That being said, I’ll break my blogging vacation on Hellipsis if something comes up in politics and international relations which I just can’t afford to not blog about.

I’m also planning on making blogging a bit simpler by purchasing the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet to use as a blogging tool. [more information on the N810 can be found on (especially) tabletblog.com] This little gadget should make a world of a difference in the frequency of my blogging. Time will tell.

Because I’ll be at work 5-7 days a week, in retail, until the end of the year, I’m focusing on a new blog I just started, the Consumer Etiquette Guide at http://consumers.wordpress.com. You can subscribe to the RSS feed at feeds.feedburner.com/consumers.

My apologies for putting politics in the background for the meantime. Trust me, I feel as bummed about this as you might. I’ll be back, worry you not. While I’m on a slight blogging vacation, I’ll also be applying to 8 different universities to study International Relations and English Philology, which’ll at the very least teach me how to blog on Hellipsis more efficiently, and at the most get me a career in international politics.

Time will tell. See you in January, unless something important comes up in the meantime!

Oh, and Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Diplomatically,
Jani Helle

The Transportation Security Administration just announced that they are implementing “additional security measures related to remote control devices”. Following a National Intelligence Estimate on Homeland Security released in July (2007), the TSA is “carefully monitoring information developed in the law enforcement and intelligence communities related to methods of possible attacks.”

Furthermore, the press release where this information is from stated the following:

While not associated with a specific threat at this time, TSA is aware that remote control toys can be used to initiate devices used in terrorist attacks.

Passing the information on to passengers, the press release stated that:

Accordingly, Transportation Security Officers have been trained in this possibility and travelers may encounter additional screening when bringing remove control devices in carry-on baggage.

So, who exactly might, plausibly, bring remote control toys with them onto a plane in their carry-on? KIDS!
I’d assume it would be a safe bet to assume that most such toys would be carried onto the plane in the backpack of Little Johnny. Parents, you’re kid might be a terrorist, or atleast suspected of being one the next time you fly…

I’m not downplaying the possible threat of using a remote control for blowing up an IED, but aren’t there more common devices for achieving such an end?

That thing in your pocket, your cell phone? Yeah, that’s right. Your cell phone as been used thousands of times to blow up shit. Remember the amateur terrorists who tried to blow up a few car bombs in London? The ones that didn’t blow up because they’d wired them wrong or something? They used cell phones as the (intended) trigger.

Are they going to ban cell phones on planes next? It’s probably one of the most common ingredients of homemade bombs. Pretty much every single adult traveler has a cell phone on their person, and it’s one item not too many people would like to put in their checked baggage. (Chances of being stolen: very good…)

Is there even any conceivable way in which the TSA could prohibit taking cell phones onto planes in carry-on baggage or in person? Can cell phones ever be banned from airplanes, considering how abundant and important they are nowadays in the world?

What do you think?

Source:
TSA Statement On Information Regarding Remote Control Toys

Allow me a minute or two to run through my side projects which I operate in addition to my personal blog at http://janihelle.wordpress.com and my Political Science/Stupidity blog at http://hellipsis.wordpress.com.

My most ambitious project has to be Existential Questions. Over a few beers I got a great idea for a Facebook group and a blog, as well as a forum and a web TV channel in the works.
The whole idea is to collect a database of responses to life’s questions, such as What Is The Meaning Of Life? and Are We Alone In The Universe?, as well as debating about more controversial issues such as Abortion and Creation vs Evolution.
If you’re interested, you can find the blog at http://existentialquestions.wordpress.com. Don’t forget about the Forum, the Facebook group, or the Existential TV channel!

My two newest projects are only a few days old. Somewhat similar to Existential Questions, these two are attempts at Travel Guide 2.0. As the web moves towards being more and more user-generated, most travel guides are still dragging their feet.

With this in mind, I have started the Budapest City Guide and the Helsinki City Guide, two cities close to my heart.

The whole premise is that you can spend years in one city and never learn about all the cool places to go, see and experience. Traditional travel guides only go so far as to mention that these places exist. People who actually spend time there will always know better. That is the key point with these groups/blogs. Anyone who reads this and has been to, lived in or wanted to visit Budapest or Helsinki could gain from these guides. All it takes is for you, the reader, to share your experiences! Please visit the blogs at http://budapestcityguide.wordpress.com and http://helsinkicityguide.wordpress.com and don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feeds for each site! If you’re on Facebook, don’t forget to check out and join the Budapest City Guide group and the Helsinki City Guide group!

