Alan A. Lew

[cute!] - Alan A. Lew

... public toilet seats and flush devices, stall handholds and door handles, inner restroom door handles, and baby changing tables "on most, but not all, cruise ships" were not being cleaned and disinfected thoroughly. "There was a substantial potential for washed hands to become contaminated while the passenger was exiting the restroom, given that only 35 percent of restroom exit knobs or pulls were cleaned daily," - Alan A. Lew

The plane maker estimates the sharklets would save operators US$220,000 ($300,000) worth of fuel annually for each aircraft. ... About 700 tonnes of CO2 emissions would be saved by the devices, which will cost about $1.2 million per aircraft. - Alan A. Lew

A group of Texas cities late last month won a $20 million verdict in a class-action suit against Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity, among others. In the summer, the San Francisco tax assessor ordered many of the same travel companies to pay the city $41 million (the online travel companies have appealed for a refund). Earlier this year, an independent hearing officer also ordered several online travel companies to pay Anaheim, Calif., $21 million in back taxes. And just two weeks ago, the state of Florida sued Expedia and Orbitz, alleging that while the online travel companies had been collecting taxes from consumers all along, they have only been paying a portion of the taxes owed to taxing authorities and keeping the rest as profit. - Alan A. Lew

... they would get 24% more today than at the pound's low point against the dollar in March 2009. In other destinations that use the dollar, like Dubai and Hong Kong, the pound is also worth at least 13% more. - Alan A. Lew

The civil war ended 17 years ago, but Marquez is again leading groups through these forested hills with guerrilla warfare on her mind. Only now, those following her are Salvadoran students and American and European leftists stepping gingerly in their Reeboks and khaki shorts, and stopping frequently to drink bottled water. Welcome to El Salvador's new guerrilla-tourism industry. - Alan A. Lew

"The tourism industry is one of the few agencies in this state that is really making a buck to put back in the general fund to pay for those things," Ski Utah President Nathan Rafferty said. "Now is absolutely not the time to scale back. ... This is a cash cow in Utah. Whether its skiing or hiking in Moab and St. George and our national parks, it makes a whole lot of sense to continue the support." - Alan A. Lew

Most provocatively, the research showed that sounds can penetrate deep sleep and be used to guide rehearsal of specific information, pushing people's consolidation of memories in one direction over another. - Alan A. Lew

Supply of Coke, Maggi and the like to the tea Shop at Ilaka near Triund, Himachal Pradesh (click on photo for larger image) - Alan A. Lew

4. Next up: make yourself useful. This means reaching out to strangers in a capacity where you can actually do good and show off your skills at the same time. In the online world, this means contributing to listservs, showing your expertise on a blog and providing good links on Twitter. In the real world, this means volunteering, getting on a board of a worthy organization, offering to take notes at a convention where people in your desired sector will be, and look for opportunities to solve problems. - Alan A. Lew

"Certainly physical characteristics, such as skin pigment, hair texture, eye color, and other physical features are correlated with ancestry and are likely to be factors in mate selection. However, the spouse correlation for these traits and the correlation of these traits with ancestry were actually below what would be required to fully explain the phenomenon." - Alan A. Lew

The Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan plan a rally before Saturday's LSU-Ole Miss football game to protest Chancellor Dan Jones' decision to bar the school band from playing "From Dixie with Love," a medley that some fans finish by shouting, "The South shall rise again." - Alan A. Lew

Christmas and Easter are the most expensive holiday months in Kenya with rates for 23rd December to 5th January and then in the first week of April 2010 sometimes more than double the low season rates that apply for other weeks over the year - Some of the notable ones ... - Alan A. Lew

There’s a lesson for all of us taking a cruise. Don’t let anyone near your valuables. If something happens to them, you have no one to blame but yourself. - Alan A. Lew

Ultimate Fares continued to omit the tax from its stated fares even after the enforcement office began its investigation, and also failed to disclose which flights were being operated on a code-share basis as required by the Department's rules. Ultimate Fares has been the subject of numerous consumer complaints: ... - Alan A. Lew

The shopkeepers are blaming the "demon statues" for the problems they have faced at the airport, which was seized late last year by demonstrators and supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy. - Alan A. Lew

Part of me was perhaps particularly impressed by the Mali embassy experience because of my recently not too pleasant experience at the German embassy. First, I had to get up extra early (ouwwwch) because the embassy operates between 07h00 and 10h00. The embassy is in Pretoria and I am in Joburg, so basically, this means I had to wake up by 05h30. The queues were long, and I later learnt that people began lining up as early as 05h30! - Alan A. Lew

Bhutan is far from being the Utopia despite its largely tranquil history. As a poor country Bhutan has its share of social problems and challenges and the biggest blight to its good reputation so far has been the issue of the refugees. A nation-wide census in the 80’s found thousands of illegal settlers along the country’s southern borders. Most of these people were Nepalese people from Nepal and India who came to Bhutan seeking economic opportunities and utilize the large tracts of free agricultural land along porous borders. - Alan A. Lew

“Red-faced men blocked the aisles, puked in the bathroom and groped the females — along with a laughing crew,” ... That’s right, some crewmembers were also inebriated. The trip made a lasting impression on Langer. “Never again will I take a connecting flight through Amsterdam,” ... - Alan A. Lew

Take a slide show tour of the new monster cruise ship - Alan A. Lew

While the Middle East is one of the only markets in the world where passenger traffic numbers are still growing, the downturn has clipped the wings of the once soaring aerospace sector. - Alan A. Lew

The official inductees of the 2010 Sweatshop Hall of Shame are: Abercrombie and Fitch, Gymboree, Hanes, Ikea, Kohl’s, LL Bean, Pier 1 Imports, Propper International, and Walmart. - Alan A. Lew

... the second major failure in 15 months, leading some to say it's about time the country upgraded an air traffic control system that dates back to the 1960s. "We're using technology that is not nearly as good as what most Americans have in their car," said Geoff Freeman, senior vice president of U.S. Travel Association, which represents airlines, hotels and others in the travel industry. - Alan A. Lew

The researchers have developed a technique that uses interference patterns created when GPS signals that reflect off of the ground -- called "multipath" signals -- are combined with signals that arrive at the antenna directly from the satellite ... - Alan A. Lew

If you see a young man in a wheelchair at the airport check-in desk, what goes through your mind? I wonder where he's going? I'm glad I'm not in one of those? Lucky so-and-so, he doesn't have to walk all the way to the gate? If the plane goes down that bloke's really in trouble? - Alan A. Lew

While flights continued to take off and land during the outage, they did so at a delayed pace, causing planes to back up on the ground and in the air. Passengers whose flights were cancelled were left scrambling for travel options. - Alan A. Lew

92.3 percent of the 741 scales at the two airports were found to be in perfect working condition. The airlines were ordered to stop using the other 57 scales, and they have since been fixed. New York Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz's said that of those 57 scales that failed inspection, only 42 percent were overweighing bags. The other good news for travelers is that this year's inspection showed more scales in working order: 92.3 percent compared to 88 percent during last year's enforcement drive. - Alan A. Lew