The state actually is learning. The annual budget is down something like $17 billion from its peak of around $104 billion. It still needs to come down another $15 billion or more, though, and then to get a growth cap added to it indexed to inflation and population.
Speaking as one who has a government-issued Blackberry (county-level, not state, and required as I am in IT and have on-call shifts), I had to sign an agreement limiting personal use to "reasonable" volumes, and to pay any amount over the base bill that was triggered by such personal use. I have to do the same thing for my desk phone, and I get a listing every month of toll calls made from the desk phone.
I have a strict personal policy that splits home and personal lives with regard to employer resources. As such, I do not conduct personal business over employer phones or e-mail. Even my family doesn't have the work contact information -- that's what the personal cell phone is for. That makes it much easier to not have to deal with such things, as I can sign the bill each month and hand it back before the person handing it out leaves the room and not have to attach payment.
I realize that I am the exception. I have colleagues who make a call here and there, usually to let family know when they'll be home, and have to come up with anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars for the county every month. A few years ago, some secretary with a county-issued phone was found to be running up cell phone bills of several hundred dollars per month by spending 2000+ minutes on the phone. This happened back when the average plan was around 250 minutes. A lot of cell phones were taken away from users after that, though it wouldn't surprise me at all if it were still happening.
Flight is not generally as precise as many people think. Extreme precision is required on take-off and landing, and is not as critical in most other phases. In fact, intrument error traditionally provided a certain margin of safety in flight. Charts have for years now contained a warning regarding waypoints:
CAUTION: GPS accuracy necessitates extra vigilance for other aircraft when navigating near any fix retrieved from a GPS database.
Basically, the planes fly so precisely using GPS coordinates, and especially when using GPS-based autopilots, that there's an increased proximity danger at waypoints, which may include airports.
Flying purely by hand, or even on instruments that have known error ranges, there is a safety margin because of the slop. Flying purely by precision instruments improves efficiency and some safety factors, but requires knowledge of the limitations as well.
If they can't see the runway, they're going to use ILS (instrument landing system), which is far more precise and is runway-specific. With appropriate equipment, it is technically possible to land in a true zero-visibility condition, and in some cases for the plane to land itself (including flare, touchdown, nose down, braking, and stopping), but regulations have certain minimums for landing specific to each airport and require the pilot to be in manual control below certain altitudes above ground level.
Charts are generally updated more frequently than that, though not as frequently as the AIRAC information that Orion2 mentions. Usually, sectional and terminal area charts are updated every six months or so. As an example, the current LA sectional and TAC are good from 16 Dec 2010 to 30 Jun 2011, and are based on information current as of 18 Nov 2010 for airspace and 21 Oct 2010 for everything else. All pilots are required to carry current charts with them when acting as a crew member no matter what their level.
Charts are generally updated more frequently than that, though not as frequently as the AIRAC information that Orion2 mentions. Usually, sectional and terminal area charts are updated every six months or so. As an example, the current LA sectional and TAC are good from 16 Dec 2010 to 30 Jun 2011, and are based on information current as of 18 Nov 2010 for airspace and 21 Oct 2010 for everything else.
I fly a Cessna 172S equipped with a Garmin G1000. It's a glass cockpit that makes life much, much easier, but I still have a few analog instruments: compass, attitude indicator, airspeed indicator, and altimeter. All of them function on principles in place on aircraft for many decades now, and provide a layer of reliability in case just about everything goes wrong. I can lose the entire electrical system and still be able to fly to the best landing site available, because the compass is based on the Earth's magnetic field, the attitude indicator is based on a vacuum-driven gyro (the vacuum pump is mechanical and run by the engine), the altimeter is based on the static air pressure, and the airspeed indicator is based on both the pitot tube and the static air pressure. (The engine spark is provided by magnetos that will keep providing spark as long as the engine is turning - no battery required.)
There are complications when flying at night, but that's why I carry a hand-held navcom radio and a couple of flashlights with me in my flight bag.
They can make a significant and recurring point about it to their superiors, who very often were also fighter pilots. Even if they don't complain to their superiors, they will gripe amongst themselves, the ground crew (mostly non-coms) will hear it, and word will still get around.
