No smoking on subway, especially by backpacks

By Times Wires
In print: Saturday, March 29, 2008

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Transportation

Science project breaks subway no-smoking rule

Boy, do people riding the subway in big cities hate to see backpacks with smoke coming out of them. People near the Seventh Avenue stop on New York's B line made a beeline for the exits when they saw smoke coming out of the sack carried by college student Gregory Kats, 29. Kats tried to assure other passengers that is was just a malfunctioning science project, but that didn't even slow them down. "They were panicking, and I realized their fear," an apologetic Kats said. "I hate to scare people. Next time, I'll be much more careful and keep my electronic projects at home." Kats is a computer engineering student at the New York City College of Technology, and the project was of the inner workings of an elevator. So it was a box. With wires. And a battery. That didn't help.

Pilot doesn't believe in India airport

The pilot of a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Hyderabad refused to land the plane with 233 passengers at the Indian city's spanking new airport for a simple reason: He never heard of it. So took the craft on a 1,200-mile detour to New Delhi, which he had heard of. They wouldn't let him land there, so he continued on to Bombay, landing in the wrong city, two hours late. The Times of India reports that many foreign airlines have not updated their flight computers to recognize Rajiv Gandhi International Airport so they warn pilots that they are about to crash. And that Indian pilots know the airport is there, so to avoid that warning, they just turn that computer off. No potential for disaster there.

Mapping software

Wales ... it's not in England at all

A woman who created a Facebook group that aims to clarify the status of Wales is stunned that her group has amassed 25,000 members. The name of the group is "Wales is a country ... it is NOT in England." And that is the message Megan Davies aims to get out there, she tells the Western Mail. "It just started because so many people made the same mistake, thinking Wales was part of England," said Davies, 20. "I didn't think it would get 25,000 members but I'm very pleased that it has. People often say it's a great group because it's exactly what everyone is thinking."

Kitty detector

Seattle safe from radioactive cat

Turns out that Homeland Security has us protected against not only dirty bombs, but sickly cats. The Seattle Times reports that antiterror cops were patrolling the highway with radiation detectors when one went off. "Vehicle goes by at 70 mph," said border agent Joe Giuliano. "Agent is in the median, a good 80 feet away from the traffic. Signal went off and identified an isotope." So the agent pulled the car over. They looked for a bomb, but all they found was a cat that had undergone radiation treatments for cancer three days earlier. "That's the type of technology we have," Giuliano said proudly.

Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.