bookofjoe

US Airways Pulls the Plug on Electrical Outlets

I don't know how come this didn't merit mention anywhere but in yesterday's Wall Street Journal story by Avery Johnson, itself buried on page D3: maybe it's just too painful to watch yet another indicator of the airline industry's death spiral heave into view.

Let's see: fresh air, clean water, meals, movies, magazines, pillows, blankets, pretzels and now electricity.

Why not just cut to the chase, remove the seats and put in benches like in military transports?

Here's the article.

Airline Pulls the Plug on Outlets

In the latest rub for fliers who have watched everything from meals to pillows disappear onboard, US Airways has started pulling the plug on electrical outlets on many flights.

The airline, which has been in bankruptcy protection since September 2004 and is to complete a merger with America West as soon as a week from today, quietly began deactivating the power strips on many Airbus planes last week.

A US Airways spokeswoman says the system has become too expensive to maintain, but declined to say how much cost savings the airline expects to gain from cutting it.

The power bars will be removed completely when the aircraft go into the shop for heavy maintenance.

The plugs, used by travelers to charge laptop computers and other devices, were never installed on any of the carrier's Boeing planes.

The plugs will remain on the A330 aircraft that are mostly used on the trans-Atlantic route.

As the airline industry's financial situation has worsened this year because of low fares, labor tensions and record oil prices, in-flight stinginess has reached new levels.

In March, Northwest Airlines started to eliminate free pretzels and in June cut complimentary magazines, while Delta Air Lines this spring jettisoned pillows.

UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, also operating under bankruptcy-court protection, plans to finish rolling out a $2 fee for curbside check-in by the end of this year.

And all the so-called legacy carriers, except for Continental Airlines, have traded free food for some form of paid service on most domestic flights.

Travelers may see even more cutbacks ahead.

Delta and Northwest both filed for bankruptcy-court protection last week and will likely be looking for ways to slash costs.

Some airline experts say, however, that there is so little left onboard that the carriers will have to look elsewhere, such as to route cuts, to really make a dent.

Northwest and Delta representatives both said that no amenity cuts have been announced due to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court filings.

Delta even has said it is returning free magazines to flights starting Nov. 1.

As service has eroded on the legacy airlines, the newer low-cost carriers have generally been held up by the industry as shining examples of customer service.

However, some of them also have been scaling back the freebies.

Spirit Airlines, for instance, now has blankets only on overnight flights, having taken them out of routine service in May.

Hands–Free Umbrella

OK, OK, it's not the most stylish thing you've ever seen but come on — it's a first pass, for goodness' sake.

Hermès and Chanel and the rest will get on the bandwagon and before you know it the harness will be velvet and suede and the usual luxe materials.

For now, deal.

From the website:

This ingenious umbrella features an adjustable rest that grips around your shoulder so you can use both hands while heading off showers!

Makes it simple to open doors, carry groceries, walk dogs and do all the other tasks that seem impossible with ordinary umbrellas.

36"L x 39"W when open.

$9.99 here.

Machine Translation — 'Real soon now'

The funniest thing I've read so far today — but hey, the day is still young and my "to read" pile is plenty high — was appended to Kate Mackenzie's article in today's Financial Times headlined "Machines Conquer Language Barrier."

Really?

I thought that machine translation was still in beta, where it's been stuck since the 1960s.

And I was right: Mackenzie's story is about how Hewlett–Packard manages to do business in 170 countries and it focuses on how the company's various local offices manage to farm out their stuff to people to translate into the wide variety of native tongues employed.

Oh, well.

The funny part was when Mackenzie decided to test the state of machine translation art by having translation agency SDL's translation engine (at freetranslation.com) render the opening lines of Balzac's classic, "Le Cousin Pons," into English.

For comparison she also had Ben Hunt, Digital Business editor of the Financial Times, take a crack at it using his "C–grade schoolboy French," and finally she offered the 1968 translation by the late linguist Herbert Hunt (no relation), now available as a Penguin Classic.

■ Balzac

Vers trois heures dans l’après-midi, dans le mois d’octobre de l’année 1844, un homme âgé d’une soixantaine d’années, mais à qui tout le monde eût donné plus que cet âge, allait le long du boulevard des Italiens, le nez à la piste, les lèvres papelardes, comme un négociant qui vient du conclure une excellente affaire ou comme un garçon content de lui-même au sortir d’un boudoir. C’est à Paris la plus grande expression connue de la personnelle chez l’homme.


