Airline "security" costs: $85 billion and 900,000 lost jobs

It can safely be said ten years after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration that the federal government's efforts to make air travel "safer" constitute one ginormous cluster%#@&.

Now we have an idea of the economic impact: $85 billion wasted and 900,000 jobs destroyed. From e-Travel Blackboard...

After a decade of enhanced aviation security post 9/11, US Travel Association president Roger Dow is set to testify in a Senate Committee Hearing on 2 November, claiming current security procedures are hampering travel and US economy growth.

According to the US Travel Association, the US economy is missing out on $85 billion in consumer spending and 900,000 jobs because American travelers are avoiding flying due to the “hassles of air travel”.

“A 2010 study…found that American travelers would take an additional two to three flights per year if the hassles in security screening were eliminated,” the US Travel Association said.

“The price of security has come at the cost of efficiency and billions of dollars are being lost every day.”

I'm telling y'all here and now: whoever running for President right now will come out and tell us that the Department of Homeland Security was one of the biggest blunders in the history of anything and that it should be scrapped completely, will go a long LONG ways toward earning my vote a year from now.

(Tip o' the hat to Lee Shelton for directing my attention to this article.)

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Fifteen years ago today, I found God

I'd wondered throughout today if I should make a note of it on the blog. Finally I remembered what The Knight Shift is here for: to chronicle my thoughts and reflections, to document the occasional odd adventure (or misadventure), and more or less journal my growth through life's journey... including (more often than not) the mis-steps.

Well, today is a big deal to me. Especially looking back on those first few years, and then this past year which saw me fall into the darkest valley that I've yet known... before God brought me through and closer to Him than ever before.

I have failed and fallen more times than I would have liked. But all the same: it was fifteen years ago today that I first became a follower of Christ.

Not a "Christian". I've never preferred being "only a Christian". It always had to be about relationship with God for me, instead of mere religion. And thankfully, God put some amazing people into my life at that time, when I was studying at Elon, who demonstrated beautifully that to follow Christ is a relationship not to be entered into lightly... but it is also the most rewarding relationship that I have ever known.

Fifteen years later and I really can see how far He has brought me. Just as I can see that God has been there every step of the way with me.

Chris, Dalerie, Brent, if you happen to read this site: fifteen years later, I haven't forgotten our time together that day. I hope you are all well, and I'm sorry that we all seem to have lost touch. But I am still following Christ, as best I can. I am thankful that He put the three of you there at the start of this journey. I'm still seeking after Him, so very grateful for where He has taken me already and... just excited about where He might yet be taking me!

Fifteen years later and I really can see how far He has brought me... and how much more growing I still have ahead of me.

And that's a good thing :-)

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Meeting Addy Miller AKA the little girl zombie from THE WALKING DEAD

Just over a year ago AMC's hit series The Walking Dead premiered. And in its very first minutes it introduced us to what has since become one of television's most iconic images of horror ever...

The "little girl zombie" that Rick Grimes comes across during his early traipsing across a post-apocalyptic Georgia. A few months ago when the Blu-ray set came out I wrote about how disturbing it was to see that this sweet innocent cherub-turned-flesheater had a mouthful of braces.

Well, this past weekend at Woods of Terror north of Greensboro, we got to meet this young actress! Her name is Addy Miller and in addition to The Walking Dead she's already notched up quite an acting resume already. She'll soon be appearing in Plan 9 (a remake of Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space) and will also be in next year's The Three Stooges biopic.

And here she is with Kristen and me!

Addy autographed a photo for us, writing on it "You're next!"

But I couldn't resist asking her something that had been bugging me since getting the Blu-ray set of Season 1: were those her real braces? Turns out: nope! Addy told us that it was all prosthetics and makeup, that they made molds of her jaws and that was a rotting decaying appliance that we saw instead of her actual teeth. VERY cool!

Addy is a delightful actress and it was very much a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet her. Here's wishing her all the best with her career :-)

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Classic SESAME STREET: It's not HDTV, it's H-TV!

The bloggin' might be sparse the next few days as I am going out of town on a mission of considerable import. So in the meantime...

It occurred to me this afternoon that I haven't posted a vintage Sesame Street clip in a good long while. The ones with Bert and Ernie seem to be especially popular. So here's one from the 1970s (way before the advent of 1080P) which finds Bert plagued with "H" all over his television screen...

I remember this sketch cracking me up bad when I first saw it as a pre-schooler! Thirty years later, it's lost none of its hilarity :-)

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J.R. Hafer delves into aviation history with new blog

Good friend of this blog J.R. Hafer has a keen mind for a vast array of topics: everything from real estate to our mutual admiration of the late Popcorn Sutton! And now J.R. has turned our attention toward another one of his interests: the history of manned aircraft. J.R. Hafer Aviation Blog went live a short time ago and it promises to educate, illuminate and entertain with matters of aviation. Like, I didn't know until today that the world's first scheduled commercial flight was on January 1st 1914, made with a Benoist XIV (right) soaring across Tampa Bay in Florida.

Here's wishing you all the best with your new blog J.R.! Looking forward to seeing what else you're gonna post :-)

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Gotta love cocker spaniels!

