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Hero Cat meows loudly outside house; aba...:
Cat meows loudly outside house; abandoned baby is saved. Cat heralded as hero. Oblivious, cat resumes regular schedule of meowing loudly outside peoples' homes in the middle of the night for no damn reason
First Coast News - Florida State News - Woman Finds TSA Uniform In Her Luggage:
CLEARWATER, FL -- An airline passenger made a surprising discovery after flying from New Jersey to Florida -- When she opened her luggage, she found a uniform belonging to the Transportation Security Administration.
"I couldn't believe what was on there," Debra Sanders said.
"Patches for homeland security, TSA all over it, and then the name tag with the number."
Debra Sanders says she's concerned about what this means for airport security, but she hopes it was just an honest mistake.
The TSA says her luggage wasn't searched by a TSA employee because there was no note left in her suitcase stating it was physically searched.
Debra says she's certain someone had access to her bag.
Intel Mac tricked into triple-boot config | Reg Hardware:
Intel-based Macs can now play host to three operating systems and boot into any one of them at will. The triple-boot technique has been outlined on the OnMac.net website, home of the first code to allow the new machines to run Windows XP.
The procedure's not trivial, though it makes use of Apple's BootCamp utility to ease you through the installation of Windows XP. After installing XP, the process walks you through adding a Linux distrubution off a live Linux CD to the dynamically re-partitioned Mac hard drive. This Linux uses a swapfile for virtual memory rather than the more commonplace swap-specific partition due to limitations in the permitted partition structure.
CNN.com - 'No Child' loophole misses millions of scores - Apr 18, 2006:
(AP) -- Laquanya Agnew and Victoria Duncan share a desk, a love of reading and a passion for learning. But because of a loophole in the No Child Left Behind Act, one second-grader's score in Tennessee counts more than the other's.
That is because Laquanya is black, and Victoria is white.
An Associated Press computer analysis has found Laquanya is among nearly 2 million children whose scores aren't counted when it comes to meeting the law's requirement that schools track how students of different races perform on standardized tests.
The AP found that states are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting that requirement. And minorities -- who historically haven't fared as well as whites in testing -- make up the vast majority of students whose scores are excluded.
I have no problem helping people who need help. Any of us could find ourselves in the position of needed a hand from our friends, religious groups, or our governments. However, isn't assistance meant as a TEMPORARY measure to get people back on their feet so they can fend for themselves? Looks like the US isn't the only country that has the issues of "gimme MORE because I DESERVE IT".
The Sun Online - News: Family's pleadin' cheek:
A FAMILY of ten is demanding their council give them a TEN-bedroom mansion.
Sue McFadden, 54, says she needs the space for her three children and six grandchildren.
The family lives in a three-bed semi in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Only one of the four adults works — so they rake in the equivalent of £32,000-a-year in benefits.
Sue says she’d like a luxury shower room, two bathrooms and a plush fitted kitchen — in the posh suburbs of Chester.
She said: “I feel like old Mother Hubbard cooped up in here with all these kids.”
“The council offered me a six-bedroom house but it’s on the same road as my ex-husband — so I turned that one down.
“One of my daughters was offered a one-bed flat but she didn’t want it because she relies on my help and she doesn’t want any of the kids to be separated.”
Eldest daughter Teresa, 33, claims she can’t work because she’s suicidal and relies on her mum to look after her five children Kyle, 16, CJ, 11, Courtney, seven, Tyler, eight and Lucas, four.
Debbie, 32, has a five-year-old daughter Jodie and says she is too busy babysitting to work while Tammy, 23, is a clothes shop assistant.
But the council says the family has the biggest house available.
A spokesman added: “We only have three five-bedroom and four six- bedroom houses in Ellesmere Port and Neston, which people are currently living in.
“As they wish to stay together unfortunately there isn’t anything we can do at the moment.”
It's about time that this conflict was getting more national press. Centralizing all information about an individual into one card (and therefore one record) is asking for identity theft, forgeries, or just plain stupidity a la "losses" of hundreds of thousands of credit records.
The Real ID rebellion:
Americans don't like mandatory digital ID cards, CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh says. New Hampshire is leading the revolt.
