AOL Travel News

The Stupidest Travelers of 2010

Matthew Link — 2010-12-22T13:28:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel, Weird, Celebrity

Larry Marano, Getty Images

The year 2010 was a strange one in the world of travel, what with volcanoes closing down airports in Europe, UFOs closing down airports in China, and even honey jars closing down the airport in Bakersfield, California (the head-scratching airport security staff thought they were liquid explosives). But perhaps the stupidest airport shutdown was in Newark, New Jersey, when a Rutgers student slipped under a security rope to give his departing girlfriend one last kiss goodbye. Rappers, congressmen, Hollywood brats, Qatari diplomats and even crocodiles brought mayhem to the skies of the world in 2010. And don't even get us started on what Kim Kardashian did to the guy sitting next to her on one flight.

10. How to Get Tasered in Two Easy Steps
In January 2010, 43-year-old Ohio resident Mansour Mohammad Asad was arrested and tased at the Miami Airport. Asad was tempting fate when he stood up on a Detroit-bound flight and happily exclaimed, "I'm a Palestinian and want to kill all the Jews!" The airplane promptly turned back to the gate, and Asad didn't help his cause any when he informed the officers, "I'm not afraid of you cops. I've gotten in fights with cops in Ohio and broke their arms in three places. I've broken skulls too!" Probably not the thing to divulge when you'd rather avoid the Taser and imprisonment.

9. "Don't you know who I am?"
Oh, the arrogance of youth -- and Hollywood actors. In December 2010, Transformers star and Fergie husband Josh Duhamel refused to turn off his Blackberry on a delayed New York to Kentucky flight, after being asked politely by the flight attendant three times to do so. Fellow passengers reported him being "very rude," and "mocking" and "taunting" to said flight attendant, who had the airplane turn around to expel the ungentlemanly passenger. This follows Duhamel's previous diva episode of ranting and raving at a gate agent in Newark after he arrived late for a flight and couldn't get on. He must have read the textbook on Hollywood temper tantrums, using the laughable "Don't you know who I am?" line and demanding that the gate agent "open up the door and let me on!" This was peppered with a number of unprintable f-bombs. What's the definition of stupidity again? Repeating the same thing twice and expecting different results?

Joe Epstein, AP
8. The Kiss That Closed an Airport
It may sound like the climax of a romance novel, but one goodbye kiss from a 28-year-old Rutgers student from China to his California-bound girlfriend closed Newark Airport's Terminal C for over six hours in January 2010. In the process, 16,000 passengers were stranded, 100 flights were delayed, and 27 others were canceled. When a guard temporarily left his post, Haisong Jiang ducked under a security rope and planted one last one on his honey. The not-so-bright doctoral student was ultimately fined $3,000 by the Transportation Security Administration and sentenced to 100 hours of community service. The kiss made international headlines with Chinese newspapers debating the romantic gesture, and an outraged New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg introducing legislation that would create a federal penalty of up to $10,000 and 10 years in prison for intentionally breaching airport security. Jiang's profound excuse for pursuing his romance across security lines? "I like her too much."

7. The Not-So-Friendly Skies
Some passengers just never pay attention to the onslaught of pre-flight announcements. So to reiterate a point, Former Gov. Mitt Romney kindly asked the passenger seated in front of his wife (on a flight from Vancouver's Olympic Games in February 2010) to return his seat to its upright position for takeoff. At least that's Romney's version of events. According to the passenger in front of him, Romney held his shoulder in a "Vulcan grip," when he slapped the Republican's hand and then took a swipe at his head. "He gave a good swat -- and broke my hair," the highly-gelled Romney joked on David Letterman. The offending passenger? Rapper Sky Blu from the band LMFAO. Blu was not arrested for the confrontation. The real mystery here is what both these "names" were doing sitting in economy? Times are indeed tough, for rappers and former presidential candidates alike.

6. The Curious Case of the Shirtless Shaver
How can shaving on a plane land you in the slammer for three months? When it's preceded by five bottles of wine and involves a naked torso and threats to the flight crew. On an Atlanta to San Francisco flight in January 2010, a 47-year-old Pakastani national who lives in Virginia downed five airplane-sized bottles of wine, placed his shoes and socks outside the lavatory door, took his shirt off, and began to shave. When encouraged by a flight attendant to free up the bathroom for other passengers, the man began yelling that she was "disrespecting" him. He then went on to grab a senior flight attendant by her arms and hands, releasing her only after a passenger interceded. A beverage cart was positioned to deal with the unruly shaver, who was still in the bathroom when the plane made an emergency landing. The excuse for his in-flight actions? A defense only a lawyer could conjure up: Muhammad Abu Tahir had been experiencing insomnia, was using the wine as a sedative, and had rarely consumed alcohol before. That combined with the plane's altitude led to his untoward behavior.

5. Worst Laid Plans
With all the high-tech drug detecting equipment nowadays (not to mention the presence of sniffing dogs), who in their right mind would try to waltz through an airport with two kilos of cocaine on their person? Ramon Feliz Florián, that's who. In September 2010, the 58-year-old was x-rayed at the Dominican Republic's Las Americas International Airport while attempting to board a flight to New York. Instead of swallowing the drugs in condoms like in the good ole' days, he decided to wrap bags of cocaine around his legs and stuff the rest in the soles of his tennis shoes. The pièce de résistance? Florián attempted to outwit authorities by wearing two leotards over the bags of drugs on his legs. Because everyone knows x-rays can't see through spandex.

Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
4. Questionable Reading Material
Ever sat next to a passenger who's brought some stinky food on board, or has a persistent cough, or just can't stop talking about their grandchild? How about a passenger who proudly and openly thumbs through a Playboy magazine in front of everyone? It gets worse: The passenger in question is also a member of the House of Representatives. John Conyers (D-Mich.), a member of Congress since 1965, was not only caught perusing the girlie mag (for the articles, of course) in November 2010, but was actually videotaped by a fellow passenger doing so in July as well. And he was in an aisle seat, no less. Oh, and he's 81 years old.

3. Undiplomatic Behavior
You know all those signs that say there's no smoking in the airplane's bathroom, and that doing so is a felony? And those airport security signs about not joking about bombs? Evidently, foreign diplomats think they are immune from those rules. When one Qatari diplomat, identified as Mohammed al Modadi, took a flight from Washington D.C. to Denver in April 2010, he not only brazenly lit up in the airplane's lavatory, he then joked about it. When air marshals on board asked about the smell of smoke, the man identified himself as a diplomat from Qatar and snipped, "I'm trying to light my shoes on fire" (in reference to the shoe bomber of 2001). Well, the U.S. government was not amused. President Obama was briefed in flight on Air Force One and two F-16 fighter jets were sent to escort the passenger flight. However, al Modadi was not charged with anything. Guess diplomatic immunity is a free pass for flippantly committing felonies.

2. Croc on a Plane
If you've ever asked yourself if a crocodile could bring down an airplane (and who hasn't?), you now have your answer: an unequivocal yes. Even in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo, where airplane crashes are common, this one stands out as a doozie: On an August 2010 flight from the capital of Kinshasa to a regional airport at Bandundu, a passenger smuggled a live croc aboard in a sports bag. He was planning on selling the beast upon arrival, when fate intervened. The plan went off without a hitch until the last leg of the flight, when the animal escaped from his duffel prison and "went berserk." The flight attendant rushed for cover in the cockpit, quickly followed by the passengers, and despite the valiant efforts of the captain to steady the small Let L-410 Turbolet plane, it crashed into an unoccupied house just a few hundred feet from the airport. Everyone on board perished, save for one unnamed passenger, who recounted the bizarre story. Miraculously, the crocodile survived the crash. But worry not: There is justice in the universe. When rescuers sifted through the wreckage, the crocodile received the wrong end of a swift machete, ending its short-lived career as a terrorist of the air.

Taylor Hill, WireImage

1. How to Out Someone at 30,000 feet
Just when you thought in-flight WiFi would be the savior of excruciating flights, leave it to a Kardashian to quickly mess things up. Kim just couldn't keep her twittering thumbs still during a flight from New York to L.A. in February 2010. She joyfully tweeted: "I'm on the airplane...love wifi! I am sitting next to an Air Marshall [sic]! Jim the air marshall makes me feel safe!" We won't mention that the word is spelled "marshal," or that outing one is a major no-no for safety and security reasons. But hang on, how did she know he was an air marshal in the first place? A later tweet revealed: "Air Marshall's [sic] are supposed to keep their identity concealed. He did! I am just a private eye & assumed, so I asked him & he was honest!" So not only did he jeopardize his own job, he didn't notice she was tweeting even though she was sitting right next to him? We're not sure who wins the stupidest traveler award for this one -- an undercover air marshal dumb enough to reveal his identity to a famous celebrity, or a Kardashian who is clueless enough to broadcast the fact to the world via Twitter while still in flight.

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Best Apps for Travelers

Matthew Link — 2010-10-18T13:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips & Tricks

William Hook, flickr

The exploding world of mobile apps is nothing short of overwhelming, especially when it comes to finding the best travel apps.

More than 5,000 of the products available in Apple's app store and on iTunes have something to do with travel. From apps that walk you through global cultural customs, to apps that tell you how to tip in foreign countries, the sky is the limit with this new form of mobile interaction. Though Apple offers the largest selection and best-known apps for its iPhone, there are also Droid apps as well as BlackBerry apps (and pretty much every other brand of mobile device). Apple is also developing a list of flashy iPad apps as well.

But wading through the thick sea of thousands of travel apps is a nearly impossible task, complicated by the fact that many apps come in a basic free version as well as a premium paid version. Below is a cherry-picked menu of travel apps to help you navigate the crowded app jungle (be aware that prices change frequently, and it's not rare for an app to suddenly fall in price or have a special promotional free day). You might be surprised to find out how many free apps do the same job as the pay ones -- if not better.

Airport apps: AirportAce ($0.99) vs. FLYsmart (Free)
There are all kinds of apps to get you through the mini cities that are modern-day airports. For instance, the Newark Airport Parking app reserves a spot for your car before you show up, and the Airport Wifi app points out free WiFi from a database of over 10,000 airports.

But a nifty do-all app, called AirportAce, is one-stop-shopping for every question that has ever crossed a traveler's mind while they've stumbled around an airport: restaurant listings, gate maps, smoking areas, public transportation options and even numbers for taxi companies.

