Chinese manufacturers are experts at knocking off just about anything, from "Rat Ban" sunglasses and "Wee" gaming consoles to, yes, "HiPhones." But now it looks like they’re very close to copying another American export: They’re bootlegging our Boeing 747s.
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Every year around the holidays airports are jammed with travellers heading all over the country. And it begs the question: if this happens so regularly and reliably, why don’t airlines just add more flights this time of year to keep up with the demand?
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As a Nor’easter heads towards the east coast just in time for the busiest travel day of the year, you’re probably wondering how bad it has to get before your plane gets grounded. Well, as a new National Geographic feature explains, figuring that out is more an art than a science.
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As you curse the rat’s nest of terminals, walkways, and people movers of whatever transit hub you’re using to get home this week, it’s easy to forget how extraordinarily sophisticated the average airport is. They’re works of art, really—but they’re nothing compared to the airport concepts artists have dreamt up over the last 100 years.
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Flying this holiday? I’m sorry. Here’s to hoping you don’t get stranded in East Nowheresville on the way. As for the rest of us, the Misery Map is a fantastic way to sit back and bask in the misfortune of others. Or, uh, give thanks that we’re not stuck at an airport. Yeah, that second one.
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With the East Coast on the verge of an ill-timed storm, worse than usual holiday delays seem inevitable, and there’s one question on everyone’s mind: How long am I going to be stuck in airort purgatory? Depends who you fly.
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To make your holiday travels easier, Google Street View now takes you inside 16 international airports and over 50 train stations around the world. So don’t worry about finding the baggage check using archaic methods like looking at signs. Now you can map it!
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Think Los Angeles at rush hour is bad? Try doing it half-blindfolded with nothing but a radio and a few blinking lights to show you the way. That’s how pilots navigate the invisible highways in the sky, and there’s a beautiful design that makes it all work. It only took about a hundred years to come up with it.
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In an interesting but somewhat obviously biased New Statesman article, the marketing team at audio-engineering firm Biamp have collected a few interesting examples of how architectural acoustics and urban-scale soundscape design affect mood. They mention, for example, the stressful effects of sustained noise on blood pressure, as well as a reported 15% drop in the crime rate in Lancaster, California, following the installation of a birdsong-based soundscape in the downtown area.
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Heathrow’s Terminal Five was designed to be a soaring, light-filled tribute to the wonders of flight. Five years into its life, though, 60 percent of its lightbulbs are burned out—because there’s been no safe or cost-effective way to change them. Now, officials say they’ve found a solution: Acrobats.
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