News and notes from around the interweb:
- Some well known hotels and brands handle guest safety poorly like giving a rapist a woman’s room key. Oy vey. Don’t just shut your room door, use all the locks people.
- How Singapore Airlines makes omelets for economy class.
- Demolition of what was once the world’s largest hotel, Hotel Pennsylvania New York (NYT)
- Two cases of Legionnaires’ disease at The Orleans hotel in Las Vegas
- With trash, pests, a nonworking smoke detector and sex toy in the microwave a hotel managed to get government approval so I guess why not its sister property, too?
The new owners of a Des Moines hotel were recently granted a license after a state inspector found rodent droppings, soiled bedding and animal feces in the guest rooms.
- Were U.S. Interstates Designed To Function As Emergency Runways? (HT: Paul H)
- Hmm maybe the problem isn’t the passengers?
The worst offender at security [isn’t guns, it’s] much more innocuous-seeming: water bottles. Mancha says it is the most common prohibited item found at TSA.
“A bottle of water is found in at least four out of 10 travelers’ carry-on bags,” she says, despite rules limiting travelers to less than 3.4 ounces of liquid being in place since 2006.
The thing most surprising about the NYT Hotel Pennsylvania article was not how much it had declined in recent years — everyone knew that — but that 100 years ago how truly incredible it was. The photos of those opulent lounging spaces conveyed what a remarkable place it once was.
Water bottles not being allowed through security are absolutely ridiculous. If they’re un-opened – and TSA can clearly see that – along with the contents in the bottle are only “water,” why not allow them through?
There are plenty of clear liquids that are nonetheless explosive. It would not be difficult to fill a bottle of water with whatever you’d like and make it appear to be unopened. The issue was always that basic 2D x-rays don’t have the accuracy to truly distinguish between a bottle of water together with harmless electronic devices, and a bottle of liquid explosives together with material that would enable construction of something dangerous post-security. CT scans allow 3-D imaging for much better threat identification. The “war on water” was always about fighting the last war instead of the next one. Newer technology just makes this a truly indefensible policy.