This new study that was released is a bit chilling. From the Wall Street Journal, here are some highlights: “Â a new study that analyzed in-flight pediatric deaths found them to be very rare, but almost all of the children who did die aboard planes were under the age of 2 …
Read More »Airplane Take-Off in Front of Funnel Cloud
Here’s a cool shot of a Ryanair flight taking off in front of a funnel cloud. There were no reports of it fully forming a tornado, but it’s still a cool picture. As to the distance, from Accuweather: Without more details, AccuWeather experts cannot pinpoint the proximity of the plane …
Read More »Robot Butlers Coming Soon to Aloft
Just when I thought travel couldn’t get any better, the Aloft is bringing in Artificial (not quite) Intelligence. From Fox News: Meet A.L.O., Aloft Hotels’ first Botlr, short for robotic butler. A.L.O. will be rolling down the hallways of Aloft’s Cupertino, California location later this month helping guests with everything from finding …
Read More »JetBlue Engine Fire from “Ingesting” Bird While Still on Ground
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this before a plane took off. From 7online: JetBlue confirmed Sunday that Flight 704 from San Juan, Puerto Rico to JFK Airport experienced a “bird ingestion into the #1 engine”, causing an engine fire. Flight 704 from Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan experienced …
Read More »Tourists in China Randomly Tested for Drugs–Forced to Pee in Cups in Bar!
Last night, I couldn’t sleep so I was up late on twitter.  Then I saw these disturbing tweets: In Beijing bar last night I was made to do a random urine test for drugs. Those who failed including some foreigners taken away by police. — Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) August …
Read More »What a Thousand People in One Pool Looks Like
The Chinese Dead Sea Tourist Resort advertises the tranquility of laying out in the pool and relaxing. Not when there’s a heat wave. Click here to see (literally) thousands of people in one pool. Granted, it’s a large pool.  But not that large.
Read More »Bed Bugs on New York City Public Transportation System
I was a little freaked out when I found out that the San Francisco BART system seats tested positive for large amounts of human excrement–of both kinds.  So I was glad when they replaced the fabric seats with the sleeker kind you can hose down. I always figured the New York …
Read More »How to Follow Our Travels
We’ve had a bunch of new readers lately, so I wanted to let everyone know the options to follow us. One of the easiest way to keep track of us is to subscribe to our newsletter–but we are also on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow @HeelsFirst Enter your Email: Or …
Read More »Hipster Scarf Saves American Tourist’s Life in Germany
Don’t ask me why I was searching for hipster scarf on Google BUT the famed/scorned accessory that hipsters love saved an American tourist’s life in Germany. From Time (yes TIME reported on this): Alex Vogel, 38, told Tagesspiegel newspaper that he was walking by a Berlin river when he heard a …
Read More »Southwest Turning Old Seats into Shoes, Purses, & Soccer Balls
Southwest is turning their old leather seats into shoes, purses and soccer balls–all in the name of charity. From the LA Times:  The Dallas-based carrier launched “Project Luvseat,†in which 43 acres of leather from hundreds of old airline seats will be donated to charitable groups in Kenya to make …
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