Ah, Saturday Night Live is always (or sometimes) good for a laugh. Every once in a while a nice airline-related gem will pop up. This one is a bit old, but still a good one, making a little fun of Captain Sully and US Airways flight 1549.
UPDATE: I didn’t realize you could only see HULU in the US. Here is the video on NBC.com as well.
Seattle's Airport will be getting body scanners soon.
Here they come folks! Body scanners are on their way to my home town here in Seattle. I like to think of Seattle as a pretty progressive town and I was hoping that they wouldn’t make their way to my hometown airport. But as the Seattle Times is reporting, they will start to be used in September at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).
The TSA hopes to install 450 of the $130,000 to $170,000 machines this year and 500 more the next. Someone is definitely getting rich off all this added security.
Yesterday, our local NPR station KUOW was talking about this subject on The Conversation with Ross Renyolds and I got to put in my two cents on the air. You can listen to the whole discussion here (I come in at about 12:50), which includes an interview with Dwayne Baird, a spokesperson for the TSA.
Remember, you have the option to opt-out of the body scanners and get a full pat down if you choose. I won’t re-hash my love (that is sarcastic) for these machines.
I recently connected with film studio Filmetria, which is based here in Seattle and fell in love with new project: Team Marco Polo.
I know it is not exactly airline-related, but it does deal with travel and I think it is frek’n cool, so I am sharing it with you (and no I am not getting paid to write this, thank you).
It is a travel show for kids, but it is quite entertaining for adults too. It is as if Bill Nye The Science Guy, Steve Ricks and a barrel of laughs sat down and created a show. One of the main people behind the show, Bill Jeakle, was a writer for Bill Nye’s show and if you are a local Seattlite, you might also remember him as one of the high-5’n white guys on local comedy sketch show Almost Live (I am working on getting a picture of me giving Bill a high-5).
Anyhow, the Marco Polo character gives people a way to learn about travel without being bored. There are many other characters, as well: a Rick Steves spoof (he gives travel tips), a Tim Gunn Project Runway spoof (he covers fashion), an art loving nun, A bombastic history professor named Professor Bombast, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Odysseus, and dozens more. They all do skits and songs to bring the art and culture of foreign lands to life.
Currently the show is only on YouTube, but they are hoping to change that. They are working with Seattle’s local PBS station to get the show on the air.
If you like what you see, please support their efforts. You can add them on Twitter, join their YouTube channel to know when new episodes are posted and of course watch and enjoy the show.
Photos taken at Boeing Field of the F-22 by a friend just minutes ago. Click for larger versions. Thanks Nick!
Just got word that if you want to get a first hand glimpse of a F-22 Raptor, head on down to the Museum of Flight. Plane #66 will be on display next to the museum until Monday.
Update: The F-22 and F-15 will be on display for 478th fighter wing reunion.
It is time to improve privacy!
I haven’t been able to talk about body scanners for a while and it is about time I bring them up again. When I blog about them or am doing research, I constantly see the same argument, “What’s the big deal, we all have the same parts, get over it.”
The thing is we are not all the same and even if we are, we still have a right to privacy. With my obvious dis-like (maybe that is too nice of a word) for the body scanners, I get people who write me in support and calling me fool. Recently I had a woman write me who is a pre-operative transsexual, meaning she self-defines as a woman, but still has male genitalia. It is absolutely her right to keep her situation private and no one should have the ability to invade her privacy. Talking about privacy, I will call her “Jane” to keep her anonymous for this blog.
I asked Jane what it is like being asked to go through a body scanner and she told me, “that having to go through a body scanner would be particularly difficult for me as the body scanners actually reveal a person’s gender. ” She also explained it becomes even more difficult because she has, “anxiety which makes the thought of using these even more difficult.”
Jane lives in the UK and unlike in the US, passengers cannot opt-out of body scanners. If you get “randomly selected” , you must be scanned or you don’t fly.
Another argument people often use is, “if you don’t like it, don’t fly then.” There are so many reasons why this argument is weak. If you don’t agree with something, you should stand up for what you think is right and try to change the system.
Jane told me she doesn’t fly as much now due to the fear and has missed out on some very important life experiences. “I have relatives in India who I would like to see again and would also like to travel to India to pay my respects to relatives who have died but feel unable to pass through an airport whilst passing through a body scanner is a condition to boarding my flight,” Jane explained.
We are a global society and need to allow people to fly around the world to continue to grow and prosper. We should not become society that violates a person’s privacy, so passengers can get a false sense of security that the body scanners provide.
Trans-gender fliers, disabled passengers, folks with body issues and those that have gone through a traumatic experience involving their body should not have to endure invasive security to be able to function in our society. Is giving up your privacy worth the false sense of security you get going through body scanners? I say absolutely not.