App Helps Travelers Speak Foreign Languages

Vocre App

 Reuters: Communicating with local people in a foreign country can pose difficulties, whether it is asking for direction or making a special request at a restaurant.

But Vocre, a new iPhone app released by translation company myLanguage, aims to ease those problems by enabling users to translate their spoken voice into foreign languages.

It leverages crowd-sourcing to continually improve the accuracy of its translations to allow people to express themselves in the same way as native speakers.

"It's like asking your friend down the street, 'How would I say this in Spanish?" said Andrew Lauder, founder and CEO of myLanguage.

"It might not be something that's expected by a dictionary -- but it is the right way to say it when you go to that specific part of the world. It has the colloquialisms or slang of the area."

The app uses the iPhones accelerometer as a source of input so that users don't need to tap the screen. They simply hold the phone in one direction to record their voice, and then flip it in the other direction to make it talk in the translated language.

Lauder said that the company's expertise lies in the translation technology, rather than the voice transcription or human speech technology, which are driven by Nuance (speech-to-text) and iSpeech (text-to-speech) respectively.

The translation engine trains itself based on user-contributed corrections, queries made by other users in their native languages, as well as their own linguists, to determine the most common way a native speaker would say a particular phrase.

"Weve really invented a new type of translation technology that learns every single time a translation is done," said Lauder. "Nobody has focused on what's the right way of saying this. And that's important because there's meaning attached to what we say -- people will know if you're saying something funny, for example."

Although the technology has been praised, the app has been criticized for its ease of use and pricing. Lauder said the company hopes to resolve both issues in an update expected this week that will make the app more intuitive to use, and also introduce a new pricing model.

The pricing will move away from a credit-based model towards a subscription-based model. The app will be free for use for the first 24 hours upon initial launch, but then will require a weekly or monthly subscription.

Competitors for the app include Google Translate, Jibbigo (both of which have free versions of their apps) and SmartTrans, which also makes use of Nuances voice recognition software and costs $19.99.

The app, available on the Apple App Store, currently supports nine languages - three dialects of English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese and Japanese. Support for ten more languages is planned.

Boeing Delivers First 787 Dreamliner

Business Week: Boeing signed formal documents completing delivery of its much-anticipated first 787 Dreamliner jet on Sunday. The new jet is expected to open up new routes, provide fuel savings and offer travelers more comfort. It was supposed to be flying passengers three years ago, but was delayed by production and design problems

Airlines have clamored for the new jet, ordering more than 800 of them, which is well above levels for previous new jets. The first one goes to Japan's All Nippon Airways. Boeing and All Nippon will have a delivery ceremony Monday outside the 787 factory in Everett, Wash., and the airline will fly the jet back to Tokyo on Tuesday.

The jet is the first midsize airplane capable of flying long-range routes, which enables airlines to open more non-stop routes. It also will be as much as 20 percent more fuel-efficient than planes it replaces.

Additionally, the Dreamliner features new technology that is expected to make customers more comfortable, including bigger windows, larger luggage bins, electronic dimming instead of pull-down shades and air pressure and humidity levels more similar to those on the ground.

Sunday's delivery came after a series of flights, inspections and payment.

Imagine Life Without the Mouse

Tampa Bay Online: Standing in the spooky darkness of the Haunted Mansion, Paul and Sherrye Archer wait their turn to enter the Magic Kingdom attraction at Walt Disney World.

The mansion filled with ghoulish illusions has been one of the Archers' favorite spots inside the park for the 19 years they have owned season passes. Disney World is the Valrico couple's escape from the pressure of their teaching jobs. Only an hour's drive from their front door, the four parks serve as weekend getaways several times a year.

Their set-in-concrete routine for every Magic Kingdom visit: a beeline to Adventureland and the Splash Mountain ride — their favorite — followed by the rib-rumbling Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Then the mansion, lunch, a dessert and the Buzz Lightyear laser shooting gallery.

Inside the mansion's dark entrance lobby, a narrator speaks in a mortician's ominous monotone. Sherrye, 61, whispers the script word-for-word. "Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination?"

Ah, imagination. The foundation upon which Walter Elias Disney built his entertainment empire. It was imagination that brought a whistling Mickey Mouse to the movie screen, then to TV and then to a land named after Disney in Anaheim, Calif. And it was imagination that led Disney to buy 30,000 acres of mosquito-choked scrubland in the middle of Florida with the idea of building a themed resort where visitors could spend money on rides, in restaurants and at hotels, immersed in a world of his creation.

It would take a Disney-size imagination to ponder what Orlando and Florida would be like if that first shovel of dirt hadn't been turned to build the Magic Kingdom. As the park marks its 40th year in business Saturday, it maintains its spot as the most popular theme park in the world, with an estimated 17 million visitors a year who spill into Orlando and use it as an entry point for exploring the rest of the peninsula.

"You're talking about the 500-pound gorilla in terms of tourism," said Mark Bonn, a professor at Florida State University's College of Business and president of Bonn Marketing Research. "Historically, we were promoted as a sun and sand and ski destination," Bonn said. "That all changed in a hurry when the Magic Kingdom opened."

Bonn's company has been tracking visitors for the city of Tampa for 17 years. His numbers show that 20 percent of the tourists who visit Tampa and St. Petersburg come here because of Disney and the other Orlando attractions it paved the way for. "If you were to take away 20 percent of spending in Hillsborough County, it would be a devastating loss," Bonn said. "Disney was the engine that started it all."

