Leonard Nimoy...RIP

I was saddened to hear yesterday of the passing of Leonard Nimoy, not only well-known as an actor, but also as a director, poet, and photographer.
From YouTube are a couple of commercials he had done, first was the one he did with William Shatner for Western Airlines in the mid 1980's:


The next one was done just the past year for Audi, and showed him with Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock in the Star Trek reboot:



Some of the photo shoots he has done was surprising.  This image is part of a collection for The Full Body Project

All in all, a very unique and talented man.

He will truly be missed by all.

This is something I should try sometime

Sense of Events



Read what happens when someone tries to pay with a $2 bill.

The Lonely Libertarian: Tuesday? Must be laundry day. Again.

The Lonely Libertarian: Tuesday? Must be laundry day. Again.: Last week, I did 12 loads of laundry. 3 on Sunday, 4 on Tuesday, and 5 on Saturday. I'm currently looking for a family-friendly...



Yes it makes perfect sense.

Avengers: Age of Ultron Official Extended TRAILER

This is gonna be bad-ass!

LV Review Journal - Speak to the press and you might be fired, Henderson tells city employees

Speak to the press and you might be fired, Henderson tells city employees



There is one quote in the article which sent chills down my spine, and would likely do the same for those conversant with history:



 “The city is a house of order, so we’re going to do things in an organized fashion,” Snow said.



I could possibly somewhat understand their concerns about making sure the ungarbled word gets out, but to regiment it in such a fashion just keeps reminding me so much of Goebbels in a way that is troublesome.

How secure can you really make an airport?

I read with interest this article at CNN.com regarding how airport employees with access to the ramp areas are considered by TSA to be a serious potential threat to airport security.  Now while Miami and Orlando do screen all employees who do have ramp access, none of the other airports do so. 

I often wonder how feasible it could be to ensure that level of access.  To provide an example from my personal experience, I had worked at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas for 8 years for three different companies from 1995 to 2003, encompassing both pre and post-9/11 issues of security.  For the most part, there were few areas I did not have access to, since a green badge (like I was) pretty much had the run of the entire Terminal 1 and 2 areas (this was well before Terminal 3 was even conceived; Terminal 2 was the old charter and international terminal) with the exception of certain sensitive areas related to airport operations.  After 9/11, they did start ratcheting things up a bit, but there were still plenty of spots I can get to and it was still possible to enter from the street, go into a secure door, and wind up out on the ramp.  The areas behind the ticket counters in particular were easy to slide into but that was of course if you were working for that particular airline, as employees were mostly pretty good at not allowing strangers to go traipsing through the back area where the luggage was loaded into the bag carts to be taken out to the plane.

In order to pull off such a method of screening employees, it would be necessary to block off most of the airside access and have them go through screening by TSA.  Can it be done? Yes it could, but whether it would be able to afford the cost of adding the screening equipment is another matter entirely. 

Now, obviously things would have changed quite a bit in the 13 plus years since I have worked there, but I am sure it is still almost as easy for a badged airport employee to be able to slip from the public areas to the secure side without having to be screened.  It would be interesting to see if after this report has been disseminated if things do get kicked up a notch or three.

Time will tell, I am sure.