Tightwads who don't want to shell out less than a buck for AirportAce can opt for the free FLYSmart app instead. This app also gives you lists of businesses in airports, gate locations, restroom locations, etc., in addition to the Geodelic guide for different cities. FLYSmart also informs you of arrival and departure updates. The only catch is it's currently available for only 14 airports in major U.S. cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. AirportAce is good for 52, plus 13 international airports.

Restaurant apps: Zagat To Go ($9.99) vs. Urbanspoon (Free)
Restaurants live and die by their Zagat ratings, and Zagat To Go compiles info and reviews from 45 of the company's guidebooks into one handy-dandy touch-screen app. Its search and filter functionality is superb (you can choose what kind of restaurant decor, service, and cost you'd prefer), and you can reserve tables instantly as well. This award-winning app also hosts tons of "best of" lists and thousands of actual menus. Zagat To Go's hefty $9.99 price tag reflects the company's guidebook publishing roots, versus today's affordable 99-cent app world.

For free restaurant guides, try Urbanspoon, which is a lot more fun to use. You shake your mobile phone, and the screen spins like a slot machine, filtering different types of cuisine and neighborhoods until you have pinpointed something that's right up your alley. Urbanspoon gives you ratings from newspapers, bloggers, and fellow eaters and uses GPS to help find restaurants closest to you. Eating out is always gamble anyway, so a slot machine restaurant finder actually makes perfect sense.

Nightlife apps: NightLife ($0.99) vs. UrbanDaddy (Free)
Like restaurants apps, there are a zillion nightlife-finder apps for the tipsy and bleary-eyed who are trying to find where the next club lies. There are plenty of location-specific nightlife apps, but NightLife is a universal app with maps all over the U.S. to locate bars and clubs -- as well as those late-night necessities like liquor stores, tobacco shops and taxis. And don't worry -- if your misguided finger jabs can't seem to dial the number correctly, the app will call the establishment for you.

No-cost nightlife apps are as free-flowing as keggers at spring break with names like SloshSpot and clubZone. The award-winning UrbanDaddy is the mother, or should we say father, of all nightlife apps. If you want to be the know-it-all in your group who directs everyone to the hip and happening underground lounge or model-heavy techno rave, this app gives you the insider scoop in a trendy, tongue-in-cheek voice. Moreover, you get tons of exclusive offers and private entries, helping you slide effortlessly past the velvet rope. The only drawback is that UrbanDaddy currently offers listings in just ten U.S. cities -- making it only that much more exclusive.

Travel journals: Travel Diary ($2.99) vs. OnTheRoad.to (Free)
Perhaps you recall the days your grandparents hauled out their slideshow and systematically tortured the family with tales of their last vacation. Well, now you can do it to every one of your casual acquaintances via the Internet! The Travel Diary app has really thought this one through: You snap a photo or record video while traveling, link a Google map to it, record your voice narration, and then easily post it to Facebook, your own web page, or via old-school, in-your-face email. Photos can be uploaded individually, or in "chapters" to create the epic saga that is your holiday.

But why fork over $2.99 when OnTheRoad.to gives you even more for free? Along with the same photo and video sharing capabilities, the app has more interactive maps and directories to plan out your trip before you leave, as well as location templates to stylize your travel diary, notifications to alert your friends when you've updated your diary, and helpful info like local weather.

Travel postcards: Postcard ($1.99) vs. WN Postcard (Free)
The art of postcarding hasn't died, it's just been automated. As anyone who has sent an e-card knows, there is little reason to pay for a digital postcard when a multitude of freebies float all around cyberspace in search of senders. Which begs the question: Why pay $1.99 for an app like Postcard? Sure, using it is simple: Take a picture with your phone, add a message, click on an email address from your contacts list, add a Google map, and send. But it only allows you to tell your loved ones how much you miss them digitally.

The free app WN Postcard can do all of the above, but also physically mail a high-quality glossy postcard anywhere in the world for $2 (purchased through PayPal). In addition, WN Postcard offers some groovy postcard borders to place around your photos, and best of all they make it simple for users to donate to the Footprints Network which funds health and education projects in developing nations. It's a nice way to give back to the unique places that have given travelers so much.

Have a favorite travel app of your own? Let us know in the comments below.

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The World's Great Unsolved Art Heists

Matthew Link — 2010-09-23T16:18:00+00:00

Filed under: Weird, Arts & Culture

Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo;
KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images

It's hard to believe that dramatic Thomas Crown Affair-style art thefts could actually happen in real life, but recent heists in Belgium, Egypt, and France have proven that museums should rethink their security systems. When four men broke into the Norway's National Gallery in 1994 and stole its version of Munch's famous The Scream, the thieves left a snarky note that said, "Thanks for the poor security."A decade later, other versions of The Scream were stolen from Oslo's Munch Museum, this time at gunpoint by masked men. Of course, people have been swiping famous art for centuries. Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia snatched the Mona Lisa from her wall in 1911 (he was caught two years later). The painting Jacob de Gheyn III has been stolen four times since 1966 -- the most thefts of any painting -- earning the nickname "takeaway Rembrandt." (Maybe its handy 11.8 inch by 9.8 inch size makes it so tempting to grab.) Those thieves were eventually apprehended and the art recovered, but some paintings have not been so lucky. Below are the great art heists that remain unsolved.