There are stories about why Walt Disney chose to build a duplicate park in Florida. One often-told tale is that Disney saw an employee, or "cast member," dressed in cowboy garb strolling through the futuristic Tomorrowland at Disneyland. For the big-picture Disney, who framed the construction of Disneyland with a cinematographer's eye, the contrast ruined his intended illusion. A theme park built properly would have tunnels for cast members to move without being seen, an innovation he used at Magic Kingdom.

The other story mixes illusion with money: When Disneyland was built outside Anaheim, Disney didn't anticipate the hoards of stores and rundown hotels it would attract outside the gates. As they surrounded the park, it limited any chance to expand. "He wanted them to be immersed and not see a 7-Eleven outside the gates of the Magic Kingdom," said Matt Roseboom, owner and publisher of Orlando Attractions Magazine. "He bought enough land to do just that."

After scouting other places in the United States and within Florida, Disney started scooping up land through dummy corporations to keep prices low. The Florida Project, as he called it, was intended to build Progress City, a concept that became Epcot and the town of Celebration.

Florida was all about big projects then. An hour away, billions of dollars were being spent to launch men into space at Cape Canaveral. In 1962, the nearby Kissimmee River was being straightened and drained to make way for grazing land and agriculture. In 1964, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began digging the Cross Florida Barge Canal to give ships a shortcut between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

"When you think about that time frame in Florida, you had a climate that was conducive to having a year-round operation like they had in California," Disney historian Dave Herbst said. "And they had the ability to buy a lot of land at a manageable price."

Using its considerable lobbying power, the company negotiated with the state to grant it eminent domain over the property to avoid the red tape of building in Osceola and Orange counties. The Reedy Creek Improvement District — overseen, managed and policed by Disney officials — was created. After Disney died from cancer in 1966, his brother Roy took over the project, nudging it toward a first phase of construction that included the Magic Kingdom, the Contemporary and Polynesian resorts, golf courses, a campground and a monorail.

When Lakeland residents William "Bill" Windsor Jr. and his wife, Marty, were picked from the opening day crowd of 10,000 visitors to be the first to see Magic Kingdom, along with their toddler sons Jay and Lee, there was no way to predict the park's explosive growth. That 43-square-mile property now consists of four theme parks, two water parks, 33 resorts and hotels, a shopping district, a sports complex and a boardwalk. There remains ample room for parks and resorts if demand grows. Its success spawned similar versions in France and Japan.

So large was Disney's economic gravity back then that SeaWorld duplicated its San Diego theme park with an Orlando version in 1973. Universal Orlando more closely mimicked the Disney model in 1990, with what later became multiple parks and resorts. The three cemented the region as the world's top tourist destination.

A Disney-commissioned study released in April estimates that the Disney property generates $18.2 billion in annual economic activity in Florida, totaling 2.5 percent of the state's gross domestic product. The study by Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics showed Disney employs 62,000 who earn an aggregate of $1.8 billion. Statewide, 160,000 jobs lead back to Disney: one out of every 50 jobs in Florida. That doesn't include the millions of dollars that have flowed to Tampa or St. Petersburg as travelers filter through. Or the construction workers that built houses and widened Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike.

Disney and Florida have become so synonymous that marketing money spent by the company to draw visitors acts as de facto promotion for the rest of the state, economist Bonn said. The state has a $25 million tourism marketing budget, while Disney spends $250 million to promote its attractions.

Without Cinderella's Castle, there's no reason to assume Orlando would be the 29th-busiest airport in the world, according to Airports Council International. There's nothing to suggest "the I-4 corridor" would have become so coveted in national politics. "There would be no Orlando Magic basketball team," Bonn said, joking. "Funny how they got that name, eh? What would they have called them, the Orlando Oranges?"

Roseboom recently broke the news in his attractions magazine that Disney plans to feature a land in its Animal Kingdom park dedicated to "Avatar," the largest-grossing movie ever.

Without the Magic Kingdom, Herbst never would have left his job as a sports copy editor for the Pittsburgh Press to become a Disney historian. He will retire this year after 30 years. In 1977, he begrudgingly took a trip to Magic Kingdom instead of visiting his grandmother.

"My friends loved Disney," Herbst said. "They said, 'You have to go to Walt Disney World.' My response was, "Why? We have Kennywood!' "

After two days in the Magic Kingdom, he told his wife while driving north on Interstate 95, "I'm going to work there someday.

"I was seeing myself as the guy on the horse-drawn trolley or some fun little job," Herbst said. "I immediately sent a crazy letter to them after we got home. I got back a letter that said, 'Thank you for your interest.'"

Four years later, he was a cast member.

Paul Archer worked as a cast member in the mid-1970s, sweeping up trash along Magic Kingdom's impeccably clean Main Street U.S.A. His favorite park is Epcot: Once you have swept up after the horses, it changes your view of Magic Kingdom, he said. Archer, 55, owns no Mickey Mouse-adorned apparel. His wife once bought them matching Mickey Mouse outfits during a Disney cruise. He wore it. "Once," he said, flatly.

The couple, who met as physical education teachers and coaches at schools in Palm Bay, spend thousands of dollars a year at the park. Married for more than 20 years, they have no children but enjoy seeing the parks through the eyes of their relatives' kids.

