Ash Wednesday And Lenten Fasting →

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"The root of all sin" is thinking that one is god, something often expressed in a total preoccupation for accumulating money and power, the pope wrote. And just as individuals can be tempted to think they have no need of God, social and political systems can run the same risk, ignoring both God and the real needs of human beings.

"Love alone is the answer to that yearning for infinite happiness," Pope Francis wrote. It is the only response to the longings "that we think we can satisfy with the idols of knowledge, power and riches."

As he advised a year ago, Pope Francis reiterated that Lent is not just about giving up the soda, video games or anything else personal per se. The bigger picture is partaking in giving and doing good for others.

But Pope Francis has asked us to reconsider the heart of this activity this Lenten season. According to Francis, fasting must never become superficial. He often quotes the early Christian mystic John Chrysostom who said: “No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”

Long Beach Airport Must Allow More Flights →

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Now, a recent recalculation of that formula using the noise production data of today’s quieter jetliners concluded that Long Beach must allow at least 50 flights a day (if demand exists for that many). Under the terms of the Long Beach noise ordinance, airport officials now have less than 30 days to offer nine additional sets of landing and takeoff rights to the airline community. If no such offer is made, the city’s airport noise ordinance will be voided and, at least in theory, the city would have to allow airlines to offer as many flights there as the facility can handle physically.

I hope that JetBlue capitalizes on these slots! Even more so, I hope that JetBlue and the city of Long Beach can agree to have a customs terminal built and begin some awesome Mexico or even Canadian flying!

update: picture of the Airbus A320 that I flew out of Long Beach on the 16th of December 2015 as a Long Beach based First Officer. 

UK's New Proposed Internet Bill is Wrought with Crazy

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From Independent:

iPhones the include a messaging programme called iMessage which would likely fall under the provisions in the bill banning “strong” end-to-end encryption of messages.

The proposed law, to be published in its full draft from on Wednesday by the Home Secretary Theresa May, will mandate internet and technology companies to hand over communications data on request.

Published in BBC:

In urgent situations, such as when someone's life is in danger or there is a unique opportunity to gather critical intelligence, the home secretary would have the power to approve an interception warrant without immediate judicial approval.

The judges would also be able to refer serious errors to an outside tribunal which could then decide to tell the individual their data has been illegally collected.

The bill also proposes:

Making the Wilson doctrine - preventing surveillance of Parliamentarians' communications - law

Placing a legal duty on British companies to help law enforcement agencies hack devices to acquire information if it is reasonably practical to do so

Edward Snowden has chimmed in and we already know what Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has said. All in all, I hope this doesn't happen. You'd hope that the government, especially the U.K., who was voted in by the people, would know better. Here's a guide to the U.S.'s CISPA and all the other bills that the US have passed or have tried to pass in the name "security."

San Diego Set for First Ever World Beach Games in 2017 →

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“I think they have all the ingredients for the games,” said Timothy Fok, an ANOC executive and International Olympic Committee member. “Not only the sun and sand, they live the games.”

The event, scheduled for 2017, is expected to feature about 20 sports, including triathlon, skateboarding, surfing, jet skiing, as well beach versions of soccer, track and football.

No better place to host than "America's Finest City!"

Republic Airways Leading the Way in Pilot Pay and Quality of Life Improvements →

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The new agreement includes significant improvements in work rules and pilot quality of life. Additionally, it establishes pay rates that recognize Republic’s pilots as leaders in the regional airline industry, including a transformational $40/hr first year new hire rate.

Republic Airways voting for a large improvement during these times will definitely enable them to bid on more flying and attract more pilots. It'd be nice to see the rest of the contract and compare it to my previous employer and SkyWest. For those who many not know, first year pay when I started in 2006 was at $16.00 an hour and I didn't get to $40 an hour until my fifth year.

In fact, this first year pay bump is just under what first year pay currently is at JetBlue, Spirit, Virgin America and Allegiant.

Rear-Facing Until 2 Years Old in California Starting 2017 →

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All in the name of safety. Still don't know why it doesn't go into effect for another 15 months when January 2016 could have easily been the target date.

The bill, signed Monday, was backed by doctors and traffic safety experts. It will extend the mandated use of rear-facing seats from the current 1-year requirement when it takes effect at the start of 2017. Children taller than 40 inches or weighing more than 40 pounds will be exempt.

My wife and I, including our little Norah, favor the Diono variety. As expensive as they are, capitlize on the Amazon sale or the Toy 'R Us trade in program which is happening now!

