A bill to force the TSA to reduce its screening of active duty U.S. military members and their families was approved unanimously by the House of Representatives.
This is silly. Either you do screening, or you don't. Complete ineptness of the TSA aside for argument's sake, if you take the concept of operations for the TSA at its face they're not just looking for active and willing attackers, they're also looking for unwitting attackers. (That's why you screen Grandma in her wheelchair -- How does Grandma know nobody slipped an explosive onto her person or possessions somehow without her realizing it?)
If you're allowing military through, why not the 800,000 people with TS clearances? Or police? Or...? And how do you know that the person is a member of the military? And even if they are, it's not a foregone conclusion that they're automatically safe. (Nidal Malik Hasan? Hasan Akba?)
Screen everyone or screen no one. You're hard-pressed to make a rational risk argument if you're not doing that.
I was actually looking a bit further into the future for holiday travel. It's $82 round trip to take a direct flight between Philadelphia and Boston.
I'm not arguing with you, but I'm really quite curious where you found $41 tickets (avg) on a flight. That seems insanely cheap, especially for holiday travel. And does that include the various taxes and fees?
The reason people don't travel by train in the USA is because a train trip cost more than DOUBLE the cost of a flight and it takes one day per flight hour to get to your destination (with multiple transfers).
The reason a train trip costs a lot and takes a long time (for most trips outside of the Northeast Corridor) is because we haven't invested in the railways to make it otherwise. I reluctantly agree that long-haul high-speed rail in the United States is probably a pipe dream and will probably never be a sufficiently cost-effective compared to the other options. But regional rail (like the Northeast Corridor) generally is useful and cost-effective (relatively speaking - all transportation infrastructure loses money; that's why the government does it and not the private sector). California is one of the few places where regional rail makes sense in my opinion - there's a lot of churn between the major cities.
(Side note: Please don't start your post in the subject line, it's very confusing to follow)
I was just recently looking into buying tickets from Philadelphia to MA for travel. Guess what? It's cheaper to fly. By a factor of 3.
Huh? Rarely is that the case. You might have hit a peak travel time or something. I pulled a date out of my butt and asked for Philly to Boston on December 1st, and Amtrak's prices were between $88 and $126 (Northeast Regional). There were also Acela Express fares that ranged as high as $245, but that's not apples to apples (Acela Express is all business class.)
Southwest Airlines prices, in the meantime, were $161 flat (Anytime fare).
Regardless, expensive isn't as much my consideration. The train (at least, the Northeast Corridor, along which I am very fortunate to live) is an order of magnitude less hassle than the airplane. And I can get up, walk around, and hang out in the cafe car. And no one yells at you for congregating outside the toilet. And the seats are actually reasonably sized. And along the NEC, the train will drop you off downtown, instead of some airport 10 miles out from the city where you then need to rent a car or take a bus.
Once you move beyond those boundaries, there's no coherency at all. For example, if you move the example destination from NASA Goddard to, say, Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, MD, or possibly up to BWI Airport, the fun really begins.
Yes, you take the B30 bus from the Greenbelt Metro station to the terminal at BWI. That was tough!:) (http://www.wmata.com/bus/b30_brochure.cfm)
(You could also take a bus to New Carrollton and ride up Amtrak or MARC to BWI.)
If I could shout into my watch: "KITT I NEED YOU BUDDY!" and have the Prius come racing to pick me up (bonus if it does a bootleg turn and pops the door open), I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
When you go to a theme park, you can buy a "Fast Pass" which allows you to jump the queue.
FASTPASS is a Disney thing, and it's free. (Perhaps other theme parks have implemented something but DO charge, I don't go to them anymore.)
Check out the implementation; it's actually pretty fair.
That said, Disney *does* charge (out the wazzoo) for a VIP tour guide, who can skip lines, walk you through the park in inaccessible areas, and such. Generally, this is done for famous type people; more often than not, it's done for safety. Consider how unsafe (literally) it would be for, say, Justin Bieber to be walking through the park and standing in lines -- such a thing could literally cause a riot.
It sounds reasonable, but it isn't always workable that way. Consider a few cases.
