Recent content by SW VandeCarr

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    News United Airlines is a terrible business

    No shows should not be a problem the way I described it. To reserve a seat you pay in advance. If you fail to cancel in time you don't get your money back. Waivers may be granted for certain conditions beyond the customer's control, but they must be reported ASAP. The airlines set what "in...
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    News United Airlines is a terrible business

    I was the first in this thread to point out that the UA case wasn't overbooking (post 3) but the result is the same. Overbooking is selling something you don't have. Should a merchant take money for an item he knows he cannot provide unless others don't claim what they purchased? BTW you...
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    News United Airlines is a terrible business

    IMO, the best solution is not to overbook at all and not reimburse customers who fail to cancel in time. A reasonable appeals mechanism for reimbursement can be worked out. This will work best if adopted by the entire industry. If seats are needed for employees, voluntary bumping only would be...
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    News United Airlines is a terrible business

    Of course bad PR can be disastrous for the bottom line, but this is not something businesses usually plan for. Maybe they should, but I don't know how one does that. In the normal planning, most routes may barely yield a profit 24/7 so the small percentage of the best routes at the best times...
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    News United Airlines is a terrible business

    Not likely. Commericial airlines generally operate on tight profit margins and high occupancy routes that often run fully booked are their bread and butter. The government subsidizes airlines to serve unprofitable routes, but airlines probably just break even on these. Their incentive is that...
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    News United Airlines is a terrible business

    They initially called it overbooking, but the four seats involved were for employees. It's not clear if these empoyees were just getting free flights, were traveling to staff other planes or some combination. Either way, it's not overbooking. Dr. Dao was more severely injured than originally...
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    History Does Knowing History Shape Our Understanding of the Present?

    It was the assumption of the victorious allies at the end of WWI that Germany, and its leaders, were responsible for the war and the Treaty of Versailles reflected that. Current thinking is more nuanced. Nevertheless Bismarck's carefully constructed system of alliances was designed to prevent...
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    History Does Knowing History Shape Our Understanding of the Present?

    One man, Kaiser Wilhem ii of Germany, was not totally responsible for a "world turned upside down" but he certainly wasn't an innocent bystander. He acceded to the throne in 1888 and fired Bismarck in 1890 in order to make his own foreign policy. He quickly destroyed Bismarck's delicate system...
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    History Does Knowing History Shape Our Understanding of the Present?

    And it was, ….until WW2 (except for the Russian-Polish War (1920), war in Turkey (early 1920s), Russian Civil War (1918-1921), Japanese invasion of Manchuria (1931), Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1936), Spanish Civil War(1936-1939), Japanese invasion of China (1937). WW1 was for sure the war...
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    Exploring the Flatness of the Earth: Kansas' Largest and Flattest Spot

    The highest point in Kansas is called Mt Sunflower at 4039 ft (1231 m). It's not really a mountain, just a high point on flat appearing land near the western border. The lowest point is in the SE corner of the state at 679 ft (207 m) above sea level. Kansas looks flat because the land tilts...
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    History Does Knowing History Shape Our Understanding of the Present?

    I agree. For the US, there's no hiding slavery and its aftermath, or the "manifest destiny", or the "trail of tears" and the general attitude toward native Americans. But few people know about the brutal suppression of the Philippine Insurgency by none other than Theodore Roosevelt. He was a in...
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    NASA NASA support for a "new" kind of propulsion

    It's absurd to think we are smart enough to really understand it. Shut up and calculate.
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    Josephson's going astray of mainstream physics

    Reality is a punch in the nose. Causality is a moving fist..
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    News White House Blocking reputable News agencies

    The Democrats are in no position to impeach Trump. Even if at some point they could get enough Republicans to join them for a simple majority in the House, impeachment only means a trial in the Senate. Removing a president from office requires a conviction for "high crimes and misdemeanors" by...
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    Can Certain Sounds Induce Anesthesia in Humans?

    This worked for me. It's over 7 minutes long but I wasn't able to stay awake for it all.
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