Airlines + more things

1 minutes estimated reading time

Fliers Find an Old Friend on More Planes: Empty Seats – WSJ – Airlines’ average passenger loads first crossed 80% capacity in 2007, after climbing from 55% in 1978. Ryanair and other discount airlines must skew these numbers, which means that other airlines must run almost empty flights on some routes.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Become Chinese Billionaires | Forbes – not surprised by the executions, as Balzac said, behind every great business lies a crime. And you can’t do anything in China without the necessary permits which means getting dirty. What I was more surprised by was the number of billionaires who have been murdered

Automation in the transition region | Vox – really interesting read

VW’s chairman says even small electric cars aren’t going to be cheap | Quartz – which makes a lot of sense as you haven’t seen Silicon Valley semiconductor type transformation in price and performance for the components. More automotive related content here.

“Brand purpose” is a lie – a lot of truth right there

North Korean Hackers Gain Access to Chilean ATMs Through Skype – impressive social engineering skills by the hackers

BJ Fogg’s persuasive technology design has been abused by the likes of Google. The Stanford Lab is name checked in the article. What is interesting is that Tristan Harris doesn’t talk about the ethical aspects of the persuasive technology course curriculum – which graduates tend to ignore.

Under house arrest in Vancouver, Huawei CFO lives in luxury and spends her days out shopping – Financial Post“I’ve been working hard for 25 years,” she said through her lawyer during her bail hearings last month. “If released, my only simple goal would be to spend time with my husband and daughter. I haven’t read a novel in years.”

China threatens reprisals if Canada bans Huawei from 5G contracts | RCR Wireless – no choice about it, Canada needs to ban Huawei now that the Chinese have drawn that line in the sand