Mike's book Warnings has received another amazing review. Headline: "Smith is a masterful storyteller and his narrative is both readable and gripping; Warnings is a perfect storm of history, insight, and advice" The review is posted here. www.9-1-1magazine.com/books/ If you haven't read Warnings , click on the link to the right and pick up your copy today!

Short and insightful . Below is a photo of the Aloha Airlines' 737 that blew its top in flight (mentioned at the link) due to metal fatigue and landed safely . Commercial airliners are surprisingly tough! This does illustrate why you should keep your seatbelt on whenever you are in your seat.

Spoken four days ago, Climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection, says the German economist and IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer.   The next world climate summit in Cancun is actually an economy summit during which the distribution of the world’s resources will be negotiated. –  Ottmar Edenhofer Much more at Watts Up With That .

With the Thanksgiving travel season starting Friday evening, I thought I would offer this public service video (courtesy, Reason TV): OK, the video above is humorous, the photo below is not. It was taken in Denver two days ago during one of the TSA's new "grope searches." They are now given to men and women with the  possible exception  of Muslim women wearing traditional attire. Elderly Catholic nuns, however, are not exempt. The grope searches can occur at any airport. The nude-o-scopes are not everywhere, yet. If you are flying through an airport with a nude-o-scope, you can go through it (with the privacy and radiation issues it creates) or you can opt-out and get a grope. Catch 22: If you have a " blurry groin " or some other problem with the nude image, you still get the grope. November 24 (Wednesday) is national "opt-out" day. This may add delays to the process, plus the weather looks questionable in many areas next week. Allow lots  of...

Please mark your calendars... Wichita, Great Plains Nature Center,  December 7, 7 to 9pm Kansas City, Barnes & Noble, Country Club Plaza, December 12, 1 to 2pm Hope to see you there!

AccuWeather has a video detailing Thanksgiving week weather. Preview: Cold and snowy in the northern half of the U.S.   If you are traveling, you will want to plan accordingly .

According to my AccuWeather colleague Henry Margusity, the answer appears to be yes . A long-track wind storm, from Baltimore to Trenton caused quite a bit of destruction. UPDATE:  The National Weather Service agrees .