As Leia mentioned in a comment to my ride-from-the-airport post, Vanguard Airlines went out of business. So, I've bought another ticket with Airtran for Saturday:
Pittsburgh to Dallas: 8:03pm - 11:35pm, via Atlanta, flights 129 and 77
Category: travel
Ride back from the Airport?
Jason will be in Colorado when I return to Dallas on Saturday. So, I’m looking for a ride back from the airport. My flight arrives in Dallas at 11:15pm CST on Saturday (Vanguard flight 259). So, if you'd be able to help me out there, please e-mail me (the link is on the right).
Update: Amanda has offered me a ride. Thanks!
Defeating the Passenger Screening System
Samidh Chakrabarti and Aaron Strauss have written a paper “Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System”. As with any paper, it can be a bit wordy at times, but the majority of it is quite readable. And, with any luck, Declan McCullagh will write-up a summary article in the next few days.
This transparency is the Achilles’ Heel of CAPS; the fact that individuals know their CAPS status enables the system to be reverse engineered. You, like Simonyi, know if you’re carryons have been manually inspected. You know if you’ve been questioned. You know if you’re asked to stand in a special line. You know if you’ve been frisked. All of this open scrutiny makes it possible to learn an anti-profile to defeat CAPS, even if the profile itself is always kept secret. We call this the “Carnival Booth Effect” since, like a carnie, it entices terrorists to “Step Right Up! See if you’re a winner!” In this case, the terrorist can step right up and see if he�s been flagged. […]
Rock.
Pittsburgh Speech
Via the American Dialect Society’s mailing list, I discovered this CMU site on Pittsburgh Speech & Language.
The site is similar to Pittsburghese.com, but this one includes the etymology for each word as well. For instance:
Jag (as in jag off or jagging around)
Definition: Various forms involving jag have to do with annoying, irritating, teasing, or playing tricks on. To jag someone or jag someone off means to irritate or tease. To jag around means to fool around, goof off. A jagoff is a person who is irritating because of being inept or stupid.
Text example: “I don't know why she keeps jagging me all the time”
—Dictionary of American Regional English, 1968.Origin: The exact origin of this word is unknown, but the source language is probably Scotch-Irish English. “To jag” means to turn sharply.
And, yes, people really do talk like that in Pittsburgh :-)