People: They're the worst. That Seinfeld line runs through my brain every time I sit down in an airplane. And I've never had the "pleasure" of sitting next to Darius Cappille either.
Mr. Cappille -- although extending any sort of gentlemanly title to his name seems like at this point -- pulled off the remarkable "nightmare passenger on an airplane" trifecta recently, as he managed to expose himself, punch his female seatmate in the face and then strip naked while on a Southwest flight from Oakland to Las Vegas.
Now, I'm not entirely sure where to go with this -- after all, someone did get punched. So it seems a bit inappropriate to make a "Donkey Punch" joke (although, any reasonable amount of foresight would probably tell me that's highly inappropriate anyway). And it doesn't seem fair to do what Gadling did and point out that passengers are worse than terrorists these days (because, after all, that would mean that the terrorists have won, no?) Instead, I'll just assume that he really, really hates rapping flight attendants and doesn't know how to focus his anger.
Watch out, Broadway, because the boys (and lady) of Paddy's Pub -- the fictional bar from 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' -- are going on a for realsies tour of America with 'The Nightman Cometh,' Charlie Day's musical from Season 4's finale.
Yes, that's right, the masters of karate and friendship for everyone will be hitting a city near you. Hopefully, anyway -- there are currently six shows listed on the tour. You can purchase tickets for five of them right now (the Beacon Theater in New York is currently unlisted) by visiting Live Nation (cue booing).
And the best part of the whole shindig? It's the actual actors -- Rob McElhenney (Mac), Day, Glenn Howerton (Dennis), Kaitlin Olson (Sweet Dee) and Danny DeVito (Frank) -- who will be performing.
The folks at FX warn that tickets will go on sale quickly, so join me in a Live Nation stare starting at 9 am tomorrow morning as we all attempt to get tickets for what is sure to go down as the best musical ever. Oh, also join me in watching internet weirdos recreating 'Dayman' in one of the best YouTube clips ever.
When people ride rollercoasters, they put their arms in the air. They then wave them wildly about and scream at the top of their lungs. It's what happens. But not at Thorpe Park, a British amusement park which has now banned any patrons from waving their arms, in order to reduce the amount of human odor being emitted by customers.
That's right. In order to reduce body odor, they're bringing out the fun police.
Park director Mike Vallis said: "When it tops 25C, the unpleasant smells can become unaccept-able and we receive complaints. Our rides are really scary and people sweat more than normal due to the fear and anticipation while queuing."
"We felt a ban in temperatures of 25C-plus would be the best way to ensure guests have the most enjoyable experience and aren't exposed to any unsavoury armpits."
Now, I don't care for rollercoasters and I don't live in Britain so this isn't a huge deal at all. But that doesn't make it any less ridiculous and stupid -- theme parks are the home of stinky people. They are a respite from the daily grind for the common man, and while I can't speak to this in Europe, in the US they are most certainly the home of the mesh tank top.
Additionally, when you pay XX.XX just to enter the park and then have to wait in line for three hours just to ride a single ride and then you have to pay more for drinks and food (provided you aren't cheap enough to drink the mist from the cooling sections), well, you should have the right to do whatever the hell you want with your arms, provided it doesn't cause any physical harm to other patrons.
And no, nasal damage does not count; in fact, once I inherit a million dollars and buy my own theme park, I'm going to make a rule that any cheeky little punk who complains to park adminstrators about the smell of another patron will be immediately beaten up, thrown out of the park and banned for life. Because, well, intolerance will not be tolerated.
Dave Carroll returned to YouTube and viral fame this past week with his second installment of "United Breaks Guitars." This follows on the heels of a disputed "apology" from United Airlines (they only acted sorry AFTER Carroll's video went huge on these here interwebz) and a donation to a charity where, if I understand correctly, one of the main UA execs is on the board. So, awkward. Hence, part two, which has a little more Lyle Lovett and his big band feel to it. And which I love.
Earlier this week we posted some photos of the Grand Canyon of North Carolina... (i.e. the beautiful Linville Gorge Wilderness Area). Today our focus is slightly further West.
The Grand Teton Range is one of the world's youngest and most stunning formations. The Tetons rise so suddenly from the valley floor that they look more like a rising tidal wave than a millennia old mountain range. Driving the two-lane road north from Jackson Hole Airport to the Southern entrance of Yellowstone provides some majestic views... especially when they're contrasted with the serenity of a snowshoe hike to Huckleberry Hotsprings in Yellowstone. Enjoy.
1. Jackson Hole, Wyoming has the country's only airport contained completely inside of a National Park. Needless to say, taking off and landing is positively breathtaking.
2. This photo was taken just south of Jackson Hole on a drive to the Snake River. Any time of year, in any kind of weather, it's hard to take an ugly photo in Jackson Hole.
3. View of the Teton Range while driving North toward Yellowstone National park.
4. Beautiful pond you pass while snowshoeing to Huckleberry Hotsprings in Yellowstone.
5. Ducks, serenity and snow.
6. Snow melting on the edge of the hotsprings. It's amazing to see deciduous plant life thriving in the bitter cold environment.
7. The grotto, shot from above. The rock dam makes a nice knee-deep pool for relaxing.
8. Air temperature: 19 degrees. Water temperature 110 degrees. Getting in feels great, getting out is another story. We strongly recommend having a dry towel handy.
Travelin' Light's lead blogger is out of town this week rafting the Grand Canyon, so in honor of his outdoor adventure we'll be posting some photos highlighting the various nature excursions from our backpacking past. Our tour begins close to home in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains.