The military is not just a bunch of people who adhere to rigid protocol and hierarchy. The best commanders are the ones who listen to their underlings, let them vent on occasion, and take their positions into account. It doesn't mean that the underlings will be happy with the decision, but if they know they're being listened to, it makes for much better morale.
The Gulf War in 1991 saw a few dozen actual dogfights, including a number in range close enough to use Sidewinders. The Iraqi Air Force achieved at least five air-to-air victories, though at least one was BVR.
It's important to maintain the basics. My girlfriend is a former Marine, and in boot camp she had to do swim qualifications that included remaining afloat with her gear, just in case the ship or boat she carrying her during a landing sank, despite the fact that the US has not performed a serious seaborne amphibious assault since perhaps Korea, or maybe sometime during Vietnam.
I seem to recall that pastel colors make for the best aerial camouflage, but the pilots protested flying pastel blue and pink planes and so the military went with grays and blues.
It's utterly ridiculous to those who have different priorities. There were people who believe that going to the moon was utterly ridiculous, that the billions spent on the manned space program were better spent on other priorities. Others of us believe differently, that those billions were spent on pushing frontiers that would otherwise remain dreams. For us, not everything has to have a positive financial return to be worthy of doing.
Sandy Bridge is the tick, not the tock, since it is a new architecture. Nehalem was the last tick, Westmere was last tock. Ivy Bridge is the next tock. Haswell is reported to be the next tick, then Rockwell as the following tock.
I bought an i7-920 when they first came out, and I'm happy with its performance as it stands. I may look to upgrade with Ivy Bridge next year, but will probably hold off until Haswell in 2013.
I've been using CFLs as my main light sources for years. I have never run into a case where the bulbs did not provide enough light to get around within a second of being turned on. The lights for my living room, office, bedroom, and stairs are all CFLs, and I haven't bought any in several years, so I'm not even using the fastest available.
There are cases where incandescents are markedly better, but general lighting is not one of them.
The MDC isn't trying to get the Zimbabwean people to overthrow Mugabe. They want him ousted through legal political means, because that makes it legitimate in the eyes of the people and of the world. The idea behind the sanctions is to get the people to vote a different way, which is a different idea than overthrow -- which is usually violent, or at least backed by armed force.
What if the internal politics include genocide, or involve practices that involve significant oppression of a given group? Do you keep trading with them (tacit acceptance of their internal policies) or do you stop trading with them (indirect disapproval of their internal policies)? The latter is definitely something that could bring about political change if they need the trade and will not get it unless they change their ways.
Allergies to dogs are usually inconvenient, and can be mitigated by giving the dog a daily bath, as the allergens are usually due to dander and small hairs. Even asthma attacks can usually be mitigated with an inhaler, and airports in other parts of the world make wider use of dogs than in the US and don't seem to have much of a problem.
Allergens to bees are a different issue. My mom goes into anaphylactic shock when stung by bees, wasps, or the like. The liability issue there could be much greater should something go wrong with the system.
That works if you have nothing, or if they're thinking of cutting what little you have, but they sometimes look at us like we're insurance salesmen trying to up-sell them on things they don't need. They see what we have, deem it enough insurance, and decide that they don't need more.
Incidentally, I work at a county government. Even a giant incident isn't going to put us out of business (though it would probably get us the funding we need).
Two important points: How much did the training cost, and how much did the plane cost? A perfect 35 hours for each of the PPL and IFR under Part 141 at $50 per hour for the instructor is $3500, and essentially nobody makes those numbers (70 hours is the national average for PPL and it's something like 60 hours for IFR). Factor in plane rental (or acquisition/fuel) and run it over the hours, and it takes a long time to make that back. If you own your plane, you need to take into account all the maintenance that goes into the plane, which can be considerable, especially when you factor in subscription features like are available in modern sets like the G1000.
I don't at all regret getting my PPL, and I look forward to IFR training, but I also didn't do it to save money.
