Posts in the category "":

Flying lifts you above it all, offering a chance to take in the big picture from the sky.

But travelers who touch down at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) now have an opportunity to get down to specifics with a new exhibition exploring the history of microscopes.

Simple microscope with case 1673–1748; Courtesy SFO Museum

“From mid-seventeenth-century simple microscopes to the modern compound optical devices by German makers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these are the instruments that revealed the long-held secrets of the natural world—the existence of microorganisms, the structure of biological cells, and the composition and operation of a variety of previously unseen life forms. Nearly 350 years after Robert Hooke introduced a ‘newly visible world,’ we continue to rely on the microscope in our eternal quest to better understand the world we inhabit and the challenges posed by that which remains invisible to the unaided eye.”

[From the exhibition release]

If you can’t make it to the airport, you can view a selection of microscopes and other objects from the exhibition online.

Detail of specimen slides with seeds c. 1820; courtesy SFO Museum

A World Examined: Microscopes from the Age of Enlightenment to the Twentieth Century is on display pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby, at San Francisco International Airport through June 24, 2012.

Categories: Exhibits, Museum Monday, Museums
No Comments »

Categories: Uncategorized
No Comments »

If you’re heading to Toronto Pearson International Airport, you have one more day to take advantage of their “tweet-a-carol” program.

Anyone with family or friends traveling on a flight within Canada though December 24 can send a tweet to @torontopearson with the passengers’ first name and flight number and airport carolers will greet them with a holiday song on arrival.

At Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, travelers might be able to spot Santa Claus through December 26 and encounter the white Wish Fairies, the Xmas Skate Girls and other performers.

And through the end of January, 2012, Jan Dellaertplein, the square in front of the terminal, remains transformed into a winter wonderland complete with an ice-skating rink and complimentary skate rentals.

And, of course, NORAD , the U.S.-Canadian military organization that spends the rest of the year focused on the aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada, is using a wide variety of sophisticated methods to track Santa’s progress around the world.

Here’s a tracking map to see where Santa is now:

Have a great holiday!

Categories: Air Travel, Fun Stuff, Holidays
No Comments »

Southwest Airlines is apologizing to a Clarksville, Tenn., family and investigating how a 9-year-old girl flying as an unaccompanied minor from Nashville to New York on Tuesday ended up re-routed and delayed for five hours without the airline notifying the family.

Chloe Boyce is fine and will be getting a special patch from her junior Girl Scout troop to mark her adventure, but her mom, Elena Kerr, is upset.

“The flight arrived and my daughter didn’t get off,” Kerr told me. “Someone went on the plane to see if she was there and my sister called me and said, ‘Where’s Chloe?’ The Southwest guys told her there were no unaccompanied minors on that flight.”

Kerr had put Chloe on a flight in Nashville headed for New York’s LaGuardia Airport with scheduled stops in Columbus and Baltimore.

Southwest’s policy only allows unaccompanied children to be booked on itineraries that don’t include plane changes. Chloe’s flight, however, made an extra stop in Cleveland due to weather, and upon arriving in Baltimore she was rebooked on another flight to New York.

Unfortunately, no one from the airline called Kerr to inform her of the delay. The airline also did not contact Chloe’s aunt, who was waiting at the gate in New York.

Kerr said she started frantically calling Southwest and that it took more than an hour for the airline to locate Chloe and even longer to explain what happened.

“At BWI, the flight attendant took her off the plane, walked her to Hudson News to get her a drink and some snacks and the pilot bought her dinner,” Kerr told me. “But while she was there no could tell us where she was.”

Kerr said her family is a military family that has spent time living in Alaska and that she understands delays. “We just don’t understand why we weren’t called, especially because the Southwest policy states that someone must be available to answer phone calls during the flight time in the event of a flight irregularity.”

Southwest Airlines has apologized to Kerr and refunded the cost of Chloe’s ticket.

“Our unaccompanied minor policy aims to minimize these kinds of situations … by only ticketing them on itineraries that don’t require an aircraft change,” said Southwest spokesperson Brad Hawkins via email.
“In this case, the unscheduled change of planes resulted in the connection, a delay and distress for the family which we certainly regret and have apologized for in our conversation with the family of our customer.”

Kerr is not convinced she should let Chloe fly alone again.

“We don’t trust Southwest,” said Kerr. ” I’m going to be driving the 17 hours to New York to get her.”

(A slightly different version of this story first appeared on msnbc.com)

Categories: Air Travel, Kids, Kids travel
No Comments »

Hans Christian Andersen is credited with penning that oft-repeated quip: To travel is to live.

But, as I noted a few days ago here on StuckatTheAirport.com, at the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense, Denmark, I learned that the author of “Thumbelina,” “The Little Match Girl,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and many other well-known fairy tales, was a skittish traveler who always packed a heavy coil of rope in his trunk in case he needed an emergency fire escape.

That got me wondering about the objects — life-saving or otherwise — that today’s travelers keep in their suitcases. Here’s a sampling of what I found:

Catherine Stifter, a freelance editor and media trainer living in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, always carries a pocket edition of Lao-tzu’s “Tao Te Ching” to help her keep “a balanced perspective.”

Chandra Smith, office manager of Aviation Training Center in Burien, Wash., totes a well-worn 1976 edition of “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “just in case I get stuck at the airport and need something to read.”

When she hits the road, Christine Cunanan, publisher and editor-in-chief of TraveLife Magazine, takes along a piece of green felt that is “supposed to bring me more luck for amazing travels.” It was given to her years ago by a friend.

Debbie Twombly, a teacher in Jewell, Ore., never travels anywhere without her bandana bearing a print of the Virgin of Guadalupe. “She’s been down the Colorado River and on several other raft trips,” said Twombly. “Also to Mexico several times. That’s her favorite.”

Neil Glassman, of WhizBangPowWow, a marketing company in New York City, packs a laundry bag he got from the Parisian hotel Prince de Galles — a “most memorable use of points,” he recalled.

And Greg Principato, president of the Airports Council International – North America, the organization that represents most of the nation’s airports, keeps a tiny bottle of liquor in his TSA-approved baggie. “My wife and I had Baileys Irish Cream at dinner on the last night of our honeymoon,” said Principato. “I got the

Categories: Uncategorized
Comments Off