Flashing a laser pointer at an aircraft is dangerous and punishable by jail time

This is my public service announcement to the idiots who have decided to shine green laser pointers into the cockpits of airplanes either taking off, landing or ascending to cruising altitude. Stop doing it! You could kill hundreds of people and I or some of my friends might be one of them. For those of you who don' know, when a laser of any colour is shone into your eyes, it can take the optic nerve a minute or two to recover normal vision and depth perception to say nothing of being able to see the colours of warning lights on the instrument panel. According to Government of Canada data, these incidents have occurred 46 times in 2008 alone. The good news is, none of these victim aircraft suffered any technical problems that would put anyone at risk. To illustrate, anyone using an optical mouse has probably had the red laser light shone into their eyes after putting in new batteries. You will see spots for a very long time. Repeat exposure may permanently damage the eyes which is not good for anyone in general and especially if you are pilot. So, to the morons who think this is fun, I will remind you that if you ever have to fly, you better hope that none of your friends flash the aircraft you are on.

software engineers do not want to see this.

Airbus Gives Alert as Autopilot Caused Plane's Plunge (Update5)

By Ed Johnson

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS issued an alert to airlines worldwide after Australian investigators said a computer fault on a Qantas Airways Ltd. flight switched off the autopilot and generated false data, causing the jet to nosedive.

The Airbus A330-300 was cruising at 37,000 feet (11,277 meters) when the computer fed incorrect information to the flight control system, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said yesterday. The aircraft dropped 650 feet within seconds, slamming passengers and crew into the cabin ceiling, before the pilots regained control.

My friend has 2 good posts about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

• Sarah Connor Chronicels picked up for a full 2nd season!!

  posted by Lurker at RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A LURKER -
  

  Armageddon just got bitch-slapped. Sources confirm that Fox has ordered a full season of *Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles*. I'm told the back-nine order came down late Friday. *Sarah Connor*'s r...
• TTSCC Episode 206 preview clips

  posted by Lurker at RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A LURKER -
  

  The first clip is quite intriguing can't wait to find out the mystery behind the T-1001's child. This show just continues to get better and better. Episode 2x06 entitled "The Tower is Tall but the Fa...

An email i sent to the Liberal party before last Tuesday

Lebanon rescue snafu

Hello
I noticed one Conservative scandal that was missing from this list at
Scandalpedia. The disastrous humanitarian rescue operations that were
put together on the fly by the then brand new Conservative government
in response to the Israeli-Lebanese war in 2006. If this is too long
ago as far as scandals go, then my apologies. However, the lack of
planning and poor execution of the rescues certainly does not look
good for the Canadian government especially a Conservative party that
plays up it's love of national defence and sovereignty. We had to do
the embarrassing thing of hiring a shipping line to send three ships
to rescue vacationing or working Canadian citizens. The last time I
checked, we had a few Canadian frigates on NATO duty and I am sure if
we asked NATO politely to temporarily absolve ourselves from patrol
duty to rescue our own citizens in harms way, they would not have
minded. But that didn't happen. Instead, we hire civilian ships that
will not enter a port that is under military fire due to Maritime Law
preventing sea captains from doing so. One of the proposed solutions
was to have military ships act as armed escorts to accompany the
civilian ships into and out of the port. This was not done and our
citizens were left to their own devices to get out of a war zone.
Equally embarrassing was the fact that if a person had dual
citizenship, the secondary country is usually more than happy to
rescue the civilian on Canada's behalf. This will probably require
more research for references, but it was a scandal and Mr. Harper did
not even recall parliament from summer vacation to make it look good

Fun email thanks to Windows Live.

Me

Hello I have noticed in your recent members communications emails that you are slowly rolling out a new user interface and some upgraded features in the next build of Hotmail. I am curious to know why there does not appear to be an entry in the Microsoft Connect Community web page for debugging and feedback? The last time you made any major changes to Hotmail, you allowed people who were interested in debugging the current version of Hotmail to do so through the connect web page. In this case, you appear to be going from alpha-testing production without beta- testing in between. I am one of the people still listed on Microsoft connect as a tester for Windows Live Technology and was wondering if you gave any testers the heads-up so it could be tested in real world conditions. Are you so confident about the new design that you decided to just release it into the wild and hope it works? If that is the case I hope it works and doesn't crash the system. If it does, you are going to have a very large crowd of angry users. Hope it goes well.


----------------------------------

Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support




Thank you for writing to Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support Team. and I understand that you want to know why it does not appear to be an entry in the Microsoft Connect Community web page for debugging feedback when realizing a new user interface and some upgrade features. I know how important it is for you to know that Windows Live Hotmail is realizing a new user interface.
Windows Live Hotmail has just released a new version to provide better user experience. We understand this change may have come as a surprise to you, but we strongly feel you will soon have a much better experience with the new Windows Live Hotmail. As always, your satisfaction is our main goal. Of course, all your information (contacts, calendar, and e-mail address) is still the same and there are some great new features that customers have requested. You can now sign in to Web Messenger within your Windows Live Hotmail account and on top of that you would be able to access your account 70% faster. To learn more about the new features and benefits of Windows Live Hotmail, please visit: http://www.windowslive-hotmail.com/comingsoon/en-us/default.htm Matthew, we recognize that a change like this can feel unexpected and surprising, and we are eager to hear your feedback (both positive and negative) about the auto-upgrade process. To send your feedback: 1. Please go to http://feedback.live.com/eform.aspx?productkey=wlmail&page=wlfeedback_home_form 2. Select the first option in the drop-down list, "I want to provide feedback on the automatic update to Windows Live Hotmail."
or click on the help icon "?" and choose "Feedback" on the upper right side of the page.
You are valuable at Windows Live and we look forward to provide you with consistent and effective service. We appreciate your input and involvement in our Windows Live products.
Sincerely,



Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support





Good Technical Support Not

Good for Angus Reid

Below is a comparison of the results from our final Angus Reid survey that was conducted during the three days preceding the federal ballot to the results from the election. A representative sample of 1,039 of our members who were absolutely certain to cast a ballot completed this survey. Our results were the most accurate to the final outcome – a testament to the strength of your voice on the Angus Reid Forum!

% of Vote	Angus Reid Forum Results	Overall Election Results
Conservatives	37%	37.63%
Liberals	27%	26.24%
NDP	20%	18.20%
Bloc Québécois	9%	9.97%
Green Party	7%	6.80%
Independent	n/a	0.65%
Other	n/a	0.51%

Canada Elections Act part 329. needs to be repealed.

Canada Elections Act

Premature Transmission

Prohibition – premature transmission of results

329. No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another electoral district before the close of all of the polling stations in that other electoral district.

Broadcasting outside Canada

Prohibition – use of broadcasting station outside Canada

---------------------------------------------------------

This law is not valid because of the uses of the web today.