I’ll leave you with a few slogans for these projects:
Do You Exist?

What Are YOUR Favourite Things About Budapest?

What Are YOUR Favourite Things About Helsinki?

I’m sorry, what? Are things really THIS bad, politically or otherwise, in the United States? Allow me to translate and paraphrase the newspaper clipping for those of you who don’t speak Finnish:

An American family of five is seeking refuge in Finland. The man and woman with their three underage children arrived at the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport on Tuesday (Sep 18) from Germany. The papers for seeking refuge were filed at the airport and the claim is being processed at the Finnish Directorate of Immigration.
No further details concerning the reasons and ground for seeking refuge were released.
Finland considers the United States a safe country and the claims for refugee status will be processed with that in mind.
Because the family arrived in Finland from Germany, the processing of any claims for refugee status should be dealt with in Germany.
[Source: Uutislehti 100/STT]


Most likely the family will not be granted refugee status as they’re not exactly coming from a war-torn country and they aren’t being persecuted for their religious or political views.

Which brings me to my earlier question: are things really so bad in America that Americans are moving to the Old World in search of a safe haven? Is it really that bad to be under the leadership of Dubya? The next presidential elections in America are getting truly underway in mere months as the preliminaries kick off in February. Change is (possibly) just around the corner. Patience America, patience. Political change is coming. You know that the first thing each incoming President does is attempt to undo everything the previous President achieved or messed up…

I can’t fathom, for the life of me, why any American would seek refuge anywhere, especially in Finland. Sure, Finland is far more liberal than the U.S., especially right now, but hey, we don’t even have Wal-Mart or Taco Bell (we do have universal healthcare, free education, one of the best public transportation systems in the world, the least corruption in the world, etc etc…)!

Can you figure out a possible reason why an American family might file a claim for refugee status in another Western nation?

I’ll update this post if any more news is published about the family and their reasons for seeking refuge in Finland.

Source:
Uutislehti 100, September 21st 2007, Issue #154 (2339)

Today marks the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. There’ll be demonstrations and there’ll be remembrance events. Will there be another terrorist attack? Probably not. Too obvious. Today is most likely the safest day to fly in America. Then there’s all the conspiracy theories of the events of 9/11. Do you believe in any of them? Was 9/11 an inside job? If you know any “credible” theories of 9/11 on the net, add the link with a small description below in the comments section!

Six years ago today I was a senior in high school in Hungary, on a bus with the other seniors, heading to Bovec, Slovenia for fall trips. Around the half point of our 12-hour bus ride, our school director paused the movie we were watching and announced that there’s been an incident in New York. It was around the time that people knew that it wasn’t an accident. Naturally, blame was immediately attributed to several powers, such as Muslims, Palestinians, and Americans. Someone even suggested the Japanese… Obviously, none of us had any clue as to what had really happened. We were on a bus with barely any means of communication to the outside world, with the exception of the school director calling the school a few times to get updates and one student’s Nokia Communicator from which was somewhat broken as only about one word out of four were legible from the screen. What he managed to decipher from one piece of news was that in the region of 50,000-100,000 had died. What was left out was that that number was the number of people working in the Twin Towers on a normal day. You can imagine the panic that some people went through. There were some 35ish of us on the bus from many different nationalities, mainly Americans. Upon reaching our destination, most of us retreated into our hotel rooms to watch the news on TV. Spending the trip in a room with two Americans, what was surprising was that I was the one who stayed up until 2am to watch President Bush’s speech to the nation and the rest of the world… The next evening, we got drunk on Slovenian wine.

So, where were you on September 11th, 2001? What did you do that day? Where were you when you first heard about the attacks? Please reply in the comments section below!



Warning: If you have no sense of humor, or if you knew someone who perished on 9/11, please do not watch this video as it may offend you. This video was shot in good humor, and there is no script involved. So what do you think? Is there any truth to this theory? Or is it as outlandish as the rest? Please, share your views on this theory in the comments section below.

