Another well-documented UFO case with plenty of independent verification from multiple reliable witnesses in different locations, along with air traffic control, etc.
Too bad you posted as AC...let me know if you want to hear more. There is not that much out there on the net about it.
P.S. I am not 100% sure whether aliens or whatever were responsible, but there was definitely some crazy shit going on!
Propaganda on the other hand cannot possibly bring down a plane from the sky, and it is surely protected to some extent by freedom of speech.
Firstly, they're not looking for things that can bring down an airplane -- they're looking for things that could indicate your intent to bring down an airplane. Though I agree with you that such-and-such a t-shirt is not necessarily an indicator.
Yes, that is basically the only thing I am trying to highlight. They have x-ray machines, metal detectors, fluid disposal, explosive detectors and a "No Fly" list. If none of those set off a red flag then you should be allowed to board a plane.
Ok so the guy who's got that weird muslim book might get on the plane and still try to create a ruckus with his bare hands, but you can be sure he'd get his ass handed to him by everyone else around him.
I take your point about airplanes being private property, but I do not think it's the TSA's job to worry about airline policies other than what relates to compliance with Federal air safety rules. And I am quite sure that Federal law should allow you to carry books, t-shirts and so on that might contain controversial material. But as you say there is a grey area about what is "reasonable" - personally I am fine with carrying the stuff but in contrast I don't think someone could be able to wander around an airport preaching death to America!
All the the while "electing" and supporting violent leaders who do most of their crimes in the name of Islam.
Its funny you mention elections, because the most prosperous Muslim-majority nations are the ones that are democracies (Indonesia) or closer to it on that spectrum (Pakistan). The poorest Muslim-majority states are the ones that are under dictatorships, either religious (Iran) or secular (Syria, Libya, Jordan, etc.).
In other words, I'm not sure how you can blame the public for the actions of what is usually a very small ruling bloc.
Are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates democracies? Those are two of the richest nations in the muslim world, not to mention the entire world!
Yes I agree with you completely that people have been prevented from boarding aircraft when all they were doing was exercising their right to free speech. The guy's t-shirt is a classic example of that. You can't stop a guy boarding a plane just because he "has scary muslim writing" on his shirt! People joking about bombs and things are slightly different because it could be the equivalent to yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre.
So having said all of that, why on earth is the guy in the article trying to "test" the TSA by flaunting all of that propaganda? That isn't part of their job! Their job is to ensure that you don't get anything that causes physical endangerment onto a plane. Dangerous ideas don't count!
I skimmed through the TFA and the author talks about how various items of terrorist propaganda didn't raise an eyelid:
The flag features, as its charming main image, an upraised fist clutching an AK-47 automatic rifle. Atop the rifle is a line of Arabic writing that reads Then surely the party of God are they who will be triumphant. The officer took the flag and spread it out on the inspection table. She finished her inspection, gave me back my flag, and told me I could go. I said, "That's a Hezbollah flag." She said, "Uh-huh."
Correct me if I am wrong, but all the TSA crew are meant to watch for is if you are bringing anything onto a plane that could then be used to bring it down or hijack it.
Propaganda on the other hand cannot possibly bring down a plane from the sky, and it is surely protected to some extent by freedom of speech.
Those who drive safe, and/or very little, still pay ridiculous amounts for required automotive liability insurance
I guess it's quite hard to assess how safely people drive, but I certainly agree with you about how often you drive.
I own a car that most insurers consider to be a "performance"/"sports" model so I have to pay more for my insurance - most likely due to the value of the car and some kind of "risk factor" because my car can go a lot faster than others...perhaps our actuarial analyst from further up the tree may care to comment...
Anyway, I pretty much use my vehicle on weekends, I use public transport during the week (I'd rather have fun with my car on the weekend instead of sitting in traffic getting angry driving to/from work.) No insurer I know of will factor this in to premiums - surely the less you use the vehicle the less risk you pose?
It would be pretty easy to enforce the policy as well - you could sign up for a maximum quarterly mileage figure as part of your policy. When you renew your policy the insurer checks your mileage and charges you extra if you have gone over it. I'm sure a few more details need to be worked out but you get the picture...
Oh and by the way - anecdotal evidence would suggest that your rates go up the faster and sportier the car. Do the insurers ever consider that some of those vehicles actually have a lot of good safety-contributing features as well? For example: ABS, Traction Control, very good disc brakes... A lot of lower-end cars that you buy brand new don't even have any of those features.
Someone needs to add the "scada" tag to this story.
