Open Water

This movie will at least make you reorder your list of worst ways to die...

baby javelina 

A little glimpse into how it works...

More Travelers Are Stopped
For 'Secondary' Checks;
A Missed Flight to Atlanta
January 25, 2005; Page D7
The frequency of secondary security screening at airports has increased, and complaints are soaring.
Roughly one in every seven passengers is now tagged for "secondary screening" -- a special search in which an airport screener runs a metal-detecting wand around a traveler's body, then pats down the passenger and searches through bags -- according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Currently, 10% to 15% of passengers are picked randomly before boarding passes are issued, the TSA says. An additional number -- the TSA won't say how many -- are selected by the government's generic profiling system, where buying a one-way ticket, paying cash or other factors can earn you extra screening. And more travelers are picked by TSA screeners who spot suspicious bulges or shapes under clothing.

"It's fair to say the frequency of secondary screening has gone up," says TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter. "Screeners have greater discretion."

That may explain why passenger complaints about screening have roughly doubled every month since August. According to numbers compiled by the TSA and reported to the Department of Transportation, 83 travelers complained about screening in August, then 150 in September and 385 in October. By November, the last month reported, complaints had skyrocketed to 652.

To be sure, increased use of pat-down procedures in late September after terrorists smuggled bombs aboard two planes in Russia undoubtedly boosted those numbers, though many of those complaints were categorized as "courtesy" issues, not "screening," in the data TSA reports to the DOT. There were 115 courtesy complaints filed with the DOT in September, then 690 in October. By November, the number of courtesy complaints receded to 218.

Yet the increased traveler anger at secondary screening hasn't receded. Road warriors complain bitterly about the arbitrary nature of the screening -- many get singled out for one leg of a trip, but not another.

For Douglas Downing, a secondary-screening problem resulted in a canceled trip. Mr. Downing was flying from Seattle to Atlanta last fall. He went through security routinely and sat at the gate an hour ahead of his flight's departure. As he boarded, a Delta Air Lines employee noticed that his boarding pass, marked with SSSS, hadn't been cleared by the TSA. He was sent back to the security checkpoint.

By the time he got screened and returned to the gate, the flight had departed. Delta offered a later flight, but his schedule was so tight he had to cancel the trip. Delta did refund the ticket, even though the airline said it was the TSA's mistake not to catch the screening code. TSA officials blamed Delta.

TSA screeners often blame airlines, according to frequent travelers. Ask a screener why you got picked for screening, and they often say the airline does the selection and questions should be directed to the airline.

But airlines say they shouldn't be blamed, since they are only running the TSA's programs, and the TSA's Ms. von Walter concurs. "I wouldn't go so far as to say we're blaming them," she said. "Perhaps some screeners are misinformed in those cases."

She also says the TSA isn't sure why screening complaints have risen so sharply since August, although the agency says it may be the result of greater TSA advertising of its "contact center" (e-mail TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov or call 1-866-289-9673).

If you do get picked, here is how it happened.
The TSA requires airlines to pick 10% to 15% of travelers at random. Airlines can "de-select" a passenger picked at random, such as a child, officials say.

In addition, the government's current passenger-profiling system, called Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS, picks out passengers. The system, which resides in or communicates with each airline's reservation computers, gives you a score based largely on how you bought your ticket. Airline officials say the TSA has changed the different weightings given various factors, and certain markets may have higher programmed rates for selectees.

Passenger lists also are checked against the TSA's list of suspicious names, which has included rather common names and even names of U.S. senators.

Interestingly, airline gate agents who see suspicious-looking passengers can no longer flag them for security. Some ticket-counter agents did flag several hijackers for extra security on Sept. 11, 2001, and were praised for their work in the 9/11 Commission's final report. At the time, all that meant was the airline took precautions with the hijackers' checked luggage. But because of racial-discrimination concerns, airline officials aren't allowed to single out passengers for scrutiny; only TSA screeners can do that.

If picked in advance by the computer system, your boarding pass gets marked some way to identify your "selectee" status. Some airlines print "SSSS" in a corner.

When you show up at the checkpoint, you should be picked out as a selectee. The TSA counts on contractors checking boarding passes and driver's licenses to steer you to the selectee line, but that is also why screeners make travelers display boarding passes several times through the gauntlet. At some airports, the TSA also does one final check of boarding passes when you leave the security area -- to check again for selectees.