If the embedded player above doesn’t work for you, click the thumbnail to the left.

This post is a guide to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), covering the agency left, right and center, for better of worse. Due to the large amount of information available, I shall be updating this post all the time. Subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog or bookmark this post to view the updated versions when they arrive.

BACKGROUND & HISTORY
The Transportation Security Administration was created after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when four planes were hijacked in the United States and subsequently flown into the two Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania.

With the Aviation And Transportation Security Act, passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 19th 2001, the airport and mass transit security measures with the United States were completely transformed as they were directed under the supervision of a sole government agency.

Before the enactment of the TSA, security checkpoints were operated by private companies. (Several airports with the United States are still operated by private security firms, approved by TSA, which still claims a right to authority over them.)

These private security companies bid for the security contracts, with the lowest bid typically winning. (A sure way to ensure working security, I assume…)

Pre-9/11, passengers travelling by air were asked three questions at baggage check:
-”Did you pack your bags yourself?”
-”Have your bags been in your possession since you packed them?”
-”Have any unknown persons asked you to carry anything onboard?”

It wasn’t until early 1973 that the FAA began to require the screening of passengers and their carry-on baggage.

Before the enactment of TSA, a boarding pass was not needed at checkpoints, and non-travellers were allowed to enter the concourses.

The Transportation Security Administration was originally located under the offices of the U.S. Department of Transportation. In March 2003, it became a part of the Department of Homeland Security.

In July 2007, TSA unveiled the new uniforms for its Transportation Security Officers (TSO). These have been quickly criticized as “police-like”, due to the officers’ badges being metal, such as those which police carry, as opposed to the old fabric badges. TSO’s are not law enforcement officials.
[More on TSA.gov...]

MISSION STATEMENT
The Transportation Security Administration is responsible for the security of transportation systems within the United States.

The two main goals of TSA are airport security and the prevention of aircraft hijacking.

The domains under TSA supervision are highways, railroads, buses, mass transit systems, ports and 450 U.S. airports. TSA works with state, local and regional partners to provide the security for these domains.

TSA currently employs some 43,000 Transportation Security Officers, down from a high of 60,000 in 2003.

PERMITTED & PROHIBITED ITEMS
If you’ve ever been to an airport in the United States, well any airport in the world when you think about it, you’ll have seen the (brief) list of general items you can and cannot bring onto an airplane. The list itself, typically accompanied with drawings or photos, is pretty self-explanatory. No firearms, no grenades or other explosives, no poisonous liquids, no knives or other sharp blades, etc…

Most normal people will be smart enough to understand that those items on an airplane are a no-no. Yet, the TSA confiscates firearms “virtually every day. In 2006, some 820 firearms were intercepted at U.S. checkpoints.”

The official list of prohibited and restricted items on airplanes can be viewed here.

Now, as the above list refers only to what you can and cannot bring onto airplanes, and as the TSA handles security operations for ALL(ish) mass transit systems within the United States, where’s the list of items for trains, busses, ferries, trams, etc…?

Do all the items also refer to other modes of transportation, or just air travel? Immense security with checkpoints and all at airports, but nothing(?) like it at train stations or bus depots?

Think back at the post-9/11 terrorist attacks in Europe. The metrolines and a doubledecker bus in London. Trains and train stations in Madrid.

How long until that happens in America, considering how the TSA’s efforts at passenger screening are focused on air passengers?

FAILURES
TSA has yet to actually catch a terrorist. Instead, it has proven itself to be very good at inconveniencing the average Joe and Jane Traveler.

Several airports have been momentarily shut down because TSO’s have let someone slip by the security screening checkpoint with “suspicious items” on their person. Please note that these people were never found.

I have a LARGE list of TSA idioticies with me, but to hit today’s deadline. I’ll get that typed up with my next update to this post.

SUCCESSES
One might argue that because there has not been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, the implementation of the Transportation Security Administration to watch over the security of mass transit in the United States has been a success. But consider this: there have only been two terrorist attacks, where the attackers were foreign nationals, within the United States, 9/11 and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. (Need to actually check if that’s true… My memory might fail me here…)

Sure, there have been many terrorism alerts and scares, but the severity and the realism of these have been somewhat dubious (i.e. the incompetence of the planners of the proposed JFK Airport pipeline attack…). Most other terrorist attacks on American soil have been by homegrown terrorists (the Unabomber, school shootings with the exception of Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, the 2000 Atlanta Summer Olympics…). Are they even called terrorist attacks?

