Monday, August 20, 2007

PETA Endorses Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence
n. Violence toward or physical abuse of one's spouse or domestic partner.
American Heritage Dictionary





What you see is a screen capture from a game created by PETA in order turn people off of KFC. Now there are some conclusions that I have drawn from this image.

  1. PETA wishes to continue the negative racial stereotype that white people don't like fried chicken.
  2. PETA endorses domestic violence against one's significant other or in this case one's rescuer.
  3. PETA doesn't consider humans animals and therefore doesn't believe the widely accepted theory of evolution.
Feel free to draw your own conclusions, but as a white man who loves fried chicken I find number one terribly insensitive and offensive.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

ATTN: Writers of all forms of fiction

I was recently reading Black Light, the very enjoyable sequel to Shooter, but I noticed in this book a plot hole that I have often noticed through the years. The scenario usually goes something like this: the bad guy flew his/her privately own aircraft for some reason, and the hero needs to know about the flight or plane. Inevitably the hero's sidekick says "He had to file a flight plan, lets check that." The only problem is that in most situations; no the bad guy didn't have to file a flight plan. It may have been have been almost 10 years since I obtained my private pilots license, but I was certain that I remembered that VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flights didn't require flight plans, while IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) did. Well I went to the FAA's website and found an online copy of the Aeronautical Information Manual, a rule book for pilots, and it turns I was still correct. Except for certain situations (chapter 5 section 1-6) VFR does not require the filing of a flight plan, although it is highly recommended to file a flight plan as a safety measure.

So there you go, if you're writing something; and the bad guy is flying his plane and you want the protagonist to find some information on the flight take an extra sentence to explain the situation of the flight that required a flight plan to be filed.