alex bitterman design.intelligence
this is alex's online home for design-oriented stuff.Air France
Again, I find myself preaching about airlines! It is simply an outrage that more progress hasn’t been made on the Air France flight 447 disaster. For all we know—people and goddamnit a fucking plane—could still be floating around in the Atlantic somewhere. When I watch the film Titanic, I’m fascinated at how this huge ship could break apart in the ocean. I’m more fascinated that considering that it happened nearly 100 years ago, that the emergency rescue effort was so swift.
How far we’ve come in that hundred years, cell phones, the internet, television, radio, satellites, GPS, Facebook, Twitter, I mean, we are one wired and wireless world. It’s just amazing.
It’s eerily uncanny to me that allegedly, this plane failed and broke up. Therefore, we can assume everyone is dead. Hello? Is everyone INSANE?! Here we have a multimillion dollar/pound/euro piece of machinery. It’s a machine. Machines break, but until we know exactly what happened, we have to assume the best, and not believe the bullshit that some automated computer radioed back to Air France headquarters when no one was looking, or more precisely, when no one really cared. That’s what our grandparents generation would have called “asleep at the switch.” Who knows, maybe the plane did go down, maybe there are survivors, we shouldn’t draw hasty conclusions because of some automated messages that a broken machine sent forward.
I hate flying across the Atlantic. Flying to Europe always happens at night, and when you glance out the window, it’s a dark, cold abyss outside the window. On my trans-Atlantic flights, I often daydream about the horrific “what if” the plane went down? We’d be drifting in the Atlantic, in little yellow life vest, panickedly blowing into the little red tubes on the shoulder, grasping to our seat cushions for safety… if we were smart enough to take them along (you too may have observed that no one on the ill-fated US Airways flight that ditched in the Hudson did)… all this while some techno-savvy controller in some far-away operations center finds our exact location using sophisticated technology that tracks their multimillion dollar piece of equipment, whilst every seafaring vessel in the area makes great haste to get to us survivors before we die of hypothermia. All very Titanic-like.
Only wait… it’s been almost a week. Only 6 ships have made it out to sea to look for our fellow Air France passengers. It’s taken them a long time to get there. There isn’t any controller in a sophisticated operations center, and there is no technology that can track an exact location. Though the technology exists (it’s in my cell phone, my iPod, and my GPS) no one has yet mandated that it be installed in aircraft. Critics claim that the costs are too high. Well I can certainly underst… Excuse me? How high can the fucking cost be? If every aircraft worth it’s salt can pipe in live tv, streaming internet, and phone why the hell can’t it broadcast a telemetric info beacon every few seconds.
beep.
beep.
it’d take less bandwidth than that.
It’s positively shameful that multibillion dollar corporations can invest tens of millions of dollars to research and develop lightweight pallets for cargo transport, but can’t invest a couple thousand to install a GPS device for each plane. So what if no one has yet told them to do it. It’s unconscionable that any airline CEO or COO can sleep knowing that he has made the choice to profit from our peril.
Again folks: I urge you. Vote with your wallet. Demand that airlines consider our safety first. It’s your life, and you only get one of them. Don’t trust it to some corporate profiteer.
Boycott Colgan Air
If you went to Dunkin’ Donuts and stood in line for an hour, only to have a 16-year old clerk serve you misshapen donuts that she dropped on the floor, you wouldn’t buy them would you? What if you heard about that story from your best friend? It would probably make you think twice about going to Dunkin’ Donuts, right?
Why don’t we feel that way about Colgan Air? Probably because we don’t even know what Colgan Air is. Colgan is a division of a company called Pinnacle — they operate “commuter” flights from secondary airports to primary airports for major airlines like Continental, USAirways, and Delta. While the planes are festooned with the corporate banner of their carrier, they are in fact, not part of the larger airline.
According to various commercial pilot accounts, Colgan has a less than stellar service record, and a questionable training program. Colgan has a reputation amongst pilots for penny pinching and cutting corners.
Nowhere is this reputation more evident than in the Continental (read: Colgan) 3407 crash that occurred just outside of my hometown, Buffalo, NY. The pilot for 3407 failed 5 flight tests, and the co-pilot had never de-iced an aircraft! Why would an airline allow for two such poorly prepared incompetent pilots to endanger the 50 lives of passengers on board?!
