Articles tagged: travel
Thursday, 15 July, 2010. Tagged with: government, links, software, travel
Why governing Americans is so hard
Howard Gleckman in the Christian Science Monitor:
The conventional wisdom is that Americans are fed up with their government. But our demands on policymakers are so inconsistent and irrational that we make governing nearly impossible. We hate big deficits, but oppose the actual tax increases or spending cuts that we need to dam the flood of the red ink. We are furious that government passed an $800 billion stimulus last year, but feel lawmakers are not doing enough to get the economy going. We want government to “do something” about the gulf oil spill but reject government interference in private business.
…
We are, collectively, four. We want what we want, and we want it now. And we want somebody else to pay for it.
Why your plane is always full
James Fallows:
… I got up before 5:30am today to get an 8:15am flight out of Dulles, only to find an email from the airline saying that the flight had been delayed to 10:45. The inbound flight – from Dubai! – is late, and there are no spare planes to go on to San Francisco. OK – gladder to know now than before leaving the house for the airport, though ideally it would have great to know last night. Nothing to be done. But it was a serendipitous intro to the very next item in the email inbox: a report on how substantially airline capacity continues to be cut. There just are fewer flights anywhere, and more of them are full, than in yesteryear.
Microsoft opens source code to Russian secret service
Tom Espiner, ZDNet UK:
Microsoft has signed a deal to open its Windows 7 source code up to the Russian intelligence services.
Russian publication Vedomosti reported on Wednesday that Microsoft had also given the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) access to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server source code, with hopes of improving Microsoft sales to the Russian state.
The agreement will allow state bodies to study the source code and develop cryptography for the Microsoft products through the Science-Technical Centre ‘Atlas’, a government body controlled by the Ministry of Communications and Press, according to Vedomosti.
(via Bruce Schneier)
Sunday, 07 February, 2010. Tagged with: links, travel
I blogged about smartphone-augmented travel over on the Crazy Like That blog. Check it out.
Sunday, 27 December, 2009. Tagged with: technological failure, terrorism, travel, tsa
This was written before a Nigerian man became ill on the Dec. 27, 2009 Flight 253, triggering another turnout of police/TSA
I’ve been seeing a bit of reaction on Twitter and on blogs about the TSA failing to keep Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab off of Northwest Flight 253.
Andrew Sullivan’s reaction is typical:
Who was the government official who was warned? Why was this loon allowed on a flight to the US? Here’s a simple test for the Obama administration: find the people responsible for this negligence and fire them.
Other commenters on Twitter talk about TSA failing to screen adequately. I’m not sure if they mean physical screening or passenger manifest screening, but let’s look at both.
First, TSA is reliant on other airports and countries to screen passengers from physically getting on planes. Abdulmutallab should have had to have been screened twice. Once in Lagos, his initial departure and again in Amsterdam. There are at least two possibilities here. First, he had the explosive underwear on the entire time and both physical screenings failed to find anything. Second, the syringe/detonator-laden tighty-whities were salted on the plane by someone else.
Either seems plausible.
From sheer volume of passengers, it seems probable that someone will make it through security with contraband. It also seems possible that with the enhanced focus on passenger screening that someone might focus on getting contraband onto a plane in a different fashion. Could be someone with flight-line clearance. Could be someone who just jumps a fence and walks onto a plane. Something like that wouldn’t have to take place in Amsterdam.
But what about the watch list screening? His dad spoke up and warned the U.S. embassy in Nigeria. Unlike Cat Stevens, Abdulmutallab was cleared to land in the U.S. Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano indicated there wasn’t enough information to put him on the no-fly list:
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” she replied that placing him on the no-fly list “required specific derogatory information that was not available to the law enforcement community.” Questioned again about the body check, she said her department was “ going backward” and reviewing what was and was not done in his case.
When there have been upwards of 1,000,000 people1 — some duplicated — on a watch list, how many resources is it worth devoting to looking at each and every person on it? What are the criteria for identifying people that would be of more interest than others? I don’t know. Remember, while passenger awareness of what was going on saved Flight 253, “See Something, Say Something” generates a lot of noise that has to be sorted through. It’s very possible for that noise to be hidden in. Still, Marc Ambinder asks a relevant question:
If watch list folks are on flights inbound for the U.S., the TSA is supposed to figure this out and notify the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center. That’s the procedure, and it’s been used successfully to prevent a number of nefarious chaps from entering the U.S.
So – if secondary screening in Amsterdam and a validated watch list hit can’t keep someone from trying to blow up an airplane, what can?
Except the “watch list” and the “no-fly list” are not, strictly speaking, the same thing. There is the big consolidated list that has the big number. Then, there are the no-fly and selectee lists the TSA uses which are much smaller, but still around 16,000 people. Interpreting Napolitano’s statement and other data, Abdulmutallab was on the larger list, but not on either the two smaller lists. It seems, from TSA’s information, that they would not see a hit from the larger list against a passenger manifest.
