patrick ainge


NYT: A Win For Airline Passengers(?)  

21 Dec 02009, 2pm

UPDATE:
As I suspected, those with more knowledge of the inner-workings of the air traffic system have come out with a laundry list of examples of why this is actually a bad idea.

The New York Times is reporting the Transportation Dept. has announced new rules penalizing airlines that keep passengers waiting on the tarmac for more than 3 hours.

The new rule also:

• Prohibits airlines from scheduling chronically delayed flights, subjecting those who do to DOT enforcement action for unfair and deceptive practices;

• Requires airlines to designate an airline employee to monitor the effects of flight delays and cancellations, respond in a timely and substantive fashion to consumer complaints and provide information to consumers on where to file complaints;

• Requires airlines to display on their website flight delay information for each domestic flight they operate;

• Requires airlines to adopt customer service plans and audit their own compliance with their plans;

• Prohibits airlines from retroactively applying material changes to their contracts of carriage that could have a negative impact on consumers who already have purchased tickets.

All that remains to be seen are the sure-to-come-about unforeseen side effects of these new regulations.

Quote of the Day  

19 Dec 02009, 7pm

Fred and Barney hatched elaborate schemes,
…I just want to build a beach in my living room.

-Craig A.

A Famous Person Has Died by John Campbell  

26 Jun 02009, 4pm

a famous person has died

John Campbell of Pictures For Sad Children, perfectly sums up the media frenzy surrounding the death of a pop culture icon in his most recent webcomic. (VIA: Laughing Squid)

Intriguing  

19 Jun 02009, 2am

via: @ade3

Mueller: Protecting the Homeland  

18 Jul 02008, 5pm

1) Read THIS.
2) Think.

ABSTRACT:

This paper attempts to set out some general parameters for coming to grips with a central homeland security concern: the effort to make potential targets invulnerable, or at least notably less vulnerable, to terrorist attack. It argues that protection makes sense only when protection is feasible for an entire class of potential targets and when the destruction of something in that target set would have quite large physical, economic, psychological, and/or political consequences. There are a very large number of potential targets where protection is essentially a waste of resources and a much more limited one where it may be effective.