Qantas crew objects to Team?

Qantas has a new safety video for its A380 passengers.  It feature John Travolta and is raising objections from Qantas employees.





According to the Seattle PI:

Cabin crew “say a ‘real pilot’ — like Captain Richard de Crespigny, credited with saving 466 lives on the failed QF32 flight from Singapore — should front the message,” The Telegraph reported.

...

Crew members also deem it “demeaning” that Travolta and others in the video refer to “the team,” a flight attendant says in the story. “It makes us feel like we work at McDonald’s.”

...More (a little)

Okay, I can see the objection on the first part. While Travolta is an actual jet aircraft pilot, I can see them preferring to see an employee do it. I'm not sure I agree Travolta is a bad choice, but I understand.

But the second objection I find baffling.  Is is a cultural issue? Is "Team" a term of derision in Australia?  Sure, it seems a little cheesy, but I'm confused by the interpretation that it's demeaning. I'm not saying the complaint is baseless.  It just strikes me as odd.

Less vs. Fewer: Weird Al weighs in

I've been tempted to do things like like this:





See it on Youtube here.

Presents to keep me busy

It was a swell Christmas this year.  We had great food and the cats didn't object too strongly to being randomly pelted with wrapping paper.  I think they were too stoned from their catnip mice to even notice.

I've got a few things to keep me busy this year, including:

• Books (1,918 pages total):
• The Mote in God's Eye (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle)
• Lucifer's Hammer (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle)
• Little Brother (Cory Doctrow)
• The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
• New York Then and Now (Marcia Reiss)
• A lovely marble trivet (with an Irish blessing)
  
• A luggage scale (great for minimizing fees)
• Rosetta Stone Japanese Level 1 (in case I can make that trip to Japan work this year)
• Pentax DA Fish-eye 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 ED (IF) lens (great for wide angle views and cool fisheye effects)

I did not receive the cat for Christmas (though sometimes I think my mother wouldn't mind shipping her off to Seattle).  And I didn't even pose her.  But Crash just can't seem to miss an opportunity to show off.

Here she is demonstrating the effects of my new lens.

I used the built-in flash on the Pentax K10d for this picture.  Your supposed to use external flash due to the extremely wide field of view with this lens.  At 10mm the built in flash turns into more of a spot light, but I like how it looks.

Looks like I'm going to be busy learning stuff, practicing stuff, reading stuff, weighing stuff, and putting down hot stuff.  It's going to be a fun year.

How was your holiday?

Phonetic Alphabet

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta (or David at the airport), Echo, Foxtrot...

Lately I found myself trying to remember the word substitutions for the letters of the alphabet.  Maybe it's the influence of Dollhouse (I still want to meet dolls Kilo, Uniform, and Whiskey). Or maybe it's because I'm tired of coming up with my own substitutions when I'm on the phone. But it's something I never needed to learn before and gave very little thought to.

So off I went to Wikipedia for a quick check.

That's always a mistake. There's no such thing as a quick check on Wikipedia.  It turns out the development of the NATO phonetic alphabet has a pretty interesting history.  There were debates and changes.  And it's impressive the system had survived largely intact over the years.

Except in CA, where the LAPD developed their own, and with other cities adopting the LAPD codes, it turns out to be a viable alternative.

When you're done with that, there's a fascinating article about Radio 10- codes.

If you find this at all interesting, spend some time in the Wikipedia articles.  There's all sorts of useless trivia to learn.

Cuba's singing capitalitsts and useless analogies

Similes are, of course, comparisons using "like" or "as." The point of these comparisons or analogies is to help the listener understand a new concept buy referencing another one.

But they are culturally dependent. And sometimes utterly useless.

During a story on singing street vendors in Cuba, they interviewed a woman who sells Tamales from a cart.

She said:

Tamales are like coconuts.

?!?!

Tamales have hard shells?

Tamales give milk?

You can add shredded tamale to birthday cake?

You get tamales from tall trees?

Tamales play a prominent role in cartoon violence?

Tamales are used euphemistically to describe women's physiques?

If you have a Professor nearby, you can convert tamales into radio parts?

How exactly are tamale's like coconuts?

They spoil easily. I don't stop doing my pregon until I have sold everything because I will not try to sell the leftover tamales the next day.

Hm. Coconuts spoil easily? Is this something I should already know? It's not on my syllabus.

It's easy to forget how culturally specific our analogies and references can be. It's something I need to keep in mind for my own presentations.

You can read/listen to the story here.

Shatner-Palooza: Political Poetry

What do Governor Palin and Elton John have in common?

It took William Shatner to truly bring life to their words.

Weisure

Really, CNN? Weisure?

This might be the worst new word ever. Weisure? It's the kind of word that when used in a public setting is likely to incite violence.

And it marks the user as a idiot.

And yet for some reason, CNN, the premiere place for news on the Internet, thinks it's a good idea to inflict Weisure on the world.

