Thursday, November 09, 2006

Air travel becomes more hellish...

If it's not bad enough that bringing liquids on board is restricted, things are conspiring to make travel by plane even less pleasant:
One of the last refuges from incessantly ringing mobile phones is about to disappear as Emirates plans to allow passengers to use them on aircraft from January.
The sound of people telling friends and relatives that they are “over Greenland” will now be added to the drone of engines and the wail of babies.
The airline has spent £14 million developing technology that will allow passengers to use their mobiles in the air without the phones interfering with cockpit systems.
Phones are currently banned on all flights as soon as the engines are started because they cause signal surges that can interfere with navigation and communication systems.
Emirates believes that it will get approval from European air-safety regulators by January to become the first airline to offer the service.
And a rather bizzare tale from the Times:
A doctor at a family planning clinic told a patient that she needed an exorcism because there was something sinister moving around inside her stomach, a medical tribunal was told yesterday.
Joyce Pratt, 44, allegedly told the patient, who was seeking contraceptive advice, that she might be possessed by an evil spirit and needed religious rather than medical help.
She gave the woman crosses and trinkets to ward off black magic, allegedly told her that her mother was a witch, that she and her husband were trying to kill her, and suggested that she visit a Roman Catholic priest at Westminster Cathedral in London.
During the consultation at the Westside Contraceptive Clinic in Central London the doctor was said to have told the patient that she had black magic powers that could help to alleviate the problem.
The patient, identified only as Mrs K, was said to have left the clinic “very shaken and intimidated”.

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