Geopolitics junkie and Knife Tricks blogger Paul Karl Lukacs had a bit of an oral revelation the other day, and since it's 2008, he blogged about it. Problem? Infected wisdom tooth. Solution? Surgery at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand.]]>
Now that American Airlines has its in-flight WiFi working, we're expecting lots more mid-air liveblogging, like this report from "Big Brother" obsessive Ben at the B-Side Blog:
I've done a lot of flight blogs--or flogs--in my time, but never in all my time have I been able to actually LIVE blog my flights....
Not this time, my friends. American Airlines just introduced in-flight WiFi [six] days ago on selected routes, and yours truly has the luxury of flying one of those special planes.
Ben goes on to tell us about some pre-flight tire repairs, a sassy flight attendant and even some hellish fellow passengers, but our favorite bits are about how useful the wireless connection is:
Let me just reiterate that I absolutely love being able to sit here above the clouds and read Big Brother updates. Best flight EVER.
Related Stories:
· Live Flight Blog: Seriously, This Is Live [B-Side Blog]
· In-Flight WiFi: Our IM Interview with an AA Passenger [Jaunted]
· American Airlines Announces WiFi on Some Flights [Jaunted]
[Photo: B-Side Blog]]]>
If The New York Times, Budget Travel and National Geographic Traveler can do it, then so can Conde Nast Traveler! The glossy travel mag that's farmed out its web operations for so long has decided to build a new website of its own--and the magazine needs your help to do it.
Consumer News Editor Wendy Perrin, who is web savvy enough to have a Twitter account, announced the news on her blog:
Conde Nast Traveler's Web site, CNTraveler.com, will be spinning off from the Concierge.com mother ship next year and voyaging into cyberspace on its own. We're building our brand-new site from scratch--which has us all very excited--and I've been in a lot of discussions lately about what the new CNTraveler.com should be and what features it should have. Of course, we'd love to hear from YOU as well.
Crowdsourcing: Hotter today than it was in 2006!
Related Stories:
· We Want Your Opinion! [Perrin Post]
· Three Is a Trend: Travel Media Pro-Am [Jaunted]
Disclosure: Jaunted was acquired by CondeNet in April, but no one working there asked us to write this post!]]>
We declared the American Airlines blog "officially dead" back in June, but at least earlier this summer the archives were still available. Now a UK blogger who follows online media and public relations reports that "AA Conversation" has been completely yanked from Blogger:
I've previously mentioned how I was unsure if the American Airlines [site] was either an awful blog or a parody. ... Was this stopped by the person blogging, perhaps beacuse it was realised [he was] doing a bad job of it?
We'd say yes! But it's not for a lack of trying on the part of AA's Billy Sanez, who wrote the blog posts. We pin the embarrassment on management, which was too busy cooking up frequent flier program cuts and merger schemes to fund a blog that would generate tons of free goodwill for a carrier that desperately needs it.
Related Stories:
· The American Airlines Blog... [Press 2.0]
· Our IM Interview with an Airborne AA Passenger [Jaunted]
· American Airlines Blog on Life Support [Jaunted]
· Blogs coverage [Jaunted]]]>
Tomorrow, the latest TSA shitshow starts, with passengers trying--undoubtedly with varying degrees of success--to run their laptops through x-ray machines while still inside carry-on bags. So how did the agency remind travelers about the new policy today?
James Brown once sang that Papa's Got a Brand New Bag. Well, it may be a different kind of bag than what the Godfather was singing about, but now everybody can feel better than James Brown and keep their laptop in their "checkpoint friendly" bag as long it meets certain criteria.
There you have it: Just buy a magical bag and you'll feel better than a guy who died from congestive heart failure brought on by pneumonia!
Related Stories:
· Keep Your Laptop In [TSA Blog]
· Adventures in TSA Logic: Explaining the New Laptop Bag Rules [Jaunted]
· TSA coverage [Jaunted]]]>
Back in April, we filled you in on Daryl and Davy Vogel, 10-year-old twin brothers planning to ride from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. (They were nice enough to invite their parents along.) And though they've "only" made it to British Columbia so far, they've already managed to set a world record: They're the youngest duo to ever bike the whole 1,422-mile historic Alaska Highway.
Daryl took some time to write a blog post about the accomplishment:
WooHoo! We made it to "Mile 0." While we were riding there, Davy rode right in front of a car. Luckily he made it back to the shoulder in time. We got to stay at the Best Western. They have a waterslide!
After the kids finally got out of the pool, the family kept heading south. Only 27,700 miles left to go!
Related Stories:
· A Wayward Journey [Official Site]
· Adventure Travel: Daryl and Davy Bike the Pan-American [Jaunted]]]>
This is why the TSA has a blog. Yesterday, USA Today revealed that the agency was collecting data on people who came to security checkpoints without ID. In the evening, the TSA posted a public reply to the piece:
An August 13 USA Today article overstated the Transportation Security Administration's interest in passengers who come to airport checkpoints without identification but cooperate in establishing their identity. The story gives the public the impression they might be put on a "list" if they forget their ID. That is false.
Passengers whose identity is confirmed will not be added to any watch list or face additional scrutiny during future checkpoint visits.
Well, not any longer anyway! While this misleading comment from the TSA jives with the newspaper's story, it fails to point out that up until yesterday, Kip Hawley and company *were* collecting data on passengers.
Fortunately the commenters on the TSA blog aren't dumb enough to buy this double talk. It took 57 minutes before "seth" wrote:
Kip says that the names were being collected and that the practice stopped yesterday. You're now saying that the names were never being collected. Which one is it?
Related Stories:
· You Won't Be Put on a "List" [TSA Blog]
· Fliers Without ID Placed on TSA List [USA Today]
· Are You on the TSA's Latest Watchlist? [Jaunted]
· TSA coverage [Jaunted]]]>