Research & Rescue

Stupid people with gadgets are still stupid

It would be really great to have cell service, etc. out here in the mountains for safety's sake but only if people use it for good. Seriously, intrepid outdoorsmen - pack your sunscreen, take your water/camera/sunglasses, but for God's sakes, remember your common sense...

The national parks’ history is full of examples of misguided visitors feeding bears, putting children on buffalos for photos and dipping into geysers despite signs warning of scalding temperatures.

But today, as an ever more wired and interconnected public visits the parks in rising numbers — July was a record month for visitors at Yellowstone — rangers say that technology often figures into such mishaps.

People with cellphones call rangers from mountaintops to request refreshments or a guide; in Jackson Hole, Wyo., one lost hiker even asked for hot chocolate.

A French teenager was injured after plunging 75 feet this month from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon when he backed up while taking pictures. And last fall, a group of hikers in the canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers explained that their water supply “tasted salty.”

Read the entire article at www.nytimes.com

GOP Candidate Runs Pro-Racial Profiling Ad

This from ThinkProgress today:

Dan Fanelli, a “former Navy and commercial airline pilot” who is competing in the GOP congressional primary for the chance to run against Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) in the general election, has begun airing a new ad in which he seems to endorse racial profiling of darker-skinned Americans to detect terrorists. Fanelli implies that all terrorists look alike.

via thinkprogress.org

When I was in grad school, I worked in retail security for some extra money (and the employee discount, of course!). We used to switch off duties between working the desk (radios, paperwork, employee surveillance (yeah, we did that), and working the floor undercover). We also conducted employee loss-prevention awareness activities, which included the occasional cheesy skit. I bring this up because once of the things that was really important to get across was you have to watch *everyone* on your sales floor - not just someone who looks like they "don't belong" in a 5th Avenue store. The skit went something like this:

• Sales clerks standing at desk
• Enter shabbily dressed person of color, with eyes darting about
• Sales clerks dutifully follow said customer about the department, making sure he/she is not lifting merchandise
• Enter dressed middle-aged white couple donning designer clothing and accessories, completely unnoticed by sales personnel, who are busily surveilling person of color

• Middle-aged white couple proceeds to steal various merchandise and leaves the premises
• Person of color eventually glares at sales clerks and leaves without purchasing anything - or buying anything.
• We left out the present-day scenario where said potential customer reports the store for racial discrimination.

Now, I'm certainly not trying to convey a notion that middle-aged white couples are not trustworthy. in fact, that's quite the point. It has nothing to do with race or ethnicity and sometimes has nothing to do with appearance. Chances are that the couple in the skit who stole items was probably returning them without a receipt and the store could have gotten a description of them when they tried to do that. THAT is the cause for following them around and there is a chance that they might have been caught because of surveillance.

In the case of terrorist acts, such as ignition-devices on a plane, etc., look at how much we complain about the inconvenience of having TSA check the occasional bag at security points or x-ray child seats. That sort of checking, in my opinion, makes some sense. It's a pain for those of those of us who travel a lot but I've never been angry about having my bag checked because something caused a weird shadow on an x-ray or something (Ok. It only happened once. Maybe I'd be angrier if i happened a lot). And, to draw another parallel to my college job, watch certain persons because of past behaviours. Put funding into LEGAL surveillance (read as: get a warrant for wiretapping before doing so and have probable cause).

We should be safe and we should have laws that address our safety but racial profiling does not accomplish that.

Rail transport picks up speed

The United States uses 25 percent of the entire world’s oil supply despite having only 5 percent of the world’s population, and sprawling communities force people to drive even short distances. We need alternate modes of transportation to kick this oil dependence, and one alternative is high-speed rail, which offers tantalizing environmental and economic benefits. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a strategic plan for high-speed rail last year that includes $8 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $1 billion a year for five years in the federal budget. Their goal is to jumpstart a potential world-class rail system in the United States.

Read more at climateprogress.org

How Do Americans Get to Work?

It appears that driving to work (as opposed to using public transit) is still quite the norm in a number of major cities.

Read about it at www.infrastructurist.com

Web Sights - 18Jan10

Immigration - 

A study by the Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity at the Law School at Berkley shows that Operation Streamline does not help combat the trafficking of drugs, weapons, or humans. Moreover, provisions in the policy removed discretion to only prosecute detained immigrants with criminal records, effectively bottlenecking the justice system. The fact that it ties up resources with prosecuting migrants, whether or not a crime has been committed means those same resources are diverted from concentrating on trafficking and violence that occurs along the US-Mexico border.

    Link: Operation Streamline Policy Brief

The Self - 

I have always had trouble slowing down. I operate well in chaotic environments but it does take its toll on my health. This piece from GOOD has a list of suggestions for taking it easy. If I could take on two or three of these, I'm sure I'd benefit.

    Link: The GOOD (and ReadyMade) Guide to Slowing Down

This post is food for thought from Uncornered Market. I think I would like to be an experience junkie, although I admit to having more "stuff" than anyone really should have. The things I look back on most wistfully, however, are the trips abroad that I have taken or trips into the mountains or time spent with people dear to me. While a case can be made for having stuff to record these experiences, I truly believe my most cherished memories are the ones where I didn't have a camera to document them.

    Link: Are You a Stuff Junkie or an Experience Junkie?

Politics - 

While I believe very strongly in progressive causes, I usually find it troubling to hear a progressive talk about punishing a candidate for not being progressive enough. I find it of most concern when progressives vote third party or stay home to make a point. It seems to me that this approach does send a message but it says, "I'm not willing to compromise and if I don't get my way, then I will not support the party." It doesn't seem to occur to a person with this stance that this may throw the election to a candidate who holds no progressive views at all. Apparently, Jason Rosenbaum over at Firedog Lake sees what I see.

    Link: To the pissed off progressives: Don’t be Naderites

Human Rights - 

This story by Andrew Sullivan on deaths at Gitmo that were classified as suicides but are allegedly deaths due to torture is disturbing beyond words.

    Link: Three Corpses In Gitmo: The Very Worst Seems True