Tired_Old_Man

If you think leg room is a problem, I heard recently that they are thinking of building a plane with a "standing room only" section. Basically people would be multi-belted vertically against up-rights. It would increase the profit margin by lower "seat(?) costs", while allowing for larger loads. BTW, The latest study has found that airplane air is not as dirty as the previous study, but quite often, the results of these studies has much to do with who paid for the study.:couch2: While working as a maintenance instructor for a major airline, I saw a film on the 747 in which Boeing pulled up on the wing tips of the prototype until they almost touched each other. A modern plane can probably take more abuse than the passangers can safely deal with. That airport in Balize does not sound like it meets FAA specs. I would assume that flying planes not certified by the FAA into airports not certified by the FAA is not nearly as safe as flying either in the USA or on US carriers which are certified by the FAA.

Many of you may be alarmed to hear and read about all the incidences of security problems on board commercial airliners or during the boarding process. As a person with some inside knowledge of the industry, I want to explain that the news is blown way out of proportion. Yes, we are living in a dangerous time. But because the pilots are reacting to every incident with an “we need to make an emergency landing” call to the air-traffic controllers, does not mean that the skies are any meaner. Because the Captain is afraid to leave the cockpit to investigate an incident that a cabin attendant reports, which prior to the hijacking plot news released from London, would have just been a verbal discussion, does not mean that there are any more problems than earlier. Everyone is playing it safe and that is good. But when 4 planes return on one day, there are problems. One problem is that people will get disgusted which could lead to an ugly incident and another is that people will get jaded and not really pay attention to real reasons to be alarmed. The fear of flying is causing a lot of stress which manifests itself as aberrant behavior by the passengers. The fear of flying is causing a lot of stress which manifests itself as cabin attendants having no compassion for the flying public. Put those two together and there will be incident after incident. How many of these recent incidents led to actual arrests? And how many of those arrests led to prosecution? How many of these recent incidents were terrorist related? Even Friday's arrest of a fool who carried dynamite in checked luggage was not a terrorist issue. What scares me most is, "How did the dynamite get that far?" It was not found until after it had flown. There was dynamite, but it was not a bomb. While I worked for a major airline for 35 years, there were probably more than a hundred bomb scares called into my airline at the airport that I worked at. No, not 100 bomb threats at the airport where I worked, not 100 at the airline that I worked for, but over 100 at my airline's terminals or hangar at the airport where I worked. It also happened at most other airports and to most other airlines and these nation-wide bomb scares that took place didn't make the news after the first dozen or so. The airline that I worked for always evacuated the effected building and sent in a search party. Most times, I did not volunteer to be in the search party. There is something unnerving about pushing your hands into areas to search for a bomb, knowing that your hand dislodging the bomb might set it off. But while in management, I was automatically volunteered and I went on my share of searches. After 911, we searched every plane, every day, crawling into the bowels of the planes. Also there were many times that the police met flights in order to arrest a passenger that had been unruly during the flight. Most times pre-911, the Captain would have settled the passenger down in-flight while the other pilot flew the plane. Captains tend to be much larger and more authoritative than cabin attendants, so therefor they get more respect and the issues didn't develop into a need to call ahead for police to meet the plane to make arrests. But because of the post-911 fear of a hijacker getting into the cockpit when the Captain comes out, the smaller, usually female, less authoritative, less macho (in the eyes of the unruly passenger) cabin attendant is not able to quell the problem and if there is an air-marshal aboard and he breaks cover, there will be arrests and therefor media coverage. Pre-911, I had to park aircraft on the tarmac to get an unruly passenger off the flight without having the aircraft go back to the gate. I have had to escort police to the meeting place so that they could arrest unruly passengers. I am not talking once or twice, but too many times to remember. None of these stories made the news. Today these incidents would be on the front page of your newspaper and the lead story on the nightly news. Is it safe to fly? Safer than driving your car to the airport. Even during the 7 day period ending on 911, less people died in commercial airliner crashes than died in traffic accidents. Think about that fact.

