Tuesday Travel Trivia (Week 1)

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Welcome to Gadling’s newest feature, Tuesday Travel Trivia (also called Trav-Triv, T-Cubed, or the Gadling T-party– take your pick). Each Tuesday, I’ll ask 10 brain-busting travel-related trivia questions and ask you to leave your answers in the comments. The winner, whoever gets the most right out of ten, will be recognized in the subsequent week’s post as a trivia god.

There’s really only one rule when playing the Gadling T-party: No using search engines to figure out the answers. Some of these answers will be easily Google-able, so please resist the urge. Without further ado, here are this week’s questions.

  1. South America has only two countries that are completely landlocked. What are they?
  2. What’s the three-letter New York Stock Exchange symbol for Southwest Airlines?
  3. The Petronas Towers are the tallest twin towers and office buildings in the world. In what country are they located?
  4. Whom do most experts agree is the most powerful man in Iran?
  5. In the movie Rain Man, Tom Cruise’s character Charlie tells Raymond, played by Dustin Hoffman, that every airline in the world has crashed at one time or another. But Raymond disagrees, citing the perfect safety record of which airline?
  6. Which country is more populous, Canada or Mexico?
  7. In 1994, an American citizen named Michael Fay was arrested in Singapore for theft and vandalism, and he was given a somewhat unusual punishment. What was it?
  8. By area, which country is the largest ‘Stan? [e.g. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, etc.]
  9. True or false: More than 1,000 people live in Greenland.
  10. What is the name of Lonely Planet’s online travel forum?

Stay tuned next Tuesday for the answers… Good luck!

Would you leave The States if Obama loses?

by Mike Barish on

Election day is next Tuesday and Americans are poised to make one of the most critical decisions in US history. With Obama leading in many polls, Democrats have allowed themselves to be cautiously optimistic. As such, you probably haven’t heard as much of the “If the Dems lose I’m moving to Canada” chatter that emanated from the blue states in 2000 and 2004. In a recent review of Phil Zuckerman’s “Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment,” Salon columnist Louis Bayard discussed why potential expatriates might shift their glances towards Scandinavia if McCain wins.

Zuckerman’s book, as well as Bayard’s column, focus less on Scandinavians’ high life expectancy, healthcare, economies and social mores and instead channel their energies on religion and faith. Scandinavians live in predominantly secular cultures. Bayard notes that,

As few as 24 percent of Danes and as few as 16 percent of Swedes believe in a personal deity. (In America, that figure is close to 90 percent.) In Scandinavia, belief in life after death hovers in the low 30 percent range, as opposed to 81 percent in America. Some 82 percent of Danes and Swedes believe in evolution, while roughly 10 percent believe in hell. Their rate of weekly church attendance is among the lowest on Earth.

Ideally, people who are disenchanted with the outcome of the election will remain in The States and help fight for their causes. If I was inclined to leave my homeland, however, I don’t think I’d head to Scandinavia. I loved my visits to Iceland and Sweden but I’m not so sure that a long, dark Nordic winter would soothe my soul should the American electorate let me down. And Scandinavia’s suicide rate is twice that of the United States’. I wonder if that has anything to do with their high rate of alcoholism.

No, I think I’ll stay here and be part of the solution if things don’t go my way. Or head south. I’m a warm weather guy. Hmm, maybe I should check out the tax laws in Chile.

Would you leave the States based on the outcome of the election? Where would you go? Drop us a line in the comments.

Galley Gossip: A question about losing booked seats on the airplane

by Heather Poole on

Dear Heather,

I have a question. We have a flight booked to Orlando with an airline that has seat assignments. Twice they have changed our seats so that we are not sitting together. The first time we were able to have it corrected. But this time, I guess the flight is completely booked and so far they have not been able to find us two seats together. My concern is that my mother is a senior and afraid to fly. Is there anything I can do? And why do the airlines do this? We booked months in advance and used this airline to make sure we would be sitting together. We flew to Orlando last year and did not have this problem. Does this happen often? Just wondering and looking for advice.

Thank you.

