I, of course, have my own opinion but, the musing continues

Quoted: The Naked Scientists science forum supports the naked scientists podcast and radio show. Ask and answer science questions on any subject.

I'm returning to groginess. Think there was another Boötes supernova article somewhere on my BlueDot bookmarks (Sigh)

Last Wednesday morning at around 2:12am, a huge explosion took place in space that was so bright, it could be seen here on Earth with the naked eye. The explosion was a gamma-ray burst, which occurs when huge stars run out of their precious nuclear fuel. The stars then collapse into black holes or neutron stars and release a huge burst of gamma-rays and other particles. This particular energy burst took place about 7.5 BILLION light years from Earth. 7.5 BILLION years, kids...that means the explosion actually occurred before Earth was even formed and its light finally reached us last Wednesday. Talk about peering into the past! The gamma-ray burst, named GRB 080319B, was detected by NASA's Swift satellite; its associated star was placed in the constellation Bootes (pronounced BO-OH-TEEZ, not BOOTIES, LOL). Interestingly enough, the burst was detected along with five other ones, on the same day that Arthur C. Clarke passed away.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
Updated: 3/24/2008 9:28 AM

Pardon me for being a luddite, but I think reliable old style bar code readers are fine, and the story didn't say why the passengers are in airport purgatory when it is the luggage that is mislaid.

Quoted: Mike Boyd: It's not rocket science, but what it's been turned into is something where you got way too many computers, way too many moving parts and the result is, it's a meltdown.
Everet Meyer: There've been rumors, you know, of skis being inserted into the system and what we're hearing also is that the workers weren't adequately trained; they were not told where to park.
John Hansman directs MIT's International Center for Air Transportation. He says automated baggage systems use a relatively old technology -- barcode scanning -- and they're ripe for redesign:
There are people looking at alternative technologies, things like Radio Frequency ID chips and things like that in the tags.

Well, this is interesting what with the writers' strike and all. Innovative talk-radio. ?