Stephan Segraves

Frequent Flyer

Stephan Segraves — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:06:24 +0000

I occasionally get asked why I fly so much or why I go to Europe for the weekend. Well, a few months back a documentary was made about my slight obsessive compulsive behavior when it comes to flying. It is a hobby, just like any other, except it goes around the world at 600 mile per hour. Flight has always been an interest of mine, but it was not until college and then traveling for work that I became interested in doing it for fun. There is just something about knowing that the furthest points of the Earth are only a flight away that fascinates me.

On the scale of how much I fly, I am a lightweight compared to some of the people in the movie (and know a few of them). Just like the video says, there is a whole community devoted to mileage running and travel. Watch and enjoy, maybe you’ll learn a little about my obsessive compulsive desire to travel.

Fixing a Broken Legal System

Stephan Segraves — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:45:02 +0000

Philip K. Howard, author of Death of Common Sense gave a talk at TED about improving the legal system. His main points are simplifying the law and knowing law’s effects on society, not a singular issue. You can watch the talk below.

Washington D.C. – The New Elementary School Playground

Stephan Segraves — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:17:07 +0000

It has been known for some time that D.C. is full of back-room politics, the occasional backstabbing, and sometimes, verbal attacks on other politicians. What I did not realize is that lately D.C. has become a reincarnation of the elementary school playground. The intellectual level of the disagreements and attacks has dropped to an all time low.

Robert Gibbs takes a jab at Sarah Palin

The first example (and probably the most poignant) is Rahm Emanuel’s use of “F***ing retards” in his belittlement of liberals who wanted to air ads targeting fellow Democrats who are against healthcare reform. This sounds less like a President’s Chief of Staff and more like a kid throwing around petty insults. My advice to anyone is that if these type of insults are the only thing that you can think of when responding to someone, you are much better off keeping your mouth shut. Emanuel’s choice of words was offensive at the least and downright childish at worst. Maybe his critics are right, he’s Obama’s Dick Cheney.

Scott Gibbs, the President’s Press Secretary, is the other example. During a briefing yesterday, Gibbs decided to take a jab at Sarah Palin by writing “hope and change” on his hand and pointing it out to the press.

I wrote down ‘hope’ and ‘change’ just in case I forgot that.

While this is not offensive, it is childish and in my opinion, a poor showing for the White House. Mr. Gibbs’ job is not to belittle those who are on the other side of the aisle, his job is to inform the public via the media. Taking little potshots, while somewhat funny, should be left to SNL and MAD TV.

I am sure that I will receive e-mails and comments about Republicans/Conservatives pulling similar antics and shame on them too. They should be focused on their job and save the comedy for when there is nothing to do in D.C.

The Deficit is the Work of Bush?

Stephan Segraves — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:18:23 +0000

You read that title right, now the $1.3 trillion deficit is being blamed on Bush in a February 6 editorial in the New York Times. Where to begin with this notion is something I have been wrestling with all morning. The author is correct in his assertion that Bush did little to combat the deficit but misses the mark on a few, key, factual points.

What is even more breathtaking is the Republicans’ cynical refusal to acknowledge that the country would never have gotten into so deep a hole if President George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress had not spent years slashing taxes — mainly on the wealthy — and spending with far too little restraint.

Am I the only one that sees the gigantic factual error in that sentence? A Republican-led Congress? The 110th Congress was a Democratic majority with the only Republican leadership being Dick Cheney. The author is mincing words by trying to distract from the fact that it was a Democratic Congress that approved Bush’s plans. The Congress had the chance and the power to go against Bush’s wishes but instead they buried their heads and let things fall into place.

This leads to the other issue, the tax cuts on the wealthy. I am not even sure why this is an issue anymore, if we continue to think that taxing people who make a large amount of money a lot more than those who are in the middle class, we’ll do nothing but discourage the wealthy to keep their money here. I would argue it is more harmful to the funding of projects, to philanthropy, and to business in general to tax the wealthy a great sum more than everyone else.

You can read the article yourself and come to your own conclusions but it seems that the author is gripping at straws to try and push blame to the past for something that is a very real-time indicator of the present.

Apple Event Tomorrow, January 27

Stephan Segraves — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:46:43 +0000

Tomorrow, January 27, will see a big announcement come out of the Apple compound. A lot of people are predicting a tablet computer while others are saying the announcement will be a new handheld media device, the one thing everyone agrees on is that whatever it is could be a game changer.

This draws the skeptic out of me. I tend to think that it will be a tablet but is that enough of a “new” device to be a game changer? The Kindle was a game changer because it was so focused on books, magazines, and newspapers and has an ease of use that has not been matched. Carrying all of your books on a single device everywhere you go is huge.

If the news that comes out of the Apple event is related to a video and reading device, it may be bigger than the Kindle. My hope is that it is a device just as beautiful as the new Macbooks and easy to use like the Kindle. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

Want to read more speculation? Here are some links for you:

My Year in Cities, 2009

Stephan Segraves — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:00:23 +0000

Here is a list of cities that I visited last year. There were good chunks of the year where I was not traveling and then spurts of nothing but travel.

