https://www.darrylcampbell.org/aviation daily 0.75 2026-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/03446536-0232-42b4-b3e9-c83fca4bcbd0/acastro_226107_lede.0.jpg Aviation Writing - The Humiliating History of the TSA There’s no evidence two decades of pat-downs and shoe removal have made travelers any safer — so why does the theater of airport security persist? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/1b669b9e-f8f3-402f-85ae-2c49337be8f3/257804_Aviation_ICE_air_CVirginia.jpg Aviation Writing - The Brutal Realities of ICE Air ICE Air is no less brutal than the agency’s heavy-handed field operations. But its brutality comes in the form of scale, speed, and efficiency — attributes that you probably want in a commercial airline, but not in an increasingly weaponized tool of law enforcement. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/e82a1563-32db-445d-bbf6-b0b4e1394115/Long+TSA+lines Aviation Writing - The TSA Is Broken — Is Privatization Next? Privatization is no magic bullet. But the status quo is untenable as well. For as long as the TSA remains useful as political leverage, travelers should prepare for periodic disruptions with unbearably long wait times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/0766ca17-711f-403f-b5f5-7b910b799efb/gettyimages-2264299945.jpg Aviation Writing - How Trump’s War on Iran Stranded a Million Flyers — and Plunged the Gulf’s Favorite Playground into Chaos The attacks have led to thousands of flight cancellations, stranding travelers in Dubai and elsewhere. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/9aeae6e6-20b6-46ff-b5fa-34646164820d/257804_BOEING_ACCOUNTABILITY_CVirginia.jpg Aviation Writing - How Trump Let Boeing off the Hook for the 737 MAX Crashes If regulators won’t step in and force Boeing to change, then it will continue to prioritize profits over safety — the only rational choice in a consequence-free environment. This might be a good bargain for its shareholders, but not for passengers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/e7199d57-bbed-4076-a827-e804119db40a/257804_SAFETY_REGULATIONS_CVirginia.jpg Aviation Writing - A Brazen Attack on Air Safety Is Underway Instead of fixing air safety regulations, the Trump administration is undermining them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/c26865a2-5f85-4755-bc1c-be76422f3ebd/Airplane_crashes_Kristen_Radtke_2.jpg Aviation Writing - What’s the Deal With All These Airplane Crashes? Safety depends on collective action by airlines, manufacturers, regulators, and legislators alike. Right now, you don’t have to worry that another airplane will randomly fall out of the sky tomorrow. But in a few years, it’s possible that a bunch of airplanes start crashing for the same reason, because someone decided that pursuing their individual goals was more important than upholding their responsibility to everyone else. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/87481154-d748-40ae-bc4e-a5c9ec45da97/257761_Newark_delays_CVirginia.jpg Aviation Writing - The Newark Airport Is About to Become Everyone’s Problem The entire aviation system rests on a knife’s edge between safe operations and potential disaster. The smallest disruption can throw the entire system into chaos — putting thousands of lives, billions of dollars, and the reputation of American aviation as the safest in the world in harm’s way. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/80b47a59-cf2b-47de-a8f7-030b52fbd655/acastro_200327_3953_boeing_computer_0001.jpg Aviation Writing - The Ancient Computers in the Boeing 737 MAX Are Holding Up a Fix A brand-new Boeing 737 Max gets built in just nine days. In that time, a team of 12,000 people turns a loose assemblage of parts into a finished $120 million airplane with some truly cutting-edge technology: winglets based on ones designed by NASA, engines that feature the world’s first one-piece carbon-fiber fan blades, and computers with the same processing power as, uh, the Super Nintendo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/1586224692640-Y1ESC7YZKLILOYUBSWFU/VRG_ILLO_3380_002_Hero.0.jpg Aviation Writing - Redline The story of the 737 Max is ultimately the story of the Darwinian business cycle, where mature companies like Boeing face constant threats from new products, new competitors, and the search for new growth. Sometimes this motivates them to new heights of innovation and progress. Other times, it prompts them to pull everything back in the name of cost-cutting. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/1612385335687-G39BPT90KOV3N43BDNCQ/EtUvZ5lXUAIBx3a.jpg Aviation Writing - Cabin Pressure The airline industry has always had its ups and downs, from recessions to gas prices to COVID-19. But when things get unstable, flight attendants are the first to feel the pain. https://www.darrylcampbell.org/about daily 1.0 2025-09-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/51ad1895-dd7f-45e2-8ba9-544727eaf991/image-asset.jpeg About - Exploitative technology is everywhere. My book Fatal Abstraction explains why. For fifteen years, I was a tech industry insider. I worked at behemoths such as Amazon and Uber, and at tiny startups you’ve never heard of. I witnessed Big Tech’s greatest triumphs, and took part in some of its worst failures. And now, I’ve written a book that argues that things are about to get much worse—unless the industry starts looking at more than just financial statements. Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software is available at your local bookstore, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere. Photo Credit: Kathy Tran https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/69f2986a-01f0-41bf-b364-5c22d86f190f/FA+Cover+LG.jpg https://www.darrylcampbell.org/contact daily 0.75 2025-02-13 https://www.darrylcampbell.org/other daily 0.75 2025-08-02 https://www.darrylcampbell.org/press daily 0.75 2025-06-07 https://www.darrylcampbell.org/books daily 0.75 2026-03-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/74e34e36-a08d-4465-a775-b4c0cb87137e/FA+Cover.jpg https://www.darrylcampbell.org/videos daily 0.75 2025-04-05 https://www.darrylcampbell.org/culture daily 0.75 2025-08-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/1586224625606-7K7BXVWYBO9F0DY31BPN/GQ-GunsInAmerica-mark-hughes32.jpg Culture - What Happens When the Police Misidentify You as the Dallas Shooter Texas is a great place to be a gun owner. Unless, as Mark Hughes discovered, you are black. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/e17e5abc-0056-40cf-b384-7f1a8c33bd71/c_scale%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_80%2Cw_800.jpg Culture - Confessions of a Harvard Gatekeeper Just once I would have loved to get an applicant who called out a stupid, predictable question for being what it is instead of dutifully reciting an impossibly trite, hand-wavingly general answer that cannot apply to all that many people. Someone who didn't sound like Mitt Romney when trying to relate to the challenges faced by people without blue blood. Instead, I've seen a boringly predictable, on-trend parade of general excellence, like eating a dozen cronuts for dinner. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/1614303337873-CKGYU7Z0Z5OQW6MIQBBT/5ac77a1538aae00df493f1677e095366.jpg Culture - A Dropout’s Tale In May of 2010, I dropped out of grad school. On a stormy spring morning, I left a Separation from the University form in my departmental administrator’s mailbox, said goodbye to the University of Notre Dame one last time, and drove my battered Ford Focus westward on I-90, Seattle-bound. I had no job prospects and not much of an idea what I was going to do when I got there. But for the last eight years, I had an abundance of certainty: an idea where I wanted to go over the next thirty years, how I was going to get there, and what I was going to do along the way. Maybe I needed the exact opposite to get things right again. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/1586227086274-FRBZ0FOSYQ90JG0920CV/21food.homecooking.ramen-2.jpg Culture - Who Needs Cooking Lessons? Everything about Asian food is officially upside down. It has finally broken free of the takeout box but maybe it’s swung too far in the other direction, to a point where people are most likely to learn to make it from non-Asian chefs and television personalities. Just as Asian food is winning converts outside of Asian America, it is losing young Asian Americans who lack the time, interest or confidence to cook traditional foods. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8bc7fbf730fc7358d488c3/16039a01-0d2e-46fd-b8cd-2c9ea5e3c38b/BillyMays.jpg Culture - Billy Mays: Quintessentially American He became a strange hybrid – half reality television star, half professional huckster. On the one hand, he depended on us for our silent validation, for his own celebrity status, without which he would just be some random salesman. On the other, he promised that acquiring superfluous junk could be a ticket to a better life, even at a time when that life seems to be slipping further and further out of reach for so many of us.