Comments by Mr.Causality

I think I was stuck in that infamous 2.5 hour queue last week.
As someone with a non-British/EU passport, but ‘indefinite leave to remain in the UK’, it is always a frustrating and sometimes a nervous experience to go through the UK border and customs process. Apart from a landing card that must be completed each time, (even though the authorities must be thoroughly aware of my address and birth country by now) I had the impression that immigration officials can apply their own interpretation to immigration laws and harass you about certain technicalities of your immigration status that would seem bizarre if it would not be for power of immediate deportation they wield over you at that moment. I think systems such as Iris are good and should be expanded, and the rules for entry (or denial thereof) should be clarified so that travelers do not feel like they are at the mercy of whichever mood a customs official might be in.

As someone that was born in the 70’s and always played games, I agree that gaming has become a much more immersive enjoyable experience in the past decade. And the gaming industry has to be credited with making gaming much more sociable. While my wife would sit on Facebook, I would be playing a game like Halo or Call of Duty while chatting to friends from the four corners of America. Which is a smart strategy by the gaming industry, because I do not mind paying an annual fee or buying a game for $60 if I get weeks of virtual, sociable entertainment from it.

Dave Mosher's blog on Scientific American also had similar criticisms of NASA's space shuttle program, complaining on behalf of the "Next generation: We want a spaceship, not a freight truck." I grew up in the 70’s & 80’s, an era that was most arguably more excited about the future possibilities of the approaching new millennium than the current new generation. We had high hopes that cars would fly the way they did in Back to the Future’s 2010. But that tends to be the naivety of a new generation. From an engineering perspective, space flight has been a larger challenge than anticipated half a century ago. It requires significantly more resources, skill and technology than most people care to understand. Criticizing NASA’s shuttle program as an unreliable delivery van is an example of such lack of understanding, or possibly even unwillingness to understand. NASA has been more successful than any other organization at space missions and they should be credited for the knowledge gained through their endeavors. Like many others I also hope a new phoenix will rise out of the ashes of the shuttle program, but we should be thankful for the valuable lessons learned from it.

As an expat that finds himself living in Pennsylvania, I do find the smear campaign TV adverts between all the various candidates up for election very amusing. It seems that Sestak is trying to distinguish himself by not stooping to opponent smearing (at least in the ads I saw). If this tactic will work remains to be seen, but it does make for a refreshing change in late night advisement watching.

The real prize for South Africa is the great public relations opportunity this event presents with long term tourism prospects. If it can sell itself as an affordable exciting holiday destination regardless of the long haul flights.
Unfortunately a lot of South African businesses will have a very short term perspective by trying to ‘cash-in’ as much as possible from tourists during the World Cup. Thus damaging the long term prospects.