
It is like the perfect storm – a few thousand feet below the stratosphere… somewhere in the jet stream. Except in reality, the real trouble is on the ground – In America… where millions are fed up with the TSA shake-downs, the illogical levels of security and paranoia. 40 million fewer domestic air trips in America in the last 2 years. American visits to Canada are down 65% over the last 2 years. These people are scared to death and are staying at home where they are safe from the bogey man… and the in flight entertainment.
Sigh.
My wife and I just finished paying for our tickets away this Christmas – and we figured it would be ever so slightly more expensive just to be done with it and just buy the freaking Plane… or the airline which might be possible at the rate at which they are sinking…
Bon voyage.
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