The question is this: did they create this new word just to annoy me?

Or did they have some other reason?

This screams "FILLER!!!"

Maybe I shouldn't judge the content just because some idiot made up a stupid word. Perhaps there is some real wisdom hidden in the article behind this typographical monstrosity.

It turns out, there isn't.

Weisure is the combination of work and leisure.

Many who haven't already abandoned the 9-to-5 workday for the 24-7 life of weisure probably will do so soon, according to New York University sociologist Dalton Conley, who coined the word. It's the next step in the evolving work-life culture.

"Increasingly, it's not clear what constitutes work and what constitutes fun," be it "in an office or at home or out in the street," Conley said. Activities and social spaces are becoming work-play ambiguous, he says, as "all of these worlds that were once very distinct are now blurring together."

... More

People work out of the office these days. Sometimes they work from home or take calls on their cell phone. Sometimes they surf the internet from the office.

Thanks for that, CNN. I had no idea. Truly breaking news there.

However, the increased mixing of work and play doesn't mean bankers will be refinancing houses during their kids' piñata parties.

...

It doesn't mean tax attorneys will be getting makeovers during their tax-law seminars. But they may be chatting with Facebook friends while participating in a conference call.

Really? CNN is giving us makeovers in tax seminars?

Maybe we shouldn't call it Weisure. How about calling it Hoffice instead. I can tell you all about my Hoffice life style.

So why is this happening?

Well, first, there's more work and less play, according to Conley's book "Elsewhere, U.S.A."

...

Weisure has been fueled by social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, where "friends" may actually be business partners or work colleagues.

"Social networking as an activity is one of those ambiguous activities," Conley said. "It's part fun and part instrumental in our knowledge economy."

These networking sites offer participants in the weisure life lots of ways to do business -- and to have fun.

Let me translate. People are busy. People like their co-workers.

I'm still waiting for the news in here. Isn't that what one of those CNN "Ns" stands for? So far, the only thing I've learned is that someone thought creating the word Weisure would be a good idea.

Someone also though Love Canal was a good idea.

So will their be a backlash against the new Weisure class?

If you're thinking that a backlash may be around the corner for the weisure concept, you're right. In fact, Conley says, the backlash has begun.

"You can see that in the populist anger against the bankers" who've been blamed in part for the current economic downturn, Conley says. The backlash is evident in the rise of alternative social movements involving people "who live in a more frugal and environmentally conscious way," he says.

But, short of a nuclear winter or some cataclysm sending us back to the stone age, there's no turning back the clock on the spread of weisure, he says. The weisure lifestyle will engrain itself permanently in the American culture.

Seriously? The backlash against people who combine work and leisure is evident because people are angry at banks over the mortgage crises? And the only way to stop Weisure is a nuclear war? That's what they've got? The real backlash against Weisure will be evident in the number of times proponents of the word Weisure get punched in the face for using it.

Honestly, I think I'm dumber for reading that article.

Aporkalypse!

"Aporkalypse" is my new favorite world, and I'm grateful to @xenijardin for introducing it into my vocabulary.

Here are some random thoughts about the outbreak.

I recently read Scott Sigler's, "Contagious," a story about an outbreak of alien spores, which seems appropriate given the current news about the potential for an H1N1 influenza outbreak. (Of course I was also reading it on an Airbus A319 when I encountered a passage about an unfortunate incident impacting an Airbus A319.)

My employer recently banned travel to Mexico. Seems reasonable. I wasn't planning to go, but now I guess I don't have to. Which is good, because I haven't gotten my yearly vat of SPF 96 yet.

They also recomend that employees who are sick take, you know, a sick day. It's seems silly, but apparently at many organization a lot of people still go into work when they are sick. The company wants to discourage that. And with modern technology, telecommuting is a great option for those who have to get stuff done but don't want to go into the office.

And by the way, why are there still so many office workers? We have broad band. We have secrure VPNs. We have cheap phone service and mobile phones. We have web cams. We have instant messaging. We have powerful computers. Why are the streets still flooded with people going to an office every day to type on the computer and talk on the phone? It makes no sense.

In the last few years, we have seen huge problems with traffic -- which telecommuting addresses.

We have seen a huge spike in the cost to get to work through fuel prices -- which telecommuting addresses.

We saw a huge run up in commercial real estate -- which telecommuting addresses.

And now since issues have been mitigated by the slumping economy, how about using telecommuting to reduce costs?

Maybe a pandemic and "social distancing" will finally push telecommuting the mainstream.

Even if telecommuting is just a few days a week, it helps.

"Social Distancing" is another phrase I learned today. In this article on the Capitol Hill Blog, they discuss the measures King County is taking to deal with the potential for a pandemic. Apparently the county updated its plans this past fall. We are currently in Phase 4 of a pandemic. It makes for interesting reading.

