Security theater in NYC / New York: Botanical garden etc

Security theater in NYC

We got to play our part in the amusing security theater in NYC on Sunday. We (I and S) entered the Metro-system in the lower east side. I got through without acting my part, since I had my shoulder bag. She had her backpack, so she had to act her part. It was quite easy: it was enough to open the zipper. The cop was a lousy actor: he did not even look inside of the bag. Not to mention looking under the layer of clothes. Two other actors were standing and idling nearby. They had NYPD uniforms on. I just wonder, how come the terrorist would so stupid, that they would not hide their bombs in suitcases or shoulder bags. But of course, changing the script or making it more complex might make the play too difficult to play. That must not happen, because it would reduce the level of feeling-safe among the innocent and ignorant population, which could affect the popularity polls of the directors of the play. Being good citizens of the world, we are happy to play our part. It is of course a bit sad, that this play has nothing to do with safety or security.
If I were a terrorist, I would try the following: a) using dead-man switches in my suicidebombs. That would defy the shoot-to-kill-policy as the bomb would go off when the police would shoot the bomber. b) use other bags than backpack. c) Bomb any large crowd. A few mortar rounds into baseball stadium would be rather nasty thing to do. d) Poison the milk supply - simple, killing easily tens of thousands. e) explode chemical trains next to large cities. f) destroy fragile electricity systems, repeatedly. g) draw attention away from the bird flu, which is likely to kill thousands of times more than any terrorist act and also disrupt the whole international trade and cause widespread political upheaval in developed countries (actually, they are doing this already - and our moronic "leaders" are happily playing along). Fortunately, I am not a terrorist. And before anyone says I tell the bad guys new tricks, I have to confess, that I have collected all these ideas from New York Times and other newspapers during last 2 months.

New York: Botanical garden etc

Finally, we had a chance to visit the New York Botanical Garden. It proved to be worth its fame: the collections are really good, facilities first class. Especially, I liked the glass-room, the large native forest (16 hectares), and the collections of conifiers, which are the best I have seen anywhere. The garden's collection consist of 30000 species, so there is something still for making a 2nd visit very likely.
Visiting botanical gardens is one of my dearest hobbies. I always try to visit the local botanical garden in any new city I happen to be. They are peaceful, relaxing places. The only problem is that visit tend to take a lot of time and energy. So it was also this time. We spent some 3.5 hours in the garden and were totally exhausted afterwards. We should have drank more, but it was so nice that we forgot.
The return trip from the garden, which is up north in Bronx, was adventurous. We got on a bus, which took us only 2 stops south. Then we got on another, with the same number, which caught fire. Finally, we got on a third one, which took 45 minutes to reach "the hub". Then, by metro, but the metro stopped and threw everyone out half way to our hotel. But the next one made it all the way to the Union Square.
We had nice dinner in the 8th street in one large Japanese place. The food is excellent there, and what is more important, beer costs only $1.5 per pint.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs from July to September 2005".