Blues Bros. Blues
Stuck in Chicago. United Airlines' incompetence leaving Sydney got me into SFO forty minutes late, which meant my luggage couldn't be rechecked. Which meant I couldn't board the plane either. So they put me up in the cheapest dive hotel as far from anything they could find, which I left at 5 a.m. for the connection, originally to D.C., but rebooked to Chicago. Which meant getting caught in the bad weather here. Now, if they'd just said at 7 that there wasn't going to be a shot, I'd have tried for Amtrak, but the just kept leading me on and on, until here I am in another hotel, but this time, mostly at my own expense. Never United again. Never Christmas, either, at least not if it means connecting through Chicago.
24 December 2007
21 December 2007
Security Jet Lag
As anyone who spends any time on the internet can tell you, airport security is a joke. X-raying carry-on luggage doesn’t help. Taking off our shoes doesn’t help. Confiscating 13 million disposable lighters doesn’t help. So why are we doing it? I’m about to board an international flight for the first time in five years. Most of the security restrictions we hear about have been implemented in that time. In addition to the twenty hours I’ll spend in the air just getting to my destination, add hours at the airport just for the initial boarding, and hours for the layovers. I still arrive the same day I leave, which is a nice bit of Einsteinian physics, but I used to be able to arrive before I left, whereas now it’ll take an extra eight hours. And I forgot to get those dried cherries.
As anyone who spends any time on the internet can tell you, airport security is a joke. X-raying carry-on luggage doesn’t help. Taking off our shoes doesn’t help. Confiscating 13 million disposable lighters doesn’t help. So why are we doing it? I’m about to board an international flight for the first time in five years. Most of the security restrictions we hear about have been implemented in that time. In addition to the twenty hours I’ll spend in the air just getting to my destination, add hours at the airport just for the initial boarding, and hours for the layovers. I still arrive the same day I leave, which is a nice bit of Einsteinian physics, but I used to be able to arrive before I left, whereas now it’ll take an extra eight hours. And I forgot to get those dried cherries.
20 December 2007
There’s a Movie About This
Make that a lot of movies: Japanese government believes in UFO’s. No reports on Mechagodzilla, though.
Make that a lot of movies: Japanese government believes in UFO’s. No reports on Mechagodzilla, though.
Apologies, but no Excuses
CNN and others can’t excuse Osama/Obama errors. They are inexcusable among people who claim to be professionals. Wolf Blitzer and every other idiot who makes this on-air error, as well as every technician in charge of composing the on-screen banners and tags and hearing-impaired transcriptions similarly serially screwing up, ought to be fired. They are incompetent and dangerously insulting.
CNN and others can’t excuse Osama/Obama errors. They are inexcusable among people who claim to be professionals. Wolf Blitzer and every other idiot who makes this on-air error, as well as every technician in charge of composing the on-screen banners and tags and hearing-impaired transcriptions similarly serially screwing up, ought to be fired. They are incompetent and dangerously insulting.
17 December 2007
Warming Up
Over in Bali, the latest round of climate-change talks have been getting essentially nowhere. It’s nice we’ve got an agreement to have more talks, in 2009, but really it’s no more than agreements-in-principle. Still, I’m happy enough that Australia has pulled its head out and signed on to reduce its emissions. But the best moment has to have been when the U.S. delegation got called on its continued intransigence: “Lead or get out of the way!” Maybe an email campaign directly to Bush on this and other issues?
Over in Bali, the latest round of climate-change talks have been getting essentially nowhere. It’s nice we’ve got an agreement to have more talks, in 2009, but really it’s no more than agreements-in-principle. Still, I’m happy enough that Australia has pulled its head out and signed on to reduce its emissions. But the best moment has to have been when the U.S. delegation got called on its continued intransigence: “Lead or get out of the way!” Maybe an email campaign directly to Bush on this and other issues?
13 December 2007
Look for Me at the Duty Free
The problem I have with the various no-carry-on rules is that the airlines can now steal from their passengers. Swiss Army knife? Now it’s theirs. Litre of vodka? Well, there’s a way around that, if you don’t mind a little alcohol poisoning.
Yes, he had the liquor with him prior to the security screening, so he was, essentially, forewarned that liquids in excess of a set quantity were prohibited. Still, if they’re not going to make provision to return your personal items to you either at the other end of your flight or when you get back, how is it not stealing to confiscate whatever material they happen to find objectionable? I actually am a little concerned about this, since I fully expect to make use of my duty free allowance to bring in some nice whiskey on my trip to the States, but don’t know if (a) purchases made post-security can be carried on during the second, State-side leg of my trip, or if (b) the duty-free shop will be open at my terminus terminal. If (a) isn’t going to be allowed, how can legally purchased material be confiscated?
The problem I have with the various no-carry-on rules is that the airlines can now steal from their passengers. Swiss Army knife? Now it’s theirs. Litre of vodka? Well, there’s a way around that, if you don’t mind a little alcohol poisoning.
Yes, he had the liquor with him prior to the security screening, so he was, essentially, forewarned that liquids in excess of a set quantity were prohibited. Still, if they’re not going to make provision to return your personal items to you either at the other end of your flight or when you get back, how is it not stealing to confiscate whatever material they happen to find objectionable? I actually am a little concerned about this, since I fully expect to make use of my duty free allowance to bring in some nice whiskey on my trip to the States, but don’t know if (a) purchases made post-security can be carried on during the second, State-side leg of my trip, or if (b) the duty-free shop will be open at my terminus terminal. If (a) isn’t going to be allowed, how can legally purchased material be confiscated?