KRT Wire | 04/15/2006 | Mass whale deaths tied to U.S. Navy sonar, report says:
TOKYO - The U.S. Navy's deployment of active sonar to detect submarine activity is believed to have been responsible for at least six incidents of mass death and unusual behavior among pods of whales in the last 10 years, according to a recent U.S. Congressional Research Service report.
In one of the most serious incidents, 150 to 200 melon-headed whales were observed milling in Hanalei Bay off Hawaii's Kauai Island during a Rim of the Pacific Exercise on July 3, 2004, after midfrequency sonar was used, the CRS report said.
Known as RIMPAC, the naval exercise included the participation of Japan and other U.S. allies in Asia and the Pacific.
The CRS report also listed five other incidents in which smaller whales, such as goose-beaked whales, harbor porpoises and killer whales, were found beached and dead in groups of a few to nearly 20. Many of the dead mammals had damaged hearing organs, and all five incidents coincided with U.S. naval exercises in the areas, the report said.
Click to this nice video to see how NH is still the place for privacy.
[video] New Hampshire says no to IDs | CNET News.com:
Opposition to the Real ID Act
In 1775, New Hampshire declared its independence from the British. Today it appears ready to say no to Washington on the issue of digital IDs. New Hampshire Rep. Neal Kurk speaks.
DEA agent who shot self in foot sues over Internet video | News.blog | CNET News.com:
DEA agent who shot self in foot sues over Internet video
April 14, 2006 12:02 PM PDT
Only highly trained federal agents know how to handle firearms safely, right? And the rest of us should be gently disarmed?
In a remarkable video that's made the rounds on the Internet, Drug Enforcement Administration agent Lee Paige solemnly informed his audience at the Orlando Youth Minority Golf Association that he was the only one in the room knowledgeable enough to handle a firearm safely.
A moment later, he shot himself in the foot.
Limping and hobbling around the room, and presumably leaving a bloody trail along the way, Paige tried to put the best face on this publicly embarrassing incident. He even attempted to continue with the prepared spiel, pointing to what looks like an AR-15 style rifle and assuring everyone it was honestly, truly unloaded -- until the snickers from the crowd got a little too intense and he fled the room as quickly as his new wound would allow.
(One wonders if the crowd shouldn't have fled instead when Paige went for the battle rifle, given his demonstrated inability to safely handle a Glock handgun a moment earlier. "It's an empty weapon, guys," he shouted, trying to make himself heard over the hoots and jeers.)
Nobody seems to understand that this is exactly the same thing as telling the post office to archive every copy of every letter "just in case" or the telephone company to record all telephone conversations and archive them "just in case." This is yet another ridiculous attempt for government to get into our personal lives.
ISP snooping gaining support | CNET News.com:
The explosive idea of forcing Internet providers to record their customers' online activities for future police access is gaining ground in state capitols and in Washington, D.C.
Top Bush administration officials have endorsed the concept, and some members of the U.S. Congress have said federal legislation is needed to aid law enforcement investigations into child pornography. A bill is already pending in the Colorado State Senate.
Mandatory data retention requirements worry privacy advocates because they permit police to obtain records of e-mail chatter, Web browsing or chat-room activity that normally would have been discarded after a few months. And some proposals would require providers to retain data that ordinarily never would have been kept at all.
Digital Copyright Law Hurts Consumers, Scientists, and Competition:
EFF Report Highlights More Unintended Consequences in Seven Years of DMCA
San Francisco - In the seven years since Congress enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), examples of the law's impact on legitimate consumers, scientists, and competitors continue to mount. A new report released today from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), "Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA," collects reports of the misuses of the DMCA -- chilling free expression and scientific research, jeopardizing fair use, impeding competition and innovation, and interfering with other laws on the books. The report updates a previous version issued by EFF in 2003.
The report tells the story of the delay of the disclosure of the Sony BMG "rootkit" vulnerabilities on millions of music CDs. The dangerous software flaws were initially discovered by Princeton graduate student J. Alex Halderman. But Halderman delayed sounding the alarm about the security problems for several weeks so he could consult with lawyers about potential violations of the DMCA. The report also details the DMCA's role in impeding RealNetworks from selling digital music to Apple iPod owners, along with other unintended consequences from the DMCA.
