Andrew Ferguson dot NET

I dropped Jeff off at the airport yesterday for his flight back home to Seattle.

This would normally not be a notable event, except that I also dropped Jeff off at the airport in Seattle on his flight here to Colorado.

You read that right, I dropped Jeff of at the airport in Seattle in my car. Then drove to Colorado and dropped Jeff off at the airport in Colorado in my car.

Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot and writes a section for the New York Times Blog called Jet Lagged: Navigating the Unfriendly Skies.
Here’s an excerpt from his latest article, The Airport Security Follies.

Conventional wisdom says the [9/11] terrorists exploited a weakness in airport security by smuggling aboard box-cutters. What they actually exploited was a weakness in our mindset - a set of presumptions based on the decades-long track record of hijackings.

In years past, a takeover meant hostage negotiations and standoffs; crews were trained in the concept of “passive resistance.” All of that changed forever the instant American Airlines Flight 11 collided with the north tower. What weapons the 19 men possessed mattered little; the success of their plan relied fundamentally on the element of surprise. And in this respect, their scheme was all but guaranteed not to fail.

For several reasons - particularly the awareness of passengers and crew - just the opposite is true today. Any hijacker would face a planeload of angry and frightened people ready to fight back. Say what you want of terrorists, they cannot afford to waste time and resources on schemes with a high probability of failure. And thus the September 11th template is all but useless to potential hijackers.

The entire article is a great read. The TSA is easily one of the greatest failures of America in the 21^st Century, perhaps even greater than the war in Iraq. I suppose it’s fitting then that the TSA is now tied with the IRS for least popular government agency in America.

via Photo Matt and BoingBoing

Dad called me today to let me know that I should print my boarding pass online when I fly back for Thanksgiving.

Then he wanted to know if I wanted to grab some food tomorrow. He’s in town!

Brian flies back tomorrow, Dad flies back Sunday, and I fly back Monday.

Poor Mom, she’s going to be driving to the airport a lot.

Zone: 12
389600 Northing
445526 Easting

While driving, our bus hit a tumbleweed, completely destroying it. Shortly there after, the break on the right-front side started to rattle. We pulled into a gas station in Flagstaff and determined that the bus needed to be repaired. Rob and Cathy went to Flagstaff Airport and rented another van. 2+ hours later, we are once again on the road.

Note: The Northing is off by a factor of ten. I’m not sure where the missing digit is, but I believe that it’s in the last three sigfigs, or so. The map links is based on 3896000 N.

Zone: 11
3769213 Northing
444868 Easting

Flight frim Seatac to LAX was 20 mins faster due to favorable tailwinds.
Checked email in LAX
Flight from LAX to ONT was 20 minutes, total.

Rest of group was delayed about 20 minutes

Started reading “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.” So far, so good.

Updated link to use Google Map