This is certainly straight stupid.

Interesting is the reason they give: “Da OnlineTickets nicht erstattet werden können, haben wir die Vorverkaufsfrist auf 30 Tage beschränkt. Denn je näher der Reisetag rückt, desto höher ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass Sie die Fahrt auch wirklich antreten können.” — “Since online tickets cannot be refunded, we have reduced the sales period to 30 days before travel. Since the closer your day of travel, the higher the probability that you actually will be able to travel.”

This is a textbook example of bad service design (no refunds). Even worse: the service provider officially declares the customer the stupid party and makes the service even worse. The stupid one in this case is, once more the service provider, in this case the Swiss railways — and probably the Swiss in general who seem to be happy with this nanny treatment.

But the Netherlands? A blank spot …

from Google Transit at http://maps.google.com/intl/en/landing/transit/#mdy

Ein süsses Bild. Der Minenarbeiter Joe, in Edward Allan Faine’s Geschichte vom “Coal Miner’s Canary” hatte auch einen Kanarienvogel “he had trained to sing when there was trouble at the mine”. Und ich dachte immer, die Kanarienvögel seine schneller an Kohlenmonoxidvergiftung gestorben, als die Minenarbeiter, der Alarm sei also eher durch das Verstummen als durch alarmierendes Singen ausgelöst worden. Nun ja, “poetic license”. Doch wie kam wohl die “Alarmieren” Legende in die Kultur?

Da gibt es zum Beispiel den belgischen “Masterplan Dance” aus 2007, der den Titel “Kanaries in de koolmijn” trägt … durchaus im Sinne des sprichwörtlichen Kanari, an dessen Serbeln die Gefahr erkannt werden kann.

In 2009 fand dann in Deutschland ein Fetival zu Belgischem Tanz mit diesem Titel statt; die Kulturstiftung des Bundes erläutert den Titel so: “Gleich Kanarienvögeln, die früher als eine Art Frühwarnsystem Minenarbeitern hohe Gaskonzentrationen signalisierten, soll die Agenda ein Signal geben, um frühzeitig auf akute Vernachlässigungen des Genres durch die Kulturpolitik hinzuweisen.”

Daraus wurde dann zum Beispiel in Hannover, möglicherweise durch die gütige Mithilfe einer Pressestelle dies hier: “Schlugen die Vögel Alarm, war die Gaskonzentration in der Mine lebensgefährlich, so dass die Arbeiter sich rechtzeitig in Sicherheit bringen konnten” (wörtlich auch so beim NDR).

Die Belgier, ihrereseits, könnten Inspiration auch bei Ed D’Angelo (in “Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library”) gefunden haben. D’Angelo verwendet bereits die Kanarienvogel-Metapher — und zwar ebenfalls korrekt: “The public library may be like the proverbial canary in the mine — the first to go when the air is poisoned. It is uniquely positioned to feel the effects of a declining democratic civilization; and it is the first to go when knowledge gets reduced to information and entertainment.”

Dies hier, nochmals von der Mine Health and Safety Administration, erzählt die andere Geschichte, die vom Vergiften, Reanimieren oder Sterben.

Dutch KLM chiefs Peter Hartman and Ype de Haan believe, “there is no reason to suspect that anything is amiss.” Hear, hear, … so losing the odd plane might be cheaper for them than the virtual loss of 3.4 % in share prices?

Meanwhile, in Switzerland, the ash cloud has been measured and preliminary results are made public (including visualisations of original data). Pilots should now that their on-board radar does not pick up volcanic ash (otherwise they might re-check this instructional video produced by http://www.icao.int/).

PS: reports on a “near miss” of Ural Airlines trying to fly below the ashcloud and having to emergency land due to low fuel on (illegally?) open Vienna airport.

MET office -- ash cloud forecast for 18 April 0600 UTC (from: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/data/VAG_1271508253.png)

And below is an excerpt of the official air space closures “VOLCANIC ASH – UPDATED AT 1600 UTC” collated by Eurocontrol — compare the “closed until” times with the forecast in the map. I am surprised how authorities create a climate of hope with these closure times (e.g. Netherlands: 18th, 0000 UTC) when it is obvious from the forecast, that the closure will be extended by probably another 12 to 24 hours. This is not only angering passengers, but aircraft operators as well.

