Daily Dose of Common Sense

As flying gets increasingly more laborious, expensive (hello, outrageous extra baggage fees!), and just downright miserable, at least one regional airline knows what consumers want–less hassle.

SeaPort Airlines, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, offers regional flights within the Pacific Northwest and also within the Mid-South region. Started in 2008, their goal is simple: Provide quick and easy commuter flights at a reasonable cost.

A quick flight cost comparison with another major airline showed one standard SeaPort fare to be about $200.00 less expensive than its competitor. They also offer free airport parking and suggest you need only arrive 15 minutes before your flight–even with check-in bags.

Best of all? They tout themselves as a “TSA free airline.” Yep, you read that right. Since they are a regional airline and fly into smaller terminals they are exempt from full-scale Transportation Security Administration screening.

Now that’s how I want to fly.

The fastest growing group on Facebook is the 35-54 set, which can lead to sticky situations with real consequences for many people. Therefore, who you friend is as important as who you don’t. As an example, a survey out this week found that 56% of people believe it’s irresponsible to friend your boss on Facebook. Seems there are more categories to be considered as well. So, here’s our common sense list of “To Friend, or Not to Friend.”

Should you friend…

…your boss? As the survey lends us to believe, it’s probably a bad idea. Not only are you possibly exposing awkward photos, status updates, and Wall posts, but your boss can actually SEE if you’re on Facebook at any given time. (The “Friends Online” feature reveals who is logged into the site.) Unless you plan to do all your Facebooking after hours (ha!), then let the boss actually think you’re working. Also, it’s hard to claim a “sick” day when you post photos of your impromptu trip to Six Flags the next day.

…your parents? This is tricky. It really depends on your parents. Are they the judgmental type? Do they disapprove of your lifestyle, job, or friends? If they’re the easy-going, we-love-you-just-the-way-you-are parents, then you’re probably safe. However, you don’t want to become the black sheep over your online revelations. Plus, if you connect to your folks, you might learn more than YOU want to know. (Be prepared for a barrage of Farmville.)

…your kids? As we just talked about, you might learn more than you want to know. Are you invading your child’s internet privacy? Or, are you just trying to stay more connected? If it’s the later, that is certainly a noble reason. Just don’t expect them to appreciate it. More than likely, you’ll just embarrass them.

…your ex? Before you try to maintain a friendship (albeit an online one) with an ex, ask yourself if you’re ready to hear about his or her new relationships. If you can handle seeing vacation pictures of he and his new girlfriend in Bermuda, then it’s probably OK to be Facebook friends. But, if hearing about how happy he or she is without you sends you over the edge, it’s not worth it. Also, if you friend an ex just to keep tabs on him or her “just in case” (or worse, for some revenge plot), then that’s just wrong.

…randoms? If you can’t remember the person from high school, then why stay connected to them on Facebook? Ditto for a friend of a friend, or someone who was blindly suggested by Facebook. Yes, you can hide friends from your News Feed. But, if you friend someone knowing that you’re just going to hide them, why friend them in the first place?

Facebook isn’t just about collecting as many friends as you can. It should be about interacting with a network of people you’re interested in. Don’t let the friend requests bog you down. When in doubt, IGNORE!

This week, a killer whale–which had already been involved in two deaths–killed a trainer at Sea World in Orlando in front of a crowd.

Now, I’m not going to go all PETA on your ass and start ranting about animals in captivity. My kids like to see the bears, elephants, and cows at the zoo as much as the next person. What doesn’t make sense is this is an animal who was involved in other deadly incidents. First a trainer was killed in 1991 and then a gatecrasher was found lying on top of the animal in 1999. In each case, it appeared the whale thought humans were toys.

How “dangerous” does an animal need to be before we decide it’s not worth the human life to keep it in captivity? I’m sure the orca show at Sea World is a big draw. And, the trainers are experienced and careful. But, when animals are prone to attack, is it really a good idea to keep them around? Here’s how a witness described the event:

Another audience member, Victoria Biniak, told WKMG-TV the whale “took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off.”

Yikes.

This pillow freaks me out. It’s called the Hug Me, and it’s a pillow in the shape of a man’s clothed arm.

I understand loneliness and the need for human contact. But, this pillow seems hardly the answer. It just comes off as creepy. And sad.

Please, buy a cat, fish, parrot, guinea pig…anything, instead.

Thanks to Sara B. for the link!

It never fails: A subway car is packed to the gills and some knucklehead still has a giant backpack on. If you commute by anything other than a car, or if you’re frequently around tourist attractions, you have likely had the same unhappy experience at some point.

A lot of backpack wearers never take the pack off. Ever. So, even in a crowd, the big ‘ol backpack is whacking people in the face, back, or chest. The owner usually seems oblivious and continues to barrel on through the crowd.

