Airlines reduce size of spoons to save fuel during recession, says IATA

By David Millward, Transport Editor in Kuala Lumpur Published: 11:38AM BST 09 Jun 2009 Airlines are reducing the size of spoons and dropping in-flight magazines to make planes lighter and save fuel during the recession, according to the International Air Transport Association. In the United States, Northwest Airlines has excluded spoons from its cutlery pack if the in-flight meal does not require one.

It is not alone, according to Paul Steele, director of the environment at IATA.

Another carrier, JAL of Japan, took everything it loaded from a 747 and put it on the floor of a school gym to see what it really needed.

As a result it shaved a fraction of a centimetre off all its cutlery to cut weight.

"When you are talking about a jumbo jet with 400 people on board, being served two to three meals, this can save a few kilos," he said.

"You work out how much fuel that consumes over a year, and you can be talking about a considerable amount of money".

Other carriers have come up with all sorts of ingenious initiatives to shift the flab off their aircraft.

In-flight magazines are going and carriers are even putting their duty-free catalogues onto the seat-back televisions.

"Airlines are going through what they put on a plane. They are now saying that if we are only carrying 100 passengers, then only load what they need," said Mr Steele.

Catering trolleys are becoming lighter and less water - both bottled and in the tank - is being loaded.

The next generation of aircraft seats are likely to be up to 30 per cent lighter than the current generation, with composite replacing aluminium.

Reinforced carbon fibre is used for the shields for the in-flight televisions, cutting the weight by as much as half.

Many of the initiatives were triggered by the soaring cost of aviation fuel. But are now becoming important for airlines who are coming under pressure to cut their carbon emissions.

In Kuala Lumpur 226 leading airlines pledged that they would achieve "carbon-neutral growth" by 2020, meaning that their emissions would be capped - even if the number of planes in the sky increased.

At the same time the industry is looking to step up the use of alternative carbon-free bio-fuels, which should account for up to six per cent of the industry total by 2020.

A number of carriers, including Virgin Atlantic, Continental and Air New Zealand, have carried out trials of alternative sources of energy such as algae.

It is anticipated that such fuels, which have appear to have performed as well -if not better - than conventional kerosene, will get safety approval as early as next year.

But, given the high initial cost, they are unlikely to be in widespread commercial use before the middle of the next decade.

However, if we do away with the kitchen galleys and the catering trolleys altogether we can increase the savings in weight by a considerable amount of kilograms.

If we then replace the passenger seats with bean-bags there is some added savings in overall weight.

Now lets look at the combined weight of the pilot, copilot, navigator and cabin crew and see how much weight we can save there!!

Japanese company does thriving trade in 'fake friends'

By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo - Published: 4:52PM BST 09 Jun 2009 Along with choosing a dress and booking a honeymoon, there is one other item to add to the wedding checklist in Japan: hiring fake friends.

Office Agents, a Tokyo-based company, rents out friends, work colleagues and even relatives to pad out the guest list.

For £127, one of the company's agents will attend the wedding as a guest, while a heart-tugging speech will cost an extra £64 and a song or dance will set clients back a mere £32.

Brides or grooms who want to impress their prospective partners with their sheer volume of friends are among those secretly padding the guest list with fakes.

The recession has also boosted the popularity of the service. With unemployment rising and a growing number of Japanese in part time jobs, people rent fake bosses or colleagues.

Others turning to the company for fake work-related guests are those who have recently lost their jobs but want to maintain an air of respectability, according to Hiroshi Mizutani, who heads Office Agents.

"We'll attend the wedding as your friend instead of your friend," said Mr Mizutani.

"Suddenly, a guest might not be able to make it. Or maybe you are concerned about the gap in the number of guests you have compared to your partner. Or, there are many temp workers these days and they may be uncomfortable inviting the boss."

At one recent wedding, the groom secretly arranged for all 30 guests to be hired as friends and family members as it was his second marriage and he did not want the same guests present as the first time round.

The company also provides the hiring of fake companions at events ranging from corporate functions and funerals to private events.

Stand-in lovers, pretend secretaries and distant relatives are among a colourful cast of popular roles played by the company's army of fakers.

Describing the necessary credentials for his "fakers", Mr Mizutani said: "They are cheery and clean and look like they have regular jobs."

It is a sad sad situation when in a country whose population is estimated at 127.77 million and which ranks tenth in the world making up 1.9 percent of the world's total population, someone has to hire fake friends and relatives in order to "save face".

This only goes to prove how much people have lost the art of communication with the advent of computers and the internet. What next? Fake parents and children?

High school student who wouldn't stop using cell phone Tasered

Thursday, June 04, 2009

By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Penn Hills police officer used a stun gun on a high school student who refused to stop talking on a cell phone and pushed the officer.

At Penn Hills High School this morning, Chief Burton said, a student was walking up and down a hallway, using a cell phone. School policy permits students to have cell phones but not to use them during school except in emergencies, Chief Burton said.

A Penn Hills police officer told him to put the phone away and go to class.

"The kid refused to listen," Chief Burton said. "The officer took him by the arm and said, 'You have to go to the office.' The student resisted, pushed the officer. The officer, defending himself, took out his stun gun and did a drive stun."

Chief Burton said a drive stun involves pushing the Taser against a portion of the body and squeezing the trigger, thus immobilizing a portion of the body, such as the leg. He said this affects about a 2- or 3-inch area.

While on the floor, the student was still resisting and was placed in handcuffs, Chief Burton said. The student complained of a headache and dizziness and was taken to Forbes Regional Hospital.

I suppose that this is one way of getting school kids to attend their class - Taser them into submission. Why didn't anybody think of this before? Parents would have been soooo grateful!!!

Food feud: woman stabs sister

Posted Fri Jun 5, 2009 4:10pm AEST

A 51-year-old Northern Territory woman has pleaded guilty to stabbing her sister during an argument over a stew.

The Alice Springs Supreme Court heard Kaye Johnson had been drinking with her sister at a house in a Tennant Creek town camp in December 2007 when they started arguing over food.

Johnson admitted to pulling a knife from her handbag and stabbing her sister in the forearm after her sister pushed her.

The prosecutor told the court the stab wound was 10 centimetres long and up to four centimetres deep and was likely to have caused permanent damage if not for medical treatment.

Johnson's lawyer said his client conceded an argument over a stew was a ridiculous reason for the outcome and she accepted responsibility.

Justice Stephen Southwood has remanded her in custody for sentencing next Wednesday.

In the words of The Bard of Avon: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.