Greg In The Desert

Having flown a lot in the last few years I been able to fly many airlines. Anymore I pretty much won’t fly unless I can fly Southwest. It has less to do with ticket fares and more to do with how much hassle I get and Southwest gives me the least amount of hassle.

The Southwest iPhone app can alert me to their Ding deals using the notification system which very helpfull. The application can also book flights and check in, I was already doing that through the web interface. The web didn’t always work for me and I hope to have better success with a dedicated app.

Southwest Airlines is Free on the iTunes App Store.

Traveling with Southwest Airlines is now even more convenient with our first iPhone app. Make reservations, check in for flights, and access your Rapid Rewards account directly from your iPhone. Plus, our iPhone app has DING! functionality built in, giving you instant access to exclusive, limited-time-only air fare deals. When a DING! fare is made available, you’ll be notified immediately on your iPhone.

So now there’s no need to boot up your laptop or make a phone call to prepare for your next trip. Just pull out your iPhone to:

· View & book the latest DING! deals
· Book or cancel air reservations
· Book or cancel rental car reservations
· Check in for your flight
· Check flight status
· Review flight schedules
· Access your Rapid Rewards account
· Access helpful contact information

With many of southwest.com’s most popular features now in the palm of your hand, traveling on Southwest is more convenient than ever before.

• The TWiT Netcast Network with Leo Laporte – Wouldn't it be great if customers could determine how a much company's chief executive is paid? Well I can't speak for AT&T or Apple, but at TWiT that's exactly what we're going to do. Up to now I've been taking my pay from TWiT's general fund (along with all the other employees). Not any more. From now on you'll pay me directly with your contributions. I won't take a penny out of the operating funds.Think of your contributions as a tip jar. If you like what I'm doing with TWiT I hope you'll contribute $2 a month (or more or less depending on what TWiT is worth to you). If you are unhappy with our direction, you can cancel your contribution completely. Believe me, I'll notice. Your contributions will have a direct impact on how TWiT is run – because they'll have a direct impact on my personal bottom line.
• Southwest plane lands at DIA after in-flight birth – The Denver Post – A baby boy was born on a commercial airline flight this morning about 100 miles north of Denver. The sky-high delivery happened on Southwest Airlines Flight 441 at about 10:45 a.m., said Chris Mainz, an airlines spokesman.
• The Nasty Bits: Frankenstein’s Frog, Stir-Fried | Serious Eats : Recipes – Upon contact with the salt, the appendages began to move. I recoiled in shock. Was it normal, that even after the frogs had been stunned, skinned, and eviscerated, for their appendages to be quivering? After 20 seconds or so the quivering turned into a restless jig. The legs twitched violently, pumping up and down as if they were getting ready for one last hop. Then the forelegs began to pump too, with their spindly fingers grasping upwards towards me. The chests, which had been exhumed of their innards, heaved up and down as if gasping for air.
• Forcibly adopted American Indians torn between cultures – The Denver Post – Harness was among the 395 or so American Indian children forcibly adopted into white families as part of a national social experiment conducted from 1958 through 1967.
• JROTC, APS, and a Culture of Violence – Duke City Fix – For four years, I was the lone JROTC parent pulling up to drill meets in a vehicle plastered with peace and justice slogans. I was the mom with the trilingual peace button on my tote bag (salaam, peace, shalom), plus a few other buttons that were, shall we say, not exactly supportive of the decisions made by the administration in Washington. In 4 years, no one ever questioned me about my political views at a JROTC event, though I was ready with a well-honed First Amendment rebuttal. (Maybe they knew that.) After all, they do teach the Constitution in JROTC.
• Patrick Stewart: the legacy of domestic violence | Society | The Guardian – In civilian life it was a different story. He was an angry, unhappy and frustrated man who was not able to control his emotions or his hands. As a child I witnessed his repeated violence against my mother, and the terror and misery he caused was such that, if I felt I could have succeeded, I would have killed him. If my mother had attempted it, I would have held him down.
• Big blasts create tiny, tough diamonds | KRQE News 13 – Scientists from the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC) at New Mexico Tech are using massive explosions to create diamonds in a remote piece of desert at Playas.
• Hikers rescued for free in Arizona – These cases and others like them may be sending the wrong message to hikers nationwide, but Arizona search-and-rescue teams have a more important message: They do not charge for rescues. Most states don't.
• ABQJournal.com: Disinterest and Denial – Readers criticize the site’s cluttered design and say they can never find what they seek. They say ABQJournal.com is difficult and confusing to navigate and complain that the search engine is not much help. They also hit ABQJournal.com for its lack of interactivity. Have any of you tried to post a comment on a story? Have you ever read one?

