Cornell Software Can Spot Fake Hotel Reviews

GeekOSystem: If you’ve ever looked for hotel reviews online, you’ve probably come across what is called opinion spam, otherwise known as fake reviews. The problem is, you probably don’t know it, or at least can’t single out the bogus ones. That’s why researchers at Cornell have developed a computer program that can call out fake reviews with 89.8% accuracy. You might be thinking, “so what? I can totally do that.” Well, the numbers beg to differ. When Cornell pitted three human judges against a slew of hotel reviews, half of which were truthful and verified, half of which were complete fiction, and asked them to single out the phonies, the puny humans fared no better than chance.

It all comes down to this concept called “truth bias.” Basically, when you read something, you generally take it as truth until you find evidence to the contrary (makes my job easier). On the flip side, if you’re told to be on the lookout for deception, you start shadowboxing like a schizophrenic and won’t believe your own mother’s story about how fluffy the pillows were. Enter the zen quietude of the robot brain.

The program that sorts through these reviews has none of the psychological problems we have, of course, and instead focuses on some really odd, but interesting facts about real reviews and fake ones. For instance, real reviews tend to use more concrete nouns, while fake ones lean heavily on verbs. The liars will also do more scene-setting and talk about “vacation” or “my business trip” while the truthful among us refer to boring real things like “the bathroom” and “lobby.” Basically, liars tend to write in a more flowery, scenic way and the truthful fellows write like Hemingway. These differences are subtle, however, and given the whole truth bias thing and how closely you have to look to get this stuff right, the computers are better at it than you ever will be.

The kicker? These algorithms, while awesome, are only validated for reviews, and to narrow the scope even further, only validated for hotel reviews. Still, there are applications to be had in first string, online review screening and a new word bank and some fine tuning could, presumably, open the program up for applications in spotting fake online reviews for other things. Just beware, when they finally rise up, the robots will be able to know if you are lying, so stop pitting your roombas against each other, because I highly doubt our robot overlords will approve.

London Hotel to Have "Floating" Rooms

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TheSun: Premier Inn (plans) to build the UK's first hotel with floating bedrooms. The hotel in London's Leicester Square will feature 84 bedrooms which "float" on neoprene pads to deaden noise from the square and a club below.

Walls and ceilings will be insulated and windows quadruple-glazed.

Patrick Dempsey, managing director of parent company Whitbread, said: "It means we can be confident about guaranteeing a good night's sleep, even in the heart of one of the world's liveliest entertainment centres."

The hotel is scheduled to open next February.

Ballooning World Record Set in France

Daily Mail: It took a lot of hot air - and a little bit of patience - but 343 hot air balloonists have finally broken the world record for taking off at the same time.

The high-flyers' mass ascent at the 12th Lorraine World Air Balloon Festival, in Chambley-Bussieres, France, should have taken place on Monday.

But bad weather put paid to their plans, meaning they had to postpone their lift-off until today.

Luckily the elements held out and organizers of one of the largest balloon festivals in the world were left with huge smiles on their faces.

It comes two years after the festival set the previous record for largest mass ascent when 326 balloons took to the skies. The event, attended by 14 countries, featured a number of Brits who had made the short hop over the Channel to take part.

Dangerous New Hotel Craze: Balconing

USAToday: Young Brits who like to imbibe incredible amounts and behave rowdily on vacation are making headlines this summer.

One thing they're doing is participating in a faddish pastime called "balconing" -- which some could call an extreme sport. It happens a lot at Spanish resorts and it involves participants jumping from balconies into pools, tossing drinking buddies from balconies into pools, or jumping from room to room via balconies -- often with horrific results. News reports say there were at least a half-dozen deaths in Spain last year.

This month, Britain's The Telegraph reported that Harvey Hoyte-Bone, 23, from Farnham, England landed in intensive care after after falling around 70 feet from a balcony on the Spanish island of Mallorca. The fall happened around 4 a.m., the paper reported, and was luckily broken by an overhead sunshade on a lower balcony.

