Photo Of The Day: New York, Via Hoboken

Where did you go for your Labor Day weekend travels? I ended up in New York City, after a particularly early morning jaunt to Morristown, Union City and Hoboken in New Jersey — all in the name of an old BMW. Three of us crashed at my old college roommate’s place on Saturday night. Waking up to the sprawl of Hoboken and the Manhattan skyline, seen from his Union City apartment’s balcony, was a really neat view.

We’d love to feature your photos and videos on Gadling, so please add them to our Flickr Pool (with Creative Commons licensing!), tag @GadlingTravel on Instagram or email us at OfTheDay@gadling.com.

Remembering The ‘World’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park’

Amusement park safety has been a hot topic this summer. After a deadly fall from a Six Flags roller coaster in July, even minor injuries have been making headlines. But are amusement parks really as dangerous as they used to be? A new documentary sheds light on what Mashable is calling “The World’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park,” a New Jersey waterpark called Action Park that closed in 1996. Inside this lawless park, which seemed to be staffed mostly by intoxicated teenagers, were nonsensical attractions like:

  • The “Cannonball Loop” slide, which had a complete loop at the end.
  • A winding cement track called the “Alpine Slide” that children barreled down on carts while people tried to spit on them from a chairlift that ran above it.
  • A rope swing called “Tarzan swing” where men regularly exposed themselves to onlookers.

Seriously, is this place for real? We went to Twitter to do some investigating, and found many people recalling-and even lamenting-their injuries at the park:

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Ouch, sounds painful. Although these people walked away with minor injuries, at least seven people died at Action Park during its existence. Watch the first half of the documentary above, and the second half after the jump.
The Most Insane Amusement Park Ever – Part 2 of 2 by insane-amusement-park

Americans Trying To Bring Guns On Planes At Unprecedented Rate, Says TSA

More and more Americans are apparently attempting to take airline security into their own hands. In data provided by the Transport Security Administration to the AP, there is evidence of a significant increase in the number of firearms that passengers try to take through TSA screening points in airports around the country.

In only the first half of this year, the TSA seized 894 guns from passengers – 30 percent more than the year before. From 2011 to 2012, the number of firearms seized increased by 17 percent.

Many of these weapons were seized from people who claim they simply forgot they were carrying a gun onto a plane. Airports in the south and west of the United States had the largest reported number of gun seizures.
Some of the stories of the seizures in the AP report are genuine head-shakers. To wit:

Raymond Whitehead, 53, of Santa Fe, N.M., was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey in May after screeners spotted 10 hollow-point bullets in his carry-on bag. Whitehead, who is completely blind, also had a .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver in his checked bag that he had failed to declare.

The TSA found the weapons on the passengers’ person, in their carry-on luggage and even in a boot that one man was wearing on his prosthetic leg. Depending on the gun laws of the jurisdiction where the airports are located, some of the gun-toting passengers were arrested and others were not.

If you think 894 guns in six months is a lot, consider that these numbers don’t include BB guns, spear guns, flare guns, stun guns and other ballistic weapons.

Last month the TSA recently reversed their decision to allow small knives onto planes. They have not made any statements reiterating the ban on firearms.

Man Says He Poisoned All Passengers Aboard Hong Kong To New Jersey Flight

A man is being questioned by authorities after he claimed to have poisoned everyone traveling on United Flight 116. The flight, which was making its way from Hong Kong to Newark’s Liberty Airport, landed at 1:34 p.m. today, several hours after a male passenger made the frightening declaration.

According to news reports, the passenger was in an emotionally disturbed state. He made the announcement about having poisoned everyone on board several hours before the flight was due to arrive in New Jersey.Despite this, the FBI said the decision was made not to divert the plane to a closer airport. Instead, flight attendants surrounded the man along with a number of other passengers who volunteered to help restrain him for the duration of the flight.

Both local police and FBI agents were notified and were ready to meet the plane as soon as it landed. According to an FBI spokesman, there is no evidence that any passengers were actually poisoned.