More importantly, why would YOU fly on an airline that clearly couldn’t give a rat’s ass about your safety? Why is no one outraged? Why has Colgan not been closed down? Why would you continue to book flights with airlines that use Colgan or Pinnacle?
For all of you that wouldn’t get in a car with a drunk driver, or a Greyhound with a driver that failed his driving test (five times!) why on earth would you fly with an airline that employs people that are no better?
Why does Starbucks have to suck so badly lately?
I’m both fascinated and repulsed by corporate culture. I understand the damage that large corporations like Starbucks and Wal*Mart do to the economy and to any local urban fabric, but it’s amazing to me how companies can brand commodity products and experiences, and compel people to buy things that they probably otherwise wouldn’t. So, while I’ve never set foot inside of a Wal*Mart, I do go to Starbuck’s rather regularly, well until recently.
See, this is what becomes interesting, the reason a company can compel people to buy things is because they spend a lot of money branding the product and the environment in which it’s purchased, and in so doing tell a story—a fictitious story—that makes us, as consumers, want to buy something.
Many years ago, I worked at the Gap, and the company spent a huge amount of time training about the features and benefits of their jeans. This was shortly after the Gap (which made a fortune as the largest Levi’s outlet in the world) stopped selling Levi’s. Essentially, they had created a brand with greater equity than Levi’s, and the folks running the Gap (Mickey Drexler, at the time) made a shrewd decision to leverage the equity of the Gap brand name. So I went to endless training sessions to learn all the reasons Gap jeans were better than Levi’s, or Lee, or all the other brands that were out there.
So, long story short, one day, I was stocking jeans on the “floor” as it was called, and I noticed something very peculiar. The jeans looked like normal Gap jeans, they had a Gap label in them, but all the hardware—the little rivets and buttons, which usually was stamped with G A P—belonged to Perry Ellis, a fashion brand that by that time had slipped down the ranks past Lee and Wrangler, right to the bottom of the discount store heap.
Being the industrious young “pacesetter” I was, I bought a pair of the “mistruck” jeans ($29.50, minus my whopping 30% discount) and later that day wandered over to TJMaxx and bought a pair of bottom of the barrel Perry Ellis jeans for $8.99, no discount. In my bedroom, I unpackaged both, and was shocked to lear that the jeans were EXACTLY the same. My world was crushed. All the Gapropaganda that I had come to believe was now called in to question. We were essentially selling $9.00 jeans! It was unethical, but it was also the power of branding. People paid three times the price not because the jeans were any better, but because they believed they were better.
So, fast forward 20 years, I buy Starbucks coffee, not because it’s better, but because I believe it’s better. I’m a sucker for the brand, and I’m willing to pay because for the past 10 years, Starbucks’ service has been impeccable. However, once the economy started to tank, so did Starbucks’ service. I went in today to buy a decaf iced coffee, and was instead greeted by some song and dance about how they don’t brew decaf coffee anymore. I mean, really? Is it so hard to keep a pot of decaf brewing? Does that mean that because I don’t like caffeine, that I don’t like coffee? So, hey, Starbucks, if you’re listening, bring it on! We all know your coffee isn’t any better than the cut rate stuff I can buy at Aldi, so step up the service, and start giving your customers what they want…espresso, not excuses, and make that a decaf please.
Holy Cow
My Design Applications II graduate students made their presentation to the Hertel Avenue community in Buffalo today. Their work was exceptionally well received, so much so, the presentation was featured as the afternoon headline buffalonews.com, and was also featured on NPR-affiliate WBFO, NBC-affiliate WGRZ, and even the afternoon Shred and Regan show on WEDG. What a day!
You can read the whole article from the Buffalo News at http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/569302.html
Joe Bruno is a crook.
This made my day. For too many years, Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver have hamstrung New York State, playing dirty politics, and using the government for their own petty gains. We’re all paying the price for this now, and finally, after too many years, Mr. Bruno (at least) is getting his due.
