What are the worst hotel inventions? Here’s one guy’s suggestions. I’m with him on the towel racks inside the shower, and on the twenty-three pillows for each bed. And I’d add to his list the permanently dim lamps at bedside, windows that don’t open, and the downsized drawers I’ve been noticing more and more lately, where each fits about one shirt and a pair of socks. On the plus side, though, we have WiFi in the rooms, and computer on the TV, and even bathroom fans that can clear the post-shower fog in less than 24 hours.

We all get it, we all hate it, and guess what? The spam wars have only just begun. Read more about it on ATV’s Page. What a depressing way to begin a Friday, eh?

This is a little late for Earth Day, but this Carbon Quiz gives you a quick look at how big a carbon dioxide footprint someone with your lifestyle leads. I miss being deep green (15,000 pounds per year) due to all the flying my job involves. The quiz says there are ideas on how to reduce your household carbon footprint, but it doesn’t link to the article and I can’t find it on a quick skim, unfortunately. I did find this site, which has some common sense tips.

If you’ve ever wondered what ever happened to good customer service, check out Michael Chaffin’s new Manifesto on ChangeThis. It’s an excellent read, and if more of us followed his advice, it’d be a better world. If you read his Star in the Margin, you’ll be familiar with a lot of what he talks about in his manifesto.

Scientists are looking into something that could someday replace biometric markers like retina scans and fingerprint readers for security clearance: Brain wave signatures. From Wired:

Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, are exploring the possibility of a biometric security device that will use a person’s thoughts to authenticate her or his identity.

Can you even imagine having airport security asking you to think the answer to a question instead of scanning your passport? Who knows if it could ever come to pass, but what a concept.

The Meetings Community listserv, also known as MeCo, has added a few new features to its Web site, including a member directory and a job board where members can post jobs for free for 180 days. Nice job! I’m liking this listserv more and more as it grows and develops.

For your next golf tournament, this ballfinder gizmo could come in handy. According to the Web site, it doesn’t track anything in the ball itself, which would be a no-no. It uses a bunch of other digital video and color recognition technologies to find missing golf balls. As long as three dimples-worth of ball are visible, it’ll find it, they say.

Then there’s a motion-sickness-prevention watch, which could come in handy on cruises, if you have some folks who don’t do too well at sea. Though I hear those bracelets work pretty well too, and don ‘t require any electric shocks to keep your brain fooled into thinking you’re not actual moving.

(Via Gizmodo.)

That’s right, the oldest prison in the UK is now the MalMaison-Oxford, and it actually sounds kind of interesting, from New York Times review (subscription req’d). It doesn’t have any meeting space, but if you want to know if you’re corrupt enough to stay there, visit this extraordinarily strange site.

Thanks to UNLV professor Patti Shock for the pointer, I think.

Please, say it ain’t so! According to The New York Times, some airplane designers are shopping around the idea of including “standing seats” to cram in more passengers per jet. From the article:

Airbus has been quietly pitching the standing-room-only option to Asian carriers, though none have agreed to it yet. Passengers in the standing section would be propped against a padded backboard, held in place with a harness, according to experts who have seen a proposal.

It also talks about the thinner seats airlines have been installing, some to provide more leg room, others to add in more seats. Of course, this is all about coach—first and business class seats keep getting more comfy.

Update: Airbus has denied the standing seats thing.

Of course, if you’re in Pittsburgh, you’d go to Aldo Coffee (where Rich Westerfield went when he downshifted his tradeshow marketing business). But otherwise, if you find yourself in a strange place and running on empty, java-wise, check out the Caffeine Finder GPS, which will locate nearby coffee houses right on your Blackberry.

(via TheLobby.com, which I see has turned on its comments—thanks, guys!)