The TSA – Keeping 'the people' safe from sex bombs since 2001

I had a minor rant about the TSA in March (see my previous post, Back in the USA). TSA, the people who have taken what little joy there is in these days of Greyhound-Bus-programs-the-sky, and wrung its neck. They add inconvenience, without the value added plus of security, to a dreary travel experience. It’s Kabuki security, style and elaborate costumes.

I am not alone. In an article titled, The Things He Carried, Jeffrey Goldberg writes in the Atlantic,

I’ve also carried, at various times: pocketknives, matches from hotels in Beirut and Peshawar, dust masks, lengths of rope, cigarette lighters, nail clippers, eight-ounce tubes of toothpaste (in my front pocket), bottles of Fiji Water (which is foreign), and, of course, box cutters. I was selected for secondary screening four times—out of dozens of passages through security checkpoints—during this extended experiment. At one screening, I was relieved of a pair of nail clippers; during another, a can of shaving cream.

To be fair, the TSA has brought some humor into our lives. As an example, we now know some of the funnier things that people bring as carry-on. You can enter Vanity Fair’s Sex bomb caption contest.

I do take TSA’s point that most bad guys are not brain surgeons. This from the TSA’s blog:

…the person agreeing to carry [the bomb] may not be super smart.

Except when they are brain surgeons (or at least highly educated doctors) as they were in London.

From what I’ve read, the smartest things done for air security are the locked doors for the pilot’s cockpit and air marshals.

The TSA – Keeping ‘the people’ safe from sex bombs since 2001

I had a minor rant about the TSA in March (see my previous post, Back in the USA). TSA, the people who have taken what little joy there is in these days of Greyhound-Bus-programs-the-sky, and wrung its neck. They add inconvenience, without the value added plus of security, to a dreary travel experience. It’s Kabuki security, style and elaborate costumes.

I am not alone. In an article titled, The Things He Carried, Jeffrey Goldberg writes in the Atlantic,

I’ve also carried, at various times: pocketknives, matches from hotels in Beirut and Peshawar, dust masks, lengths of rope, cigarette lighters, nail clippers, eight-ounce tubes of toothpaste (in my front pocket), bottles of Fiji Water (which is foreign), and, of course, box cutters. I was selected for secondary screening four times—out of dozens of passages through security checkpoints—during this extended experiment. At one screening, I was relieved of a pair of nail clippers; during another, a can of shaving cream.

To be fair, the TSA has brought some humor into our lives. As an example, we now know some of the funnier things that people bring as carry-on. You can enter Vanity Fair’s Sex bomb caption contest.

I do take TSA’s point that most bad guys are not brain surgeons. This from the TSA’s blog:

…the person agreeing to carry [the bomb] may not be super smart.

Except when they are brain surgeons (or at least highly educated doctors) as they were in London.

From what I’ve read, the smartest things done for air security are the locked doors for the pilot’s cockpit and air marshals.

Vancouver Writers

NOVEMBER VANCOUVER WRITERS’ MIXER LOOKS AT THE VALUE OF CRITIQUE GROUPS

How to form or become a member of an exceptional critique group will be the topic of the November 1st Vancouver Writers Mixer at Cover to Cover Books, 1817 Main Street in Vancouver, WA (www.covertocoverbooks.net). The free event runs from 5:00–6:30 p.m.

Vancouver area poets Diane Cammer, Eileen Elliott, Christopher Luna, Jim Martin, and Toni Partington will discuss organizing and sustaining critique groups, the “etiquette” of critiquing, and how the impressions and comments of others have contributed to their work.

Diane M. Cammer has taught poetry workshops through the Fort Vancouver Library and recently completed her first novel, Keystone. After extensive research on critiquing concepts, she formed two critique groups, one involved with critiquing novels and other focusing on poetry. A transplanted New Yorker, she loves hiking and living in the Northwest with her husband and three daughters.

Eileen Elliott, a psychologist and mixed-media artist, has been writing narrative and lyrical verse for about eight years. Her Midwest roots appear frequently in her work which has been expanding into performance pieces.

Christopher Luna is a poet, editor, journalist, and teacher. His latest chapbook, Ghost Town, USA, contains poetry and reportage inspired by his life in Vancouver.

Jim Martin, a retired biologist and teacher, is rediscovering the excitement, turmoil, and infinite joy of reading and writing poetry. His critique group has helped him extract himself from the chains of punctuation and allowed him to think of his words as choreographed thought. He enjoys spending time with family, a huge remodeling project, and photography.

Toni Partington works as a grant writer and life/career coach in Vancouver. Her poetry will appear in VoiceCatcher 2008 and she has contributed to the NW Women’s Journal and the anthology Selected Poems of the River Poets’ Society. Toni was recognized for her poem “Sayuri Memories” at the Oregon State Poet’s Association 2007 Spring Awards. She is working on a book of poetry titled For the Love of Agnes to be released later this year.

My Front Yard

Thoreau wrote in “Autumnal Tints”

Europeans coming to America are surprised by the
brilliancy of our autumnal foliage. There is no account of such a
phenomenon in English poetry, because the trees acquire but few bright
colors there.

redbud leaves losing chorophyll
redbud leaves losing chorophyll

I’ve heard that some folks don’t think California has seasons. That we don’t have the fall colors. We do.  Fall anthocyanins and carotenoids are just more of a treasure hunt. Fall here is not in your face as it is in New England or like this.