Some people may read this and think it is "Croc Hunter" bashing, but it is just an observation. I watched a segment of a news magazine yesterday in which he is shown being repeatedly bit by animals of all varieties.

He had enough happiness and enjoyment (by doing what he loved) in his short life to fill the lives of many of us who's combined age would be 3 times his age. Better to die in your 40's loving every bit of your life than to live to 100 as couch potato.

If you read the investigation report of any aircraft accident, you will notice that one thing never dooms a plane to crash. In fact two things don't. It normally takes 4 or 5 or more things. If one person doesn't do his job properly, there are usually three or more people who have the chance to pick up the error. A fully loaded 747 from my airline blew two engines on take-off. The plane was a few hundred feet off the ground and over Water, so the pilot nosed the plane down, applied more power to the other two engines until the plane was stabilized and then climbed as slowly as possible until he was high enough to dump about 30,000 gallons of fuel, and then he landed the plane safely. You probably didn't hear about that one. But why should you? Except for a few "white knuckles", no one was hurt.

When I went to college in the early 1960's, my school offered a course in "Comparative Religions". I would imagine that sitting in a "Comparative Religions" class today would be Holy Hell considering how polarized our society is. I took Economics 101 as a freshman. The professor had 2 books on the required reading list. One was a typical Keynesian textbook and the other by maverick economist Milton Freeman. The ideas on economic theories espoused in the books were as different as black and white. Also, in English 101, our professor had us write a 1000 word argumentative paper on any topic and point of view we wanted. After I did my (pre-google) research and I turned in my outline, it came back marked passing, with a note; "Now write your paper from the opposite point of view". Those two courses thought me that there are always two (maybe many more) sides to every story. I learned to think of the counter-punch before throwing by (verbal) punch. The problem is that when you have 10 people in a room and each of them is of a different religion, but each "KNOWS" that his religion is the one and only correct religion, there is no more discourse. As I tried to show a few posts back, one can believe that the Bible was written by people divinely inspired by God, but that does not prove that everything (or anything) your Minister, Priest, Rabbi, Imam or Ayatollah tells you is true. TOM PS: “You” and “your” in the above are used in the rhetorical sense and are not aimed at any member.

You could have at least corrected my typo. You evil moderator, you!! Would that have been too much troulbe?:embarassed: You are right of course. Many PC fluent people can alter any PC document. And with the right programs (or wrong programs) time stamping and even hex editing can be done that will confound all but the most sophisticated PC detective.

You're welcome. Someone will probably use that quote to prove that I am an evil troulbe maker.:eek:

Since the phases of the Moon effect the tides and since your body is 90% water, I guess a full Moon effects the tides in your body and brain.

Also when a heavy debate starts, members quote other members using the forums tools. ********************************************* So if you have me; "TOM" on your ignore list and I write "shutup you #?!@#" to MS_XYZ. MS_XYZ will write How dare you? ********************************************* You will then see what TOM wrote even though TOM is on the ignore list.

I would start by reading your Bible, both Old and New Testaments. You may find that women are not treated that well in the Bible either. The Qur'an gives women many rights, but just like the Bible, women must be submissive to males in their family. The Burkas are an exaggeration of tradition. Christians have exaggeration of tradition also. What we now look at as Santa Claus is from a 1931 Coca Cola commercial. Christians Celebrate Christmas on December 25, but there is much evidence that Jesus was born on April 17 in the year 6 bc. The date of December 25th was decided by the originally Pagan emperor of Rome Constantine, who after decreeing that all Romans would convert to Christianity (Roman Catholic) needed to stop the worship of a pagan god on December 25th, so he figured, let them celebrate, but just change the reason for the celebration. I know that Santa Claus and the date of Christmas are not as important as the slave-like conditions of women in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries, but I was just showing how misreading and tradition can distort the content of Holy Books. I doubt if you can find in the Bible any justification for "The inquisition" or "The Salem Witch Hunt". Just a week or two ago a 81 year old women who had taught Bible study for generations was fired by a young priest because he didn't want her teaching males.