I was discussing this with the security manager recently. We've gone several years without a significant incident. Because of that, it can be very hard to justify new things that we do need: updates, upgrades, new technology that handles the new generation of threats. They don't understand why we want to go through app proxies when the existing firewalls -- glorified stateful inspection firewalls -- seem to do the job just fine. SurfControl worked fine for years, so they don't understand why we need proxies that do more than just traffic categorization. I admit that we can certainly communicate better, but even good communication won't necessarily address the perception that everything is OK now and so probably will be for the time being.
My girlfriend and I sat down to figure out how we could fly to her dad's airport outside of Baltimore from the LA Basin in a Cessna 172SP. We were looking at 16-18 hours of flight time over two or three days, five or six stops, and a bill of about $2400 to $2700 for the rental -- each way. Even without the rental fees, it would be something in the neighborhood of $650-$730 in fuel each way. That assumes no diversions and reasonable weather the entire way. It would be an incredible trip and a lot of fun, but it would also be much more financially difficult.
Being a private pilot works when you can get a few friends to go in on a trip to someplace that can be pricey even commercially. Flying from the LA Basin into Sacramento, for example, the numbers and time just about even out. More popular places like San Francisco, Las Vegas, or even Phoenix are tougher to match, and most long-distance flights are just right out. Until one gets into higher-performance aircraft (175 knots or faster and 800NM range or more), long-distance travel just doesn't work economically, and often not even then. For example, the above trip in a Cessna 350 would be a two-hop flight requiring about 12 hours in flight, give or take, depending on the cruise speed. At the common rental rate of $350/hour, that would be $4200 each way.
I love to sit in the left seat, but for most serious trips, I turn it over to the professionals.
Dogs at the gates would be a great idea and improve the general feeling. Most people are either comforted by the presence of a dog because they like them, or because they are linked with security. There are some, notably those who are allergic or just don't like dogs, that might be put off, but also those who are afraid of getting caught might also get especially nervous and be noticed by the handlers.
In short, the dogs would provide a better illusion of safety than the detectors.
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The state actually is learning. The annual budget is down something like $17 billion from its peak of around $104 billion. It still needs to come down another $15 billion or more, though, and then to get a growth cap added to it indexed to inflation and population.
Speaking as one who has a government-issued Blackberry (county-level, not state, and required as I am in IT and have on-call shifts), I had to sign an agreement limiting personal use to "reasonable" volumes, and to pay any amount over the base bill that was triggered by such personal use. I have to do the same thing for my desk phone, and I get a listing every month of toll calls made from the desk phone.
I have a strict personal policy that splits home and personal lives with regard to employer resources. As such, I do not conduct personal business over employer phones or e-mail. Even my family doesn't have the work contact information -- that's what the personal cell phone is for. That makes it much easier to not have to deal with such things, as I can sign the bill each month and hand it back before the person handing it out leaves the room and not have to attach payment.
I realize that I am the exception. I have colleagues who make a call here and there, usually to let family know when they'll be home, and have to come up with anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars for the county every month. A few years ago, some secretary with a county-issued phone was found to be running up cell phone bills of several hundred dollars per month by spending 2000+ minutes on the phone. This happened back when the average plan was around 250 minutes. A lot of cell phones were taken away from users after that, though it wouldn't surprise me at all if it were still happening.
Flight is not generally as precise as many people think. Extreme precision is required on take-off and landing, and is not as critical in most other phases. In fact, intrument error traditionally provided a certain margin of safety in flight. Charts have for years now contained a warning regarding waypoints:
Basically, the planes fly so precisely using GPS coordinates, and especially when using GPS-based autopilots, that there's an increased proximity danger at waypoints, which may include airports.
Flying purely by hand, or even on instruments that have known error ranges, there is a safety margin because of the slop. Flying purely by precision instruments improves efficiency and some safety factors, but requires knowledge of the limitations as well.
If they can't see the runway, they're going to use ILS (instrument landing system), which is far more precise and is runway-specific. With appropriate equipment, it is technically possible to land in a true zero-visibility condition, and in some cases for the plane to land itself (including flare, touchdown, nose down, braking, and stopping), but regulations have certain minimums for landing specific to each airport and require the pilot to be in manual control below certain altitudes above ground level.