Often referred to as the Grand Canyon of North Carolina, Linville Gorge is one of the most beautiful wilderness areas on the east coast. You may not realize it, but if you've seen Last of the Mohicans, you've already seen a good deal of Linville Gorge. Most of the movie was filmed there, as well as in North Carolina's DuPont State Forest and Chimney Rock State Park.
Enjoy the photos of Linville...
1. View from the Chimneys looking south toward Lake James 2. Even in springtime the Gorge can be a chilly place. Dress warm and be prepared for STRONG winds. 3. 7am. Facing east from the chimneys. 4. 10 minutes later... 5. Taken later the same day from the top of the Babel Tower formation, looking south towards Table Rock and the Chimneys (where all the earlier photos were taken from). 6. Pumping water near the intersection of the Linville Gorge Wilderness Trail and Babel Tower Trail. 7. Same creek from the photo above, just before it joins the Linville River. Hope you enjoyed the photos, we'll be posting more later this week (next up: Huckleberry Hotsprings in Yellowstone NP). In the meantime, let us know your favorite 'lesser known' spots (at least, lesser known than the Grand Canyon).
Megabus is growing in terms of popularity for transportation in America (and England too!). Why? Because it's a bus sans the stigma of Greyhound, and the price tag, with fares usually topping out at around $43.50 (and starting at just $1).
And it just got a lot more popular, because the company is now offering an additional 50,000 $1 tickets for customers traveling between September 14 and November 19. (Make sure and use the promotional code HOTDEAL).
Update: You can beat the system and the web traffic mentioned below by directing your browser to: megabus.com/us/index.html
All you have to do is book at Megabus.com/US for your Midwest -- Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor, Columbus, Kansas City, Louisville, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indy to name a few -- or East Coast -- Baltimore, Boston, New York, Washington are a few of the majors -- trip. (See their bus stops page for more deets.)
There is a bit of a catch right now, though. Because of the 50,000 tickets they're offering, Megabus' site has been a touch, ahem, busy lately. In fact, I've only been able to actually get online with the company once in the past few hours and you can expect that these tickets are going quickly for those booking times; fares, by virtue of Megabus' transactional setup, rise incremently.
So if you want to book a really, really cheap trip, warm up your refresh finger, head over to their website and hope you can land one of these silly low fares.
Everyone loves a good Slip-n-Slide during the summer. Nothing says excitement like "10-feet of thrilling movement down a barely wet piece of plastic." I know, I know. I'm a little too sarcastic sometimes; but it's people like Rich Haralson that restore my faith in humanity. See, Haralson created the 250-foot Slip-n-Slide "inspired ride" down the side of a hill in Grand Rapids, Michigan that actually is a legit summertime thrill ride.
I don't find the following commercial (via Nuts About Southwest) all that funny. At all. In fact, it's kind of lame. But, it does make a valid (and very awesome) point: Southwest Airlines doesn't charge consumers for checking baggage, one of my biggest beefs with any member of the airline industry. So, yeah, that alone makes it worth posting/discussing/applauding, regardless of the humor present.
A pair of earthquakes near Baja, California Monday afternoon appear to have a been monsters, registering a 6.9 and a 5.8 on the Richter Scale, respectively, and sending shakes all the way to San Diego.
The quakes, which occurred in Mexico's Gulf of California, first were felt at 11:00 AM PST Monday -- that being the larger quake, which registered a 6.9 and which was centered 76 miles north-northeast of Baja and 331 miles southeast of Tijuana.
A mere five minutes later, another monster (this time a 5.8) was reported in the "same general area."
At this time, no damage has been reported out of California
An EgyptAir flight out of AbuDhabi was nearly overrun by a baby crocodile en route to Cairo recently. Okay, "overrun" might be a stretch, but you saw what happened when they let those damn snakes on the plane, right?
Anyway, apparently someone had the foot-long baby croc in their hand luggage and the sucker wriggled free, started running up and down the isles and caused a panic among the passengers. Because, as you know, crocodiles and alligators -- even baby ones -- are freaking scary.
The EgyptAirflight crew eventually wrangled up the animal -- apparently it's much more kosher to tackle a grown man who's naked than it is to kick a baby crocodile -- and none of the passengers claimed the croc, probably because it's absolutely, 100% illegal to transport exotic animals in and out of Egypt (hence keeping a foot-long freaking gator in your hand-held luggage).
Anyway, when reached for comment, Samuel L. Jackson had this to say: "I. Smell. A Sequel. SON."
Surely there's no reason why the TSA Blog (yes, they have one) needs to explain that hand grenades are not valid "carry-ons" right? Wrong!
They do. And they did -- yesterday in fact, when "Blogger Bob" of the "TSA Blog Team" outlined why grenades are not acceptable items for carrying on an airplane. Of course, most of the article focuses on the fact that people routinely bring different "novelty hand grenade items" into airports and onto airplanes.
So why is it such a big deal if the grenades are inert or just a novelty item? Well, that’s why passengers usually don’t think twice about bringing these items. They know inert grenades or novelty grenade shaped items can’t cause any harm. However, we don’t know that. All we see on the x-ray is a realistic image of a grenade complete with pin and spoon and we have to go through the motions.
People: stop being so stupid. Seriously. You (yes, you, guy with a belt buckle shaped like a hand grenade and the haircut that makes Joe Dirt look like Don Draper) seriously caused our government to pay Blogger Bob and the Team TSA $19.50 -- standard blog pay + government inflation -- because you won't stop walking into the airport with items shaped like hand grenades.
