 |
 |
 |
 |
The weather does not get much better than this. And, no mosquitoes…. Visiting or thinking about a local trip, travel Wisconsin is a useful site. These photos (click to view a larger version) are a quick reminder on this 4th of July weekend that we all have much to be thankful for.
Madison needs Southwest. Here’s why:
Many of their fares are lower when
booked as a round trip, or a multi-leg, in advance. However, unlike almost all other airlines, all of their fares are either fully refundable, or you get a full credit. There is no penalty for canceling a “super dooper” low discount fare. As a result, most travelers on SW book round trips, and then do not use the return leg, or even a leg in the middle of the itinerary. However, irrespective of whether you turn up for any part of the trip, the first leg, or the last, your itinerary remains in place. When you’re done with your trip, your unused portions are either refunded automatically, or sit as a credit to be used whenever you want.
Jeremy Zawodny wonders if the Big One is on the way…. I lived in San Francisco during the “pretty big one”: Loma Prieta and posted a few recollections here, along with notes from AnchorBanker Brian Zimdars.
UPDATE: Chan Stroman emails:
I’m late to the party, but enjoyed reading your recollection of the ’89 Loma Prieta. I was in the Russ Building on the bedrock side of Montgomery street when it hit–the building tipped back and forth solidly for what seemed like forever while we all ran to the stairwell. Later, we walked to a colleague’s apartment on Telegraph Hill, and yes, the sunset that night was eerily beautiful. My husband was in the Macy’s warehouse in South S.F. (“South City”) and narrowly missed having some high shelves with heavy stuff crash down on his head. Back in our flat in the Sunset, other than a couple of framed pictures askew on the walls, nothing was damaged. Thanks to this experience, I’m permanently sensitized to quakes…and bolted straight up in bed here in Madison just about a year ago (epicenter Ottawa, Illinois) just about a year ago.
Visit Chan at www.bookishgardener.com (lots of interesting items, particularily the gardening posts).
Susan Carey writes about Northwests’ “catering to travelers between small and midsize cities in the Upper Midwest. This “heartland” gambit aims to keep fares higher and discourage discounters from flying there. …. Going one big step further, Northwest also has been expanding aggressively with nonstop flights between nonhub cities, so that more passengers don’t have to make connections through one of its hubs when flying to some domestic cities.”
This strategy has manifested itself with 50 seat jet non-stop flights between Madison and Washington’s Reagan National Airport (though at inconvenient middle of the day times) and a variety of non-stops from cities like Milwaukee and Indianapolis to New York, Washington and other east coast destinations. This is also an attempt – futile, I think to kill Midwest Airlines.
Northwest is largely betting that flyers will put up with the small, uncomfortable jets in an effort to grow frequent flyer miles (the hidden secret here is that frequent flyer miles are growing more difficult to use by the day, unless you use a lot of them…..)
On a related note, the Boyd Group has written about the declining utility and economics of 50 seat jets for some time. They recently mentioned growing demand for 100 seat planes. I think, unfortunately, it will be difficult for Madison to grow service with 100 seat aircraft – I hope I’m wrong on this. Microjets will likely be one popular alternative in places like Madison.
I’ve already written about what a bad idea trusted traveler programs are. The basic security intuition is that when you create two paths through security — an easy path and a hard path — you invite the bad guys to take the easy path. So the security of the sort process must make up for the security lost in the sorting. Trusted traveler fails this test; there are so many ways for the terrorists to get trusted traveler cards that the system makes it too easy for them to avoid the hard path through security.
Peter Winkler has posted some great VR scenes from Vienna.
USGS 2005-1164: A look at US volcano early warning systems:
The United States has abundant volcanoes, and over the past 25 years the Nation has experienced a diverse range of the destructive phenomena that volcanoes can produce. Hazardous volcanic activity will continue to occur, and – because of increasing population, increasing development, and expanding national and international air traffic over volcanic regions – the exposure of human life and enterprise to volcano hazards is increasing. Fortunately, volcanoes exhibit precursory unrest that if detected and analyzed in time allows eruptions to be anticipated and communities at risk to be forewarned with reliable information in sufficient time to implement response plans and mitigation measures.
Keay Davidson takes a look at California’s three most dangerous volcanoes.
Danial Duane on seven climbers trapped in a storm on Yosemite’s El Capitan last fall for six nights.
Flying around these days can be a real hassle. Periodically, though, one has the opportunity to choose the road not taken. In this case, rather than using a rental car, I chose a 4:15a.m. shuttle from Santa Fe to the Albuquerque Sunport.
These conversations make up for all the hassles.
The tale begins in 1881, when a Barcelona native stopped in Santa Fe on his way to settle in Colorado’s San Juan Valley. Locals told him about something called a homestead opportunity. Finding the scenery and people of Santa Fe agreeable, he never completed the journey north to Colorado.
“Very smart, but not educated“, the immigrant settled and built a business in his garden. Growing and selling jalapenos, carrots (“this big!”), corn, peppers and more, he married and raised five sons. The boys carried water to the garden from a nearby river seven (7!) times per day. Buyers quickly snapped up his two annual vegetable crops.
One of his sons (the shuttle driver) served our country in the marines from 1949 to 1969, starting at Camp Pendleton, moving to El Toro, Korea, Vietnam and Okinawa, becoming a DI (Sargeant). He served in Korea in 1950 and Vietnam from 1960 to 1965. It was “hell”. “I have nine lives”. A traveller asked what was the favorite part of his military service, “there must be one”: “Furlough – getting out of hell, I could see my family”.
Today, this 75 year old veteran spends his time driving a few shuttles each day from Santa Fe to Albquerque’s Sunport, fly fishing (catch & release) near Taos, making an annual visit to relatives in Spain and checking up on his daughter and grandchildren.
As I left the early morning shuttle, he proudly mentioned that he starts the day with 100 pushups and shows off to younger guys by doing 25 one arm pullups.
United Airlines “was trying to put the squeeze on Air Wisconsin” when it put that business up for bid, said Michael Boyd, president of Boyd Group Inc., an aviation industry consulting firm in Evergreen, Colo.
He said United’s executives probably figured they could force Air Wisconsin to cut the prices it charges United Airlines to keep that business.
“Air Wisconsin ruined that little game” when it reached the agreement to provide financing to US Airways in return for getting a piece of its regional carrier business, Boyd said.
I think United might, perhaps be squeezing too hard (perhaps they have no choice). Having recently flown through Chicago, it seems that American’s regional jet operation is less chaotic…..