You Are Here - 2016-06-07

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6:02 AM

@Berwyn didn't you have a good answer on this Q that explained the why and stuff?

5

Q: English-language meta-search engine with good coverage of Korean airlines?

When I search for flights from South Korea to nearby countries on Google Flights, there are usually many flights from airlines which don't share fare data with Google, for example: T'Way, Eastar Jet, Jin Air, Jeju Air, Korean Air (see picture). For Google Flights, this is an unusually large a...

air-travel online-resources south-korea flight-search-engines low-cost-carriers

I did, but I explained that google flights uses ita matrix, but it was pointed out it uses other sources too including LCCs. In the end I decided to pull it rather than keep editing it

thanks for solving the pyramid mystery! I guess I was too fixated on terms like underwater pyramids and coral growth and such thus never found it

comune.avola.sr.gov.it/portale/allegati/vivereilmare/…

I found it immediately going through google image results for underwater concrete structure

btw that search also gives some NSFW hits

la Regione Liguria in un
tratto di costa del comune di Riomaggiore e più precisamente nell’Area Marina Protetta delle
Cinque terre ( 2009),

Do you mind if I edit those links into my answer?

please do

must be some other info on Tecnoreef too

6:08 AM

Thanks! On an unrelated note, I was still hoping for an answer of yours on this one:

8

Q: How to retrieve checked-through luggage if I don't board a connecting flight?

Assume I have a flight ticket from A->B->C and at A I checked in luggage all the way to C. However after the first flight I don't board the second flight but decide to remain in B. As I understand procedures my luggage will need to be unloaded again from the plane in B when they notice I did not...

air-travel luggage hidden-city-ticketing

I kept meaning to have a look but forgot

will take a look today

tecnoreef.it

Thanks :)

6:28 AM

La barriera antierosione di Corniglia piace ai pesci

Too close in though, so you can't really see it very well

I'm sorry to hear Travel.SE didn't discover UFOs over by the Italian beach

and it's just a human pyramid

yeah, pity!

6:41 AM

tecnoreef.it/images/foto/chis2.jpg is a good image. can images be linked to rather than embedded?

@mts someone wanted to edit out "we're all adults here"

I saw that. I voted to reject the edit

My answer got converted to a comment finally :)

was at 42 up

Yeah, rejected that edit as well :) they actually have a point there but it fits just too well in the OK, we're all ... tradition and I'd hate to see that gone. In the end we are one of the more fun SE sites :)

@mts where are you from? I saw your metre to meter edit

7:26 AM

@mts read your comment

great

gotta go, get to do some traveling myself today

have a good day everyone

cheerio. good travels

@HeidelBerGensis guess that bonanza is a success.... ;)

2 hours later…

9:43 AM

@GayotFow Excellent job. Thanks for the debrief.

Don't let this bounty go to waste!

10

Q: Do non-CIS nationals have issues with visa checks on the Moscow-Dushanbe train?

Is it true that conductors (meaning train staff, NOT border police) on the Tajik train from Moscow to Dushanbe (which I'm going to take to Kazakhstan) check if you have the proper visa for the destination? According to the RZD Website, Russian conductors don't have the authority, but this is a Ta...

visas trains passports legal russia

1 hour later…

11:10 AM

@JoErNanO your two hours are up

Two hours?

9

Q: Following in the Footsteps of Hemingway in Italy

History tells us that the author Ernest Hemingway was stationed in Italy during World War I. He was billeted in the town of Villa Ca Erizzo Luca where he drove an ambulance collecting human remains. In 1918 he was seriously injured and sent to the town of Bassano del Grappa to recover. And it was...

italy history pilgrimages

@Berwyn It seems more and more people in continental Europe are not even aware that they use American idioms or spelling (certainly the case for my Dutch colleagues, I try to pay attention even if I sometimes make mistakes).

as do we all

I did a search for "loose it" yesterday. A lot of hits...

one of my pet annoyances

That's one I make frequently

Usually I correct hit before hitting "send" but more often than not, I write "loose" before realizing it should be "lose"

or realising incidentally

11:18 AM

maybe it's due to the way I pronounce it, but they sounds so different that it grates when I see it

11:41 AM

I have started my first 100 bounty

But I observe we still have 200 unanswered questions...

perhaps you could start a question: What is the most deserving unanswered travel.SE question to put a bounty on

:D

get everybody looking at them and voting them up

to be fair, there is only one SE site with at least 10k questions and a better answer rate

what's that?

11:44 AM

actually, two

stackexchange.com/sites#percentanswered

RPG and Worldbuilders

I love the worldbuilders questions

"if I had a planet the size of a pea, how could I populate it with 100 million inhabitants?"

and then they apply physics to it!

