{"id":11292,"date":"2007-10-02T21:36:43","date_gmt":"2007-10-03T04:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/10\/02\/travel-potpourri.html"},"modified":"2007-10-02T21:36:43","modified_gmt":"2007-10-03T04:36:43","slug":"travel_potpourri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/02\/travel_potpourri.html","title":{"rendered":"Travel potpourri!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Random stuff I scribbled down to blog about while on my trip:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/blogs\/technology_news\/4219071.html\" target=\"_blank\">Self-contained Taser shells!<\/a>&nbsp; It&#8217;s taserrific!<\/li>\n<li> For whatever reason, I&#8217;ve been encountering the term &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bespoke\" target=\"_blank\">bespoke<\/a>&#8221; more and more often of late.&nbsp; While originally referring to custom-tailored suits on Savile Row, it&#8217;s now used in IT to refer to any customized output (a &#8220;bespoke report,&#8221; for example).<\/li>\n<li> I&#8217;m fascinated that while the US media covering the current dissident-bashing in SE Asia refers to the country by its newfangled name Myanmar and its capitol as Yangon, the BBC still uses the old-fashioned colonial Burma and Rangoon.&nbsp; Evidently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/globe\/editorial_opinion\/oped\/articles\/2007\/10\/02\/playing_the_name_game\/\" target=\"_blank\">everyone is confused<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li> Pity poor Alabamans &#8230; not only do they have to live in Alabama, but <a href=\"http:\/\/ap.google.com\/article\/ALeqM5jVTk0RxEEvO0n78b2XK1H8vSPXiQD8S0L3FO1\" target=\"_blank\">nobody in the state can sell them sex toys<\/a>.&nbsp; It&#8217;s not illegal to possess them, mind you, nor is it illegal to buy them elsewhere and transport them across state borders, but it&#8217;s illegal to sell them.&nbsp; Unless, of course, you&#8217;re marketing them as <em>&#8220;bona fide&#8221;<\/em> <em>medical <\/em>devices.<\/li>\n<li> Add to John McCain&#8217;s goofballness his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2007\/POLITICS\/10\/01\/mccain.christian.nation\/\" target=\"_blank\">mind-numbing ignorance of the US Constitution<\/a>.&nbsp; &#8220;&#8221;I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.&#8221;&nbsp; Right.&nbsp; And that&#8217;s in Article &#8230; which one, now?<\/li>\n<li> Yeah, I know the Dems really want to steer clear of the whole &#8220;Party of Tax Increase&#8221; meme &#8212; but, honestly, I think <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/21104662\/\" target=\"_blank\">an Iraq War Tax is an excellent idea<\/a>.&nbsp; If we&#8217;re going to be there, it should hurt (beyond the cost of coffins and body bags and opportunity costs of the billions being spent).&nbsp; Funding the war by not funding other things (especially now that Dubya has magically &#8220;gotten religion&#8221; about vetoing spending bills).&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li> Did you know that if you are renting a car from Hertz (at least), you can drive through the EZPay lanes of the various tollways in Houston (at least) and the toll will just get added to your rental bill (with a small convenience fee)?&nbsp; I was told this by a senior manager today, which made the drive back to Bush Intercontinental a lot more convenient than the drive from Bush Intercontinental.&nbsp; Of course, if I get a $250 fine slapped onto my Hertz bill, she is <em>never<\/em> going to hear the end of it.<\/li>\n<li> No matter how much you are tempted to do so, there is absolutely no long-term benefit to laughing at a TSA agent named Phlegm.&nbsp; Really.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Random stuff I scribbled down to blog about while on my trip: Self-contained Taser shells!&nbsp; It&#8217;s taserrific! For whatever reason, I&#8217;ve been encountering the term &#8220;bespoke&#8221; more and more often&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,10,17,26,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-homeland-security","category-travel","category-writing-and-language","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134806,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/21\/rolling-dice-police-will-react.html","url_meta":{"origin":11292,"position":0},"title":"Rolling the dice on how the police will react","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 21-Sep-17 7:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"So miscommunication happens. The site where a hit-and-run vehicle fled, a guy waving around (not menacingly) a metal pipe that he ignores orders to lay down (because he's deaf), standers-by shouting stuff (\"He's deaf!\") that might not be intelligible to the officers on the scene. I can see that happening,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-27.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130316,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/27\/three-random-notes-and-a-footnote-about-germany-and-austria.html","url_meta":{"origin":11292,"position":1},"title":"Three random notes (and a footnote) about Germany and Austria","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Mar-16 3:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Scribbled in a notebook while on our brief trip there, just concluded.1. While I purchased an German phrase book, I never made use of it; everyone we encountered had sufficient familiarity with English to address whatever the current need was, and some much better than that. More notably, as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Enten5B15D.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Enten5B15D.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Enten5B15D.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48597,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/30\/self-fulfilling-fear.html","url_meta":{"origin":11292,"position":2},"title":"Self-Fulfilling Fear","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Nov-14 5:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Funny thing -- when people are afraid that the police are going to engage in excessive, unjustified violence, they stop cooperating with the police -- who then engage in excessive, unjustified violence.So, apparently, declining to get out of a car while you're having a calm discussion about a traffic stop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27691,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/01\/set-for-stun.html","url_meta":{"origin":11292,"position":3},"title":"Set for stun!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-May-12 3:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I blame Star Trek. Ever since we saw phasers that could be set to \"stun\" people, we've wanted similar devices. And once we got them, we assumed that they would work just like phasers: knock the perp over and send them to lullaby land, until they wake up with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9357,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/21\/so_i_stopped_by.html","url_meta":{"origin":11292,"position":4},"title":"So I stopped by Greg Potemkin&#8217;s cube &#8230;","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Jul-06 12:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... and spruced it up a bit. Replaced his software vendor mug with a nice stainless steel travel mug, which has the company logo on it, a nice touch I...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Job Jollies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8769,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/18\/potpourri_for_g.html","url_meta":{"origin":11292,"position":5},"title":"Potpourri for GBP 250, Alex!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Apr-06 5:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Bits and pieces from the trip: Had the 2-seat side of my little puddle-jumper, Manchester to Glasgow, to myself. Which was nice. Remarkably enough, did not have to remove my...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Food &amp; Drink&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Food &amp; Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}