• Transparent aluminium is ‘new state of matter’ – Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. 'Transparent aluminium' previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.
• Blue M&Ms ‘mend spinal injuries’ – The compound Brilliant Blue G blocks a chemical that kills healthy spinal cord cells around the damaged area – an event that often causes more irreversible damage than the original injury. On the downside, the treatment causes the skin to temporarily turn bright blue and BBG needs to be injected soon after the trauma. The test injections were given within 15 minutes.
• iBank provides yet another reason to dump Quicken for Mac – IGG Software has announced a "Why wait another day?" rebate program to persuade frustrated Quicken Mac 2007 owners to switch to iBank 3.5 (US$59.99). If you're a Canadian or U.S. owner who purchased iBank after July 10th, 2009, and have proof of ownership (installation disc or receipt) for either the Mac or Windows versions of Quicken or Microsoft Money, sending in a mail-in rebate form will get you a $20 incentive to switch to iBank.
• S.C. case looks on child obesity as child abuse. But is it? – USATODAY.com – Jerri Gray was doing all she could to help her son lose weight, her attorney says. But something had gone terribly wrong for the boy to hit the 555-pound mark by age 14. Authorities in South Carolina say that what went wrong was Gray's care and feeding of her son, Alexander Draper. Gray, 49, of Travelers Rest, S.C., was arrested in June and charged with criminal neglect. Alexander is now in foster care.
• Consumerist – Watch Out For Panasonic’s Proprietary Battery Cameras – Panasonic – Many of Panasonic's cameras will only work with official Panasonic batteries—the newest models require "an embedded security ID chip," while older models have been issued a firmware upgrade that locks out third-party vendors. This is already pretty obnoxious, but what makes it even worse is Panasonic can't keep up with demand, so the batteries they insist you buy for your camera aren't available.
• Al Jazeera English – Americas – Man gets life for Bush murder plot – A man who received a 30-year jail sentence for joining al-Qaeda and conspiring to kill former US President George W. Bush has had his penalty increased to life imprisonment. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 28, was given the harsher sentence on Monday after a US appeals court ruled that his 2005 punishment was too lenient.
• AP Sources: U.S. Man Was ‘Gold Mine’ of Terror Intel – Local News | News Articles | National News | US News – FOXNews.com – Months before President Barack Obama took office with a pledge to change U.S. counterterrorism policies, the Bush administration gave Vinas all the rights of American criminal suspects. And he talked. "This was by the numbers. It was a law enforcement operation and it worked,"
• BBC NEWS | Americas | Whale wedged on cruise ship bow – A rare whale was discovered wedged on to the bow of a cruise ship when it docked in a Canadian port. The 70ft fin whale, a threatened species in Canada, was found when the Sapphire Princess docked at the Port of Vancouver, the cruise company said.
  It said it had "strict whale avoidance" measures and it was unclear where, when or how the whale became stuck.
• Revealed: the secret evidence of global warming Bush tried to hide | Environment | The Observer – Graphic images that reveal the devastating impact of global warming in the Arctic have been released by the US military. The photographs, taken by spy satellites over the past decade, confirm that in recent years vast areas in high latitudes have lost their ice cover in summer months. The pictures, kept secret by Washington during the presidency of George W Bush, were declassified by the White House last week. President Barack Obama is currently trying to galvanise Congress and the American public to take action to halt catastrophic climate change caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
• Southwest Airlines breaks losing string, posts $54M profit | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News – Southwest Airlines Co. said Tuesday it earned $54 million in the second quarter, the Dallas carrier's first official profit after three quarters of losses. However, the carrier said it cannot guarantee that it'll make money in the third quarter, typically one of the strongest for Southwest and the airline industry.

