New Year Randomness
And since I’m still revising, and you won’t get anything coherent out of me for a while (all my RAM is taken up with parsing sentences and finding plotholes) here’s a little randomness to take you through the day.
* Ever wonder how Dateline picks its stories? Wonder about why TV news is so stiff and formalized? John Hockenberry tells you why. A fantastically readable article.
* Need to take a trip anytime soon? Watch your facial expression, since facecrime can get you searched by TSA. It’s not just for dystopia anymore. Oh, and in case you were wondering further about the illogical nature of getting through security at the airport? Patrick Smith, a commercial pilot, takes a look at the idiocy of some restrictions.
My favorite passage:
“I would not hesitate to allow that liquid explosives can pose a danger,†Greene added, recalling Ramzi Yousef’s 1994 detonation of a small nitroglycerine bomb aboard Philippine Airlines Flight 434. The explosion was a test run for the so-called “Project Bojinka,†an Al Qaeda scheme to simultaneously destroy a dozen widebody airliners over the Pacific Ocean. “But the idea that confiscating someone’s toothpaste is going to keep us safe is too ridiculous to entertain.â€
Yet that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. The three-ounce container rule is silly enough — after all, what’s to stop somebody from carrying several small bottles each full of the same substance — but consider for a moment the hypocrisy of T.S.A.’s confiscation policy. At every concourse checkpoint you’ll see a bin or barrel brimming with contraband containers taken from passengers for having exceeded the volume limit. Now, the assumption has to be that the materials in those containers are potentially hazardous. If not, why were they seized in the first place? But if so, why are they dumped unceremoniously into the trash? They are not quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are simply thrown away. The agency seems to be saying that it knows these things are harmless. But it’s going to steal them anyway, and either you accept it or you don’t fly.
Note to self: take the train whenever possible.
* Courtesy of Elizabeth Bear: Justine Larbalestier on how to rewrite. If you’re going to do revisions at any time in the future, go read that post. Don’t wait. Do it now.
* Last but not least: I SO NEED a Dr. Who scarf! A Season 12 one, to be precise. I must possess one. Soon, precious. When I can afford the shipping.
Even though I am apparently a Season 1 Dr. Who. Crusty but lovable. Heh.
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What Doctor Who character are You? created with QuizFarm.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as 1st Doctor
Grumpy, proud, but realy just an old softy. Inteligence is no barrier to you.
|
End of randomness. I hope your New Year is turning out well, my ducks. Right now it’s raining, sloppy, and cold, and I am unwashed and staring at mounds of text. I feel distinctly crotchety. Maybe I am a Season 1 after all.
Related posts:
