Cavalaxis (and others) have asked about the laws governing showing ID in New York State.

I am not a lawyer, but I did some research on this in November after being stopped by the NYPD for taking pictures in a subway station. Here's what I came up with. Summarized:
--New York State does have a stop-and-identify law, which means that you are required to show ID;
--However, the New York law refers to officers detaining suspects, rather than just questioning them.
--This would imply that the stop in question is a Terry stop, which requires the legal standard of "reasonable suspicion" of criminality.
--In other words, an officer can ask you for ID, but it has to be a Terry stop (with "reasonable suspicion" as the standard) before you are compelled to produce it.

New York state law is actually more granular and protective than federal law -- look at People v. De Bour for the relevant case law. De Bour lays out four distinct tiers of police intrusion, and spells out the legal standard required for each level.

The Supreme Court has held, incidentally, that refusal to identify oneself does not in and of itself constitute "reasonable suspicion" -- see Brown v. Texas.

Don't people realize that EVERYTHING CHANGED on 9/11?

I mean, Mohammed Atta & Co. didn't quite ride bicycles into the Twin Towers, carrying cameras all the while...but they certainly might have.

[this is good]

Another native West Virginian Boing Boing pal here. Born in Parkersburg, lived there and in Huntington, have family from Morgantown and Elkins and all over the place.

Very [good] indeed.

At a dollar store in NYC's Chinatown back in February, I spotted these "Squeezable Breast Balls with I Love You Sound."

Why the scare quotes around "weather"?

As Patrick Smith points out in his excellent "Ask the Pilot" column, it is "weather." Pilots are guiltier of oversimplification than lying to you:

When storms or other inclement weather impacts an area, traffic backs up and routings become saturated. Flights are put into queue and assigned slot times. Even if conditions clear up, it can take a while for the logjam to disperse. To help expedite departures, many crews will be asked to fly routes other than those initially planned. When that happens, fuel, passenger and cargo loads all can be affected, and much of the original flight plan data needs to be recalculated and/or amended -- everything from anticipated fuel burn to which airports can be legally designated as alternates.

This is great, and I'd been wondering just such a thing. I've got a big-ass flatscreen, but really flaky plaster walls that can't take the screws for a wallmount. Hopefully this will liberate my TV from its present perch on two old dining-room chairs.

Thanks, Joel!