Marfa, TX
Alpine, TX
El Paso, TX
Portland, Oregon*
Dallas, TX
Austin, TX*
San Antonio, TX
Chicago, IL
Baltimore, MD
West Palm Beach, FL
Miami, FL
Las Vegas, NV
Quito, Ecuador
Frankfurt, Germany
Brussels, Belgium
Paris, France

One or more nights was spent in each city. Cities marked with a * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. Here are my lists from 2008 and 2007.

TSA Picking on Bloggers and News Reporters

Stephan Segraves — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:09:04 +0000

I apologize for my many posts on the TSA and the current security issues at airports but the situation has deteriorated so quickly that it is hard to keep up.

Over the past couple of days a couple of bloggers and news reporters have been served subpoenas because they published TSA Security Directive SD-1544-09-06. Both Steven Frischling and Chris Elliott were served subpoenas by the DHS to learn the identity of the source who had provided the TSA directive. Mr. Frischling believes that the TSA is taking security seriously and that is why they want the name of the source. I agree with him, but the methods that the DHS and TSA have used seem extreme. Most of the directive is just procedural stuff and would have come out as people flew, so why all the fuss?

The TSA wants to make sure they close as many holes in their organization as possible to insure functional security. If people are leaking things that will eventually become public what is to keep them from leaking confidential information? In that regard I understand the need to know the identity of the leak. However, coming down full force on these reporters is not the way I would go about it.

Hopefully the hassles from the TSA will stop and this administration will realize that making “Top Secret” documents public is not as much of a priority as having safety cover the different methods of travel. Mr. President, fire the TSA.

Full Body Scanners Go International

Stephan Segraves — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:18:38 +0000

The New York Daily News is reporting that Amsterdam-Schipol International Airport will start putting full body image scanners in place in the wake of the attempted terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. On top of that, the Dutch are pushing for the full body scanners to be deployed in airports across the 27 countries that make up the European Union.

While the average traveler sees these machines as a necessity to prevent terrorism, and yes, in this case they may have worked, I see them as a nuisance. Even more annoying than the machines are the people who want them in place but do not want profiling of any kind to be used at airports. So, it’s alright to look at someone nude on a computer screen but picking people out of a line because they fit a profile is horrible?

Where do we stop though? If a terrorist is able to carry out an attack after passing through the machines, what’s the next step? Does everyone have to have every article of luggage and every part of their body searched before the get on a plane? What about airport workers? At some point, the searches and nuisances will get so bad that people will just stop flying… Then what?

An Update to the TSA Directive

Stephan Segraves — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:30:07 +0000

It appears I clicked the “publish” button just a little too quickly on my post about the new TSA rules. A few minutes after I posted that, a new post appeared on KLM’s blog documenting the changes. The biggest change? No more 1-hour before landing rule. From the looks of it, the TSA decided that requiring passengers to stay seated with no entertainment during the last hour of flight was just stupid.

Bags will still be physically checked at random gates and passengers may be patted down before the flight. This too is kind of dumb but I would rather go through the pat down than be stuck in my seat during the last hour of the flight.

What does this move really mean though? It means the TSA is playing a guessing game on how to prevent attacks and that they really have no idea what to do. Ignorance is bliss when it is someone else undergoing the treatment I guess.

The New TSA Rules

Stephan Segraves — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:39:12 +0000

After Christmas Day’s failed attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 the TSA has announced new security procedures both at airports and in-flight. The procedures are supposed to make us safer while we travel but they seem to be heavy handed and overkill.

The domestic changes include more security personnel and screening of passengers at gates. While neither of these things seem like a big deal on the surface, the screening of passengers at the gate is a time intensive undertaking. This means that flights may be later and people may miss their flights due to the increased screenings.

Where the real restrictions come into play is international flights entering the United States. The rules now state that for the last hour of flight all passengers must remain seated with nothing in their laps, including blankets, pillows, magazines, and computers. Also, no electronics are allowed during that last hour flight. There have been confirmed rumors that airlines are turning off the in-flight entertainment for the entire flight because of the map feature. Another rumor, though I am not sure it has been confirmed, is that passengers will not be allowed to access their luggage in the overhead bin.

Maybe I am a rarity but I think these international rules are complete “theater” for the sake of us as an audience. No in-flight entertainment because of the map? If people know how long a flight is, they can kind of guess where they are, plus there are tools that map the most efficient routes for planes to travel.

The last hour of the flight is when people are most restless, they need to use the restroom and they are just ready to get off the plane. Keeping people in their seats for that last hour may seem like a good idea but what’s to keep a terrorist from doing their bad deed four hours before landing? Does no one else see the uselessness of this rule?

I am fine with not being able to use electronic devices that last hour, but not being able to read a magazine or cover myself with a blanket is not security, it’s paranoia mixed with the notion that we can keep people from doing bad things at all times.

What this boils down to is you, as a passenger, getting closer and closer to just becoming a body on a transport plane. When they announce that they are blindfolding everyone before boarding, I’m done flying.

[UPDATE] – Scott McCartney has a great write-up on this lunacy at The Wall Street Journal.