And finally, I learned that my brother's alma mater is the epicenter of the NYC swine flu outbreak.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said of the 40 U.S. cases, only one has been hospitalized, and all have recovered.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday 28 cases have been confirmed at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens. More than 100 students at the school were out with flu-like symptoms last week.

Bloomberg and New York City Health Commissioner Tom Frieden said all of the students who were ill had mild symptoms and none had been hospitalized.

The school is remaining closed through Tuesday.

...More

Life in the Garden Part 15: Fake Herbs

This year my garden is growing.

Okay, well, I guess every garden grows. Unless it's dead. Then it's just dirt. Or it's a Bosch painting.

But I'm not demonstrating the descent into Hell. My garden is all about herbs.

And it's growing bigger -- taking up more space, more pots, and more herb names.

I decided to try Tarragon. I have my bean seeds, basil seeds, zuccinni seeds, strawberry seeds, three kinds of tomato seeds, tyme seeds, sage seeds, rosemary seeds, leek seeds, seeds of revolution, scallion seeds, mint seeds, and seeds of an idea.

Tarragon seeds, however, alluded me.

The nursery? No.
Wal*Mart? No.
Target? No.
Lowes? No.
QFC? No.

Finally, after scouring seed racks from Lynnwood to Tukwilla -- I found them.

There they were with the rest of the herbs -- waiting for me at a Home Depot I rarely visits. Of course I picked up two packs of the Start Smart Tarragon (Artemisia Redowski).

I went home and planted them in my little peet pots of bloom. The seeds quickly sprouted. Soon I had healthy leaves and had to thin all my sprouts.

Tonight it was time to move them into their permanent pots. I pulled out the book to check how far apart they should be planted, dropped the book on my foot, picked it up, and flipped to Tarragon.

Uh oh.

Did you know there are two types of Tarragon? French Tarragon is a wonderful culinary herb that provides a rich flavor to chicken.

Russian Tarragon is a weed.

Well, maybe not quite a weed. It's is a hardy, tough plant with relatively little flavor. It doesn't bing much to the table.

Guess which one I hunted, stalked, captured, planted, and tended?

Yeah.

It turns out Russian Tarragon has very little to do with French Tarragon. In fact, French Tarragon doesn't even produce seeds.

We've got hundreds of thousands of words in the English language. The 26 letters give us a mind numbingly broad selection of potential new words.

And yet someone needs to reuse the word Tarragon? They couldn't come up with something else? You know, if they are out of words, and it's time to start reusing them, how about using them someplace?

1 Plant named Tarragon and 1 Car model named Tarragon = Good

1 Plant named Tarragon and another Plant named Tarragon = Stupid

So this weekend, it's off to the nursery for some Tarragon starter plants.

Anyone want some Russian Tarragon seeds? Or plants?

Seattle Embarrased Again

Seattle has a history of embarrassing itself with transportation matters. After all this:

• the Kalackala refurb mess


• the monorail nightmare (if you hold 5 elections and the monorail wins 4 of the 5, then the monorail loses)


• the other monorail nightmare (crash and fire)


• the ongoing Viaduct disaster


• the pending political disaster of SR520

... you would think they could at least get something simple right. How hard can it be to name a trolley line? For Seattle planners, it's pretty challenging.

From the Seattle PI:

SLUT -- Streetcar's unfortunate acronym seems here to stay

By KERY MURAKAMI
P-I REPORTER

There's a story going around South Lake Union, but a spokeswoman for Vulcan, Paul Allen's development company, says it's just an urban legend.

That aside, the story that the neighborhood's streetcar line now under construction was called the South Lake Union Trolley until the powers that be realized the unfortunate acronym -- SLUT -- seems here to stay.

Officially, it's now the South Lake Union Streetcar. But the trolley name already has caught on, and in the old Cascade neighborhood in South Lake Union, they're waiting for the SLUT.

... More

Whip, Puree, Liquify

My first thought when I saw this was, "Huh. That's going to take a pretty big blender."

Then I realized it said, "Liquidation" not "Liquification."

Grammar Girl Podcasts

I recently began listening to the Grammar Girl podcasts.

During these weekly 3 to 5 minute discussions she delves into the quirks of the English language to teach people to write more clearly. You can download her tips and lessons from iTunes or directly from her website.

If you prefer to read the lessons, you can also see the transcripts at her website.

Presumed Missing

Two climbers are missing, but since the searchers aren't sure the missing climbers are missing, they will only list them as "presumed" missing.

Apparently they haven't ruled out random invisibility.

Climbing team believed missing
Seasoned pair didn't return from China trip
By MIKE LEWISP-I REPORTER

The owner of the Seattle-based guide service Mountain Madness Inc. and another elite climber are presumed missing after they failed to return from an expedition to a remote mountainous region of southwestern China near Tibet.
...
"The fact that no one knows where they are is consistent with climbing without a permit," said Eric Simonson, owner of International Mountain Guides.