Looks silly, yes, but then so did the '70s.

It's not science fiction.

That's pic is pure gold.

Right. It's like the example of shining a red dot pointer at the moon from Earth. Swiping the pointer across the face of the moon, it would seem that the laser is travelling faster than the speed of light, when in fact the energy emitted by the pointer is doing no such thing. It's an illusion. In quantum entanglement,…

Seriously. My cats and birds also think, "Yay! Treats!" Now, go cure cancer, please.

Is that so?

Touché

Isn't it more accurate to say that the pulse only appears to be travelling faster than light?

Doesn't look terribly comfy; but who does? She wouldn't be any more difficult to sit beside than a skinny person.

Pft. It's not like they made the crust out of sacrilicious cheesebargar [sic] droppings. I give the Cheesy Bites pizza one vomit held down.

They should never have charged her before doing an investigation. Bad, cop, bad.

Okay, thanks.

I do understand now, thank you. It's potentially doubly problematic if, as you point out, you have a connecting flight. In my defense, I had the empathy and emotional intelligence to share her embarrassment at being called out publicly by the gate attendant before I ever commented - I was hung up on the practical…

I'm aware that she's okay with purchasing an additional seat (as I said, she seems very reasonable), but into which seat is she able to fit? Was it a seat from the particular version of the plane for which she had purchased a ticket? What was her standard, and why did it differ from the gate attendant's standard? What…

I can't find it, but I'll take your word for it. Maybe I'm not understanding her argument. So, she fits into certain airline seats. They must very. Does she want all airlines to standardize seat size? Or is her complaint that airlines do not post the seat size of a 747-200 on their website? She seems like a reasonable…

Not really! Peter Singer's work deals largely with utilitarianism, and the issue of obesity and airline travel is an appropriate area to consider the practical application of his ideas.

Point taken, that decisions like this shouldn't be the responsibility of gate attendants, but an obese adult should have the wherewithal to know they'll need two seats at the time of purchase. She's upset at the airline for not having a policy, when she could easily have resolved her own problem.

Agreed. I'm colorblind and I'm still able to "unsee" the illusion, as you've described.

I prefer to start my vacations out with some base jumping.

The Langoliers!