Police believed he was trying to jump between balconies in the resort of Palmanova near Magaluf. The Telegraph said four people were admitted into hospital on the island in recent weeks on Mallorca. On the neighboring party island of Ibiza, a 24-year-old Brit died after balconing.

And Costa-news.com reported that in June a 19-year-old Brit staying at the Torrenova Playa hotel in Magaluf broke his arm and ankle jumping off a balcony. A Swedish tourist also was injured in a similar incident. And a 17-year-old Brit died there under similar circumstances last year.

Not to say that balcony falls are only the province of Brits.

Swedes and Germans are among nationalities involved, and there are suspicious balcony falls in resort areas of the USA and Caribbean. However, Brits -- especially young men known as "lager louts" -- are famed for their binge drinking and bad behavior.

Cooling Off At a Dive-In Movie

Innisbrook Resort's Pool

MSNBC: When it comes to cooling down after a sweltering summer day, some travelers like to take in a movie; others would rather take a dip.

Who says you have to choose? This summer, plenty of hotels are offering poolside movies that invite guests to dive in and enjoy the show.

“For generations, watching a movie together has been a traditional family activity,” said Arica Haro, recreation director for the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla. “But attending a dive-in movie turns the everyday into something unusual and exciting.”

Ready to take the plunge? Depending on where your travels take you this summer, here are four places where the aquatic and cinematic come together:

The Beverly Hilton: Think of it as “to live and dive in L.A.” and the chance to enjoy movies in the same pool where “Hollywood Mermaid” Esther Williams once taught swim lessons. These days, the hotel shows free movies on a 60-foot screen on Wednesday and Thursday nights overlooking the Aqua Star Pool. The movies are open to guests and non-guests, with a percentage of concession revenue benefiting the Beverly Hills Education Foundation.

Innisbrook Resort: Located just north of Tampa-St. Petersburg, this resort is home to the Loch Ness Pool, a 127,000-gallon, Nessie-shaped behemoth with a sandy entry, waterfall and two water slides. On Saturday nights, guests show up 30 minutes before sunset for face painting, trivia contests and “minute to win it” games and then settle in or around the pool for family-friendly movies on a 16’ x 9’ inflatable screen.

The Fairmont Dallas: By day, the outdoor pool on the third floor of this high-rise hotel offers panoramic views of the Dallas skyline. At 8:30 on Friday nights, though, the center of attention is the poolside movie screen where guests and non-guests can watch free movies with monthly themes. Alas, “Blue Crush” on July 29 is the last of this summer’s Beach Movies, with August moving on to the entertaining, but vaguely dispiriting theme of Back to School.

The Boise Hotel & Conference Center: With its indoor pool and 25-foot movies screen, this Idaho hotel can show movies year-round, which it does on Friday and Saturday nights. It also offers one of the best deals in the dive-in movie business: A four-person room, plus four movie tickets, four movie-sized candy bars and sodas, a large popcorn and a disposable underwater camera. At $99 per room, it’s probably cheaper than going to the local multiplex.

The World's Most Expensive Hot Dog?

At $80, the new foot-long 'McMullen Dog' at Brockton Roxstadium in Massachusetts may be the world’s most expensive hot dog. Food and beverage manager Sander Scotland describes it as "redneck meets the rich and famous.'

According to Scotland, the McMullen Dog was named after Atlantic City chef Ryan McMullen who came up with the idea. The offering features a half-pound all-beef sausage rolled in truffle oil, coated with the dust of pulverised porcini mushrooms and topped with white truffle shavings.

The roll is hand-made buckwheat blini from one of Cape Cod's most exclusive bakeries. Instead of the usual ketchup and mustard, the McMullen comes with a caviar and creme fraiche dressing and salmon roe.

World's most expensive hotdog: MyFoxBOSTON.com

Wind Farms Becoming Tourist Attractions

The conventional wisdom has been that large wind farms will turn off tourists. That may be changing.

