Chinglish lesson of the day: No smoking in the cultural relic

Because “we each have the duty to protect the cultural relics.”

Chilean earthquake moves an entire city 10 feet

Livescience.com has noted that the recent and massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile has moved the city of Concepción at least 10 feet (3 meters) to the west. It even shifted other parts of South America and was rated as the fifth most powerful quake ever measured. Luckily, total fatalities were only in the 500 person range.

The war over exit signs

Slate magazine has recently published an interesting article (“The Big Red Word vs. the Little Green Man”) about exit signs and sign standardization in general. While Americans prefer an EXIT sign in red, many other countries use some version of the ISO standard – that is, a “running man.” Hence and due to the fact that the sign is a pictogram and it's green (the color of safety), it can be understood by everyone – including non-English speakers. You can read more about the history of the EXIT sign on Slate.

Chinglish lesson of the day: Suzhou Round City Expwy(W)

Man looses coat and sue the city of Houston, Continental Airlines and a food court

The Airline Reporter blog has recently noted a story of a lawyer who was flying from Houston to Las Vegas back and had gone to the food court in Terminal C where he accidentally left his US$800 black leather jacket (which someone naturally ended up stealing). Apparently this is the fault of the city of Houston, Continental Airlines and the food court and hence, one or all of these parties should pay for the lawyer to get a new coat. No word on the outcome of the case or cases.

Chinglish lesson of the day: Full-comurt ban on opium-smoking

The world’s strangest airports

Popular Mechanics magazine has recently featured eighteen of the world’s strangest airports. As the magazine noted, there are many challenges to building an airport as there are often few places to build that are ideal. Moreover, they must ensure what they build is as safe as possible in a variety of situations. Hence, Popular Mechanics survey of airports includes those that range from being dangerous to just plain unique and hence is well worth a quick read.

Laugh Out Loud Vacation Contest

The Airline Biz blog has recently noted that Endless Vacation Rentals, a Wyndham Worldwide unit, is in the final stage of its Laugh Out Loud Vacation Contest and has already put the stories of 25 finalists up on its web site.

EVR will be awarding a week's vacation and US$5,000 cash to the grand prize winners with the first place winner getting a week and US$2,000 and the second place winner will get a week and US$1,000. Winners will be announced during the week of April 19.

Chinglish lesson of the day: Sir-fried collifolawar

All Nippon Airways (ANA) now providing women-only lavatories

Japan is a country known for having women only trains, but now All Nippon Airways (ANA) has introduced women-only lavatories. According to the Airline Reporter blog along with other blogs, women-only lavatories are now available on ANA’s international planes, except the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320, and they have a pink logo on their doors…

Chinglish lesson of the day: Special Chinese with food

Cannibalism?

Know your meme: Om Nom Nom!

The Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies explains the phenomenon of Om Nom Nom!

Airline seats: To recline or not to recline (or to buy Knee defenders)?

Back in February, the Christian Science Monitor reported that former Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney had asked a passenger in front of him to to raise his seat back before take-off and ended up getting swung at. 

In a follow-up story, the Christian Science Monitor reported on some options for passengers – including knee defenders which are shown in this video:

Chinglish lesson of the day: Star Fucks Coffe

Just opened in Liuzhou…

Obama is hiring an official Twitterer

With nearly 10% official unemployment, the Wall Street Journal has reported that President Obama plans to help put a dent in this figure by hiring an official Twitterer. Apparently, they are looking for someone who is available immediately – which should not be a problem in today’s job market. For interested applicants, the online application can be found here. 

Chinglish lesson of the day: Please don’t litter up

Director Kevin Smith: To fat to fly?

Movie director Kevin Smith ("Clerks," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and "Cop Out") was recently asked to get off a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank because of his size. Naturally he was not to happy about this and he twittered up a storm of protest and some of his twits have been assembled by the Airline Biz blog. 

However and if you are Kevin Smith’s size but not as famous and you don’t want to be booted off an airline for being to big, check out this post on Antibride.com to find out if you might be to fat to fly.

Chinglish lesson of the day: Please pay the fair accounting to the meter

Arrested passenger uses the “I had too many cookies defense”

The Airline Biz blog has noted an odd story where a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles had to be diverted to Pittsburgh due to a passenger acting strangely – which was defined as “as going into an airplane restroom and screaming, exiting with one's pants down and trying to punch a flight attendant.”

Apparently he is using the “I had too many cookies defense” but this has triggered an online debate over the effects of adding additional ingredients to such items. According to the Airline Biz blog:

• SFoodie, SF Weekly's food blog, noted how the movie "Reefer Madness" become a hit for its extreme depictions of the effects of marijuana.
• Phil Kammer on the Stump Report has noted: "I have seen many people on pot and most don't strip their clothing and attack people. I am not sure a double dose of pot cookies will work as a defence."
• The Smoking Gun had the four-page indictment on its site. The passenger had connected in Philadelphia from the Dominican Republic where he had attended some kind of "Global Information Networking Conference."

Either way, its probably best to stay away from any stimulants before a long flight.

Chinglish lesson of the day: Pood taken late at night breakfast

Brawling flight attendants cause a flight to be cancelled

Usually you hear about rowdy passengers disrupting flights but brawling flight attendants? According to the AirlineReporter blog, two flight attendants onboard the Delta Connection (run by Pinnacle Airlines) flight 887 from Rochester, NY to Atlanta got into a fight – literally with fists. However, the Captain not only booted the flight attendants off the plane but also all of the passengers - forcing Delta to arrange other flights for them to their final destination.

Just goes to show how much has changed in the world of commercial aviation over the pass 50 plus years….

Photo by Chalmers Butterfield