The covenant that God made with Abraham to give control of Canaan to Abraham's offspring was to both the Jews and Muslims, because Abraham had two sons, one which became the leader of the Jews and one the leader of Islam. So each of these two religious groups is equally entitled. Many times you will hear that someone is anti semitic when they say something negative about a Jew or anything Jewish, but I think you will find most of the people who are now know as Jews are only part Jewish but mostly European. That includes most of the present inhabitants of Israel. The original Jews, Abraham and his sons Isaac and Ismael were Semites, but while the descendants of Isaac have been deluded by white European blood, by and large the Muslims are much more purer in bloodline and therefor the true Semites. So actually, being anti-Islam might just as easily (if not more so) be anti-semitic. However, what I have written above is pure interpretation. Most people agree that the Bible and the Qur'an both state that God made a covenant with Abraham. Since both books are talking about the same God and same Abraham, then Allah and the God of the Christians and Jews are the same being. The problem, of course comes about with Jesus. Is Jesus God? Is Jesus the son of God? Is God Jesus? The Jews are willing to follow the teachings of Moses that were sent down by God/Allah and God/Allah says that all those that follow the teachings that God/Allah sent through Moses will gain eternal life. The Muslims are willing to follow the teachings of Mohammad that were sent down by God/Allah and God/Allah says that all those that follow the teachings that God/Allah sent through Mohammad will gain eternal life. But while some Christians "KNOW" that they must follow the teachings of Jesus that were sent down by God/Allah and God/Allah says that all those that follow the teachings that God/Allah sent through Jesus will gain eternal life, other Christians "KNOW" that they must follow the teachings of Jesus that were sent down by God/Allah, they must also believe that Jesus is God/Allah and that they must have a personal relationship with Jesus and they also "KNOW" that only they will gain eternal life. In the Qur'an, it states that Jews, Muslims and Christians have equal rights to eternal life. However, God/Allah says the Jesus is neither a deity nor his son. God/Allah says that Jesus, Moses, Noah, Mohammad were each prophets sent to a different people at a different time to teach the word of God/Allah and each people, if they follow the teachings of their prophet will gain eternal life. So the Jews accept Moses as a prophet, the Muslims accept Mohammad as a prophet, but most Christians “KNOW” that must believe that Jesus was more than a prophet, but also God and the son of God. Some people ask me if I believe the bible was divinely inspired. Let's stipulate that the bible was divinely inspired. But is it not fair to ask if it was divinely translated? But is it not fair to ask if it was divinely transcribed? But is it not fair to ask if it was divinely interpreted? But is it not fair to ask if the choice of which books to include was divinely inspired? How come the Jewish version of what the Christians call the "Old Testament", has sections that are not in the "Old Testament"? How come the Christian's "Old Testament" has sections that are not in the Jewish version of the "Old Testament"? How come Constantine, originally a Pagan emperor of Rome hand-picked a commission to decide what sections went into the bible and what didn't go into the bible? How come at least two English queens and two English kings made revisions in what has become the Christian Bible? Did you know that the Roman Catholics, the Protestants and the Jews each have different versions of the 10 Commandments? I am tired of writing. I hope I got this right. I didn't feel like doing a bunch of googles, so it is out of my head and I think I am going out of my mind.

Exercise does not remove fat from a specific area of the body. Exercise can only tone muscles in a specific area of the body. You will remove just as much fat from your thighs by doing biseps curls as you will by using a thigh master. Lose your weight (and therefor your fat) slowly or the skin will be too large and hang. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk then ride a bike. If you can't do that, do arm exercises. Arm exercises will still help you take of your thigh fat.

Murry the "K" used to say, "You can pick your friends, not your relatives". You may have to give them a choice: "Either you stop abusing me or you are not welcome in my home" (and you stay away from theirs).

