All right, so it's not that bad, I just wanted a dramatic headline.

I understand that airlines are working in a highly competitive market, and I fully support separating the essential ticket price from other services that can cost extra. I even support looking into more extreme initiatives if it can translate into a lower ticket price for me. By the way, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has a quote collection worthy of an irishman:

Jürgen [Weber, Lufthansa chairman] says Germans don't like low fares. How the fuck does he know? The Germans will crawl bollock-naked over broken glass to get them.

I digress. The point is, I'm for all this but what I don't like is when I feel scammed. And I feel slightly scammed right now. I didn't see it coming and I should have. It started a couple years ago when automated check-in machines were getting installed at more and more airports.

They all have them now, a little cluster from each airline or airline alliance where you can swipe your passport or enter your name or reservation number to do the check-in work yourself. A great idea that for a while - the while it took the apparently luddite general population to start using them - resulted in super quick check-in times. A quick pass by the baggage drop-off point, a queue often shared with the business class check-in, was all that was needed after pressing a couple touch screen buttons. This queue had started growing as more and more people were using the machines or checking in online from home, but it was still a much quicker system than standing in line between the herd fence of old.

That was then. Now, the regular check-in desks are gone; they're all turned in to baggage drop-off points. And sadly, the queue is as long as it was before the machines came. Why? Because the desks are staffed by far fewer people than before.

See what they did there? Clever little trick. They lured us with quicker check-in times by using the machines, until enough people had started using them so they could ban normal check-in desks altogether and cut the number of staff needed. All while keeping the passengers happy because probably not many people noticed the changeover at all.

Huh. Now that I type it out it actually sounds pretty clever - not in the sarcastic way. And it might actually result in lower prices too. Count me a convert.

.. at least until the next time I'm out flying, having to do more work myself while still waiting in the same long queue.

In Rainbows has to be one of Radiohead's absolutely best albums, and there's this bit in the song Weird Fishes/Arpeggi that gets me every time. The song follows a wonderful, almost unnoticable, crescendo that melds lyrics with added instrumental parts in a gorgeous way:

Turn me on to phantoms
I follow to the edge of the earth
And fall off
Everybody leaves
If they get the chance
And this is my chance

The whole song is great but this part in particular has it all, around 2 minutes in: Thom Yorke's voice reaching the point where he's gradually extending his notes further and further, Yorke again with ghostly backing vocals to match the longing dream of the lyrics and layered guitars galore. The drums too, a nice little switch from hi-hat to ride halfway through the verse for a little accent just as Yorke sings his of the earth.

The original live performance of the song in a more orchestral version has the same build-up and change of flow at this part but the recorded version has taken it to another level.

The Guardian's cavalcade of nasty food items is a must-see. In particular for the chicken in a tin.

Browserforthebetter.com, a site by Microsoft no less, offers to donate 8 meals per download of Internet Explorer 8. Seems like a kind of desperate move that reminds me of the Kübler-Ross model - the five stages of grief:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

I guess Microsoft is up to step 3, Bargaining, now. Me, I've been hovering between Depression and Acceptance for a while, with the occational dip back to Anger.