I know humour is subjective and everything, but I'm surprised hardly anyone else has got the joke yet!
For those who are still in the dark - in SCADA systems, a "tag" is kind of like a field that contains some data that needs to be written to or monitored.
E.g., if you were a water company and wanted to monitor tank levels, you would assign your tanks their own level tags - like TANK1_LEV, TANK2_LEV, TANK3_LEV... - each of which could then be queried for a given tank's current level.
My wife is a teacher and a damn good one, and I can't figure out McCain's education platform.
There's nothing to fear my friend. McCain isn't going to change a thing about America's great education system. I mean, he depends upon his schooling everyday as he ponders developments along the Iraq-Pakistan border...
Take Youtube for example. It is an internet Monster, both in terms of # of people viewing AND # of people contributing. It is nothing more then a modern take on "Home Movies" and Americas Funniest Home Videos.
You have a point there. But I do like some of the new features, like the ability to have keywords and comments pop-up during a video. It's pretty cool to see supplementary information like that, and it's a similar concept to what the NYT is doing...
Check it out...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/us/politics/20080905_WORDS_GRAPHIC.html
This link looks at both conventions and tries to quantify the major themes each party has tried to highlight. Unsurprisingly the DNC is leading on "Change", but Biden has used the term more than Obama during the conventions.
However, I refuse to believe that Rudy Giuliani referenced 9/11 only once! This is the guy who could bring 9/11 into a discussion on public health for crying out loud!
I was told that experts-exchange.com used to be expertsexchange.com. At the time I had a bit of a laugh and dismissed it as a good story.
However, Wikipedia confirms it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experts_exchange#History.
So in all, I reckon that must be one of the more famous examples of an embarrassing domain name.
Wow, that's quite interesting. I didn't know that HAARP was an ionospheric heater [wikipedia.org]. Who would have thought that scientists would be blasting megawatts of RF into space to investigate it.
Your Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionospheric_heater says that "An ionospheric heater is an array of antennas which are used for heating the ionosphere, and which can create artificial aurora borealis." So I guess the answer is probably a "yes."
1. Leak MMS Photos
2. Watch people as they go through the photos
3. Arrest anyone who stumbles upon an underage photo (Someone please think of the children!)
4. ???
5. Profit! (Or at the very least, create a big carnival sideshow about capturing hordes of perverts in the act in order to distract attention from the massive privacy breach.)
I've gotten used to Opera's changeability so much that I can't stand using a browser where the tabs are on top. The bottom is a _much_ better place for the tab bar. Opera lets me do that. Firefox doesn't. In fact when I installed FF 2.0 I had play around userChrome.css to change the tab placement! (After spending som time googling.) In Opera you can do this in a few button clicks.
The thing I like about Firefox is how changeable it is: Screenshot
I've been organizing the bars like that since I started using FF, and I find it makes for much better use of that space than just a gray, blank area. Opera's interface is every bit as customisable if not more so. Right click on any toolbar and click "Customize." The "Toolbars" tab will let you play with which toolbars you want to show, and where you want them. The "Buttons" tab will allow you to place just about any button anywhere you want.
Finally, you can even make your own buttons. See the Opera wiki for more information: http://operawiki.info/CustomButtons
Also don't forget the trend of corporatism where government interests and corporate interests start to feed off each other and support each other. (No-bid contracts, military contracts, etc...)
I'd like to suggest one more point that contributed to the success of rebuilding Germany:
5) Before WWII Germany was the centre of of global scientific, technological and engineering innovation (Read "Hitler's Scientists" if you have any doubts about this) They also built up a significant industrial base prior to WWII. Granted this industrial base was mostly smashed to bits and a lot of their smart scientists got stolen away by the allies, but they still had enough skilled people left, and a past track record of industrial success to look back upon as they tried to rebuild their country. When people talk about turning Iraq into a thriving democracy, it often conjures up images of prosperity that are extremely unrealistic given how much of a mess Iraq had been under Saddam (and even before) and the fact that Iraq lack the manpower and skills to pick themselves up like the Germans did.
You can't have been very clever if you didn't figure out you can SSH into a OS X box and manage them via command line. Too used to Windows where that's really mandatory? A GUI never used, does not crash. Actually, all he was saying was that the CLI is inseparable from the GUI. I interpret that as saying that you can't actually run an apple computer without having the GUI with all the eye candy. Sure you can access the CLI, but there remains the risk of a GUI bug screwing up all your work. In Linux (as an example) you can choose from various runlevels and never actually have to run X if you don't want to. It would seem that on a mac you have to always run the mac "equivalent" of X.