Copy of "La Femme aux tiroirs" (Lady with drawers) in the Belfort museum in Brugge; KURT DESPLENTER/AFP/Getty Images

10. Belfortmuseum, Bruges, Belgium (August 2010)
On an otherwise run-of-the-mill Wednesday afternoon, a man waltzed into this museum in the Belgian town of Bruges, gazed upon Salvador Dali's 1964 bronze statue Woman With Drawers (a reclining nude with a chest of drawers extended from her, uh, chest), and simply stuffed it in his bag. At twenty inches and 22 pounds, it stands as one of the easier art swipes in modern times. Despite surveillance cameras, the work was not protected by an alarm, and an accomplice probably helped stand in the way of the guards' gaze. The approximate value of this nifty little shoplift? A cool $150,000.

"Poppy Flowers"; AFP/Getty Images

9. Mohamed M. Khalil Museum, Cairo, Egypt (August 2010)
After Van Gogh's $55 million Poppy Flowers was cut from its frame at this Cairo museum (known for having the Middle East's finest collections of 19th- and 20th-century art, including works by Gauguin, Monet, Manet, and Renoir), Egyptian officials arrested a young Italian couple at the airport. They had visited the museum's bathroom and left in a hurry afterwards. But it may have just been a bad meal, since no painting was found on their persons. After an investigation found only seven out of museum's 43 security cameras working properly, the culture ministry's head of fine art, was detained for negligence, and eleven museum officials and employees are being tried in court, facing three-year sentences. Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib Sawiris offered a reward of one million Egyptian pounds ($175,300) for the painting, which to date has not been found. The irony of it all? The same painting was stolen from the same museum in 1978, only to surface in Kuwait two years later.

8. Chácara do Céu museum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (February 2006)
Picasso, Dali, Matisse, Monet were all victims of grenade-wielding men who stormed this Brazilian museum and ran off with priceless paintings that had never been properly valued. If that wasn't enough, the gang of greedy thieves also found the time to mug a number of museum-goers in the process. Cleverly, they timed their heist while Carnival party shenanigans were keeping everyone distracted outside. According to museum officials, the thieves dismantled security cameras and then escaped amid the crowds, apparently dancing all the way to the bank.

Picture shows information notes on the door of the Paris' Musee d'Art Moderne after five works were stolen in May, 2010; BERTRAND LANGLOIS.AFP/Getty Images

7. Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France (May 2010)
Art thievery is de riguer in France, where an average of 35 museum thefts have occurred annually for the last 15 years. But one of the most high profile and lucrative heists took place not at the Louvre, but at this modern art museum where a masked person one night grabbed more than $600 million of art by Picasso and Matisse, among others. A broken window and a sheared-off padlock were found at the scene of the crime. The heist became a national embarrassment, leading Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe to exclaim it was "an intolerable attack on Paris' universal cultural heritage." No one has been arrested to date.

"A Cavalier"; AP Photo

6. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (June 2007)
On a rainy Australian Sunday morning, amidst crowds of weekend art lovers, a self-portrait in oil on wood by Dutch Master Frans van Mieris called A Cavalier was swiftly stolen. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, all that was required for the theft was a "Phillips-head screwdriver to remove two $2.45 wall fastenings," which took about 60 seconds. No cameras were in the gallery, and guards were infrequent. At about $1 million, it's Australia's biggest art heist to date, and remains on the FBI's top ten art crimes list.

5. Edenhurst Gallery, West Hollywood, California (July 2002)
One Californian summer evening, thieves cut a hole through an art gallery roof, disabled the alarm, carefully removed two Maxfield Parrish murals from their frames, and delicately lifted them back up and out of the building. The bandits obviously knew what they were doing, since they left all the other artworks in the gallery unscathed. You have to hand it to their ambition. The aged and fragile mural panels (commissioned for Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's 5th Avenue mansion in New York) were roughly five feet by six feet -- not the simplest things to shove under your arm. The pay off for their dexterity? About $4 million.

"View of the Sea at Scheveningen"; Getty Images

4. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (December 2002)
Another rooftop break-in (do museum officials never watch movies?), this time with a fifteen-foot ladder which descended through a broken window into The Netherlands' famed Van Gogh Museum. The two thieves tripped the alarm, but by the time cops showed up they had already disappeared with Van Gogh's View of the Sea at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, together valued at $30 million. Dutch police a year later convicted two men of the crime, but the paintings were sadly never recovered.

Black and white handout photo of the stolen
Rembrandt painting "Storm on the Sea of
Galilee;" AP Photo/Isabella Gardner Museum

3. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts (March 1990)
This event, called "the biggest art heist in history," is so famous that it was even referenced in an episode of The Simpsons. At 1:24 am on the morning of March 18, 1990, thieves disguised as police officers talked their way into the museum and proceeded to handcuff and duct tape the guards in the basement. In fewer than 90 minutes, the bandits went through the museum's Dutch Room and stole three Rembrandts, including The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (the artist's only seascape), as well as works by Degas and Manet. The museum had no insurance at the time, and no information on the paintings surfaced despite a reward of $5 million. In a 2005 documentary called Stolen, a former Scotland Yard detective and a police informant stated they believed an Irish Republican Army faction had possession of the paintings.

2. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec (September 1972)
The largest art theft in Canadian history occurred when figurines, jewelry, and 18 paintings worth more than $2 million (in 1972 dollars) were stolen by three armed and masked men at two o'clock in the morning. How did they get in? You guessed it-through a roof skylight. After binding and gagging the guards, they made off with works of Delacroix, Gainsborough, and a rare Rembrandt landscape. None have ever been recovered. Only in Canada would a museum spokesman praise the bandits' good taste: "They were discriminating thieves and had a fairly good idea of what they were looking for."