Charts are generally updated more frequently than that, though not as frequently as the AIRAC information that Orion2 mentions. Usually, sectional and terminal area charts are updated every six months or so. As an example, the current LA sectional and TAC are good from 16 Dec 2010 to 30 Jun 2011, and are based on information current as of 18 Nov 2010 for airspace and 21 Oct 2010 for everything else. All pilots are required to carry current charts with them when acting as a crew member no matter what their level.
Charts are generally updated more frequently than that, though not as frequently as the AIRAC information that Orion2 mentions. Usually, sectional and terminal area charts are updated every six months or so. As an example, the current LA sectional and TAC are good from 16 Dec 2010 to 30 Jun 2011, and are based on information current as of 18 Nov 2010 for airspace and 21 Oct 2010 for everything else.
The compass requires no electrical power.
I fly a Cessna 172S equipped with a Garmin G1000. It's a glass cockpit that makes life much, much easier, but I still have a few analog instruments: compass, attitude indicator, airspeed indicator, and altimeter. All of them function on principles in place on aircraft for many decades now, and provide a layer of reliability in case just about everything goes wrong. I can lose the entire electrical system and still be able to fly to the best landing site available, because the compass is based on the Earth's magnetic field, the attitude indicator is based on a vacuum-driven gyro (the vacuum pump is mechanical and run by the engine), the altimeter is based on the static air pressure, and the airspeed indicator is based on both the pitot tube and the static air pressure. (The engine spark is provided by magnetos that will keep providing spark as long as the engine is turning - no battery required.)
There are complications when flying at night, but that's why I carry a hand-held navcom radio and a couple of flashlights with me in my flight bag.
They can make a significant and recurring point about it to their superiors, who very often were also fighter pilots. Even if they don't complain to their superiors, they will gripe amongst themselves, the ground crew (mostly non-coms) will hear it, and word will still get around.
The military is not just a bunch of people who adhere to rigid protocol and hierarchy. The best commanders are the ones who listen to their underlings, let them vent on occasion, and take their positions into account. It doesn't mean that the underlings will be happy with the decision, but if they know they're being listened to, it makes for much better morale.
The Gulf War in 1991 saw a few dozen actual dogfights, including a number in range close enough to use Sidewinders. The Iraqi Air Force achieved at least five air-to-air victories, though at least one was BVR.
It's important to maintain the basics. My girlfriend is a former Marine, and in boot camp she had to do swim qualifications that included remaining afloat with her gear, just in case the ship or boat she carrying her during a landing sank, despite the fact that the US has not performed a serious seaborne amphibious assault since perhaps Korea, or maybe sometime during Vietnam.
I seem to recall that pastel colors make for the best aerial camouflage, but the pilots protested flying pastel blue and pink planes and so the military went with grays and blues.
It's utterly ridiculous to those who have different priorities. There were people who believe that going to the moon was utterly ridiculous, that the billions spent on the manned space program were better spent on other priorities. Others of us believe differently, that those billions were spent on pushing frontiers that would otherwise remain dreams. For us, not everything has to have a positive financial return to be worthy of doing.
Sandy Bridge is the tick, not the tock, since it is a new architecture. Nehalem was the last tick, Westmere was last tock. Ivy Bridge is the next tock. Haswell is reported to be the next tick, then Rockwell as the following tock.
I bought an i7-920 when they first came out, and I'm happy with its performance as it stands. I may look to upgrade with Ivy Bridge next year, but will probably hold off until Haswell in 2013.
I've been using CFLs as my main light sources for years. I have never run into a case where the bulbs did not provide enough light to get around within a second of being turned on. The lights for my living room, office, bedroom, and stairs are all CFLs, and I haven't bought any in several years, so I'm not even using the fastest available.
There are cases where incandescents are markedly better, but general lighting is not one of them.
Players 2-4, in my case, always show up with laptops -- always. YMMV.
Providing support for the IRC to help farmers, small businesses, and vocational training?
Funding improvements in infrastructure, schools, agriculture, hospitals, and water distribution in both Gaza and the West Bank?
They weren't there. Even Bush admitted it -- several times. Or perhaps you missed out on that point?