Once checked, the TSA marks your boarding pass so that flight attendants or airline gate agents boarding planes know you got a thorough poking and prodding.

The TSA says it hopes the frequency of secondary screening will decline when it gets its new profiling system in place. "Secure Flight" will use passenger records from airlines to, it is hoped, sniff out terrorists. The system will focus on the passenger and not simply how the ticket was bought. The TSA is testing comparing airline bookings against other commercially available information as well as government databases, which has raised privacy concerns. Current testing using historical airline data is supposed to end this month.

Pictures of the new pool table

really need to get the matching light up. i promise it will look better once we do.

the table; really need to hang the matching light... 

other cycling greats immortalized on the walls 

A truly talented professional cyclist could contend with a 200m pool...

Bummer, this was fun to watch

Cycling: Paris-Roubaix to Skip Famous Cobbled Section

PARIS (Reuters) - Cycling's Paris-Roubaix race, a one-day classic, will avoid its infamous cobbled section this year because of safety concerns, organizers said Wednesday.

The race, scheduled for April 10, will take another route.

"Organizers have decided not to ride on the 2,400 meters of the famous Arenberg trench for safety reasons," organizers said in a statement. "The condition of the road has seriously deteriorated in recent years and a 200 meter section has collapsed and turned into a pool."

The Arenberg trench is one of the most spectacular cobbled sections in a race dubbed the "Hell of the North" and many riders have crashed trying to navigate it.

Six times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has yet to win the Paris-Roubaix and it could be one of his main goals in 2005, especially if the American decides in April not to race the Tour this year.

Quite a collision

NASA Launches Spacecraft
On Comet-Smashing Mission
Associated Press
January 12, 2005 2:33 p.m.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A NASA spacecraft with a Hollywood name -- Deep Impact -- blasted off Wednesday on a mission to smash a hole in a comet and give scientists a glimpse at the frozen primordial ingredients of the solar system.

With a launch window only one second long, Deep Impact rocketed away at the designated moment on a six-month, 268 million-mile journey to Comet Tempel 1. It will be a one-way trip that NASA hopes will reach a cataclysmic end on the Fourth of July.

Scientists are counting on Deep Impact to carve out a crater that could swallow the Roman Coliseum. It will be humanity's first look into the heart of a comet, a celestial snowball still preserving the original building blocks of the sun and the planets.

Because of the relative speed of the two objects at the moment of impact -- 23,000 mph -- no explosives are needed for the job. The force of the smashup will be equivalent to 4-1/2 tons of TNT, creating a flash that just might be visible in the dark sky by the naked eye in one spectacular Fourth of July fireworks display.

Nothing like this has ever been attempted before. "The most difficult and most challenging part is going to be the actual encounter because we're doing things that nobody has done before," said Jay Melosh, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona.

Little is known about Comet Tempel 1, other than that it is an icy, rocky body about nine miles long and three miles wide. Scientists do not know whether the crust will be as hard as concrete or as flimsy as corn flakes.

"One of the scary things is that we won't actually know the shape and what it looks like until after we do the encounter," Mr. Melosh said.

The comet will be more than 80 million miles from Earth when the collision takes place. The resulting crater is expected to be anywhere from two to 14 stories deep, and perhaps 300 feet in diameter.

A jagged, cratered comet like the one headed for Earth in the 1998 movie "Deep Impact" would be difficult if not impossible to hit because of all the shadows, Mr. Melosh said. Comet Tempel 1 is believed to be smoother and easier to hit.

The scientists came up with the Deep Impact name independently of the movie studio, around the same time, neither knowing the other was choosing it, even though some members of NASA's Deep Impact team were consultants on the picture.

Deep Impact is carrying the most powerful telescope ever sent into deep space. It will remain with the mothership when the impactor springs free the day before the comet strike, and will observe the event from a safe 300 miles away. NASA space telescopes like the Hubble will view the collision, along with ground observatories and amateur astronomers.

The entire mission costs $330 million.
Copyright © 2005 Associated Press

Armstrong to Decide on Tour De France in April

By Deborah Charles

SILVER SPRING, Md. (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong will decide in April whether to ride in this year's Tour de France but said on Monday he has a deal with his team's new sponsor to ride in the world's leading cycling race at least once more.