"Oratory of San Lorenzo"; Wikimedia Commons

1. Oratory of San Lorenzo, Palermo, Sicily (October 1969)
One of the oldest unsolved art crimes has mafia written all over it. Caravaggio's Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence was removed by two thieves at the Oratory of San Lorenzo in the Sicilian city. Although you'd think its size of nearly six square yards would have betrayed its location by now, it's assumed the masterpiece has changed hands from one local mafia boss to another. Gerlando "The Rug" Alberti even tried to sell it outside of Italy to no avail, and various sources over the years say it was destroyed by earthquake, fire, or farm animals, depending on who you talk to. Its current value is estimated at $20 million, and it remains the most famous unsolved art crime on the FBI's books.

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Best and Worst Travel Gadgets of All Time

Matthew Link — 2010-08-17T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Weird

Alamy

There are lots of devices out there perfect for making travelers' lives easier -- PDAs, wrinkle-free clothing, and...flying alarm clocks? Whether it's a way to stash money in your laptop (because no one would think to steal that) or a cup holder that casually swings hot coffee back and forth over your luggage, there are a lot of questionable inventions geared at travelers. Thankfully, there are some that get it right -- think being able to translate words with the stroke of a pen or sanitize your hotel pillow with the wave of a wand. Here are our pick for the best and worst.

BEST

SMARTHOME

Drive Alert
www.drivealertsafety.com
Taking a long road trip? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that more than 100,000 crashes occur each year because of driver drowsiness, resulting in 1,550 fatalities. And the real numbers are probably much higher, since falling asleep at the wheel is an underreported cause of accidents. It's best not to chance falling asleep at the wheel, but Drive Alert will actually wake you up if you doze off. The $30 device is lightweight and worn around the ear. If your head begins to droop down, a battery-powered alarm sounds off to snap you out of it.

gizmodo.com

Pulse Smartpen
www.livescribe.com
There are many language translators on the market, but none quite like this. You simply write a word in English on special dot paper, tap the pen on the word, and the pen speaks the word aloud in your chosen language. It's not cheap ($129 for the pen and $15 for 200 pages of the dot paper) but the potential is tremendous. Spanish is the only language available now (more options are in the works) and the dictionary holds 40,000 words. The Spanish dictionary is $15 and you can also purchase $3 travel phrase apps for the pen that come with 100 common phrases in Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Korean. The pen does come with a free foreign language demo of basic words like numbers, foods, and greetings in Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, and Mandarin.

Amazon.com

Stash Sandals
www.archport.com
Any surfer, swimmer, or nudist will tell you that there is never anywhere to hide your valuables at the beach. Answer: Flip flops that come with built-in hidden compartments. The left sandal of this $45 pair of sandals has a side slot that holds a customized wallet large enough for several credit cards, ID, cash, and a key. The right sandal includes a side cavity for carrying larger articles and shuts via a snap.

Zadro

Nano Wand UV Sanitizer
www.zadroinc.com
Germ freaks, rejoice! This sanitizing wand can be used on large surfaces -- anything from public toilets to mattresses to pillows to counter tops. Using multi-wavelength 185-365 nm ultraviolet light, this handy tool kills 99.99% of bacteria, viruses, fleas, and lice in just ten seconds. It even destroys E. coli and Asian bird flu viruses. Just twenty inches long and weighing a little over a pound, this $100 magical wand is easy to pack and easy to use. You just click it on, and pass it within a quarter-inch of a surface, and voila! You'll never think twice about crawling into a strange hotel bed again.

Kodak

Kodak Zx1 Pocket Video Camera
store.kodak.com
With cameras of all kinds built into cell phones nowadays, you may not feel like packing a video camera for your trip. But there's no need to put up with blurry, murky, and abbreviated videos when you can snag this nifty, pocket-sized camera. It can record up to ten hours of HD video and has a zoom lens and a two-inch front display. Amazing for something that's only four inches tall and an inch thick. Plus the $150 camera can stand up to the elements (it's billed as resistant to sand, snow, and rain) and comes in an array of colors.

WORST

TUGO

Tugo Drink Holder
www.goodtugo.com
Invented by a multi-tasking mom who's also an emergency room nurse, you have to give this idea an A for effort. The $9 plastic do-dad is a coffee cup holder that attaches to and suspends between the handles of your wheeled luggage. You can now run to the gate as a hot beverage precariously swings back and forth over your luggage. They claim it doesn't spill, but who wants to test that by rushing through jostling airport crowds?

ThinkGeek

Flying Alarm Clock
www.thinkgeek.com
If you have a hard time adjusting to a new time zone and want to be sure you don't lose a whole day of vacation sleeping off your jet lag, this $20 alarm clock is to sure get you out of bed. And possibly give you a heart attack in the process. If you don't quickly turn off the shrieking siren, a flying propeller then spins off the top of the clock, leaps into the air, hits the ceiling, and lands somewhere in your hotel room. You now need to get up and stumble around to find it and put it back on the clock, since it is the key to turn off the murderous alarm.

wirelessgardenstore.com

StashCard
www.wirelessgardenstore.com
With this handy dandy $10 device, you can safely hide your money, keys, and credit cards from thieves in the most expensive thing you will be traveling with -- your computer. Which, of course, no thief would ever think of touching.