"Rather than being used to stop 'piracy,' the DMCA has predominantly been used to threaten and sue legitimate consumers, scientists, publishers, and competitors," said EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann. "This law is not being used as Congress intended, and a review of the past seven years makes it clear that reform is needed."
For "Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA":
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/?f=unintended_consequences.html
For more on EFF and the DMCA:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/
Contact:
Fred von Lohmann
Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
fred@eff.org
AOL charged with blocking opponents' e-mail | CNET News.com:
update America Online on Wednesday apparently began blocking e-mail on its servers containing the Web address of a petition against the company's upcoming certified-mail program, an issue the company called a "glitch."
The Internet service provider, which has roughly 20 million subscribers in the United States, began bouncing e-mail communications with the URL "Dearaol.com" sometime late Wednesday and continuing through Thursday.
A e-mail sent by CNET News.com to an AOL.com address and containing the URL "www.dearaol.com" bounced back on Thursday afternoon with a system administrator note that read: "The e-mail system was unable to deliver the message, but did not report a specific reason."
AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said late Thursday that AOL e-mails mentioning Dearaol.com would now be delivered as normal. The issue, he said, arose late Wednesday because of a software glitch that "affected dozens of Web links in messages," including the Dearaol.com.
"We discovered the issue early this morning, and our postmaster and mail operations team started working to identify this software glitch," he said.
Do not dress like a Ninja and roam around college campuses.
redandblack.com - ATF rids Univ. of ninja threat:
ATF agents are always on alert for anything suspicious — including ninjas.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents, on campus Tuesday for Project Safe Neighborhoods training, detained a “suspicious individual” near the Georgia Center, University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said.
Jeremiah Ransom, a sophomore from Macon, was leaving a Wesley Foundation pirate vs. ninja event when he was detained.
After being held in investigative detention, he was found to have violated no criminal laws and was not arrested.
“It was surreal,” Ransom said. “I was jogging from Wesley to Snelling when I heard someone yell ‘freeze.’”
Ransom said he thought a friend was playing a joke before he realized officers had guns drawn and pointed at him.
This is going to turn out to be quite an interesting exercise in limitations on executive powers, and on the limitations of private companies vis a vis privacy.
EFF Files Evidence in Motion to Stop AT&T's Dragnet Surveillance:
Internal AT&T Documents Had Been Temporarily Held Back Due To Government's Concerns
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Wednesday filed the legal briefs and evidence supporting its motion for a preliminary injunction in its class-action lawsuit against AT&T. After asking EFF to hold back the documents so that it could review them, the Department of Justice consented to EFF's filing them under seal -- a well-established procedure that prohibits public access and permits only the judge and the litigants to see the evidence. While not a party to the case, the government was concerned that even this procedure would not provide sufficient security and has represented to the Court that it is "presently considering whether and, if so, how it will participate in this case."
"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."
EFF's evidence regarding AT&T's dragnet surveillance of its networks includes a declaration by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T telecommunications technician, and several internal AT&T documents. This evidence was bolstered and explained by the expert opinion of J. Scott Marcus, who served as Senior Advisor for Internet Technology to the Federal Communications Commission from July 2001 until July 2005.
The internal AT&T documents and portions of the supporting declarations have been submitted to the Court under a tentative seal, a procedure that allows AT&T five court days to explain to the Court why the information should be kept from the public.
"The public deserves to know about AT&T's illegal program," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "In an abundance of caution, we are providing AT&T with an opportunity to explain itself before this material goes on the public docket, but we believe that justice will ultimately require full disclosure."
The NSA program came to light in December, when the New York Times reported that the President had authorized the agency to intercept telephone and Internet communications inside the United States without the authorization of any court. Over the ensuing weeks, it became clear that the NSA program has been intercepting and analyzing millions of Americans' communications, with the help of the country's largest phone and Internet companies, including AT&T.
"Mark Klein is a true American hero," said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "He has bravely come forward with information critical for proving AT&T's involvement with the government's invasive surveillance program."
In the lawsuit, EFF is representing the class of all AT&T residential customers nationwide. Working with EFF in the lawsuit are the law firms Traber & Voorhees, Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP and the Law Office of Richard R. Wiebe.