Paul, a physical education teacher at Corpus Christi Catholic School in Temple Terrace, runs the Disney Marathon each year through the streets of the theme parks and resorts. Sherrye, who teaches physical education at Stowers Elementary in Lithia, wears her oversized Minnie Mouse hand to wave goodbye to students at the end of the school year. They rarely buy souvenirs.

One time in 2005, they broke that rule. They got through the front gate of Magic Kingdom at opening time and ran to their beloved Splash Mountain. As the first two riders of the day, they went down the water toboggan alone. Twice. They plunked down $15 for the 5- by 8-inch souvenir photo. It sits in a frame on their mantel. "That was the best day at the park ever," she said. "I'll never forget that."

Not everyone has been entranced by Disney's magic, though. Members of the I Hate Disney World page on Facebook, for example, see the resort as "a blight on the fetid swampland it was built on."

"It makes your average refugee camp look like a garden party," the page says. "The most accursed place on Earth."

In 2008, Newark Star-Ledger parenting columnist Peggy O'Crowley bemoaned a trip to Magic Kingdom, confessing her boredom and saying her kids were equally underwhelmed. "The heat, the long lines for rides, the $5 hot dogs, the plastic castle, the adults wearing Goofy or Mickey ears … it was all too much for us," she wrote.

Disney fans swarmed to the newspaper's website to defend the resort. "I am guessing if there was one of the seven dwarfs you admire and resemble the most it would be Grumpy," one wrote.

The definitive anti-Mouse screed remains Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen's 83-page book, "Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World." Published in 1998, the book has become the Rosetta stone for despising the Disneyfication of Florida and the country.

Hiaasen attacks the company for what he sees as its manhandling of the Legislature to get its way, for destroying the environmental purity of Central Florida and for insisting that nature is something to be managed instead of nurtured.

"Disney is so good at being good," Hiaasen writes, "that it manifests an evil; so uniformly efficient and courteous, so dependably clean and conscientious, so unfailingly entertaining that it's unreal, and therefore is an agent of pure wickedness. Imagine promoting a universe in which raw Nature doesn't fit because it doesn't measure up."

Disney has responded to critics with efforts to tout its recycling efforts. Visitors staying at resort hotels are asked to conserve towels to reduce water use. Attractions at Animal Kingdom and Epcot tout the wisdom of being ecologically minded.

But even critics know Disney isn't leaving Florida anytime soon. Consider those big projects that emerged about the time Magic Kingdom was built. NASA this year stopped sending people into space from Cape Canaveral. The Kissimmee River straightening is being undone to rectify damage to the region and to the Everglades. The uncompleted barge canal didn't see the end of the first Nixon administration and is now a greenway named for its most strident opponent.

Magic Kingdom, on the other hand, will add a village of new princess-themed attractions to Fantasyland next year. And Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo announced Thursday the company's plan to expand into India. Shanghai Disney is slated to open in 2015.

Disney endures.

Daredevil Stuntman Flies Through Mountain

Jumping from a helicopter at 6,000 feet, Jeb Corliss successfully dived through a tiny hole in a mountain in central China wearing only a special jumpsuit fitted with wings. Corliss has previously jumped from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Seattle Space Needle, and the Petronius Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Video:

Fired Starbucks Barista Strikes a Chord

Chris Cristwell never expected the response he received after Starbucks fired him for posting an online rant video: hundreds of thousands of YouTube hits, hundreds of Facebook Fans and job offers.

"Just people contacting me about doing partnerships and selling t-shirts and singing jingles for their businesses," he said.

Video:

London 2012 Olympics: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

London Olympic Stadium

 The Globe and Mail: Never have the modern Olympics paid so much attention to the ideas of impermanence and portability, to the goal of packing ’em up and building ’em somewhere else. In a radical departure from the edifice complex that has blighted previous Summer Games, London 2012 is shaping up as the first Lego Olympics.

“ ‘Touching the ground lightly’ is the phrase we use,” says Chris Jopson, a senior architect at Populous, the London firm that’s responsible for the overall design of the Olympic Park and its main stadium. “We want to be able to return things to the way they were.” The firm has a motto for the building the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which begin on July 27 next year: “Embrace the temporary.”

In other words (because the designers themselves are far too polite to say it), London is trying to avoid ungainly hulks that will disfigure the city’s face long after the crowds have gone and crouch like rusting reminders of a party that lasts a month but takes years to pay. The white-elephant legacy of Athens, Barcelona and Montreal is a sore spot. Even the majestic, nation-building stadiums of Beijing 2008 have come to seem, in three short years, like time-capsule relics from a more extravagant age.

Take the Olympic stadium. Mr. Jopson stands next to a model in Populous’s south London office, but the real thing is already finished an hour’s drive away in the Olympic Park, which sits in the down-at-the-heels neighbourhood of Stratford in London’s east end. It is 75 per cent lighter than a typical stadium of its size, it was built of a new type of concrete that requires less carbon to manufacture, and its top deck is partly constructed of gas pipes left over from a failed pipeline project. It is modest, and very English: a make-do-and-mend stadium that nods to the east end’s history as one of the most badly damaged areas in Britain in the Second World War.

Even more crucial, it comes apart, like a very large piece of Lego. During the Olympics and Paralympics, when it will be full to bursting for the athletics competitions and opening and closing ceremonies, it will hold 80,000 spectators. After, the top decks can be removed, down to 25,000 seats. It will probably end up at 55,000 seats, when its new tenant, West Ham football club, moves in after the Olympics (West Ham fought a bitter legal battle with Tottenham Hotspur, which also wanted to make the stadium its home.)

