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Dicey looking landing. Source -Airliners.net

I’ve never been scared to fly. In fact I love to fly. Give me the window seat please! Especially on that red eye to Phoenix just to fly to Sacramento, do you 7 hour layover, just to be in Portland at 7:30 AM. Ok, so the layover sucked. But I love to fly, and miss it. It’s in my DNA, and a part of the reason why I want to go into Aerospace Engineering.

Yet with the recent crashes, it gets me concerned. I’ve been shopping online for tickets for the family to fly out to London and see the in-laws. My daughter is excited with the prospect of finally being able to fly like daddy did during those transition projects. She’ll be upset when she realizes the real jet isn’t pink, but she’ll get over it.

Just a few months ago, the Airlines were bragging about how safe it was to fly, and about how it had been so long since there was a major accident. Then a video of a German airliner making one of a landing during strong crosswinds shows up. Then Captain Sully glides his Airbus into the Hudson after having a double bird strike at 3500 ft. Then a plane in upstate New York lands on a house, killing everyone except 2 of the 3 people in the house. Then a plane nosedives into a cemetery in Montana. Then the video of the FedEx MD-11 bouncing when trying to land, rolling to it’s left and bursting into flames. There have been others overseas as well. You can visit Plane Crash Info.com to view these and more.

Then the news comes out about the families on the Pilatus PC-12/45 Eagle that nosedived in Butte, Montana. God, that could have been my family and I! Three families gone just like that. Wow.

All this got me thinking on my dad. He refuses to fly. When he was in the Marines he “jumped out of too many perfectly good aircraft.” Yet what really set him away from flying was being the deputy-in-charge when a commercial jet crashed here in Charlotte. The smell was just noxious. After 3 trips to the cleaners, he finally had to throw the uniforms away, the smell of burning flesh permanent ingrained into the fibers. I won’t go into some of the gruesome details I was recounted too, even when I was young, but he made a good case why he refused to fly. Sure, they are supposedly safer, but when you get into an accident, you’re probably not walking away from it.

So of course I am thinking about these things while pricing out round-trip tickets. The grandparents definitely want to see their grand-baby again (they moved there a year ago), and everyone here is excited about the thought of visiting London and surroundings for 2 weeks. If everything works out we will go, but I guarantee that the risks will weigh heavily on my mind. I wonder if I can request Sully to be my pilot? Never mind, not enough water around here.

Ironic that this is the Chase FREEDOM card?

I’ve heard on the news about some of the dastardly moves the credit card companies have made to try and lower liabilities and put the dollar weight on the people. Well here is a true story of yet another of their schemes.

My mom had a Chase credit card up until last year. They were going to raise her rate for arbitrary reasons, but allowed her to opt-out if she canceled her account and repaid the current amount at the current interest rate. She promptly opted out. She had been making her payments as required, yet Chase decided to up her interest rate on it without notice. After several long calls with them, she contacted the OCC – Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – and told them what happened. The lady couldn’t believe it was legal that they up the rates in this case, but the can. However, they failed to provide a 15 day written notice. The informed her that the best route to wage the complaint is online, so this evening I will be helping her do just that.

What is wrong with this picture? Once she closed that account, it is no longer a line of credit but a loan. If my bank sent me my truck payment one month and arbitrarily decided to take on more interest, they couldn’t. However, when a credit card company does it, they can. And in this case, the bank was a recipient of $25 billion in TARP funds.

This also goes with another Chase policy that added a higher minimum payment and a $10 a month interest accruable fee on certain promotional card holder accounts that was announced back in February. Read more about that here on firedoglake.com.

As for now? Tonight I’ll be helping her place her complaint online. Then we are going to be working on a letter to the members in Congress that represent us.

Does this tick you off? Have you been hit by unfair/unethical practices by your credit card company? Then post a comment, then write your congressman a letter. Washington is so busy barking after a couple of hundred million at AIG and screaming that the TARP recipients aren’t making loans, while they are going around and raping the individual taxpayer on exorbitant fees and interest rate hikes. Enough’s enough.

Well, I finally decided to install Windows XP on my desktop, which is already running Vista. Within thinking, I just set up an extra partition and set it up. That was a lesson.

