A friend of mine who flies all over the world to do astronomy and eclipse research told me about a very strange flight he took, where for the last 10 minutes of the flight the window shades were all required to be *lowered*, and were not permitted to be raised at all until the passengers left the aircraft. Unfortunately I forget where this was, but I'm fairly sure it was in some part of Africa where they are always having civil wars and insurgencies, and it was for "security" since the airport was shared by the military. (As if there could be anything particularly secret about the pathetic collection of aging ex-U.S. and ex-Soviet military aircraft most of those countries' air forces consist of.) -- Michael C. Berch mcb@postmodern.com