The cover story for the Nov. 5 Design News described strong cockpit doors to enhance security on commercial flights. A $500 million fund was announced for this and other security modifications. Another program being implemented is to hire Federal Air Marshals. A little arithmetic finds that with the added employee cost and lost seat space this will cost the American economy over $5 billion a year. Meanwhile, engineers and other travelers incur long security delays to board aircraft. A better solution may be to recruit Volunteer Air Marshals in a program as follows:
Volunteers are screened for character and trained at the same level as paid Federal Air Marshals.
Volunteers are competent in the use of means of deadly force the same as paid Federal Air Marshals.
Volunteers are licensed to carry the means of deadly force at all times and any place in this country the same as paid Federal Air Marshals.
The Federal Government pays the cost of screening and training applicants and cost of materials to maintain competence the same as paid Federal Air Marshals.
Volunteer Air Marshals are periodically re-screened for competence and character the same as paid Federal Air Marshals.
Volunteer Air Marshals work on their own schedule (while on travel). Coordination, if required, is through the same office that assigns paid Air Marshals.
Volunteer Air Marshals buy their tickets the same as other paying travelers.
Volunteer Air Marshals are unpaid.
Volunteer Air Marshals would be pre-cleared (and have the same identification requirements as paid Federal Air Marshals) to board commercial airplanes without hassle or delay.
The airlines have Air Marshall protection at no cost or lost revenue. The tax paying public retains the rights and freedoms of Americans while increasing our safety and security at negligible cost.
I was saddened by your editorial in the Dec. 17, 2001 Design News about the apparent end of the HP calculator division. When I was in college I always delighted in being laughed at by my colleagues for using my ridiculous RP calculator, only to give them something like the following set of equations:
A = (4*e∧5)/log(4)
B = ln(5) * (10 + (5∧3))
—easy enough. But what if it's followed by this:
C = A*B/(A-B)
It wasn't unusual for me to come upon such problems in my engineering courses. Where I only had to calculate A and B once, then cleverly use the ROT (rotate) and SWP (swap) commands to calculate C, they were stuck copying their results for A & B to paper first. Of course I calculated the result faster and was able to use all the significant figures the calculator could hold.
Nevertheless, even after such contests, most people were unable to understand the idea that infix notation is no more sensible than postfix notation, or prefix notation for that matter. As has been proven so many times in the real world, just because it works better doesn't mean it is going to sell. Most of the engineers I knew resorted to the "It's so stupid. It doesn't make any sense at all" defense as their reason for not using RPN. In the end, I got a lot more done, a lot faster with my RPN calculator, and I always knew where it was because no one was ever borrowing it!
John A. Larson, Engineer, Precision Instruments, Inc.
I read your editorial in Design News on patriotism (DN 12.03.01). You didn't mention that patriotism is the one great thing that has come out of the horrible disaster on 09.11.01. It is exactly the shot in the arm America needed in order to restore some of the patriotic feelings our forefathers had when they established this country.
Patriotic feelings and a closeness to each other to work together are just a few of the by-products coming out of the restored patriotic sense. This attitude is worth more than 5 gallons of fuel per year, don't you think?
Thank you for your editorial in the December 3, 2001 issue of Design News in which you discuss the amount of drag created by flying a flag on a vehicle. I have wanted to do that exact calculation but you've spared me with your timely response and broadcasted the outcome as well.
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