Fancy a flight in the latest jet trainer?

If so, Alenia Aermacchi of Italy has a competition you might want to enter. It’s to name their latest advanced jet trainer, the M-346. The first flight of the M-346 took place in July 2004. It’s about to enter production. It’s a twin-engined design, fast and highly maneuverable, designed to train pilots to handle the… Continue reading Fancy a flight in the latest jet trainer?

Zippered luggage isn’t very secure

For those who travel with zippered cases or bags, there’s food for thought. A video posted at Nokia MOSH shows how very easy it is to open a zipped case. It can even be re-sealed, leaving no trace of illicit entry. Worth watching . . . and perhaps switching to luggage fastened more securely! Peter

A new hotel – for the super-rich

The new 1,539-room Atlantis Hotel is to open tomorrow on an artificial island in Dubai. Much of the focus at Atlantis, modeled on a sister resort in the Bahamas, is on ocean-themed family entertainment. The resort contains a giant open-air tank with 65,000 fish, stingrays and other sea creatures and a dolphinarium with more than… Continue reading A new hotel – for the super-rich

Food fight!

The annual La Tomatina, or Tomato Festival, was held in Bunol, Spain, on Wednesday. I imagine the goings-on would send the makers of ketchup everywhere into a tizzy of excitement! The origins of the Tomatina are unclear. The most cautious view is that, one day in 1944 or 1945, in the little town of Bunol… Continue reading Food fight!

They don’t do things by halves – no, wait, they do!

It seems that the Royal Caribbean cruise line found one of their ships, the Enchantment Of The Seas, was a bit small. A replacement vessel would have cost a billion dollars and taken several years to build: so they decided to expand the old one. By sawing it in half. One instinctively does a double-take… Continue reading They don’t do things by halves – no, wait, they do!

An interesting blog

I’ve been alerted to an interesting blog by an e-mail from Mike P. The author describes himself as: An Assistant Professor at West Point’s Department of Social Science (Sosh-P), currently leading a group of eight cadets on a trip to Dharamsala, India. That’s an interesting mixture for a start! He writes about the towns, people… Continue reading An interesting blog

The Russian diet gets a makeover

This report should please my friend Marko. He’s written about the gustatory delights of currywurst before. Forget the caviar, a German chef has imported to Russia Berlin’s contribution to world gastronomy, the currywurst. For a few days each week, visitors to Moscow’s exclusive Ritz Carlton hotel can sample the dish, which consists of hot pork… Continue reading The Russian diet gets a makeover