Slashdot Mirror
Virgin Launches Glass-Bottomed Plane
Em Adespoton writes "Virgin has recently created the technology required to produce the world's first glass-bottomed plane. This technological innovation coincides with the start of Virgin Atlantic Airways' first ever domestic service to Scotland. They hope to trial the glass bottom technology with other Virgin airlines in time and have asked other Virgin companies to support this innovative trial and launch their new domestic Scottish route."
"OMG, /. is so useless today (like it is every April 1), what am I doing here?!"
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Please let this be real... Please let this be real... Please let this be real...
Bullish Machine Tzar
One article was funny. Doing this to all of them, all day, is lame. Give us a break.
may I suggest
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
during today's slashdot news shutdown
So their joke is making their articles completely illegible? This is ridiculous. Way to drive down site traffic while smarter sites are driving it up.
Slashdot is useless on April 1, Any Given Year.
A few years ago, I was flying back to the U.S. from Germany (via Paris). We flew over the UK, then Scotland, then the flight attendants dutifully asked us to pull down the shades so that people could watch the in flight movie. I, like the rest of the sheeple, pulled down my shade. A while latter, I broke the rules and lifted my shade only to see that we were just starting to come in over the ice flows of Greenland. Seeing the ice as it traced its way from the glacier fields into the water where it broke into small icebergs was an incredible experience. Not long later, the scene was entirely white as far as you can see like when you are flying just over the clouds -- only there were no clouds and it was entirely snow and ice. I managed to go to the back of the plane and watch it all through the back window for the next hour or so. For both myself and the flight attendant, it was one of the most awe inspiring experiences of our lives. They said that it always made them sad when they watched people missing out on this for a movie whenever she flew over Greenland.
A few hours later, we flew in over Labrador and it was just hundreds of miles of networks of rivers flowing over ice and gravel fields. I couldn't help but wonder if the plane went down how long it would take to walk out. There was an occasional road but no settlements, mines, or clear places where a dirt road would go out there. It too was one of my greatest life experiences. Way way better than watching Beverly Hills Cop 26 on the overhead.
Being on Slashdot on April 1st is like being in class when the teacher doesn't show up. Lots of random undirected conversations spring up, and everyone says that they are justified to leave since there's no teacher, but people kind of mill about for awhile nonetheless.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
I've seen the view over Greenland once, it is indeed incredible. It only a year ago, so everyone had their own screen in the seat in front and the light from windows didn't really matter. Annoyingly, it was the first flight I've taken in the last five or so years when I've put my camera in my checked luggage.
The other 9 or so times it's been cloudy. I think you're lucky to see the mountains and glaciers.
South East England in the winter just after dusk is also amazing, on a clear day. There's so many trains snaking lines of light over the landscape, and lots of sparkling lighting from buildings and road vehicles.
XKCD is running a fascinating comic today which is (among other things) encouraging people to prank Wikipedia as well as hosting a crypto-hash contest.
Fresh, interesting, and a bit insightful. Not at all transparent, childish, silly, or obvious.
One smart creative person outdoing a gaggle of Slashdot editors.