Followup to my rant on commercial flying..

Watching the Bob Newhart show a few days ago. Bob tells Howard, their neighbor who works as an airline navigator, that Emily is taking the train to [where ever]. Seems she’s afraid of flying and the train is safer than the plane. “Unless a plane crashes into the train!” Howard quickly points out.

Here’s an idea I had today for keeping golf stats while on the course.

1. dot in top right corner for GIR
2. dot in top left corner for fairway drive
3. dot in bottom left corner for chip in or other none-putt holing of the ball - zero putt
4. dot in bottom right corner for one or more duffs, ball tops, shanks, heals, toes, or other idiot shots
5. X across the score box for 1 putt (like a strike in bowling)
6. / across the score box for 2 putt (like a spare in bowling)
7. no special marks across the score box to indicate 3 putt or worse
8. instead of recording total strokes, just record over or under for the hole - some score cards have +/- section for this, but I’m saying never bother w/ total strokes. Example: -1 for birdy, +1 for boggie, and 0 for par.

Some score cards have a / line which interferes with 5 and 6. In this case a small X or / anywhere it would fit will suffice.

I heard this lyric today…

“It’s a shame that our kids are dumb, but our bombs are smart.”

from a song called “War Again” by Boingo.

heh heh..

Combichrist - these guys are pretty awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCntXvVY5Ww&feature=related

Traveling by air puts me in a foul mood. Being crammed into an aluminum can with 200 other sweaty, noisy people isn’t my idea of a fun adventure. These days the prices are so low that the type who would have taken the bus in the 1970’s is usually sitting next to me on the plane. In the past I would often upgrade to first class, but even this is useless today as it’s filled not with upper class citizens, but with frequent business travelers, often in too much of a hurry to get a decent shower after 12 hours of sales presentations. Blech!

Then we have the fact that the major airlines have begun outsourcing their major maintenance operations to Mexico and South America, not only to save money on labor, but to actually avoid meeting FAA safety standards (this was reported by the WSJ last year). This is a frightening time to fly. As an engineer, a designer of complex systems and a certificated aircraft mechanic I can tell you that humans really aren’t good at building reliable things with lots of moving parts. Consider the last time you had a blue screen failure on your computer. In air-travel the blue screen equivalent literally kills people. Thank god we’re outsourcing maintenance to the lowest bidder with the lowest saftey standards.

As if the prospect of being germed up by filthy peasants and possible death due to metal fatigue and excessive wing loading leading to a 35,000 foot ride straight down wasn’t enough to deter us from using the US air-transport system, we also get to be treated like each and every one of us is a known terrorist. “Vas ist in der bag!? Do you have your papers, sir?! You cannot take vater on zee plane!! You’re laptop looks like a bomb!! Spread your legs!! Vee will check your shoes for explosives!!” The power drunk TSA employees are as dull witted as a burned out drivers license bureau employee. They definitely don’t make me feel safer - just put out, insulted and inconvenienced. Remember, the 9-11 terrorists walked right through the security check with deadly weapons. They did not take bombs on board, they did not try to detonate their checked luggage, they did not bring plastic bottles of water with them. They took box cutters - razor tools that were already on the forbidden item list. They walked right through security with illegal weapons and got right on the planes. Praise be to Jesus, the world is now a safer place since the Gestapo confiscated my bottled spring water. Who knows, in a fit of air-rage I might have tried to splash someone.

I’m at US Air gate 40 DCA - waiting to fly home to Tampa. Battery is 20%. Where the hell are the power outlets? This is bullshit.

Next time I travel I’m taking the fucking train.