The “reduce, reuse, recycle” Games is a handy narrative for London 2012, which has many successes going for it (sold-out events, venues that were built on time and budget) but an equal number of question marks (the fallout from this summer’s riots, controversy over the use of historic venues and the claim that young people are still indolent couch potatoes, despite the government’s promise that it would use the Olympics to shift them into sports). More than 100 structures have been built for the Games; two-thirds of those are temporary.

Over at the airy offices of Zaha Hadid Architects, designers are showing off their baby, the Olympic Aquatic Centre. This is an Olympics where functionality trumps aesthetics, but the Aquatic Centre, with its wave-like, 160-metre timber-and-aluminum roof, is a thing of beauty, the clear winner of the pageant.

It, too, will be repurposed after the Games are over. Two giant boxes that stick out on either side of the main building, holding a total of 17,500 seats, will be taken away and only the three pools and the diving boards will be left behind. The plan is that when the athletes leave, the neighbourhood’s toddlers and grannies move in.

“The main thing for us is that people actually use it afterward, so that it doesn’t just sit there and turn into a white elephant,” says Jim Heverin, the Aquatic Centre’s project manager.

The people of Stratford could use a pool – and jobs, and some nice new buildings and shops. When then-mayor Ken Livingstone was fighting for the Olympic bid in 2005, he would tell whoever listened that Stratford sat in Newham, Britain’s most impoverished borough. Far from the picture-postcard sights of central London, it was a bleak post-industrial landscape where tourists never ventured. (When the two-square-kilometre site for the Olympic park was razed, it was revealed as a dumping ground for everything from electrical pylons to bomb debris and tar-soaked rubble. An onsite “soil hospital” steam-cleaned hundreds of thousands of tonnes of contaminated dirt.)

“It was a big scar across the city,” says Dan Hawthorn, the Mayor of London’s man in charge of the games. He has to convince the people of east London that this is not just a case of nine million people arriving on their doorstep, partying for a couple of weeks and leaving, and that the park will be scaled down to meet the community’s needs. “That kind of expense and disruption is never worth it just for a few days of sport,” Mr. Hawthorn says. He adds, “If you’re just bringing in wealthy people from around the country and the world, you’re going to make the people of the east end feel even more neglected than they already do.”

When the Games are gone, many of its buildings will be taken down, sold or repurposed. Qatari developers have struck a deal to buy the athletes’ village for £557-million (about half of what it cost to build, critics have pointed out). The basketball and water-polo arenas will disappear, and the BMX track will be dismantled and moved to a new location. The handball stadium becomes a multi-use sports centre, although it’s unclear who will use it. This week, Richard Caborn, the former Labour sports minister, warned that so few young people in Britain were taking up sport – a key part of the government’s Olympics plan – that the Games’ legacy was in danger of “failing completely.”

In the best-case scenario, and barring another serious downturn in the economy, the east end will begin to see forward movement, even if its children remain sedentary. The largest mall in Europe (Westfield Stratford City, which opened this month) and the largest urban park (the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, opening 2013) will sit next to each other. London’s soaring answer to the Eiffel and CN Towers, the Anish Kapoor-designed Orbit, is currently rising over the Olympic site like a ball of yarn flung by an angry cat.

But that’s only one small part of the city. The third of the three Rs, “recycle,” will be in evidence all over London. Instead of building new venues, the idea was to use world-famous locations in fresh, and sometimes jaw-dropping, ways. Horse Guards Parade, where you can normally see Changing the Guard and various sombre military ceremonies, becomes home to beach volleyball (giving Prime Minister David Cameron a bird’s-eye view, since 10 Downing St. is practically next door.) Archery will be held at Lord’s Cricket Ground, though not in the area deemed “hallowed,” where only cricket may be played.

The greatest controversy centres around Greenwich, a vast park on the river revered for its unparalleled links to the naval, royal and scientific history of England. Next summer, horses will be galloping over the pristine parkland (designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site) in the Olympic equestrian events. Competitors will jump and canter on a special “field of play” designed to protect the ground, which is rich in archeological history, but this was not enough to mollify protesters, who attempted without luck to have the venue moved.

At the end of the Games, the steel trusses and spectators’ stands will be taken down and sold, the debris hauled away and Greenwich will look the same as it has since Charles II ordered the Royal Observatory built more than three centuries ago. That, at least, is the plan.

Seattle's Tourism Transformation

MSNBC: Twenty years ago, Seattle was a quiet Northwestern city, notable for its timber and aviation industries as well as its starring role in the 1962 World’s Fair, where it unveiled the iconic Space Needle. But not much happened in the intervening decades to capture the nation’s imagination – or the interest of travelers.

Then grunge happened. The emergence of the band Nirvana, and its angry punk-pop album ‘Nevermind,’ 20 years ago this month changed the city as a destination.

In 1991, Seattle drew 6.1 million visitors who spent $1.6 billion. Since then, tourism has grown steadily, reaching 9.3 million visitors and $5.5 billion in spending last year. While grunge threw the spotlight on Seattle, the attention only grew as coffee culture and movies like "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Singles" gave the city color it didn’t have before, says David Blandford, vice president of communications for Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“When you look at the '90s and what came from some of those phenomena,” Blandford says, “people began to understand what it was like to live here and visit.”