Don't worry about wedding day problems. My wedding was a disaster. The prospective best man got way-layed and never made it. After the ceremony, I heard my car's burglar alarm go off, jumped the fence to "protect my car" and snagged my pants so badly that they were ripped half way up my butt. We got someone else (my eventual brother-in-law) who would not have been MY candidate to be the best man to fill in and I just changed my clothes for the reception. BTW, 2 months ago, we celebrated out 39th wedding anniversary. That is the only part that matters.

I want to apologize to anyone who might think I meant anything other than what I actually meant. By "What a Croc: Croc Hunter killed!", I meant that it was a Croc of terrible news or more appropriately "$hittie New$". I didn't like the man's style, but I do not believe in the death penalty for murder, let alone for (what I consider) poor taste. Sorry if anyone misunderstood. I can see how it was mis-interpretted. I was so distressed by the news that I woke my wife up to tell her about it, something which after 39 years of marriage, I realize is almost as perilous as messing with prehistoric reptiles. Luckily for me she was as concerned as I was. Just least week, I woke her to tell her about the approach of hurricane Ernesto and I had to make my own Breakfast as punishment. TOM PS: The reason I find out about these stories so early is that we usually sleep with the TV on and CNN is one of the stations I am tuned to most often.

How do you know if some hacker can get the voting records from this or any other poll at this forum? I have been at other forums and people with advanced computer knowledge were able to find out who voted for each choice and then they published the results to embarrass the members.

My team's quarterback just had his appendix removed. First he bangs his face into a car, then he has part of his gut removed. Can my Steelers over come adversity with a faceless, gutless quarterback?:faint: Call the season off. I am NY Jets fan and Pittsburgh Steeler's Fan. The gods are not looking kindly on my football needs.

By the way, that Pilot's name was Jack. One day he was walking up the jetway to the plane as I was leaving the cockpit. The 747 pilot was with his co-pilot and flight engineer. They all said, "Hello TOM". I knew all three of them well and said, "Hi Bill. Hi Dany. Hello Jack."

Many years ago, I was leaving the hangar to go home on my motorcycle and I walked past a pilot who was waiting for the bus that went from the hangar to the terminal in order to catch his flight. He saw me and said, "TOM, I didn't know you rode a motorcycle. Isn't that dangerous?" I answered with a question, "Captain, has any of your neighbors (upon finding out that you were a pilot) said, "I didn't know you flew airplanes. Isn't that dangerous"?"

Cleveland Clinic in Weston Florida

I wish my combination of head hunger and biological hunger were as controllable as your fill regiment seems to have made it for you. I envy you. Keep up the good work.

I have flown more than 400 times. More people die in their bathrooms taking showers and baths than die in commercial airliner crashes. More people died in the 7 day period ending in (and including) 911 in auto crashes than in plane crashes.

Those disclaimers may be there for insurance purposes. But people tend to ignore them. In Florida, many 'gator attacks are attributed to people feeding the prehistoric reptiles causing a loss of fear by 'gators towards the larger humans. I will not blame Mr. Irwin for the bad things that (some of) his viewers might do, but I do think his style was bad for many of us. I also respect your opinion, though we differ. I stand corrected. I thought it was his daughter. If I was to edit my opening post, I would edit it to say, "And I was disgusted when he had his infant (or young child) around the reptiles in what I considered to be less than normal fatherly situation." I, however will not edit the post. An edit would make this and your post seem non-sensible.

Fills don't help with head hunger. Keeping busy, talking to people in person preferably or via phone if that's the only way, going to a church, jogging, working out at the gym, taking a drive, going for a swim, almost anything to occupy your mind is better than being home doing nothing or watching TV. Head hunger needs head treatment. Support groups or one on one counseling are most helpful. Then there is the last resort of mind-games. Say I will not eat until the clock strikes the next hour. If you make that, go for the next hour. If you can't make it to the next hour, shoot for the next half-hour mark. Keep trying to extend yourself. It is hard. I went through it. Most of us went through it.