Typically, I am loathe to credit the TSA for anything (although I do have a long overdue story about a TSA agent in Boston who saved my computer's life that is forthcoming), but gracious. This is on the collective genius of the American people.
(Ed. Note: For those so persnickety about the spelling of grenades, please note we were using the Southern phonetic spelling. Thanks much.)
Mexico City is having an awfully tough time pulling in tourists. Why? Well, there's this little "Swine Flu" thing that people are all hung up on (you may also have heard of H1N1?) and it's keeping tourists away from the border.
But fear not, dear traveller, for the kind Mexico City Tourism Board has a solution for you: free health insurance.
That's right: as an incentive to increase tourism to Mexico, the city's tourism office teamed up with (well, "teamed" may be too nice a word) MAPFRE, a private insurance company.
Anyone staying at a Mexico City hotel is eligible for coverage, officials said, and can get help by dialing a call center, which will have attendants fluent in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. A deductible will apply for some services, but officials did not provide details.
Obviously, in an ideal world, this isn't even an issue and everyone goes to Mexico City, doesn't contract H1N1 and gets to come home without having to pay any deductible or visit any Mexico City hospitals.
Well, actually, in an ideal world, my bosses call me into their offices and say, "Hey, you! You're great. Here's a two-week vacation to Cancun. Enjoy!" And then I go there and don't get H1N1 and actually get offered a job blogging about paradise from a cabana and never have to come back to America. But things don't always work out like we want.
So, um, yeah. The point I was trying to make is that it seems pretty clear -- based on the potential financial loss here -- that Mexico is safe now. Right? Or maybe not. Regardless, it's just the flu.
The village of Fucking in Austria (Quick disclaimer: I didn't name the village, okay? It's real. And it's travel news. So don't go calling me "vulgar" or "lacking class" or anything. At least I blurred the picture.) is fed up with the amount of sex that occurs within their awkwardly named confines.
After all, when you name a village the vulgar word for engaging in sexual activity, you have to assume that tourists will travel to said village to partake in intercourse in front of the sign for your village. Which is, naturally, exactly what tourists have been doing. So the village-folk are combating their actions by installing video cameras.
That's right -- a group of villagers in a obscenely (albeit only American, really) named area of the world are sick and tired of a bunch of voyeuristic tourists making that sweet, sweet love in front of their fence. And their answer is, again, installing video cameras.
Now, in case you missed the entire premise of this article, the people that the villagers are sick of WANT TO RECORD THEIR INTERCOURSE. They want to. So, unless you have a police officer ready to arrest these folks, these video cameras are going to be utterly and totally useless. Unless the village is trying to assemble the greatest collection of porn every known to man. Then, this is a good idea.
American Airlines has been squeezing consumers out of money recently (although to be fair, what airline hasn't been trying to get more money for pedantic services?) vis a vis checked baggage charges.
I actually checked a bag for the first time in freaking forever when I went to Chicago two weeks ago and, well, good Lord: It's absolutely insane that you have to pay $15 to stow your bag in the belly of an airplane for which you have already paid $300 to fly on. Good news is, you won't have to pay $15 any more. Now it's $20!
Yup, that's right: an additional $5 per bag when you check your luggage. How wonderful. In case anyone's curious, yes, this is precisely what leads to that jerk behind you stuffing your bag further bag into the compartment with his "carry-on" which weighs roughly 600 pounds.
God bless you, Galapagos Islands and Blue Footed Boobies for allowing me to sit at my work computer and stare at boobies. Because, really, it's not very often you can look at boobies while you're sitting at work, right? On the serious tip, their mating dance is awesome.
Sure it sounds like a good idea. The motivation behind it could even be applauded. Some might say, "They're just trying to keep passengers healthy."
Except that they're not, and they can't, and it may be the travel industry's worst idea of 2009 (aside from the galactically stupid Pet Airways).
British Airways recently announced that passengers displaying the symptoms of swine flu will be turned away at check-in and asked to provide a doctor's note saying they are fit to fly.
There are a whole list of reasons this is a terrible idea, so let's just take it from the top:
(1) The people at the check-in counter are qualified to diagnose H1N1? Are you serious? The airline claims check-in workers have been trained to identify the disease by looking for the following symptoms: headaches, runny noses and sore throats. F*cking Brilliant.
(2) What's to keep someone from contracting the virus AFTER they visit a doctor? Is there some magic germ-barrier that surrounds people holding "fit-to-fly notes"?
(3) Apparently all the MDs in Britain were just sitting around waiting for something to do. So naturally, they need a few thousand extra patients seeking signatures and smiley faces over a head cold. I'm sure they'll appreciate the fact that the referrals came from the medical experts at the AIRPORT CHECK-IN DESK.
(4) Finally, they really want to do this for the swine flu? Come on. Every single year the world loses between 200,000 and 500,000 people to the flu. Just the regular old flu, for which, we already have a vaccine. It's not that H1N1 doesn't matter, but people need to have a little perspective...
And apparently British Airways will not be providing that perspective. Instead they've opted to exploit people's irrational fears with an ignorant and backwards policy that will do nothing to halt the spread of a relatively unalarming disease. Cheers.
Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris was named the "Worst Airport to Sleep In" by SleepingInAirports.net, a site which seems pretty determined to cover one very niche subject. (Seriously though, that's an awesome name; how did someone already have the dot-com there?)
There are a TON of reasons why de Gaulle is listed by the site's readers as the worst airport, but this is probably my favorite (if only because, well, being propositioned multiple times while traveling seems like the worst possible thing that could happen to anyone who wasn't seeking a sexual encounter.)