The six-time Tour de France winner added that unlike in past years he would not begin the season with the Tour de France as his sole goal. Instead, he will begin 2005 racing in the classic events before deciding whether to race in France in July.

"It's definitely a departure, not focusing from the beginning of the year...on the Tour," Armstrong, 33, said at a news conference after the official presentation of his team under a new sponsor -- the Discovery Channel.

"But the good news is that if you train for the classics and try to ride the classics...you will advance your form far enough that at least you will not be trying to play catch up.

"I plan on having a good training camp...and evaluating in April, late April," he added.

Under the terms of his contract with Discovery Channel, which replaced U.S. Postal Service as the main sponsor of the team, Armstrong has agreed to ride in another Tour de France.

"That could be in 2005 or 2006 but I am fully committed to doing that. I'm not the type of person that...doesn't live up to my end of the deal. I've never worked that way and that won't be the case here."

"What's important is...to do one (more) Tour and also to try to win that Tour," he said. "I prefer to go and try to ride in front and win a seventh."

TEAM CAMARADERIE

Armstrong, the only rider to win the Tour six times, hinted earlier at the official team presentation that his team's strong camaraderie might lead him to seek a seventh victory.

"The love of these guys, the love of camaraderie -- that's what's going to keep me coming back for number seven," he said.

But later he said it had not yet been decided if he would race in the Tour de France this year. Armstrong said he planned to compete in the Tour of Flanders in early March and the Amstel Gold Race and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April.

"I'd like to go back and finally win one of those," he said of the cycling classics he plans to race. "It's time to finally go and try to win one of the monuments in cycling."

Armstrong also plans to compete in April's Fleche-Wallone race, a classic he won in 1996.

Team chief Johan Bruyneel said the Discovery Channel team -- with 28 members including several new young riders -- would be hard pressed to match the success of 2004 when U.S. Postal won 33 races including Armstrong's historic Tour de France victory.

"We come from a historical year..we have never won so many races as last year," said Bruyneel. "We know...it's going to be very difficult to do better. (We will) try to get as close as possible to what we have achieved."

Bruyneel said the team would compete for the first time in the Giro d'Italia and noted that new team member Paolo Savoldelli, who won that race in 2002, was "very motivated" to be on the podium again.

Bruyneel also named 25-year-old newcomer Yaroslav Popovych, from Ukraine, as a "future contender" in the Tour de France.

"Depending on what Lance's program will be, we will also define our goals there," he added.

Updated on Monday, Jan 10, 2005 2:06 pm EST
 

Armstrong not focusing on Tour de France as new season begins

By JOSEPH WHITE, AP Sports Writer
January 10, 2005
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) -- Lance Armstrong's mind is on Belgium in April, not Paris in July.

Armstrong remained uncommitted Monday when asked if he will try to win a seventh consecutive Tour de France, but he made it clear his focus this year will be winning some of the spring classic races that have always taken a back seat on his cycling calendar.

``It's time to finally go and win one of the monuments of cycling,'' Armstrong said.

Armstrong spoke as his Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team announced its 2005 race schedule. The team's 28 riders from 15 countries will start 11 days of training in California on Tuesday, but it no longer has a laser-beam focus on winning the Tour de France above all else -- as it has in years past.

``It's definitely a departure, beginning the year not focusing on the Tour,'' said Armstrong, the only six-time winner of cycling's most prestigious race.

Armstrong tentatively plans to race in four classics -- three in Belgium and one in the Netherlands -- before deciding in late April whether to skip the Tour de France, scheduled for July 2-24.

``I'll definitely be in France this summer,'' Armstrong said. ``It just might not be on the bike.''

Armstrong isn't done with the Champs Elysees for good. When it replaced the U.S. Postal Service as the team's sponsor, the Discovery Channel had Armstrong promise to race in at least one more Tour de France. On Monday, he mentioned several reasons for waiting until 2006 to fulfill that obligation.

``Will it hurt to see somebody else sipping champagne?'' Armstrong said. ``I don't know if it'll hurt, but it might make me a little hungry. ... I've read some stuff where the organizers say, 'Well, maybe it's good if he sits out a year and lets somebody else win and then he comes back and then there's a rematch.'

