This is one of those moments when a camera in hand meets a scene waiting to be photographed: a beleaguered traveller resorting to solitaire on his PC while waiting for the promised next flight. The blue sky ignores the chaos below. Air travel is certainly, as a fellow passenger lamented, “not what it once was”.
Category: Current Events
“Catch the Spirit Block Party”
I have no idea what these “mimes” were publicizing at the corner of Oakland Avenue and Monroe on a Sunday evening.
Midwest Airlines Employees – Between A Rock And A Hard Place
I had to sigh when I read this article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on the draconian pay cuts Midwest Airlines is asking its employees to take in order to survive. Having worked at two airlines during turbulent times, I too faced the decision on what to do when management imposed pay cuts.
In the first case, I took a temporary cut at Mesa Air Group after the horror of 9/11, when airlines didn’t know how long it would take to recover from the week-long shutdown of the air system and travelers deciding to fly again. The second time found me swallowing hard as I took a pay cut at Delta Air Lines after the carrier filed for Ch. 11.
But these cuts were nothing compared to what Midwest is asking of its employees — pay cuts of up to 65% for union pilots and flight attendants to avoid filing for bankruptcy. And this is on top of grounding its MD80s — almost half the fleet — and laying off hundreds of workers.
I suspect the days of Midwest’s extraordinary service are over.
Chicago White Sox vs the Cubs: Capturing the “Spirit of the Weekend”
Walking around Chicago this weekend, I observed no shortage of White Sox and Cubs paraphernalia (the two teams played one another at Wrigley Field). This couple certainly expressed the spirit of the weekend.
Drained Lake Delton VR Scene
Full Screen VR2008 Bratfest VR Scene
A Tear: Vietnam Approves a $4.5 Billion Dollar Coastal Casino Project. Atlantic City on the South China Sea?
Communist Vietnam is set to become the latest country in Asia to embrace Las Vegas-style casinos, with a Canadian property developer planning to break ground Saturday on the first phase of a $4.5 billion casino-resort project on the nation’s southern coast.
The project, called Ho Tram, will be the biggest foreign investment to date in Vietnam, said Michael Aymong, chairman of Toronto-based Asian Coast Development Ltd., the project’s lead investor, with a 30% stake. Its main partner in the project is New York hedge fund Harbinger Capital LLC, which has a 25% share.
The initial phase will cost $1.3 billion and consist of two five-star hotels with a combined 2,300 rooms and a casino with approximately 90 gambling tables, 500 slot machines and an area for VIP customers. When completed in 2015, the resort will comprise five hotels with 9,000 rooms and a second casino, Mr. Aymong said.
Ho Tram also will target vacationing families, with features including an 18-hole golf course designed by Greg Norman, a Cirque du Soleil theater, and a site for guests to swim with dolphins.
“It’s a needed project in Vietnam” that, in spite of the country’s poor infrastructure, will be able to “effectively compete” with integrated resorts in neighboring China, Malaysia and Singapore, Mr. Aymong said
Susan Spano offers another perspective after a recent visit.
The photo was taken on Highway 1 several hundred kilometers northeast of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).
A Scooter Rant
But I reserve particular ire for the burgeoning scooter movement that’s being written about on an alarmingly frequent basis in the media with every new report of another record price for a barrel of oil. Now, don’t get me wrong, because I have nothing against scooters. I like them, as a matter of fact. They can be fun, efficient and even cool in the right circumstances. But presenting scooters as a viable transportation option for the masses in this country is flat-out irresponsible.
Let me backup here for a second and repeat that sentence: “…can be fun, efficient and even cool in the right circumstances.” Guess what, folks – riding your Vespa down Woodward Avenue, Michigan Avenue or Fifth Avenue does not constitute “the right circumstances.” Americans clearly watched too many Italian movies from the 60s and became enamored with the whole “sweater tied around the neck/sunglasses on top of your head/voluptuous girl hanging on the back of the scooter” thing, and this latest gas frenzy has started to warp their thinking, big time.
“Crisis of Confidence in Dane County and Madison Leadership”
Jason Shepard, speaking on UW-Madison graduate Greta Van Susteren’s program mentioned that a “crisis of confidence exists in Dane County and Madison Leadership”. Jason discussed the growing controversy over murder victim Brittanny Zimmerman’s botched 911 call.
Fox News link (will disappear at some point)
40MB MPEG4 download for ipod/iphone/playstion and others. CTRL Click here.
VIDEO: Brazilian priest takes a ride with helium balloons and goes missing
The Roman Catholic priest who took flight by tying himself to a chair with hundreds of helium balloons has gone missing off the coast of Brazil.
He was trying to to break a 19-hour balloon flying record to raise money for a spiritual rest stop for truckers in Paranagua according to a news report.