(I made that one up, but I bet you can't tell!)

I find the whole thing puzzling

People appear to take it somewhat seriously and to have things to say to each other, so I can observe it's not entirely arbitrary

compare to some of the questions on FT: I want to fly to China and back the same day, can I do transit visa if I'm returning on the same flight?

11:50 AM

But it's a bit like theology

that looks like madness to a lot of people too!

What's the basis for all this?

what?

I want to say "Why not? You're making stuff up anyway!"

oh, theology

sure, that's just madness to start with

11:52 AM

So the point of world building is to make a believable place

we need a good toilets, religtion and babies in airplanes question

guaranteed rep (postive or negative) for life

It is immensely enjoyable how , for example, Brandon Sanderson's worlds have detail in this regard

got a pointer?

On the other hand, you will NOT become Sanderson by asking a question on SE. Not by a mile.

The thing is that a positive vote is worth 10 points, a negative one only takes away 2 points

11:54 AM

Right

Even something highly controversial like +5/-5 leaves you with a big increase in rep

Have learnt a lot from my two, er, controversial answers

And one famous, let's say not-so-constructive user (to avoid using the t-word) has rep in the thousands

There's never a perfect solution though

A few decent answers is more than enough to compensate any number of downvotes.

11:56 AM

So for example the Stormlight archives put some thought into how flora and fauna would look on a world regularly wrecked by insane strong storms

I got fed up of FT. It's just a toxic forum

FT?

flyertalk

ah yes

There's great stuff on it for sure, but by god, ask the wrong question and you're crucified

11:57 AM

And while it adds flavor , these small details are not what make Stormlight Archives an excellent story

sorry chs, am distracting from your story

I must frequent better parts of FT then , my problem is that I barely get answers

Nah

I am finished , even

do you have a link to something on worldbuilders?

no, I was talking about an existing novel (actually, two novels)

The Stormlight Archive

The Stormlight Archive is an ongoing epic fantasy series written by American author Brandon Sanderson. Planned as a ten book series, the first book, The Way of Kings, was published on August 31, 2010 by Tor Books in the United States. The release of the second book, Words of Radiance, was delayed until March 2014 due to Sanderson's commitment to writing the final book of The Wheel of Time. == Book release history == From June to August 2010, Tor Books published sample chapters from The Way of Kings on its official website, along with an introduction by Sanderson. In its first week of release, The...

I use audible a lot, it's great when travelling. Will see if they're on there

12:00 PM

Basically, this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson guy is (one of) the best fantasy author right now and has a very strong focus on excellent worldbuilding

and I get the feeling on stackexchange that people feel they will become like him just because they put some token effort into worldbuilding

is he on SE too?

and that the whole SE is people trying to copy his success. And it's entirely futile because there's more than just building a somewhat coherent world

No but he is on reddit

@Berwyn Yup. I've got a draft but this is no googlable answer.

I suspected so!

@chx I agree with you, but certainly coherence is a requirement for me. I don't like science fiction that is inconceivably possible

Of course but the whole worldbuilders SE is entirely ridiculous

12:05 PM

That may be a fair point...

12:15 PM

I would need to dig up some of the questions I saw but it reeked of copying Sanderson

Which of course is understandable but come on

12:28 PM

Nzall got downvoted on meta for jjust asking a question. seems a bit rude

12:39 PM

Downvote on meta is disagreement not the usual downvote

although in this case....

1:14 PM

From http://www.mongolnomadic.com/en (the rest of the English-version website is broken, use Mongolian version or wayback machine)
> Mongolian nomad Zagdaa’s family resides here and they live on real traditional
> nomadic way of living. There is no vehicle, motorbike, TV, electricity and mobile
> phones. You can see from this family how Mongolian family lives on products of their
> five kinds of livestock in the steppe.
I know advertisers need to exaggerate, but "no vehicle, motorbike, TV, electricity and mobile phones" seems a bit hard to swallow.

@GayotFow did you mean electile? :)

1:30 PM

@Relaxed There is a real running settebello

Trying to figure out where it is now

1:44 PM

ah, maybe I was looking at a cousin of it

blog.tuttotreno.it/17686-fondazione-fs-etr-252-in-revisione

1:56 PM

That's even better!

I actually thought about asking about that too, but I (falsely) assumed it was futile and the best hope was a museum train parked somewhere.

Looking at the videos on youtube, I'd like to see it too

OK, I see the answer to my question now, that's sad

But what is this other train then?