For the notice of motion for preliminary injunction:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/NotMot.pdf
For the motion to lodge under temporary seal:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/MotionReSealing.pdf
For more on EFF's suit:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/
Contacts:
Derek Slater
Acting Media Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
derek@eff.org
For Mark Klein:
Miles Ehrlich, Esq.
Ramsey & Ehrlich
miles@ramsey-ehrlich.com
[Note, 04/07 - J. Scott Marcus' title corrected.]
Harvard Gazette: Missing link crawls out of muck:
Paleontologists have discovered fossils of a species that provides the missing evolutionary link between fish and the first animals that walked out of water onto land about 375 million years ago. The newly found species, Tiktaalik roseae, has a skull, a neck, ribs, and parts of the limbs that are similar to four-legged animals known as tetrapods, as well as fishlike features such as a primitive jaw, fins, and scales.
These fossils, found on Ellesmere Island in Arctic Canada, are the most compelling examples yet of an animal that was at the cusp of the fish-tetrapod transition. The new find is described by scientists at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in two related research articles highlighted on the cover of the April 6 issue of Nature.
"This previously unknown, extinct animal represents the beginning of the emergence of fish onto land, and the evolutionary transformation of fins into limbs," says Farish A. Jenkins Jr., Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard and curator of mammalogy and vertebrate paleontology at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. "The skeletal material is three-dimensional and exquisitely preserved; most material this old tends to be flattened or otherwise distorted. The geometry of the limb joints clearly indicates that segments of the fin could move independently. The 'shoulder' and 'elbow' could flex, and the 'wrist' could extend, converting the fin into postures appropriate to support the body from below and propel the animal on land."
Giant turkey-like dinosaur discovered:
David Pescovitz:
Scientists discovered the remains of a new giant turkey-like carnivorous dinosaur in southern Utah. Based on the fossilized hand and foot bones found in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and other related skeletons found in Asia, the scientists from the University of Utah and the Utah Museum of Natural History say that the animal was probably seven feet tall.
From a University of Utah News Release (illustration by Michael Skrepnick):
Link to News Release, Link to Associated Press coverage (Thanks John Parres and Xeni Jardin!)
The new dinosaur, formally dubbed Hagryphus giganteus, which means "giant four-footed, bird-like god of the western desert” in reference to the animal's outward resemblance to a large land bird, its giant stature, and its discovery in the Utah desert. Hagryphus is a member of the oviraptorosaurs, a group of bird-like feathered dinosaurs with toothless beaks, powerful arms and formidable claws...
One bony claw of Hagryphus preserves the impression of the keratinous fingernail-like that would have covered the claw in life.
So today we find that our Attorney General, the guy who is supposed to be, you know like, protecting and defending the constitution of the United States, (yeah, that guy) thinks its just peachy keen to wiretap two American citizens, in America, without a warrant. So while the Congress is talking about censuring the President for the constitutional violations ALREADY in progress, this guy thinks it's a peachy keen idea, before even a ruling on what they're already doing, to expand it if THEY think it's necessary, to include situations where BOTH parties are supposedly covered by constitutional protections.
And they wonder why the Administration's approval rating is in the 30s. *sigh*
WASHINGTON, DC (April 6, 2006) - During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the NSA's secret domestic wiretapping program.
The Administration has cited the Authorization to Use Military Force and the commander in chief powers as authorizing the NSA to intercept international communications into and out of the U.S. of persons linked to al Qaeda or related terrorist organizations.
After citing his concerns that there was no limiting principle to the Administration's claim of authority in the War on Terror, Rep. Schiff asked the Attorney General whether the Administration believes it has the authority to wiretap purely domestic calls between two Americans without seeking a warrant.
"I cannot rule that out," responded the Attorney General.
"This is very disturbing testimony," Rep. Schiff commented later, "and represents a wholly unprecedented assertion of executive power. No one in Congress would deny the need to tap certain calls under court order
-- but if the Administration believes it can tap purely domestic phone calls between Americans without court approval, there is no limit to executive power. This is contrary to settled law and the most basic constitutional principles of the separation of powers."