Now, if you consider TSA’s successes, remember that there have been no attacks on mass transit the birth of TSA. Then again, there have been no credible threats either. Win-win situation for TSA…

On its website, the TSA lists a few things as its successes. These include confiscating 40 million prohibited items and assisting in the evacuation of 4,500 American citizens from Lebanon and facilitating the air evacuation of some 25,000 people from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

CRITICISMS
No agency is ever without its critics and the TSA is no exception, regardless of its young age.

Here’s a short list of the criticisms that’ve been directed at TSA since its enactment:
-Invasions of privacy
-Engaging in Security Theater
-Theft of passenger possessions from checked baggage by TSA employees
-Lavish spending by TSA officials on events not related to airport security
-Sales of items collected from passengers
-TSA employees skipping security checks
-Wasteful spending in its hiring practices
-Numerous employees found sleeping on the job
-Failure to use good judgment and common sense
[Source: Wikipedia]

Gotta love that last criticism…

THE FUTURE OF TSA
Standardizing the nation’s security checkpoints within mass transit systems is an effective way to unilaterally ensure everyone’s safety across the board. On paper.

In practice, the way security is handled today in the United States, primarily at the nation’s airports, leaves a lot to be desired.

The problem with standardizing everything under one agency is that if the agency does not work as it should, the whole system suffers. Sure, all checkpoints across America have the same equipment and all the TSO’s have the same basic training. But what if the equipment and training up to the job?

If the United States continues to standardize its mass transit security under one agency, and it will, the problems must be fixed.

When faced with an enemy which is ever-changing, the system must be prepared to answer every single threat, preemptively.

Funding must be allocated so that the equipment is up to the task, and is continuously upgraded to be one step above all possible threats, not as it operates now by banning items AFTER a possible terrorist attack.

There will always be the human factor and human error. You can’t fight a human enemy with merely technology. The training and hiring of Transportation Security Officers must be improved to include personnel best suited for the job, handing particular jobs to those with the attributes and educational background to really do the job well.

There’s plenty of work to be done. Too many screw ups, too many human error situations, too much inconvenience for the average traveller.

EXPERIENCES
This part is for you, the reader. Share your own experiences with the TSA, good and bad, by posting them in the comments section below.

As a Finnish citizen who has only flown to the United States on two occasions (Nov-Dec 2004 and Jul-Aug 2006), my personal experience is limited, and I have no experience of the time before the TSA took over.

So please, share your personal experiences with others, before and after 9/11. Do you feel safer now? Or did you prefer the way things used to be? Have you experienced any amusing or annoying situations at airports, or any mass transit locations controlled by the TSA? Let us know!

Disclaimer:
Personally, I have no beef with the Transportation Security Administration. I believe the majority of the TSO’s are decent, hard-working individuals, many of then actively doing everything they can to protect the nation’s airports and mass transit systems. That being said, for an agency tasked with such an important job, there are too many shortcomings.
I’m attempting to write an unbiased report here.

[This is still a work in progress. Any feedback, comments, or corrections will be helpful. Please use the comments section at the bottom of this post. All additional information added to this post will be duly credited.]

Sources:
TSA.gov
Wikipedia articles referring to TSA

Let’s get to the point. Most of the search terms which bring people to my blog are concerning the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Several weeks ago I promised I’d answer the thirst for knowledge which people are seemingly exhibiting.

So, I have taken it upon myself to actually write up a post covering a great deal about the TSA, it’s failures, history, and successes.

I’ve set myself a deadline for the first posting of this piece. That deadline is this Monday (13th of August).

With this in mind, the post will be found at http://hellipsis.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/transportation-security-administration/. (Obviously, if you’re reading this and it’s not Monday the 13th of August 2007, there’s really no point in clicking on that link, because it won’t get you anywhere… If it’s past the due date, click away…)

You can always find a link to the post in the Featured section of this blog, even when new posts get exhibited there…

Furthermore, if you haven’t already subscribed to my RSS feed, do so now by entering the feed address into you reader: http://feeds.feedburner.com/hellipsis/.

