How are United's Terms of Service even possible?

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I was thinking about a new web service on the weekend, and I did a bit of reading of airlines' sites as a result. I pick on United here but what I found was universally astonishing. Emphases in bold are mine, and I provide the full paragraph text as context however. 

Now as I read this, it's actually not permissible for me to even write or link to http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,1003,00.html?jumpLink=/terms in this post on my tiny little web-based collection of thoughts here, but what it prompted me thinking was how therefore, can Google, Bing, Yahoo, and every other search engine do the same without contravening these ridiculous terms? And they do, believe me...it'd be quite pointless without that. So, what gives?

Feel free to help me answer that in the comments, or on Twitter if you can. 

Finally visited France and saw the #TDF. If you ride, you must do this at least once in life

Well @jodiekw & I lived in England 4 years, & never saw Le Tour. Today we fixed that. Amazing, the guys so fit & fast, the race so long, & yet the finish still a raucous and rapid stampede along the Champs Élysées. Thousands of people turned out for the spectacle, and yet the whole thing was polite, agreeable and still exciting. Thankful I could be here this year at #TDF and other fantastic places. A vous la France! Just live. You won't regret it.

I didn't think it was possible to get a blister, under a blister

Not only is it possible, I've a double blister on my right heel that proves it. At least, these photos of our backpacking weekend starting at Loon Lake, Calif - going up through to Rockbound Lake in Desolation Wilderness - prove why it was totally worth and I'd do it again in a jiffy. Might get some new boots though, like, oh these Kayland Zephyr's or perhaps these Salomon Wings :-) 

All the photos >> MobileMe Gallery <<

 

Holiday Mountain Biking

Downhill in Tahoe from Paula B on Vimeo.

On the recent Labor Day long weekend, I was lucky enough to go up into the hills in South Tahoe with a buddy of mine, @jasonbillington. (Of course, we also took his and my other half, @paulabillington and @jodiekw). (Oh, and the dogs). Our purpose was to accomplish 3 things; 1. burn down the fabulous whitewater rafting tickets on Great American River that I'd won at my lovely friend Yvette's baby shower last year (I know, right? Turns out baby showers aren't that bad after all) 2. a truckload of downhill mountain biking, and 3. generally relax with our girls and our dogs.

Well you can see who's riding the downhill bike, and who's more practiced, and who didn't nearly come off his bike right about when @paulabillington started the video on her trusty JesusPhone 3G S. Meaning, @jasonbillington comes roaring down first. Then I dribble in behind. But by jove it was fun.

BTW, the seat looks that low, because it is. You just gotta do that with a cross-country bike when you're in the steeps, like a hard blue run at <name redacted> ski resort. If you're wondering what I'm riding (it's really designed for cross-country), look no further.