I ran an airline for a time, and I see where you left off a few critical sub-systems.

- Dispatch Planning (what cooks up the flight plans in question for submission, specifying the fuel burn, max takeoff weight, planned landing weight, operating mach speed, altitude, etc.)

- Operations Control (where every plane and crew is, in real time.). Think of a Gantt chart that would make your jaw drop, it's kind of like that.

These are the things that make an airline run. The FAA only has one responsibility -- keep airplanes apart. The rest (largely) is up to the carrier.

Mod parent up.

I refuse to master Word for the reasons cited. My neurons are too valuable to master a broken app. When users ask how to do something, I invariably say, "Hit F1".

Hmmm, that sounds wrong.

My understanding is that the signature line only maens "you" agree to the cardmember agreement and all that goes with it (agreeing to repay the debt being the salient part the creditor cares about).

That being the case you can sign the card two seconds before you use it and it's all good to the creditor. The cashier at the retailer might give pause, but that doesn't mean doodle-squat.

If you want to validate identity, well, that's what a state issued ID or driver's license is for, just check that against the embossed name on said credit card.

I'm all for the advancement of science by anyone, anywhere, anytime. That being said, now is a great time to ratchet up the use of the Fermilab accelerator and catch those hot-shot know-it-all Continentals ^H^H^H^, er, our fellow scientists while they are flat-footed.

(I'm taking my data from a recently aired Nova covering Fermilab and would welcome any updates on what's going on there at this very moment. The piece closed with a mention of funding cuts which I presume have not been reversed.)