Hong Kong Harbor Invaded By Giant Rubber Duck

by Adam Hodge on


Hong Kong’s famous skyline was joined by a 54-foot rubber duck on Thursday. The duck, a traveling public exhibit by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman floated into Victoria Harbour with the help of a tugboat.

The project has seen giant ducks float into harbors around the world since 2007, stopping by New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Netherlands, among others. It’s been well-received in Hong Kong, where local papers have been looking out for the oversized inflatable children’s toy for weeks.

Hofman describes the purpose of the duck as a way to relieve political tensions around the world. According to him, the duck knows no boundaries and “doesn’t discriminate.”

The exhibit will remain on display in the harbor until June 9, 2013. Next stop is an unannounced city in the United States.

[Photo: AP]

Flight Attendants Sit In For 40-Minute Pilot Break

by Libby Zay on

Two Air India pilots have come under fire after they took a 40-minute break from the cockpit and asked flight attendants to sit in for them. Their stunt almost ended in disaster when one of the flight attendants accidentally turned off autopilot, endangering the lives of the 166 passengers on board, The Mumbai Mirror is reporting.

According to the news outlet, the plane was 30 minutes into a flight from Bangkok to Delhi when First Officer Ravindra Nath asked a flight attendant to occupy his seat while he excused himself for a bathroom break. A few minutes later, co-pilot Captain B K Soni also decided to leave the cockpit, and asked another flight attendant to keep an eye on things. According to reports, the co-pilot spent a few minutes teaching the two flight attendants how to operate the aircraft (phew!) before leaving to take a nap in a business class seat.

It seems First Officer Nath emerged from the bathroom and decided to join Captain Soni for a snooze – that is, until one of the flight attendants accidentally switched off autopilot. The two wingmen jumped up and ran back to the cockpit to regain control, but their devious antics didn’t go unnoticed. A senior cabin crewmember who witnessed the dramatic events brought the incident to the attention of the airline’s management, and all four parties involved were de-rostered and later suspended pending an investigation.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Naddsy]

For Your Health, End The Layover Laziness

by Megan Fernandez on

What do you do on layovers? Nap? Catch up on email? Mindlessly watch some sports without any rooting interest? Christopher Berger, a physiologist, has a better idea.

It’s simple. Stand up. Walk away from the gate. Heck, leave the premises if you have at least three or four hours. There’s no rule that says you have to spend the layover inside the airport. Baltimore has a fitness trail encircling the airport grounds (and it’s not the only one with a walking path). So what if it’s not the most scenic stroll of your life? “Anything is better than eating fast food and waiting for your flight to show,” Berger says.

Berger, chair of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Task Force on Healthy Air Travel, is on a mission against the sedentary airport lifestyle. He understands that people on vacation might want to chill; he’s not above vegging out in a gate area from time to time himself. But for frequent business travelers with a fitness regimen at home, falling out of the routine quickly takes a toll. “If you travel a lot, this is a big deal,” he says. “You can’t let yourself be that deconditioned. You have to have a plan if you travel at least once a week. It’s worth talking about.”A plan is as easy as packing a pair of lightweight walking shoes and taking a brisk stroll around the airport. Check out the public art, the chapel, the yoga room or services you might not expect to find, like medical clinics offering immunizations and air-sickness medicine. You might not need to see a doctor, but it’s interesting to explore.

Since 2007, Berger has done much of this himself conducting a study of fitness opportunities at every major U.S. hub airport. He has flown 488 times, including 100 cross-country trips. The research is complete, and he expects to release the findings this summer – and eventually convince airports to make it easier to burn calories on a layover without sprinting to catch a connecting flight.

The return of airport lockers would go a long way toward freeing travelers from the gate area. “Airports needs to be willing for you to drop off your bag.” he says. “But post-September 11, people don’t like unattended bags at airports.” And in the wake of the Boston bombings, Berger’s not expecting an attitude shift anytime soon. In the meantime, he recommends checking to see if your airline loyalty program babysits luggage.

If you can check bags and carry on just a backpack, you can become as mobile as Berger is on layovers. Unlike most travelers, he’s not paranoid about leaving the terminal if he has at least three hours (and he has never missed a flight when doing so), especially in cities with an airport light rail station. In Salt Lake City, you can get in a round of golf at a course adjacent to the airport.

Minneapolis’s airport is a favorite for a layover field trip. “Out of the airplane, you can be at the light rail in under 15 minutes, and that runs every 10 to 15 minutes. I’d say within 45 minutes you can be downtown. It’s totally walkable, flat, well laid out, pedestrian paths all over the place,” he says. “There are parks you can go to. Just lay in the sun, get some fresh air. Budget 45 minutes or so to get back. I’ve done it in three hours.”

