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Comment Re:STUPID (Score 1) 212

I actually invite automatic and 0-tollorance speed enforcement. This is for a couple of reasons
1) I'd like to see the speed limits changed to what people actually go but the casual enforcement doesn't get people outraged that the speed limit on a road designed for 75 is 55 (US Rt3 in MA)
2) This puts an end speeding tickets as revenue enhancers for the town/city/county/state as the incidences of speeding would drop considerably
3) Its very infrequent that someone going egregiously fast actually gets pulled over, which is a true safety problem. This would address that.

Comment Where are the press conferences (Score 3, Insightful) 199

Every law enforcement agency in the land has learned the value of sensationalizing the war on drugs. Every time they take more than an ounce of pot off a college kid there's on the news talking about what a great bust this was. Given that in the last 11 years passengers en route have subdued no less than 3, people in a position to take down the plane :

Shoe bomber
Underwear bomber
Nutzo pilot on Jet Blue

Clearly passengers and crew can handle a wide range of threats in the air. During this time TSA has had exactly 0 of these kinds of press conferences regarding stoping a plot AT the airport what value is the TSA adding again?

On a side note air-charter (14 CFR Part 135) opperators do not have their passengers screened by the TSA, were never required to install bullet proof doors at the cockpit and can and do opperate the same aircraft types that scheduled air cariers opperate.

Comment Re:Hmm (Score 1) 295

Civilian __TRANSPORT__ category aircraft certified under 14CFR25 which are most large commercial aircraft (Dash8, 767, etc...) are able to takeoff and climb on a single engine. Light twins (Piper Semonole, Cessna 310) generally are not, as the 2nd engine just buys you time until the forced landings. This is interesting since the F/A18 would be considered to have longitudinal thrust as neither engine inop can put the aircraft into a spin below a critical speed.

Comment Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score 3, Insightful) 537

Infact I can't remember the last time I saw a TSA press conference where they were claiming victory for foiling a plot to down an airplane. I can remember quite vividly at least 3 occasions in which triumphant passengers subdued lunatics that could have downed airplanes. How bout we leave the security to the people who's asses are on the line and send the not-quite-good-enough-to-be-a-cops home?

Comment Re:Denial of Service attack (Score 1) 897

They're already taking care of this for minor offenses in Massachusetts. Want to contest a speeding ticket? Cough up 25 bucks just to get a hearing with a magistrate. Clearly innocent until proven guilty. They say its to deter people from frivolously contesting tickets, if they charge $25 for a 10 minute appeal I wonder what they'd charge for a whole week's trial if people starting excersizing their rights in full. http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/09/mass-high-court-upholds-fees-for-traffic-ticket-appeals/UxDFWrKT8yeNDmGMa1y41H/index.html

Comment Re:it is part of your job (Score 1) 848

I always look to the "not in my job description" work as an opportunity to grow, either by acquiring new skills for use within the organization or to use on my resume for my next organization. With "lots of down time" I would question how many of the agreed upon hours were actually performed each week and if what you call off the clock time is actually off the clock. In organizations I've run we don't do 9-5, in fact I don't really care when most people work as long as they actually __work__ and get their projects accomplished. The stars in my teams are the people who take it upon themselves to go out and find ways to improve the product, present them in a clear well stated proposal and then can work to implement them. The people who wait for work to be handed down from above aren't headed anywhere. Think of the IT system as your product, you may work mainly in 1 area but you're clearly smart enough to think of ways to improve others. Its all about attitude, and this attitude that you're entitled to extra cash for working in other areas even though you already have "lots of down time" would cause me to run not walk you to the door. Now with the attitude of pitching in and working to make the whole thing better, I would look at you as someone who "gets it" and probably look to help you move up in your career track provided you had done other impressive work. If you're looking to be an IT director some day this is the kind of work you'll be needing to do day in day out not just what you're asked to.

Comment Far more complicated (Score 1) 264

After 6 landings and 1 missed approach my last flight taxied to the ramp. It was on time in that it arrived at the time I intended it to, it also departed on time for the same reason. The best thing was my trip through the security checkpoint since they don't exist for General Aviation.

Comment Re:Reasons unknown?? (Score 1) 156

Actually most GA aircraft have a secondary static system which while less accurate because the input is in the cockpit instead of outside the plane is fully functional. For pressurized aircraft there are redundant ports on the outside of the craft. The difficulty is in determining the instrumentation failure and responding to it correctly. The private pilot training material is very specific about the kinds of issues that arrive from clogged pitot static ports.

Comment Re:Loaner Car and bad Interface Design (Score 1) 930

So where is the responsibility to familiarise one's self with the vehicle you're driving? For years there were at least 2 common ways of engaging the high-beams in a passenger car one by pulling on the directional stick until it clicked the other by pushing it forward. HID changes are not uncommon and I would fault the driver for a lack of familiarity with the vehicle.

Comment Re:People, people everywhere (Score 1) 386

If you ask me... Intel, Bottling companies, and others like them, are creating the bulk of the scarcity problem, and they should foot the bill for the additional delivery infrastructure their presence is causing to be required.

I'm not sure how it works where you live but where I am water is metered as it exits the house or industrial facility. This discharge is billed at some rate determined by the local water delivery company. I assume (without any evidence) that China does the same thing. Which means that Intel and CocaCola DO pay for this use. In addition it is China both as a society and the reigning party that gain something from the existence of Intel and CocaCola. It would be up them to determine if the gains outweigh the costs and ensuring that profit (as defined by them) is achieved from the relationship.

Comment Re:Wow... (Score 1) 295

I'm also very very pro-nuclear and as I see it the NRC has 2 choices here: 1) get out in front of this, shut down the plant and show they're committed to safe nuclear power 2) keep Vermont Yankee operating despite being in violation of numerous EPA requirements and call all the doubters silly I can't see #2 working as it will only fuel the anti-nuke crowd since they will be showing they're not even committed to safety with the plants we have now what happens when there are hundreds more. #1 I suspect is overly simplistic and you can't simply shut down a nuke plant by turning a light switch, sure you can drop the control rods and shut down the reactor but draining the plant is a non-trivial task.

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