AzureSkys posted:

(Planenfreude)

BaronVonVaderham posted:

Queueing theory is a weird field . Humans are horribly irrational and inefficient, often willingly so. There are way more efficient ways to board planes or construct checkout lines at the grocery store, and we know what they are....but we still refuse to implement them (except for Best Buy, for some strange reason they're the only store that has adopted a common queue feeding to multiple registers, which is the best model). Same goes for the way we drive, but that one is a bit more counter-intuitive and requires a bit more cooperation.

Not really schadenfreude though...except I guess when I get in line behind the old lady with the massive cart of groceries and check out before the clever ones who got in the line of 5 people with 3 items each (protip: the strongest variable in queue speed is the number of transactions, not the number of items per transaction).

BaronVonVaderham posted:

Queueing theory is a weird field . Humans are horribly irrational and inefficient, often willingly so. There are way more efficient ways to board planes or construct checkout lines at the grocery store, and we know what they are....but we still refuse to implement them (except for Best Buy, for some strange reason they're the only store that has adopted a common queue feeding to multiple registers, which is the best model). Same goes for the way we drive, but that one is a bit more counter-intuitive and requires a bit more cooperation.

Not really schadenfreude though...except I guess when I get in line behind the old lady with the massive cart of groceries and check out before the clever ones who got in the line of 5 people with 3 items each (protip: the strongest variable in queue speed is the number of transactions, not the number of items per transaction).

Meatwave posted:

Common queue lowers the maximum waiting time because nobody gets stuck behind grandma, but it does so while sacrificing average checkout time quite a bit. It's inefficient. For every single customer, a checker has to wait for them to recognize the lane's availability, walk to the checker station, and unload their items. That can be up to half of the checker's time wasted in waiting. Plus, by comparison, they lose one potential checker lane because one person is needed to direct the queue.

BaronVonVaderham posted:

Queueing theory is a weird field . Humans are horribly irrational and inefficient, often willingly so. There are way more efficient ways to board planes or construct checkout lines at the grocery store, and we know what they are....but we still refuse to implement them (except for Best Buy, for some strange reason they're the only store that has adopted a common queue feeding to multiple registers, which is the best model). Same goes for the way we drive, but that one is a bit more counter-intuitive and requires a bit more cooperation.

Phanatic posted:

I'm out in Vegas for work, coming home on a red-eye. I sit down, aisle seat a few rows behind the emergency exit row. Guy in a rumpled suit dragging his carryon comes down the aisle, he's clearly drunk as a skunk. He tries to shove his carryon into to the overhead, lengthwise, and it's too long to fit. He pulls it out and tries again. If he turns it 90 degrees it will fit, but that's beyond him in his current state. He pulls it out and tries again. He's *slamming* it into the back of the overhead. He keeps this up for a couple long minutes, and then just leaves it sticking halfway out of the overhead and sits down in the last available seat in the exit row.

A few minutes later, the woman who actually has the ticket for that seat shows up and asks him to move to his seat. He basically shakes her off. "I'm gonna stay here." She gets a flight attendant, who repeats the request. "No. I'm staying here." She says that if he doesn't move, she'll get the captain. He still refuses. Captain comes back down the isle and declares "You can either move from this seat and sit in yours, or you can sit in the terminal." He still refuses to move.

So they call the cops on him. Two airport cops show up, and I'm guessing these were the two cops who, if you need to pull an unruly drunk off an airplane, get the call every time. Because they are loving huge. They have to turn sideways and shuffle down the aisle because they're too goddamned wide to fit like a normal person. They loom over the guy, who has to crane his neck up to take them in fully. The closer one says, basso profundo, "We can do this two ways. You can either leave the airplane on your own, or we will remove you." He actually gives this a moment's consideration before nodding and saying "I'll leave."

He leaves. Leaving his carryon behind, still sticking out of the overhead compartment. We're about 10 minutes late pulling away from the gate because of this. Captain gets on the PA and says "Folks, we apologize for the delay, but as you all know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

ookiimarukochan posted:

Why not do it the way that M&S do it in the UK - or for that matter any bank or post office I have been to anywhere in the world. Numbered tills and a voice that tells the next person to go to till number such-and-such as it is now free.

Captain Lavender posted:

They've got a pretty slick system at Lund's in Minneapolis. Common queue, and when the cashier becomes free he/she hits a button that says, "Please proceed to register... [4]".