The MDC isn't trying to get the Zimbabwean people to overthrow Mugabe. They want him ousted through legal political means, because that makes it legitimate in the eyes of the people and of the world. The idea behind the sanctions is to get the people to vote a different way, which is a different idea than overthrow -- which is usually violent, or at least backed by armed force.
What if the internal politics include genocide, or involve practices that involve significant oppression of a given group? Do you keep trading with them (tacit acceptance of their internal policies) or do you stop trading with them (indirect disapproval of their internal policies)? The latter is definitely something that could bring about political change if they need the trade and will not get it unless they change their ways.
Allergies to dogs are usually inconvenient, and can be mitigated by giving the dog a daily bath, as the allergens are usually due to dander and small hairs. Even asthma attacks can usually be mitigated with an inhaler, and airports in other parts of the world make wider use of dogs than in the US and don't seem to have much of a problem.
Allergens to bees are a different issue. My mom goes into anaphylactic shock when stung by bees, wasps, or the like. The liability issue there could be much greater should something go wrong with the system.
That works if you have nothing, or if they're thinking of cutting what little you have, but they sometimes look at us like we're insurance salesmen trying to up-sell them on things they don't need. They see what we have, deem it enough insurance, and decide that they don't need more.
Incidentally, I work at a county government. Even a giant incident isn't going to put us out of business (though it would probably get us the funding we need).
Two important points: How much did the training cost, and how much did the plane cost? A perfect 35 hours for each of the PPL and IFR under Part 141 at $50 per hour for the instructor is $3500, and essentially nobody makes those numbers (70 hours is the national average for PPL and it's something like 60 hours for IFR). Factor in plane rental (or acquisition/fuel) and run it over the hours, and it takes a long time to make that back. If you own your plane, you need to take into account all the maintenance that goes into the plane, which can be considerable, especially when you factor in subscription features like are available in modern sets like the G1000.
I don't at all regret getting my PPL, and I look forward to IFR training, but I also didn't do it to save money.
I was discussing this with the security manager recently. We've gone several years without a significant incident. Because of that, it can be very hard to justify new things that we do need: updates, upgrades, new technology that handles the new generation of threats. They don't understand why we want to go through app proxies when the existing firewalls -- glorified stateful inspection firewalls -- seem to do the job just fine. SurfControl worked fine for years, so they don't understand why we need proxies that do more than just traffic categorization. I admit that we can certainly communicate better, but even good communication won't necessarily address the perception that everything is OK now and so probably will be for the time being.
My girlfriend and I sat down to figure out how we could fly to her dad's airport outside of Baltimore from the LA Basin in a Cessna 172SP. We were looking at 16-18 hours of flight time over two or three days, five or six stops, and a bill of about $2400 to $2700 for the rental -- each way. Even without the rental fees, it would be something in the neighborhood of $650-$730 in fuel each way. That assumes no diversions and reasonable weather the entire way. It would be an incredible trip and a lot of fun, but it would also be much more financially difficult.
Being a private pilot works when you can get a few friends to go in on a trip to someplace that can be pricey even commercially. Flying from the LA Basin into Sacramento, for example, the numbers and time just about even out. More popular places like San Francisco, Las Vegas, or even Phoenix are tougher to match, and most long-distance flights are just right out. Until one gets into higher-performance aircraft (175 knots or faster and 800NM range or more), long-distance travel just doesn't work economically, and often not even then. For example, the above trip in a Cessna 350 would be a two-hop flight requiring about 12 hours in flight, give or take, depending on the cruise speed. At the common rental rate of $350/hour, that would be $4200 each way.
I love to sit in the left seat, but for most serious trips, I turn it over to the professionals.
Dogs at the gates would be a great idea and improve the general feeling. Most people are either comforted by the presence of a dog because they like them, or because they are linked with security. There are some, notably those who are allergic or just don't like dogs, that might be put off, but also those who are afraid of getting caught might also get especially nervous and be noticed by the handlers.
In short, the dogs would provide a better illusion of safety than the detectors.
TFS mentions that the bomb sniffers didn't work. There will always be some manual work involved, which is as it should be.