There is a standard process followed by most (all?) airlines, including United. United failed to follow that process in Dr. Dao’s case. Generally speaking, the process is:

Oh good. One more visual distraction for drivers who are already confused/overwhelmed. I expect we will see an increase in rear end collisions and car vs. pedestrian incidents as drivers spend more time looking at the street view images instead of the view through their windshield.

Someone has been ghosting writing the bulk of his tweets for at least the past month. Most tweets are mostly coherent, and the incoherence ones often seem planned.

I like my sandwiches simple - 2-3 ingredients max, but everything needs to be the best available. So many people/restaurants use excess condiments to make up for shitty ingredients. If they stuff in the bread is good and the fillings are good, you don’t need half a jar of mayo. My current favorite sandwich is the…

Same here. It was perfect weather for binge watching TV, and it felt effortless to watch the whole season in one sitting.

On my last trip to NYC - My mom (65 y/o at the time) and I boarded the subway, followed by a woman who appear to have cerebral palsy or some other musculoskeletal disorder. She used crutches and clearly didn’t have great balance. My mom sat down in the last open seat before seeing the woman on crutches. The train…

Bags fees are not enough to offset the cost/damage of a mid-flight fire caused by lithium ion batteries in the cargo hold.

Currently, yes, that is the standard for contract of carriage. They can do that in part because passengers have the option to carry valuable electronics in the cabin. If passengers can’t carry their valuables in the cabin, airlines will be under an enormous amount of pressure to protect electronics from theft and…

Airlines are going to fight it - they don’t want hundreds of lithium ion batteries in their cargo holds, nor do they want the liability of valuable electronics in checked bags.

Give it 10 years. We are rapidly approaching automated RFID-based payment. Once that happens, RFID home inventories won’t be too far behind.

eShakti was a game changer for me - None of their standard sizes would fit me without alterations, so I pay the extra $9 per item to get everything custom made. I add cap sleeves to every sleeveless dress, high scoop neckline for anything that would show too much cleavage for work, and knee length hemlines for…

Minimize contact with food waters unless it’s a matter of life or death. At best, the water is full of raw sewage. It also probably has gasoline and other contaminants in it. Depending on the region, possibly also snakes or other dangerous wildlife.

My gray hairs first appear when I was 18, and they never really bothered me. I started dying my hair at age 32 because it was suddenly dull and mousey. I now get a demi-permanent glaze every 8 weeks. My salon only charges $10 for the color when it’s an add-on to a hair cut appointment. It’s great - it looks like the…

When I left my job on staff at a public university to go back to school, I had 2 weeks of paid vacation, and close to 4 weeks of sick leave. I could carry over a max of 200 hours vacation from year to year, and any excess converted to sick leave. My employer (i.e. the state) paid out the vacation time when I left, and…

I haven’t tried the thins - is it just thinner cookies with the same amount of filling, or less filling as well?

Convenience is a huge factor. You can request an uber/lyft from the app, get an ETA for the driver and route map, then track their arrival. Directions to your destination are automatically loaded to the drivers phone, and there is built in recourse if a driver long hauls you. The rates are standard and you get an…

It’s not true. Airplanes have HEPA filters and also mix fresh air with filtered air. The air coming out of the overhead vent is “clean.” If you do get sick from exposure on an airplane, it’s most likely from a person in your row or the row in front/behind you. There’s a pretty good explanation of airplane air…

Ha! I had pretty much the same experience with my undergrad stats class. I had perfect scores on everything until the final. I got one question worng, and it was because I “overthought” the question. I went as far as working out an example that met the criteria stated in the question, but didn’t match any of the…

One of my closest friends had a baby last winter. We live in different states, and I visited for a week towards the end of her maternity leave, to help out during her transition back to work. My first evening there, she asked if I could dress the baby for bed while she washed up post diaper change. As I was casually…

No, it was (a +b)*c - d.