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Short Stuff: Cellphones on Airplanes · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, and there's guest producer Jerry sitting in for
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Dave c. Yeah, and this is short Stuff getting up.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: No time to explain any of the Jerry Dave thing, No,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: not at all, because we're on an airplane and there's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a jerk in first class yammering on his cell phone
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: because it's now okay to talk on take cell phone
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: calls on planes. Why would you do that to me?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Why would you even create that, that little situation, that
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: sketch of a horrible day, just to drive fear into people,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: because it's not really true. Um, it's been a while
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: since I've flown on a plane. Exactly one year actually,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: oh yet to the day, not to the day, but
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: about then about a year in a WEEKI jerk, fifty
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: four weeks. Uh. But yes, you cannot make sell phone
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: calls because there are a couple of bodies in the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: United States that make sure you can't. The f A
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: A and the f C c OH. I thought you
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: were going to say Rob Low and Tom Selleck, just
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a couple of bodies. Yeah, um, so yeah, there's actually
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: two federal agencies that ban the use of cell phones
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: because everybody hates it so much that everyone wanted to
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: get a no banning it. The f a A says, well,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the reason we ban it is because we're pretty sure
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: that that could conceivably interfere with the planes instrumentation. Um,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and you don't want to do that because you could
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: make a plane drop out of the skuy probably And
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the SEC says yeah yeah. Plus also it will totally
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: mess with calls on the ground because those ones up
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: in the air will be jumping from tower to tower
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and it will just be a big problem. Yeah. And
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I think pre two wasn't didn't you even have to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: power down your cell phone? Yes, they were like, just
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: don't just take your cell phone and throw it out
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the window, like Mitt Rodney says, roll down your your
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: airplanes window and just throw it out midflight. We don't
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: even want them onto here. They were basically like, just
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: do not do anything with your cell phone. And then
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: finally somebody told them about airplane mode, appropriately called airplane
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: mode because it cuts off the cellular service on your phone,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: but it remains it keeps like the WiFi intact if
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: you're if you have it turned on right, and ever
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: since then you could at least go through and and
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: spend a couple of hours deleting pictures that you don't
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: need clogging up your storage space. That's right. I like
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: to just like there's one of the things that was
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: always great about a flight, as you were just disconnected
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: for an hour or five hours or something, you were
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: just just like you could bring an actual printed book
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: with you and like read it, you know. But with
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the with the advent of WiFi on planes and everything,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: it's like, now it's connected and you can commu indicade
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and it's just you can do other stuff that you
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: do under normal circumstances, and it's ruined everything. Yeah, I
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: will still unless I really legitimately have stuff I have
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to get done for work, I will still not get
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: my laptop out and get online just to surf the web.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I give myself that break. Yeah. No, it's
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a it's good to do. It's you know, it's so
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: easy to be addicted to computers and the Internet and
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: everything that sometime it's hard. It is. Uh, the deal
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: with whether or not it could really interfere with communication
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: systems or the planes flight systems. Uh, that is probably
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: not the case because planes are hardened, meaning um, all
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: of those electronics that are important on a plane, like
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the flight control system are covered or you know, boxed
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: in this electrically conductive material that prevents any kind of
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: electromagnetic interference. So they've kind of taking care of that
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: for the most part, but they still air on the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: side of caution and they're like, but let's just not
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: do it. Still. Yeah, they do know that electro magnetic
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: interference can affect planes. Things like lightning and solar flares
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: UM have affected instrumentation on planes, and especially with GPS,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: which is critical in uh, take off but especially landing. Um.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: It's it's it's really sensitive to electro magnetic radiation interference.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: So you don't want anything messing with that, least of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: all somebody who just has to talk on the phone,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: because the worst reason to allow it, right, So they
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: know that it can happen, but they couldn't find in
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: this one study in the two thousand odds uh, any
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: any smoking gun that said, yes, this plane fell out
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: of the sky because somebody was talking on a cell phone.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: It was just they knew it was conceivably possible. Even
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: though they shielded or hardened the stuff, um to prevent
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that that. They still said, it's just it's just not
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: worth it. Everybody hates people talking on cell phones anyway,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: so why would we make an exception when it could
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: also conceivably mess with the planes? Instrumentation agreed. Should we
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: take a break? Yes, all right, we'll take a break
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and finish up with this stuff right after this. Alright.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: So here's what they don't have on planes is any
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: kind of alert to a flight attendant that says, hey,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: there's a jerk on row fifteen in the middle seat
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that's hunched down and using their cell phone. Go back
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: there and stop him. They don't have prejudice. Yeah, totally.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: They should bring that pot of coffee. Um, they should stop.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: They should have that stuff, but they don't. But generally,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: I think anybody if they saw their seat mate next
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to them trying to make a phone call or calling
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: somebody would be smart enough to alert the flight attendant
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and say, hey, you can't do this, get this jerk
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: off a here. My hand would shoot up. Like a
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: third grader with the right answer to the question the
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: teacher just asked, I'd be like, oh, oh, they're on
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: their phone. I would sell on somebody so fast, Yes, yeah,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and I wouldn't even care if they gave me stitches
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: for niches. That's right. Um at thirty six thousand feet though,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: you're not gonna be connecting with the cell tower anyway.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I think we have all been in situations where we