ThinkGeek

Wi-Fi Network Detector T-shirt
www.thinkgeek.com
There are a number of key-chain style Wi-Fi detectors available, but why waste all that valuable time pulling something out of your pocket when you can just look down at your chest? This snazzy $20 T-shirt displays glowing bars on the front, illustrating if there is a Wi-Fi signal within range and displays signal strength for 802.11b or 802.11g. If you know what that means, then this shirt is for you.

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The Future of Airline Seating

Matthew Link — 2010-07-27T17:04:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel

lrargerich, flickr

You never know where inspiration is going to strike. For designer Emil Jacob, it was on a 2004 flight to Paris from his homeland of Romania when he gave up trying to get comfortable in his seat and decided to simply lie on the floor. "I tried to sleep on three empty seats, but the armrests wouldn't go up since they were fixed," he says. And that is when the light bulb went off. "When you lie on the floor of an aircraft, you notice a lot of unused space above you," he says. "Even when you're sitting in a plane, there's all this unused empty space above you."

Jacob, president and founder of the Boston firm Jacob-Innovations, LLC, began to envision how to utilize this untapped vertical space above passengers' heads to transform flight experiences from cramped cattle cars to spacious elbow room. He drafted airplane interior designs using his Step-Seat model that emphasized cost efficiency and passenger comfort, two seemingly polar opposites. It's no surprise that Jacob understands both sides of the story. In addition to his design work he also has a degree in finance and economics.

Jacob also knows his way around an airplane. While working on designs for better keyboards and handheld computers he often traveled from the U.S. to Europe to attend meetings, usually flying back on the same day. "All of my innovations you see are based on flight issues I personally dealt with," he sighs.

When first glancing at Jacob's pioneering designs, critics may see added risk, added costs, and yes, added passengers. But look more closely, and you'll notice the detailed thought that went into each concept. All his published designs are technically certifiable by the FAA, and can be implemented in airplanes already in use. As for safety, Jacob insists, "The steps I suggest are not that different from steps you'd find in a Boeing 747 that lead to the upper deck. Jacob has thought about the design from every angle. "There are some challenges with flight attendants having a visual line of sight with passengers, but things like weight sensors in the seats could indicate whether a passenger is there or not," he says.

There is the question of cost to the airlines for implementing these designs. "Yes, you may have additional weight, but then again, with almost twice the passengers in business class you can recover the upfront costs for building it," Jacob says. "Also, charging more for new and improved economy-plus and economy-premium seating will add revenue to flights."

So what are the chances that you may be climbing up stairs into your own peaceful sleeping bunk at 30,000 feet anytime soon? "The airlines are quite a rigid industry when trying to make any significant changes," says Jacob. "We have projects for some of the largest airlines in the world, especially overseas, but they like to keep anything new they're doing as discreet as they can." In the meantime, while patiently waiting for the airline interior revolution, some of us may be found secretly asleep on the floor.

Alternate Elevated Seats - Economy

Jacob's first design is so simple, it's brilliant. In a concept he calls Economy-Comfort, modules with shells can accommodate the same number of seats as conventional economy class. Seats would recline to a luxurious 45 degrees. With many companies ending corporate perks like business class, the need for traveling employees to be able to sleep in economy grows greater. "If you were able to make the seat in front of you higher by about seven inches (no more than the height of a conventional step), you would have a lot of space under the seat in front you," explains Jacob. "The person in front could recline without being right in your face and the shell adds privacy so passengers don't snore in each other's faces either."

Alternate Elevated Seats - Business Class

This model is designed to, paradoxically, improve both passenger density and comfort in business class. By elevating every other seat by two steps, new space creates a full bench for your legs in the lower seat, with more reclining for the passenger in the higher seat. (You may have to choose between your legs or your back when booking either style of seat.) "With this design, you could fit in about 40% more seats, when comparing fully flat business class seats," touts Jacob.

Lateral Steps

In this version five lateral steps are used to access a second tier of seats, effectively doubling the number of passengers in conventional business class. It allows more space for suitcases, saving business travelers time by avoiding luggage check-in and pick-up. It's also great for mothers traveling with babies. A mechanism that folds the stairs into the upper level would allow the crew to switch the module to economy or business seating depending on how many of each type of seat are booked. "This model has the greatest efficiency," says Jacob. "I've had the question about handicapped people with this model, and they will always have priority for the first level."

Lateral Steps and Alternate Elevated Combined

Both the concepts of alternating the height of each window seat and using steps to create a second tier of middle seating are incorporated here. Despite obviously adding to the number of passengers, each would get their own bed and added privacy.

"Another plus is that it allows two travelers to be seated together if they wish," says Jacob. "And it's a lot more open with greater window views."

Limited Height

This concept was made for aircraft spaces with limited height, such as the upper deck of a Boeing 747. The second tier is up only three steps and passengers are seated laterally, thus requiring less headroom. "You can't go all the way up because of the curvature of the plane, but this increases the seats in the space by approximately 20%," he says.

Would you fly more frequently if airplane seats were more comfortable?
Yes	60195 (77.0%)
No	8623 (11.0%)
Maybe	9332 (11.9%)

All Photos Courtesy of Jacob-Innovations, LLC

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Dangerous Body Language Abroad

Matthew Link — 2010-07-26T13:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips & Tricks

You are in a foreign country, and don't speak the language. You order something indecipherable off the menu, and when the waiter brings you a plate of delicious noodles, you smile and make an OK sign at him with your thumb and forefinger linked in a circle. He then picks up the dish and throws it in your lap.

