These suitcases are also useless. Their funky curves, abrupt right angles, and seductive waves make them most unfriendly to the overhead compartment, and downright hostile towards the seat in front of you.
IJT Backs Rubulad, and So Should You, If You Like to Dance
Rubulad is what you picture when you think of downtown. It’s what you imagined the cool people of New York got up to while you lived in the suburbs… and it’s real.
While I don’t live in NYC at the moment, I have fond memories of Rubulad, and want others to enjoy it, too, far into the future.
Danni Ammon: Australian Singer/Songwriter Hits Vancouver
Danni Ammon (of Danni and the Lapels) made the move from Perth to Vancouver, and she brought her guitar. I was lucky enough to shoot some promo pics with her.
It was a fairly unconventional setting: shot entirely in public using available light. At night. I didn’t end up using my tripod, and only rarely busted out my homebrew speedlight diffuser (made from duct tape and an empty vinegar bottle).
Still, it was a really easy shoot: Danni was an awesome subject, and some of my personal favorites from the shoot are below.
Meet Carolyn Hopkins. She’s the voice of the NYC Subway*. She’s the voice of JFK. She’s the English-speaking voice of Charles de Gaulle and Incheon Airports.
You feel like you’ve known her all your life, and this is what she looks like.
(The male voice that you hear on the NYC Subway is Bernie Wagenblast. He’s also a traffic reporter.)
The pilot locked himself in the toilets (let’s leave that aside for the moment) and asked for a passenger’s help to alert the copilot of what was going on.
The passenger did as he was asked, relaying the code for “the pilot locked himself in the loo”, since you can’t just say “the pilot locked himself in the loo”, or the other passengers might get to thinking that the pilot is a dumbass (not true in this case- the latch broke).
What did the co-pilot do? Radioed air traffic control about a possible terrorist situation… because the helpful passenger had a foreign accent.
My word, what an idiot. You can hear the twitchy co-pilot’s panic-stricken conversation with air traffic control below. The terrornoia was communicable, too: the air-traffic controller had fighter planes alerted.
The situation didn’t end when the pilot freed himself from the toilet (!!!). The passenger was still questioned by the cops when the plane landed. In other words, the flight crew did not clear up the misunderstanding before landing.
This was a Chatauqua Airlines flight, flying with a Delta codeshare. Chatauqua should be ashamed of itself, and should seriously consider crewing up with people who are aware of the existence of non-Americans.
Passengers travelling out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport (SIA) will be able to check in for their flight via a Skype video call.
Some of you may have just made noises about “security”, but don’t worry. The only difference between a Skype check-in and a regular web check-in is that you don’t wait for pageloads (while wondering if the whole process is about to break), and a human is looking at your passport, rather than a machine just trusting that the numbers you type in are your own. Like identity (as opposed to intention) has anything to do with airline security.
SIA’s head of passenger traffic (they need one of these for JFK) Andrey Nikulin said that the Skype check-in scheme was a response to passengers’ fear of screwing up the online check-in process. Is this really a thing? Would someone who can’t manage online check-in even know what Skype is, let alone be comfortable using it?
Or are there extra and/or onerous steps for checking in for a flight out of Sheremetyevo that I don’t know about?
Either way, I think this is a neat idea.
According to Nikulin, about 15-20 percent of passengers will use this service. Passengers of 20 airlines that operate at Sheremetyevo will be able to register using their Skype accounts.