Sue

Dear Sue,

I’m sorry to hear of your troubles with the airline. What happened to you is not right and unfair. Now I could tell you why I believe this keeps happening, but the truth is I don’t know for sure, so I emailed your question to my friend who is an agent for the same airline I work for at the Los Angeles International Airport.

Before I share what my friend, the agent, had to say, I just want you to know that I understand what you’re going through, having to worry about whether or not you’ll be able to sit next to your elderly mother, as I have a two year-old I travel with regularly. When traveling on my flight benefits, the odds of getting two seats together are slim to none. There’s nothing worse than having to beg and bribe people to switch seats. Talk about stress.

Sure, you can ask the flight attendant to help you, but due to the fact that the flights are staffed with minimum crew, and the crew is busy checking emergency equipment, setting up the galleys, greeting passengers at the door, and dealing with all that carry-on luggage that will not fit into the overhead bin, the flight attendants will not be able to assist until the boarding process is over. Boarding, by far, is the busiest time for a flight attendant, which is why you probably won’t see one until seconds before the aircraft door is shut, which just adds to your stress. You don’t need more stress. You’ve been through enough already.

Now here’s what my friend, the agent, had to say about your lost seats, and what you can do about it in the future…

Yes, it happens more often than not, unfortunately. Some of the time it is an equipment change, meaning the original aircraft scheduled is switched out for one of many reasons (a completely different panel of Q & A’s). When this happens all of the reserved seats are dropped and need to be re-assigned. If there is a schedule change (sometimes people are unaware of it because it may only be by a few minutes), this will cause seat assignments to drop, too. This is probably one of the most frustrating situations for not only passengers, but for agents as well,because most of the time the solution cannot be reached until you are standing at the gate prior to boarding the flight.

My suggestion: call the airlines and inform them that your mother needs wheelchair assistance (Even if she doesn’t, because she is elderly). At the time of the call, ask again if there are seats together because of the fact she will need assistance. If they are unable to switch them over the phone, don’t just take the closest seats together (especially if one is a middle seat). Instead opt to take a window and an aisle. Once you get to the airport and remind them you need a wheelchair, ask again if they can change seats. Most likely they will advise you to ‘check at the gate’. Please be patient. Although I realize this is frustrating, it’s not over yet.

Once you get to the gate, go to the gate agent. The gate agent has the ability to unblock seats and if willing to help, could page some people to switch a window next to your mom for the window you are holding, for example. If all else fails, once you get onboard the aircraft (and by the way, if your mom takes the wheelchair ride, you’ll be boarded first), ask the people seated near you or near your mom to swap seats.

As an agent, I see this day in and day out, and I sympathize with your aggravation. My grandparents had a similar situation last year when traveling for the holidays. I gave them the same advice after they were getting upset when they weren’t getting anywhere over the phone. I urged them to be patient and polite (agents do not respond well to screamers) and ask at the points I suggested. Sure enough, hours later, they arrived safely and at the last minute – they were about to give up – were able to swap seats and sit together on the flight after all.

I hope that helps, Sue. Thanks for writing and good luck!

Heather

Photos courtesy of Joshuacw (top of page) and Viviandnguyen (above)

Plane Answers: Do airliners ever intentionally takeoff without flaps?

by Kent Wien on

Welcome to Gadling’s feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!

Just a note, we’re moving Plane Answers to Mondays. The question pool has been drying up a bit lately, so let’s hear from you.

Ray asks:

I was recently on a flight from Bangkok to Singapore on an A319. As I always do (as a Private Pilot), I listen for that reassuring sound of the flaps being lowered for take off as we taxied to the runway. We got to the hold short line…nothing. My heart start beating a little faster as we crossed the first runway and still nothing…we lined up and got ready to takeoff and still NO FLAPS.

I had visions of running up to the cockpit or shouting at a stewardess and telling them. I could see myself being interviewed after we landed in a rice paddy saying “I was going to say something…!” But instead I put on my iPod and clenched my clammy fists as we screamed into the air. Is it common for a jet airliner, even with light load or short route not to use flaps for takeoff?

Hi Ray,

I can’t think of any airliners that are certified for zero flap takeoffs. But I ran your question past my resident A319/A320 expert, Chris Norton, who responded:

The most common flap setting for takeoff is flaps “1” which means leading edge and a little bit of trailing edge are extended. The trailing edge usually doesn’t travel very far, and the LE makes almost no noise.