■ Freetranslation.com

About three hours in the afternoon, in the month of October of the year 1844, a man of age an about 60 of years, but has that everyone eût given more than this age, went alongside the boulevard of the Italians, the nose to the track, the smooth lips, as a négociant that the has just concluded an excellente matter or as a happy garcon of himself. This is at Paris more big expression known personal one with the man.


■ Ben Hunt

At about three in the afternoon, on an October day in 1844, a man of about 60 years, but whom life had made look somewhat older, walked the length of the Boulevard des Italiens, his nose in the air, (les lèvres papelardes), like a diplomat coming to the end of a great negotiation or a young boy happy to be leaving his bedroom. In Paris that is the greatest personal expression of satisfaction a man can show.


■ Herbert Hunt

About three o’clock in the afternoon, one day in October 1844, an old man of some 60 years (though anyone who saw him would have thought him older) was walking along the Boulevard des Italiens, with his nose thrust forward and a smug expression on his lips, like a merchant who has just made an excellent deal, or a bachelor emerging from a lady’s boudoir, pleased with his prowess – in Paris the expression of male self-satisfaction can go no further.

Chacun à son goût.

Paul Smith Triumph Motorcycle

British fashion designer Paul Smith has customized nine Triumph Bonneville T100 motorcycles (above and below), each one hand–painted with a unique design.

After being shown around the world in showrooms, tradeshows and design exhibitions, they'll be sold for $13,000 and up each.

Smith has also created two "limited edition" designs, featuring special hand–painted bodywork and mock–crocodile leather seats.

Fifty of each design will be produced for sale globally, with each individually numbered and authenticated with a certificate signed by Smith and Triumph owner John Bloor.

First come, first serve here, says Triumph.

Eurochocolate Festival Begins October 15 in Perugia, Italy

Where will you be that day?

Haven't anything better to do?

Why not party, Italian–style, in Perugia?

The festival runs nine days, through October 23.

Last year about 900,000 people attended so you're almost guaranteed to find someone of like mind there.

But then, just by being there you're among kindred spirits, aren't you?

Among other things there are exhibitions of centuries–old documents related to chocolate, a "choco-reality show" pitting 10 chocolatiers against one another in a series of culinary competitions and endless tasting.

Best part: it's free.

But if you like you can buy a Chococard for $6.35 here, which gives you access to special deals.

Assuming you speak Italian, that is: the website's in the mother tongue.

But you can read the fractured computer English translation here if you prefer.

And to put you in the proper frame of mind even if you can't make it to Italy this year, consider that the Eurochocolate folks have unilaterally declared October 12 "Chocolate Day."

You could look it up.

Sweet.

Tupperware Shoes by... Cynthia Rowley?

Yes.

They hit the catwalk (above) at last week's Spring 2006 Cynthia Rowley show in New York City.

The models also sported her Tupperware headbands (below).

While she made the headbands just for the show, Rowley said she plans to sell the Tupperware shoes for at least $300 when they come out next spring.

SkySail — The kite that pulls a ship

Look ma — no mast.

Yet it's the very same principle as old–time sailing ships: let the wind carry you.

SkySails of Hamburg, Germany next year will begin outfitting cargo ships with massive kites designed to pull the vessels, reducing fuel consumption by about one–third: a huge saving, given that fuel now accounts for about 60% of shipping costs.

Ingenious.

The current (September 15) Economist brings news of this radical new development in sea propulsion: it follows.

Sailing Ships With a New Twist

Masts? Who needs them?

In the first half of the 19th century, ships began to adopt steam engines, first alongside and then instead of sails.

Today, wind propulsion is for sportsmen and romantics, not shipping firms trying to make money.

But the high price of oil and stricter pollution regulations are strong forces working to turn back the clock.

Wind propulsion is coming back in a new form: kites, not sails.

Next year, SkySails, a German firm based in Hamburg, will begin outfitting cargo ships with massive kites designed to tug vessels and reduce their diesel consumption.

The firm estimates that these kites will reduce fuel consumption by about one-third—a big saving, given that fuel accounts for about 60% of shipping costs.

