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The Buttocks Have It
An anonymous reader writes "From this ZDNET article: Future hijackers may find that their
buttocks betray them, if UK defense firm Qinetiq has its way. The company has developed a smart chair stashed with a thicket of seat sensors, according to New
Scientist magazine this week. The same seats could also be used to warn cabin staff of illness among the passengers, potentially alleviating the risk of deep vein thrombosis or DVT."
[1] Except United in "economy plus" and most American planes, though AA is reducing room again on some flights. Fuckers.
sulli
RTFJ.
Sensors which detect seat movement. Now that's definitely a solution looking desperately for a problem.
The MPAA should put these in theaters that are used for sneak previews.
Had a friend who rated movies by the butt scale. Basically it was how long it took until he noticed his but was hurting from sitting in an uncomfortable theater seat. For a good, engaging film, he never noticed. When his wife dragged him to a chick flick, it was about 20 minutes.
Seems like the movie studios could tell a lot about the success of a movie by using these in previews.
So what are they going to do when they suspect DVT in a passenger? Bump them to first class?
Guess who's gonna be fidgeting nonstop on my next flight...
-j
You can always count on the airline industry! Just in case first-time fliers weren't scared enough, they now need to be worried about being jumped because they're acting scared.
That's the point.
AA sucked financially because people won't pay for a better service.
Fly business if you want better room... yeah it is expensive, no? But that is more like the 'real' price of your flight - the economy passengers pay the marginal cost of their seat, but the business class pay quite close to the average cost... so quit complaining and pay more, or does it come down to price and not comfort.
Note: Total cost = fixed cost + marginal cost (cost for an additional unit, or in this case, passenger)
Average cost = total cost / passengers
Economy pay marginal cost or marginal + very very little fixed cost, so they're worth to treat badly. Business class subsidise the average cost for the economy passengers.
The last 4 flights I was on the headphone jack and/or the channel/volume selecter was broken.
I wonder how long it will be before these things break. Or even better, when they develop an intermittent short like the headphone jack did the last time. Seat 42 is a terrorist! oh maybe not... oh he is! oh maybe not...
How about a low tech solution? Put a f*cking steel door up between the pilots and the passangers and stop harrassing the 99.999999999999% of passangers who are law-abiding.
Sorry... I fly a lot and it keeps getting worse and worse.
Come play free flash games on Kongregate!
And I forgot to mention that NO intercontinental airline is around at the moment that didn't and still don't get some substantial government subsidy (be it purchase of planes, assistance in maintenance etc).
The best thing would be to for the government to let American go under... we have a serious overcapacity at the moment, but no, Mr G Dubya (hell, Bill C would probably have done the same) will subsidise and bail out AA all it needs vainly hoping another intercontinental carrier will go under, while their governments do the same subsidy hoping AA or some other will do just that.
So the subsidies continue, so money that could be spent on 3rd world development, or even hell, sensible tax breaks (not the short sighted rubbish at the moment) so we could have more money in our pocket so we could spend more on our seats, if we really wanted them, in the first place.
As I recall back in the 19th century (before fingerprints) Scotland yard was using an 'identification' scheme in which they measured all of these esoteric face measurements under the auspices that no 2 people had the exact same set. Well they did and someone got caught and turned out he didn't commit the crime. And that scheme was shot down.
Yep. A real free market would solve the problems, as with most everything else. But the longer the government props up ailing companies, the more difficult it gets to pull the plug later. The collateral damage risk to the economy just keeps growing.
I think it's already too late though. The loss of jobs would probably be enough to drive the market back down again. But then, most of the things that are better in the long term are completely unacceptable to a majority of voters. Which is why I cringe whenever someone talks about moving us even further along toward Democracy.