Hypocrisy

"Why is it that, in 2014, affluent communities like Santa Monica, Mar Vista and Venice must suffer these horrendous health and safety impacts as part of daily life?"

Darn straight! That's for the poor neighborhoods!

Unless, of course, you buy a house in a flight path. Not that it matters because you'll be killed by automobile exhaust or impact first.

http://www.santamonicanext.org/jonathan-steins-open-letter-on-lawsuit-opposing-referendum-to-save-smo/

CBP (still) performing illegal stops of aircraft

The contents of this post are not news to general aviation (GA) pilots. AOPA (the lobbying group for pilots) and others have reported that the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have been stopping small aircraft, apparently looking for concealed drugs. The CBP have been doing this without any probable cause. Worse, the CBP has no jurisdiction over aviation (only the FAA does, unless a plane crosses the national border). Even worse, the CBP (and the agents they employ - sheriffs and SWAT teams) don't know anything about airplanes. For instance, they don't know that if a dog walks across a wing, it will be ruined or that if anything is removed from a plane, the plane becomes illegal to fly unless put back together and inspected by an IA. In other words, these searches strand pilots in remote places (think middle of Utah, no offense to Utah-ites).

I don't know what the reader's opinion of the stop-and-frisk activities going on in New York and Los Angeles (and other cities almost certainly). I think they are useless and even harmful. They are useless because stopping a random person will, almost certainly, not catch a criminal in the act. A "criminal" might be walking around with drugs or a weapon that they ought not to have, but it is just as likely that a perfectly law abiding citizen might be too, and far more likely that the individual stopped isn't doing anything remotely illegal.

The stops are harmful because they erode the foundations of the country. Our country is based on the idea that, if I pull my weight, everyone else will and the country will succeed. If someone is going to be stopped by the police regardless, what is their incentive to behave legally ? If someone is going to be arrested for possessing any of the thousands of items that the government has declared to be illegal (for example, eagle feathers, or any plant or animal declared illegal by any country in the world), then it creates a threat to every citizen that law enforcement can wield any time that it wishes to threaten someone. Write an unflattering newspaper article (or blog post) ? Get stopped, searched and arrested.

The fact that both urban blacks and affluent pilots are getting stopped should be raising alarms and calling people to action. Law enforcement is making a power grab, they really aren't afraid of any particular group and won't stop until the courts tell them that they will suffer unless they stop. These actions should be uniting citizens in this effort.

Last year in the Atlantic:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/annals-of-the-security-state-more-airplane-stories/276018/

Today in the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-aircraft-searches-20140415,0,7828658.story

[edit]

Also picked up by Mint Press News:

http://www.mintpressnews.com/feds-searches-private-planes-dont-fly-pilots-lawmakers/189436/

On justice

http://jjie.org/op-ed-for-a-kid-of-color-unavoidable-contact-with-the-cops/106637/

Where will your children live?

What do people who already own 80% of the wealth in America buy?

Your home.

Big investors are buying up houses for the purpose of renting. After all, homes are a pretty decent investment: They get the growth from the value of the home, plus the dividends from the rent.

Unfortunately, it means that people without the cash can't outbid the investors. It means that your neighbors will probably be renters who don't care about the neighborhood or the value of your home. And it means that your children will undoubtedly rent.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2023084679_institutionalinvestorsxml.html

Google Watch

Looks awesome. I wonder what the battery life will be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrqZl2QIz0c

http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2014/03/moto-360-its-time.html

"Downton Abbey" vs "Upstairs Downstairs"

[edited to remove a not insignificant spoiler]

I've only watched maybe half a dozen episodes of Downton Abbey (season 4) or Upstairs Downstairs (the reboot), and yet I've seen the exact same scene in both. I think it's interesting to analyze the 2 shows based on this similarity. I think the scene gives us something like an "apples to apples" comparison.

The scene in Downton Abbey occurred in episode 3. While the entire family and staff are listening to Dame Nellie sing, the sweetest character on the show, Anna, is attacked by Mr. Green (of Clue fame?). It occurs in a side room. Even though she screams loudly, no one hears her because they're all on the other side of the house and getting blasted by opera music.

The scene in Upstairs Downstairs occured in episode 3 of the first season. Lady Agnes is expecting her first child. She's very nervous about the pregnancy, due to some previous event (of which, I forget).

Once again, the entire family and staff are off listening to the King abdicate the throne and Agnes is privately suffering the pains of labor. She begins to "not look well." Things are getting dicey.

What happens?

The meddling Lady Maud stumbles upon Agnes moaning in the bathroom and begins administering aid like a midwife. Then, the butler Warwick comes upon the scene. You might have thought the prude would slink away and get the kitchen maid, but instead he takes over for Maud, and goes to work like a competent surgeon. It turns out, he was the equivalent of an EMT in "the War". The episode ends with the family adoring their new boy.

I think these 2 scenes pretty well distinguish the 2 series. The former is fairly gritty and unforgiving. The latter is more low key and charming. The former won't hesitate to kill off (or worse) your favorite characters, while the most the latter can muster is to have the chauffeur sympathize with the Nazis for an episode before repenting.

Correction: US does "kill off" characters, but they just didn't seem as devastating as in DA.

I've seen these kinds of differences on Masterpiece before. At one end of the spectrum was Cranford, a quirky, and amusing series that you couldn't help but laugh at. It was sweet but not sickly sweet.

At the other end of the spectrum are every WWI and WWII mini-series where our hero marries minutes before being shipped off, suffers endless tortures trying to get back to his love, and is killed just yards from safety, the picture of his love clutched in hand.

[No, I don't know any show exactly like that but the descriptions certainly sound that morbid.]

Anyways, I'm just glad we have such a great variety of shows from which to choose.

Pebble 2.0.1 (2.0.12 app) "upgrade"

By now, some of you have run into the upgrade of the Pebble app. It should say 2.0.12, requiring Android 4.x. It will want to upgrade your watch to 2.0.1. Think twice before doing this.

When I tried, I got into a reboot loop on the watch. Once you press and hold Back, Up and Select, you need to install an image until your watch can do anything but be a brick. You can't even turn it off.

Here's what I recommend. Since it's going to factory reset anyways:

• Uninstall the Pebble app
• Unpair the watch (on the phone)
• Unpair the phone (on the watch, if you haven't bricked it yet)
• Re-install the Pebble app
• While it's installing, factory reset the watch
• If pairing doesn't work, try cycling Bluetooth on the phone. It seems to help my Moto X.
• If pairing still doesn't work, 3 finger salute the watch
• Hold Back, Up and Select
• After 10 seconds, it will say "pebble". Keep holding.
• After more than 10 seconds, it will go to the "upload" screen.
• Let go.
• If pairing does work, and the app says something like, "Pebble should show code 123456.", ignore the code. Mine never showed it. As long as the 4 digit code matches your Pebble, say, "yes, that's my Pebble."

If and when (let's be positive) you get it paired, go through the normal set-up steps.

Good luck!