"I was propositioned not once but twice by the same man asking me for casual sex, which was understandably a little frightening for a lone 20 year old woman wandering the airport at night"
Yeah, so that's beyond creepy -- you can almost guarantee that it's some older dude with a weird accent too. Crazy foreigners!
Seriously though, de Gaulle is listed on the site as a "must-read" because it's so bad, which kind of amazes me, given the other airports listed, especially Los Angeles Airport and O'Hare, two places I've visited recently, and two places that are gross.
O'Hare is significantly better than LAX, I guess, but still, not great. And LAX just made me want to vomit the entire time I was there; for such a posh (theoretically anyway) city to rock out such a shoddy place for its visitors to see on the way in/out is almost inexcusable.
I'd also like to take a moment and point out that, although it would never be mentioned because it's not really a "major" airport despite being international, PTI in Greensboro, NC, which is where I generally fly out of, is just awful. 90% of the filth/smell of PTI is because up until about five years ago, you could smoke in there, but still, just not a fun place to sleep.
On the somewhat terrifying -- and certainly earpopping -- ride back down from the Sears Tower Ledge, myself and several others in the crammed elevator noticed that the term "Willis Tower" was being thrown around. This was no surprise as a Sears Tower name change had been previously tossed around.
However, it seemed safe to say that Chicago natives wouldn't warm up to that idea, no more than renaming Wrigley Field "The Tribune Stadium at Wrigleyville" or something silly like that. But, it appears as if the new owners of America's tallest building are going ahead with the renaming process and as of this Thursday, the Sears Tower will be no more.
Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the WILLIS TOWER. Cue the angry mob of Chicago natives demanding that they get to keep their piece of history in addition to the "What you talking about Willis?" jokes. Sigh.
And yes, that "man" = "me." So you know you're in for some excitement. Or, instead of "excitement", how about "watching a grown man terrified of heights to the point that he is somehow impressed he didn't lose a bowel/start crying while standing out on a 4.5 foot glass ledge 103 stories above the ground"? Does that work? Excellent. Because I was in Chicago last week and managed -- thanks to the kind folks at the Sears Tower Skydeck -- to summon the courage to walk onto THE LEDGE, the new addition to one of the world's biggest buildings.
A giant basking shark, 20 feet in length, washed ashore Long Island today. The shark appears to be dying due to some kind of illness, according to Tracy Marcus of Cornell Cooperative Extension, because there are no wounds on the shark's body. And please remember people: basking sharks are not great white sharks and they are not considered dangerous, so no shark jokes, please. They have feelings too.
The Thunderbird Lodge and the El Tovar Hotel near the Grand Canyon in Arizona are usually wonderful places to stay, but they handled a pretty morbid scene early Monday morning as a motorist plunged 600 feet to his death after driving his car over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
According to an AP report, the body and car were found below the South Rim and there is currently an investigation underway by the National Parks Service.
Obviously our condolences go out to the family and friends of the as-yet-unnamed gentleman who passed in this accident. However -- and I, in all honesty, mean absolutely zero disrespect here -- it might at least be worth pointing out that, provided he wasn't drunk and/or passed out at the time of his crossing over the edge of the South Rim, that is one hell of a way to leave this world.
A hole in a Southwest Airlines' Flight 2294 -- apparently the size of a football -- caused the passenger jet, headed for Baltimore, Maryland, to make an emergency landing in West Virginia just under an hour after it left Nashville, Tennessee.
Just to clarify: this was a freaking FOOTBALL SIZED HOLE (you can see in the picture above, via Airline Biz at the DMN, who scored it from a passenger on the plane) in the freaking fuselage of the freaking airplane where the freaking passengers sit. Or, less dramatically:
"Nothing like this has ever happened before," airline spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said.
Okay, maybe that wasn't so much less dramatic, but still: you get what's going on here, right? In the middle of a flight, a big chunk of the airplane (I consider "big chunk" to equal "anything that causes the cabin to lose pressure immediately and require an emergency landing") ripped off.
Now, I won't go all Joe Biden on you and tell you not to think about traveling -- Southwest is always diligent with their customer service and remains one of my favorite airlines -- but I would caution against willy-nilly hopping aboard any of their 300 series 737's, which is what Flight 2294 was. At least until they go back through and inspect them all (which, apparently, they are going to do).
Here's a crazy idea: come October 27, some airlines will begin adding airbags. On the surface, this seems pretty logical; after all, airbags have proven themselves as a beneficial safety feature in cars and, hey, who wouldn't like to feel a little bit safer when traveling 30,000 feet above the ground?
Of course, as always with airlines, there's a catch. Or two.
Starting this fall, all new airplanes will be required to have seats that will stay in place when subjected to stresses up to 16 times the force of gravity. The old seats had to meet stresses of only nine times the force of gravity. And, in a safety measure borrowed from automobiles, some seats will be equipped with air bags.
[...] The new rules have taken effect gradually. Airplane models introduced after 1988 were required to have the new seats, known as “16g” seats. So planes like the Boeing 777 and the swarm of new regional jets all have them. But older models that were still in production were not required to have the seats.
Of course, that's not the best catch of all, though! What's not mentioned in my selection of blockquotes from the Times article is that these airbags are going to be -- if I understand everything correctly -- implemented in first-class seats only.
Which is awesome, obviously. Why? Because people with more money deserve to be safer than anyone else. Or, alternately, not at all -- the really impressive thing would be for the airlines to just pony up and start making all the seats in all the airlines more safe ... since, you know, everyone's supposed to be equal and what-not.