The idea of reintroducing sails to modern ships is not new.

A Japanese consortium tried it in the 1970s, but got nowhere.

In the 1990s, the Danish government launched Project WindShip, but it was scuttled in 1998.

Other teams met failure, too.

The insurmountable problem in each case proved to be the mast.

In unfavourable winds, large masts create a lot of drag.

In gales, masts cause ships to heel, sometimes dangerously.

Masts and their pivoting sails take up valuable container space on the deck.

Loading and unloading is more expensive, since the cranes that lift containers must work around the masts.

Engineers designed taller (and more expensive) masts, some exceeding 100 metres in height, to reduce their number and limit the loss of storage space.

But the Panama Canal limits masts to 60 metres, and collapsible masts would be prohibitively expensive to build, operate and service.

Knud E. Hansen, the naval engineering firm based in Copenhagen that led Project WindShip, designed high-tensile steel masts with foldable carbon-fibre sails, known as vertical aerofoils because they generate horizontal thrust just as aeroplane wings create lift.

The cost of retrofitting a cargo ship with a row of masts, and strengthening its hull and deck to dissipate the additional stress, was estimated at euro10m ($12.5m).

So the sails would have taken around 15 years to recoup their costs through fuel savings.

But the SkySails approach does away with masts and is much cheaper.



The firm says it can outfit a ship with a kite system for between €400,000 and €2.5m, depending on the vessel's size.

Stephan Wrage, the boss of SkySails, says fuel savings will recoup these costs in just four or five years, assuming oil prices of $50 a barrel.

Jesper Kanstrup, a senior naval architect at Knud E. Hansen, says the idea of pulling a ship with an inexpensive kite—attached to the structurally solid bow like a tugboat—had never occurred to him.

"It's a good idea," he says.

SkySails' kites are made of a type of nylon similar to that used in the sails of modern windjammers, but they fly between 100 and 300 metres above sea level, where winds are less turbulent and, on average, more than 50% stronger than the winds that sails capture.

An autopilot computer adjusts the height and angle of the kite, the surface area of which can range from 760 to 5,000 square metres.

When the wind blows too strongly, one end of the rectangular kite is released so that the kite flaps like a flag.

A powerful winch retrieves the kite when necessary.

Regulators, as well as cost savings, could boost the technology.

For while both Europe and America have strict regulations on vehicle pollution, ships have enjoyed something of a free ride.

Moving one tonne of goods one kilometre by ship, for example, releases about 225 times as much sulphur as trucking the goods the same distance, according to the Secretariat on Acid Rain, a Swedish pressure group.

Mario Dogliani, the head of research at RINA, an organisation based in Genoa that inspects and certifies ships, says European regulators are "really pushing" for tougher emission controls, backed up with stiff fines, for shipping.

"We need to innovate," he says.

In May, the International Maritime Organisation's new rules on marine pollution took effect.

They require many ships to switch to a low-sulphur fuel that costs 50% more than traditional (and highly polluting) fuel oil.

And an increasing number of ports now offer discounts for ships with approval labels, called Green Passports, awarded by environmental groups.



It all adds up to a favourable wind for SkySails.

Bulgari Does Digital

What's this?

Above, the new Bulgari Ipno watch.

I happened on it in an ad in this past Sunday's New York Times where it looked intriguing in black and white but nowhere near as blingy as it does in color.

It's a mix of steel, ceramic, a satin strap and diamonds.

Deidre Woollard of the Luxist wrote about it last week.

It comes in two versions: one in steel and ceramic, the other with diamond lugs set into the steel.

I don't see it on Bulgari's Flash–ridden disaster of a website but even if it were there you couldn't find it.

You'll just have to pull yourself together and visit one of their stores.

They're in Aspen, Bal Harbour, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Las Vegas, Nassau, New York, Palm Beach, St. Barthelemy, South Coast Plaza and San Francisco, if you happen to live in this country or thereabouts.

Bulgari's really stepping out as it dips its toe into the 21st century.

I mean, they've opened their own hotel in Milano, their Bali resort is coming next year and now a digital watch... what's next, their name on a Russian rocket?

You know, now that I think about it that's not such a bad idea....

[via Deidre Woollard and the Luxist]