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: may not have realized that our phone wasn't on airplane mode,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and you'll hear You're like, when you start to land,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: you'll hear your phone ding, like a message just come through,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: and you're like, oh boy, I didn't know that that
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: could even happen. Uh. They must really mean it when
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: they say put your phone on airplane mode. Yeah, that's
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: what the SEC's whole position was, is that um air
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: traffic would mess with ground traffic, and that cell phone
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: towers are basically designed to hand off from one tower
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: to the next in a cell um as you're walking by, UM,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: driving by tops, not you know, flying a couple of
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: hundred miles an hour at ten thousand feet as you're
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: coming in for a landing. Yeah there, and yeah, exactly
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a bunch of people on a plane all doing at
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the same time, because you're gonna attack the capacity of
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: each tower they're not designed to register in handoff calls
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: like that that fast. Um, and so the the SEC
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: is like that could really interrupt ground communications. So that's
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: another reason not to do it. Yeah, but generally those uh,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: they're not looking up anyway, which is why you can't
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: get that signal at thirty six thousand feet. But like
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I said, anything less than ten thousand beat and it
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: might be possible, So you just shouldn't try. Still. Yeah,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and Richard Branson said, what is one way that I
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: can fully ruin the experience of flying for people? And
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: uh in two thousand and ten, I believe around then
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: he came up with the answer, and that was to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: offer cell phone service via UM little uh what are
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: they called pico Yeah, Pico cells. Pico cells, little tiny
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: cell towers that use the plane's WiFi to transmit cell
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: phone calls. So on Virgin UM some Virgin flights that
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: are not in the United States or within two fifty
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: poles of the United States, you can make cell phone
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: calls aboard the plane. Yeah, that's I think he probably
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: thought that would enhance the experience because he's all about
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, we both flown rgin. It's it's the best.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: It's awesome. Oh yeah, there's that pantry. You can stand
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: up and just go get candy from any time you
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: want to love it. That Australian flight was like the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: one of the nicest experiences I've ever had in the air,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: for sure. I I suspect he's promoting his Virgin Mobile
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: business though by well maybe you know, but it is
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: weird that someone that has taken such great care to
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: make the flight such a great experience then ruins it
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: by saying everyone can talk on their cell phones now. Maybe. Yeah,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: nice chill lights, lavender aroma therapy. It is such a
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: nice experience, for sure. It really is country. Hey, while
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: we're here, I just want to say, I want to
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: take a second when we're talking about Virgin Uh, my
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: niece Mila just recently flew to New Zealand for eleven
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: weeks because she's co starring in a major motion picture
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: and that's where they're shooting. Are you serious? I am
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: dead serious, man. My parents are there right now for
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a level week. She is and wow she is. Yeah,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: like she's one of the co lete she's one of
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the main characters. Like I think her hands are going
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: to be on the poster. That's amazing, isn't it huge? Congratulations,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: it's really exciting. I'll keep you posted as I can.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: To be honest, I'm not entirely certain I can include this,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: so we may end up editing it out. But at
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the event, at least you know now well and when
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the time comes, we can promote it on movie crush.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Oh nice, thanks man, that's very of course. So uh.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: The FCC basically spent many years saying, like, Okay, is
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: this really a problem? Should we allow like Richard Branson's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: making us look like total jerks? Should we allow this?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: And they, after several years of study, they concluded they said, no, nuts,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: nuts to Richard Branson. They said the flight attendants. You know,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: they asked a lot of people. They didn't just do
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the studies about safety. They asked actual people who work
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: on planes, and the flight attendants were all like, no, known,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Oh no, they need to be listening to us, um,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Especially in the case of an emergency. The first thing
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: everyone would do would be to get out their phone
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: and try and call their loved ones. And that's when
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: they most need to be listening to things. Right, that's
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: a big one, um. But then there's also the annoyance factor.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And this to me is where it just becomes like
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the most important thing. Just everything else forget it. It's
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: so obnoxious to even while you're on the tarmac waiting
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: for them to shut the door, and there's people sitting
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: there talking on the phone. That's obnoxious. Enough of food
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: from the food court even that, I'm like, Okay, at
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: least they're they're providing their bodies sustenance and nourishment. I
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: can live with it. The phone is like and you
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: can tell from the conversation there's just no point in
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: this transpiring, and yet it is, and and there's another
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: one in, another one, another one. Being on a plane
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: like that for many, many hours is awful. It's an
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: awful idea. Yeah, it's that situation and where John Hodgeman
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: always talks about being aware of the impact that you
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: have on others, and I've always subscribed to that. But
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the person that has their shoes off and they got
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: their Panda Express like piping hot meal in their lap
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and they're talking on their cell phone before the flight
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: takes off, that's the person that's like paid for the seat,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Let just do what I wanted, and I paid for
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the seat. Don't be that person, I know, Yeah, because
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: you just don't have an effect on everybody. Be kinder,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: think about other people. Yeah, but hey, enjoy your pain
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: expressed because you're providing. There's got to be some nourishing
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: nutrients somewhere. Sure. Yeah, those green peppers are okay. You
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: got anything else? I got nothing else? Okay, Well, then
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: that means short stuff says stay off your phone. Stuff
• 12:50
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• 12:53
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• 12:58
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