Ryanair introduces acoustic mayhem to entice consumers.

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I used to be a happy Ryanair client/customer/passenger. I was happy to accept the comfort and the standing in line typical of a London bus journey and did not grumble about their sometimes creative airport naming, as I was aware that I was flying 1500km for 20 pounds, which is a great price for such a long journey.

For one or the other reason I had no need to fly with them over the last number of years, so when I took a Ryanairflight to Porto last week I was a little bit surprised to be greeted by a neverending, loud soundtrack reverberating through the cabin, which, accompanied by an accoustic attack that makes the ‘fastfood song’ a piece of suave classyness, was telling me that I was able to drink even more alcohol for less money (by purchasing their ‘premium spirits’, served in little plastic bags), buy phonecards and scratchcards. This ran for ca 20 minutes during boarding and was repeated during the flight.

I am aware of the economics of no-frill flights, but isn’t Michael O’Leary taking this a little bit far? Most of the passengers in the cabin looked initially bewildered and then disgusted by the endless aural mayhem that was inflicted on us.

I flew back with Easyjet.

The Tunguska Event, 100 years on.

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This week’s New Scientist has a superb feature on the current state of research on the Tunguska event. Just to refresh your memory, on 30 June 2008 an explosion 1000 times more powerful than the nuclear detonation over Hiroshima incinerated the sky over the northern half of our planet. Originating somewhere above the Tunguska river in Siberia, it knocked down trees over an area of 2000 square kilometers.

image courtesy of wikimedia

This week, a bunch of scientists will be meeting in Moscow to discuss the current state of knowledge about this immense event. The theories are mindboggling. There’s the usual UFO theories, the more plausible explosion of an asteroid, and the intriguing idea of the ‘Verneshot‘: with other words an ‘Earth Burb’, in which  a large bubble of C02, accumlated via vulcanic activity, suddenly gets released, spewing toxic gases and large chunks of matter into the atmosphere.

And why am I interested in all this?

Ghostbusters, of course.

Something has significantly improved in Zimbabwe

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….or how else could you describe the remarkably fast counting of votes in the presidential run-off. While in March the electoral commission wasn’t able to announce results for more than a month after the ‘election’, ‘President’ Mugabe is scheduled to be sworn in today, 2 days after the poll.

Congratulations to the Zimbabwean electoral commission for a significant improvement in performance, but I can’t help wondering what kind of incentives were being introduced to bring the commission up to speed.

Axes?

G’day from Portugal

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The best girlfriend ever and myself have been spending the last days travelling down the atlantic coast from Oporto via Torreiras to Lisbon. The last two nights were spent at the delightful Pousada da Ria. Classic sixties architecture with a sprinkle of Bauhaus and a dose of Art Deco, it’s a wonderful building, full of surprising spaces, comfy corners, a great bar and an excellent restaurant. The choice of meat on the menu was nevertheless surprising:

The best girlfriend ever and I were made thoroughly welcome and its location meant we had easy access to the marvellous beaches at Torreira and Sao Jacinto.

So today we’re exploring the Baixa in Lisbon. Wish us luck and gentle weather.