After WinXP finished and booted, I went into boot.ini and did like any other version of Windows. Yet when it booted, it hung up and failed. Shit, because I have all my data stored under Vista.

I finally got it back into booting into Vista (thanks to Startup Repair on the Vista disk), then realized that boot.ini doesn’t exist anymore for Vista, instead it uses Boot Configuration Data (BCD). Why?! The only way I to manually edit it is through the command prompt, so I had to learn how to do that. Arg, why can’t they just make it easier to use. Just because we are IT professionals doesn’t mean we ALWAYS want to do something the hard way!

I did find some softwares that would do the job, but man! I’m not paying money for something that is supposed to be simple. It’s crazy. I’ll get it done. In case you were wondering, VistaBootPro came highly recommended, and for those not too hardheaded enough to spend $10, looks like it is worth it. Me? I’ll google it till I learn it.

Well, we’ll find out later if I got it fixed. If not, I’ll just scrap XP, install it as a virtual machine, and enjoy the extra 250 gb of space.

In the above image, a subdural hematoma has compressed the brain to the left of the image

This was a sad and disturbing story that came out from Bolivia. The mom and step-dad nearly buried their 3 year old daughter while she was in a coma! A friend visiting the wake noticed signs of life and took the child to the hospital. They figured out that she was in a coma, but is expected to recover.

Mom and step-dad have been arrested, and their 3 month old has been taken from them. Reason for the coma? A subdural hematoma - a traumatic injury in which blood pools between two protective layers of the brain - which is caused by either a blow to the head or violent shaking.

This is another sad story involving a child. They are being held on abuse charges, although attempted murder should be a better call. Hopefully we’ll hear more about this case. Even though it makes me sick to the stomach just thinking about it.

Read the full story here on CNN.

Wow. Have you ever been to wikileaks.org? Plethora of information there. Take for instance the scandalous moves of the Australian government.

Someone leaked the website blacklist used by the ACMA. Right now it is used for parental control software, etc., but the Australian government is looking to implement it nationwide.

Most of the sites are pornographic in nature (some child porn), however, not all. What is shocking is that the government has blacklisted a wikileaks page that shows the same type of leaked information from Denmark. The only reason they would do that would be to block Australians from viewing something that might make them raise similar questions against the government. The claim is that people will see the blacklist and go visit these porn sites. Sure, I did a quick random screening, yet it appears that most of these sites are already no longer owned by the previous owner, pulling up adds instead of asses.

Sad that the Aussie’s have had to resort to moves made by places like the UAE or Taiwan. Why are they trying to hide this stuff?

If you take a good look at the list, you will also locate very legitimate sites, such as a tour operator. I randomly viewed a number of sites on there, and for every porn site visited, they were all shut down, one of those quick search advertising sites. Pretty lame.

I understand the value of protecting children from porn on the internet. Parental controls are great. However, the biggest concern about this list is its planned used as national regulated internet censorship. Censoring the internet goes against the grain of what the internet was developed for. Controlling what can be viewed on the internet is better than controlling the media.

The Thai government proved that a while back, blacklisting sites with information about the imprisonment of an Australian writer. There are other cases as well, however, I am at work and our own screening won’t permit me to view any of these sites.

So do you want to take a look at this list? Go ahead, you can view the entire list and get links to more articles regarding this here on wikileaks.org.

The Ilyushin Il-38 May maritime patrol aircraft, the type of plane that flew over Navy ships at 500 ft.

The Russians are at it once again. This time they did a fly over U.S. Navy ships in “Mays” bombers while the ships were in international waters in the Sea of Japan. How close? 500 ft above. In a plane, that’s incredibly close. It was a legal move, but still leaves your concerned.

But what’s up with these guys? Between threatening British, Canadian, and American airspace, looking for runways in the Caribbean and South America, doing flyovers of naval ships. Our government says it’s them flexing their muscles. Flexing muscles are for scared wimps, hoping to intimidate someone. I don’t think that’s the deal. Smells like they are testing the waters. Consider it, right now they are “flexing” their muscles, then being quickly herded back out by fighter aircraft (except for the case where a Russian bomber flew through U.S. Airspace undetected a while back). In the latest attempts, it appears the F-18′s didn’t intercept until apparently after the planes flew over. Maybe I read it wrong, but if that’s the case, imagine those bombers were on a mission. They could have taken out several ships in a quick sucker punch.