For several years, though, local politicians fought the thriving music scene through ordinances, afraid that its aggressive roots would tarnish efforts to portray Seattle as a world-class destination. “The city leadership really didn’t like [grunge],” says James Keblas, director of Seattle’s office of film and music.

Anti-establishment residents weren’t clamoring for grunge to become a part of Seattle’s image, either. “When grunge exploded, people really turned away from it here,” Keblas says. “It’s taken a while for Seattle to own that identity and be proud of it and to capitalize on it in interesting ways.”

That slow embrace is now a tight grip, making the city’s musical heritage a big part of any visit. The Experience Music Project, which opened in 2000 and has become a popular Seattle attraction, is named after one of Seattle native Jimi Hendrix’s bands. The pop music museum is marking the 20th anniversary of ‘Nevermind’ with a yearlong exhibition featuring Nirvana memorabilia and photography.

In 2005, the city introduced maps pinpointing historic music sites, including the Black Dog Forge, a blacksmithing studio where the bands Pearl Jam and Soundgarden rehearsed. Also on the maps are sites that recall the city’s musical history pre-grunge, like the Trianon Ballroom, which hosted jazz-era orchestras led by Vic Meyer and Gay Jones and the Black & Tan Club, a jazz club where Ray Charles, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington performed.

The city’s musical legacy has become such an important part of luring tourists that the downtown boutique Hotel Max decorated the doors on one floor with iconic images of grunge bands taken by local photographer Charles Peterson.

But if there’s a true benchmark of Seattle’s transformation into a conventional tourist destination, it’s the Hard Rock Café that opened in February 2010. The restaurant replaced a coin-operated peep show steps away from Pike Place Market. True to the city’s ethos of activism and originality, though, this franchise of the global chain features reclaimed wood and memorabilia from local bands and performers.

Seattle hasn’t just capitalized on its musical heritage in the past decade; it has also taken advantage of new cruise terminals. In 1999, the city’s port welcomed just 6,600 cruise passengers. In 2010, that number had reached 931,000, thanks to two new terminals, one opened in 1999 and the other in 2009. Each time a homeport ship docks, it contributes $1.9 million to the local economy, according to the Port of Seattle.

The city also has more to offer those visitors than it did 10-plus years ago. Randy Hurlow, vice president of communications and marketing for the Downtown Seattle Association, says a “renaissance” began in the heart of the city starting in the early 1990s, which grew with an influx of money from employees at companies like Microsoft and Amazon.com. “It started to snowball,” says Hurlow. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBCUniversal.)

Benaroya Hall, home to the Seattle Symphony, opened in 1998. That same year, the city’s voters approved an initiative to spend $290 million on the Seattle’s libraries; in 2004, the flagship library, formerly a concrete box, reopened as a steel-and-glass architectural marvel. Four years ago, the Seattle Art Museum opened a free waterfront sculpture park featuring works by Alexander Calder and Louise Bourgeois.

Add to that a downtown retail district that includes shops like Nike Town, Tiffany & Co. and Michael Kors as well as restaurants that are competitive with the best haunts in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, and the Seattle of 2011 might bear little resemblance to that of the grunge era.

But Hurlow isn’t worried that Seattle has lost the character that made it famous.

“I think we have some of the grittiness that cities are known for,” he says. “It is still there and I don’t know if we ever want that to completely go away.”

Hilton Denies $16 Muffin Claim

AFP: Auditor claims of a whopping $16 per muffin at a US government seminar are half-baked, the global hotel chain Hilton said Friday.

In a report, auditors at the Justice Department said the muffins were among several "extravagant and potentially wasteful" food items served at the training conference in August 2009 at the Capital Hilton in Washington.

Not true, Hilton Worldwide shot back in a statement received by AFP.

"In Washington, the contracted breakfast included fresh fruit, coffee, juice, muffins, tax and gratuity, for an inclusive price of $16 per person," said the corporate parent of the Hilton, Conrad and Waldorf Astoria hotels.

"Dining receipts are often abbreviated and do not reflect the full pre-contracted menu and service provided," it explained.

The inspector general's office of the Justice Department, which keeps tabs on spending, told AFP it stood by the 148-page report, which came as Washington wrestles with a record deficit and a sluggish economy.

The audit released Tuesday found that Justice Department agencies spent far too much on conference catering in 2008 and 2009, when the economic crisis was in full swing.

The audit found that one conference served $16 muffins, while another offered Beef Wellington hors d'oeuvres costing $7.32 per serving.

It said coffee and tea at the events cost up to $1.03 an ounce, meaning an eight-ounce cup would have cost more than eight dollars.

The audit said $4.4 million was spent on 10 events between October 2007 and September 2009, some of which "featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending."

Arkansas Hotel Claims Celebrity Ghosts

Vernon and Irene Castle

Todays THV: Spirits from various places and various eras make up the "guest register" of those "guests who checked out but never left" what many consider America's most haunted hotel," the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa.

This five-story mountaintop spa resort each year seems to discover yet another one of those famous "guests" by name. This year it was dancing legend of the early to mid twentieth century, Irene Castle.