Care to post an answer about it? I will probably accept the other one because it fully answers the question as asked but I think the other info is very useful too

Ok. It might be interesting too

@Berwyn Settebello?! Isn't that a brand of condoms?

Heathen!

2:08 PM

Italian pun?

It probably is a brand of condoms too...

durex.it/prodotti/profilattici/preservativi-settebello-classici

Ah dammit they were repurchased by durex.

They were the only ones on sale in supermarkets when I was a kid. And that was (eh still is) a big deal in Italy.

I misunderstood, the lounge is at the end, it's the driver who is seating above

2:34 PM

@AndrewGrimm no satellite TV, no yachts, no private jets, no jaccuzis, no 5-star hotels...

2:46 PM

Reading meta, I'm really tempted to ask a question about how to use a sit down toilet

We're all adults here. How does one use a sit down toilet?

Maybe I'll prepare my answer in case someone else asks it

2 hours later…

4:23 PM

Who knew there were so many bidet experts

Still #4 on the hot list. and new answers coming in, not even bad ones. we are all learning about bidets I guess!

@Berwyn thanks for the amazing answer on the luggage Q! you deserve that bounty

Well, I'm afraid I came up short with anecdotes

but I think it's the CoC and fare rules that matter anyway

if they don't say they can charge you, they can't

I really didn't expect this kind of stuff to be so expensive

will defs fake some medical emergency should I ever have to ask for that

what did you have in mind anyway? It's always hard to answer really generic questions

but you're not really allowed to ask more specific questions on travel.SE...

you could ask but I found that question more useful in the general case

4:32 PM

I just never check in luggage

I go away for 3 months with hand luggage

I once almost was in that situation on LH when luckily my A to B leg was late at check-in already so I could not even check through

never had the intention to take the last leg anyway

yeah but you fly business

well, I get away with it a lot!

I'm traveling for 12 days right now and checked luggage

I'm also top status in BA so they don't tend to bother me so much either

but I have to move some things so I have an excuse

that helps

4:34 PM

my typical luggage allowance is 128kg

I wouldn't know what to do with that

someone had suggested an edit to the underwater objects question with a pic but I don't know if that pic is licensed to show on here :(

yeah, 128kg is a bit overkill

it doesn't seem you can link images which is a shame

I'm not sure what the policy is with photos

not 100% either

I posted a photo on the settebello Q and so did the other guy...

I don't think too many people care but e.g. JoErNanO got a comment on his bidet answer that made him change the pic

google image search lets you filter by license but I don't really trust that

4:38 PM

I'll edit it in then you can blame me

go ahead :)

Done

A photo helps an answer so much, doesn't it?

I have two bounties to be replaced tonight, anyone got suggestions? (Both will go unclaimed, I'm afraid.)

It does

Looks like my meagre bounty will go unclaimed

I've spent hours and hours on it even though I can't award it to myself

The chinese one seems a bit strange that nobody has answered it. I applied for a chinese single-entry visa from a third-party country, and it didn't seem like any other type would be more of a problem

Nathan Shoesmith

@mts

6

Q: What does "UOPI" on a US passport stamp mean?

A US immigration officer wrote "UOPI" on my passport. He suspected that I wasn't actually visiting the country for tourism but intending to work there. What does this term mean:

usa customs-and-immigration

6

Q: Is the Berlin Wall Section on the Sakharov Grounds Accessible at Night?

I am informed that the only known section of the Berlin Wall situated in Russia is on the grounds of the Andrei Sakharov Center. The centre itself is comprised of his former residence and a 'largish' park roughly 1/3 of a mile from Red Square. Source: Wonderful Russia As shown, this sectio...

russia landmarks moscow scams parks-and-gardens

4:49 PM

The UOPI one is useless if the OP doesn't take another photo that we can read

Nathan Shoesmith

Should that be closed then?

I'm sure @GayotFow is intending to put a bounty on the second one if it isn't answered

No, why should it be closed? Someone might turn up in a few months with an identical looking stamp and be able to explain it

Nathan Shoesmith

It's very unlikely though. Surely a question should be closed if we can't understand the content.

It's quite likely that the UOPI bit doesn't mean anything official

but maybe the bit we can't read does

In which case, if someone did come along, they couldn't answer anyway

closing it serves no purpose

Nathan Shoesmith

It saves people time from trying to answer the unanswerable and informs them that no information can be obtained from that question.

If closing serves no purpose, why do we close any question?

4:57 PM

The only questions that are closed are ones that are duplicate/too-broad/etc

Nathan Shoesmith

I would say this is 'primarily opinion based' - as we cannot prove what the supposed code may mean (which is likely unofficial,) especially with the OP not editing the question or giving any help.

