(Source TSA via You Tube via  Gizmodo)

Dear Mr. Pistole , here are some responses (a mere sampling) from concerned citizens’  about this situation at airport security check points:

Image Courtesy: Land of the free? by David Vincent Wolf

Image Courtesy: Slate.com

Related articles

• TSA Agents Respond To Pat-Down Anger (PHOTOS, POLL) (huffingtonpost.com)
• The History of Airport Security, Visualized [Tsa] (gizmodo.com)
• “Going commando” on the TSA (arstechnica.com)
• Video: TSA chief Pistole says no immediate changes to airport screening – Christian Science Monitor (news.google.com)
• With Saturday Night Live spoof, TSA is losing the internet war on pat-down searches (venturebeat.com)
• TSA Says Pilots Will Be Exempt From Invasive Pat-Downs, Scanners – ABC News (news.google.com)
• My liberty is worth more than my security… (shannonturlington.com)
• TSA Chief Asks Holiday Travelers for Patience – ABC News (news.google.com)
• Is TSA Setting A New Legal Precedent On What Defines A Sexual Assault? (womenincrimeink.blogspot.com)
• TSA workers face verbal abuse from travelers (msnbc.msn.com)

(Source: Good)

Click Image to Enlarge

Cities with the most frustrating traffic problems

(Source: Good)

Houston, Texas, may end up being the first American city with a great electric car charging infrastructure. NRG Energy is rolling out what is supposedly the world’s first privately funded comprehensive electric vehicle ecosystem. Here are some interesting nuggets:

• The system (or “ecosystem,” in their overwrought marketing speak), called eVgo, employs a very interesting business model. Subscribers sign a three-year contract and then pay a monthly fee, ranging from $49 to $89, for both a home charger and varying levels of access to this network of public chargers.
• NRG plans to install between 50 and 150 high-speed chargers in public places— shopping centers and the like—by the end of 2011. They’ll also be installing chargers in people’s homes.
• The high-speed chargers distributed around the city can charge a car to 80 percent  within 30 minutes.

Click here to read more.

Related articles

• NRG Installs Privately-Funded Electric Car Charging Network in Oily Houston (fastcompany.com)
• NRG Launches Nation’s First Privately Funded, Comprehensive Electric Vehicle Charging Ecosystem (eon.businesswire.com)
• NRG Energy Selects AeroVironment to Build the Nation’s First Privately-Funded Electric Vehicle Charging “Ecosystem” (eon.businesswire.com)
• Walgreens and NRG Energy Work Together to Bring Nation’s First Privately Funded, Comprehensive Electric Vehicle Infrastructure to Houston (eon.businesswire.com)
• Reliant Customers Among the First with Access to eVgo Electric Vehicle Charging Network (eon.businesswire.com)
• NRG Energy Launches Network Of Electric Car Chargers, In Houston (blogs.forbes.com)
• A Private Network for Recharging Cars (green.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Why Texas May Be a Better Electric Car State Than California (nytimes.com)
• “Unlimited Juice” Electric Vehicle Charging Plans: Good Idea or Exploitation? (allcarselectric.com)
• NRG: Nation’s First Privately Financed Vehicle Charging Network (gigaom.com)
• On the GreenBeat: Trilliant Inks Deal With British Gas, NRG Energy Launches Charging Infrastructure (nytimes.com)

(Source: New York Times)

Click here for more details

ONE is wearing a couture gown, another just a pair of red underwear. One is lugging a huge bouquet of flowering rhododendrons on his shoulder, another a suckling pig. They are all riding bicycles in the middle of streets downtown, and they are all shown from behind, having passed by, headed toward some unknown destination — a party, a garden, a pig roast.

The photographs are by Bridget Fleming, 30, who moved to the Lower East Side from Australia in 2008. She is halfway through an ambitious project to capture downtown denizens riding on two wheels down each of the approximately 200 streets below 14th Street. She posts some of the photographs on a blog, Downtown From Behind, and hopes the project, which she describes as a glamorous ode to “the heartbeat of New York,” will culminate this spring with a gallery exhibition and Web site.

Image Courtesy: Downtown from Behind

Click here for more on this story and for the awesome interactive.

(Source: Gizmodo)

Image Courtesy: Gizmodo

Image Courtesy: Gizmodo

It’s an incredibly simple idea: LED lights trickle down in a virtual sand glass that countdowns how much more Red and Green there will be. When it approaches 3 seconds left, the LEDs switch to yellow and give you an exact count on what’s left.

Click here to read the entire article.

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• Innovative Sand Glass Traffic Light Uses Hourglass Design to Show How Much Time is Left (techeblog.com)
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• Hour Glass LED Traffic Lights [Pic] (boredpanda.com)

(Source: Infographia via El Chimpance)

(Source: CSPAN via Youtube)

It is amazing how passionate this man is.  While making a case for the Government to act swiftly, he took chastising the TSA to a new level for its latest nightmarish handling of the new security procedures. this easily qualifies as verbal beat down.  TSA has done a poor job handling this public backlash.  They ought to get a new PR/Social Media/Communications team to handle this boondoggle.  Poor Michael Chertoff – the former Secretary of the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS)  got a bad bruising in this verbal tirade.

