dont_do_it_doug. Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 22 minutes ago, Paddywhack said: I remember this thread starting and I would have guessed it was about 18 months - 2 years old. It's 5 years old!!? So in keeping with the topic, I wonder where all that time has gone. Everywhere and nowhere (baby). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 18, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 18, 2016 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 (edited) 6 hours ago, choffer said: Is it worth claiming to be a transvestite on a day like today? Roasting hot out there and women are able to modify their attire to suit but the rest of us have to still sweat it out in suit and shirt. I know I've not got the figure to get away with it but I quite fancy wearing a short skirt and a skimpy top today. Purely because of the heat, obviously. I've been sweating like Gary Glitter in the PC World Repair Centre waiting room today. Suit on and a window seat. I might as well as gone and worked in my Dad's greenhouse. Edited July 18, 2016 by Xela 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 18, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 18, 2016 9 minutes ago, Xela said: I've been sweating like Gary Glitter in the PC World Repair Centre waiting room today. Suit on and a window seat. I might as well as gone and worked in my Dad's greenhouse. We've just had a wood burning stove fitted in our living room. The builders helpfully tested it by burning some logs. On the hottest day of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 1 hour ago, mjmooney said: We've just had a wood burning stove fitted in our living room. The builders helpfully tested it by burning some logs. On the hottest day of the year. So come the autumn you'll be out and about looking like a certain Led Zeppelin album cover then? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 We have to turn mobile phones off whilst on planes as the signals can interfere with plane's equipment. If this was true why would they allow them in the cabin at all? Why don't they check they are safe mode rather than just asking you? I can't take a can of Pepsi through security in case it's liquid explosive but I regularly taken 2 phones which supposedly are a danger if I press the on button. What's the real reason? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morley_crosses_to_Withe Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 A lot of airlines now just ask that you turn them off/switch them to flight mode only during takeoff and landing these days. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted July 20, 2016 Administrator Share Posted July 20, 2016 1 hour ago, Mandy Lifeboats said: We have to turn mobile phones off whilst on planes as the signals can interfere with plane's equipment. If this was true why would they allow them in the cabin at all? Why don't they check they are safe mode rather than just asking you? I can't take a can of Pepsi through security in case it's liquid explosive but I regularly taken 2 phones which supposedly are a danger if I press the on button. What's the real reason? I'm not sure that's true any more. Some airlines actually have pico cells in the cabin. I assume the thinking is that they keep the mobiles transmitting at their lowest power settings thereby mitigating the risk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted July 20, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted July 20, 2016 The old argument was that there were so many makes and models of phone, airlines couldn't test them all to prove they were safe. At least, that's what a BA Captain friend told me. I fly most weeks with BA and it's flight-safe mode only these days. I did a long-haul earlier in the year though and they provided free wifi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted July 20, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted July 20, 2016 In America the common myth was turning off the phone forced you to use the in-flight phone at exorbitant cost if you needed to make a call. The general thought though is as @choffer says - they can't test the effect of every type of phone on every plane on every piece of instrumentation, so they take the risk averse option of controlling the variable - remove the phone signal. Generally it's believed that the instruments are so well shielded that a phone is unlikely to affect them... But that's a belief that only needs be wrong once... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
il_serpente Posted July 20, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted July 20, 2016 It's a slight variation on that. The thought was that with potentially a hundred or more different phones and devices in use at once it is impossible to predict exactly how all the radiated signals will interact with each other and what effect the net electric field might have. You can test individual devices but you can't test an unknown combination of individual devices, particularly when no two situations have the same combination of signals. Nobody ever believed that an individual phone or device would be the difference between a safe flight and a dangerous incident. Nowadays, the bans are more for social reasons (or, perhaps more accurately, safety concerns about potential altercations arising between loudmouthed idiots and those who are passionate about the right to be spared listening to self-important boors' meaningless conversations while simultaneously being packed like sardines in a can with them). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 On 7/18/2016 at 19:54, mjmooney said: This is probably in my all time top 5. Adore this song more than wine, and I love wine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddywhack Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 I know a flight attendant who told me he was on a flight once that was kept circling the airport after a take off because a little boy's Nintendo DS was still connected to the airport's WIFI. I believed him more when he told me than when I just typed it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 50 minutes ago, Paddywhack said: I know a flight attendant who told me he was on a flight once that was kept circling the airport after a take off because a little boy's Nintendo DS was still connected to the airport's WIFI. It's known as 'tethering'. The pull of 'tethering' is strong enough to force aircraft to keep circling the airport, just like a dog tied to a post. The solution is to very gradually close together the two screens of the DS. A sudden disconnection of 'tethering' can result in a slingshot effect causing the aircraft to be launched into space. We live in worrying times. When I flew back from Paphos last week, I got footage on my phone showing the aircraft was actually being piloted by Pikachu. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddywhack Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 2 minutes ago, brommy said: It's known as 'tethering'. The pull of 'tethering' is strong enough to force aircraft to keep circling the airport, just like a dog tied to a post. The solution is to very gradually close together the two screens of the DS. A sudden disconnection of 'tethering' can result in a slingshot effect causing the aircraft to be launched into space. We live in worrying times. When I flew back from Paphos last week, I got footage on my phone showing the aircraft was actually being piloted by Pikachu. When I first started reading that I thought, "oh, so my mate wasn't winding me up". It was when I got to the pikachu flying the plane bit I realised something was afoot. He's only got little arms. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 is the world really getting worse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 Or is everything just more widely reported? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted July 21, 2016 Moderator Share Posted July 21, 2016 Both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaglint Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 (edited) If you want an 800 page answer to that I would highly recommend Steven Pinkers Better Angels of our Nature. To summarise, on almost every measurable scale the world is getting better and significantly so over the course of history. Present day is believe it or not the best it's ever been. That is not the story the media tells for a variety of fairly obvious reasons. I've been telling everyone that for the last few years since I read the book. However in the last year it has seemed more and more a difficult argument I no longer want to make. I guess stats wise we are still good but the direction of politics is worrying at best which may have a bearing on those stats in the short term. Edited July 21, 2016 by villaglint 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 (edited) well, the world is better for a variety of reasons that in it was decades and centuries ago, and that is reason to be cheerful, but it does feel like we are currently teetering on the brink of something pretty awful, and that is the sense even if we forget about the gradually unfolding nightmare that is climate change's effect on the planet. Edited July 21, 2016 by CarewsEyebrowDesigner 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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