I am not surprised that he didn’t hear the flaps, but had they tried to take off without flaps I am sure he would have heard the takeoff configuration warning up in the cockpit. The A320/319 is not approved for zero flap takeoffs.

On short runways, at heavy weights or high density altitude, we will use optimized takeoff criteria which would mean we are at balanced field length, and could use flaps 3. It is not very common though. Think Las Vegas in the summer or Orange County.

Thanks Chris, for your insight into the A319. I’ve always wondered how I’d react as a passenger if I were in the same situation as Ray–staring out the window at a wing with flaps in the up position. When riding in the back, passengers put a great deal of trust in the pilots, their checklist adherence, and the takeoff warning horn that’s installed in every airliner. The recent Spanair MD-80 accident is a rare example of the failure of all three levels of safety built into the system.

This rather scary USAToday article mentions some similar events over the past 30 years. They accurately point out that distractions and human errors happen, and if that occurs at the same time as a failure of the takeoff warning horn, the results could be disastrous.

To ensure the safety of an airliner, there are many items that are redundant. Electrical systems, hydraulics, fuel pumps and pressurization are some of the many mechanical components of an airliner that are double and triple-redundant. A single failure of any of these things isn’t disastrous, but when all the layers are compromised, accidents can happen.

There’s a certain amount of trust passengers need to have in the design of the airplane, how it’s maintained and in the pilots who fly it. If that doesn’t comfort you, just try to remember that there are 10 million flights a year, and over 10,000 flights per day in the U.S. alone.

Do you have a question about something related to the pointy end of an airplane? Ask Kent and maybe he’ll use it for next Monday’s Plane Answers feature.

Big in Japan: What is the sound of one hand clapping?

by Matthew Firestone on

All this month, Big in Japan is bringing you a special series on Zen. From ancient scriptures and Buddhist mantras to austere minimalism and the sound of nothing, we’ll do our best to help you find your own little slice of inner peace and enlightenment.

Zen (??) is all about explaining the unexplainable…

In ancient times, Buddhist monks would enter deep meditation in an effort to analyze k?an (?????), which are stories and parables that cannot be understood through mere intellectual reasoning.

Indeed, k?an generally contain philosophical problems that are inaccessible to rational understanding, such as the famous question,” Two hands clap and there is a sound, but what is the sound of one hand clapping?”

The answer, of course, is that you must transcend all sounds in order to reach the soundless sound!

While we certainly don’t have all of the answers, we do have a good number of k?an that are worth meditating upon. On that note, today’s post is a collection of some of the most famous k?an in the Japanese tradition of Zen Buddhism.

A Zen master received an eager young student, and proceeded to pour him a cup of tea. When the cup was full, the Zen master kept pouring, which caused the student to shout out, “No more will go in!” To this, the Zen master replied: “You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

The emperor calls his trusted Zen advisor to ask him this question: “Where does the enlightened man go when he dies?” To this, the Zen advisor simply responded: “I do not know, because I have not died yet.”

A brash young man once boasted to a Zen priest: “The founder of our sect had such miraculous powers that he could hold a brush in his hand on one side of the river, and write on a piece of a paper held by his attendant on the other side.” The priest responded lightly: “Perhaps your fox can perform that trick, but that is not the manner of Zen. My miracle is that when I feel hungry I eat, and when I feel thirsty I drink.”

A Zen teacher asked his students if they considered a big stone to be inside or outside their minds. One replied: “From the Buddhist viewpoint, everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind. The teacher amusingly responded: “Your head must feel very heavy if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind.”

And finally:

A foolish young man, desiring to reach enlightenment, told a famous Zen scholar: “The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no realization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received.” The scholar, who was smoking quietly at the time, proceeded to whack the young man across the head with a bamboo pipe. When the youth started to get angry, the scholar spoke softly: “If nothing exists, then where did your anger come from?”

Want to learn more? Sure you do!

Be sure to check Big in Japan all this month as we delve deeper into the subtle art of Zen (禅).

** All images courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project **