Weird

San Diego’s “mystery airport” unveiled

Japan and Hong Kong have airports built on man-made islands, so why not San Diego?

That’s apparently the solution a private business group had in mind when it sought a patent for the design of a multilevel airport with three runways that could be built in shallow water and accessed via an underwater tunnel.

Now that patent has been awarded, the San Diego Union-Tribune and area residents got a look at the details for the “mystery airport”  that might replace the bursting-at-the-seams San Diego International Airport.

san-diego-airport-in-bay1

(Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune)

According to the paper, reactions to the airport-in-the-bay range “from cautiously positive to incredulous.”  One member of the committee studying the airport’s future called the plan “crackpot stuff,” while others point out that the proposed airport site is smack dab in the middle of an environmentally sensitive region.

See what you think. As my mom used to say (usually when the topic was aliens…) “It could happen.”

Packing tips from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Last week, custom agents, or rather a Customs and Border protection dog, at Washington Dulles International Airport smelled something fishy in the suitcase belonging to a man arriving from Africa.

As reported in the Washington Business Journal and loads of other places, it wasn’t fish inside that suitcase. The man had three dead monkeys, 10 pounds of deer meat and 10 pounds of dried beef in there.

The meat products were seized, but the traveler wasn’t fined. Turns out that he, like other travelers, just didn’t know that you can’t bring any meat products into the U.S. from other countries.

What else won’t pass muster? Fruits, vegetables, plants, soil, products made from animal or plant materials – and the items in a new display at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The airport’s art program has partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to set up this temporary exhibit in Concourse E.

(Photo courtesy Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport)

Airport officials say, except for a few pieces of coral and tortoise-shell jewelry on loan from the Federal Repository in Denver, everything in the 13 exhibit cases was seized at ATL.

Here’s a sampling of what’s on display: a complete polar bear skin, a stuffed hyena, a blowgun from South America decorated with rare macaw feathers, giant mounted spiders, hiking boots made from elephant hide, beauty products made from caviar, and much, much more!

Wave goodbye to the Hello Kitty airplanes

Goodbye, Kitty?

According to an article from Pacific Business News, EVA Air has announced that it will soon be phasing out its two official all-Hello Kitty jets.

The jets feature the Sanrio Co.’s famous white cat with a big pink ribbon over one ear and a few of her other feline friends. EVA Air launched the first jet in October 2005 and the second in 2006. Passengers on the flights get the Hello Kitty experience from the time they board with luggage tags and boarding passes, to napkins, utensils, meals and decor. Flight attendants even wear pink aprons.”

One Hello Kitty Airbus 330-200 jet will be taken out of service in early December. The second jet will be taken out of service in March.

Want to catch the kitty? You’ll have to head to Asia, where the two jets are used on short trips, mostly between Taipei and various destinations in Japan.


(Photo courtesy: EVA Air)