What is it with you backpackers? Have some consideration for the rest of us!

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Ok, not really. But, two clever guys did illustrate the ink usage of different typefaces and Garamond proved to use the least amount of ink.

In this quirky demonstration they drew enlarged versions of eight fonts with eight ball point pens and used the remaining ink in each pen to create a telling bar chart. The results are here:

http://flowingdata.com/2010/01/29/save-pens-use-garamond-font

Frankly, it never occurred to me that fonts had an ink footprint, but I know I’m not only one who thinks the price of ink cartridges is ridiculous.

And, who doesn’t want a way to stick it to the printer cartridge industry? I see a whole lot more Garamond in my future.

If you’re an avid user of social media–specifically FourSquare and Twitter–PleaseRobMe.com is a site you might want to know about. Done with a sense of humanitarianism (as in not for criminals), this site collects all the location data sent to Twitter and FourSquare and publishes it in a running stream.

For example, on PleaseRobMe.com, you’ll see posts like this:

@USERNAME left home and checked in 4 minutes ago:
I’m at The Computer Corner (99-185 Moanalua Road Suite 101, Aiea). http://4sq.com/….

@USERNAME left home and checked in less than a minute ago:
I’m at acclamation bar and grill (James street north and mulberry). http://4sq.com/….

@USERNAME left home and checked in less than a minute ago:
I’m at Costco Kawasaki (3-1-4 Ikegami Shincho, Kawasaki Ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa). http://4sq.com/….

The creators look to raise awareness about internet privacy and how the information we put out there could be used in the wrong hands. When you visit the site, you will see that most of the entries on PleaseRobMe.com are from FourSquare, a social media site that is practically a continual GPS of where you are. Which makes it kind of obvious where you aren’t.

The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. It gets even worse if you have “friends” who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet.

We did learn this week that 30% of Americans are not online either at work or at home. So, there is a small percentage of people not iFollowing your movements. But, do you want the other 70% to know your precise location?

[Via The Consumerist]

Tiger Woods held a press conference today (that was streamed live on the Web, no less) to apologize to us.

In case you’ve been living under a rock with no TV, Woods has had some extramarital affairs. So, why do we need an apology in such a private matter? I’m not sure. Was it a PR move for his remaining sponsors? His wife’s idea? A dare? I would believe any of those reasons over just his need for the world’s forgiveness to get on with his life. Think about it… If a friend, co-worker, relative, or total (non-famous) stranger cheated on his or her spouse, would you get an apology? Absolutely not.

Tiger, go away and play golf. We don’t care about what you do in your free time. Really, we don’t.

Sometimes I envy the days when the media would look the other way on the transgressions of famous people (Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., JFK, FDR, etc.). There are things that are just none of anyone else’s business. Think of how many tabloids would be out of business!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc02ZEPJuF8

You frequently hear people wishing for a return to “the good old days.” Study your history and learn the science, is what Dr. Amy Tuteur argues over at Science-Based Medicine. The days of yore were tough, and a lot of us alive today wouldn’t have made it way back then if it weren’t for modern science (me included).

Yes, there is obesity, heart disease, cancer, and more. But, the average lifespan just keeps climbing. As recent as the early 1900s, the average expected lifespan was only 48. And this was when food was organic, people got lots of exercise, and when doctors still made house calls.

Advocates of alternative health have a romanticized and completely unrealistic notion of purported benefits of a “natural” lifestyle. Far from being a paradise, it was hell. The difference between an average lifespan of 48 and one of 77.7 can be accounted for by modern medicine and increased agricultural production brought about by industrial farming methods (including pesticides). Nothing fundamental has changed about human beings. They are still prey to the same illnesses and accidents, but now they can be effectively treated. Indeed, some diseases can be completely prevented by vaccination.

So, don’t knock modern times. It may not be perfect, but it’s sure better than polio, cholera, plague, dysentery, and smallpox. In the good old days, “your doctor couldn’t do much more than provide comfort until your body defeated the illness, or until the illness defeated you.” Doesn’t sound like much fun to me.

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Myth or fact: Wearing a bra causes breast cancer? Answer: MYTH.

Apparently, there’s an Internet rumor going around (and we all believe those, don’t we?) that women who wear bras have a higher rate of breast cancer than those who don’t. Here is what Dr. Ted Gansler, director of medical content for the American Cancer Society, told The New York Times:

There is no scientifically credible evidence of this, he said, and the proposed mechanism–that bras prevent elimination of toxins by blocking lymph flow–is not in line with scientific concepts of how breast cancer develops.

He goes on to say that the idea that bras might cause breast cancer is so ludicrous that it’s doubtful scientists will ever waste research dollars on it. So, don’t burn your bras yet, ladies, and don’t believe everything you hear on the InterWebs.

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