07 December 2007
R.U.R. Update
There’s my robot. My God, it even pours for you. Reminds me of someone (and not the obvious someone, either).
There’s my robot. My God, it even pours for you. Reminds me of someone (and not the obvious someone, either).
04 December 2007
Advances Australia
There are a panoply of Australian inventions that we can point to with great pride, chief among them the cochlear implant, Australian Rules Football, and Tim Tams. And now, a wash-and-wear wool suit.
There are a panoply of Australian inventions that we can point to with great pride, chief among them the cochlear implant, Australian Rules Football, and Tim Tams. And now, a wash-and-wear wool suit.
The Eye of the Beholder
If a bad self-image is a brain glitch, what about when someone really is ugly?
If a bad self-image is a brain glitch, what about when someone really is ugly?
Fantasy and Reality
I heard a lot about the Philip Pullman trilogy, mainly via the internet-as-word-of-mouth, and at the height of the Harry Potter phenomena. They were often touted as a kind of next-Narnia, both for their controversial theological content and for their alternative universe settings. My sister, something of a connoisseur of the fantasy genre, didn’t seem overly impressed with them, and I had no particular interest myself, although, eventually, I did get around to reading them. Well, the first one, anyway. It wasn’t until the middle of this year that I finally read the other two volumes. The first, which is soon to be released in the cinemas, The Golden Compass, put me off with its “daemons” and “steampunk” technology and mannered dialog. But I’m something of a completist, and couldn’t leave it alone. The second volume, The Subtle Knife was better, but not by much, but it’s the third, climactic book, The Amber Spyglass, where all the present controversy should really be focussed. All the hoopla is really pretty much just anticipatory. Pullman is stabbing viciously at the heart of organized religion, European, Christian religion, and how it’s poisoned our lives, particularly as children and how children are raised, and he’s got a point. The concept of “original sin” is pretty pernicious, and I can’t say that child baptism strikes me as anything more than a medieval hold-over from the days of much higher infant mortality and an organisational, cultic perspective on building up the believer base. The books, and, I’m sure, the movies – and it seems pretty certain the other two will have their time and ticket sales – will mute some of this, focussing instead, as much as possible, on the fantasy and adventure elements. I expect the armored polar bear fights to be pretty cool, and the flights of witches, etc., etc., but the books, the movies, are no Last Temptation or Passion, let alone “Piss Christ” or any of the other usual pop culture stuff that gets up the noses of believers. At least no one will go to jail or be beaten or threatened with death, no matter how ugly the rhetoric gets.
I heard a lot about the Philip Pullman trilogy, mainly via the internet-as-word-of-mouth, and at the height of the Harry Potter phenomena. They were often touted as a kind of next-Narnia, both for their controversial theological content and for their alternative universe settings. My sister, something of a connoisseur of the fantasy genre, didn’t seem overly impressed with them, and I had no particular interest myself, although, eventually, I did get around to reading them. Well, the first one, anyway. It wasn’t until the middle of this year that I finally read the other two volumes. The first, which is soon to be released in the cinemas, The Golden Compass, put me off with its “daemons” and “steampunk” technology and mannered dialog. But I’m something of a completist, and couldn’t leave it alone. The second volume, The Subtle Knife was better, but not by much, but it’s the third, climactic book, The Amber Spyglass, where all the present controversy should really be focussed. All the hoopla is really pretty much just anticipatory. Pullman is stabbing viciously at the heart of organized religion, European, Christian religion, and how it’s poisoned our lives, particularly as children and how children are raised, and he’s got a point. The concept of “original sin” is pretty pernicious, and I can’t say that child baptism strikes me as anything more than a medieval hold-over from the days of much higher infant mortality and an organisational, cultic perspective on building up the believer base. The books, and, I’m sure, the movies – and it seems pretty certain the other two will have their time and ticket sales – will mute some of this, focussing instead, as much as possible, on the fantasy and adventure elements. I expect the armored polar bear fights to be pretty cool, and the flights of witches, etc., etc., but the books, the movies, are no Last Temptation or Passion, let alone “Piss Christ” or any of the other usual pop culture stuff that gets up the noses of believers. At least no one will go to jail or be beaten or threatened with death, no matter how ugly the rhetoric gets.
03 December 2007
Moving
Don’t you love (un)natural phenomena? The sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa (via Kottke.org) are explained as the result of strong winds, maybe, but I think I saw something about this on ”The Outer Limits”, when I was a kid: they’re alive, and if they ever get out of the desert, they’ll take over the world. Where’s a scientist with a steel plate in his head when you need one? Or one with a video camera and some weather station equipment.
Don’t you love (un)natural phenomena? The sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa (via Kottke.org) are explained as the result of strong winds, maybe, but I think I saw something about this on ”The Outer Limits”, when I was a kid: they’re alive, and if they ever get out of the desert, they’ll take over the world. Where’s a scientist with a steel plate in his head when you need one? Or one with a video camera and some weather station equipment.
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