Rep. Schiff and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) have introduced bipartisan legislation -- the NSA Oversight Act -- to reassert that FISA and Title III are the sole authority for domestic surveillance. The bill would:
1. Reiterate Exclusivity of Current FISA and Wiretap Laws - states that FISA and the federal criminal wiretap statutes shall continue to be the exclusive means by which domestic electronic surveillance may be conducted.
2. Clarify Military Force Statute - makes clear that the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), passed days after the September 11th attacks, does not provide an exception to that rule.
3. Require Congressional Action - makes clear that current laws apply unless Congress amends the laws or passes additional laws regarding electronic surveillance.
4. Require Report on the Extent of the Wiretapping Program - requires classified disclosure to Congress of information about U.S. persons who have been the subject of any such electronic surveillance.
Smithsonian's Showtime sellout needs FOIA sunshine:
Xeni Jardin:
Carl Malamud writes,
Cory's post on the Smithsonian sellout to Showtime got me thinking. The right of refusal is pretty offensive, but even more offensive is that the contract isn't public.Link.Although the Smithsonian Institution claims they are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, just to make sure they aren't subjected in the future, they claim to abide by the "spirit and intent" of FOIA. So, it seemed appropriate to file a FOIA request to see if we can get that contract out in the open where we can all see exactly how big the give-away is.
And while we're on the subject, Josh Wattles says,
There is a discussion of the Smithsonian deal with Showtime on Prof. Patry's Copyright blog that augments BoingBoing's prior post on the subject -- and includes a comment from Fred Von Lohmann of the EFF. This deal is very bad and needs to be stopped.Link
Top News Article | Reuters.com:
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have arrested seven members of an international gang of so-called "phishers", who hacked into computers of internet banking customers and raided their accounts, authorities said on Tuesday.
"The investigation is continuing but what we can say now is they were able to obtain thousands of individual pieces of data," a spokeswoman for the BKA federal crime office said.
Three other members of the ring are still under investigation.
The word "phishing" is said to derive from a combination of two words, which describes the act of hackers "fishing" for "passwords".
A statement posted on the BKA Web site said the shutdown of the phishing ring of Germans and Lithuanians had prevented "millions of euros of losses" that online banking customers would have incurred if the phishers had carried out their plan.
CIA used private air carriers to hide rendition: Amnesty International report:
[JURIST] The US Central Intelligence Agency [official website] hid its rendition of terrorism suspects to various foreign countries by using private air carriers and "front" companies, according to a new report
For the past almost 15 years I have lived in this house in Great Falls, VA. I love my house. I love its location. I love the trees. I love the large lot. I do NOT, however, love the water.
I live less than 15 miles from Georgetown University. We are bordered by Reston, McLean, Vienna, etc. However, we have a well 200 feet down and a septic system. Why? Because the powers that be felt that city water and sewer would promote too much development, something they don't want in order to keep these large lots, trees, etc.
That's the theory, at least. In reality, an open field across from my house was stacked with houses, on about 1/2 acre at most. McMansions are springing up on every inch of land. See previous rants on this situation. Yet, despite the fact that it takes more than well and septic to stop over development, nobody has yet decided to do something smart about the water.
"Gee, what's wrong with well water?" you might ask. Not much, if it's nice clean water that is coming up. But when it's full of metals, salts, and other crap, it tends to eat your pipes, your shower heads, your faucets, and everything else connected to water, leaving greenish blue stains just about everywhere. So then you purchase a water softening system. Every few years it gets eaten by the caustic water. And even when it's working properly, you can't drink the water that comes out of it because it tastes really nasty.
Also as part of having a well are all the lovely component parts that go with wells, such as a well pump, a pressure tank, all of the pipes connecting them, etc. I have already replaced the well pump, which is how I know it's 200 feet down. Today, we got to replace the pressure tank. The sweet and wonderful folk from Bell Pump and Well showed up and handily replaced said tank. While this is a very good thing, the new pressure tank increased the pressure to the already unhappy pipes. Of course, one of them broke.
The loving husband, Mr. Psycho Sensei, is currently worshipping at the Temple of the Home Despot, purchasing the appropriate pieces to fix said mess. Until the next time.
Sticking with draconian business models and suing one's own customers is, unfortunately, not limited to the RIAA in the US. Its British counterpart seems to have decided to defend itself in the same silly manner.
