Tag: schiphol

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Around The Web

Urinal Flies Of Schiphol

I’ve noticed the flies in Schiphol airport urinals the last few visits, but never knew their purpose. I admittedly didn’t put much effort into figuring it out now I know:

Fly into Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and, if you do what most people do after a long flight, you are probably headed to the lavatory. If you’re a guy, you’ll see that Schiphol’s bathrooms sports a feature many do not — urinals, with flies on them, as pictured right. Stare for a minute and you’ll notice that the fly doesn’t move. Look around, and you’ll note that the flies are everywhere — one per urinal, all the way down the row.

…It’s a target, plain and simple. Something for customers to aim at as they urinate.

This likely would not have been my first guess.

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Apple

Unibody MacBooks Are Strong

If you’ve held a unibody MacBook and a previous generation , you know the new unibody is a substantial improvement on an already solid frame. Even with that knowledge I’m surprised to see these pictures of a MacBook that survived Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 which crashed outside of Schiphol in February.

Noteworthy is that rather than a sharp bend in the frame which would have cracked the motherboard and potentially crushed the hard drive it instead only bent a few degrees. It looks like the board stayed at least mostly intact, at least enough to boot. The display is pretty busted but that’s to be expected.

Very impressive.

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In The News

Top 10 Airports

Here’s an article on the Top 10 Airports in the World. They are billed as great places to pass time while waiting. And boy is this article a load of manure.

I’ve flown out of John F. Kennedy International Airport (though not the mentioned Terminal 6), connected at Los Angeles International Airport (with a layover), and spend 12 hrs delayed at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

First of all, their description of Schiphol is borderline fraudulent. Believe me, all airports are boring after about 1hr. Everything they mention is a bit smaller than the description implies. To give you an idea, take the size of the country and compare the scale to that of the United States. Got that ratio handy? Then take a small Atlantic City Casino, Museum, etc. from the US and shrink it down by that same ratio. That’s about accurate.

I never saw any celebrities at LAX, but perhaps that’s because I was there before the sun came up on a layover, and that was in July as I recall. Any celebrity with money, and some without were somewhere else but LA.

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General Personal

Vacation

I’m back from vacation. Like two years ago, I spent some time in Holland visiting family, and then some vacation time in Spain (Mallorca to be exact), then back to Holland for a day and a half. Just starting to catch up on things, so be patient if your expecting a reply from me. I’m tired after an a long day with a flight at 9:30 (GMT +1) that landed 12:00 (GMT -5). So here are some random thoughts in bullet form:

  • Security wasn’t to bad considering all that has been happening. The only thing encountered was no liquids or gels in hand luggage… Interestingly every hour, or less a flight attendant came around with cups of water. I guess they are afraid someone could become dehydrated and sue. An obvious change from procedures prior (on the way over that happened no more than 2x as I recall).
  • Constantly check that that your flight isn’t delayed, so you don’t spend 11hrs in Schiphol Shithole (after 11hrs that’s an appropriate name for any airport). Definitely not a great way to spend a day. Teletext, Phone, Internet, Smoke signals. Whatever it takes. Check and check again.
  • Just because a hotel advertises that it has air conditioning doesn’t mean that it works, works well, or works constantly. Hotels that only let it run when your in the room (usually activated by room key) only can work if it’s very powerful and can cool off a room quickly. Yet another thing to be aware of
  • When traveling trans-Atlantic, wide body aircraft, such as a Boeing 767, 777, 747 are preferable to a Boeing 757. Because it’s seated 3 and 3 with 1 isle, and bathrooms in front and back of coach, that’s a lot of traffic in 1 isle. Wide body aircraft such as the 767 seem much more capable of handling a long haul without feeling so tiny. Just a personal preference.
  • I had this notion that most old stone structures remained semi-cool in hot weather, but the Cathedral in Palma completely ruinied that.
  • There should be First Class, Business Class, Kid-Free Class, and Family Class. For those who want to sleep on the plane, you options.
  • I ate way to much… and enjoyed it all.
  • Beautiful beaches
  • Did I mention the food?