“I don’t really recognize the America that exists at a TSA checkpoint. It is overly paranoid, vindictive, and unaccountable to us as citizens.” Since 9/11, there isn’t really evidence that shows the Transportation Security Administration has made air travel any safer for passengers. For The Verge, Darryl Campbell dives into two decades of unnecessary security check […]
airports
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Sky Thief
“He was not a pilot; he worked ground crew for Horizon Air. His core duties revolved around loading baggage onto short-haul flights, but he was also trained to tow planes on the tarmac. Silently, and without warning, he’d gone rogue.”
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Side Effect of Airport Design: Protests
Christopher Schaberg writes about the recent travel ban protests for Real Life magazine — they didn’t gum up the works so much as take advantage of the ways airports are already designed for mass action.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Terminal Democracy
At airports, ideals of free movement collide with protocols of restriction and privilege. That makes them vital sites of protest.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Quote Posts, Quotes
From Auditions to Airports: Actor Riz Ahmed on Being Typecast as a Terrorist
Actor Riz Ahmed — star of the miniseries The Night Of and films The Road to Guantánamo and Rogue One — describes what life, work, and traveling through airports is like as a British Pakistani.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Typecast as a Terrorist
The Night Of and Rogue One star Riz Ahmed describes what life, work, and passing through airports is like as a British Pakistani.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
ROKIT, MOTOWN and NIMOY: How Aviation Waypoints Get Their Names
Then there is the intriguing way airways are navigated, using radio beacons and “waypoints”, spots defined by geographic co-ordinates or their bearing and distance from a beacon. These waypoints are typically given five-letter capitalised names that are supposed to be simple enough for any controller or pilot to recognise them, regardless of their first language. […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Subconscious Cues That Guide Visitors Through The World’s Busiest Airport
In a recent blog post for The Atlantic, David Zweig spoke with wayfinding expert and airport-sign designer Jim Harding about his work on the world’s busiest airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson. According to Hartfield, the highest mark of success in Harding’s work is invisibility: if his job is perfectly executed, “you will never think of him or his work.” In Harding’s work, no […]