From:
Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50pm EST | Modified: Friday, January 23, 2009, 2:49pm
Ex-NY Senate leader Bruno indicted
Business First of Buffalo – The Albany Business Review
Former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno was charged with defrauding “the state of New York and its citizens,” in an eight-count indictment released today.
The indictment charges Bruno with mail and wire fraud.
Bruno, in a news conference, called the investigation into his dealings a “fishing expedition.”
“For over three years, I’ve been the target of a ‘get Joe Bruno campaign,’” Bruno said in a news conference today.
Bruno, who retired from the Senate last year after 32 years, was accused in the 35-page indictment of entering relationships with people or companies that had business before the state Legislature and then “concealing, disguising,and failing to disclose the existence and nature of such compensated contacts,” the indictment said.
The indictment alleges Bruno, a Republican, engaged in a “scheme to defraud” by getting paid $3.19 million for work he did on behalf of labor unions and private companies that did business with the state without disclosing that relationship to the Legislative Ethics Committee.
“The state of New York and its citizens paid defendant Joseph L. Bruno a salary for his honest services, but, as a result of the scheme and artifice to defraud, to their detriment, were deprived of such honest services and instead received dishonest services,” the indictment reads.
Federal prosecutors allege the scheme took place from 1993 to December 2006, a period that included Bruno’s tenure as the Senate Majority Leader, one of the three most powerful positions in state government.
According to the indictment, during that time, Bruno was paid for services he provided to two companies and three individuals:
• Wright Investors’ Service, an investment adviser in Milford, Conn.;
• McGinn, Smith & Co., an investment banking firm in Albany;
• Leonard J. Fassler, who was associated with Sage Alerting Systems, Inc. , Microknowledge Inc. , and other firms
• Russel C. Ball, who was assoicated with Roadway Contracting, Inc. , and BB Gardner Management Corp.
• Jared E. Abbruzzese, who was associated with Communication Technology Advisors LLC, and other firms.
Regading Wright Investors’, the indictment alleges Bruno signed a written agreement with the firm on March 1, 1994, that paid him a fee for each client that opened an account at the firm as a result of a referral from Bruno. Wright paid Bruno a total of $1.3 million from 1994 to 2006.
Bruno allegedly contacted 16 labor unions on behalf of Wright suggesting the unions hire Wright. Bruno did this, the indictment alleges, while he “wielded power and influence” over the unions as the Senate Majority Leader.
In August 1998, Bruno became a part-time employee of Wright, but “routinely failed to disclose his status as an employee to union officials he contacted,” as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A total of 11 unions that Bruno contacted during the time he worked on behalf of Wright became clients of the firm, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege Bruno tried to conceal the private work he did on behalf of Wright by falsely claiming his contacts with union officials had been disclosed to the “Senate” Ethics Committee. The indictment alleges Bruno had never asked for nor received an opinion from the Legislative Ethics Committee about the work he did for Wright.
Bruno said today that he was the target of an investigation started by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
“Gov. Spitzer spent much of his time as governor challenging me,” Bruno said. “I have had every relationship of my life probed, scrutinized …” Spitzer resigned last year as a result of a prostitution scandal.
Bruno said the U.S. Attorney’s office had to come up with some some charges to justify a three-year investigation that cost millions of taxpayer dollars.
“I broke no laws,” he said. “I’m a businessman. I have a right to make a living.”
Bruno took the position of chief executive officer at CMA Consulting Services in Latham in July, four days after retiring from the Senate. Kay Stafford, who stepped down as CMA’s top officer when she hired Bruno in July, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Stafford, a longtime friend of Bruno’s, gave him her CEO job and became CMA’s president of the computer software development and technology consulting business.
Bruno said he would fight the charges.
“Many of you know my background. I’ve been a fighter,” he said. “I do not plan on changing now.”
US Scareways
They’ll only continue to be lax on safety if you continue to fly with them. Is a cheaper flight really worth it?
From 
Passengers report scare on earlier US Airways Flight 1549
By Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost
CNN Special Investigations Unit
(CNN) — Two days before US Airways Flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River, passengers on the same route and same aircraft say they heard a series of loud bangs and the flight crew told them they could have to make an emergency landing, CNN has learned.