1.) Devices on a government network which might subject to being seized during an investigation. How do you work it out where users are aware and agree that an agent from an IG office can swipe their iPhone? 2.) Devices which may have access to sensitive data. Do you want your sensitive financial or medical data accessible by any device a doctor or other employee might decide to connect themselves? Because such devices NEVER get lost or stolen... At least managed devices can be remotely wiped and/or have passwords and encryption properly applied to them....Somebody came in and disrupted me while I was writing this so I forgot my third example. But you get the point.
Yes, in many (maybe even most) cases it's overbearing, but it really depends on the environment for which you are responsible.
i would argue that 100 cancer victims/year is worst than 100 cancer deaths/year.
I don't think I'd agree with that, particularly since my mom just made it through her uterine cancer. I'm pretty certain I'd have rather seen her go through the relatively simple surgery and a few weeks of recovery than go to her funeral.
Yes, in war is one thing. But if you're trying to make an economic argument, I think it falls pretty flat. For example, you didn't consider the economic contributions of a relatively young person dying vs. the cost of cancer treatment. I'm pretty certain that killing me right now vs. 100 grand or so in cancer treatment would be a net loss for society.
That, sir, is a spectacular quote. Thank you for that.
I've had a very difficult time convincing those that I hang around with (mostly fundamentalist Baptists, who are the closest to my own beliefs) that in order to actually have faith, it is absolutely necessary to have the potential to be wrong. Otherwise, it isn't faith. I'm so tired of the "We can know for absolute certain" statements that are made in churches -- they make a mockery of the very idea of faith.
I also believe, by the way, that no one comes to Christ by being convinced of anything; rather it is through faith that God provides that person. (How ELSE can you read Ephesians 2:8?) Would that more Christians take that approach. We'd waste a whole lot less time and make enemies of a whole lot fewer people if we spent our time praying for the lost and demonstrating love, rather than arguing with them (particularly in state governments...)
The summary didn't say 100 DEATHS per year. It said 100 cases of cancer per year. And that was the high side. I'm as anti-scanner as anyone out there, but succumbing to the same style of sensationalist rhetoric as the scanner supporters does our cause no good.
But seriously, it is kind of weird to me that they didn't line up the lines dividing the lane, very much offends my OCD. Georgia, what a strange state you are.
I would be tempted. But given the cost of doing so, and the likelihood that they wouldn't support that either, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Hmmm. Well, maybe what you could do is FIRST badger the person taking the order into just putting it in. Insist that you brought out a "technician" who told you the cable is there, and that they insisted that the cable is in place. Or insist that you *did* agree to have them come out and bury the cable, but they came out and said the cable is already there. "What do you mean you don't have a record of it? Your records are wrong! Look, I don't have all day, just put in the order please, do you know how much of my time you've already wasted, etc. etc." Remember, the customer service reps just want to get you off the phone. Even if it comes to just putting in an order that will screw you up later; from their perspective it's someone else's problem when you call back enraged.
Anyhow, if you manage to get them to acquiesce, schedule the install for a week out, and go ahead and bury the cable. No risk!:)
For me, it was a butt set (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineman%27s_handset) along with the clipboard.
I did a fair amount of network cabling support years ago, mostly in retail locations. I'd be wandering around the stock room of a Best Buy or Wal Wart, someone would come up to me and ask: "Can I help you?", and I'd reply: "No, thanks; I'm good." They'd stand there uncomfortably for a second, and I'd walk away with a warbling toner. Always a blast.
* No cable. Their house doesn't have cable coax. See Charter's idea of fair price above.
You know what I would consider doing (seriously)? I'd actually lay the coax myself and order the cable. The guy on the truck won't give a crap who installed it, and he'd probably get a kick out of you doing it yourself, if you did it right. Assuming he even knew you did it.
Slashdot Mirror
That's ok, if yours had been posted it would have been a trip. (as in, triple)
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/11/15/1635240/nows-your-chance-to-apply-as-an-astronaut
A bill to force the TSA to reduce its screening of active duty U.S. military members and their families was approved unanimously by the House of Representatives.
This is silly. Either you do screening, or you don't. Complete ineptness of the TSA aside for argument's sake, if you take the concept of operations for the TSA at its face they're not just looking for active and willing attackers, they're also looking for unwitting attackers. (That's why you screen Grandma in her wheelchair -- How does Grandma know nobody slipped an explosive onto her person or possessions somehow without her realizing it?)