Related articles

• Ron Paul Unleashes On TSA: “Enough Is Enough” (disquietreservations.blogspot.com)
• Ron Paul to Congress TSA: “Enough is Enough” (nyletterpress.wordpress.com)
• “Duncan Blasts TSA Pat-Downs, Body Scanners” and related posts (dprogram.net)
• Guest post: Washington’s “sweetheart” deals may have gone too far this time (bigbrotherwatch.org.uk)
• “VIDEO: Bombshell: Former Homeland Chief Got ‘Sweetheart Deal’ Selling Scanners To TSA” and related posts (theyeshivaworld.com)
• Ron Paul Introduces American Traveler Dignity Act, Encourages TSA Opt Out Day (fdlaction.firedoglake.com)
• TSA Administrator Acknowledges “Invasive” Pat-Downs, Screeners (news.firedoglake.com)
• When Rights Get Squeezed (online.wsj.com)
• Grope up: Enough is Enough edition (emergentchaos.com)
• California DA Vows to Prosecute Airport Screeners Who Touch Travelers Inappropriately (foxnews.com)

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

Image Courtesy: WSJ.com

The Bloomberg administration is exploring a plan to build a new tunnel under the Hudson River that would extend the no. 7 subway line to Secaucus, N.J,  building on existing work being done on the no. 7 line, which is undergoing a $2.1 billion extension from Times Square to 34th Street and 11th Avenue.

The plan is an attempt to expand rail capacity and grab some of the $3 billion in federal money that had been set aside for a rail-tunnel project between New Jersey and Manhattan, according to multiple people familiar with discussions over the project. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spiked the rail tunnel three weeks ago due to concerns about cost overruns. Click here to read the full story

The WSJ also has a nice story that looks in to how the subway extension would transform traveling options (at least in the region) for the commuting public.

Related articles

• Extending No. 7 subway to Secaucus could provide alternative to killed ARC tunnel (nj.com)
• New York City proposes extending subway to New Jersey (reuters.com)
• Bloomberg administration looks at extending No. 7 subway line into Hoboken and Secaucus (nj.com)
• NY City proposes extending subway to New Jersey (reuters.com)
• “New York City-Secaucus Junction Transit?” and related posts (bridgeandtunnelclub.com)
• Transit pros say feds won’t pay to extend subway (nydailynews.com)
• Amtrak Won’t Revive Trans-Hudson Rail Tunnel Project (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Amtrak, NJ Transit break off talks on reviving ARC Hudson River rail tunnel (nj.com)
• It’s Time for a Transcontinental Subway (blogs.forbes.com)
• Malloy Eyes Funds Marked For Hudson River Rail Tunnel (newyork.cbslocal.com)

(Source: Washingtonexaminer.com; Slate.com)

After losing my mind reading/following all the mind-numbing accusations and chaos surrounding the issue of full body scanners/advance security pat down searches performed by TSA staff at airports, I was looking for something fun to read on this issue.  As if someone read my mind, The Washington Examiner had a piece, in fact a cartoon, that just captured the essence of the issue at hand.  Thank you, Nate Beeler, for giving me a good chuckle with this great cartoon. Loving it!

Image Courtesy: Nate Beeler - WashingtonExaminer.com

Also, I came across these other amazing cartoons this issue, courtesy of Slate.com.  FYI – this is just a sampling of the awesome collection Slate.com has made available on its website.  The website also has a ton of other amazing cartoons on various important topics, all neatly tagged and categorized.  Click here to access them all (those categorized on this topic).

Related articles

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• Investigate the TSA, Not Tyner (fdlaction.firedoglake.com)
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• “Investigate the TSA, Not John Tyner” and related posts (progressivealaska.blogspot.com)
• What’s the Real Radiation Risk of the TSA’s Full Body X-Ray Scans? | 80beats (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
• Body Scans: What You Need to Know About New TSA Security (newsfeed.time.com)
• Noah Shachtman: Has Airport Security Gone Too Far? (online.wsj.com)
• 100 body-scanner images leaked (bigbrotherwatch.org.uk)
• Gizmodo Joins The Internet War on TSA With 100 ‘Leaked’ Body Scans (blogs.forbes.com)
• TSA Administrator Acknowledges “Invasive” Pat-Downs, Screeners (news.firedoglake.com)

(Source: Thefuntheory.com via The High Definite)

This brilliant idea of American Kevin Richardson’s won the Fun Theory award competition run by Volkswagen (Sweden). The idea is to capture on camera who keep to the speed limit.  They would have their photos taken and their vehicle registration numbers recorded and entered into a lottery.  Winners would receive cash prizes and will be notified by post.  This is where it gets interesting.  The winning pot would come from the people who are caught speeding.  That changes the idea of whole idea of enforcement on its head and makes it more appealing to the community and encourages compliance through rewards for better behavior.

The Fun Theory is based on the idea that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior. Can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do? This was the question Kevin’s idea answered and it was so good that Volkswagen, together with The Swedish National Society for Road Safety, actually made this innovative idea a reality in Stockholm, Sweden.

Click here to learn more about the competition and the other awesome entries. Mind blowing ideas!

Related articles

• Fun Theory Award winner rewards safe drivers with lottery tickets (makezine.com)
• Fun Theory Award winner rewards safe drivers with lottery tickets (mt-soft.com.ar)
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• The Fun Theory (cateof.wordpress.com)