What happened? Welcome to the wonderful world of international hand gestures, where nothing is quite as it seems. Making what we Americans see as the positive OK hand sign has a dizzying array of translations around the globe. In parts of Europe, it can mean "okay" or it can mean "zero." In other parts of Central and Mediterranean Europe as well as in Brazil, it denotes an unmentionable orifice-and that the person it is directed at is indeed a living manifestation of that unmentionable orifice. In several countries in South America, it's a slur that means homosexual. And, as a recent Budget Travel article points out, even pointing your foot in the wrong direction can be considered extremely offensive.

"We call these gestures emblems," explains Janine Driver, a body language expert and author of the New York Times bestseller You Say More Than You Think. "Emblems are territorial, sometimes specific to just a part of a country, like gang signs." And these slights can be a bigger deal than just momentarily annoying your neighbor. "It's not enough for us to understand and respect these emblems, we need to accept them if we want to succeed in international relationships," says Driver. "Ten years ago, polls showed that other countries looked at the U.S. as the proper way to do things. But now less than 50 percent do."

Here's a cheat sheet to help you decipher the different international nuances that turn "It's OK" into a decidedly non-OK situation.

Thumbs Up
In America and in most of the world, the thumbs-up sign has a similar connotation to the OK sign: All is good. Tradition has it that this gesture came about during Roman times when the audience would use a thumbs up or thumbs down gesture to express if they would like a gladiator to live or die. The gesture was called pollice verso, meaning "with a turned thumb." But the thumbs up is especially problematic in certain parts of the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia, where the thumbs up is a more aggressive gesture that is basically flipping the birdie to someone. The Philippines takes this thumbs-up birdie to a higher level, by swiping an upward pointed thumb by the side of the head. It's interesting to imagine what people in these regions think when an American hitchhikes, or when U.S. soldiers happily stick their thumbs up to the locals. Or what about politicians' famous thumbs affirmations during speeches?

Fig Sign
The "fig sign" is a gesture where the hand is in a fist with the thumb poking out between the index and middle fingers. It's either a wonderful good luck charm or the worst insult you could ever give someone, depending on where you happen to be at the time.
In ancient Rome, an image of a hand in the fig sign (mano fico) was worn as an amulet to protect against the evil eye. It was affiliated with female genital reproductive powers, as the Italian word for the female vulva, fica, means fig. In modern Portugal and Brazil, many people still wear fig sign trinkets as jewelry. The fig sign's repulsive power could also account for its use as an obscene gesture. In places like Indonesia, China, Russia, and some Mediterranean regions (particularly Turkey), the sign can have an insulting meaning roughly equivalent to "screw you." Before you think you would never make such a gesture, one wonders what the locals think when visiting American parents play the "I stole your nose" game with their children.

V Sign
Oh, what a difference the back of the hand can make.Winston Churchill flung up a celebratory victory sign at the end of World War II, with his arm outstretched to reveal the index and middle finger in a V-shape. Hippies later used the same gesture as their calling card, meaning "Peace." Well, as anyone who has traveled in the Anglo world (specifically the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) knows, by simply turning your hand around so the palm faces the signer, and adding a few thrusts upward, you've instantly made overseas enemies. Like the fig sign in other parts of the world, this back-handed V sign means "screw you" in most of the English-speaking world. George Bush, Sr., was said to have unwittingly flashed the offensive sign when he meant to show the peace sign to protesting farmers while touring Australia.

Devil Horns
Best known as a heavy metal headbanger concert sign that became popular in the late '60s, the devil's horns origins stretch back much further. The sign of the horns, or corna, was an ancient European guard against the evil eye (like the aforementioned fig sign).However, in Mediterranean countries (particularly Italy) and in Cuba, you'll see the devil's horns flash their ugly head often on the motorways, where irate drivers express to each other that their wife is, uh, not of the sexual moral standing that she should be.
The "Hook 'em Horns" hand gesture at the University of Texas at Austin Longhorns' football games does not translate well overseas either. Lifting ones pinky and index fingers and thumb all at the same time may mean "I love you" in American sign language, but when George Bush, Jr. gave the Longhorns' sign during his second inauguration festivities in 2005, Nordic newspapers printed accounts that they were sure he was flashing the sign of the devil. And according to The Definitive Book of Body Language, five Americans were arrested in front of the Vatican while dancing and flashing the devil's horns after a Longhorns victory.

The Moutza
The moutza is a famous Greek hand gesture to denote displeasure towards the recipient. Similar to the 90s American talk show staple "talk to the hand," the offended spreads their fingers out and thrusts their palm out towards the offender. If you really want to start something, try a double moutza with both hands on top of each other and see if you can make it out of an Athens bar in one piece.The origin of the gesture is said to be Byzantine, when criminals were shamed by rubbing palm-fulls of cinder (moutzos) all over their faces.
In addition to Greece, showing the palms of one or two hands in considering insulting in parts of the Middle East and Africa, and in Mexico, a palm to the face, often with the thumb and forefinger creating the letter C, can mean to the receiver "you're gonna see!" or "there's more to come!"
Or, basically, shut the hell up.