Also, I take issue with "A GUI never used, does not crash." So you might be happily SSHing into an OS X all day, but the GUI IS STILL RUNNING on the host machine. Sure no one is interacting with it, but a display driver issue or GUI issue could still potentially upset everything. The only safe way is to run the machine without a GUI. Is this possible on a Mac?
Are athletes going to be allowed to blog about Chinese human rights issues? If you're an athlete from New Zealand, probably not. They seem to have been asked to sign an agreement that prevents them from making political comments about the Chinese regime.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/14/sports/OLY-New-Zealand-Free-Speech.php
Slashdot Mirror
Have you heard of the "Kaikoura Lights?"
Another well-documented UFO case with plenty of independent verification from multiple reliable witnesses in different locations, along with air traffic control, etc.
Too bad you posted as AC...let me know if you want to hear more. There is not that much out there on the net about it.
P.S. I am not 100% sure whether aliens or whatever were responsible, but there was definitely some crazy shit going on!
Propaganda on the other hand cannot possibly bring down a plane from the sky, and it is surely protected to some extent by freedom of speech.
Firstly, they're not looking for things that can bring down an airplane -- they're looking for things that could indicate your intent to bring down an airplane. Though I agree with you that such-and-such a t-shirt is not necessarily an indicator.
Yes, that is basically the only thing I am trying to highlight. They have x-ray machines, metal detectors, fluid disposal, explosive detectors and a "No Fly" list. If none of those set off a red flag then you should be allowed to board a plane.
Ok so the guy who's got that weird muslim book might get on the plane and still try to create a ruckus with his bare hands, but you can be sure he'd get his ass handed to him by everyone else around him.
I take your point about airplanes being private property, but I do not think it's the TSA's job to worry about airline policies other than what relates to compliance with Federal air safety rules. And I am quite sure that Federal law should allow you to carry books, t-shirts and so on that might contain controversial material. But as you say there is a grey area about what is "reasonable" - personally I am fine with carrying the stuff but in contrast I don't think someone could be able to wander around an airport preaching death to America!
All the the while "electing" and supporting violent leaders who do most of their crimes in the name of Islam.
Its funny you mention elections, because the most prosperous Muslim-majority nations are the ones that are democracies (Indonesia) or closer to it on that spectrum (Pakistan). The poorest Muslim-majority states are the ones that are under dictatorships, either religious (Iran) or secular (Syria, Libya, Jordan, etc.).
In other words, I'm not sure how you can blame the public for the actions of what is usually a very small ruling bloc.
Are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates democracies? Those are two of the richest nations in the muslim world, not to mention the entire world!
Hasn't stopped them before.
Yes I agree with you completely that people have been prevented from boarding aircraft when all they were doing was exercising their right to free speech. The guy's t-shirt is a classic example of that. You can't stop a guy boarding a plane just because he "has scary muslim writing" on his shirt! People joking about bombs and things are slightly different because it could be the equivalent to yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre.
So having said all of that, why on earth is the guy in the article trying to "test" the TSA by flaunting all of that propaganda? That isn't part of their job! Their job is to ensure that you don't get anything that causes physical endangerment onto a plane. Dangerous ideas don't count!
The flag features, as its charming main image, an upraised fist clutching an AK-47 automatic rifle. Atop the rifle is a line of Arabic writing that reads Then surely the party of God are they who will be triumphant. The officer took the flag and spread it out on the inspection table. She finished her inspection, gave me back my flag, and told me I could go. I said, "That's a Hezbollah flag." She said, "Uh-huh."
Correct me if I am wrong, but all the TSA crew are meant to watch for is if you are bringing anything onto a plane that could then be used to bring it down or hijack it.
Propaganda on the other hand cannot possibly bring down a plane from the sky, and it is surely protected to some extent by freedom of speech.
Those who drive safe, and/or very little, still pay ridiculous amounts for required automotive liability insurance
I guess it's quite hard to assess how safely people drive, but I certainly agree with you about how often you drive.
I own a car that most insurers consider to be a "performance"/"sports" model so I have to pay more for my insurance - most likely due to the value of the car and some kind of "risk factor" because my car can go a lot faster than others...perhaps our actuarial analyst from further up the tree may care to comment...
Anyway, I pretty much use my vehicle on weekends, I use public transport during the week (I'd rather have fun with my car on the weekend instead of sitting in traffic getting angry driving to/from work.) No insurer I know of will factor this in to premiums - surely the less you use the vehicle the less risk you pose?
