Today In stupid TSA happenings, the TSA Blog answers a question which, we're sure, is on the mind of most travelers: "can I take my hand grenade on the plane?" Way to be irrelevant again, TSA.

Now being the TSA blogger is probably not the most creative of jobs, and we don't even want to imagine some of the idiotic questions that get asked of TSA agents, but anyone who can't figure out for themselves why a hand grenade shouldn't be on a plane—filled as it is with innocent people and fuel—needs to be rocketed straight to the top of the "No Fly" list.

To answer the question at hand, the TSA "Blogger Bob" states that no, hand grenades are most certainly not allowed, but neither is anything that even resembles a grenade: ]]> JetSetCD 2009-07-30T08:59:26-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/11/204112/330

If you're one of those travelers who thinks museums are boring, you obviously haven't swung by the Icelandic Phallological Museum, 300 miles northeast of Reykjavik. It's admittedly a bit out of the way, but this is the world's largest collection of phallic specimens.

Wherever you look in this museum, you'll see a penis. They have samples from whales and walruses, hamsters and seals, but as yet, no humans. However:

It should be noted that the museum has also been fortunate enough to receive a legally-certified gift token for a future specimen belonging to Homo Sapiens.

Apparently the guy who gave the gift token is a 93-year-old and a plastic replica is standing in until he's ready to hand over the real thing.

Related Stories:
· Iceland's Penis Museum Pulls in the Crowds [Vagabondish]
· Icelandic Phallological Museum [Official Site]
· Iceland Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ollie Palmer]]]> amandak 2008-06-12T09:00:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/5/30/1170/22474

Just the other day, one of our friends dared us to explain cold fusion, so we stepped into the bathroom, Googled it on our mega-phone and then hit everyone with some fusion facts that blew their minds--and got us a free beer. Point being: There aren't many mysteries left in the world.

That's why were huge fans of stuff like The Sasquatch Museum, six hours north of San Francisco in the hairy heart of redwood country. Adding to the mystery of Bigfoot, the website for the museum boasts no street address, leading us to believe once you arrive in Willow Creek, you can't miss it.

What you can expect at the museum is a bevy of Sasquatch paraphernalia ranging from plaster casts of found foot prints to real video footage. Some say the beast is the age-old prank of a man in a gorilla suit, but die-hard believers such as Sasquatch champion and lifelong chronicler Bob Titmus say otherwise: An entire wing of the museum is dedicated to Titmus' archaeological findings.

Sasquatch has always been purported to be a shy creature, so we don't expect to find him hanging tough at the local Eureka brew pub, but catching up with his exploits at the museum would be almost as much fun.

Related Stories:
· The Bigfoot Museum [Official Site]
· Strange Things coverage [Jaunted]
· UFO Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: cmccartney]]]> DanielR 2008-05-30T12:00:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/5/29/165142/623

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has reached a settlement with the company behind the gruesome "Bodies" exhibition at the South Street Seaport in NYC, requiring them to disclose to visitors that the dead people they have on display could be

Chinese prisoners who may have been victims of torture and execution.

The settlement also requires Premiere Exhibitions--the company behind the show--to issue refunds to anyone who can prove that they paid to see the "Bodies" exhibit in New York and would've skipped it if they knew the people they were ogling might not have consented to being put on display.

Oh, it gets worse...]]> Hunter Walker 2008-05-29T17:18:10-05:00 40.7059110 -74.001989 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/10/2/21443/9756

Some of us jump on and off flights so often, it's easy to forget that plenty of people might never get the chance to set foot on a wobbly set of aircraft steps. But an enterprising retired Indian Airlines engineer named Bahadur Chand Gupta has come up with a neat solution to help spread the joy of sitting in a cramped airplane cabin eating horrible food.

Gupta bought an old Airbus 300 a few years ago and has now assembled it in a Delhi suburb. Now he, his wife and a few staff pretending to be airline stewards don their uniforms every Saturday for the flight that doesn't fly. They sell tickets for about $4 to people who want to experience life on an airplane but can't afford to get airborne.

Gupta makes pilot announcements (including turbulence warnings), his wife and friends serve airplane food and push their trolleys up and down the aisles and the plane goes nowhere. It's better that way: The aircraft's missing a wing and half its tail. But that doesn't stop the enjoyment. We're wondering if they make the experience more authentic by throwing in the odd vomiting passenger or screaming child.

Related Stories:
· Tickets Take Off, Plane Stays Put [news.com.au]
· Don't Catch a Plane, Pull It [Jaunted]
· Travel Stories in New Delhi [Jaunted]

[Photo: Keenan Pepper]]]> amandak 2007-10-03T09:15:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/5/9/162535/5310
There are combination bars/beauty parlors in many major cities, but only très hip Montreal has a combination art gallery/dentist's office. (At least, we assume it's unique.) Galerie Dentaire, recently highlighted by Montreal blog Midnight Poutine, was inspired by similar art/commerce-type spaces in London. There's also a massage therapy practice downstairs, perhaps for nervous buyers. The gallery's current show features painter Jean-Guy Laplante.

Dental services offered include popular, mild options such as cleaning and whitening. But, yes, you can also get a root canal here. Ouch.

[Photo: Denis/Midnight Poutine]

Related Stories:
· Galerie Dentaire [Official Site]
· Teeth & Art - Galerie Dentaire! [Midnight Poutine]]]> djk 2007-05-11T15:10:51-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/5/9/22561/94887

In a north-eastern China animal park, you can pay a dollar to get your photo taken with a zebra at the moment. In the botanical gardens in Shenyang, visitors are lining up for this great photo opportunity.

But are they lining up because they love zebras, or because this situation is so ridiculous: the "zebra" is a white horse that has had black stripes painted on it. One customer said:

We saw right away that the zebra is fake, but we are here for fun, so it doesn't really matter.

The zoo, on the other hand, is feigning ignorance, repeating that the animal is from Africa so it must be a zebra, and then saying they're not sure if it's a zebra, but "it's not that important." But for animal rights activists and false advertising principles, maybe it is a bit of an issue.

[Photo: Poppy Wright]

Related Stories:
· When is a zebra not a zebra? [Independent Online]
· China Develops Human-Kangaroo Hybrids [Jaunted]]]> amandak 2007-05-10T09:15:01-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/