If you're allowing military through, why not the 800,000 people with TS clearances? Or police? Or...? And how do you know that the person is a member of the military? And even if they are, it's not a foregone conclusion that they're automatically safe. (Nidal Malik Hasan? Hasan Akba?)
Screen everyone or screen no one. You're hard-pressed to make a rational risk argument if you're not doing that.
Hey, PerlJedi,
Just thought I'd throw out that I'm happy to see your interaction here. It's always bugged me how little the /. staff is represented in the comments.
"Begun, the Drone Wars have."
I was actually looking a bit further into the future for holiday travel. It's $82 round trip to take a direct flight between Philadelphia and Boston.
I'm not arguing with you, but I'm really quite curious where you found $41 tickets (avg) on a flight. That seems insanely cheap, especially for holiday travel. And does that include the various taxes and fees?
The reason people don't travel by train in the USA is because a train trip cost more than DOUBLE the cost of a flight and it takes one day per flight hour to get to your destination (with multiple transfers).
The reason a train trip costs a lot and takes a long time (for most trips outside of the Northeast Corridor) is because we haven't invested in the railways to make it otherwise. I reluctantly agree that long-haul high-speed rail in the United States is probably a pipe dream and will probably never be a sufficiently cost-effective compared to the other options. But regional rail (like the Northeast Corridor) generally is useful and cost-effective (relatively speaking - all transportation infrastructure loses money; that's why the government does it and not the private sector). California is one of the few places where regional rail makes sense in my opinion - there's a lot of churn between the major cities.
(Side note: Please don't start your post in the subject line, it's very confusing to follow)
I was just recently looking into buying tickets from Philadelphia to MA for travel. Guess what? It's cheaper to fly. By a factor of 3.
Huh? Rarely is that the case. You might have hit a peak travel time or something. I pulled a date out of my butt and asked for Philly to Boston on December 1st, and Amtrak's prices were between $88 and $126 (Northeast Regional). There were also Acela Express fares that ranged as high as $245, but that's not apples to apples (Acela Express is all business class.)
Southwest Airlines prices, in the meantime, were $161 flat (Anytime fare).
Regardless, expensive isn't as much my consideration. The train (at least, the Northeast Corridor, along which I am very fortunate to live) is an order of magnitude less hassle than the airplane. And I can get up, walk around, and hang out in the cafe car. And no one yells at you for congregating outside the toilet. And the seats are actually reasonably sized. And along the NEC, the train will drop you off downtown, instead of some airport 10 miles out from the city where you then need to rent a car or take a bus.
Once you move beyond those boundaries, there's no coherency at all. For example, if you move the example destination from NASA Goddard to, say, Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, MD, or possibly up to BWI Airport, the fun really begins.
Yes, you take the B30 bus from the Greenbelt Metro station to the terminal at BWI. That was tough! :) (http://www.wmata.com/bus/b30_brochure.cfm)
(You could also take a bus to New Carrollton and ride up Amtrak or MARC to BWI.)
You can actually jump further into the future if you like.
No way, if I did that then I'd be skipping the Erika Eleniak and Pamela Anderson phase!
If I could shout into my watch: "KITT I NEED YOU BUDDY!" and have the Prius come racing to pick me up (bonus if it does a bootleg turn and pops the door open), I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
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I'm already a red-shirt at NASA, sadly. :(
Nonsense. Thousands or tens of thousands could be spared secondary effects from the heat and blast wave. Just the simple act of not standing in front of a window can be the difference between a horrible death and surviving relatively unscathed. Surely you've seen this famous picture from Hiroshima: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_patient's_skin_is_burned_in_a_pattern_corresponding_to_the_dark_portions_of_a_kimono_-_NARA_-_519686.jpg
Yes, if you're sitting at or near the hypocenter, your opinion holds true.
When you go to a theme park, you can buy a "Fast Pass" which allows you to jump the queue.
FASTPASS is a Disney thing, and it's free. (Perhaps other theme parks have implemented something but DO charge, I don't go to them anymore.)
Check out the implementation; it's actually pretty fair.
That said, Disney *does* charge (out the wazzoo) for a VIP tour guide, who can skip lines, walk you through the park in inaccessible areas, and such. Generally, this is done for famous type people; more often than not, it's done for safety. Consider how unsafe (literally) it would be for, say, Justin Bieber to be walking through the park and standing in lines -- such a thing could literally cause a riot.
