This story caught my eye and made me smile for the activists’ innovative way of protesting climate change.  Dan Glass actually had the opportunity to catch Prime Minister Brown's ear and sleeve.  Before shaking the Prime Ministers' hand, he squeezed super-glue into his hand.

Human life is important.  We in the progressive space advocacy community believe in the mission of human space precisely because - if cause and effect can be deliberately confused - consciousness is practically the purpose of the universe, and worth elaborating upon ad infinitum.  Yet space is so big and impersonal, terrifying the animal hindbrain beneath all our pretenses, that our reaction is highly emotional when danger in theory becomes catastrophe in fact.  Something in us quails at the notion of death in space above and beyond death itself, and has in ways both subtle and overt held back progress on this most important frontier.  I would like to argue for a fundamental change in emphasis in our approach to these risks, and raise some red flags about how space is being sold by our most promising entrepreneurs.  

Mr. Robert L. Crandall is retired CEO of American Airlines and understands what we need to bring our transportation plan into the 21st Century. We are falling behind in updating our infrastructure and meeting the needs of our population.

Following is a speech Mr. Crandall made to The Wings Club. It's lengthy, but every word is important. I plan to send copies via e-mail AND fax to my Representative and two Senators. It's time . . .

From the "I hope it doesn't happen but wouldn't be surprised if it did" department, I have some predictions and scenarios to throw out there about stuff that could happen sometime in the rest of 2008.  I suppose this is mostly just a mental exercise for me, but maybe it'll spark some interesting comments/responses:

No, this isn't about Cindy McCain letting hubby use her ride. And no, it's not the most pressing issue of our time. It's just a little story of Yet Another Way the Rich Gorge Themselves at the Public Trough.

It comes courtesy of an e-zine called Final Approach: Aviation at a Crossroads, published by the Air Transport Association (the airline industry's trade group). I started receiving it out of the blue (no pun intended), perhaps because I have a pilot's license.

Sure, the ATA is hardly a disinterested party, and it's odd to see them using populist rhetoric. But their statistics make the case. See below…

The Economist again revisited the plight of London’s three airports in an excellent editorial piece entitled "How to fix Heathrow" (the editors of The Economist obviously fly into and out of London frequently as often as the magazine talks about the airports).  London made it’s first mistake when it privatized its airports in 1987, selling Heathrow, Gatwick, and Standsted to BAA (now owned by Spanish firm Ferrovial).

I’m not opposed to privatization at a philosophical level.  Nor do I join with the liaise faire capitalists’ strident claims that the private sector always bests the public sector in efficiency and effectiveness.  I am also skeptical of the frequent claims that the waste seen in the public sector would never happen in the private sector.  I’ve worked in the private sector long enough to know that vast swaths of inefficiency and waste exist, and that it is not a magic pill in of itself.

From CNN:

The U.S. Air Force on Friday announced one of the largest military acquisition programs in U.S. history, saying the service had chosen Northrop Grumman over Boeing to replace its aging air refueling tanker fleet.

Why is this important? Because it shows our Federal Government under the Bush administration doesn't give a SHIT about our falling dollar. Boeing, an American aviation company based in Washington, was competing with Northrop Grumman, for a $40B defense contract. Northrop Grumman will use Airbus, a European company, to construct the frames for the aircraft. Our federal government, even at this critical juncture in our economic history, is resorting to massive outsourcing to service its needs.

The followup to my previous diary.  Here, we see that the Bush Administration gives up any pretense at being impartial.

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey parrots the propaganda of the airline industry whiel asking Congress to revamp the entire funding mechanism for the FAA.

More below the fold... (this previously published at www.faafollies.com).

crossposted at ecotrope.com

On Wednesday, a debate sponsored by IQ2US was held on the subject, "Global warming is not a crisis".  One of the participants, NASA climatologist, Gavin Schmidt, has posted his thoughts on the debate at RealClimate.  The transcript is now available for download and a podcast will be released next week.  Personally, I am not so sure that the format of this debate was a good idea, given the equal weighting given to climate scientists and professional "skeptics".  Nor do I think that this kind of forum is conducive to an accurate presentation of the science.  One can talk in bombastic circles about a topic without ever fully getting to the bottom of it in a way that can be done with simple visual examination of the data.  A perfect example of this is Michael Crichton's sarcastic proposal to ban private jets.

