Thomas Hawk is making a journey this weekend into Yosemite with Michael Adams, son of Ansel - and I’m slightly envious. He, Scoble and Marc Silber are working on a video show called “Photo Cycle” that I’m now really looking forward to.

Please read this wonderful piece by Patrick Smith, a commercial airline pilot. Excerpts:

“The truth is, regardless of how many pointy tools and shampoo bottles we confiscate, there shall remain an unlimited number of ways to smuggle dangerous items onto a plane. The precise shape, form and substance of those items is irrelevant. We are not fighting materials, we are fighting the imagination and cleverness of the would-be saboteur.

Thus, what most people fail to grasp is that the nuts and bolts of keeping terrorists away from planes is not really the job of airport security at all. Rather, it’s the job of government agencies and law enforcement. It’s not very glamorous, but the grunt work of hunting down terrorists takes place far off stage, relying on the diligent work of cops, spies and intelligence officers. Air crimes need to be stopped at the planning stages. By the time a terrorist gets to the airport, chances are it’s too late.

In the end, I’m not sure which is more troubling, the inanity of the existing regulations, or the average American’s acceptance of them and willingness to be humiliated. These wasteful and tedious protocols have solidified into what appears to be indefinite policy, with little or no opposition. There ought to be a tide of protest rising up against this mania. Where is it? …

And rather than rethink our policies, the best we’ve come up with is a way to skirt them — for a fee, naturally — via schemes like Registered Traveler. Americans can now pay to have their personal information put on file just to avoid the hassle of airport security. As cynical as George Orwell ever was, I doubt he imagined the idea of citizens offering up money for their own subjugation...

Conned and frightened, our nation demands not actual security, but security spectacle.“

Forbes has the list of America’s most lustful cities. Cincinnati? San Antonio? I’m not convinced.

Like the 2003 Red Teams; like the 2006 round of tests; new reports back up assertions from most thoughtful humans that airport security provides no real security.

So, you “dump” the terminal, inconvenience a thousand passengers, delay a dozen flights, out of an “abundance of [faux] caution” and cost passengers and taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.  You still can’t find the poor guy (in the red shirt, pink hat, with the garbage bag and urn)  - so, you just let everyone go about their business.  How is this security, exactly?  Can someone explain this to me?  Oh, I know: it isn’t.  But hell, it makes Joe and Joan Six Pack feel safe, so it’s worth it.

A very interesting article on the perpetually-broken state of air travel in the US. It explores the what and the why and takes a close look at the FAA in particular - an organization an expert says is “impossible to run efficiently.”

The last time I was back home, I (along with her husband) was encouraging my friend Erin to blog her cultured, sophisticated point of view on food, travel and other enjoyments. I warned it would have to be its own reward; feedback is very, very hard to come by. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok - I’ve long been promising my choices for this nation’s great small cities. There are many, but the below is my short list of favorites:

Charlottesville, Virginia
Durham / Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Portland, Maine

So, get to it and check them out.

Start date: October 18, 2006
Terminus: April 1, 2007

Miles (total): ~19,750
Miles (air): ~11,600
Miles (train): ~2,378
Miles (auto): ~5,772
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Settling in slowly but surely in the new place; I love it. I’m also playing a little photography catch-up; here are a few sets from the past few weeks: a more-complete Grand Canyon set, the Mexico set, and Tucscon.

I’m here. This marks the terminus of my six month world tour of homelessness and unemployment. Now, to settle in and get the next chapter started. Step one: find a place.

Well, thanks to a very slutty slot machine at the Sky City Casino in New Mexico, I’m a few grand heavier than I was a week ago. Lucky? Neh - hear what I did tonight: I oriented myself to the Cosmos, then sat at the edge of the Grand Canyon as the sun set .. the stage for the moon and a trillion stars to dance and sing above me. Now that’s lucky… beyond words.

[Edit: A few images are now up - a lot more when I have a better 'net connection.]

Hey folks - am here in Santa Fe for a weekend retreat / conference - with cold weather and extremely unreliable internet access. Once I had settled into my room, I was very pleased to see that the ethernet jack had been literally ripped out of the wall with just wires sticking out. No wi-fi at the hotel, either - but if I rest my laptop up against the wall near the window and the moonlight is just right, I can get a sip or two of wi-fi, when I’m lucky. Sorry, more will just have to follow.

Hey folks - a quick dispatch from Tucson, AZ. My photos from the journey through West Texas are up. The road up from Terlingua (170 and 67) toward El Paso easily qualifies as the best driving ever packed into one day.
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Howdy from the tiny old mining town of Terlingua, Texas. The place is as dusty as it is funky. I found a small cabin to stay in for a couple of days - as a base for exploring Big Bend National Park.
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I was nearly arrested tonight by a belligerent lieutenant from the Bexar County Sheriff’s office. I’ll put up a more complete piece when I’m up to it (and I’m sure I have his name right and all that jazz.) The charge was apparently “taking pictures” and having an IQ higher than 70. He was a law-man unlike any I’ve encountered in a long, long time.

Oh well, at least I’m not Lisa Marie Nowak. Diapers? Nice touch.

My hotel is diagonally across from the “Sanitary Tortilla Manufacturing Company.” I suppose I was naive to think there were other kinds. It made for a funny smell the first day or so, but you get used to it.
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A few pictures from my walkaround yesterday are up.

My freaky spirituality piece of the other day sparked interesting discussion there and there and around these parts, where Fred asked, “what sin made you turn from God?” But before I could answer, Fred had figured out the answer for himself, hitting the Proverbial nail on the head with his first swing - yes, Fred, the “lust of the flesh” pointed me hellward. That, and I like shrimp.

The piece also sparked a couple of phone calls - one from a friend who said my writing was getting “too flowery” and another who told me she thought it was “beautiful.” Well shit, aren’t flowers supposed to be beautiful?

In a related coincidence, I happened upon a wonderful and very apropos Tom Robbins passage last night:
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I’m headed out - south for San Antonio. I’ll edit this post later with some suggestions for Austin visitors. Oh and while Deanna was visiting, we painted our shoes and made little cakes. It rocked.