BBC NEWS | Technology | File-sharers face legal onslaught:
he music industry has launched a fresh legal assault on people accused of illegal file-sharing.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is taking legal action against nearly 2,000 song-swappers in 10 countries.
The British music industry says illegal file-sharing has cost it £1.1bn over the last three years.
But a report suggests that illegal downloads are continuing to grow despite the legal risks.
Research firm XTN data said that illegal downloads in the UK have increased by 3% to 28% of music downloads since last September.
Thinking Shouldn't Be Illegal:
I'm a little surprised to find myself in wholehearted agreement with Michael Crichton, after what I wrote about his essay about alarmism. But his recent New York Times op-ed says something clear, simple, and important:
Actually, I can't make that last statement. A corporation has patented that fact, and demands a royalty for its use. Anyone who makes the fact public and encourages doctors to test for the condition and treat it can be sued for royalty fees. Any doctor who reads a patient's test results and even thinks of vitamin deficiency infringes the patent. A federal circuit court held that mere thinking violates the patent.
This Essay Breaks the Law
by Michael Crichton,
The New York Times,
OP-ED Section,
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Maybe this will convey to more people that Software Patent Reform and patent reform in general is needed.
One reason proponents of software patent reform don't get very far is that big pharma likes patents broken just the way they are, so that they can own profitable things such as parts of the human genome. As Crichton says:
Do you want to be told by your doctor, "Oh, nobody studies your disease any more because the owner of the gene/enzyme/correlation has made it too expensive to do research?"
The question of whether basic truths of nature can be owned ought not to be confused with concerns about how we pay for biotech development, whether we will have drugs in the future, and so on. If you invent a new test, you may patent it and sell it for as much as you can, if that's your goal. Companies can certainly own a test they have invented. But they should not own the disease itself, or the gene that causes the disease, or essential underlying facts about the disease. The distinction is not difficult, even though patent lawyers attempt to blur it. And even if correlation patents have been granted, the overwhelming majority of medical correlations, including those listed above, are not owned. And shouldn't be.
-jsq
Time for my periodic rant about the ADIZ, that lovely defense zone that descended like a pall over Washington, DC area airspace after large jets on IFR flight plans were hijacked by criminal terrorists and crashed into various locations, only one of which being near Washington, DC. As has been demonstrated time and time again, the ADIZ has done nothing but cost pilots enormous sums of money and license suspensions for inadvertently skirting a corner of it. Even the occasional confused idiot who causes worldwide news by causing the Secret Service to tell people to "run for their lives" has turned out to be about as much actual threat as my pointing this out to you. However, since the government ordered public testimony about the ineffectiveness of the ADIZ stricken from the public record, perhaps THEY think talking about it is a threat, but last I checked the First Amendment was still in place.
Today's rant comes from spending an hour flying patterns in the 1/2 my Piper Arrow III, a sweet little plane that I don't spend enough time in. It was a beautiful day outside, scattered clouds, 65 degrees, and enough wind to make life fun. As I drove through the gate, I couldn't help but notice that the ramp was sadly empty of aircraft.
Before 9/11, I would have had to dodge many parked aircraft, wait for several more to pass by, and possibly even drive on the grass to get to the hangar. Not today. One business jet was sitting on the ramp getting service, but that's about it.
After preflight, I filed the trusty ADIZ flight plan, letting them know we were doing pattern practice (we being the royal me, AND Paul the always happy flight instructor) in 15 minutes. It took me awhile, but I remembered which side of the aircraft has the door, where to park my butt, where to plug in the headset, and sort of how to work the radios again. As we taxied to the runway, there was nobody in line in front of us. Pre 9/11, the pattern would have been FULL of airplanes, and we would have opted to go to Carroll County or even Frederick to avoid the Gaithersburg Zoo. Again, not today. No go arounds caused by people dawdling on the runway. No 360s for spacing. No crazy procedures to avoid pattern crashers. Also, maybe one flight instructor on duty.
