Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal

[KOMPRESSOR]

I just speak to the experience of my home town that raised the requirements to join the police force and raised the salary too, the caliber of the police greatly changed over time, crime dropped and at the same time the police went from notoriously nasty to reasonably polite.

Well, that's good! Although I'm curious to learn more about from what level they raised the requirements? It seems police education diverse enormously from state to state, and city to city, in the US. Is this correct?

 

[Thalassamania]

Well, that's good! Although I'm curious to learn more about from what level they raised the requirements? It seems police education diverse enormously from state to state, and city to city, in the US. Is this correct?

Yes. As I recall, they did it step wise, requirements went from being the town juvenile delinquent whose police experience was being an usher at the movie theater, to a high school degree, to an AA degree (2 years) to a BA (4 years). Last time I checked a police officer was starting about $40K and could reasonably expect to be making $60k+ at twenty years not including overtime and such. In fact our two highest paid town employees were police, because of specials and overtime ... at more than $100K!

 

[Rickg]

meanwhile, the rest of us just want to get through the friggin line and get on the plane.

Hey , fantastic cell phone technical post!

catherine96821,

You and me both. Hell I'd be more than willing to go through the full body scan machine if it would speed things up. I have nothing to hide and probably not anything that someone would want to see anyhow

 

[DennisS]

Homeland security- work security-nuff said.

Homeland security put an umbrella over a bunch of existing federal agencies and took employee-federal employee rights and benefits- away from the people that used to have them but are now Homeland Security finests. They are not overjoyed to be Homeland Security. It's anothe layer of bureacracy, not an added layer of protection.

They tried to get the FBI under Homeland Security, the FBI replied with "BS", we have our employee rights, get the rest of them with the Homeland Securtiy BS, go away. They had enugh clout to tell homeland security to stuff it.

Immigration, customs and agriculture are now, ICE---oooo scary acronym with the loss of their former employee protections,

Guards love company IDs and a phone call to allow you on "the List"

A phone call and ID makes you OK

Employee ID Cards from Alpha Card

Effin morons

 

[alcina]

Our civil liberties are not being taken all at once, they are being eroded over a period of time...

My take on the sentence in red. We're losing our rights and our way of life every day and incidents like this are just the bubbles on the surface. It's scary, it's dangerous and it's decidedly not American. Or not what America was and imho should be.

Every time I see this sort of story, I am reminded of the quote attributed to Franklin:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Especially when there was/is no temporary safety even bought. It's pretty much all placebo, like so many things.

I just can't stand what I see happening on so many levels. Some days I want to scream and kick backsides while I shake their teeth out of their heads and other days I just want to cry for the loss of the world I grew up in.

 

[mike_s]

mempilot,

I can't vouch for how well cell phones work at altitude but modern cell phones definitely work at ranges greater than 6 miles. In congested areas (e.g., cities and suburbs) the towers are directed horizontal and down to limit ranges but that isn't the case out in the open areas like the deserts in S. CA.

[snip]

.

Cell Phones will work at different altitudes depending on the phone, distance, which technolgy is used (CDMA, etc). and how directional the antenna is (in design).

Remember, just because you're 6 miles up, doesn't mean your directly above the tower. Chances are it won't work 'hovering' 6 miles up directly above the tower because the antenna isn't designed to be directional "straight up".

Also, if you're 6 miles up and 6 miles (ground distance) from the tower, then you're 8.49miles in distance from the tower.... (straight line).


It's definately workable for cell phones to work at greater distances that 6 miles. However, add altitude in that with antennas that are pointed in parallel with the ground, and chances are that you'll have diminishing returns of it working the higher it goes.

As for cell phones working at long distances.... I've used a cell phone at wreck sites that were 12 miles offshore before. I won't say we didn't have static and drop the call a few times, but it worked (with poor quality).

I also got calls from the site of the sinking of the USS Oriskany. Now that call got dropped I think 5 times in 10 minutes or so, and was poor quality, but it's 22 miles SE of Penscolsa pass. I don't have a direct compass heading to determine direct distance to the nearest shore point, or the nearest tower on shore, but I guess it was a good 18 miles "straight in" to the closest point on shore. Now in this case one provider worked but another didn't as someone else on their boat who used a different cell company, that had different technology and different tower location most likely, couldn't even get a signal and got 'service unavailable'.

So I think there are a lot of variables in determining how far a cell phone will reach.


BTW... just because it's on Wikpedia doesn't make it fact. Anyone can edit that and put in there any 'fact' they want. I've seen lots of errors on Wikipedia on many different subjects.

 

[dowfornow]

Homeland Security AKA Fascists

It will continue and get worse, all we have to do is just wait and see.

 

[DandyDon]

Even more variable than that Mike. The plane's body and electronics causes some challenges for phones, but I commonly use mine 10-20 miles from a tower. I know where the Alltel towers all are here from when I was an agent, and have talked with the engineers about how some of them are aimed. I don't remember how high they reach, but they are aimed parallel to the ground for the most.

For a call to be made from a plane, a lot would depend on local towers, of course - a lot of variety there.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

NO CELL PHONES ON AIRPLANES!!! ok not for security purposes I just don't want to listen to the 350 conversations going on at the same time. If they do allow cell phones on airplanes I will have an excuse to invest in noise canceling headphones.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

This thread needs to be moved to Whine and Cheese.

I see very few suggestions on how to make TSA more effective or just forget security all together? Just more complaining and insulting people that do a thank less job.