"We were thrilled to find out that Ms. Castle still visits the hotel as she did during her final years here as a resident of Eureka Springs (AR)," stated Bill Ott, marketing director of this Historic Hotel of America, "and it was only as we linked casual references of a young girl describing a paranormal encounter were we able to piece together that her encounter was with someone who once frequented our property."

Irene Castle and husband Vernon were the best-known ballroom dancers of the early twentieth century. They operated ballroom dancing clubs and would travel the country charging as much as a thousand dollars an hour for lessons. She appeared in a Broadway show and several movies. Her popularization of social dancing with her husband was portrayed in a movie starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire entitled "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle."

"It was after the death of her fourth husband when Irene moved to Eureka Springs in 1959 to be near her son from her third marriage," Ott explained. "She bought a house on a small parcel of land just blocks from the Crescent, a place she called Destiny Farm. She died in 1969 while living here in Eureka."

Ott said that locals have told him that it was her love of the social life in her latter years that brought her to the Crescent on numerous occasions. It is said of Irene that even in her sixties that she was still "trim, lovely and fashionable lady with nothing to do but embrace the social scene of Eureka Springs" for whom the Crescent was the epicenter.

"It was a family that vacations annually at the Crescent who were part of the encounter where links to Irene came to the fore," Ott said. "This story, which was recounted on a recent episode of the Biography's Channel My Ghost Story, takes place when the mother was giving her daughter a bath in their room and the young girl began talking as if she was having a conversation with someone.

"The young girl said there was a princess standing right behind her mother but the mother saw no one. The mother thought it was unusual because her daughter was using such words as pirouette, ballerina, tango, princess, castle and bob.

"It wasn't until the girl's father read about Irene Castle's connection to the Crescent on our hotel blog was he able to the puzzle pieces of that encounter together. He writes, 'the strange words my daughter had said that we had made note of began to make sense. The princess was someone in a costume. That princess did not live in a castle; she was Castle. Bob was a hairstyle popularized by Ms. Castle. Those dancing terms were words commonly used by a professional dancer. It was clear, my daughter had been talking to Irene Castle.'"

Ms. Castle is only one of many paranormal guests who have been named at the Crescent. "Two of the better-known nom de spirits are Michael, the Irish stonemason who fell to his death during construction of the hotel in the footprint of Room 218; and Theodora, the cancer patient who fumbles for her key outside Room 419," Ott noted.

Whether named or nameless the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa has become a haven for those wanting to encounter the shadow, the whisper, the tingling touch of someone, something who stealthily walks the halls of the hotel proper. Nightly ghost tours have been selling out for years. In fact, hotel management now encourages guests and visitors to purchase ghost tour tickets in advance to ensure their opportunity to walk with these Ozark specters on the night they desire.

"October sees the interest grow exponentially in the paranormal aspect of our hotel," Ott concluded, "however the frenzied interest is year 'round. It has escalated so much that later this fall we will be introducing 'Midnight In The Morgue: A Portrait of Norman Baker'. This exciting new, multi-media theatrical presentation will give our guests and visitors a chance to 'meet the man' who purchased the Crescent and operated the hotel in the late '30s as a cancer curing hospital."

Six Hotel Trends

Washington Post: Pump bottle on the shower wall or individual shampoos and lotions you can take home? Luxurious tub for a self-indulgent bath or no tub at all? A friendly greeting from a well-informed local or a code transmitted electronically that will open your hotel room door with no human interaction at check-in whatsoever?

Here are some details on six hotel trends bubbling up in the industry right now, and how they affect your stay.

INCREASING FEES: Your hotel bill may include some unpleasant surprises. Not just the usual $20-a-day resort and amenity fee, which you pay whether or not you use the tennis courts and pool complex, but how about a required $12 housekeeping surcharge or a fee for storing your luggage in the lobby?

Total fees and surcharges collected by U.S. hotels are increasing from $1.7 billion in 2010 to a record $1.8 billion in 2011, according to new research from Bjorn Hanson, dean of New York University’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality and Sports Management. Hanson recommends that consumers ask when getting a rate for a hotel what if any requisite fees will be added to the bill. If you’re booking online, you may have to hunt around the listing to see what might be added to the quoted rate in addition to taxes.

LOBBIES AS SOCIAL HUBS: Colorful seating, free Internet service and trendy cocktail and coffee bars are helping to turn once-sterile hotel lobbies into social hubs. Hanson says while baby boomers might see the lobby as a place to meet at 6 p.m. sharp before heading to a prearranged restaurant location, younger travelers may prefer to gather more informally in the lobby, hang out for a while, socialize and take their time choosing where they’ll spend the evening. They might check email, go online using a cell phone or iPad to look for dining recommendations, or try whatever snacks or drinks are readily available from the lobby market or bar.

Hilton’s new Home2 Suites extended stay brand designed their lobbies with an eye toward bringing business travelers out of their rooms. Tables and colorful couches offer space for informal meetings as well as areas where anyone can plop down with a laptop and a drink rather than sitting alone in a room watching TV.

DISAPPEARING TUBS: Unless you’re booking a suite, your next stay in a hotel room may not offer the luxury of a bath. Many newly built hotels are offering showers only. Marriott, for example, is “advising our newly built hotels to put showers in 75 percent of the rooms and bathtubs in 25 percent of the rooms,” according to Marriott spokeswoman Laurie Goldstein. “Our research shows that business travelers prefer showers to baths but families like the flexibility of a bathtub as well as a shower.”