• Crazy Croc’s, Rio Rancho, New Mexico – It's a long haul from the east side where I live, but tonight I made the journey to Crazy Croc's on Unser in Rio Rancho. From what I heard tonight, Crazy Croc's has come a long way from their historical reputation as a very dark biker bar. New owners have gutted the place and redone everything inside and out. With a dance floor, Techno programmable music, 3 pool tables, and a large outdoor patio, Croc's is set up for success.
• Deseret News | ‘Love advocates’ plan ‘kiss-in’ at Main Street Plaza – Former Salt Lake City Councilwoman Deeda Seed is organizing a "kiss-in" at Main Street Plaza on Sunday following an incident in which two gay men were cited for trespassing on the LDS Church-owned property.
• The Official Site of Rio Rancho, NM – Rio Rancho Isotopes Night – Special $6 tickets for the Tuesday, August 11, 2009, Albuquerque Isotopes game are on sale now for Rio Rancho residents and businesses. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. as the Isotopes face the Tacoma Rainiers.
• Dispute over flag protest erupts in Wisc. village – Yahoo! News – An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it — an Iraq war veteran — claims the officers trespassed and stole his property.
• Southwest tops, US Airways near worst in passenger complaints in May – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Southwest Airlines Co. ranked best and US Airways Group Inc. ranked next to last for consumer complaints among the 19 top U.S. airlines, according to May data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
• May semiconductor sales show slight increase from April – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Sales of semiconductors in May showed a slight increase from April, but year-over-year sales fell as the industry remains in the grips of the recession. The Semiconductor Industry Association reported sales of $16.5 billion in May, up from $15.6 billion in April. Still, those numbers were down from $21.5 billion in what the SIA uses as a three-month rolling average.
• TomTom for iPhone en route | Software | iPhone Central | Macworld – Macworld recently had a chance to talk with with Tom Murray, Vice President of Market Development for TomTom, and while the company hasn’t yet announced a release date or final pricing information, Murray was able to expand on some of the information presented at WWDC.
• Why Intel’s Processors Aren’t Big on Cellphones | Gadget Lab | Wired.com – Intel is being held back in the mobile sphere by its inability to offer power consumption on par with ARM’s chips, say analysts. Add to that the notion that Atom is untested for mobile phones and the fact that many proprietary mobile-phone operating systems are not compatible with Intel’s x86 architecture, and it makes breaking into the cellphone market an uphill climb.
• Canon “G”MOS [CR2] – I received an email that Canon does indeed have an APS-C sized sensor “G” camera being tested/developed.
• www.KOB.com – Lightning strike kills one, hospitalizes several – Lightning in Rio Rancho turned deadly on Saturday after one man was killed and the rest of his family was injured after being hit by lightning while waiting to watch fireworks.

• Slaying fuels debate over speed cameras in Arizona – Doug Georgianni, 51, was killed on April 19, as he operated a speed-enforcement van on a Phoenix freeway. Thomas Patrick Destories, a 68-year-old Phoenix man, is being held in Maricopa County jail on a first-degree murder charge in the death. He has declined to comment.

  Authorities haven't said what they believe the motive might be, but said the two men had never met. Many simply assume the killing was the latest and most extreme backlash against Arizona's photo-enforcement program.

• Chandler Motorola site has new buyer – The prime 153-acre Motorola site on Price Road once again has a buyer.

  A contract has been signed by an out-of-town investor, said Christine Mackay, Chandler's director of economic development.

• Demand for Intel Atom processors slowing – Demand for Intel's Atom netbook processors has begun to slow down as the netbook market faces price-cut competition from low-end notebooks as well as the launch of CULV-based notebooks, according to market sources.
• Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (Eng. /ˈmɒntəˌskju:/; 18 January 1689 in Bordeaux – 10 February 1755), was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Era of the Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He was largely responsible for the popularization of the terms feudalism and Byzantine Empire.
• Southwest adds jobs as most airlines cut – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) was one of the few major carriers to add employees in the latest period. Southwest grew its work force by 1,473 workers in the year-to-year February period and has more than 35,543 workers total.
• English Russia » Russian Pilot Making Photos 9/11 Flying Above NYC – Here is a shocking story of Russian pilot, now living in the USA who was on the air 9th September 2001 and have made photos right from the air when planes crashed the WTC.
• Geosmin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Geosmin, which literally translates to "earth smell", is an organic compound with a distinct earthy flavour and aroma, and is responsible for the earthy taste of beets and a contributor to the strong scent that occurs in the air when rain falls after a dry spell of weather (petrichor). The human nose is extremely sensitive to geosmin and is able to detect it at concentrations as low as 5 parts per trillion.
• Apartment Therapy The Kitchn | Weeknight Recipe: Easy Homemade Macaroni and Cheese – This is the mac n' cheese that we grew up on – creamy sauce, chewy pasta, and don't spare the cheese! This was way before "fat" was a dirty word, but we still can't think of anything else we'd rather have at the end of a long day. Just call it an occasional indulgence and grab yourself a bowl!
• ReelzChannel premiers ABQ headquarters – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Maltin just taped the first episode of his show, “Secret’s Out,” in New Mexico, and there will be many more to follow. The network that created his show, ReelzChannel, opened its new headquarters Thursday at Albuquerque Studios. Maltin’s first show will feature an interview with Gov. Bill Richardson about the film industry and will discuss a film made in New Mexico in 2003, “Off the Map.”
• EDITORIAL: MADD about regulation – Washington Times – President Obama's pick to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration raises a few red flags. If confirmed by the Senate, Chuck Hurley, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, will drive motorists over the cliff with regulation.