And don't get me wrong -- I understand the inherent problem here: airbags in airplanes aren't going to keep people from dying 90% of the time. When you crash from six miles in the air, you die most of the time, regardless of an inflatable bag opening up in your face. But in terms of skids off the runway and "smaller" crashes, this is a fantastic idea. It's just too bad it won't help anyone but the rich people.
At 3pm this coming Saturday, July 11th, Virginia's Whitetail Resort will help set the skinny dipping world record. The resort is participating in Guinness World Record's Largest Skinny-Dip Across North America.
The event has been organized by the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR). First of all, how awesome is it that we live in a country where such a group exists? Secondly, thank GOD they decided to choose swimming. Can you imagine the Largest Nude Flag Football Game Across America? How about Ultimate Frisbee?
We all owe a big "thank you" to the dedicated men and women who made sure thousands of American's will visit various resorts this weekend, strip naked and jump into water for basically no reason. Cheers.
If you're interested in showing your support, first-time nudists are encouraged to join in the event. Just bring a photo ID and show up early to get registered.
Normally, airlines can get away with treating customers like crap. Why? It's the 800-pound gorilla thing. Or the capitalistic thing. But every now and then, when someone like, hypothetically, United Airlines breaks, say, Dave Carroll's Taylor Guitar, the little man fights back. That's exactly what Dave Carroll did with his freaking awesome "United Breaks Guitars" song. And it's only Part 1 -- with over 120,000 views so far on YouTube, one would think United might be shopping for some six-stringers right now.
The following is an amateur video taken at Disney World following a recent Monorail crash. The person filming the crash is kicked out by park authorities because he/she is too close to the accident immediately after it occured. Please do not watch the video if the idea of seeing the accident is frightening to you at all and remember that we are only reporting the news and that our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those people on the train.
US Airways Flight 705, en route from Charlotte to Los Angeles, was diverted to New Mexico earlier this afternoon when a passenger stripped naked mid-flight and became "unruly" according to KRQE-TV.
The male passenger apparently removed all his clothes and began to run around the cabin naked; other passengers aboard the plane "helped to restrain the man until the plane could land."
Now, call me crazy or stupid or homophobic even, but if a dude strips totally naked and starts running around a plane I'm on, there's no chance I'm playing the Steven Seagal role. Or even the Kurt Russell "I'm kind of tough enough to save a plane but no one really believes" it role.
No sir-e-bob: I'm playing the Oliver Platt role which generally entails running to the bathroom and locking the door. Because, honestly folks, if a guy is naked, he poses no real threat (he's not a terrorist, clearly, and you can actually see that he has no weapons on his person, right?) to my immediate safety other than permanently harming my retinas.
So my advice to you: don't play the hero when some dude decides to eat an ounce of mushrooms (what? you have a better explanation?) before he hops on a six hour plane ride and then wigs out with only about an hour left on the ride and decides that clothes just became optional.
And yes, I can make these jokes because everyone is safe, the streaker is in FBI custody and the plane kept on moving to Los Angeles.
From the Discovery blogvia Digg is one of the cooler, albeit nauseating, videos I've ever seen. And while I may have just lost my breakfast on my desk, at least I know what a volcano exploding from outer space looks like.
Although it sounds like a case from Carmen Sandiego, thieves actually stole a beach in Jamaica.
In July of 2008, 500 truckloads of white sand were stolen from a resort development in Coral Spring, along Jamaica's northwest coast.
The crime initially puzzled police, but after a few months and a laboratory analysis of the sand at competing resorts, investigators charged the two principals of Bedrock Building and Aggregates, operator of a Kingston-based mining business. Three other men were charged as accomplices.
On August 18th, the men will stand trial at a Jamaican court in Falmouth.
Although this case seems to be closed authorities can't rest for long, there's trouble brewing in Central America. It seems the terrible trio of Ruth Less, Joy Rider, and Rob M. Blind have struck again. They've stolen all the coffee from Costa Rica...
Everyone wants to be viral these days. So you can imagine a bunch of Air New Zealand PR folks sitting around a conference room, tapping their pencils, pounding Bud Light Foster's and thinking, "How can we go viral?" Naturally, the answer is the "Bare Essentials" campaign, which involves the basic tenants of air safety ... only it's made HILARIOUS by the fact that these attendants have their uniforms painted on. One problem: this is only sexy when it happens in the SI Swimsuit issue. The idea of having my knee jacked by the drink cart, wincing and then looking as an attendant walks past me only this time there's NO uniform involved, well, color me shuddered.
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. (Of course he is, right?) The "Rapping Flight Attendant," David Holmes, made famous by such national websites as CNN and PTG, was on hand to open up Southwest's new terminal in LaGuardia Sunday. Naturally, what ensued was good ole' fashioned hilarity and confused-looking, elderly CEO-types clapping to a beat they don't really understand. Good times! Seriously, shouldn't this guy have a record deal at this point? Or is Southwest just paying him so much money that he can't leave? I'm going with the latter.
Warm up those, um, greasy poles, folks, because it's that time of the year again. That's right -- GREASY POLE COMPETITION TIME. WOO. YEAH. Because nothing says "uber-excitement" and "super awesome" quite like "people trying to walk -- drunkenly -- across a greased 45-foot telephone pole." Actually, I kid sarcastically (of course). As the good folks at Oh Concierge pointed out, the greasy pole event is probably a ton of fun to compete in, and definitely way more fun to watch. If you're in the General Mass area this weekend, hit it up. Bonus: Video from 2007.