So if you’re traveling with a small child who’s going to need a bath before bedtime, call ahead to make sure your room has a tub.

PUMP DISPENSERS: The advent of pump dispensers in hotel bathrooms is good and bad news for those guests obsessed with the tiny bottles of shampoo and individually wrapped soaps that have been a beloved amenity for decades.

The good news: If you need more shampoo than what may be as little as a half-ounce in those small plastic containers, you can pump as much as you want from the dispenser. No more fighting with your roommate over that tiny bottle or running to the front desk before your 6 a.m. shower to get another one.

You can also feel greener if you use the pump. No more adding plastic throwaways to the waste stream.

The bad news: What if you simply love those little bottles? The hand lotion is the perfect size to slip in your purse; and if you have leftover shampoo, the container is small enough to get through airport security. Or what if you find the pump dispensers unappealing? Some guests think they’re unsanitary and prefer to use an unopened individual soap or shampoo.

Fortunately, Hanson says, hotels that have switched to pump dispensers often have complimentary bottles or wrapped soaps upon request at the front desk.

CHECKING IN ELECTRONICALLY: Who needs to wait on line at the front desk to check in? Some of Starwood’s Aloft hotels are offering “Smart Check-In” to Starwood Preferred Guest program members. Members are sent a keycard with radio-frequency identification technology, and on the day of a planned stay, a text message is sent to the guest’s mobile device with a room number. Upon arrival, the guest proceeds to that room, and the keycard will open the door.

The technology is in place at Alofts in Brooklyn and Harlem in New York City, Lexington, Mass., Dallas, Jacksonville, Fla., and London.

Hanson says fully electronic check-in technology is being adapted by the hotel industry very slowly, but even as it becomes more widespread, he expects most hotels will still want staff in the lobbies to welcome guests and provide other services — if only to cater to an older generation that prefers human interaction to a touchscreen.

LOCAVORE OPTIONS: The locavore and hyperlocal trend that has taken over the food world is fast becoming de rigueur in the hotel industry, particularly at high-end and boutique properties where chefs are growing their own herbs and even hosting their own beehives. The W in San Francisco in September had a local beekeeper, Jack Ip, install hives on a rooftop with a goal of eventually producing honey for use in the hotel menu.

In New York City, the Andaz Wall Street hotel in Lower Manhattan sponsors a farmers market May through November in an arcade next to the hotel where produce, bread and other goods are sold by farmers and other vendors. The Andaz also sells fresh-squeezed juices and sandwiches in the market, and customers include hotel guests and neighborhood residents.

“Guests will come down and mingle with residents,” said Andaz spokeswoman Rachel Harrison. “It allows them to feel they’re really a part of the neighborhood. We want guests to feel like locals.”

Hotel Indigo, which has 30 properties in the U.S. and another eight worldwide, also partners with local vendors and purveyors to showcase local seasonal fare, like a barbeque pork sandwich on the menu at the Hotel Indigo in Asheville, N.C., and a local craft beer called SweetWater served at the Hotel Indigo in Atlanta.

Hotel Indigo is also working with celeb chef Curtis Stone on a contest called “Locals Know Best — Dish on the Dish,” in which the public is invited to nominate favorite dishes from neighborhood eateries. The contest runs through Oct. 15 and nominations can be submitted via Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hotelindigo. You can meet Stone Sept. 30 and give him your recommendation in person at an event at the Hotel Indigo in Chelsea, 127 W. 28th St., from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Starbucks Cracks Down on Freeloaders

Gothamist: It started with a simple program of outlet restriction. But now, Starbucks, the beloved community gathering space for independently-minded artist types massive corporate chain, is taking their program to the next level, cracking down on laptop lingerers taking up valuable outlet real estate. Welcome to the new world order, baby.

One Washington Heights customer relays, in great detail, his tale of humiliation and woe. JJ, you see, is a gainfully employed college graduate who telecommutes for a financial research firm based in Boston. He took a sociology class in college and learned that "humans are social creatures," so sometimes he takes his laptop to Starbucks to work, but he always buys a bagel and a grande bold coffee before settling down, dammit! Or at least, he always DID, until one unforgettable day, when a district manager asked him to leave after a mere three hours. We'll let JJ tell the rest of his "shocking" tale, which he ends by wondering "Starbucks, what happened to you?"

We'll tell you, JJ. The good times are over. Pay up, lollygagger, or you can go sit on the curb with the other bums. This aint 2010 anymore—Starbucks can't afford to just let you sit there poking your friends on the Facespace. [via Gawker]

The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am - Part 2

ABC has posted Part 2 of The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am. The videos are helping to promote their new series 'Pan Am' which debuts Sunday night at 10pm eastern.

Video:

Businessman Jailed for Foul-Mouthed Airline Rant

Daily Mail: A U.S. businessman who launched a drunken foul-mouthed rant at staff on a British Airways flight was jailed for three months today.

Mortgage consultant Timothy Bradley flew into a rage after cabin crew on a BA flight from Phoenix to London refused to serve him more alcohol. He was told by a judge at London's Isleworth Crown Court that his behavior on the aircraft had been 'foul'.

Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson said: 'You were thoroughly abusive, threatening, making foul remarks to a number of people and Mr (John) Manson (head of cabin crew) quite plainly thought that he was about to be attacked.'