``That does sound like a good idea, but that's not going to be what makes the decision.''

Recently, Armstrong has pined for a chance to focus on some of the one-day races that are favorites among cycling fans. The four classics in his sights are the Tour of Flanders (April 3), the Amstel Gold Race (April 17), the Fleche Wallone (April 20) and the Liege-Bastogne-Liege (April 24). His only victory in any of those four came at the Fleche Wallone in 1996, shortly before he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

If he doesn't ride the Tour de France, Armstrong said he will likely compete in either the Giro d'Italia (May 7-29) or the Tour of Spain (Aug. 27-Sept. 18). He has never competed in the famed Giro.

Armstrong also would like to break the one-hour cycling record held by Britain's Chris Boardman. Armstrong said he has an initial version of the bike he would use, and he envisions building a covered velodrome at altitude to make the attempt.

``It's something that fascinates me,'' he said.

Armstrong's team unveiled its new uniform, which includes a yellow band at the end of the left sleeve, the latest sign of the enormous popularity of the ``Livestrong'' yellow wristbands sold by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to promote cancer survivorship programs. Nearly 30 million of the bracelets have been sold.

Armstrong also said he was happy with a recent victory in his ongoing libel case against The Sunday Times of London. A judge in London's High Court said in a preliminary ruling last month that the paper had wrongly repeated and had sensationalized allegations he took performance-enhancing drugs. The allegations first surfaced in the book ``L.A. Confidential, the Secrets of Lance Armstrong.''

``We're just now beginning to prove that right,'' Armstrong said. ``We're very happy with the judge's decision. The process carries on. It's not a final, final victory.''

 

They already have a spin room; not sure what this does

24 Hour Fitness to open Lance Armstrong-branded centers
Fitness chain 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. is bulking up with Austin cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Under a partnership announced Monday with the six-time Tour de France champion, the fitness chain will create 24 Hour Fitness Lance Armstrong Sports Clubs.

Two such clubs will open by late spring or summer in the Austin area; among their features will be Lance Armstrong cycling rooms. The sites for those clubs haven't been announced.

San Ramon, Calif.-based 24 Hour Fitness also will become a sponsor of Armstrong's Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.
"I really believe in the work 24 Hour Fitness is doing to help as many people as possible through health and fitness. They fight the good fight and truly care about their members' lives," Armstrong says.

"Fitness has been a significant part of my life and a critical component in my comeback from cancer."
24 Hour Fitness also says it will become involved with the Austin-based Lance Armstrong Foundation, which works on cancer research and education.

"Lance Armstrong embodies everything our company believes in -- hard work, determination, positive attitude and persistence while having fun along the way," says Mark Mastrov, chairman and CEO of 24 Hour Fitness.

Other athletes who have endorsement deals with 24 Hour Fitness are basketball's Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal and tennis' Andre Agassi.

24 Hour Fitness has three fitness centers in the Austin area. A fourth center is opening next month.

Latest knee problems

I got some bad news from the doc this morning.  I got the steroid injection in the IT band as expected, but he said I should take a week off before running again.  I was planning on a day or two off, but this took me by surprise.  I need to be increasing the mileage and this setback is disappointing.  I was thinking I'd be able to do at least 12 miles on Sunday and be able to keep building a couple miles a week on the long runs, but now I'm worried that I will even have to back off the following Sunday given the layoff.

In the meantime, I'll do a lot of swimming this weekend and get on the bike Tuesday night.  Really hope the injection does some good, given the lost time.  I'm still optimistic that I'll be able to get to 20-21 by Freescale time February 13th.  Going to be tenuous getting there...

I wouldn't mind being able to get somewhere

Texas Thinking Big on Transportation

Tue Jan 4, 7:55 AM ET   Top Stories - Los Angeles Times
 

By Lianne Hart Times Staff Writer

HOUSTON — Do not mistake the Trans-Texas Corridor for a mere superhighway.

As imagined by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the $175-billion project will be a transportation behemoth of mind-boggling proportions: 4,000 miles of mostly toll lanes perhaps a quarter-mile wide, capable of carrying cars, trucks, and high-speed freight and commuter trains.