Pennsylvania's Somerset County boasts the state's highest mountain with gently rolling hills, three state parks, three commercial campgrounds, numerous summer festivals, and winter sports like skiing. So when a power company proposed building 100 utility-scale turbines in the county, many raised concerns about the impact to tourism.

Today, however, the turbines stand tall on the county's hills, and Ron Aldom, an executive at the Somerset County Regional Chamber of Commerce, says the county has not seen a decline in local tourism numbers; in fact, the opposite may be occurring. "People do come here for other reasons, but some people do want to go see the wind farms. We have some people who get off at (our) exit and ask, 'How can I go see these?' "

The same is happening in other areas:

Atlantic City, N.J., where the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm, now complete, has become a mini-tourist attraction. Tourists can get up close to turbines, each of which "saves 24,000 barrels of crude oil a year." The 35-story-tall machines attract about 15,000 visitors a year.

Searsburg, Vt., where a local business now offers periodic tours of the Searsburg Wind Power Facility, taking care to limit access in order to protect the wildlife habitat.

Cape Cod, Mass., where HyLine Cruises is already planning to offer tours of a huge, recently approved offshore wind farm. HyLine reportedly opposed the farm when it was announced, but now predicts its turbine tours and a windpower visitor center will be more popular than the whale tours the company offers there.

North Palm Springs, Calif., where a company charges $30 a customer for a 90-minute bus tour of a 30-year-old wind farm. The company describes the tour as "a short course in ecology awareness and environmentally friendly power" that demonstrates turbine tech evolution.

236 Year Old Post Office May Close

Fox News: The Ben Franklin post office in Philadelphia was informed Tuesday that it will likely be shut down, as the U.S. Postal Service attempts to reel in spending by closing thousands of locations across the country.

The unassuming, three-story brick building, which pre-dates the Revolutionary War, would lose a post office but potentially gain a pharmacy, a grocery store or “other appropriate retailers,” the Postal Service told MyFoxPhilly.com.

The Ben Franklin post office remains the only one in the country that doesn't fly a U.S. flag. That's because there wasn't a U.S. flag in 1775, when Franklin founded what has evolved into today's Postal Service.

There's a postal museum upstairs from the post office, which is located in a house once owned by Franklin. It opened as a post office in 1975, 200 years after Benjamin Franklin was appointed the country's first postmaster general.

MyFoxPhilly.com reported that Franklin succeeded in his final push to establish the post office on July 26, 1775. The museum and a neighboring post office at the site in Philadelphia were unveiled on July 26, 1975. And the facility received word of the potential shutdown on July 26, 2011.

The Postal Service had to adapt to the new environment where more customers are choosing to conduct business online rather than “snail mail.”

There are nearly 32,000 retail offices, and the Postal Service is conducting studies of approximately 3,700 retail offices to determine customer needs.

After an office is placed on the list of potential closures, the community served by that office will have 60 days to file their comments. If an office is to be closed, appeals will be heard by the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.

Revamnped LA Hotel Plays Up the 1960's Airline Look

USA Today: Boutique hotel operator Joie de Vivre revamped the Custom Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport, giving fliers a funky new option amid a sea of chain hotels such as Hiltons, Marriotts and Sheratons.

The hotel will re-open in September with updated amenities, a revamped bar and restaurant and a new attitude. The hotel's retro-chic look recalls the mod 1960s.

Each floor has a different color and graphic pattern. In rooms, guests will be able to personalize their room with a color-changing LED lighting system installed in the windows. They'll also find complimentary Wi-Fi, 37-inch flat screen TV sets, new bedding and desks and soundproof windows.

The 12th floor has a relaxation room called the Stratosphere with a massage chair, while the third-floor game room lets guests play Xbox Kinect. The restaurant - called Deck 33 - overlooks the pool and serves Asian-inspired food.

Expect to see employees dressed in 1960s airline-inspired outfits. If you take a shuttle there from the airport, you'll find warm or cold towels to refresh yourself with and bottled water.

