Airport Security

The following comment just burst out of me while I was reading a question over on Askville about airport security at Heathrow (in the UK, as I assume everybody knows).

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I went through Heathrow about fifteen years ago, so I don't have an up-to-date story to relate. But they did pull me out of line and search me extensively.

Years later, I had an employee who had also had bad experiences at Heathrow. He was a short little red-headed guy from Ireland (I'm a red-head too, but not at all Irish - although everyone who sees me assumes that I'm either Irish or Scottish).

Anyway, he told me that one time he was pulled out of line, taken to a separate room, and strip-searched. They took his clothes and left him alone in the room. After about forty-five minutes, he got tired of waiting and went strolling around the corridors naked, looking for his clothes.

I'm still not sure if I believe him. :D

I did go through Customs as well as airport security in the US last week. I have to say, it's like living under some third-world junta. Some of the Homeland Security people are decent enough, but a surprising number of them are rude, arrogant, and apparently drunk with power.

The rules themselves are ridiculous. My wife had a small tube of hand lotion; it was confiscated, very rudely, because it was an ounce or two over their limit. My son, that so-suspicious seven-year-old terrorist in training, had a sealed bottle of water in his backpack (we'd forgotten about it); confiscated. Yet I was able to bring a large tube of ointment through in my medical bag, despite the fact that it was obviously half-used and did not have my prescription information on it.

Most of these idiotic new precautions do NOTHING to hinder terrorists; all they do is inconvenience innocent travelers, and give a large number of jerks a license to dress up in a Nazi-like black uniform, carry a gun, and threaten people. As I said at the time, it's good to know that we're protected from the terrible hand-lotion menace. It's too bad that the government didn't use one-thousandth as much vigilance in monitoring Wall Street!

Sorry, I seem to have gotten off the point.

Airport Security

The following comment just burst out of me while I was reading a question over on Askville about airport security at Heathrow (in the UK, as I assume everybody knows).

---

I went through Heathrow about fifteen years ago, so I don't have an up-to-date story to relate. But they did pull me out of line and search me extensively.

Years later, I had an employee who had also had bad experiences at Heathrow. He was a short little red-headed guy from Ireland (I'm a red-head too, but not at all Irish - although everyone who sees me assumes that I'm either Irish or Scottish).

Anyway, he told me that one time he was pulled out of line, taken to a separate room, and strip-searched. They took his clothes and left him alone in the room. After about forty-five minutes, he got tired of waiting and went strolling around the corridors naked, looking for his clothes.

I'm still not sure if I believe him. :D

I did go through Customs as well as airport security in the US last week. I have to say, it's like living under some third-world junta. Some of the Homeland Security people are decent enough, but a surprising number of them are rude, arrogant, and apparently drunk with power.

The rules themselves are ridiculous. My wife had a small tube of hand lotion; it was confiscated, very rudely, because it was an ounce or two over their limit. My son, that so-suspicious seven-year-old terrorist in training, had a sealed bottle of water in his backpack (we'd forgotten about it); confiscated. Yet I was able to bring a large tube of ointment through in my medical bag, despite the fact that it was obviously half-used and did not have my prescription information on it.

Most of these idiotic new precautions do NOTHING to hinder terrorists; all they do is inconvenience innocent travelers, and give a large number of jerks a license to dress up in a Nazi-like black uniform, carry a gun, and threaten people. As I said at the time, it's good to know that we're protected from the terrible hand-lotion menace. It's too bad that the government didn't use one-thousandth as much vigilance in monitoring Wall Street!

Sorry, I seem to have gotten off the point.

Vacation

I'm still sick, and I really need to sleep.

But here's what I have from the vacation:

Many pages of notes. Most of them were written after the fact, and are relatively sketchy. But there's enough for me to be able to flesh them out from memory.

410 photos. Many of them are no good, but some are decent; too many to post here, unfortunately.

143 videos, including three video "blog" entries I did from the high seas. I'm uploading the first two to YouTube now.

Two mp3s recorded from my GrandCentral voicemail. As always, LiveJournal's voice post option was totally USELESS everywhere I tried to use it. Just tones and a canned announcement telling me that I was using a restricted phone - not true - or was outside of my calling area. Since my calling area is the US, and I was trying to call from Georgia and Florida, something isn't right.

But I'm just too tired right now. Must sleep!

Vacation

I'm still sick, and I really need to sleep.

But here's what I have from the vacation:

Many pages of notes. Most of them were written after the fact, and are relatively sketchy. But there's enough for me to be able to flesh them out from memory.

410 photos. Many of them are no good, but some are decent; too many to post here, unfortunately.

143 videos, including three video "blog" entries I did from the high seas. I'm uploading the first two to YouTube now.

Two mp3s recorded from my GrandCentral voicemail. As always, LiveJournal's voice post option was totally USELESS everywhere I tried to use it. Just tones and a canned announcement telling me that I was using a restricted phone - not true - or was outside of my calling area. Since my calling area is the US, and I was trying to call from Georgia and Florida, something isn't right.

But I'm just too tired right now. Must sleep!

Another support ticket at LJ

It's probably a waste of time, but here's the text of the newest ticket I've opened at LJ about my frequent inability to reach voiceposting with my cell phone.

This has been an ongoing problem for me for several years now. I am getting frequent failures when trying to voice post from my cellular phone. I have new data to add: over the past week, I tried to voice post from Atlanta, Georgia, and Orlando, FL. In both cases I've received canned announcements telling me that either I am trying to call from a phone which is restricted (not true) or am calling outside of my calling area (also not true, my calling area is the entire USA).

My cellular service is handled by AT&T. This problem ONLY happens when I try to post to LJ - whenever it happens, I make test calls to other numbers to confirm that the problem is with LJ, not with AT&T. I've talked to AT&T technical service people, and they say the problem is with the LJ number.

I've also had this problem in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. On the road, voice posting is usually unreachable. I find this extremely frustrating.

My cell plan doesn't include email, so posting by email from my phone is not currently an option.

LJ is in my auto-dial, and that number works in some areas, so I know I'm not misdialing.

Another support ticket at LJ

It's probably a waste of time, but here's the text of the newest ticket I've opened at LJ about my frequent inability to reach voiceposting with my cell phone.

This has been an ongoing problem for me for several years now. I am getting frequent failures when trying to voice post from my cellular phone. I have new data to add: over the past week, I tried to voice post from Atlanta, Georgia, and Orlando, FL. In both cases I've received canned announcements telling me that either I am trying to call from a phone which is restricted (not true) or am calling outside of my calling area (also not true, my calling area is the entire USA).

My cellular service is handled by AT&T. This problem ONLY happens when I try to post to LJ - whenever it happens, I make test calls to other numbers to confirm that the problem is with LJ, not with AT&T. I've talked to AT&T technical service people, and they say the problem is with the LJ number.

I've also had this problem in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. On the road, voice posting is usually unreachable. I find this extremely frustrating.

My cell plan doesn't include email, so posting by email from my phone is not currently an option.

LJ is in my auto-dial, and that number works in some areas, so I know I'm not misdialing.