Saturday, March 08, 2014

The US frequently sets the standard. Passports are easy currency.

A Malaysia Airlines flight(click here) carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing over the South China Sea on Saturday, prompting China to send ships to scour the water for possible wreckage....

The Chinese are putting in a heroic effort.

How to Deal with a Missing Passport (click here)
If a group leader has to deal with a lost or stolen passport, these tips will help to speed the replacement process:

Make 4 color photocopies of the first two pages of each person’s passport. (Be sure everyone signs their brand-new passports, too, before you depart for the airport.) Group leaders should keep one copy and students should keep a copy in their carry-on bag and one copy in their checked luggage. All copies should be kept separately from the actual passport. Leave one copy at home with family members....

Acceptable IDs include: (click here)
  • U.S. passport
  • U.S. passport card
  • DHS "Trusted Traveler" cards (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST)
  • U.S. Military ID (active duty or retired military and their dependents, and DOD civilians)
  • Permanent Resident Card
  • Border Crossing Card
  • DHS-designated enhanced driver's license
  • Driver's Licenses or other state photo identity cards issued by Department of Motor Vehicles (or equivalent)
  • Native American Tribal Photo ID
  • HSPD-12 PIV Card
  • An airline or airport-issued ID (if issued under a TSA-approved security plan)
  • A foreign government-issued passport
  • Canadian provincial driver's license or Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) card
  • Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC)
  • Non-US/Canadian citizens are not required to carry their passports if they have documents issued by the U.S. government such as Permanent Resident Cards. Those who do not should be carrying their passports while visiting the U.S.
This standardization of the list of accepted documents better aligns TSA with other DHS components, including Customs and Border Protection, and REAL ID benchmarks.

It will be sometime before the Malaysian flight will be discovered as to it's cause, but, it doesn't matter everyone knows the possibility of passport theft. Still yet another hurdle for airlines.

We had our car broken into yesterday in Portugal, (click here) in the car park of a fairly quiet rural semi-touristy area. We were away from the car for less than 10 mins.
A bag was taken which was not very well hidden on the floor of the front passenger seat. Bag contained 2 passports, mobile, mp4 player, plus some other stuff like a notebook, tissues etc.
They obviously didn't have any time/intention to go through the rest of the car (phew!!!!!) which was full of clothes, camping gear etc plus hidden laptops, satnav, bank cards, driving licences etc.
To cut a long story short... We went to the local police and reported the incident. 15 mins after we left the station they called us and said the bag had been found discarded near the road so we went to collect it. It contained everything but the mobile and mp4.

 So... we got our passports back!!!!... 


Maggie answered 3 years ago

It's a typical opportunist crime. The culprits were only after easily disposable items and MP3 players and mobiles are dead easy to get rid of for cash. You don't need a specialist fence like you would for passports.
Thank your lucky stars that they were not professionals or your driving licences, bank cards, hidden laptops (no doubt with very useful identity theft info) would have gone as well as your passports - for good. You could have been a step away from having your bank accounts emptied.

You can hardly blame the police for your own idiocy in leaving so many valuables in a car in a tourist area. In fact, they actually got your belongings back in record time.

Rather than be suspicious of the law keepers, be a bit more street wise in your own behaviour. A half hidden bag in the front passenger seat was a magnet for an opportunistic thief and unbelievably naive behaviour on your part.

I really had to share this. Our wild horses are friendly and dynamic.

Report Inhumane Treatment (click here)

If you observe or have factual information that a federally protected wild horse or wild burro has been treated inhumanely or sold to slaughter, please contact the BLM at wildhorse@blm.gov or at 866-4MUSTANGS (866-468-7826) with your name, contact information, and specific information about what you saw or know about.  If possible, please include the freezemark.  Federally protected horses and burros have a freezemark.

This is Rune, the horse Elisa Wallace spoke about so affectionately.


Okay, so it isn't a crash yet, simply missing. Got that part.

By


The Boeing 777 flown by Malaysia Airlines (click here) that disappeared Saturday morning over the South China Sea is one of the world's most popular — and safest — jets.

The long-range jumbo jet has helped connect cities at the far ends of the globe, with flights as long as 16 hours. But more impressive is its safety record: The first fatal crash in its 19-year history only came last July when an Asiana Airlines jet landed short of the runway in San Francisco. Three of the 307 people aboard died.

Airlines like the plane because it is capable of flying extremely long distances thanks to two giant engines. Each engine is so massive that a row of at least five coach seats could fit inside it. By having just two engines, the plane burns through less fuel than four-engine jets, like the Boeing 747, which it has essentially replaced. 

"It has provided a new standard in both efficiency and safety," said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation consultant with the Teal Group. "The 777 has enjoyed one of the safest records of any jetliner built."

Besides last year's Asiana crash, the only other serious incident with the 777 came in January 2008 when a British Airways jet landed about 1,000 feet (305 meters) short of the runway at London's Heathrow Airport....