Back in the "old days" it was common for fights to break out on frequency, 7 or so flight instructors with students in the pattern, a couple of first solos, and some all around fun had by all. People trembled with fear at the idea of the Gaithersburg pattern. If you learned to fly at Gaithersburg, you would likely become confused by a towered airport, since it just didn't make sense to space airplanes so far apart when two could land on the same runway at the same time. Imagine them telling you to hold short when you know you can pull out in front of that airplane on short final and be off the ground before you could say "cleared for take off"
So what's the problem today? Why have most businesses packed up and left good ole Montgomery County Airpark? After all, it's not THAT difficult to file a flight plan and get a squawk code, then get released to leave. Coming back in may or may not be much trouble. Why would so many people (and their money, and the jobs that money generates) leave the airport?
I think that some of the reason is the type of pilot that often flew out of Montgomery. Many were pilots who simply wanted to punch holes in the sky, taking a short trip for a nice lunch, meandering wherever they chose, not asking permission, or having to talk to controllers. To that type of pilot, the freedom of a sunny day and a full tank of gas is utterly ruined by having to decide beforehand where you are going, when you are going, how long it will take you, and not deviating from that path for fear of significant reprisals. That type of pilot either stopped flying completely, or left for another airport. Then, of course, there's the price of aviation gas, now about 4.50 per gallon at the airport. Many cloud chasers just can't, or choose not to afford those types of prices, especially combined with the decrease in convenience level of just flying around for fun.
It's sad that the "freedom of flying" has been replaced by miniature economic melt downs in ADIZ bound airports. Especially since the is no demonstrable upside to the inconvenience. I'm one of the few who actually misses the sound of small aircraft engines flying directly over my house down the North/South VFR flyway.
Perhaps someday sanity will return.
Shocked burglar runs into 17 sumos. 31/03/2006. ABC News Online:
A Japanese burglar who thought he was lucky to find an unlocked door was shocked to be arrested by 20 massive sumo wrestlers who were staying at the building.
Konoshin Kawabata, 48, was rummaging inside a room in Osaka in the early hours when he was suddenly confronted by wrestler Dewanosato, who stands 180 centimetres and weighs 131 kilograms.
"Without thinking, my body moved," Dewanosato, whose real name is Hideyuki Kawahara, said. "I caught the guy and bear-hugged him."
It was a citizen's arrest, said a police spokesman.
"Mr Dewanosato immediately shouted out 'Hey!' and 'Burglar!' as he arrested the man. Then the other wrestlers woke up and came out to check things out," the spokesman said.
The burglar, who was unemployed, admitted he was baffled to find himself among sumo wrestlers.
"First I was caught by a massive man. When the lights turned on, I was surrounded by more than a dozen sumo wrestlers. I was surprised," Kawabata told police, as quoted by Jiji Press.
The sumo stable were staying and training at the building, which lies on the premises of the Shounji temple in the western metropolis.
I got a disturbing email yesterday from the Fairfax County School System. It said that thousands of students were protesting the proposed immigration laws by walking out of classes. Unfortunately, one teenager went off school grounds and was critically stabbed. The school system asked parents to tell children who are protesting to stay on school grounds.
Of course, this got me to thinking about this whole immigration thing. I lived in England in the late 70s. I was legally in the country, but was working without a permit. A roommate's jealous boyfriend who was upset that I was making more money than he was, turned me in. I was out of the country when I was turned in, and upon my re-arrival, I was placed in the deportation lounge while they decided what to do with me. They eventually let me stay, but they very well could have sent me home. I would have deserved it. I was going beyond the permission I had to be in the country. Granted, I had applied for a work permit, but had been denied.
So, tell me why those who have snuck into this country against the law feel some kind of entitlement to not only stay, but to not face any consequences from their actions? Why is our healthcare system paying for them? Why are our schools paying for their children? And why are people who wish to collect our benefits and stay in our country, marching around waving the flags of other countries, then calling US racists?
I don't understand this. Nobody asked me if I wanted to pay medical care and educational fees for people who have already broken the law by being here illegally. (Interesting that one of their slogans is "we are not criminals" when, in fact, they most certainly are.)
Perhaps the idea that a guest worker program should be provided is a good one. However, how about allowing those who have already legally applied while waiting in their country of origin have first crack at this program, while putting the illegals at the back of the line, preferably to wait in their own countries?
As for racism, I don't care WHAT country they snuck in from. *OUT*!!