You're not that far off:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_occupancy/toll_and_express_toll_lanes#Variable_tolls
Because people like me would start committing heinous crimes in hopes of being selected to go?
It's not like there's a shortage of people WILLING to go, even one way. Heck, even one way with a death certainty.
It sounds reasonable, but it isn't always workable that way. Consider a few cases.
1.) Devices on a government network which might subject to being seized during an investigation. How do you work it out where users are aware and agree that an agent from an IG office can swipe their iPhone? ...Somebody came in and disrupted me while I was writing this so I forgot my third example. But you get the point.
2.) Devices which may have access to sensitive data. Do you want your sensitive financial or medical data accessible by any device a doctor or other employee might decide to connect themselves? Because such devices NEVER get lost or stolen... At least managed devices can be remotely wiped and/or have passwords and encryption properly applied to them.
Yes, in many (maybe even most) cases it's overbearing, but it really depends on the environment for which you are responsible.
Yeah, and? They also sponsor Radio Lab, which is an NPR show.
i would argue that 100 cancer victims/year is worst than 100 cancer deaths/year.
I don't think I'd agree with that, particularly since my mom just made it through her uterine cancer. I'm pretty certain I'd have rather seen her go through the relatively simple surgery and a few weeks of recovery than go to her funeral.
Yes, in war is one thing. But if you're trying to make an economic argument, I think it falls pretty flat. For example, you didn't consider the economic contributions of a relatively young person dying vs. the cost of cancer treatment. I'm pretty certain that killing me right now vs. 100 grand or so in cancer treatment would be a net loss for society.
That, sir, is a spectacular quote. Thank you for that.
I've had a very difficult time convincing those that I hang around with (mostly fundamentalist Baptists, who are the closest to my own beliefs) that in order to actually have faith, it is absolutely necessary to have the potential to be wrong. Otherwise, it isn't faith. I'm so tired of the "We can know for absolute certain" statements that are made in churches -- they make a mockery of the very idea of faith.
I also believe, by the way, that no one comes to Christ by being convinced of anything; rather it is through faith that God provides that person. (How ELSE can you read Ephesians 2:8?) Would that more Christians take that approach. We'd waste a whole lot less time and make enemies of a whole lot fewer people if we spent our time praying for the lost and demonstrating love, rather than arguing with them (particularly in state governments...)
The summary didn't say 100 DEATHS per year. It said 100 cases of cancer per year. And that was the high side. I'm as anti-scanner as anyone out there, but succumbing to the same style of sensationalist rhetoric as the scanner supporters does our cause no good.
Amateur. :)
But seriously, it is kind of weird to me that they didn't line up the lines dividing the lane, very much offends my OCD. Georgia, what a strange state you are.
I would be tempted. But given the cost of doing so, and the likelihood that they wouldn't support that either, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Hmmm. Well, maybe what you could do is FIRST badger the person taking the order into just putting it in. Insist that you brought out a "technician" who told you the cable is there, and that they insisted that the cable is in place. Or insist that you *did* agree to have them come out and bury the cable, but they came out and said the cable is already there. "What do you mean you don't have a record of it? Your records are wrong! Look, I don't have all day, just put in the order please, do you know how much of my time you've already wasted, etc. etc." Remember, the customer service reps just want to get you off the phone. Even if it comes to just putting in an order that will screw you up later; from their perspective it's someone else's problem when you call back enraged.
Anyhow, if you manage to get them to acquiesce, schedule the install for a week out, and go ahead and bury the cable. No risk! :)
For me, it was a butt set (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineman%27s_handset) along with the clipboard.
I did a fair amount of network cabling support years ago, mostly in retail locations. I'd be wandering around the stock room of a Best Buy or Wal Wart, someone would come up to me and ask: "Can I help you?", and I'd reply: "No, thanks; I'm good." They'd stand there uncomfortably for a second, and I'd walk away with a warbling toner. Always a blast.
* No cable. Their house doesn't have cable coax. See Charter's idea of fair price above.
You know what I would consider doing (seriously)? I'd actually lay the coax myself and order the cable. The guy on the truck won't give a crap who installed it, and he'd probably get a kick out of you doing it yourself, if you did it right. Assuming he even knew you did it.