He has a trick for a speedy return: Use the terminal likely to have the shortest TSA security line. Forget about the terminal with the airline that has a hub there. For instance, in Atlanta, don’t go through Delta’s terminal. Return through the one serving US Airways and Air Tran. “You can bet dollars to donuts that line won’t be as long,” Berger says. However, do your homework to make sure you can walk from your entry terminal to your gate. At Washington National, for instance, changing terminals can require a bus ride, negating the time savings.

Berger hopes airports will move in this direction for the sake of competition, if nothing else. And he believes the strategy is best suited for big airports in the middle of the country. “In West Coast or East Coast cities, no one changes planes except for international flights,” he says. “It doesn’t work as conceptually as it does at a place like Dallas or Denver or Atlanta.”

Don’t overlook full-service hotels near airports for fitness amenities, too, especially if it’s raining and you can’t go outside. Many offer day passes to their gym and swimming pool, Berger says, and are easily accessible by light rail or shuttle from the airport.

Simply bypassing the tram between terminals and walking – which isn’t always as far as you might imagine – marks baby steps toward breaking the habit of layover laziness.

“It’s not going to turn you into a marathon runner,” Berger says. “But you’re expending something in the way of calories.”

Via the New York Times

[Photo credits: Flickr users Dogpong and Moominmolly]

How Did China Misplace 27000 Rivers?

by Kraig Becker on

When China set out to conduct its First National Census of Water, government officials expected to get a better understanding of the country’s rivers and other aquatic resources. But the results of that census have left some environmentalists wondering what happened to all of China’s waterways and if there is a looming water crisis for the world’s most populous nation.

Prior to conducting the water census, China estimated that it had upwards of 50,000 rivers inside of its borders. But the findings of the three-year study indicate that that number is actually 22,909. That’s a loss of more than 27,000 rivers with a combined total water volume that would be about the equivalent of the Mississippi River. That is a significant amount of water to have completely vanished.

So what exactly happened to all of those rivers? China blames their disappearance on two factors – outdated mapping techniques and global climate change. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, China’s Deputy Director of the Ministry of Water Resources, Huang He, indicated that the original estimate was probably too high due to inaccurate topographic maps that trace their origin back to the 1950s. He also acknowledged that climate change has led to the loss of both water and soil throughout China.
Environmental activists aren’t convinced, however. While many acknowledge that better mapping technology has no doubt led to a more accurate river count, there is a widely held belief that China’s booming economy and terrible record on protecting the environment both had a big impact on the loss of these waterways. This is evident in the slow, but steady, drop in water levels on the country’s two longest rivers, the Yangtze and Yellow.

Considering how quickly China’s population continues to grow and its towns and cities are modernizing, there is great fear that the nearly 23,000 rivers that do exist there will not be adequate to meet the demands placed on them in the 21st century and beyond. To make matters worse, many of those rivers are already greatly polluted, which will likely lead to a host of other health problems in the future.

China won’t be the only nation dealing with water shortages in the future if climatologists are to be believed. Climate change is drying up rivers all over the world, not to mention shifting weather patterns and causing droughts. The difference is that most other countries don’t have a population anywhere close to the size of China’s and most aren’t inflicting as much damage on their waterways as the Asian country.

Predicting what the future holds is a difficult proposition. But lets hope that when China takes its Second National Census of Water it doesn’t lose more than half of its waterways once again.

[Photo Credit: Luo Shaoyang via WikiMedia]

Virgin Atlantic Crew Gets A Fashion Makeover

by Reena Ganga on

Virgin Atlantic’s flight attendents and staff are set to step out in snazzy new garb thanks to the help of British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. The airline known for it’s cheeky attitude and sassy flight crew announced they would be overhauling the uniforms for cabin crew and ground staff across the globe.

The carrier’s president, Richard Branson, said he wanted to give his staff a look that would go against the grain and stick in people’s minds. “Virgin Atlantic has a distinct spirit and from a
design perspective we continually try to challenge the norm and stand out from the crowd,” he said. “Our current uniform has been around for more than 10 years and we have seen other airlines start to copy it.”Westwood said she wanted to make use of traditional tailoring methods but blend those with cutting-edge design to give the uniforms a futuristic look. Of course, at the top of the list was ensuring the uniforms would retain the airline’s trademark glamorous style.

Virgin Atlantic’s female cabin crew will be decked out in a suit in the airline’s iconic red color, while male flight staff will don a a three-piece burgundy suit inspired by Britain’s famous Savile Row tailoring. Fabric for the uniforms is made from a variety of eco-friendly textiles, including a recycled polyster yarn made out of used plastic bottles.

The airline will start phasing in the new-look uniforms from July this year, with a full rollout expected in 2014.

[Photo credit: Virgin Atlantic]