The hotel is offering introductory rates that start at $129.

2012 Olympics Begin One Year From Today

LondonNet: London’s Olympics, which start on this day in 2012, are the best prepared ever, according to one of the people in charge of the Sydney Games, often held up as the most successful of the modern era.

"Many people say that Sydney remains the benchmark, but from where I've been sitting, London has been six months to a year ahead of us in their preparations all the way through," said John Coates, president of the Australian Olympic Committee.

That view was backed up by sports business expert Alan Seymour, who told Bloomberg: "London has raised the bar and set some really good precedents and future markers for bidders of the Games."

"It's definitely a first" for an Olympics site to be all but complete a year before opening day, he added.

One of the differences between previous Games and the London Olympics is the much-vaunted legacy that organizers say will be left to east London.

While many venues and facilities in Beijing, Athens and Sydney – the three most recent Games – lie derelict or unused, the claim is that plans are in place to make use of London's Olympic sites for the benefit of the local area and beyond. "The investment wasn't just for six weeks of Games, it was for the next 30 years of east London," said Margaret Ford, chairwoman of the Olympic Park Legacy Company.

"For every pound spent on the Olympic park, 75 pence stays there in legacy. So all of the infrastructure, the transport upgrades, the remediation of the land, the venues, all of those things remain in the park."

London Olympics supremo Sebastian Coe, who presides over today's one-year-to-go ceremonies at St Pancras station, said: "I feel pride that it's 'sport wot done it'. I cannot look at the Olympic Park without taking great pride that all of us in sport did this."

Tourists Reconsider Travel to Japan

Toronto Sun: Just four months after a devastating earthquake in Japan, a new survey has found tourists are willing to consider the country as a travel destination.

The Hotels.com survey found Japan ranked in the top three favorite global destinations, with 86% of respondents saying they would consider going there within the next year.

On March 11, a powerful earthquake hit off the coast of Japan, triggering tsunami waves. The disaster destroyed towns and villages, and led to meltdowns at three reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Flight and hotel costs were a major incentive, with almost 70% of survey respondents saying they would visit Japan now if the price was right. Japan's food, culture and sightseeing were also important motivations.

"I am very encouraged that so many people in the Hotels.com survey indicated that they are willing to travel to Japan. I hope that everyone can visit Japan and experience the best of Tokyo's fantastic hospitality which never changes," Hideki Yokoyama, a tourism spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, said in the release about the survey.

"I would like everyone to see that the whole of Japan is working together for a rapid recovery. Please feel free to visit Japan now or in the near future."

The survey of 500 travelers from 17 countries was conducted in July.

First Dreamliner Delivery Expected in September

Seattle Post Intelligencer: Boeing 787 Dreamliner launch customer All Nippon Airways (ANA) will get its first 787 in September and start commercial flights about a month later, the airline said Monday.

Boeing’s latest guidance was that it expected to deliver the first 787 to ANA in August or September. Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said Monday that the company will not update its guidance before Wednesday, when it releases second-quarter earnings.

FlightBlogger reported Monday that Boeing aims to deliver the first 787 in around the third week of September and is unlikely to deliver more than five or six 787s this year, down from 12 to 20, because reworking and outfitting planes is taking longer than expected. FlightBlogger also reported that Boeing is almost certain to delay first 787-9 delivery by three to six months, into early 2014.

The first commercial flight of a 787 will be a charter run from Tokyo Narita Airport to Hong Kong about a month after it gets the plane, ANA said. It said any customer will be able to get on the flight as part of a special package tour it is arranging.

ANA plans to follow that first flight up with two hour-long excursion flights, departing and landing at Narita, available to frequent flyers and Mileage Card members. It said it will add details later to its 787 Dreamliner website.

After these special flights, ANA plans to use the first 787 on a domestic route: from Tokyo Haneda Airport to either Okayama or Hiroshima.