So, this makes three losses of the aircraft since 2008 and two within a year of each other. I don't believe they were all the same 777. Asian's crash was a
777-200ER. Nope, the Malaysian flight was the same model of 777-200ER. And the British Airways Flight 38 was also a 777-200ER. 

Boeing links Heathrow, Atlanta Trent 895 engine rollbacks (click here) 

17:56 3 Feb 2009
 By: John Croft
Washington DC
 Boeing says "similar factors" were likely at play in two Trent 895 thrust rollback incidents on Boeing 777-200ER aircraft last year. 

The information was revealed in an update on the incidents the air framer recently sent to operators.

Though Boeing in the update admits the circumstances are "slightly different", the air framer says water-ice accumulation in the fuel path of the engine fuel-oil heat exchanger systems in the power plants appears to have played role in both situations. 

The most recent incident involved a Delta Airlines 777-200ER (N862DA) enroute from Shanghai to Atlanta on 26 November 2008 with 232 passengers and 15 crew. Pilots experienced an uncommanded rollback of the right Rolls-Royce engine while in cruise at 39,000ft approximately 40 minutes after a programmed step-climb. The crew was able to recover the engine after performing flight manual procedures related to the problem and descending to 31,000ft....

 July 6, 2013
A Boeing 777 jetliner with 307 people on board (click here) crashed and caught fire at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight across the Pacific Ocean from South Korea. Two people were killed and scores injured, authorities said.
The plane, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Seoul, apparently hit the lip of the seawall that separates the runway from San Francisco Bay, sources told NBC News, then slammed into the ground and skidded down the runway before coming to rest in an adjacent field, its tail sheared off and the fuselage spewing black smoke. Photos and video from the scene showed passengers sliding down the emergency chutes and walking away....
Feb 26, 2014
By Larry Greenemeier

Journalist Miles O’Brien (click here) earlier this week related a harrowing experience that began when a piece of TV equipment fell on his left forearm, leaving it sore and swollen but not enough for him to seek medical treatment. Two days later, after the pain and swelling had increased, a doctor delivered some terrible news to O’Brien. A sharp increase in pressure inside the journalist’s injured forearm was killing the nerve cells and damaging the arteries and veins. Hours later doctors amputated the dying limb....

...How common is acute compartment syndrome?
Compartment syndrome is a well-described, well-documented entity that orthopedic and vascular surgeons run into on a regular basis. One of the statistics that I’m aware of is that there’s about a 5 percent incidence of acute compartment syndrome as a result of tibia fractures. You’re going to see this condition more often in trauma centers, during wartime or in major disasters. You’ll also see it happen in drug overdose victims if they fall with their head on their arm and stay that way for hours. In those cases it’s not a lot of pressure at once, but over time a lower amount of pressure can cause a compartment syndrome....


...There are no technologies that can tell a physician this is happening. This is a clinical diagnosis based on the five “P”s of compartment syndrome: 1) Is the pain out of proportion? That means the patient doesn’t have a bad injury but is screaming and clawing at the ceiling because they’re in so much pain. 2) Is there pain on a passive stretch? In the case of a leg, if you take the patient’s toe and bend it up or down it will make the pain that much worse. The patient will yell or writhe in pain; more pain than you would expect. 3) Is there pallor? Does the injured limb’s coloring look different from the healthy one? Are the capillaries under the skin under pressure and not getting as much blood flow? 4) Is the patient experiencing "pulselessness" in their limb, or a change in pulse in that limb? 5) And is the patient experiencing paresthesia [a burning or prickling sensation]? When that nerve starts to die the patient will experience numbness and tingling. Once the limb is completely numb and weak, it’s often too late to save the limb....

The blood flow has to re-established through relief of pressure pinching the blood vessels. Blood flow = oxygen.

...do the fasciotomy [which involves making incisions in the fascia to relieve pressure].

If the patient is experiencing compartment syndrome already—they’re having numbness and weakness and pain out of proportion with the severity of their injury and the compartment is swollen and tense—I don’t even really measure pressures a lot in that case, I just move to release the pressure right away....
Except for Germany the medal count at the Papalympics is different. Leaders in the Olympics aren't necessary achieving this year.

By Alyssa Newcomb
@AlyssaNewcomb

Mar 7, 2014 1:21pm
 
Ukraine (click here) has 23 athletes participating in the Paralympics, but only the flag bearer showed up to participate in the opening ceremony today in Sochi, Russia, where president Vladimir Putin was in attendance.

 Biathlete Mykhaylo Tkachenko was met with roaring applause from the crowd, but  remained stoic as he participated in the parade of nations.

Ukraine’s decision to send just their flag bearer to the ceremony was an apparent protest of Russia’s decision to send troops to Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

Ukrainian Paralympic Committee President Valeriy Suskevich said earlier this week his team would not boycott the games unless the situation between the two countries escalated.

“We are raising our flag for peace,” Suskevich told the BBC. “The athletes have a right to have the Paralympic Games under peaceful conditions.

Athletes and officials of United States enter the arena during attend the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Paralympics at the Fisht Olympic stadium in Sochi, Russia, Friday, March 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)