Things are starting to add up to trouble. Russian has been trying to “flex its muscles” in multiple venues now, and she is getting a stronger and wider influence. These cards aren’t adding up well.

My whole life, the Cold War was a vague concept from my childhood. I was 6 when the wall came down, far too young to grip what it all meant. I fear the time may be coming of a second Cold War, or worse.

Just a quick correction, the “Mays” is actually a maritime patrol aircraft, not a bomber, but still moved decidedly close to naval vessels. Beyond search and rescue, these planes are also used for reconnaissance roles, lending to the question of why the Russians are so interested in.

Quick screen shot of BAC this evening.. Feel the momentum?

Wow, you know, there are some days that the street can put you in a GREAT mood. Right now my aggressive buying of certain financials during it’s move into the pit are showing great promise. In fact, my financials alone are strong enough to overcome my modest losses and other sectors. My IRA is in the green for the first time since I started it (after my 401k lost 30%+ on the poor management of the funds).

So is this just another short term rally or a sustainable move? Well, we’ve been creeping up now for about a week. The fed’s aggressive purchasing of more securitized debt has definitely helped. The news that Citi and BoA, which some had considered good as dead, may actually post a profit for Q1 helps. Plus BoA’s news that it intends on paying off it’s TARP obligations by the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010 doesn’t hurt either. Seems opposite for a company in supposed dire straights. If it all pans out, amazing how I’ve been saying it all along. If you don’t believe me, just read through the posts. I’ve been buying up BoA like it’s candy when it was sub-$4. My only regret? I didn’t have enough money to buy as much as I wanted (like a few thousand shares). Average price for my BoA? $6.04, buying since it was $25 on south. it closed at $7.67 and is at $7.85 in after-hours trading.

So to those guys trying to get Lewis ousted: stick to what you know. You don’t run banks, you run funds, and there is a large gap. This man is large and in charge (ironic he’s short), and he’s the bank’s best bet to recovering and being a full force.

I also heard some disturbing news last night regarding the banks. Some in Congress are wanting to blame lack of proper anti-trust regulation as the cause of the recession. Hogwash. They also want to consider forcing some of the larger banks to break up. Honestly, this is horrible stuff. Their supporting evidence is flimsy at best. They have seen only what they want to see, and ignore the rest of the wide world.

And finally, an analyst on CNN I can agree with. I don’t remember who it was – I saw it eating a quick bite before evening Physics Lab – but someone they were speaking to on The Situation Room was fearful of the plan of the special tax on AIG bonuses. He agreed that they are trying to make up for the fact they dropped the ball the first time around by abusing their legislative abilities. When a government decides it wants to arbitrarily tax those it wishes because they don’t like what they are getting, that is when we need to be fearful people.

For a quick laugh though, an iReporter jokingly went with the whole pitchforks ready to to mob against AIG because of the bonuses. I’ll see if I can grab the video somewhere.

A Police sketch of Saevang that was shown on America's Most Wanted March 14th, 2009. Tips after the airing helped to lead locating him, which ended in a murder/suicide.

Maybe you’ve heard of the recent murders in Conover, NC, up in Catawba county? Maybe not. Lisa Phan and her 3 children – Melanie (20), Pauline (18), and Cody(3) – were shot and stabbed to death last week. A friend of Pauline’s had saw the murderer attacking Mrs. Phan in front of the house, then called 911. By the time the Sheriff got there, everyone was already dead. Then the story, and police sketch, were announced on America’s Most Wanted. Investigators had to work through the weekend to follow up on all the leads. Amazing what national TV can do.

They managed to get a suspect, whom had left the car in Wisconsin and was driving to California with his girlfriend. The Sheriff’s Department thought he may be heading to California and alerted the authorities in Utah, since it was a likely route. Sure enough, within minutes, they are founded him. Of course it didn’t wind up in an arrest. He wrecked the car and drove up on an embankment. The car caught fire, and the Washington County Sheriff pulled the suspect, Chiew Chan Saevang, 37, and his girlfriend, Yer Yang, 40, from the burning car. They were already dead. Saevang shot her them himself.

