Pilots fall asleep during red-eye flight

by Catherine Bodry on

Here’s another spooky story from the skies — and this one isn’t just an urban legend. Two pilots fell asleep during an all-night flight between Baltimore and Denver. One pilot woke up to “frantic” calls from air traffic control advising that they were approaching the airport at twice the allowed speed. The pilot was able to safely land the plane with no further problems.

The incident was anonymously documented through NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System. Both the airline and pilots are unknown, though the article implies that Frontier Airlines might be to blame.

The airline admits that pilot fatigue is a big problem in the airline industry, but that they have measures in place to help avoid events such as this one.

Read the full article here.

U.S. Cities With the Worst Traffic Are …

by Justin Glow on

The U.S. Department of Transportation has recently announced nine of the most congested U.S. cities which are in the running to obtain federal traffic-fighting aid.

Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle where the nine semifinalists, with a “winner” set to be announced in August. The winning city will receive $1.1 billion in federal program aid designed to fight traffic using “levy tolls that vary based on traffic volumes,” and new mass-transit options for residents.

I thought Los Angeles would be on the list for sure. [via]

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Cinco de Mayo: Margaritas and More

by Jamie Rhein on

I’m thinking about margaritas. Cinco de Mayo, a little guys wins over the big guys story, is this Saturday. On May 5, 1862, when it seemed that a band of Mexican soldiers was going to be trounced by the French army double or more it’s size, the Mexican’s won. This was the Battle of Puebla, one of many struggles in Mexico to ensure freedom.

In Mexico it’s a national holiday. In the U.S. it’s a time to head to a Mexican restaurant or hit a celebration if you can find one. Last Cinco de Mayo my husband, kids and I happened to be in Talitas, a small neighborhood Mexican restaurant in Columbus, eating half-price appetizers and drinking Dos Equis. Yep, we live large. This year, I’m getting the margarita. Truthfully, Columbus, Ohio isn’t really a Cinco de Mayo hot spot. There’s not a splashy festival that I’m aware of–not like in Denver, Colorado where hundreds of thousands of people show up at Civic Center Park for food and entertainment.

Denver’s festival claims to be the largest Cinco de Mayo happening in the U.S. While Denver has a huge festival with several musical performances, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona are also Cinco de Mayo bonanzas. Utah is joining in. Every city and small town seems to have one, and many are free. There’s an assortment of parades, piñatas, and cook-offs besides a lot of mariachi bands and dancing. I’d bet wherever you can find a town plaza, you’ll find a celebration of some sort. See link. This link has links to links.

Here are some of New Mexico’s smaller town versions that caught my attention.– Artesia, Raton, Roswell and Socorro . Like I said, head to the plaza.

For Texas hotspots, here’s a link to those. Denton looks like it’s hopping and San Marcos has a menudo cook-off.

In Utah, head to Midvale and in Arizona, for a smaller city version, go to Chandler. Here, there’s a chihahuahua race in additon to the traditional fare.

For a margarita enjoyment. How about this? On the Santa Fe Southwestern Railroad, they’re serving up margaritas on the High Desert High Ball train.

Denver Aquarium

by Adrienne Wilson on

Why do I feel so down after a trip to the Downtown Denver Aquarium? Many reason my friends. The first – I’m an adult who is really a kid on the inside, but none the less an adult to the ticket person waiting to collect my adult admission of $13.95 at the window. My second reason is ultimately the biggest reason for feeling so low. Trips to aquariums are usually very special for me. Since I can’t really scuba dive this is the closest way for me to see the various animals that patrol the waters and the plant life that thrives hundreds of feet off the land and under the sea. Aside from a tank full of piranha, puffers, suckers and empty tigers cages I was really trying to grasp where they were going with this aquarium. It felt more as though they were trying to create a zoo and didn’t focus enough on marine life, but maybe I’m being more of a big baby than a kid or an adult.

In my own honest opinion, after a 45 minute walk through the Denver aquarium I felt as though my money had been washed away on a very boring Denver attraction just to spew me out at the Aquarium Restaurant. I wasn’t in the mood to sample the fare after seeing such a disappointing show of the life aquatic. Decide for yourself though.

Downtown Aquarium – Denver is located at 700 Water Street, Denver, CO. 80211. Ph. 303.561.4450.