Please note that the post will be a work in progress, and will be updated every now and then. To keep up to date on the post, subscribe to the RSS feed, get updates by email (click the corresponding link on the right panel), or bookmark the page and keep coming back…

Several events this week have restricted me from posting anything.
Primarily, I had to write a letter of appeal for rectification to the University of Helsinki. I applied to study Political History, in English, as a foreigner, although I’m a Finnish citizen by birth. Spent too much time studying abroad in English for me to be able to study in Finnish. I’ve posted the letter of appeal on my personal blog, so go check it out.

Secondly, I attended a medieval event in Ulvila (Finland) over the weekend, visiting my girlfriend’s relatives. The event itself was a fundraiser for the Lion’s Club (which I am not a member of). Darn good food, though! I’ll have a few pics of the weekend on my personal blog at janihelle.wordpress.com soon. Being a history buff, I love all these era costume parties. My slight fascination with the Middle Ages stems from living in England as a small child of 10, and visiting many historical locations there, such as King Arthur’s Castle at Tintagel, Cornwall and Nottingham Forest of Robin Hood fame, to mention a few. If you’ve been to a medieval fair and have photos to show off on your blog, let me know!

Finally, I have an appeal to you, the reader. I read some 125 rss feeds everyday, most of which I merely scan for any information relating to what I’d write about. So, if you have or know of a good blog or website relating to international relations, shoot the link in my direction by way of the comments. Blogging is about people, so let’s spread the sites! We all want more readers, don’t we?

For me, that’s a lot of visitors in a short period of time. I started blogging about political stupidity on February 3rd 2007 at http://hellbroadcast.blogspot.com. Between February 3rd and June 3rd I had 402 visitors at HellBroadCast. Some more basic math: about 24 visitors a week, some 3.4 visitors a day.

I don’t know what’s changed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the growth in visitors. I’m ecstatic. But anyhow, my content has remained the same, the topic is the same, the writer has remained the same. The only things that have changed are the name, the domain, and the address.

I haven’t spent all week waiting for my blog stats to hit 1,000 visitors. Or just sitting at work. I did actually get around to finishing two posts on stupidity, which really is the theme here, isn’t it… Surprisingly, this week wasn’t on political or governmental issues. Not even on terrorism or George Bush. This week, I touched upon failings in education.

No, I’m not directly attacking the United States’ public school system, nor am I blasting the Department of Education. There are just too many factors which contribute to my first topic: 1 in 5 Americans believe the Sun revolves around the Earth and a few other idiocities.

20% of Americans allegedly believe this. Now it’s your turn to do the math. If there are some 300 million Americans, 20% is a whopping number of people…

We’re talking about failures in common sense here. For a quick rundown of contributing factors, let’s say Religion, Family, and Media.

I won’t launch off into greater discussion on the contributing factors. But I would want to hear your opinions on it! Read the post I wrote and drop some comments in my direction.

Moving on, my other post of the week, also related to school, was not on education per say, but on the learning environment that atleast one school in America has brought upon it’s kids: a middle school in Virginia has issued a “NO TOUCHING” policy at the school.

There’s too much to write here on the matter so have a read through the post and share your thoughts.

And here’s the link to the two posts of the week:
Stupidity Is All Around You
No Physical Contact In School? Huh?

And now for something else. Namely, Existential Questions.

At http://existentialquestions.wordpress.com, I’ve started a communal look into existential questions about the world we inhabit and the issues we face during our lives.

I invite all of you to participate in the discussions at the website and/or the Facebook group for the site.

Although only about a month or so old, many people have shared their opinions and thoughts on the issues we already have posted. Here’s a list of the issues we’re discussing right now:

(If any of the links don’t work right now, they will soon…)

You can see all the ongoing discussions and the polls from the links at the top panel of the website.

So go have a look, find out what it’s about, and share your thoughts, either by commenting on the topics below the posts or by sending us email with the contact form.

As a final thought, the extensive post I’m working on about the Transportation Security Administration is getting out of control… But I’ll remain strong and try to get it done. Everyday there are people searching for information on the TSA, and I want to give people what they want. Stay tuned!