Every so often... okay very often, I find myself on YouTube looking at videos of dogs and puppies. And after seeing this one, I couldn't resist sharing. I've had two cocker spaniels in my time and... well my heart just melts at the sight of them.

Anyhoo, this is a clip from a puppy breeder up in Canada, and it has to be one of the sweetest and cutest videos that I've ever found on YouTube. I couldn't resist sharing it :-)

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Halloween 2011: Priceline Negotiators score epic win as William Shatner re-Tweets our costumes!

What a crazy day this has turned into!! A little while ago we were at Woods of Terror in nearby Guilford County and had our photo taken with Addy Miller, AKA the cute lil' zombie girl from the very first episode of The Walking Dead. But before we did that, this afternoon there was the Trunk or Treat event at Fairview Baptist Church. What a great opportunity to pull off something that I had the idea for way back in the spring...

So here we are: Kristen Bradford as Naomi Pryce, Yours Truly as William Shatner, and Steven Glaspie as Big Deal from the TV commercials for Priceline!

But that's not all! After Kristen posted that pic onto her Facebook page I immediately Twitter-ed about it.

And William Shatner himself re-tweeted it!!!

Click on the link, and behold the visual record of our epic geek win...

Honestly don't know what else to say. Just... wow. To be re-tweeted by The Shatner. The Shatner is not a mere mortal: he is... a force of nature. And tonight The Shatner beheld one of my best friends, my girlfriend and I as the Priceline Negotiators.

The Shatner saw me portraying him and acknowledged that before all creation.

Whoa.

I think I gotta lay down after that...

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THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS hit DVD this week!

But I got to see it last month at a/perture cinema in Winston-Salem, along with Forcery co-producer Ed Woody and star Chad Austin, who appears a LOT throughout The People vs. George Lucas as, well... George Lucas!

The screening was on September 12th. Why didn't I write about it sooner? Because it still hasn't sunk in yet: that was my film Forcery, the idea for which hit just over ten years ago (I began writing the script on the night before 9/11), and my most life-long best friend playing George Lucas on the big screen as part of this multi-award winning documentary that has played at film festivals all around the world!

But as surreal as the experience was, that was mild compared to watching Melody Hallman Daniel's performance as Frannie Filks from Forcery, which The People vs. George Lucas is exceptionally peppered with! In fact, director Alexandre Philippe has told me that at every screening he has attended around the globe, that Melody's performance is a huge hit and has never failed to arouse cheering and clapping. There certainly was at the screening we attended last month! In fact, her rant about "Greedo never shot first!" even made it into the pages of Time Magazine this week!

Apart from seeing our own lil' film in it, The People vs. George Lucas is quite an intriguing work examining the Star Wars phenomenon, its creator and the love/hate relationship that Lucas has enjoyed(?) with the saga's fans (particularly since the Special Editions started the "retconning" ball rolling in 1997). Philippe doesn't take any decisive sides in his film, but rather lets the viewer decide on his or her own. As far as this viewer is concerned, I learned quite a few new things... as well as was led to consider quite a lot of what it means to be a Star Wars fan from a fresh perspective.

It's a fascinating film, and it's now available on DVD at Amazon.com and probably a few of the big box retailers. Highly recommended!

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Giant LEGO minifig washes ashore in Florida

An eight-foot tall LEGO "minifigure" was found on the beach at Siesta Key Village, Florida earlier this week...

From the story at Boing Boing...

Boing Boing reader Jeff Hindman says he chanced across a "giant Legoman washed ashore" today while strolling on the beach at Siesta Key Village, Fla.

"It is very big, about 8 ft. tall," Hindman said. " ... I worked with Lego in my younger days, but this piece is amazing, it's still there on the beach."

A photo of the creature shows it beached on a sandbank, in otherwise good condition. On its chest is the message, "No real than you are."

This suggests it has the same origin as Lego men who washed ashore in Zandvoort, Holland, three years ago, and then in Brighton, England.

Doesn't look like the LEGO man is in any distress from his ordeal. I mean, look at how big his smile is :-P

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Dude accidentally slices off arm with homemade guillotine

Hey Jenna St. Hilaire, hate to tell you this girl but your hometown is in the news again for all the wrong reasons...

A homeless man in Bellingham, Washington nearly became a nominee for the Darwin Award when the guillotine he was building in a wooded camp "unexpectedly" cut off his arm. At right you can see the photo that police released of the decapitation machine.

Feel free to post whatever jokes cross your mind about giving this guy a hand etc. But seriously: why was a homeless man building a guillotine at a campsite? And just look at that thing: it's easily one of the more sophisticated guillotines that I've seen built by a layman. Something like that takes some skills to pull off. As much as I have to wonder about his motive, I have to also wonder why he wasn't putting that kind of ability to work in carpentry or metalwork.

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My own answer to Occupy Wall Street

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A Tuesday evening reflection

The world tells us that we must be celebrity. God tells us that we can be legend.

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The Knight Shift Seismic Forecast #2

Less than 24 hours following my most recent post regarding a theory I've been developing about seismic activity, Turkey was hit with a 7.2 earthquake.