Credits: Thumbs Up: Getty Images; Fig Sign: Getty Images; V Sign: Getty Images; Devil Horns: Marc Broussely/Redferns, Getty Images; The Moutza: Alamy

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Boutique Hotels Go Mainstream

Matthew Link — 2010-05-13T11:16:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel

ACE Hotel NYC, Douglas Lyle Thompson

It used to be that the words "chain hotel" conjured up images of beige rooms that are exactly the same from city to city. Not anymore. A new crop of boutique hotel groups is turning the chain concept on its head with smaller properties that incorporate local style and flare with the service and stability that you expect from major chains. "Travelers are increasingly looking for one-off, 'bespoke' experiences and the cookie-cutter people-mover product that was entrenched until the 1990s seems to have had its day," says veteran travel journalist Gretchen Kelly.

The boutique chain trend has been steadily growing and it now seems like every large hotel chain is trying to cash in. In fact, 18 chain-owned boutique hotels are slated to open in the U.S. in 2010. San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels, founded in 1981, was at one point the largest boutique chain in the world and more recently gave birth to two additional boutique brands, Hotel Palomar and Hotel Monaco. Starwood has been one of the forerunners and opened the sleek W hotels, probably the world's best-known "boutique" brand, in 1998. They launched two more brands in 2008, Element and aloft. Hyatt's Andaz has four properties and will open another on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue in summer 2010. Ritz-Carlton's The Reserve launched in February 2010 with a 54-villa resort in southern Thailand and has five more properties planned around the world. Marriott is introducing two new boutique brands this year. Their Autograph Collection has seven properties in four states slated to open in spring 2010 while the first of Marriott's high-profile Edition brand will debut in Waikiki in July 2010. Edition is being launched in conjunction with hotelier Ian Schrager, who knows a thing or two about boutique hotels. His Morgans Hotel Group launched in 1984 with the Morgans Hotel on Madison Avenue.

Not all boutique brands are tied to major chains, though. NYLO has three hotels and has ambitious plans to have 50 boutique hotels either open or under construction by 2012. California-based Joie de Vivre has dozens of hotels from Sacramento down to Los Angeles while ACE Hotel started in Seattle and now has one of the buzziest hotels in New York.

All this begs the questions: what exactly is a boutique hotel? Like the words "green" or "eco," the word boutique has become so hot and trendy and, well, vague, that it may have lost its credibility. Wyndham's new Fashion 26 property in New York's Chelsea neighborhood is being marketed as a boutique hotel, despite the hotel's 280 rooms, 20 floors, three bars, restaurant, boardroom, and meeting space for 80 people. Overall, the hotel has the scale of a department store more than a cozy boutique. "I see a boutique hotel as having some sort of special edge, be it in design, cutting-edge technology, cuisine, or history," says Kelly, who has slept in hundreds of hotels in more than 60 countries. "Boutique hotels are usually small, and have a distinct personality that a big chain hotel doesn't."

So which boutique chains live up to the name? Here are our five favorites, all known for their creativity, independence, and innovation:

aloft
This spin-off of Starwood's W Hotels is an earthier and younger, yet still stylish, sister brand. Its rise has been meteoric since its first hotel in 2008, and aloft now has 62 properties either open or in the works from Alabama to Abu Dhabi. The cool hotels are known for their use of primary colors, huge windows, laid-back vibe, playfulness, and social hangout spaces with communal kitchens, DJ lounges, and live music venues. Locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn will open this year.

ACE Hotel
This four-property chain was born in 1999 when a Seattle halfway house was converted into a bohemian hotel appealing to the creative class and now has hotels in Palm Springs, California; Portland, Oregon; and New York City. Their lobby in Manhattan is the current hipster hangout, with a DJ, long communal tables, huge sofas, and an adjoining dark wood and leather restaurant. Rumors are also circulating about future ACEs opening in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Element Hotels
Another Starwood brand that opened in 2008, Element focuses on environmental awareness, from floors made from recycled materials to energy-efficient lighting. Rooms are open, airy, and bathed in light colors, creating an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. Twenty-four hour on-site gyms, healthy breakfasts of wraps and smoothies, and outdoor social spaces with fire pits and barbeques emphasize a physically and mentally healthy lifestyle. Element currently has seven properties open with four more planned, all in the U.S. Their next launch will be a Times Square hotel, slated to open in October 2010.

Joie de Vivre
This pioneering boutique chain launched in 1987 when then 27-year-old Chip Conley bought the decrepit Phoenix Hotel in San Francisco's seedy Tenderloin district. He turned it into an artsy, funky magnet that attracted guests like David Bowie and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The chain then went on to scoop up ramshackle '50s and '60s roadside motels and turn into fun, colorful, and modern hotels with a personal sensibility. It now has dozens of unique small properties all over the Golden State.

Hotel Indigo
This upscale boutique chain, owned by InterContinental Group, has 29 hotels in the U.S. Rooms at all of the hotels have oversized beds, hardwood floors, and spa-like baths, but each hotel is designed to incorporate themes, colors, fabrics, art, murals, and shops native to its locale. Hotel Indigo also pioneered the travel industry's first collaborative response to environmental issues by founding the International Hotels and Environment Initiative in 1991. Their newest U.S. hotel is the Hotel Indigo San Antonio at the Alamo and a downtown Atlanta location will open this summer.

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