The court heard Bradley had been drinking with friends before boarding the flight in Phoenix, Arizona. He had beers and bourbon cocktails and continued to drink alcohol once aboard the flight to Heathrow.

Bradley began chatting up a female cabin crew member in the business class section of the plane, Charlotte Howell, who felt uneasy and was replaced by a male colleague, Stuart Williams. When Mr Williams refused to serve the businessman any more alcoholic drinks, Bradley said: 'Who the f*** are you to judge me? You don't f****** know me, how old are you?'

Bradley had been repeatedly swearing and was playing loud music on his laptop, the court was told, ignoring requests to turn it down. Mr Manson was brought in to try to calm the situation, but said Bradley was immediately aggressive and the American was so close to him that spit ended up on his clothes.

He asked the crew manager: 'Do you think I'm going to stab the pilot?', and when Mr Manson accompanied the drunken passenger to the toilet Bradley said: 'Do you want to hold my ****?'

He was arrested when the plane landed on August 20, and today was jailed for three months for being drunk on a plane and one month to run concurrently for common assault. Bradley had previously admitted both offences.

Judge McGregor-Johnson said: 'This happened on an aircraft in a confined space and caused, I've no doubt, fear and distress to others who of course could not escape from you.'

The court was told that smartly-dressed Bradley, whose parents sat in the public gallery, was 'totally and utterly ashamed' of his behavior. He was excited about coming to Europe for his first holiday in five years, and the drunken outburst was utterly 'out of character'.

Bradley had told Ms Howell 'I love you' only when she brought him a glass of champagne, and denied having told her that she was 'so sexy'. A spokesman for British Airways said: 'We will not tolerate abusive behavior towards our staff or customers.

'Although our crew are highly trained to deal with such situations on board, we will always look to support prosecutions where appropriate.

'We are pleased that the court has recognized the seriousness of this incident.'

Las Vegas Hotel Plans World's Largest Margarita

Vegas Chatter: If you like pina coladas this story isn't for you, but if can't say no to a good margarita, this'll make your day.

The Flamingo is planning to mix up the world's largest margarita next month in celebration of the opening of its new Margaritaville Casino. The drink planned will be so massive, it'll take 300 hours to create and will stand two stories high! Hmm, maybe Caesars Entertainment should scrap the Linq and just create giant drinks for us to pose next to... we know we're not the only ones looking for the perfect photo for our redesigned Facebook page.

Anywho... dubbed Lucky Rita, the ginormous concoction will top out at 8,500 gallons including "2,125 gallons of Margaritaville Gold Tequila, 708 gallons of Triple Sec, 5,667 gallons of Margaritaville Margarita Mix and Lemon-X sour mix and 22,667 Lime Wedges." So, if your liquor store says it's all out of any of that, you know why.

A topping off ceremony will be held on October 14 and while no specific time given yet (five o'clock??), it might be worth your while to find out as execs are planning to give out Jimmy Buffet concert tickets to a lucky few. Even better, though, is that everyone will be treated to -- what else -- margaritas. In fact, the good times will continue to flow through October 23 as the Flamingo is planning to serve up the mongo-margarita until all 181,333 individual servings are gone. We wonder if that gives us enough time to make the world's largest drinking straw?

The Guinness World Record attempt is just the start of the festivities, too. Margaritaville street parties are planned for October 15 and October 22. They'll start at 11 a.m. each date and will feature live music, games and more giveaways, from more concert tix to Margaritaville sunglasses and flip flops. If you can't make it down, you'll be able to watch the creation of Lucky Rita online at margaritaville.com/LuckyRita.

Clearwater Aquarium to Host 'Dolphin Tale' Screening

WTSP: Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) is pleased to announce it will give 100 lucky children, military and their families free tickets to the afternoon special screening of Dolphin Tale at Ruth Eckerd Hall on September 21st, prior to the September 23rd theater release date. Families will be selected based on need and their connection to Winter and her story of survival. Each chosen family will receive four free tickets valued at $200.

Based on the true and inspiring story of Winter the Dolphin, Dolphin Tale brings to the big screen the stories of both a young boy, Sawyer, and a military veteran, Kyle, who are inspired by Winter and her own fight for survival. In reality, hundreds of kids and wounded veterans have visited CMA to meet Winter and draw inspiration from her. This contest and ticket give-away celebrates the spirit and determination shown by both Winter and those she has helped to overcome their personal challenges!

One of these amazing children is ten-year-old Aidan Schmitz who lives in St. Petersburg. Aidan has a lot in common with Winter. Aidan has Fibular Hemimelia and was born with only one bone in her lower leg. As a result, she had to have her foot amputated and now has a prosthetic leg. Now Aidan can keep up with her siblings. After meeting Winter, Aidan says she now has a new best friend. Mom, Tricia, shares, "Winter has positively impacted Aidan's life in many ways. One way is by helping Aidan realize she is not alone. Aidan used to complain that she was tired about answering questions about her leg. Since meeting Winter, and seeing that every day Winter shows her tail and lets people meet her, Aidan doesn't complain anymore. In fact, she is more willing than ever to talk about it!" Aidan will help CMA kick off the ticket give-away by visiting Winter.

How to Submit an entry:

Interested participants should submit a photo and explanation of why they should receive tickets, to contest@cmaquarium.org. Submission deadline is September 14, 2011 at noon and the recipients will be announced and posted to SeeWinter.com thru September 16, 2011. Visit www.SeeWinter.com for more information.