In keeping with this blogger's goal of observation and collecting data, I will now state that if there is indeed validity to the theory, that there will be a significant possibility of severe seismic/geological activity within the next three to four weeks of this writing, with a chance of occurring much sooner. That seems to be the window of "opportunity" (for lack of a better word).

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Harry Potter movies aparating away on December 29th

This has got to be the stoopidest marketing maneuver in the history of anything...

The folks at Warner Bros. are planning to remove all the Harry Potter movies from store shelves come December 29th. After that date, your only chance of getting Harry Potter on the shelves of your personal library (legally 'course) is to buy it secondary market a'la eBay.

Apparently Warners thinks that Disney's "Vault" model is the way to go with a film series that has already generated $12.1 billion. That should be enough money for anyone, right?

I haven't watched a Harry Potter movie since the fifth one, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, came out in theaters. Guess I could be honest and say that I've just been... waiting for the right time to revisit that film franchise (for a number of reasons). If that time comes in the near future, looks like I'm gonna have to buy the Blu-rays now and put 'em in the trunk for later. Not something I particularly care to do (also for a number of reasons).

Dumb, dumb, dumb business move. The one rationale that I've heard for Disney's treatment of the home market is that it allows for its movies to take advantage of whatever is the dominant technology at the time (VHS, then DVD, now Blu-ray etc.) I can't see how that possibly figures into Warner's strategy here. The only reason I can think of why the company is doing this, is to compel people to rush out and buy the Harry Potter movies as soon as they can for this holiday season.

Guess it'll be several more years before I or my children (Lord willing that I have any) will get to enjoy the Harry Potter series in the comfort of our own home...

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I've had to watch last night's THE WALKING DEAD twice!

AMC's The Walking Dead has been firing on all cylinders from the first episode last year. This week's installment finally brought the story to Hershel's Farm: a place I'd been eager to see realized since I first began checking out the graphic novels.

Okay, watching it with the girlfriend last night, we had to shuffle the DVR back a couple o' times: when Daryl nonchalantly tells the walker to "Shut up" before coolly putting a crossbow arrow through its brain, and then the scene where Hershel tells Lori that he's a vet... as in, animal doctor and not a combat medic (the look in her eyes in that scene alone oughtta give Sarah Wayne Callies a best actress nomination at the Emmies).

Watching the episode again this afternoon, post the initial shock of yesterday evening's viewing, I gotta say: anyone else seeing a definite "faith versus hopelessness" vibe already in this season? Last week's season premiere had that full-bore already (even though that's the oddest Baptist church that I've ever seen: I mean, a crucifix in the sanctuary, no baptistery, and Orthodox-ish icons on the walls?!?). But it was Scott Wilson as Hershel Greene that really slammed it home last night. His quiet faith in God and his hope that things would get better in spite of how the entire world has seemingly gone down with no chance at all... well, I for one found it intensely refreshing, uplifting and encouraging.

This is why I love The Walking Dead so much. Yeah it's a show about a zombie apocalypse... but that's not what it's really about. It's about very realistic and sincere and frail human characters trying to keep going in the face of the very worst of circumstance. For my money, it's the best show on TV since Lost.

Can't wait for next week's episode! And for a certain friend of mine (name o' Michelle): are you sure that you still hate Shane after last night's chapter? :-P

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Finally got my iPad 2 updated to iOS 5

The initial rush by everyone to update to iOS 5 along (has there ever been a file so large downloaded by so many at the same time?) with other factors kept me from upgrading my precious iPad to iOS 5 until this afternoon. But now that I've got it loaded... wowzers!!

The split keyboard alone is enough to compel me to tip my hat to the good folks at Apple. I'm also discovering that there are some new features on the camera (well, new to me anyway). Didn't have any problems updating: many people reported that stuff like contacts info etc. became lost during their own update procedures but happily, that time seems to have passed (something about how Apple's iTunes servers couldn't validate properly with all those folks attempting to install simultaneously).

Meanwhile I'm considering getting my first-ever smartphone, an iPhone 4S. Don't know if that means I'm officially "dumb" now or what... :-P

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Follow-up to previous post about seismic activity

On September 26th I wrote about a theory that I have been developing for some time now and in regard to that, there was a strong possibility of a moderate to severe earthquake happening in the near future. Well it's been almost a month since then and I thought it would be wise to revisit that prognostication...

There has been an increase in geological activity since I posted that, particularly around the Pacific Rim (the so-called "Ring of Fire"). In addition there have been numerous earthquakes in excess of 4.0 Richter throughout the American Southwest following the "forecast" (or whatever one wishes to call it) and now increasing volcanic activity in Iceland and a very interesting rise in earthquakes around El Hierro in the Canary Islands.

So what does this mean for my theory?

I suppose it could be some validation, but something like this still needs long-term data before I could comfortably say "Hey, this makes the possibility of earthquakes more likely to happen!" Although in the past month there has been one peer-reviewed and published journal study that kinda dovetails with this concept of mine.

So here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna keep watching this thing that I've been observing, and the next time the conditions are "favorable" (for lack of a better term), I'll make a note of it and we'll see what happens.

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