NOTE TO SELF: RYANAIR TO CHARGE PASSENGERS TO URINATE(?) WHAT NEXT!
Another of those "what-in-the-hell-are-they-thinking" stories that cause us to shake our heads in wonder and puzzlement.
The head of Ryanair, a budget airline I'm not familiar with, is toying with the idea of charging its passengers to use the bathroom. His rationale or excuse is that doing this will lead to "less passenger inconvenience during flights.
How he arrived at this conclusion is puzzling.
Last month, Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive admitted that the airline is looking into the possibility of installing - wait for it - toilet doors in its planes that can only be opened with the insertion of of a 1 pound coin (1.10 euros, $1.40). Now that some expensive pee break!
His logic is that an on-board change, he believes, means that more passengers would use airport bathrooms, leading to "less passenger inconvenience on board the aircraft."
Oh really? I dunno how he arrived at this conclusion. As anyone over 50 will attest, when you gotta go - you gotta go! Period! In my eyes it's an obvious greedy, money-grab. I mean - like passengers don't pay enough for extras already?
Seems that Ryanair is running an online competition to see what else the carrier can charge for on board.
Extras huh? Next thing you know, there will be a charge for using the soap dispenser in the pay toilet. You know - $1 per squish on the hand and still another fee for each sheet of paper towel used. Maybe they could offer a special discount for slightly used paper towels. Or perhaps a charge for sitting on a toilet seat after a certain length of time? The mind boggles at the possibilities.
"The suggestion I like best so far is a passenger in Sweden who has suggested that we should produce rolls of toilet paper with my picture on it," O'Leary said.
Indeed.
Photo of a Ryanair plane here: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/photos/slideshow/oddlyenough-photos.html?imageUrl=/afp/20090324/r_p_afp_od_other/pod-a-ryanair-passenger-air-6e4457fb4f90
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Chesnut from Anne Frank's Tree Up for Sale on eBay
NOTE TO SELF: How sad and pathetic that eBay allows this "auction"
Talk about living off the avails of a dead person. Is it just me or does this news item leave a bad taste in one's mouth?
Anne Frank's tree may be doomed, but you can have a chestnut from it for only a few thousand dollars.
Charles Kuijpers, who lives next door to the famous house in Amsterdam where the German-Jewish girl was hidden from Nazi occupiers during World War II, has put what he says is a chestnut from the famed tree up for auction on eBay.
Anne wrote in her diary, which became a bestseller after her death, that during the two years she was hidden in the house's attic, the horse-chestnut tree was her only reminder of the natural world.
"I had this idea for a few years, then I saw that the tree was in the news and I decided to put the chestnut up for auction," Kuijpers told Reuters.
The tree, estimated to be between 150 and 175, has been in poor health for several years as it fends off parasites, and municipal authorities are set to tear it down Wednesday, pending a court hearing.
In August 1944, Nazi police raided the hiding place, and Anne and her sister Margot were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died during a typhus epidemic in March 1945.
British soldiers liberated the camp in April. Anne Frank's body has never been found.
It would be acceptable and even a commendable act if Mr. Kuijpers would indicate that he plans to use the money from the auction towards some type of charity that helps homeless children or children living in war-torn countries.
Talk about living off the avails of a dead person. Is it just me or does this news item leave a bad taste in one's mouth?
Anne Frank's tree may be doomed, but you can have a chestnut from it for only a few thousand dollars.
Charles Kuijpers, who lives next door to the famous house in Amsterdam where the German-Jewish girl was hidden from Nazi occupiers during World War II, has put what he says is a chestnut from the famed tree up for auction on eBay.
Anne wrote in her diary, which became a bestseller after her death, that during the two years she was hidden in the house's attic, the horse-chestnut tree was her only reminder of the natural world.
"I had this idea for a few years, then I saw that the tree was in the news and I decided to put the chestnut up for auction," Kuijpers told Reuters.
The tree, estimated to be between 150 and 175, has been in poor health for several years as it fends off parasites, and municipal authorities are set to tear it down Wednesday, pending a court hearing.