Tales of TSA Tomfoolery

AirfareWatchdog: Look, we all know that folks at the Transportation Security Administration have a tough job, they're there to protect us, and all that. But they could probably do a better job. Judging from recent events, it seems they think the real threat to national security isn't, say, a shifty businessman scamming his way onto a transcontinental Virgin Atlantic flight using a stolen and expired boarding pass (for the wrong date and flight, no less), as Nigerian national Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi did just a few weeks back (amazingly, law enforcement stopped him but let him go, only to arrest him when he pulled the same stunt on a subsequent flight).

No, the real danger comes from people like Jean Weber's 95 year-old, wheelchair-bound, Depends-wearing mother, who, just a few days before Noibi's joyride, attempted to board a plane from Florida to Michigan to see her family, perhaps for the last time before possibly dying of leukemia.

Agents in New York couldn't be bothered to read the boarding pass of a man that had no business boarding a plane to California, but their counterparts at the Northwest Florida Regional Airport had all the time in the world to ruin the day of a very old, very frail and frightened woman, pulling her aside for 45 minutes of additional screening and forcing her to remove her undergarments.

When it comes to the TSA, one thing's for sure – they sure have no idea how to get the traveling public to like them. Since their creation in 2001, barely a week goes by that we don't hear yet another tale of agency dysfunction – often of the most hilarious kind. Here are ten memorable stories from recent years.

#1 DIPLOMACY IN ACTION Meera Shankar is India's ambassador to the United States. Shankar was invited to Jackson, Mississippi as a guest of Mississippi State University, where she met with Mississippi's Lieutenant Governor and gave a speech. As a souvenir, she took home an unhappy memory. While passing through security on her way out of town, Shankar was pulled aside for a very thorough -- and, despite her requests for privacy -- a very public pat down. Agents told the media afterwards that Shankar was singled out due to the fact that she was wearing a sari. Isn't that what all the terrorists wear? No? A shaken Shankar told her hosts that her first visit was probably going to be her last.

#2 THE CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS NIPPLE RING When you head for the metal detector, maybe you want to remove your body armor. At least that's what Mandi Hamlin discovered, when she tried to board a plane out of Lubbock, Texas back in 2008. After metal was detected in her chest area, an agent informed her that if she wanted to get on the flight, she'd have to remove whatever was going on underneath her clothing. Which happened, by the way, to be nipple piercings. Hamlin requested a visual check, but the agent refused, instead handing her a pair of pliers. So she could remove the piercings. From her breasts. In the middle of the airport.

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India's 'Wall of Death'

Daredevil performers use motorcycles and cars, a 30 foot high wooden wall and centrifugal force to entertain hundreds of tourists at a fair in Srinagar, Kashmir.

Racing along just feet from the top of the wall, the performers climb out of car windows and take their hands off the motorbike handlebars to demonstrate their skill to the delight of the spectators.

Hunting Rifle Discharges at Airport Ticket Counter

WDSU: One person was hurt on Monday in what investigators called an accidental shooting at Armstrong International Airport.

Jefferson Parish deputies said they responded to the call about 10:30 a.m.

Investigators said the shooting happened in the ticket counter area. A passenger was checking a hunting rifle at the United Airlines desk when the weapon discharged.

The bullet struck a counter and fragmented, sending a piece of the projectile into the leg of an airline employee. He was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The passenger, 65-year-old Edward Deubler, was issued a misdemeanor summons for negligent injury.

"Checking a hunting rifle? Boy, I thought they were strict on toothbrushes," airline passenger Ged Smyth said.

Other passengers said Deubler should have used more caution when bringing the gun to the airport.

"I would hope whoever is doing that is responsible to not have one in the chamber whenever they're locking it up," said Randy Layman.

Under FAA regulations, it is legal to travel with a gun but it has to be declared, checked and unloaded. Fellow hunters said this accidental shooting is an embarrassment to the rest of their community.

In June, Kenner Police arrested three teens following a car chase that ended in a shooting outside the airport.

Those suspects now face a slew of charges including possible attempted murder, because the car police said they stole was being used as a dangerous weapon.