Tourism and Beyond

10 Ten Codes

The Ten Codes are a list of codes used by law enforcement officers in the United States. They are available on the Internet which would make them seem inappropriate for this list, but a large number of police departments have tried to have them made illegal for distribution, so they deserve a mention. The codes were developed initially in 1937 and were expanded in 1974. The California Police use a variety of extra codes which predated the ten codes. For example, a 187 (one eighty-seven) means homicide. In the ten codes system, a 10-31 means that a crime is in progress, a 10-27-1 means homicide (the 10 is usually not said when it is a three-number sequence), and a 10-00 (ten double-zero) means “officer down – all patrols respond. Wikipedia has a complete list of the police codes here.

9 Professional Codes

In computer support, a variety of codes can be used when referring to a customer. One of these codes has become fairly well known on the internet: PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair) but there are a variety of others that are lesser known. One of these is used when reporting a fault which has been fixed: “The fault was a PICNIC” (problem in chair – not in computer), or “ID 10 T Error” – ID 10 T is, of course, IDIOT. Let us hope that you never see this noted down on your file when a serviceman is fixing your computer.

8 Time codes

Time Check (usually taking a similar form to: “Time check: the time is 12:00″) can be a code in stores for a bomb alert. It alerts the staff to follow the bomb procedure, which can be to either try to locate any suspicious packages, or to prepare to get the hell out. If you hear a time check in a store, it is probably a good idea to start moving toward the exit. Surprisingly – and shockingly, the majority of stores that use this code actually expect their staff to search for the bomb – certainly an aspect of the job that the majority of teenaged checkout operators weren’t expecting when they signed up I am sure.

7 Code 10

A code 10 in hospitals can refer to a mass casualty or serious threat (such as a bomb alert), but the majority of people experiencing a code 10 will do so for another far more common reason: a “code 10 authorization” is made by a merchant when he needs to call a credit card company to enquire about your card. This means that he is suspicious of you or your card and doesn’t want you to know it while he gets it checked out. When the credit card company hears that they have a code 10, they will ask a series of yes/no questions to the merchant in order to find out what the situation is. This will often result in the merchant keeping your card if they believe it is safe to do so. This type of call often results in a call to law enforcement.

6 Doctor Brown

“Doctor Brown” is a code word often used in hospitals to alert security staff to a threat to personnel. If a nurse or doctor is in danger from a violent patient or non-staff member, they can page Doctor Brown to their location and the security staff will rush to their aid. In some hospitals, code silver is used to refer to a person with a weapon, and code gray can mean a violent person without a weapon. Hospitals have a huge array of various codes to describe all manner of situations. They often differ from hospital to hospital and they are usually not internationally recognized.

5 Code oscar

On a ship, a code oscar means someone has gone overboard. If the ship has to maneuver erratically to handle the situation, it must also send out blasts on the signal so that other ships nearby are aware of the fact that it is about to change its course. It should be noted that ships don’t have an internationally standardized set of PA signals and they can differ from place to place, but this is a fairly commonly used one. Oh – and a code delta can mean that there is a biological hazard – though who knows what that might be on a passenger ship. And finally, Code Alpha often means “medical emergency”. I wonder which code will Abramovich set for his Megayacht Eclipse

Read the rest of the security codes at The List Universe

Funny, Uncategorized codes, police, security

Heat wave in Australia, february 2009

Science, real ecology australia, fire, heat, wave

One step beyond. Ryanair will bill you 1 pound for using the toilette on board. In an interview on BBC television this morning, Mr O’Leary said that the low-cost airline was looking at the possibility of installing a coin slot on the lavatory door so that “people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny.

Mr O’Leary said that Ryanair was determined to make air travel easier and more affordable.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in history gone on board a Ryanair flight with less than a pound,” he added.

Later, Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and, while this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce it.

“However, this highlights Ryanair’s continuing obsession with lowering costs and passing these savings on in the form of lower fares.

“Ancillary revenues, all of which are avoidable, help to reduce the cost of flying Ryanair and passengers using train and bus stations are already accustomed to paying to use the toilet so why not on airplanes?

