China isn't really noted for its oil reserves, so my guess is that the plastic did not come from there.

So how might this have played out in the USA? The only thing I can see that might be different is his being released.

FTFY.

That, or somebody forgot to put the cheese sauce on the broccoli.

Because they didn't expect you to find out.

Knowledgeable in what field? The author seems to be a pilot, sure, but does that mean he or she is entirely honest and completely free from bias, especially after not having a contract renewed? KAL's safety record isn't great, but it's not as bad as that article makes out either (I don't know Asiana's safety statistics, though it seems they're not as good as KAL's), so I suspect a bit of a grudge.

The advertisers, as usual.

I was wondering that too.

In any properly governed nation, you have an airport fire brigade at any airport where you regularly operate large jets with lots of passengers. If you only get the occasional large jet with lots of passengers -- if you're a likely diversion airport, for instance -- then it might not be worth having a standing fire brigade and just pulling in support from the town when you are expecting a big jet.

The roads on the airfield are much easier for a firetruck (fire engine in the UK) to drive on than city streets -- most of them are built for aircraft and are pretty wide, and even those designed solely for ground vehicles are designed for pretty big ground vehicles. If the airport is operating then non-airport vehicles would need a radio-vehicle escort to deal with ATC, but when because the airport was closed they could have driven around no problem. (I've done it, though not in a fire engine).

This is slashdot. They make their money by threatening people with videos of us showering and going to the toilet. They'd threaten people with videos of us having sex, too, if slashdotters had sex.

Sounds about right :)

You are Rupert Murdoch, and I claim my £5.

You don't have to wait. The law abiding would have nothing to fear from this surveillance provided all those with access to the data can be guaranteed to be completely benign (your point, and enough cause to worry in itself) and completely competent: no possibility of misinterpretation of data, no possibility of Buttle/Tuttle data errors, no possibility of that data leaking out to those who shouldn't have it and who might use it for nefarious purposes. But hey, we're safe on that last point, at least. There's no possibility of information leaks from any government department, is there?

There have been lots of suggestions for retconning the 12 regens rule to allow for more regens. The one I find most credible is that the 12 regen rule was enforced by the time lords themselves, and now that The Doctor is the only one left it's pretty much up to him. Chances are they won't bother retconning it, just ignore it and let the fans do their own retconning.