Andrew, Andrew, Andrew! You clearly don't understand the power of prayer, or how it works.

When praying, you have to pray for one of the following:

1. Something that's likely to happen anyway (eg. gas prices will inevitably fluctuate, and thus any "reduction" -- no matter how short-lived -- is a positive answer to prayer)

2. Something that's possible, while giving God an "out" (eg. "Please Lord, heal Brother Bob, but if you don't, give us the strength to go on without him.")

3. Something that's impossible, but clearly blaming the victim if it doesn't happen (eg. "Lord, we know that we're sinners and do not deserve your blessings, but we'd sure like to win the lottery and, um, carry on your good work with the money...")

Personally, I'm praying that God strikes you down for lack of faith, but I'll settle for a lot more excellent How the World Works installments, because I know how God likes to "test" the faithful...

;)

The longest commercial flight in the world is around 14 hours. There's several qualifying routes; the one I'm most familiar with is the Sydney-San Fransico run.

People complaining about being packed in like sardines, to use one of the least colourful metaphors I have heard, need to take a deep breath and do some comparisons.

Most of us spend 8 hours at work each day, most of that time in a chair. 14 hours is really not that long, and while the time goes by you are, literally, crossing half the world.

Or, if it helps, divide the time up:

* 3 hours will be spent getting fed (twice)

* 2 hours in the full take off and landing cycles

* 4-6 hours asleep, depending on how lucky you are

* Which means you've got to -- god forbid -- entertain yourself for between 3 and 5 hours.

Bring a book. Watch some crappy movies. Go over your presentation. Talk to your seatmates. Or all four.

And then it's over. And you're on the other side of the planet, and if you've flown north-south or vicky verka then it's the opposite season. Winter has become Summer!

Call me Pollyanna if you must, but flying is fun! Think positive. If all you think about is how cramped in you are -- then, frankly, you are cramped in.

And if you're complaining about legroom on a tiny little 6-8 hour hop, then unfortunately you'll have to oblige me by giving me a break...

Travelling recently from Beijing to Los Angeles, I was struck, not for the first time, just how badly the US does "security", not to mention simple things like organizing lines, and receiving passengers.

At Beijing International -- not on any Top Ten lists of wonderful airports I can assure you -- the security lines were orderly and efficient and fast. That's some feat in a culture where lining up is very much optional, and a huge percentage of the people around you are flying for the first time, and therefore don't know the "drill".

Arriving at LAX (how well named!), we were first put down, completely unsupervised, on the tarmac, and waited several minutes for a crappy old bus. So, essentially, an "evil doer" armed with nothing more than a cigarette lighter could have wreaked unbelievable damage.

Then, once in the arrivals hall -- I have seen cleaner and better-designed lavatories at truck stops in India -- we suffered the interminable wait for the fingerprinting that every arrival to the US must now undergo. The US government simply ASSUMES you are a criminal until proven otherwise, presumably by your death of innocence at a ripe old age.

My only crime, of course, was bringing a whole bunch of money to the USA to spend on hotels, meals, etc. in the service of seeing an old friend get married. Yep -- prime suspect, me.

I amused myself by remarking -- in a rather loud stage whisper -- to my travelling companion how interesting it was when one travelled from the first world to the third world.

The Texan in the big hat glared angrily, but nearly everyone else identifiably "American" chuckled sadly and sighed.

Is "taking on Town Hall" just in stories, or will you Yanks put your money where your movies are, and fix this mess you've made?