“Not everyone uses the toilet on board one of our flights but those that do could help to reduce airfares for all passengers.”

Will the video below become the future of Ryanair?

Airlines, Uncategorized charge, pay, ryanair, toilet, wc, wtf

Wall Street Victims

The shock! The horror! These poor people represent the emotions many of us went through as we watched our investments plummet to unimaginable lows and then plummet some more. Two 3″ tall, hard vinyl figures in each figures in each package.

After the dedicated blog “Brokers with hands on their faces” here come the dolls of the victims of that brokers. For so only $5,95 you can have a pack of two figures.

Funny, Uncategorized Add new tag, brokers, doll, figures, victims, wall street

The joke about hydrogen-powered cars is that they’re about 10 years away–and always will be. The technology has been held up largely by the high cost of hydrogen fuel cells, but now researchers say they’ve found a way to bring down the cost dramatically by making a key component out of carbon nanotubes instead of platinum. More than half the cost of fuel-cell stacks comes from platinum, according to the Department of Energy. “Fuel cells haven’t been commercialized for larger-scale applications because platinum is too expensive,” says Liming Dai [Technology Review], the lead author of the new study.

Carbon nanotubes

Researcher found that tightly packed, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes doped with nitrogen were more effective as catalysts than platinum, which is usually used to help oxygen react within the fuel cell. That is a vital stage of the fuel cell cycle. Rather than burning fuel to create heat to power a turbine, fuel cells turn chemical energy directly into a flow of electricity. Hydrogen gas, for example, is pumped past one electrode (the anode), where it is split into its constituent electrons and protons. The electrons then flow out of the anode, providing electrical power, while the protons diffuse through the cell. Electrons and protons both end up at a second electrode (the cathode), where they combine with oxygen to form water [New Scientist].

That second reaction is very slow, so engineers have developed cathodes made out of materials that act as chemical catalysts and speed up the reaction. Until now, platinum was considered the best catalyst, but now carbon nanotubes with a trace of nitrogen (the critical ingredient) have left the precious metal in the dust.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE IN DISCOVER MAGAZINE

Cars, Science, Tech carbon, Cars, hydrogen, nanotubes

Example of eye-tracking on Google Universal Search results for [how to tie a tie]. This shows in real time how a participant in a user study scanned the page. The larger the dot gets, the longer the user was looking at that specific location.

When you look to a website, you probably do  not pay attention to where you were looking on the page and you most likely only used a few seconds to visually scan the results. Our User Experience Research team has found that people evaluate the search results page so quickly that they make most of their decisions unconsciously. To help us get some insight into this split-second decision-making process, we use eye-tracking equipment in our usability labs. This lets us see how our study participants scan the search results page, and is the next best thing to actually being able to read their minds. Of course, eye-tracking does not really tell us what they are thinking, but it gives us a good idea of which parts of the page they are thinking about.

View a complete article in: GOOGLE OFFICIAL BLOG

Tech, Uncategorized eyes, google, search, tracking, universal

M/Y Eclipse Eclipse is under construction by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany. The construction is taking place on a dock hidden from public view and there are still no definitive statements about size as there is a ‘race against the meters’ betwwen some megayacht owners. It is said that there is another megayacht project awaiting to rise its size when Eclipse’s is known. 

Clic to enlarge

The yacht is expected to be delivered to Roman Abramovich in 2010 and will be not less than 160 meters, with all kind of eccentricities and some known features.

Eclipse will have at least three helicopter pads, several hot tubs, two pools, three launch boats, and a private submarine. 

But the most ‘strange’ extras will be the radar designed specifically to warn of incoming rockets. There will also be armored protection around the wheelhouse and the billionaire’s cabin – along with bullet proof windows.

There will also be a surveillance system, with movement sensors and infra-red cameras all around the perimeter of the boat, and in case that someone do breach the security cordon and climb on board the beautiful superyacht, Abramovich, 41, and his girlfriend, Daria Zhukova, 26, a former model, can escape through secret corridors to a submarine that is launchable underwater and can dive away to 160ft in depth.

