While in Italy for a workshop I spent a few hours in Rome. The weather was beautiful and I managed to see some of the famous, old monuments.
It’s pretty amazing that some of the old monuments were standing before Jesus’ time (the Colosseum itself was built in 80 AD); ie, there’s no doubt that the Colosseum existed (it’s still there!). We can’t say the same for Jesus! The only “proof” we have that Jesus ever existed are a bunch of second-hand accounts which were written decades after his death.
In other news, Rome’s cool. A few things that stood out to me:
Note: originally posted on mjanja.co.ke! Posted here for exposure and posterity.
I flew from Portland (PDX) -> San Diego (SAN) this week. I was greeted by one of the controversial full-body millimeter wave scanners. Unsure of the privacy and health implications of the scanners, I decided to opt out, and get a manual pat down instead. I was somewhat surprised when my mom whipped out her iPhone and started filming it… good instinct!
She filmed it until they told her to turn it off. At one point I had seen on the TSA website that it was legal to film the pat downs, but I didn’t contest it at the time as I hadn’t done my homework properly.
The takeaway
Opting out of the scanners is your right; just ask, it doesn’t have to be a confrontation. In my experience the people were friendly and professional, so I don’t have any particular complaints about that. It’s kinda sad that they work for one of the most-hated government organizations in the country, though…
With regards to the TSA and catching “terrorists”, I’m not sure how effective the post-9/11 scanning techniques are, but it does seem like it’s a bit over the top; it’s both a huge pain in the ass for travelers and a huge cost to tax payers (and I’m not sure if it’s worth the billions we spend).
I’ve been in Switzerland visiting Cassandra (she’s finishing her PhD, and has been away from Kenya for a few months). We came to Zürich to get out of Basel for a few days.
I don’t usually read guide books, but I happened to be flipping through the Rough Guide to Switzerland and I saw it “Zürich isn’t a flashy town…”. Later, wandering around town we were taking a picture on a bridge and BAM, a Lamborghini drove by.
LOL. Apparently there is a lot of gold and precious metal trading in Zürich. I’ve seen BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, Ferraris, Lambos, etc… maybe Rough Guide should revisit Zürich?
Lover of Linux, death metal and Indian food, blogs about living and working in Nairobi, Kenya.