Recently it was suggested that at Daily Kos I am like the guy (or woman) who always writes about circumcision.   Now let me be clear:  I actually have no problem with someone writing about circumcision, even though such a diary is not one that is particularly relevant to choices I have to make now.   But there was a time that it would have been relevant.   My wife and I had two sons and we had to consider the issue and to be perfectly frank, I would have benefited from seeing the issue discussed.   We may or may not have agreed with the diarist in question - and I have never read these diaries - but certainly I would be more informed about a particular view point and maybe have been inspired to do more research.   Now, it might happen that I would have still made a wrong decision about the subject, but at least I'd be better educated about my options.

If you click on the thumbnail above, you can see a full size rendering of the 747-8. The plane is Boeing's answer to the Airbus A380, which has run into design problems & delays. The almost 40-year-old 747 design will be updated with tech from Boeing's upcoming 787 Dreamliner. You can see the interior of the new 747-8, with its big comfy seats, by clicking here (although it helps if you can read Norsk).

Looking through the pics, I wondered where the hell the piano bar from the 70s went? And I don't expect to see anything as comfortable as those seats being used by Northwest or United. This brings me to the diary topic: Shitty Flying Experiences

What's the worst experience you've ever had & which Airline was responsible for it?

I just spoke to a pilot for Blackwater Aviation(which I didn't even know existed) who told me that Blackwater was planning on buying Boeing 767 long range jets. Several things were remarkable about our conversation:

1. Blackwater has an Aviation department that operates Cessna Caravans for use as executive shuttles between their headquarters in Moyock, NC, and Washington, DC, and a fleet of Casa 212 freight aircraft owned and operated by two companies, Aviation Worldwide Services, and Presidential Airways, Inc.

2. Blackwater is planning to buy at least two heavy Boeing 767 aircraft for their growing fleet.

We all have credit ratings that follow us around like digital shadows. Now, starting this Monday, Dec. 4, every time you leave or enter the United States by air, land, or sea, your own government’s computers will officially judge the probability that you are a terrorist, make that judgement widely available, and keep your terror score on file for 40 years.  By assigning you a computer-generated risk assessment based upon your travel pattern, your companions, your method of payment and even the kind of food you eat -- among other, as yet unknown tidbits of data -- the U.S. Department of Homeland security thinks it can make you safer.

"When some unknown government computer, using unknown sources of information, tags you as a ‘security risk’ and begins circulating that label around the government, you will have no meaningful way of finding out why you were given that label, let alone challenging its validity," says Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. "

Feel safer? More after the link....

The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights.

Any American who questions this government - especially those questioning 911 - are now a target of this draconian legislation.

[...]Americans simply cannot and will not believe the government's story is not what really happened. However, this should not justify the increasing hostile attacks by those who do believe mother government's story against those who are seeking the truth.

--Devvy Kidd

By Alan Levin, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- A series of steep cuts in aeronautics research at NASA threaten to undermine the nation's aviation industry and delay a new air traffic system needed to prevent gridlock in the skies, according to members of Congress, industry officials and scientific leaders.

Groups of lawmakers from both parties, academics and aerospace leaders say the reductions are hampering NASA's ability to develop new aviation technology.

"I think its almost criminal," said Roy Harris, retired head of aeronautics at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. "We are dropping the ball."

http://www.usatoday.com/...

It seems the ghost of Reagan haunts the halls of the FAA. What better way for the FAA to celebrate Labor Day than to impose a new dress code.

On Labor Day, President Bush addressed the Seafarers International Union. The tag for that story read:

President Bush says the key to bettering America's workforce is to maintain a strong and expanding economy. Mr. Bush focused on economic themes in a Labor Day holiday speech to America's merchant marine union.

Meanwhile those on the ground helping us fly the friendly skies got a memo:

I want to take you on a bit of an aside, to explore a departure from the current political view of terrorism, and safety from it, as a national obsession.  

The overriding message which I'm trying to convey can be summarized like this:  Terrorism is not a legitimate threat to Westerners.  There are almost no terrorists in the world who want to kill us, statistically speaking.  We know this because any dispassionate examination of the state of Western society should be telling us that if there were large numbers of terrorists who wanted to kill us, we'd be under constant, unrelenting attack.  And we aren't, so there isn't.

Oh, hell...this constant losing of laptops has got to end.

We're in the midst of an aviation-related security clampdown, and we find out the DOT lost the personal records of 42,800 PILOTS?  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

A U.S. government computer loaded with approximately 133,000 drivers' and pilots' records — including Social Security numbers — was stolen last month, the Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

The department's Office of Inspector General said one of its laptops was taken from a government vehicle in Doral, Florida, on July 27.