As you said yourself, the question in it's present state is useless

So, it's not going to help new visitors to the site or anyone presently on the site

It isn't useuless if someone can decode that handwriting. Perhaps the same thing happened to them and they have similar writing

anyway, it's not something I'd put a bounty on without a clear photo

I'd agree with Nathan in this case, it could be flagged and closed as unclear what asking. Once the OP posts a clear shot we can reopen

Nathan Shoesmith

Unclear what asking or Opinion based @mts

I think we know what's being asked

but just can't answer it

?

@NathanShoesmith I'd say the first, go ahead and flag. the process will do the rest

Nathan Shoesmith

5:08 PM

Okay @mts

I tried a few sharpening things in the gimp, but didn't get far

it's interesting it seems to have one opening bracket and two close brackets

Nathan Shoesmith

Done @mts

Seems to have been a pretty slow day today, well apart from the visa questions

Slow day at work too

Me on travel.SE

My colleagues going outside to see the first Dutch F-35 fly by...

how many did they buy?

5:19 PM

They have 2 now

I think they ordered 8

Plus an option on some more

remind me what they're trying to protect? :)

They reduced the number several times, obviously, but still contributed 1B $ to the development

wow

The Dutch army isn't necessarily trying to protect anything or anyone, they explicitly plan to operate as part of US-led forces, not autonomously

sounds like a plan

5:23 PM

But have you heard about the Swiss air force operating hours?

I have. But I don't remember

they're office hours?

Yeah

I think it was a couple of years ago

A plane from Ethiopian Airlines was hijacked by its copilot who flew it to Geenva

Makes sense. Who'd want to pay double time during a war?

It was escorted by Italian then French jets

I remember that too

5:25 PM

But the Swiss could only scrambled jets after 8 am

didn't he land in Italy?

No, no, went to Geneva

oh, that was the scheduled landing

Which right at the border incidentally

Yes, Rome

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 was a scheduled flight from Addis Ababa to Milan via Rome on 17 February 2014. The aircraft, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-300ER, was hijacked by the unarmed co-pilot en route from Addis Ababa to Rome, and landed at Geneva. All 202 passengers and crew were unharmed. == Incident == Flight 702 was scheduled to depart from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at 00:30 EAT (UTC+3) on 17 February 2014. The aircraft's transponder began to emit squawk 7500—the international code for an aircraft hijacking—while flying north over Sudan. When the...

5:27 PM

There is even a lunch break!

It's in the wikipedia article

The Swiss Air Force did not respond because the incident occurred outside normal office hours, which are 08:00–12:00 and 13:30–17:00.

:D

defensie.nl/actueel/nieuws/2016/06/06/…

Complete with a map and everything

The Dutch are sometimes funny

Primarily for giraffe protection?

Hope they protect the Hoeggarden factories too

I wonder if their F-35s work better than ours, because ours still have a lot of issues

5:47 PM

@mts just looked at the toba thread. congrats on the bounty

6:13 PM

@Berwyn I don't think they do... Hoegaarden is from Belgium

Even though the Belgian and Dutch navies have an integrated command... under a Dutch admiral

Of course Belgium does not have a navy nor ministries

They could not agree on that

It has a “naval component” of the “federal public service for defense”

And I am not making this up!

6:34 PM

@Relaxed Good point about Hoegaarden!

Guess I'm not going to get any invites to the Netherlands after today...

6:56 PM

fun fact: the state of California has a naval militia, but it's staffed entirely by lawyers and has no ships (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_militia#Active)

there have been recent plans to get some boats however

7:24 PM

Looks like the bidet Q pulled in a new contributor: travel.stackexchange.com/a/70918/32134

should be a requirement of a minimum of one hygiene question a week to keep traffic up

travelaway.me/cool-travel-gadgets

7:46 PM

@AndrewGrimm That too :)

2 hours later…

9:36 PM

So when I have a bounty that is ended and I can't award it because no one answered then I still get the "you have x hours to award the bounty" and cannot start another bounty for a whole day?!?! WTF

You can double it...

Is this supposed to behave like this? I'll file a bug-report / feature request on meta tomorrow...

39

Q: A grace period of one day to award the bounty after expiration (without remaining featured, of course)

Since this is not really intended behaviour apparently, I propose a period of 24 hours after the bounty has expired during which the question will not be on the featured tab but the promoter can still manually award the bounty. The "cost" of this would be that no new bounty could be set up until ...

feature-request status-completed bounty

is it that?

that's related.

I might post right on meta SE or here on travel meta?

not sure, that's for tomorrow

good night

g'night

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