Smelly radar facility causes delays at New York City airports

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The New York City-area airport radar facility stinks. No, it really does (at least, it did last night). Stop thinking about delays on the tarmac and circling each of the three airports near or in the city. Instead, focus on your nose. The radar facility was evacuated briefly when the smell of gas was reported. Unsurprisingly, this caused flights to be delayed. According to the FAA, the evacuation occurred at 6:45 PM last night. To keep things moving in the skies, 25 air traffic controllers stayed at their posts.

The staff was able to get back into the facility an hour later, and the cause of the smell as never determined.

[photo by Joi via Flickr]

JetBlue’s New York jet celebrates the New York Jets

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Okay, there is no shortage of colors and plays on words in this new partnership deal. The New York Jets will actually have a New York jet flying in and out of the city soon. The team, which sports green in its logo and on its uniforms, is even overtaking the color of its partner, JetBlue. One of the carrier’s jets will be painted in the football team’s colors.

JetBlue is also offering DirecTV’s “Sunday Ticket” football package to its passengers, showing a keen eye for the value of gridiron connections in filling seats.

According to Business Insider:

It is unclear if this new green and white jet will be used for flights to Jets away games. As part of the partnership between the airline and the football team, JetBlue offers discounted fares to Jets away games. It seems fitting if the new jet would be used for these flights.

[photo by NYCMarines via Flickr]

Costume store develops angry flight attendant Steven Slater costume

by Tom Johansmeyer on


I haven’t put on a costume for Halloween in years, but I think that’s going to change this year. I want to spend an evening as flight attendant hero irresponsible nut Steven Slater. In case you spent the summer living under a rock, Slater’s the flight attendant who tangled with a passenger (you know, one of the people he was responsible for protecting), popped the emergency slide, grabbed some beer from the plane and drove home to Queens.

He also hired a high-powered publicist, lied about his career and wanted his old job back before kicking around a future in media.

Ricky’s NYC, a major costume store with multiple locations, has developed a flight attendant costume that USA Today reports is clearly based on the nutjob who put lives on the ground at risk.

Here are the details on this particular getup:

The costume — shirt, tie, bandage (for the head wound reported to have been caused by a feisty passenger’s unwieldy carry-on luggage), brewskis not included — retails for $39.99 at Ricky’s stores and online at ricky’shalloween.com. It’s billed as the perfect outfit for making an early, and memorable, exit from a Halloween bash.

Fortunately, you won’t have to go to Queens after making your departure.

Getting drunk: Twenty cities that don’t know how to handle their liquor

by Tom Johansmeyer on

California loves to get wasted! San Diego and San Jose are the top two cities that drink stupidly, according to a survey by Insurance.com. They lead the country in alcohol-related driving violations, a dubious distinction to say the least. So, if you step into the crosswalk in these two spots, take an extra second to look both ways.

The reasons for hitting this list vary and include proximity to colleges and nightlife, and the presence of stringent enforcement may play a key role, the survey finds. If you think a lack of enforcement puts a city at the top of the list, remember that slapping the cuffs on a lot of people increases the instances of drunk driving, which actually pushes it up. Insurance.com explains:

San Diego most likely tops the list because its police departments are aggressive in making DUI arrests, and officers there arrest lots of drunk drivers, says Mark McCullough, a San Diego police department spokesperson specializing in DUI issues.

To pull the list of 20 drunk driving metropolitan areas together, according to Insurance Networking News, Insurance.com analyzed “percentage of its car insurance online quote requests for which users reported alcohol-related driving violations.”

So, who made the top 20? Take a look below:

  1. San Diego, CA
  2. San Jose, CA
  3. Charlotte, NC
  4. Phoenix, AZ
  5. Columbus, OH
  6. Indianapolis, IN
  7. Los Angeles, CA
  8. San Francisco, CA
  9. Austin, TX
  10. Jacksonville, FL
  11. San Antonio, TX
  12. Dallas, TX
  13. Houston, TX
  14. Fort Worth, TX
  15. Memphis, TN
  16. Philadelphia, PA
  17. New York, NY
  18. Baltimore, MD
  19. Chicago, IL
  20. Detroit, MI

Boston got lucky on this one. It was excluded because of a lack of data – not because the drivers there are absolutely nuts.

Disclosure: I learned how to drive in Boston.

[Via Insurance Networking News, photo by davidsonscott15 via Flickr]

Top five social media destinations

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Do you live your life in 140 characters are less? Have you almost lost your life several times because you had to get that shot of a crazy cab driver uploaded to Facebook? If this is anything like you, here are five cities you’re just going to love.

NetProspex has ranked the cities in the United States by social media activity, and the results are not at all surprising. Using the NetProspex Social Index (PDF), which the company developed, it was able to rank activity across a number of social media platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Here are the details on the methodology:

The data was mined from their database of business contacts. There are three components to the score. First there is social connectedness: the number of employees with at least one social media profile. Second there is social friendliness and reach: the average number of connections per employee across major social networks. Third is social activity: the average number of tweets, number of followers, and number of users following.

So, who wins? Take a look below:
1. San Francisco: home of Twitter and long-time tech city, is this really surprising?

2. San Jose: okay, like San Francisco but not as cool … pretty easy to see this one coming

3. New York: 8 million people with nothing better to do and plenty to TwitPic

4. Austin: who knew the country’s sexiest city would also be one of its most socially connected? Hot people flock together and like to stay in touch

5. Boston: another tech center, especially the metro area, and there really is nothing better to do up there …

[Thanks @zimmermitch, photo by Laurie DePrete]