It is annoying as hell though when I'm making eye contact with the cashier and start towards him, and he still presses that button. Just habit I guess.

Meatwave posted:

Common queue lowers the maximum waiting time because nobody gets stuck behind grandma, but it does so while sacrificing average checkout time quite a bit. It's inefficient. For every single customer, a checker has to wait for them to recognize the lane's availability, walk to the checker station, and unload their items. That can be up to half of the checker's time wasted in waiting. Plus, by comparison, they lose one potential checker lane because one person is needed to direct the queue.

canyoneer posted:

Clearly none of you have ever been trapped behind someone with a binder full of coupons that takes 15-20 minutes to get checked out.

It's actually really funny to watch if you're not in line. I was waiting for my wife to finish shopping, and saw someone in line disputing the price of something with the cashier. I saw maybe 5 people trot up to the line (shortest line and only one person in front of me! hooray!). Then they figure out after a few minutes that this was going to take a while, admit defeat, and head over to a different line.

Azhais posted:

Politician takes ice bucket challenge standing next to a cannabis plant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REOA3xXR8tI

Meltathon posted:

I get annoyed at the Target by me. They have four express lanes lined up side-by-side. The way Target wants it to work is that everyone gets in separate lines for each register. What normally happens is people get into one common line and then proceed to the first open one. It all goes to hell when you've got like 5 people lined up in a common line, and then someone just walks around them and gets right in line at a specific register. I'd prefer the common line, and I keep thinking the Target needs to have someone out there directing people where to go. Frustrating every time I go there.

My Lovely Horse posted:

There is absolutely no way that's unintentional. Or in fact much of a big deal in Berlin.

quote:

Only hemp that can't be smoked as a drug is allowed to be grown in Germany and the plant still has to be reported to authorities.

Pagan posted:

Pagan posted:

I'm friends with lots of photographers on Facebook. One gal does pictures of crazily dressed and / or partially dressed people in various abandoned buildings. Unfortunately, she decided that "unoccupied vacation home" counted as abandoned. When the owners returned and found her inside with two other people, they called the police.



This facebook page has more of the drama, for those that might want to read more about it.

https://www.facebook.com/TheUrbexMemester

Gorilla Salad posted:

There was a series on New Zealand cops and you have never seen more polite police and criminals in your entire life.

flakeloaf posted:

Crossposting from the Amber forum: Dad gets tired of his layabout kid sitting there playing video games and decides to run them over with a lawnmower. If I'd thrown a tantrum like the one the kid does after finding out what's about to happen, I'm pretty sure I would have spent some time unconscious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guUhY8JY-cA

e: it might be fake but who cares, pretend suffering is still entertaining

canyoneer posted:

Is this the schadenfreude? That you work for a company that buys you bottom tier flight seats and you're a big whiny baby?

Avenging_Mikon posted:

I don't get to do that, as all my flights are booked by my company, and no alterations are permitted due to the contract they have with the airline to get cheap rates. If I'm lucky , I can get the emergency exit row.

In closing, gently caress you.

Avenging_Mikon posted:

No, it's morons spouting off like they actually know poo poo about anything outside their man cave.

Nitrox posted:

Also, the inventor and distributor of Knee Defender was interviewed on NPR yesterday. He said that the very first thing in the instruction manual is a request to not inconvenience other passengers.

snortpocket posted:

gently caress queues shoplift erryday

Nitrox posted:

My best friend is 6'4" and can't comfortably fit into a standard seating space. His company is flying him all over the country. Guess what? They buy him an exit seat because he spoke to HR or whoever about the issue and they decided that having their employees travel comfortably is a way to go. Perhaps you should speak with someone too.

Also, the inventor and distributor of Knee Defender was interviewed on NPR yesterday. He said that the very first thing in the instruction manual is a request to not inconvenience other passengers.

Avenging_Mikon posted:

No, it's morons spouting off like they actually know poo poo about anything outside their man cave.

Drunk Nerds posted:

I enjoy all this plane schadenfreude as I am 6'3", but my legs are really short. Like, my 5'5" wife hAs the same inseam.
Can't jump for poo poo, but I've never had a problem with my motherfucking legs on a motherfucking plane.

snortpocket posted:

so when you guys go out do you look like two midgets stacked on top of each other