The nation's newest start-up airline doesn't serve free peanuts, and there's no restroom -- or seats -- for the passengers.

But flight attendants do escort passengers personally to the nearest patch of grass before and after the flight, and the airline's president and chief executive himself walks up the aisle every 15 minutes with a stash of ( Read more... )

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Y'know, World Cup, Hockey playoff, Olympic celebrations regularly cause more traffic congestion than any protest held in this city.  Do people worry about someone getting to the hospital then ( Read more... )

FYI: New Homeland Security Regulations for researchers and conference attendees

There are some new rules between the United States Homeland Security and Canadian Border Services that may affect researchers and others attending conferences, or doing presentations in the United States.

In essence Homeland Security has the right to copy, scan, ( Read more... )

So, the TTC is on strike - and went on strike at midnight last night, stranding people in the bars and clubs, or at work.  We had forewarning of only a few hours.

I totally support the right to strike.  However, the city can't function under a strike; too many people depend on the TTC to get around.  The TTC /wants/ us to depend on them to get ( Read more... )

So I have to tell this as few times as possible.  Heh.

We left Toronto for Buffalo Friday the 7th at about 4 PM.  The snow had started around 3 PM, but was still pretty light; I felt confident enough with the idea of dealing with it.  After all, I had driven with the same car through driving rain and blizzard in Northern Michigan with a blinding ( Read more... )

I hate packing ( Read more... )

At a press conference in New York today, Richard Branson, founder of the space-tourism outfit Virgin Galactic, unveiled models of engineer Burt Rutan's SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo, the passenger- and launch-vehicles that will ferry Branson's first customers into space...

WhiteKnightTwo is something like a huge trouser hanger in the sky -- a ( Read more... )

I'm reading Cryptonomicon finally, and I came across a particularly excellent observation:

... the Finns are a million times more complex than Bobby Shaftoe can ever understand.  Even if the war had never happened, there would be an infinity of reasons for them to be depressed...

The entire country of Finland (to hear Otto tell it) has been plunged ( Read more... )

I played Changeling:  The Lost.  Apparently, my character was based on Gambit, which was super-funny in retrospect.  Though I'm not goning to buy it, it's a good game - if you're into it, I would recommend it.  Also, I tip my hat to the STs, who pre-genned 100 characters ( Read more... )