 

She is designed to be run with 50 crew, and the total cost of the project will round the €300 million.  When Eclipse launches, Mr. Abramovich will own more than 1,100 feet of yacht — the approximate length of the Queen Mary 2. Exact prices for his boats aren’t known, but industry experts estimate they range from about €20 million for his smallest to more than €300 million for Eclipse. Annual overhead for the boats is more than €15 million, industry experts say, and it costs him €90,000 just to fill up the tanks of his current largest boat, Pelorus.

 
This will be the 5th yacht owned by Mr. Abramovich, as well as ‘Pelorus’ (114 m), ‘Le Grand Bleu’ (112 m), ‘Ecstasea’ (85 m) and the tiny one, the ‘Susurro’, which is only 45 meters long.

ROMAN ABRAMOVICH: born on 24 October 1966 in Saratov, Russian SFSR, USSR) is a Russian billionaire and the main owner of private investment company Millhouse LLC. According to Forbes magazine, as of 5 March 2008, he has had a net worth of US$23.5 billion. However, his wealth declined to $3 billion, so he hast lost most of his fortune due to the worldwide financial crisis.  In 2008 Forbes magazine ranked him as the fifteenth richest person in the world. He was also considered to be the second richest person currently living within the United Kingdom

Celebrities, Luxury, Superyachts abramovich, eclipse, megayacht, roman, Superyachts

Meet the Twitchhiker. His quest – to see how far he can travel in 30 days relying solely on the hospitality and advice of the Twitter community, and raising money for charity as he goes.

Since lunchtime on Monday, I’ve either been delirious with excitement or in desperate need of the toilet.

I’ve agreed to put my life in the hands of nearly 2,000 complete strangers in the belief that their support, goodwill and generosity will propel me across the globe. Equally, I could spend two days contracting pneumonia on a park bench in Byker.

Twichhicker

This is the life that awaits me when I adopt my alter-ego of theTwitchhiker on 1 March. As you may have guessed by the less-than-creative name, the challenge owes its origins to Twitter, the social networking service seeping into the mainstream consciousness.

Twitchhiker was born among the aisles of Tesco, where the queues of dawdling customers had me yearning for a place far away. Having vented my frustration by tweeting on my mobile, I recalled a fleeting thought I’d had several months earlier: would the Twitter community support me if I tried to flee the North East and travel the world?

Rest of the article in THE GUARDIAN

Travel, majorca hospitality, twichhicker

Because of worsening economic conditions, travellers are changing their holiday plans for this year, with nearly half saying that they are scaling back, according to the results of a new study.
In a poll of 1,000 UK consumers, it was found that 46 per cent had already scaled back their travel plans due to the recession.

Travel bag

There are indications that concerns about the impact of travel on social and environmental conditions are also changing holiday plans.

Sixty-one per cent of the respondents to the survey indicated that they were intending to find out more about the environmental and social impact of their holidays, and 55 per cent said they would be choosing holiday destinations that could be reached by boat or train, rather than by plane.

Seventy-six per cent of those polled reported that they did not have sufficient information regarding the environmental and social impact of holiday travel to be able to make an informed choice.

It is expected that 2009 will be a difficult year for holiday operators, but those able to match value with social and environmental “values” are likely to fare better, and be better able to ride out the recession, according to Good Business, the corporate responsibility consultancy that commissioned the study.

Good Business founder and CEO Giles Gibbons noted: “With less money in their pockets it seems many holidaymakers plan to look for cheaper alternatives in the UK this year.”

He added: “Some might see this as good news from an environmental perspective, with reductions in things like flights.”

VIA: ASAP

Travel, Uncategorized conditions, economy, environement, real ecology

Chris Paget has been driving around San Francisco streets, reading passports and all kind  documents with RFID chip, with a Motorola RFID reader of about 250$.

In less than 20 minutes he found and cloned two passports, demonstrating that the RFID technology is very weak.

Radio-frequency identifiation (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. The technology requires some extent of cooperation of an RFID reader and an RFID tag.

An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.

VIA:  ENGADGET

Tech, Travel hacker, rfid, security