Looks like rapper DMX decided to cause trouble on a flight between New York and London and ended up arrested when the flight landed at Heathrow International Airport.

Police arrested rap star DMX after he refused to put on a seat belt and became abusive on a flight from New York to London, authorities said Monday.
The rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, received a caution and was released after his American Airlines flight landed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday, police said on condition of anonymity in line with departmental policy.
A caution means a person has accepted responsibility for the offense, and a record will be made.
The artist has had brushes with the authorities in the past. via AccessAtlanta.

A massive water park is going to be built on Randall Island just north of Manhattan in New York City. The water park is expected to open for the summer of 2007 and will have 80 foot high water slides, wave pools, and an indoor beach. The expected cost of the project will be 168 million dollars and they will be expecting 1.3 million visitors a year.

Growing up in the New York suburbs, there  are  many beaches around that are the main attraction for the summer time. Yet, the lure  of Great Adventure  in New Jersey is an annual pilgrimage for many and I think this water park will also be a huge draw.

The water park, designed by the New York state-based Aquatic Development Group, is a virtual done deal. The city’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee voted on April 11 to allow the proposed 35-year lease with Aquatic Development Group.
And so New Yorkers will soon have access to an amenity previously found only in locations like Scotrun, Pennsylvania, or Mason, Illinois, or Grapevine, Texas.
The New York attraction will include wave pools, action rivers and wading pools, and plenty of slides. A seven-acre indoor beach will give New Yorkers a year-round attraction; Coney Island, in contrast, is strictly seasonal (except to those twisted Polar Bear Club swimmers who take an annual winter dip in the Atlantic).
The new construction won’t affect any of the other events on the island, including concerts and various track meets in the Icahn Stadium.  via CNN.com

Randall Island Official Site

AAA Annual Vacation Cost survey has come out and it says vacation and travel costs will increase by 5.4 percent over last year. The increases are across the board as lodging and transportation are facing the same pressures, higher energy and labor costs. Hawaii leads the way  as the most expensive state with North Dakota and Nebraska pulling up the rear as the least expensive states to travel in. One would think the law of supply and demand are in force.

Rate increases for lodgings are mostly a result of supply and demand, especially in major markets,” said Michael Petrone, director, AAA Tourism Information Development, which oversees the popular AAA Diamond Ratings. “For both lodgings and restaurants, rising energy costs as well as salary and benefit costs are certainly having an impact.”

AAA’s survey shows that a family of two adults and two children can expect to pay an average $261 per day for food and lodging. Lodging rates will average $141 a night, up nearly 9 percent from last year. Meals will cost $120, up nearly 2 percent from 2005.

The most expensive state for vacationers remains Hawaii where the daily cost of food and lodging for a family of four will average $559 per day. Other destinations with a high average daily cost include the District of Columbia at $518; Nevada, $348; Rhode Island, $329; and New York, $329.

Travelers looking for bargains should look at these least expensive states: North Dakota and Nebraska, with an average daily cost of $191; Kansas, $193; Iowa, $196; and Oklahoma, $200. via the AAA Newsroom.

Freedom of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever built, is about to head out on it’s maiden voyage and enter service for Royal Caribbean International as it’s Flagship. The Freedom of the Seas is a spectacular vessel, with such amenities as a surfing pool, a skating rink, and a rock climbing wall. The picture on the left is the ship in Hamburg, Germany as the Freedom of the Seas finishes getting outfitted for its maiden crossing.

The Finnish-built vessel - flagship of Royal Caribbean International - will have a thorough check and final polish at Germany’s Blohm and Voss shipyard.
It boasts the world’s first on-board surfing pool, called “Flow Rider”, a skating rink and a rock-climbing wall.
It will take up to 4,375 passengers at a time on Caribbean cruises.
The 160,000-ton ship is 339 metres (1,112 ft) long, 56m (184 ft) wide and has a cruising speed of 21.6 knots.
The crew had to carry out a tricky manoeuvre in Hamburg, as the ship’s berth was only three metres wider and 12m longer than the ship.
The ocean liner Queen Mary II is six metres longer but 15m narrower than the Freedom of the Seas, which will be based in Miami, Florida.
The Freedom of the Seas will leave Hamburg on 25 April for a stopover in Oslo before crossing the Atlantic and starting Caribbean cruises in June. via BBC NEWS

A California woman won a 27.5 million dollar verdict against Southwest Airlines in a lawsuit that she was racially profiled by the airline and its flight attendants. Southwest Airlines accused Carrington of assaulting a flight attendant in midflight between Houston and Los Angeles. They diverted the aircraft to El Paso and had her taken off the flight.

Samantha Carrington of Santa Barbara, California, won her case Friday after suing the Dallas-based airline for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. Federal authorities arrested her in 2003 after her Houston-to-Los Angeles flight made a scheduled stop in El Paso. She was never charged with a crime.

