Good morning Happy 60th birthday this week to the illustrious Boeing B-52, still operational as a heavy bomber, sixty years after it first took to the skies on 15 April, 1952. 744 of the planes were built, including 102 of the final B52-H model, of which 85 are still in active duty and another nine are in the Air Force Reserve. Current projections suggest the planes will continue in service until perhaps 2040. The plane [...]
On Wednesday the Department of Justice announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Apple and five book publishers – Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Penguin. The suit alleges an illegal conspiracy to raise the prices of eBooks when Apple launched its iPad in 2010. Prior to that time, publishers generally sold books and eBoosk alike to distributors and retailers on the basis of the title having a notional recommended retail price, and [...]
On 20 February 1962, and after three previously failed launch attempts, John Glenn became the first American to fly into space – a five hour flight in a Mercury space capsule named Friendship 7 that had him carrying out three orbits around the earth before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. He was not the first man to leave the confines of the earth’s atmosphere – that credit fell to Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin who [...]
Good morning Another year inexorably rolls to its close this weekend, with New Year’s Eve conveniently on a Saturday night, possibly encouraging more of us to stay up for midnight celebrations. If you choose to do so, I hope you’ll have a memorable, fun-filled, and safe celebration. Until then, here’s a lot of great material as our ‘last gasp’ in 2011 : New Year Resolutions Travel Insider January Group Shoot Travel Insider 2012 Touring Schedule [...]
Good morning Are you starting to feel the Christmas spirit yet? Or just the Christmas cold (in my case, both weather-wise and health-wise too)! With little more than a week to go before the pre-Christmas sales transition seamlessly into post-Christmas sales, I hope you’ve got your purchasing plans mapped out for the balance of the year, and also hope that men in brown or purple trucks are bringing a regular flow of boxes to your [...]
Just this week, American Airlines took time off from its bankruptcy to proudly announce it has been given FAA approval to allow its pilots to use iPads in airplane cockpits. This is not a revolutionary or innovative step – other airlines have been using iPads for some time, both in the cockpit and in the cabin (where flight attendants can access their manuals, passenger manifests, and other materials on iPads too). Now – think about [...]
Electronic democracy in action? Hopefully, although that remains to be seen. The official Whitehouse.gov site now has a petition on it requesting the FAA regulation prohibiting electronic devices during some stages of flight be amended. Here’s the text of the petition : Portable electronic devices like the Amazon Kindle, the iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry devices all have “airplane mode” built in to the devices software that minimizes the electronic signals these devices [...]
Good morning We’ve a huge amount to offer you this week, both in the roundup and the other articles that follow. Enjoy! Travel Innovation Survey Qantas Woes Naughty Jetblue Imprisons Passengers US Airways Shuts Overseas Call Centers New Discount Airline from Singapore Airlines Two Different Speeds for Cruise Liner Drydocking Airport X-ray Scanners – Maybe Dangerous, Definitely Ineffective How Low Can You Go? Travel Innovation Survey I made a real ‘dog’s breakfast’ out of [...]
Good morning A slightly reflective newsletter this week, to note the end of our annual fundraising drive, and the event of our tenth birthday. Please read on to enjoy in this week’s roundup, or click a link to be taken directly to the section of interest. (Note : If you are getting the SUMMARY version of the newsletter, these links won’t work, because you don’t have the full newsletter downloaded to link to. You should [...]
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