Steve Jeffrey of Charlotte, North Carolina, told CNN he was flying in first class Tuesday when, about 20 minutes into the flight, “it sounded like the wing was just snapping off.”
“The red lights started going on. A little pandemonium was going on,” Jeffrey recalled.
He said the incident occurred over Newark, New Jersey, soon after the plane — also flying as Flight 1549 — had taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York.
“It seemed so loud, like luggage was hitting the side but times a thousand. It startled everyone on the plane,” Jeffrey said. “We started looking at each other. The stewardesses started running around. They made an announcement that ‘everyone heard the noise, we’re going to turn around and head back to LaGuardia and check out what happened.’
“I fly about 50 to 60 times per year, and I’ve never heard a noise so loud,” he said. “It wasn’t turbulence, it wasn’t luggage bouncing around. It was just completely like the engine was thrown against the side of the plane. It just — it didn’t shake the plane but it shook you out of the seat when you’re drifting off, it really woke you up. And when it happened again, everyone just started looking at each other and there was a quiet murmuring around the plane, and you could feel the tension rising just in looking.
“I remember turning to my [business] partner and saying, ‘I hope you got everything in order back home, life insurance and everything, because that didn’t sound good.’ “
Jeffrey said he sent a text message to his wife about a “scary, scary noise on the plane. Doesn’t sound right. They’re flying back to LaGuardia to check it out. I’ll call you when we land. I love you.”
He added, “About 10 minutes later when we never made the turn, we kept going, that’s when the pilot came on and explained — I wish I could remember the words — I remember him using air, compression and lock — I’m not sure the right order, but he made it sound like the air didn’t get to the engine and it stalled the engine out, which he said doesn’t happen all the time but it’s not abnormal.”
Expert Aviation Consulting, an Indianapolis, Indiana, private consulting firm that includes commercial airline pilots on its staff, said the plane that landed in the Hudson was the same one as Flight 1549 from LaGuardia two days earlier. See images from the rescue in last week’s crash »
“EAC confirms that US Airways ship number N106US flew on January 13, 2009, and January 15, 2009, with the same flight number of AWE 1549 from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas [International] Airport in North Carolina,” Expert Aviation said in a statement to CNN.
The company said it checked with contacts in the aviation industry to confirm that it was the same plane.
The National Transportation Safety Board released the tail number of the downed Airbus A-320, which is N106US.
NTSB spokesman Peter Knudsen said as part of its investigation into the Hudson River crash, it will be looking at all maintenance activities, but has no indications of any anomalies or any malfunctions in the aircraft, so far in the investigation.
The Federal Aviation Administration referred CNN to US Airways.
US Airways would not confirm that the Flight 1549 that took off January 13 was the same plane that splashed into the Hudson two days later.
Valerie Wunder, a US Airways spokeswoman, said: “US Air is working with the National Transportation Safety Board in this investigation.” She would not comment on any other details, including Tuesday’s flight, though she did confirm US Airways is looking into it.
Jeffrey told CNN that US Airways earlier Monday confirmed to him that the Tuesday incident occurred aboard the plane that crashed.
John Hodock, another passenger on the Tuesday flight, said in an e-mail to CNN: “About 20 minutes after take-off, the plane had a series of compressor stalls on the right engine. There were several very loud bangs and fire coming out of the engine. The pilot at first told us that we were going to make an emergency landing, but after about five minutes, continued the flight to Charlotte.”
In an interview, Hodock said the pilot “got on the intercom and said they were going to have to make an emergency landing at the nearest airport. But then, only five to 10 minutes later, the pilot came back on and said it was a stalled compressor and they were going to continue to Charlotte.”
A third passenger, who did not want her named used, also said she heard a “loud banging sound” on the right side of the plane. She said she heard the pilot say the “compressor for the engine was stalled” and they needed “to turn around and go back.” However, she said, the problem was fixed and the flight continued without incident.
Pilots and aviation officials said that a compressor stall results from insufficient air getting into the engine and that multiple stalls could result in engine damage. However, the officials said, a momentary compressor stall may be less serious and could be corrected in flight by simply restarting the engine.
A bird strike could lead to a compressor stall, the officials said.