I'm sure the folks at Turkish Airlines are fantastic people. And I loved Kevin Costner in Bull Durham. And Tin Cup. But let's just say that if Costner were to find himself doing an advertisement for said Turkish Airlines where someone keeps whispering "I feel like a sta-ah" in a gravely voice as Costner travels across the globe, well, both parties have hit a new low. Fortunately, that's exactly what happened! VROOM-VROOM, PARTY STATER!
Alternately, this could simply be Costner doing charity work to make up for producing Waterworld and The Postman, although surely donations to help the children of a third world country would be more productive.
Checked bag fees are, quite arguably, the devil. There's nothing more irritating in my mind: how can you rationally travel somewhere without taking bags? Exactly. And so, airlines, in my humble opinion, are taking advantage of folks by charging for checked bags.
A few of the airlines have decided to actually increase that too, according to Budget Travel, tacking on $5 fees for folks that don't check their bags before they get to the airport.
That's right. More baggage fees! United and US Airways are the big culprits here, too, because they already charge $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second ... now, if you pay those fees at the airport, they will charge you an additional $5. (Yes, it's very much like rebooking at the terminal -- for whatever reason, they want to charge you and additional $15.)
But are there other airlines instituting similar policies? Of course there are! Delta and Northwest will begin charging an additional $50 for a second checked bag on international flights (which I wouldn't really have a problem with, save the fact that you almost always need two bags when traveling to another frigging country). And Alaska Air will charge $15 for the first checked bag. I have no problem with this, since I don't go to Alaska. Although I'm sure Alaskan travelers may have some beef, since you dont' exactly take day trips up there.
The long and short here is that you're always, always, always smarter to just carry-on two bags when possible (and to pack accordingly, obviously) but the reality is that a lot of people simply can't manage to get all their stuff in that amount of space.
And while it's nice to see the airlines "stimulating the economy" by "trying not to go bankrupt," I'll be honest -- at some point, these baggage fees are going to send enough people far enough over the top where we score a giant boycott and dump all the tea in the ocean. Or something.
Quickly, for relevance purposes: people who listen to a lot of Phish travel frequently, and Phish's new green travel blog is known as "Traveling Light" (lawsuit forthcoming, natch.) With that out of the way, let's get down to the nitty gritty (and get this show on the road): PETA spokespeople have asked Phish to change their name ... to the "Sea Kittens."
Is this the stupidest thing ever and a blatant publicity stunt by an increasingly irritating organization hell-bent on punching everyone in America squarely in the eye? Most likely. Hence, a letter issued to media outlets!
The letter, addressed to Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon and Page McConnell, says the request is an attempt to gain empathy for fish, "because few people are aware that fish are actually smart animals with personalities."
"For example, they communicate and develop relationships with one another, feel pain when injured (their lips are particularly sensitive, and they use them like we use our fingers), show affection by gently rubbing against other fish, and even grieve when other fish they like die," the letter continues.
OhmysweetGod. COME ON. I mean, really. REALLY? This is what it's come to now that Michael Vick has served his prison sentence and Phil Spector is no longer allowed to wear dead squirrels on his head? Harrassing a hippie-trust-funded jam band that doesn't seek in any shape or form to take empathy away from actual fish?
It's not even annoying anymore, it's just freaking sad.
Apple’s iPhone has been a raving success, completely reshaping the smart-phone market overnight. With the recent release of the iPhone 3G S and the iPhone 3.0 software update, Apple hopes to address a few issues that have been irking their normally entrenched customer base.
Which problems you ask? Well, there was the lack of a cut, copy and paste function; the lack of MMS capability; no system-wide search, and a few other issues that have been successfully addressed with the iPhone 3.0 software update.
As for hardware, the iPhone’s notoriously poor battery life has been improved on the new iPhone 3G S and the change is a welcome one. Unfortunately for one user, that change came a few weeks to late.
ProfessionalTravelGuide.com CEO Peter Nicas recently became frustrated after the battery on his iPhone 3G failed during an important call. It wasn’t the first time the phone had died at an inopportune time, but it would be the last.
Peter decided to treat the phone to a little TLC (body-slammed it on his coffee table) and then take it to dinner (went to Taverna Fiorentina in Atlanta, Georgia and dissected the phone on the table) and, like any true gentleman, he even tried to call the next day. Unfortunately, AT&T didn’t provide service in his area. On the bright side, at least we all know what the inside of an iPhone looks like now.
"Human error" is typically a strong reason for plane crashes. "Death" doesn't necessarily qualify as "error" of course, but when an airline pilot dies mid-flight, you can reasonably expect that a non-positive fate will become those on the plane. Not so for Continental Airlines passenger Flight 61, which landed successfully even though its pilot, a 61-year-old employee with 32 years of service for the airline, died tragically mid-flight.
The 777 Boeing, which landed in Newark at approximately noon -- while carrying a very terrifying 247 passengers -- had an emergency declared onboard and received special treatment in terms of landing at the airport.
It's a tragic and awful story, of course, because someone died. Death is never, ever cool (with maybe some mild exceptions). But, in a weird way, don't you kind-of/sort-of have to think that if a pilot is going to go out, this is how they want to go?
He died of natural causes according to Continental spokeswoman Kelly Cripe, who stated that, "The flight continued safely with two pilots at the controls," after an onboard relief pilot took over his seat, and that, "No one [onboard] knew ..."
I mean that seriously, too -- he died at like 30,000 feet in the air, doing what he presumably loves, and, yet, the plane still managed to land safely. I'm not saying there's a feel-good story here, people, just that there's the posibility of a silver lining somewhere in this very grey cloud.
