Isn’t that a common question, whether you’re at home or away on vacation? What’s the plan? Where are we going? Well, I’ve discovered Google City Tours. I haven’t played with it too much, but the idea is you insert an address, enter the dates you’re going to be there, and presto the site draws up an itinerary. Once it’s given you the results, you can add/remove sites to fully customize your tour.
It’s not perfect. While it worked great for New York, it didn’t find anything for the town I live in, though going to the next biggest town helped find some items. At the very least, it might help answer that the constant question of what should we do today?
In today’s New York Times Magazine, there was an interesting article about Hyatt’s new 
It’s been busy around here so I haven’t been able to post. The TSA, however, has been busy with more puff posts on its blog. Once again, I totally support the mission of keeping commercial aviation in the United States safe. I do not support the methods used by the TSA or its disregard for the Constitution.
Essentially the TSA has put out two posts, the first is an attempt to cutely clear up some urban legends regarding what you can and cannot take into the sterile area. My problem here is not the content of the post, but the inconsistency used in enforcement at the checkpoint. It would be great if the effort used to write and approve said post was put into a memo directing local TSA personnel to enforce the rules in a way that does not confuse the most hardened traveller.
The second post regard what terrorists look like. This post attempts to make sense and its point that a terrorist can look and act western. The issue I have is the behavioral detection unit. Again, I feel the TSA should pour efforts into better X-Rays (not the strip search machines), better metal detectors, more dogs per airport, etc. If the TSA keeps potential weapons off of a plane, who flies doesn’t matter. Less attention on identification, behavior, etc. and more focus on prevention would be more akin to American values and likely much more effective.
Again, I hope the new administration puts its hooks in this agency and changes a lot about its culture.
2 Comments
Posted in airport, blog, business travel, commentary, travel | Tags: air travel, airport, airport security, business travel, travel, TSA, TSA blog, tsa rant