So now her separated husband is the only living family member. This was be extremely sad, except the added twist. At least the mom, and possibly the dad, were in the opium trafficking business.

Investigators said the family had received a shipment of opium from Thailand, which was smuggled in through the mail. It was worth $160,000 to $200,000. The family knew Saevang and likely let him into the home, where he killed the women and child and stole the drugs.

I feel bad for the dad. He was trying to fix things with his wife, and he lost her and his children. But at the same time, if he was involved with the drug trade too, then he reaped what he sowed. When you sell death, you bring it into the family. So I gotta ask, was the money worth it? Well, was it?! Lost your 20 year old and 18 year old daughters, and 3 year old son.

What kills me above all is the 3 year old. I mean, come on now, what the hell is a 3 year old going to do to stop you from stealing those drugs? Is he going to rat you out, give the cops and full play by play about how you did it, and identify you? I know I’m not talking to you directly, and my English teacher would kill me for using it. But why would he do something like that? Can anyone answer that?

We are screaming foul play over the greed involved with the bankers, but this greed is far more worse. This man killed for $200k worth of dope. Lesson to all you dope dealer/smuggling parents out there. If you don’t want your kids to get hurt, don’t deal dope. Those kids could be alive right now if they had just stayed out of it.

To read the full article on it, you can click here and view it on WSOC, the ABC news station for Charlotte, NC. You can also see the information about Saevang on the America’s Most Wanted website.

The Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

I love the government’s solution to the bonus situation. Tax em to death on it. I thought we were supposed to be protected from such things, I guess not.

I was listening to the radio today, and the guy had some very valid points for the executives receiving bonuses.

A) They were retention bonuses, which are much different than performance bonuses

B) When the government first made its moves to bailout AIG, Chris Dodd, the man who originated the idea of taxing them to death, passed by the opportunity that would’ve prevented this debacle in the first place. They didn’t.

Mainly, I’m most concerned over the implications of this. The government is showing an awful amount of force over a relative small amount of money, which when these bonuses were decided, were not government funds. In fact, I didn’t even see this kind of energy against terrorism or to help the victims of Katrina. So the government finally decides to wake up to the tune of money.

Yet if they pull off this “special” tax provisions, a few things could be had. If the government could step out of line on this, it leaves open a powerful precedent for it to tax anyone for anything just because they don’t feel like it. I could be charged a blog tax because I’m posting against them. Who knows?

The other concern with this “special” tax provision: what happens if they screw it up – in typical bureaucratic practice – and it ends up taxing far more. Say you’ve barely scraped through the whole year, but your company managed to have a decent year and decides to give bonuses to its employees. Wow, that extra $1,500 will go a long way. Oh wait, Mr. Dodd and company screwed up, so instead of $1500, you get a measley $150. Thanks government. That’ll cover 1 credit card payment this month.

I’m not for big government, and I’m not for little government. And I’m not for government who decides to change the rules on command because they don’t like something. They knew these bonuses were going to happen when they took up the charge of the bailout program, yet refused to do anything about it. You can’t make up the rules as you go along. That’s like pulling a guy over who was going 55 in a 55 zone, but you decided it was now a 35 zone, so he’s now under arrest. I don’t like these implications, and if you have any sense about you, you wouldn’t either. Sure, I’m not thrilled these guys are getting bonuses either, but maybe I wasn’t smart enough to force one under my employment contract.

Housing starts unexpectedly jumped 22% in February

According to CNN, housing starts jump 22% in February, an unexpected surge. Housing starts were up everywhere in the country in fact, except for the west coast. That’s what happens when you get California dreams and build more houses than people. Building permits were also up 3%, another good sign.

Does this mean we are out of the woods yet? No, but we need every step in the right direction we can get. We’ll see if the trend continues in March.

Stocks are also trying to rally again, another good sign. The surge had been strong for several days, until yesterday, when the rally lost some of its fizzle. Things seem to be moving in the right direction again (up!), with finance and technology leading the pack. Hey, in this recession, we can only measure success 1 day at a time.