Checked luggage, sure. All sorts of stuff goes there. But carry-on? A nail file or a pair of scissors, I could understand overlooking, but how do you accidentally carry something like bear spray? "Oh, yeah, I run into bears all the time in SLC. Gotta be prepared."

(Written on 2017年 09月 08日)(Permalink)

You've got a point. It could be for bears of a very different sort. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bear

(Written on 2017年 09月 08日)(Permalink)

Why would anyone be carrying bear spray onto a commercial airline flight?

(Written on 2017年 09月 08日)(Permalink)

Must've been Manchester, then. It was at least 15 years ago.

(Written on 2017年 08月 19日)(Permalink)

Thank you for a spectacularly weird comment! According to radiometric dating and many, many other sources, the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old, not "millions" or "trillions" and certainly not mere thousands. And it's rooted in observable and measurable facts not mere "belief." And, no, it has nothing in particular to do with the process of evolution, a process that is easily observable in practice going on *right* *now* -- MRSA, anyone? -- so the connection you're drawing is most bizarre. And how you jump effortlessly from the migration of the location of the magnetic poles versus the planet's rotational axis to the unrelated topic of the origin of species is just creme de la weird. Love everything about your comment. Thanks!

(Written on 2017年 08月 18日)(Permalink)

I had a Southwest flight out of Boston many years ago, and when they called the first group of people to board, the usual sorts of yahoos in everything but that group all stood up and crowded around the gate. The agent got back on the intercom and said something like: "We're boarding just the first group. If you're not in that group, please sit down. We'll get everyone going as quickly as possible." Nobody moved. So she said: "We've stopped boarding. We'll start again once everyone who is not in the first group sits down." Slowly, sheepishly, they all moved away from the gate and sat down. After that, everything went smoothly. I was very impressed. Much better crowd handling than the usual mad rush to the gate.

(Written on 2017年 08月 18日)(Permalink)

There's no true marketplace here; no plausible way that operators or pilots can select among ATC providers. Instead, if it is privatized, we will get a single corporation that wins the contract to provide ATC services. That's a monopoly. Any suggestion that we're going to have "competition" magically provide better services for our extremely complicated system is just wishful thinking. If, as you're charging, the farming out of contracts to external providers hasn't worked so well for NextGen or the other upgrade programs, what would make you think that farming out the contracting capabilities would make anything better? What we'll actually get is a single corporation with direct financial ties to the airline industry, and little to no incentive to provide services or even listen to GA. We don't get a seat on the board. Is that what we want?

(Written on 2017年 08月 05日)(Permalink)

I'd say that fooling people was clearly the intent so, well, mission accomplished.

(Written on 2017年 08月 04日)(Permalink)

It's good that he was caught and faces charges, but a shame that it's just insurance fraud. There are a limited number of these older aircraft, and they last much longer than any one owner. Those of us lucky enough to own one owe a debt to the previous owners who kept up with maintenance, and to the community to keep them flying for the next lucky owner. We're all poorer when one is lost, even by accident. To lose one by intentional destruction is just criminal, and it's a shame that the only punishment he'll get from that is the loss of his good name.

(Written on 2017年 08月 04日)(Permalink)

Actually, it's not too hard. The tail of the article says that he's a Senior Fellow at something called "Taxpayer Protection Alliance." A quick google search turns up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/koch https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2015/07/31/media-disclosure-guide-here-are-the-industry-fu/204708#tpa

(Written on 2017年 08月 04日)(Permalink)