Airspaces zero-rated/closed until:
(Aerodromes geographically located within these airspaces will be unavailable):

EB Belgium 18-0600 UTC
EDGG Langen 18-0600 UTC
EDGG Dusseldorf 18-0600 UTC
EDWW Bremen 18-0000 UTC
EDMM Munich 18-0600 UTC
EE Estonia 18-0000 UTC
EF Finland 18-0000 UTC
EG UK 18-0600 UTC
EH Netherlands 18-0000 UTC
EI Ireland 18-1200 UTC
EK Danmark 18-0600 UTC
EN BODO South 18-0000 UTC
EN OS 17-2200 UTC
EN SV 17-2200 UTC
EP Poland 17-1800 UTC
ES Sweden 18-0600 UTC
LD Croatia 18-0000 UTC
LE Pamplona 18-0000 UTC
LFBB France 17-2359 UTC
LFEE France 19-0800 UTC
LFFF France 19-0800 UTC
LFMM France 17-1800 UTC
LFRR France 17-1800 UTC
LH Hungary 17-1800 UTC
LIMM Milan 18-1200 UTC
LIPP Padova 18-1200 UTC
LIRQ + LIPY + LIRP 18-1200 UTC
LJ Slovenia 18-0000 UTC
LK Chech Republic 18-0000 UTC
LO Austria East 17-2100 UTC
LO Austria all main A/D 18-0000 UTC
LR Romania 17-2100 UTC
LS Swiss 17-1800 UTC
LYBA Serbia 18-0000 UTC
LZ Bratislava 18-0000 UTC
UK Ukraine 17-1500 UTC
UKVB 17-1800 UTC
UKDV ACC 17-1800 UTC
UKLV ACC 17-1800 UTC

Please note, these lists are not exhaustive.

Airspace Europe at 08:15z, April 16th

Patent Acquisition and Assertion by a (Non-Inventor) First Party Against a Second Party (i.e. trolling)

Methods for a first party to acquire and assert a patent property against a second party are disclosed. The methods include obtaining an equity interest in the patent property. The methods further include writing a claim within the scope of the patent property. The claim is written to cover a product of the second party where the product includes a secret aspect. The methods further include filing the claim with a patent office. The methods sometimes include offering a license of the patent property to the second party after the patent property issues as a patent with the claim. The methods sometimes include asserting infringement of the claim by the second party after the patent property issues as a patent with the claim. The methods sometimes include negotiating a cross-license with the second party based on the assertion of infringement of the claim, where under the cross-license the first party obtains a license to an intellectual property right from the second party. The methods sometime include attempting to obtain a monetary settlement from the second party based on the assertion of infringement of the claim.

Halliburton Troll Patent Filing

Hilarious, thanks to Jonathan Schwartz for digging it up.

De student wilde onderzoeken of gemeenten voldoende toezicht op brandveiligheid uitoefenen.

In 2008 heeft de Arbo-Unie geconstateerd: “Naleving en controle van brandveiligheidseisen en milieuregels in gemeentelijke gebouwen zoals het gemeentehuis, de brandweerkazerne maar ook scholen, sportterreinen en bibliotheken is onvoldoende.” (http://www.arbounie.nl/nieuws/nl/Brandveiligheid-en-milieuregels-gemeenten-onvoldoende.htm?fluxmenu=&searchForWord=toezicht)

Een ander voorbeeld — uit onderzook in Almeloo (2007) blijkt: “Brandveiligheid vormt echter het grootste knelpunt, zo bleek uit zowel de inventarisatie als de integrale controles. Een groot deel van de gemeentelijke inrichtingen in de gemeente Almelo beschikt niet over een adequate gebruiksvergunning. Ook wordt niet altijd voldaan aan de brandveiligheidseisen. Een constatering die overigens niet alleen voor de gemeentelijke inrichtingen geldt. Veel, voornamelijk oudere bestaande bouwwerken in Almelo, voldoen niet aan de actuele brandveiligheidseisen. De gemeente heeft inmiddels een traject gestart om een inhaalslag te maken met het verlenen van en toezicht op gebruiksvergunningen.” (http://dms01.saxion.nl/C12574DB002E48FC/All+documents/8BE115E6E26F12C6C1257685006DFB12/$File/4.%20Scriptie%20SEdeGooijer%20110607.pdf)

2006 constateerde VROOM “Toezicht brandveiligheid discotheken schiet tekort” (http://www.binnenhofbulletin.nl/bb/dossiers/socialecohesie/Sportenvrijetijd/Naleving-brandveiligheid-discotheken_1006.html).

Slecht nieuws voor de gemeenten. Wat doen, om nog meer slecht nieuws te voorkomen?

Gewoon de Wet openbaarheid van bestuur naar hun eigen behoefden interpreteren. De student de informatie weigeren. De VNG een “advies” laten opzetten: “nee, deze documenten hebben we niet”, “nee, het kost 300 EUR om die informatie beschikbaar te maken”, “nee, die informatie staat al ergens online” (zie http://www.vng.nl/Documenten/Extranet/Gemeenterecht/2010/20100212Wobverzoek_Reitsema.pdf)

Bizar.