It would be pretty easy to enforce the policy as well - you could sign up for a maximum quarterly mileage figure as part of your policy. When you renew your policy the insurer checks your mileage and charges you extra if you have gone over it. I'm sure a few more details need to be worked out but you get the picture...
Oh and by the way - anecdotal evidence would suggest that your rates go up the faster and sportier the car. Do the insurers ever consider that some of those vehicles actually have a lot of good safety-contributing features as well? For example: ABS, Traction Control, very good disc brakes... A lot of lower-end cars that you buy brand new don't even have any of those features.
Someone needs to add the "scada" tag to this story.
I know humour is subjective and everything, but I'm surprised hardly anyone else has got the joke yet! For those who are still in the dark - in SCADA systems, a "tag" is kind of like a field that contains some data that needs to be written to or monitored.
E.g., if you were a water company and wanted to monitor tank levels, you would assign your tanks their own level tags - like TANK1_LEV, TANK2_LEV, TANK3_LEV... - each of which could then be queried for a given tank's current level.
My wife is a teacher and a damn good one, and I can't figure out McCain's education platform.
There's nothing to fear my friend. McCain isn't going to change a thing about America's great education system. I mean, he depends upon his schooling everyday as he ponders developments along the Iraq-Pakistan border...
Take Youtube for example. It is an internet Monster, both in terms of # of people viewing AND # of people contributing. It is nothing more then a modern take on "Home Movies" and Americas Funniest Home Videos.
You have a point there. But I do like some of the new features, like the ability to have keywords and comments pop-up during a video. It's pretty cool to see supplementary information like that, and it's a similar concept to what the NYT is doing...
Check it out... http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/us/politics/20080905_WORDS_GRAPHIC.html This link looks at both conventions and tries to quantify the major themes each party has tried to highlight. Unsurprisingly the DNC is leading on "Change", but Biden has used the term more than Obama during the conventions. However, I refuse to believe that Rudy Giuliani referenced 9/11 only once! This is the guy who could bring 9/11 into a discussion on public health for crying out loud!
I was told that experts-exchange.com used to be expertsexchange.com. At the time I had a bit of a laugh and dismissed it as a good story. However, Wikipedia confirms it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experts_exchange#History. So in all, I reckon that must be one of the more famous examples of an embarrassing domain name.
Wow, that's quite interesting. I didn't know that HAARP was an ionospheric heater [wikipedia.org]. Who would have thought that scientists would be blasting megawatts of RF into space to investigate it.
Your Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionospheric_heater says that "An ionospheric heater is an array of antennas which are used for heating the ionosphere, and which can create artificial aurora borealis." So I guess the answer is probably a "yes."
So now that they know what the trigger is, can they use the HAARP to excite the Northern Lights?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAARP
1. Leak MMS Photos
2. Watch people as they go through the photos
3. Arrest anyone who stumbles upon an underage photo (Someone please think of the children!)
4. ???
5. Profit! (Or at the very least, create a big carnival sideshow about capturing hordes of perverts in the act in order to distract attention from the massive privacy breach.)
"Bombs away with Curtis LeMay" - pretty much sums up the USAF's attitude, doesn't it?
I'm sure there have been more than a few business travellers who have flown across many time zones only to realise they've left their laptop behind...
Also don't forget the trend of corporatism where government interests and corporate interests start to feed off each other and support each other. (No-bid contracts, military contracts, etc...)
I'd like to suggest one more point that contributed to the success of rebuilding Germany: 5) Before WWII Germany was the centre of of global scientific, technological and engineering innovation (Read "Hitler's Scientists" if you have any doubts about this) They also built up a significant industrial base prior to WWII. Granted this industrial base was mostly smashed to bits and a lot of their smart scientists got stolen away by the allies, but they still had enough skilled people left, and a past track record of industrial success to look back upon as they tried to rebuild their country. When people talk about turning Iraq into a thriving democracy, it often conjures up images of prosperity that are extremely unrealistic given how much of a mess Iraq had been under Saddam (and even before) and the fact that Iraq lack the manpower and skills to pick themselves up like the Germans did.
http://www.johannes-eva.net/images/2008_05_27_redoffice_review/2008%2005%20-%20RedOffice%20-%20Screenshot%208%20Format%20Templates.png That text in French says "One should eat the cat hot. When it's cold it's disgusting..." Whatever happened to the "quick brown fox?"
CSI China: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEbwJeEDpNo
Is it just me or did anyone else imagine a test subject waking up one day to see a big black monolith standing at the foot of his bed?