News and notes from around the interweb:

• Inside the UK government’s VIP jet Thompson Aero Vantage XL business class seats, really? Basically Delta business class without the doors. Talk about the decline of Britain…

• The Restoration Hardware hotel in New York doesn’t actually have any Restoration Hardware furniture

  
  Credit: RH Hotel

• People prefer interacting with female robots in hotels

• The technology that changed air travel (4 year old article)

• Three Portland hotels, including the downtown Hilton, headed to foreclosure I haven’t found a reason to visit Portland in over four years, it certainly seems like less of an indispensable, vibrant place than it once did.

• Thread on using a foreign permanent resident card instead of a passport to travel domestically within China.

  Now that I've made my first domestic trip using my Foreign Permanent Resident ID card, a few observations. While it's nice not to need my passport, it's not nearly as convenient as I would have hoped. A thread 1/10 pic.twitter.com/bIisI9Z2YE

  — Peter Jolicoeur 周力克 (@pajolicoe) September 10, 2022

• Hong Kong-based food critic says Japanese omakase dining treats customers like idiots because the chef decides everything, and calculates out food cost, rather than letting the guest choose. Of course everything on the menu has a calculated food cost and a price, so that argument seems off. And the criticism completely misses the point.

  Omakase features the chef’s skills, and what they think is best. And it’s a matter of pride that they must do their best. It isn’t about giving each person what they happen to fancy at that moment, or offering everything one could want (like a New Jersey diner menu). Those who deliver the best are the ones who become celebrate, and you wish to return to. If you aren’t comfortable with this you do not choose omakase dining though you really miss out that way.

  You don’t have to go all the way to Tokyo (although it is worth doing so). There are fantastic places in New York, even Los Angeles, and amazingly a world class option in Chicago. We even have one worth dining at in Austin.

  
  Takashi Ono at Jiro Roppongi