Devial

joined 3 days ago
[–] Devial@discuss.online 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean they do have some small number of seats with extra legroom, that you can pay upcharge for. Exit row seats, bulk head seats, premium economy, to a smaller degree simply choosing an airline with a more spacious configuration in their planes.

[–] Devial@discuss.online 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm sorry you have to deal with that but it's not really a good argument. For one, the airline can still actually sell the seat in front of you.

If a person is so large they physically block 2 seats, then that's an extra seat that can't be occupied at all, so it's not really a fair comparison.

And ultimately, not every mode of transport can reasonably be accommodating to every single possible body type. I know that it sucks for people are stuck being an untypical body type and have to deal with nothing much fitting them,, but what do you suggest the alternative should be ? Spacing seats out more just so the few very tall people can sit everywhere is going to increase ticket prices for everyone, even those who neither need nor want that extra space. It will also increase the number of flights required to move the same number of passengers, and therefore increase the fuel use per passenger and mile flown.

[–] Devial@discuss.online 3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I mean they literally DON'T charge you for extra cabin weight, or body weight, even if they could. Most airlines don't even put weight limits on cabin luggage, only size limits. And even those that have weight limits, in my experience, very rarely enforce them. Generally, only size is enforced for hand luggage.

And they only charge overweight people double if they're so large they physically block more than one seat, which imo is fine. If you need more than seat, it's perfectly fine to expect you to pay for that extra seat. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with either excessive greed OR mass/fuel issues.

[–] Devial@discuss.online 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I mean making shadowheart a light domain cleric when her literal goddess (at least if you're still in Act1 ) is literally the goddess of darkness isn't exactly in character, so I wouldn't see anything wrong e.g. respecing Astarion to a wizard. He's 200 years old, he's had plenty of time to study and I'd say him being a wizard is less out of character than Shar Shadowheart being a light domain cleric....

[–] Devial@discuss.online 5 points 1 day ago (7 children)

There's already a solution for that. It's called premium economy/business class.

And if you're gonna say "but that's so much more expensive", well guess what's going to happen if you reduce how many pax can fit on an aircraft.

[–] Devial@discuss.online 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

No it isn't. Not in large airplanes. The typical takeoff weight of an A320 is in the neighborhood of 50-70 tons. The pilots do not give a shit if a few passengers weigh a couple 100kg more than the average, and that's a narrow body. A couple PAX being grosly obese on a widebody, with typical takeoff weights in excess of 100 tons, is even more negligible.

Fuel calculations and weight&balance is calculated based on assumed average weights for men, women and children, generally something in the neighborhood of 85kg for men, 75 for women and 30-40 for children (includes assumed average hand luggage weight as well)

[–] Devial@discuss.online 51 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (25 children)

No it isn't. It's debatable if the safety features are still necessary with modern wiring and electric code imporovments, but the features are objectively there, and they objectively make the plugs safer.

And the design of these features wasn't because of "substandard" wiring. It is because the UK used to use ring circuits in old houses, which are unsuitable to be protected by central breaker boards with breakers for each room, necessitating fuses in the plugs. That doesn't make the system any less safe. As long as a fuse is present, and the circuits are adequately sized, where precisely on the circuit a fuse is located is irrelevant.

Also, the fuse inside the plug provides an utterly unique advantage that no other country has: The fuse can be used to protect the external wire from over current. Centralised fuses are exclusively designed to prevent over current on the main, internal circuit, they don't give a crap what happens on the other side of an outlet. A central fuse protecting a 16A circuit will do nothing to stop you from pulling 15Amps through a 3 amp cable. A fuse inside the plug, appropriately sized for those 3 Amps, will in fact protect the cable itself. This is particularly useful for extension cords. Other countries without fused plugs need to either just flat out mandate ALL extension and multiplug cords be capable of safely handling the maximum current of a household circuit (e.g. Germany) OR just ignore that rather major safety hazard entirely and just kinda hope that nothing bad happens (e.g. USA) (if you've ever wondered, that's specifically why chaining extension cords together in the US is considered dangerous)

[–] Devial@discuss.online 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Jup, that's a really good feature. You can get aftermarket child shutters for EU style plugs as well, but they require you to twist the plug before inserting, making them kinda inconvenient, and they have to be specifically installed by parents. Though I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. After all, we don't make any of our other products or home designs toddler safe by default. It's generally regarded as the parents responsibility to ensure their home is child proof before they get a child.

But the UK version of just having it in every outlet as a hidden feature that you wouldn't even notice if you don't know it's there is definitely the best approach.

(Though it does make low form factor UK plugs almost impossible, because every plug must have a ground prong, even if there's no actual safety need to have one)

[–] Devial@discuss.online 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A GFCI is the same thing as an RCD, they're just different terms. They both have the same function: detecting leakage current, and isolating the electrical connection as soon as it does.

[–] Devial@discuss.online 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They are referencing the lack of isolation on the prongs for US plugs. If a US plug isn't fully inserted, it's possible for both of the two prongs to form electrical connections with the outlet, whilst not yet being fully inserted.

This means a small part of the prongs which are now at 110V potential to each other is exposed, and could potentially be touched by a child, or cause a short circuit if an object gets into the gap.

So yeah, the electrical code in the US for household plugs is just straight unsafe.

You can see the way to do it properly in this post: Notice how the two L+N prongs only have exposed metal at the very tip, this, if they're inserted deep enough to create contact, it's not possible for any exposed metal to still protrude from the outlet.

[–] Devial@discuss.online 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Having switched outlets wouldn't make US plugs any safer, at least not in any meaningful way.

The individual switches on UK outlets don't really add significantly to safety, they're mostly just a convenience feature, because for an electrical plug/outlet to even be considered safe in the first place, it has to be always safe, whether it's powered or not. You can't rely on people switching off unused outlets instead of doing actual safety design.

The main factors that make US plugs less safe than UK ones is the potential for exposed metal contacts with a closed connection to the outlet, the lack of internal fuse and the lack of polarisation, and, particularly in combination with the first point, the comparatively weak grip strength and protruding design that make it easy for a plug to become (partially) unplugged by accident.

[–] Devial@discuss.online 114 points 1 day ago (43 children)

Best plug+receptor design in the world for electrical safety.

Worst plug design in the world for bottom of foot safety.

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