In August 1944, Nazi police raided the hiding place, and Anne and her sister Margot were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died during a typhus epidemic in March 1945.
British soldiers liberated the camp in April. Anne Frank's body has never been found.
It would be acceptable and even a commendable act if Mr. Kuijpers would indicate that he plans to use the money from the auction towards some type of charity that helps homeless children or children living in war-torn countries.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
POOR OLD PLUTO (THE PLANET) - DEMOTED AGAIN!
NOTE TO MYSELF: Sometimes you just don't get no respect
Once upon a time there was a planet named Pluto, who had some respect among eight other orbiting planets. It was considered a planet with some clout. However, as experts are known to do, last year some astronmers who are part of the International Astronomical Union that have power to make important decisions, resolved to strip Pluto of its planetary status at a meeting to debate the origin of the cosmos.
This is important stuff in the grand scheme of things.
When all the talk ended poor Pluto (the planet) was re-classified as a dwarf planet due to the discovery of Eris, a similar body created of rock and ice. In spite of this new reality Pluto was still considered the heftiest solar system object found beyond Neptune. In other words it was bad news but not that bad. At least that was the assumption until yet another recent discovery.
Now comes the news that weighing in at 16.6 billion trillion kilograms, heavenly body Eris is 27% more massive than Pluto. Eris, which has a small moon, has a diameter of 2400 kilometres, which is slightly larger than Pluto's 2270 kilometres. So now Pluto has received yet another blow to the relevance of its existence and importance among planets.
One wonders how this will affect horoscopes if at all. For example if a formerly important planet is demoted and its importance diminished, what would be the end result? In checking out this possibility, one particular horoscope had this to say about the subject:
"The presence and direction of Pluto's energy are never obvious until it is used. Pluto's influence in any sign is interpreted as generational or historical. In your personal life, Pluto's significance is interpreted from its house position and the aspects it makes to other natal planets in your horoscope. Pluto rules intense energy, and describes the areas in which you consciously or subconsciously seek to exercise power or control. Pluto is also linked to your karmic responsibility."
Another question worth pondering or at least thinking about, is will the Disney people now change the name of the 'toon dog, Pluto, to Eris?
Will things ever be the same again in the universe?
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1391
http://www.a2mediagroup.com/print.php?a=16025
Writers & Friends
www.jrslater.com/forum
Once upon a time there was a planet named Pluto, who had some respect among eight other orbiting planets. It was considered a planet with some clout. However, as experts are known to do, last year some astronmers who are part of the International Astronomical Union that have power to make important decisions, resolved to strip Pluto of its planetary status at a meeting to debate the origin of the cosmos.
This is important stuff in the grand scheme of things.
When all the talk ended poor Pluto (the planet) was re-classified as a dwarf planet due to the discovery of Eris, a similar body created of rock and ice. In spite of this new reality Pluto was still considered the heftiest solar system object found beyond Neptune. In other words it was bad news but not that bad. At least that was the assumption until yet another recent discovery.
Now comes the news that weighing in at 16.6 billion trillion kilograms, heavenly body Eris is 27% more massive than Pluto. Eris, which has a small moon, has a diameter of 2400 kilometres, which is slightly larger than Pluto's 2270 kilometres. So now Pluto has received yet another blow to the relevance of its existence and importance among planets.
One wonders how this will affect horoscopes if at all. For example if a formerly important planet is demoted and its importance diminished, what would be the end result? In checking out this possibility, one particular horoscope had this to say about the subject:
"The presence and direction of Pluto's energy are never obvious until it is used. Pluto's influence in any sign is interpreted as generational or historical. In your personal life, Pluto's significance is interpreted from its house position and the aspects it makes to other natal planets in your horoscope. Pluto rules intense energy, and describes the areas in which you consciously or subconsciously seek to exercise power or control. Pluto is also linked to your karmic responsibility."
Another question worth pondering or at least thinking about, is will the Disney people now change the name of the 'toon dog, Pluto, to Eris?
Will things ever be the same again in the universe?
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1391
http://www.a2mediagroup.com/print.php?a=16025
Writers & Friends
www.jrslater.com/forum
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