Or a stinky seatmate, or one that never shuts up? The list of things air passengers are and do that annoy their fellow travelers are legion. Which do you find most obnoxious? Head over to Elliott.org and register your vote on what makes for the most annoying seatmate ever. For me, the screaming baby is the hardest to take, closely followed by one not on Chris’s list: The seat-kicker. I swear I’ve taken some shots to the kidneys from kids in the row behind me that would put Ali to shame.

I’ve been catching up on my RSS feeds this afternoon, and man are there some interesting things going on. Too many to write a post about each (and I’m feeling a tad lazy), so here’s link roundup instead:

Meetings
Adrian Segar issues this challenge to all meeting organizers: Make the results of your evaluations public I am so behind this idea—why everyone isn’t already doing this, I can’t imagine. It’s not like attendees don’t already know what worked and what didn’t, so what’s the issue? Also, don’t miss his great suggestions on how you can get great attendee evaluation response rates.

Ken Molay over at the Webinar blog offers up why webinar registration is like Christmas shopping. I’d expand it to encompass any type of event registration.

Brains and Behavior
You really are what you know (Slashdot) This one is pretty cool—MRI scans of London cabbie brains show that the brains physically change after training. Wouldn’t you love to be able to scan to see what your sessions are doing to your attendees?

The Meeting Space Should Not Define The Use, The Behavior Should While he doesn’t cite any MRI data, Jeff Hurt does talk about how behavior and learning are affected by the physical space in which we expect people to learn (and, theoretically, behave).

Travel
TSA Facing Death By 1,000 Cuts (Slashdot) This fall has not been without incident for our screeners.

XL passengers invade my economy class seat — and airlines let them
(Elliott.org) Not sure how I feel about this one. I’ve been painfully squished by oversized seatmates, and it’s not fun. Then again, it’s not fun for them, either. I’d like to see airlines set aside a certain portion of seats designed specifically for larger folks, but in this era of “cram ‘em in and forget about passenger comfort,” I can’t really see it happening. But to ask someone to buy two seats also doesn’t seem all that fair either.

Just Because I Found Them Interesting and Hope You Do Too

Most hated buzzwords (MeetingBoy via BoingBoing) I know it is what it is, but we probably should circle back to find some robust, no-brainer ways to work smarter so that, at the end of the day, we take it to the next level to a 30,000-foot view of a paradigm shift.

2012 color of the year: tangerine tango
(Special Events). It’s actually a very striking color, if it actually looks anything like it renders on my netbook. Plus, what a great name! Brochure designers, take heed!

This story is so sweet and charming and wonderful that I had to share it: Who left a tree, then a coffin in the library?

Last but by no means least, check out this list of the 56 best/worst similes. Prepare to laugh until the dog looks at you funny if you click this link! Among my faves:

6. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
9. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
18. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
48. I felt a nameless dread. Well, there probably is a long German name for it, like Geschpooklichkeit or something, but I don’t speak German. Anyway, it’s a dread that nobody knows the name for, like those little square plastic gizmos that close your bread bags. I don’t know the name for those either.

Oh good, first they go bankrupt, and now they’re being sued for poisoning a passenger—the “they” in question being, of course, American Airlines. I just can’t wait to climb on board for my AA flight to San Diego for PCMA in January. I think I may take the Diet Detective’s advice and bring my own snacks this time, just in case…

If you’re looking for spa food like cucumber gazpacho with shrimp and melon on your next flight to Cincinnati, you’re almost definitely going to be out of luck (unless you’re on your billionaire friend’s private jet). But the enterprising souls at DietDetective.com have done some sleuthing to find out which airlines sky snacks are the least (and most) hazardous to your waistline. Now the results are in.

Of the eight airlines whose snacks DietDetective.com analyzed for healthiness, cost, calories, and exercise equivalents, Virgin America and Air Canada provided the healthiest sky snacks; Spirit’s snacks were the least healthy.

However, the company noted in a press release, your best bet is to bring your own food (low-calorie cereals, apples and oranges, salad, energy bars, beef jerky, fruit rollups, nuts, nonfat yogurt, and sandwiches). They also suggest peel-and-eat tuna and salmon cups, which sounds pretty awful to me.

I know I should care about keeping to nice healthy snacks but really, to be truthful, I don’t. I always figure I’m working off so many calories just holding the plane in the sky with my mind that anything I eat is instantly burned off. Calories eaten on the plane, stay on the plane—that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I know I like to complain about airline chicanery when it comes to fees, but this one blew my mind: A Comtel flight en route from India to the U.K. stopped in Vienna and refused to compete the trip until passengers pulled out their ATM cards to raise another $31,000 to pay for gas. Seriously??

I’m downloading this one now: Jets, the travel app that fills you in on where the best seats are on your flight (and the worst). Kind of like SeatGuru for your iPhone.

The latest issue of Wired had a great travel section. It includes things like a fabulous time versus money column along with the marginal utility curve (tracks bang for the buck of things from a ride on the Staten Island Ferry to zero-gravity flight); how to plan your trip like an engineer; and a handy chart that plots out where each airline stands with things like baggage fees, typical economy seat pitch, and flight delays. I also like their travel app suggestions (Google translate, yes!), and their advice on how to site, eat, and sleep well on the road. Just a great roundup of travel tips and tidbits.

And speaking of tips, the New York Times took on one of my biggest travel woes: The inability to sleep on an airplane. While it doesn’t really come up with any solutions (for me, anyway), I did learn a few things. If you can sleep on a plane—without drugs or copious quantities of liquor—I’d love to know your secret!

Funny how just 10 cm can make the difference between unlocking the cockpit door and causing a 737 to roll and drop 1,900 meters in 30 seconds. Yikes!

It’s good to know that astrophysicists can shoot their considerable brain power to down-to-earth issues like the most efficient way to board an airplane. That’s what Dr. Jason Steffen, an astrophysicist at Fermilab, has done, according to PopSci. Watch the video for how it works:

According to the article, “First, passengers sitting in the window seats on one side of the plane all board at once, in alternating rows (row 1, 3, 5, etc.). Then the same is done on the other side of the plane. Then the middle seats, still in alternating rows, boards on the first side of the plane. That continues with the other side’s middle seats, then (first one and then the other) aisle seats. Then, do it all again for the even-numbered rows.”

It sounds logical, doesn’t it? I’d be willing to give it a try.

It hasn’t yet happened to me, but you hear all the time about people having things stolen out of their luggage while traveling. After reading a post where Chris Elliott explains some pretty effective thief-deterrents, I think I know why my stuff generally stays put.

• I usually just take carry-on, so it’s not out of my sight.
• If I do check a bag, it’s a pretty pathetic-looking critter, not something that screams, “ooh, she’s carrying oodles of diamonds.”
• I don’t generally tote along anything worth stealing, so it’s mainly a moot point for me.

But for the worriers/already-been-ripped-off-and-don’t-want-to-go-there-again, I like the idea of carrying luggage that looks like it belongs to a kid, too, though your attendees might look at you funny in the hotel check-in and -out lines. And I love the idea of packing a toy badge with an official-looking ID card: “The badge has a distinctive design which looks like a real law-enforcement shield on an airport X-ray, thus discouraging collusion between X-ray attendants and baggage handlers.”

How do you ensure your stuff stays in your bag when you and your luggage are parted?