Fly, Fly, Away

Time to start clearing out some accumulated chum — and non-political chum at that! Here are three airline things that are going away, plus one non-airline thing that may also be disappearing:

• The 747. Once the queen of the sky, now relegated to freight service, just like the DC-10. US airlines are no longer operating the 747 in passenger service. The reason is simple: A four-engine aircraft uses just too much expensive fuel; there are two-engine crafts with similar capacities.
• The A380. As for the other plus-size queen: the Airbus A380. It seems no one is buying them. Unless an order comes in soon, Airbus will be shutting down the production line. In this case, there are very few markets that need the capacity.
• Four Digit Flight Numbers. This one is an interesting Y2K-ish problem. Airline mergers have created a problem: Some airlines now have more than 10,000 flights, but the systems are only designed to support at most four-digit flight numbers. Addressing this is a gigantic problem, for all airline systems for all airports need to be reprogrammed. Right now, they are reusing numbers (a recent flight I took had the same number coming and going), and possibly even using retired numbers.  One wonders if a cheaper solution will be to create more airlines within an airlines, so they can have multiple name spaces.

And also disappearing:

• The Market for Used Clothing. What happens when you donate that used shirt? In the past, it was often bundled and sent to lower-income nations, and often made into other products. Well it seems that new clothing has gotten so cheap to make that there is no financial incentive for used clothing. Could we see more clothing turned into insulation? This is a continuation of our disposable society trend, where it is cheaper to make new than to repair and reuse, and it is creating a gigantic trash problem, as well as tying up potentially reusable resources.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Fly, Fly, Away by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Oddities of the Food World

Clearing out some more news chum — this time with something you can really chew on:

• Raw Dining. Or should I say: Naked. It appears there is a restaurant in France where one dines in the nude. Umm, no thanks. Just imagine if I spilled the soup.
• Tide Pods. You’ve surely heard about the Tide Pod Challenge by now. This is the EXTREMELY STUPID idea of teens attempting to put POISONOUS laundry detergent pods in their mouth. DO NOT DO IT. So what did one sushi bar do? That’s right, they made sushi that looks like a Tide Pod. Bad idea. Too bad CSI: is no longer on — I could see this being a great episode.
• Words for Tea. It turns out there are only two words for tea through out the world: Tea (or a variant thereof) if it came by land, and Chi (or a variant thereof) if it came by sea. Isn’t language fascinating.
• Mongolian Barbeque. It seems that the man responsible for bringing Mongolian BBQ to America has died. Yes, John C. Lee, who started Colonel Lee Mongolian BBQ has died. I still remember the Col. Lee’s in Northridge, which I think became Kings, which is now some sort of Asian Fusion joint.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Oddities of the Food World by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Phoning It In

As we continue to clean out the news chum, here are some cell-phone related articles of interest:

• TAP your Phone. Two distinct articles discuss something interesting coming to the LA Metro: Cubic Systems has been awarded a contract to develop an integrated fare-payment mobile app. Cubic (NYSE: CUB) designed and delivered the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s TAP card, which serves 24 transit agencies. More than 2 million people hold TAP smart cards, which pay bus and light rail system fares when users hold them next to card readers. The card transmits data using near-field radio communication technology.  With the upgrades, riders will be able to use their TAP accounts to pay for third-party services such as ridesharing, bike sharing and parking. TAP will also support fare subsidy programs. In addition, Angelenos will be able to use their mobile devices in place of TAP cards when getting aboard buses and subways. That’s confirmed by an article in Curbed LA: Instead of swiping a TAP card, as most passengers do now, users of the new app will be able to simply scan their phones to pay a fare. The system is expected to be ready for testing this summer, with a full rollout planned for the fall, says Metro spokesperson Rick Jager. The system may also be able to give incentives for frequent riders or on smoggy days. I’m looking forward to this, as your phone account, unlike a tap card, won’t expire and is harder to lose.
• Full Size Keyboards. One of the most interesting things about the Moto Z series are Moto-Mods: the ability to add modular additions to phones. It appears that a new mod coming this year will be a full-size keyboard. According to The Verge:Back in April, we were forced to acknowledge that the Indiegogo crowdfunded Keyboard Moto Mod was actually a real physical device. This year at CES 2018, Motorola has announced that you’ll actually be able to buy one soon for $99. The Slider Keyboard Moto Mod, developed by a third-party company called Livermorium, was the winner of Motorola and Indiegogo’s Transform the Smartphone Challenge, after which it was put through Motorola’s Accelerator Program where the cellphone company worked on the device alongside Livermorium. And now, a finished version of the mod is set to be released sometime in the next month or two.
• New Phones Leaked. Going along with the above, a report just came out leaking the details of the upcoming Moto phones: the X5, Z3, and G6. According to the article, a sampling of the new features reveals: ♦ The Moto X5 will have a “notch” like Apple’s iPhone X;  ♦ The Moto X5 will include either 3D face unlocking or an in-display fingerprint sensor;  ♦ The Moto Z3 has a Galaxy S8-style infinity display;  ♦ The backs of the phones will be made of glass instead of metal;  ♦ The Moto G6 Play will have a whopping 4,000mAh hour battery;  ♦ There will be a 5G Moto Mod.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Phoning It In by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.