According to court records, three flight attendants said Carrington, a naturalized citizen from Iran, became verbally abusive, grabbed a flight attendant’s arm and threatened to go to the cockpit if the captain was not summoned.

Carrington, 54, said that the flight attendants were lying and that she was the one mistreated.

The  Seattle – Alaska Cruise season is about to begin, and from a modest start the region has turned into a major cruise hub feeding the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Besides the hugely popular Alaska cruises the Port of Seattle offers many 3 day cruises to Vancouver and the local region.

What began small — with just six Alaska-bound sailings in 1999 and about 3,300 passengers — has mushroomed this year to almost 200 departures and an estimated 370,000 passengers.
Five major lines will base nine ships at Seattle’s two downtown cruise-ship docks: Holland America, Norwegian, Celebrity, Princess and Royal Caribbean.
The Alaska cruises go from May 5 until late September, but the first big cruise liner to sail into Elliott Bay will be Holland America’s Volendam on April 22, en route to Hawaii.
Cruises from Seattle and other United States ports have boomed, due to the ease of driving or flying to such ports and because of security concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Seattle Times: More cruises than ever from Seattle.

Back in the Day,  touring Napa and tasting some of the premier wines of the country was an inexpensive day. Pack a picnic, stop at a couple Napa Vineyards, and you were in business. But the wineries have learned to weed out the freeloaders and the free tastings are history. Now bring your credit card if you want to tour and taste Napa’s finest. 

This is not  all bad though. It allows the  wineries to invest in their tours and do much more for the customer that is stepping up and paying for the Napa experience.

But today, many vintners are making it clear: There is no longer room at the inn for Bermuda-shorts tourists who drive from tasting room to tasting room with Aunt Betty and belly up to the bar for another swig of sauvignon blanc. Now, some wineries charge as much as $25 for tastings, offer pricey VIP packages, require appointments and credit-card numbers for visits. No-shows get charged if they fail to cancel 48 hours in advance.

Valet parking, intimate tours, wine-tasting with famous cheesemongers and elaborately set tables can all be part of the experience — for a price. “There was a time that the tastings were free because wineries were just so glad that people were taking an interest,” said Larry Stone, the general manager of Rubicon Estate in Rutherford, a winery known for its cabernet sauvignon-dominant wine. “Then wine got very popular. Now, we’re trying to be creative about how to attract the real wine enthusiasts and not the partygoers.”

About 10 years ago, some of the wineries began charging a nominal fee for pourings. These days, it’s hard to find a winery in Napa that doesn’t charge, and the custom is catching on in Sonoma, considered Napa’s casual cousin. But what is new is the trend toward selling a lifestyle of expensive wines, fine foods and luxury service. via The Columbus Dispatch

An AP report on the 1 billion dollar contract to update the security systems at US Airports has shown itself to be an utter fiasco. There was not enough money to fulfill the requirements or allow the federal government to monitor  the contract properly. So what do we have when we decide to federalize a private function? An unmitigated mess, but is that surprising?

The TSA does not  even have  the basic telecommunication structure necessary to do its job, with some airports  having  20 dollar radio shack phones to communicate with while  Unisys would insist on making the company to provide the most basic services that TSA employees could do, such as installing software.

The TSA, which was created shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, needed information technology and telecommunications for what it anticipated would be 65,000 employees at headquarters, 429 airports, 21 field offices and a command center, the report said.

Unisys was to have provided dial-up connections, laptops, pagers and cell phones by November 19, 2002. Six weeks later, the company was to have delivered high-speed connections, phones, encrypted radios and an electronic surveillance system. Eventually, Unisys was to provide command centers at airports, advanced wireless communications and inter operable radios.

The inspector general said that the company had only supplied the first phase by September 30, 2004. via CNN.com .

The Blimp, a bastion of travel 70 years ago, may be making its way back in to our society as a cruise ship for  the air. There are prototypes coming out (as seen above) that show the luxurious travel opportunities of slow flying across the country at low altitudes to see the countryside and travel in splendor. Very cool.

This is not a Blimp. It’s a sort of flying Queen Mary 2 that could change the way you think about air travel. It’s the Aeroscraft, and when it’s completed, it will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in their well-appointed staterooms.

Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air. Its 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two thirds of the craft’s weight. The rigid and surprisingly aerodynamic body—driven by huge rearward propellers—generates enough additional lift to keep the behemoth and its 400-ton payload aloft while cruising. During takeoff and landing, six turbofan jet engines push the ship up or ease its descent.

This two-football-fields-long concept airship is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, whose privately-funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, is in the early stages of developing a prototype and expects to have one completed by 2010. Pasternak says several cruise ship companies have expressed interest in the project, and for good reason: The craft would have a range of several thousand miles and, with an estimated top speed of 174 mph, could traverse the continental U.S. in about 18 hours. During the flight, passengers would peer at national landmarks just 8,000 feet below or, if they weren’t captivated by the view, the cavernous interior would easily accommodate such amenities as luxury staterooms, restaurants, even a casino. via Popular Science