There would be room underground for oil, water, electric and gas pipelines, and the whole works would be built largely with private money.

"It's a blueprint for our transportation and population needs for the next 50 years," Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Gaby Garcia said. "It's the wave of the future to plan for different modes [of transport] in one corridor."

Opponents call the ambitious scheme ill-conceived and absurdly expensive.

"It's so grandiose and outlandish that people at first didn't think it would happen," said David Stall, who founded a group called Corridor Watch to keep tabs on the project. "But they're railroading it through — and most Texans don't even know what it is."

Perry introduced what he called a "visionary transportation plan" during his 2002 reelection campaign, and continued to push for it after he was sworn in. In 2003, he signed a transportation bill that authorized construction of the mammoth roadway.

The corridor is meant to ease congestion on existing interstates by diverting long-distance and regional traffic onto mega-highways, which would largely skirt urban areas. Trucks carrying hazardous materials could bypass populated cities by traveling on the new system.

"We can slowly try to address traffic in cities with very expensive Band-Aids, which means making four lanes into six or eight," said state Rep. Mike Krusee, who wrote legislation to make the corridor possible. "But wouldn't it be cheaper to build basically a parallel corridor, where land is cheaper and there's room to expand?"

Backers say the project is badly needed in Texas because of a rapidly growing population and increased traffic from a post-NAFTA flow of goods to and from Mexico.

The linchpin of the plan is its financing: Though the state would own the right of way to the roads, private contractors would pay to build them. In return, the contractors could charge concessions — such as tolls — for as long as 50 years. Similar projects in other countries have been financed this way, Krusee said, and it is how the Texas Department of Transportation intends to do it.

"Our problems are urgent in Texas, but we don't have the money to do this sort of thing," said Krusee, who is chairman of the state House Transportation Committee. "By putting it up for bid from private companies, it's a way for growth to pay for itself."

In mid-December, the state Department of Transportation agreed to let a private consortium led by Spanish toll-road operator Cintra build the first section of the corridor — a $6-billion, 316-mile turnpike from Dallas to San Antonio.

As part of the deal, the group will add $1.2 billion more for other state transportation projects, Garcia said. In return, the consortium will be allowed to charge tolls on the road at rates approved by the state.

The Dallas-San Antonio toll road will be part of an 800-mile corridor that will run parallel to Interstate 35 from Oklahoma to Mexico. Other potential corridors could run east-west from the Texas Gulf Coast to El Paso and north-south from the Panhandle to Laredo.

Stall is skeptical of the Cintra deal, reserving judgment until the contract becomes public, assuming it ever does.

"They say no state dollars will go into the corridors, and that may be semantically true. But someone who is investing billions of dollars expects to get their money back and more, and ultimately Texans will pay for it through tolls and other concessions," Stall said. 

The Trans-Texas Corridor is a revenue-raising plan masquerading as transportation development, Stall said. The state can acquire private land for the roads through the power of eminent domain, then sell or lease the property for any purpose — whether it's for the highway, a gas station, restaurant or a billboard.

"The state is using its powers to create a monopoly [along the corridor] for the state and concessionaires," Stall said.

Texas economist Ray Perryman has estimated that the project could generate about $135 billion for the state over 50 years.

But Stall is not alone in his objections. Environmentalists are concerned about the effect of massive construction on rural lands. And members of the Texas Farm Bureau — who generally support Perry, who was raised on a West Texas farm — voted to oppose the plan.

"The roads will split through farms," bureau spokesman Mike Barnett said. "The way we understand it, it will spread over a number of miles, so it will be hard to get from one side of the farm to another."

With minimal exits, the corridor will cut off access to many rural towns already economically pinched, he said. "They're talking about a quarter-mile swath through wherever it goes. That hurts. You lose the tax base because the land goes to the state," Barnett said.

Marc Maxwell, city manager of Sulphur Springs — population 14,551 — in northeast Texas, said his town "lucked out" during the Cintra negotiations. It appears the corridor will come by his city, bringing more trade to local businesses, he said.

But Maxwell worries about Texans getting a fair price for their land, and the fate of rural towns bypassed in construction.

"The state has got their backs against the wall. They've got to do something about the demand for more roads," he said. "But these are huge stakes, with huge implications positive and negative. You hope this is the right thing."