 
 

In Zimbabwe, We Don't Cry for Lions →

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In my village in Zimbabwe, surrounded by wildlife conservation areas, no lion has ever been beloved, or granted an affectionate nickname. They are objects of terror.

When I was 9 years old, a solitary lion prowled villages near my home. After it killed a few chickens, some goats and finally a cow, we were warned to walk to school in groups and stop playing outside. My sisters no longer went alone to the river to collect water or wash dishes; my mother waited for my father and older brothers, armed with machetes, axes and spears, to escort her into the bush to collect firewood.

There are always two sides. Our American Mindset just isn't always the right one. I'm not siding by no means on hunting for or against, but like I already said, two sides. Our overly privileged position allows us this thought.

Hiroshima: 70 years of Reconstruction in Photographs →

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The Washington Post:

At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, the first bomb exploded over Hiroshima killing, by some estimates, 140,000 people, and destroying 90 percent of the city. But near its hypocenter only one building was left standing.

Seventy years later, the Genbaku Dome — now known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial — is part of a very different city that’s home to 1.2 million residents and filled with skyscrapers, apartment buildings and streetcars.

Armed with archival photographs, Reuters photographer Issei Kato revisited some of the same locations destroyed 70 years ago in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The juxtapostion is truly heartening.

For further insight, the Washington Post has also provided various maps that will show you how it would look like it "Little Boy" hit your city inlcuding full detailed explanations of damaged areas. To sample what a possible nuclear bomb would be like in your city, check out Nuke Map.

"Fat Man" over San Diego / Nagasaki 20kt 

I'm for Ubiquitous Encryption. Are You? →

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We believe that the greater public good is a secure communications infrastructure protected by ubiquitous encryption at the device, server and enterprise level without building in means for government monitoring.

I'm a strong supporter in encryption especially in light of the OPM hacks and United Airlines hacks.

Finally, and most significantly, if the United States can demand that companies make available a duplicate key, other nations such as China will insist on the same. There will be no principled basis to resist that legal demand. The result will be to expose business, political and personal communications to a wide spectrum of governmental access regimes with varying degrees of due process.

The perfect point.

No Positive in Building a Stadium →

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Note that those studies looked at stadiums for all major sports. NFL venues, which cost more and are used less, tend to fare worse economically.

Yet a new Chargers stadium really looks bad compared to other public uses for the Qualcomm site. Leading the pack, by far, is higher education.

Expanding on a classic 1956 paper by Nobel Laureate Robert Solow, economists since the 1990s have argued that boosting “human capital” is key to further economic growth once basic resources, like money and raw materials, are in place. Put simply, building knowledge builds a better economy.

I guess I'm probably not going to be popular either but paying over $1 billion in public funds just doesn't give me the feel goods. We owe it to our kids to build a better and brighter future with great economic benefits. Rooting for a sports team that won't proportionally give back it its fans, count me out for ANY tax increase.

2016: The Year of Higher Insurance Premiums →

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Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent or more, saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be sicker than expected. Federal officials say they are determined to see that the requests are scaled back.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans — market leaders in many states — are seeking rate increases that average 23 percent in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36 percent in Tennessee and 54 percent in Minnesota, according to documents posted online by the federal government and state insurance commissioners and interviews with insurance executives.

This is just the first two paragraphs. To captialism and the biggest scam of the 20th/21st century... insurance... Happy Fourth of July.

Google Hangouts Prone to Wiretapping

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Apple has long maintained that conversations over iMessage and FaceTime use end-to-end encryption, meaning “no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them,” as the company said after the PRISM revelations. That claim has turned out to be partly true: normally, Apple can’t read your iMessages, but they can if they really want to.

Google, on the other hand, has been mostly silent—there have been no boastful public statements—about the security of its popular Hangouts service, which can be used for both text-based as well as audio-video conversations. In its support documentation, Google simply says that “when you message or talk with someone on Hangouts, your information will be encrypted so that it’s secure,” but there’s no mention of end-to-end encryption.

via Motherboard

So...just to summarize, Google confirms that cops can and are wiretapping your hangouts. *delete* But I guess Facebook isn't necessarily safe either.

If you want to expand you knowledge on all the various illicit activities that the US Government has been doing, check out the blocked Snowden interview that the US Media failed to air and it still trying to block. Click here for the Axis of Logic.

“Every time you pick up a phone, dial a number, write an email, make a purchase, travel on the bus carrying a cell phone, swipe a card somewhere, you leave a trace, and the government has decided that it’s a good idea to collect it all, everything, even if you’ve never been suspected of a crime.”

via San Diego City Times