The photos here are from my front yard where western redbud (Cercis occidentalis) grows wild.

The loss of chlorophyll is a pretty thing. Why it happens? Read here, you non-romantics.

Are Kindles Green?

I follow a number of blogs.  One is The Writer’s Edge, in a post titled “Watching Books,” Richard Curtis writes”

…the high cost and environmental wastefulness of printing manuscripts motivated editors to try reading books on desktop or laptop computer screens...Recently I have heard many an editor rave about the virtues of the Sony (and to a lesser extent Amazon’s Kindle) as an editorial tool. They also speak of the “green” benefits of paperless transmission of texts. Authors and agents benefit too, thanks to savings on photocopy, printing, and mailing costs.

As you might imagine, as a forester, I have a somewhat different take on this, regarding the “environmental cost.” I think Kindles and other ebook readers like it are fine. They are just swell for storing manuscripts. One can carry lots of books in a small package. Saves one’s back and shoulders from having to lug weighty manuscripts about.

I’m not convinced they are a “green” solution. To equate the lack of paper making and tree harvesting as green, may be too narrow of a view, and is certainly one-sided…considering the petroleum-based plastics, corrosives cleaners, non-renewable metals, energy, etc needed to manufacture such devices.

As Patrick Moore of GreenSpirit points out for paper:

15 percent of the wood harvested is used to manufacture pulp and paper mainly for printing, packaging, and sanitary purposes. Fully half of this wood is derived from the wastes from the sawmills which produce the solid wood products for building. Most of the remaining supply is from tree plantation’s many of which are established on land that was previously cleared for agriculture. So even if we did stop using wood to make pulp and paper it would not have the effect of ‘saving’ many forests.

* * *

There are those who claim that each time we use wood, we cause a little more forest to be lost. This cannot possibly be true when you consider that North Americans consume more wood per capita than anyone else in the world and yet our forests cover about the same area of land as they did 100 years ago. Does this not stand as proof that our forests are being renewed?

In the Journal of Biogeography, a paper titled, The illusion of preservation, argues that more needs to be considered than just one side of the equation. Though they are talking about construction materials, the idea of creation of other products from wood applies:

“Lumber is the least energy intensive construction material and its production releases significantly less carbon dioxide and toxic products than substitutes. In addition, wood is renewable and forest growth may contribute to carbon sequestration, thereby yielding even greater trade-offs.”

By the way, according to the paper, “Pulp constitutes about 30% of US wood consumption.”

Using wood in the form of paper, signals the market to the need for more trees to be harvested and then, planted. If tree aren’t harvested, bought and sold as commodities, they won’t be seen as valuable. Sad but true, we live in a market-driven world and I don’t make the rules.

Strangely, the green alternative for lowering our carbon footprint in the world may be to burn more fossil fuels rather than wood. Two-thirds of all wood used on the globe is for fuel–cooking and heating.

Financial Meltdown – Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est

Engineer Scott presses the talk button on the Enterprises intercom. “Scott here.”
“We need more knowledge, now Mr Scott.”
“B’ cap’n I’m a naugh sure the engines can take much more of this. I just gave it our last copy of Moby Dick. Th’ internet’s beginning to overheat.”
“Now, Mr Scott.”
Scotty drops his chin to his chest and pushes the big red button. “Aye sir.”

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est
Knowledge is power. – Francis Bacon

There seems to be a great deal of discussion about the troubles in the economy, aka the global economic meltdown. Most feels as though it’s designed to spin perception one way or another. If you haven’t heard about it yet, go back to sleep or watching Fox News, I suspect it will blow over in ten or twenty years.

Where to get more knowledge on the financial meltdown?
One of the best places I’ve found for explaining the crisis and how it came to be is Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life. I’m not a big TAL fan but the last two programs have been outstanding. TAL teamed up with the guys at Planet Money If you don’t have speakers for your computer, get some. Run down to any store selling electronics and buy the cheapest ones you can. I recommend Episode 365, “Another Frightening Show About the Economy” and Episode 366, “A Better Mousetrap 2008.“

One of the blogs I follow is Marginal Revolution where I learned that according to a study by Colorado State University, people with bumper stickers, window decals, or other ‘territorial markers’ drive more aggressively. You can read more about the study online at the American Psychological Association. Anyway back to the financial mess, Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowan pointed me to the Times of London’s Top ten blogs to read during the banking crisis.

One last thing
Have you noticed that the commentariat cite the chestnut that the stock market has grown at x% for the last thirty years? That’s because it doesn’t look quite as rosy if one considers the market’s performance since the 1930’s to present.

Email on a Dana

I’ve commented on my AlphaSmart laptop PDA before. Here.

One of the recent comments I received on email for Alphasmart’s Dana Wireless said he used Snappermail. Here’s the link to Snappermail.com. I don’t know if my Palm 4.0 OS will support it. There’s a free trial, but I’m not anxious for yet another username, password, and other folderol that goes with new software.