I don't particularly care for the Transformers movie -- I felt like it was a little bit overrated (Megan Fox excepted, natch) and perhaps a little too intense. And that's coming from a guy who, as a younger child, was a freaking Transformers junkie. But whatever, this video of a giant robot built in a Tokyo park (via Weird Asia News) is awesome. It's there to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gundam (giant robots) in the movies.
The fear of flying is a perfectly acceptable one (and there's nothing wrong with being afraid of rollercoasters, OKAY?). But life, often, is about overcoming fears. Which is exactly why Mark Malkoff, a 33-year-old comedian and filmmaker, is living on AirTran planes for the next thirty days: he wants out of the dark shadow of fear.
This isn't some publicity stunt either (as far as I can tell): Malkoff seems to legitimately want to get over this fear of flying ... how else can you reasonably explain him taking a shower in an airplane.
In fact, he's avoiding the airport, changing planes via the tarmac (the first hint that AirTran is obviously involved here) and doing push-ups and sprints in the aisles of the airplane for exercise.
Of course, my theory that he's not doing it as a publicity stunt could be shot down by the fact that he's Twittering/Facebooking the whole thing and has a website up about his experience: MarkonAirTran.com.
However, in this day and age, if you do anything remotely resembling a 30-day excursion on a slew of various airplanes, you should probably consider creating a blog about the experience; it's the modern-day, electronic version of a journal, and there's always the chance that some PR firm (say, hypothetically, um, AirTran's???) could pick up on the experience and offer to cop you for the flights -- which, I would presume, is what the airline is doing in this case.
Mark's obviously no stranger to that experience either; he's done previous "projects" like "Mark Lives in IKEA" where he lived in an IKEA store for 30 days and "171 Starbucks" where he visited 171 Manhattan Starbucks in one day. So, yeah, he gets this viral stuff.
Plus, this is the type of story that everyone loves (hence this posting) and in a world where people get famous for doing stupid things on YouTube, there's always a free 15 minutes to be had out there -- it's pretty obvious that Malkoff figured out exactly how to get his.
Artists are oftentimes quite bizarre people -- they tend to flirt with the mores of society in order to push the limits. Or something. Whatever, Joseph Carnevale is apparently one of those people and he was arrested recently.
What for? Creating the uber-awesome traffic barrel art located to the right. You see, Carnevale apparently caused an utterly devastating $360 worth of damage when he took some of these barrels, chopped them up a bit, painted them and turned them into Traffic Barrel Monster Man. (My name.) So sayeth the Smoking Gun (where they have larger photos.)
According to an arrest warrant, Carnevale "destroyed threeroad blocking barrels by cutting and screwing them together to form a statue." Police estimated that Carnevale's artwork caused $360 in damages to Hamlett Associates, the North Carolina construction company that owned the barrels. Carnevale is scheduled for a July 21 court appearance in Wake County.
I suppose that the authorities in Wake County (who, I'm sure are lovely people, although I've never met any of them, insofar as you know) kind of had to arrest him, right? I mean, the guy did steal some stuff and then take said stuff and make it unusable ever again. Even if "stuff" is "five traffic barrels," which is probably lower than the number that get accidentally run over each night on I-40.
It's just a little annoying that in a time when we all need a little comic relief, we've got the good city of Raleigh plowing through hundreds of dollars in taxpayer money just to make sure that this guy -- this LAWBREAKER -- somehow ends up paying for his heinous crimes of nature. Sigh.
The flight was pushed back to 10:48am Wednesday morning after the Argentinian government decided to use the Airbus 340 as a charter flight to transport the national soccer team to Quito, Ecuador, for a World Cup Qualifying match.
Unfortunately the Argentinian National Team didn't enjoy themselves any more than the stranded passengers. The Argentines lost the game 2-0, ironically citing altitude as their downfall. Quito's stadium is perched at a staggering 2800m (9,186 ft) above sea level and visitors often struggle in the thin air.
South Korea has a new twist on swine flu: if you get, you also get paid! I know, it seems ridiculous, but it's their big "tourism promotion" for 2009.
See, the H1N1 New Strain Influenza Cash Relief Program is designed to keep tourism alive in South Korea and remind people that even if you contract a possibly deadly (who knows, right?) or possibly harmless version of the flu, you can still get straight paid.
Well, kind of -- they're offering NT $100,000 to any tourist who contracts the swine flu while traveling in South Korea. The good news? It's money! The bad news? It's only $3,000 American.
But as we discussed in the PTG corporate headquarters, it's not like getting the swine flu is going to kill you or anything*. Or, at least, it probably won't. And if you contract it in South Korea, you're getting three grand for your troubles.
Additionally, after July 1, if you fly on Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, China Airlines, Eva Airways or TransAsia Airways and contract H1N1, you're getting three Grrr as well.
This is, of course, the first ever program of its kind: no tourism board as ever offered money for contracting a virus. And it probably would have made our list of "viral" marketing schemes for 2009 if it had been announced this week, because even as big of a pessimistic gamble as the whole thing seems, it's still pretty fascinating and at least worth getting some love by the media.
Also, the economy's down and money is nice, no?
*Please note we may not be considered licensed physicians in the United States.
Is there a sexier word in advertising right now than "viral"? Of course not -- it's like the Gisele of the advertising industry. (And yes, sadly, "strategic partnerships" are the Paris Hilton. Go 'way, strategery.) And while the PTG editorial team was racking it's collective brain about virality and whatnot, we thought we'd toss together a list of the best meme-type things that have worked for folks looking to push their product. MEME FTW!