Saturday, 16 May, 2009. Tagged with: photography, travel
I talked about deliberate practice in my previous entry, which was borne out of some frustration with the photos I took on an April trip to DC and my general lack of attention to photography.
I was on vacation last week and we planned a much more reasonable afternoon trip to Winston-Salem to photograph around the multitude of RJ Reynolds facilities. Driving north on U.S. 52, on the east side of downtown, there’s quite a number of decaying buildings and redevelopment possibilities. I’d previously photographed around the area a few years back, but revisting has been a goal of 5x5 and I.
We spent a few hours wandering around a three or four square block area and making a couple of side-trips into Krankies, a coffee shop between 3rd and 4th Streets. Overall, I’m pleased with the results I’ve been posting in a new Winston-Salem Flickr set. I’m also trying to learn more about Aperture’s tone controls, particularly where it concerns black and white images.
I am after a few goals with my black and white images. I want some pop, so I tend to emphasize contrast. I generally underexpose slightly when taking the photograph and optimize exposure during editing to give myself some highlight latitude. Looking at other photographers, though, I want to work on my middle tonal range. I see see great tones in some middle grays, and I want to aim for that, but without leaving the image flat. My own work leans towards strong highlights and shadows, which is certainly part of how I compose my photos.
To that end, looking around at other architectural photography on Flickr and my brother-in-law’s professional work is very helpful in my own growth as a photographer.
Apart from the photography, Krankies is highly recommended. They roast on site, the shop is in a great space and there’s plenty of seating, complete with a shaded patio. Otherwise, downtown Winston-Salem seemed rather dead. Sure, it was Mother’s Day, but it’s amazing going to downtown Raleigh and seeing the activity level rise over the years and going elsewhere and seeing where that downtown revival is non-existent or still developing.
Be that as it may, we have another two photography trips to Winston-Salem in the discussion phases.
Saturday, 11 April, 2009. Tagged with: travel
Last weekend, 5x5 and I hit the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC. I’d heard the event attracted a crazy amount of people. But we weren’t expecting the sidewalk-clogging, traffic-stopping crush of humanity we encountered when we got there. It was worthwhile, and overall, I’m happy with the photos I got, we came away with some thoughts on what we would do differently.
First, taking Metro into DC was an excellent idea. We parked in Alexandria at Huntington Station, which has two parking decks, both of which were largely empty. Weekend parking is free, weekday parking is $4.50. That saved us from trying to get into DC on I-395 or near the Lincoln Memorial and promptly into Cherry Blossom traffic. The traffic we saw around the Tidal Basin was at a near constant standstill, drivers looked frustrated, pedestrians had little notion of right-of-way and there was no parking to speak of.
What didn’t go as well was arrival and departure at Smithsonian Station. It’s the closest Metro stop to the Tidal Basin, which means nearly everyone taking Metro to the Cherry Blossom Festival arrives there. As each train arrived, staff would clear arriving passengers off the platform out one entrance. Departing passengers were waiting at the top of the escalators to be granted access to the platform. Above ground, bullhorns were in use to enforce a one-way only traffic flow. Trying to head back to Alexandria via Smithsonian was futile. There were so many people at the intersection of 12th St SW and Independence Ave SW, it was impossible to stand on the sidewalk or see the escalators leading from street level into the station. We walked to L’Enfant Station instead, and that was fine. Federal Triangle was my other choice.
Walking around was low key and pleasant enough, but again, crowded. Next time, we might try visiting the Tidal Basin early in the morning. That might also help with the bathroom issue. There were port-a-potties set-up, but they were apparently associated with the Cherry Blossom Run the next day (and thus locked), not for general use. That left a bathroom on the east side of the Washington Monument and another at 15th Street SW and Independence Ave SW. The one at 15th and Indy’s wait ran about 30 min for women.
That delay was on top of an unanticipated extra hour and a half or so in traffic. We wanted to try a day-trip from Raleigh, and I was counting on a five hour drive and some change to actually get into downtown DC. We left later than anticipated, at 9 a.m., but didn’t arrive on the National Mall until about 3:30. The area between Fredericksburg, VA and Potomac Mills on I-95 just blew chunks. US 1 through Ft. Belvoir wasn’t much better, but it moved. Our big frustration was seeing the HOV-3 lanes completely closed even as northbound traffic was completely tied-up.
With just over two hours of walking-around time, we had fun, but 11 hours in the car is quite a price for it. Next time, instead of depending on traffic, we’ll probably do a long weekend trip, driving up on a Thursday evening and heading home Sunday afternoon. Alexandria’s a nice place to stay, has good restaurants and is walkable in it’s own right. Something near DuPont Circle in the District would also work.
Be sure to check out 5x5’s photos, too.
