The folks at BoingBoing are rightly angered by the trend in airports to feature pay-per-use electric charging stations. It’s bad enough that you’re stuck in the terminal, waiting for your delayed flight to finally start boarding, only to sit and wait some more while seated in 25B. Now, more and more airports are renting out their power sockets, so you can’t even recharge that laptop, cellphone, or DVD player while you’re killing time.

Jeff Sandquist’s Air Power Wiki to the rescue!

The site details the precise locations of free electric sockets, with sometimes colorful descriptions like:

Oakland: “Great power plug spot (6 outlets) in Terminal 2, across from the Men’s room by the Round Table Pizza”

Philadelphia: “Gates E-1-10 (Southwest/Delta): Look for the green lockers on either side of the main corridor. Under each are a pair of outlets.”

Seattle: “Saw a dude using one on the pilars right behind the security checkpoint. TSA didn’t bitch.”

You already pay $3 or $4.50 to the airport whenever you land. (It’s included in your ticket’s taxes and fees.) At that rate, the least they can do is give you a few pennies worth of juice. — MARK ASHLEY

(Photo: Conspiracy of Happiness)

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