9. America's Best Bathroom
This hasn't even fully blown roof (yes, pun intended) in terms of being viral yet -- the finalists were just recently announced. But the folks at Cinta do extensive research on these bathrooms, and as the contest draws closer, they beef up the PR effort to really promote the contest. Plus, it's just freaking quirky to discuss bathrooms and cleanliness in terms of offering up a prize for "Best Bathroom."
8. Digg.com
Yes, this is a heavily oversimplified "meme" and probably one that doesn't even count unless you're totally down with thinking about memes in a very meta way; Digg, most of the time, is the site that creates the memes. (Rumor has it, in fact, that Digg runs the interwebz.) But the truth of it is that newspapers have simply done an outstanding job of promoting their product and driving traffic on Digg: the Los Angeles Times travel section is consistently located on Digg's Front Page, and as a result, they've seen their traffic skyrocket amidst a shoddy economy and a failing newspaper industry. No comment on how they're able to succeed so much.
If fantasy football were universally popular, this little offering from the Renaissance Aruba might top the list: essentially, they are providing a "Draft Day Package" whereby a group of eight guys get together, pay basically $100/night and get multiple night stay in Aruba to draft their fantasy football team, complete with drink and casino packages. Yes, it is the most awesome thing ever.
This probably classifies as a "failure" because we've got a multiple-use tag here at TL whereby we rip on RyanAir for their various decisions in advertising: using stewardess for a pinup calendar, attacking bloggers, or charging for bathroom trips on plane flights. But hey, we're talking about it right? And you know what they say about bad word > no word.
Orlando is chock full of amusement parks and crazy rides. At a lot of those, you get your picture taken in mid free-fall while smiling. So, Orlando, in order to get all "strategically viral" and whatnot, decided to bust out a YouTube-style contest where people submit themselves as the potential face of Orlando tourism. The prize? 67 days of riding amusement park rides and (basically) blogging about it. It's not as popular as some other ideas, but still, clever.
I'm not even sure how this fits into "real advertising" because the Cleveland Tourism Vids -- which are absolutely hilarious -- are also blatantly fake. But, here's the thing: they went "viral" because even the Inside the NBA crew on TNT spoofed them. And at this point, someone needs to grow up, say "Yes! Our city is bland and boring and tiny and not normally worth visiting, but if we can replicate that, maybe, just maybe we can drive some tourism when it's not Furniture Market." (Yes, I'm looking at you High Point.)
Southwest, in my humble opinion, is the best airline around. Primarily because they don't tack on silly bag charges, they're really, really helpful about letting consumers switch scheduled flights, and the people who work for them are generally just more friendly than other airlines. A perfect example? David Holmes, the rapping flight attendant who got so large even CNN covered him. Actually, he's bigger than that -- he went viral twice after explaining GAAP to Southwest's investors at their annual shareholder meeting.
Twitter is by far and away the most love/hate filled meme-trend on the internet right now; I know people involved in advertising that simply can't stand the 140 character micro-blogging tool (you know who you are) but then others, myself included, are straight up addicted. It's a fantastic method for communicating your deals, plans, and corporate insight to consumers without seeming intrusive ... or without paying any money! Just ask Marriott International, whose Twitter account ranks up there with the finest in terms of corporate synergy PR work. (PS: Follow PTG on Twitter, obvs.) And if you think Twitter is going away, you should definitely remember what they said about blogz a few years ago, and look where they are.
1. Best Job in the World
Queensland, Australia: an awesome place but not necessarily a tourism mecca, no? Well, when they announced that they were hiring for the "Best Job in the World" recently, they received such a flood of applications, website traffic and wannabe viral videos that the whole internet shut down! Well, their internet anyway. But the folks in Queensland did everything related to their campaign perfectly: they offered a substantial sum of money for someone to hang out on an island and blog about it, and it put more eyes on their natural product than any amount of advertising budget possibly could.
Wow. Two straight NBA posts here on the old travel blog! Just gets me all excited thinking about the overlap. Or something. What doesn't get me excited is the idea of having to watch the presidents of the two Disney properties (one's in "California" so he gets to root for the Lakers and one's in Orlando so, duh, Magic) squaring off in an NBA Finals bet. If the Lakers win, Meg Crofton will wear purple and gold Mickey Mouse ears that say "Go Lakers!" while walking down Mainstreet USA. If the Magic win, well, you guessed it! Ed Grier will rock blue and silver Mickey ears. Obviously, Grier's feeling pretty good right now.
Mickael Pietrus has a few nicknames -- "Air France," "The Michael Jordan of France" -- that are very indicative of his country of origin. Obviously, then, the recent crash of Air France flight 447 moved him.
So much, in fact, that he decided to honor those that lost their lives in the plane crash by wearing shoes that read "AF 447" last night during the first game of the NBA Finals.
"I have a nickname: Air France," Pietrus said. "I wanted to send my prayers to all those people who lost their lives on that plane. You realize how life can be. I know that families are having hard times right now and hopefully they'll have better days in the future."
"It could be any family that it happened to," Pietrus said. "Life is short and sometimes people suffer. And you've got to try to do the right thing."
The Orlando Magic didn't win, obviously, but that's no reflection on the classy action by Pietrus in this case: I'm not sure if what he did is "legal" or not (the NBA generally is pretty stringent, like most pro sports leagues) about allowing players to honor others in an individual fashion on their uniforms, but for Pietrus to give a shoutout on a national stage to his fallen countrymen and the others that passed in the tragic accident is an impressive statement nonetheless.
PTG 'casually' hangs out in the world's biggest building
Air New Zealand's Bare Essentials
Rapping Flight Attendant Explains GAAP
Bad Idea Jeans: turning away passengers who exhibit swine flu symptoms.