According to the BBC, Japan and France are to work together to develop a successor to the retired supersonic jet aircraft Concorde. It should be more fuel-efficient, quieter, and able to carry 300 passengers at up to five times the speed of sound!! And, I hope, turn a profit, which is something papa plane never was able to do–though he did fly high during the Queen of England’s golden jubilee, as shown in the photo above.

A gentle warning for those who work with pranksters–April Fools day was a while ago, and they’re hungry to pull some new gags while you’re off on vacation–or on site at your next meeting. Check out Pocket-Lint’s collection–the Chia keyboard is only the beginning…

This one looks nasty: Radisson Hotel City Center in Tucson Gets in Room Duel with Rocket Scientists and Aviation Mechanics.

AIAA, The American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, whose 30,000 members include America’s leading rocket scientists, filed a June 3 lawsuit against the Radisson. AIAA claims the Radisson contracted to reserve 290 rooms for the group’s July conference.

But AIAA was bumped when Northwest Airlines Corp., the nation’s fourth largest airline, booked the 307-room hotel for aviation mechanics who are undergoing training sessions in Radisson conference rooms. The Radisson room stampede began as Northwest and its unionized mechanics, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, hunkered down for a possible strike.

Needless to say, lawsuits ensue. You know you’re in trouble when a hotel staffer says, “Yes, I’m a manager but I can’t tell you who I am.”

This is so powerful (from CoReNViA via Johnnie Moore). It makes me think about learning, authenticity, and teaching in a whole new way:

Jacob the teacher
Jacob, almost seventy, was in the midstages of Alzheimer’s disease. A clinical psychologist by profession and a meditator for more than
twenty years, he was well aware that his faculties were deteriorating. On occasion his mind would go totally blank; he would have no access to words for several minutes and become completely disoriented. He often forgot what he was doing and usually needed assistance with basic tasks-cutting his food, putting on clothes, bathing, getting from place to place.

Jacob had occasionally given talks about Buddhism to local groups and had
accepted an invitation to address a gathering of over a hundred
meditation students. He arrived at the event feeling alert and eager to share the teachings he love. Taking his seat in front of the hall,
Jacob looked out at the expectant faces before him . and suddenly he didn’t know what he was supposed to say or do. He didn’t know where he was or why he was there. All he knew was that his heart was pounding furiously and his mind was spinning in confusion.

Putting his palms together at his heart, Jacob started naming out loud what was happening: ‘Afraid, embarrassed, confused, feeling like I’m falling, powerless, shaking, sense of dying, sinking, lost.’ For several more minutes he sat, head slightly bowed, continuing to name his experience. As his body began to relax and his mind grew calmer, he also noted that aloud.

At last Jacob lifted his head, looked slowly around at those gathered,
and apologized.
Many of the students were in tears. As one put it, ‘No one has ever taught us like this. Your presence has been the deepest teaching.’ Rather than pushing away his experience and deepening his agitation, Jacob had the courage and training simply to name what he was aware of, and, most significantly, to bow to his experience. In some fundamental way he didn’t create an adversary out of feelings of fear and confusion. *He didn’t make anything wrong.*

~ from *Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha,* by Tara Brach, Ph.D."

I hadn’t realized that only two–now three–U.S. airlines were allowed to fly to China until I  read about it this morning in eTurbo News.

United and Northwest currently offer direct flights to China, while American Airlines is to inaugurate service to Shanghai in 2006.

Wonder if the U.S. carriers will continue to increase their routes as China continues to grow as a meetings destination? Or will China even allow much growth for U.S.-based carriers? We shall see.

From the Star Wars site: All Too Queasy: Virgin Airlines’ Unique Collectibles:

While some Star Wars fans collect action figures or comics,
others are on a quest to find unique items that most of us only notice
when a plane ride gets a bit too action-packed. In collaboration with
Virgin Airlines and Activision, LucasArts has released limited-edition
airsickness bags to promote the Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith Video Game, available in stores now.

Available on Virgin Atlantic flights, the four designs include: Knowing Your Lightsaber, Lightsaber Etiquette, The Art of Jedi Combat and Seating Jedi and Sith. The backs of the bags all have the same Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith Video Game cover art. The collectible bags are limited in number and will be available while supplies last…

While some of the bags are instructional in nature, giving passengers
tips on how to handle and fight with a lightsaber, another bag offers
advice to the airline staff on where to seat the Jedi and Sith. Which
begs the question, which Star Wars characters can properly handle themselves on a Virgin Atlantic flight?

"Anakin
would make the best pilot with his skills — remember the Podrace in Episode I?" Gauna suggests. "The best cabin crew member would have to be C-3PO — a protocol droid would make for a happy cabin. I imagine Count Dooku would have a few issues if he didn’t have the entire plane to himself, which would make him the most likely unruly passenger. And I have a feeling General Grievous wouldn’t get past the metal detectors without a fairly thorough frisking."

All I can say is: Good grief! Is nothing sacred? I actually know someone who collects sick bags from airlines–talk about weird obsessions!!–and I’m sure she’ll be thrilled with these new potential additions to her collection. (via BoingBoing.)

Talk about your weird obsessions–David G. Schwartz, who runs the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, is really into casino carpets (here’s a link to his online casino carpet gallery. He says on his site: "In my quest to launch casino carpet hermeneutics as a legitimate academic discourse. I delivered
a paper on it at an academic conference. Seriously. If you were at the 2005 Far West Popular Culture Association conference in Las Vegas, you might have seen my presentation ‘Art for Gamblers’ Feet: Casino Carpets from Coast to Coast.’"

He also waxes downrlight lyrical about the rugs:

Casino carpet is known as an exercise in deliberate bad taste that somehow encourages people to gamble.

In a strange way, though, it’s s sublime work of art, rivalling any expressionist canvas of the past century. Note the regal tones of Caesars Palace, the bountiful bouquet of Mandalay Place, the soft, almost abstract pointilism of Paris, all whispering, "gamble, gamble" just out of the range of  consciousness as people walk to the nearest slot machine.Many of the carpets use flowers and wheels, both suggestive of a cyclical life: flowers bud, bloom, and then die, and their beauty is only ephemeral. The wheel was famous to the Romans (note its prominence at Caesars Palace) as a symbol of the relentless capriciousness of fortune. Could both be subtle reminders to casino patrons that life and luck are fleeting, and one should eat, drink, and be merry before the morrow brings a swing in fortune?

I guess I’ll have to pay more attention to my surroundings next time I’m in Vegas! Who knows what other objects of beauty may be right under my nose–err, feet.

I can’t remember if I posted about the EIBTM 2004 Industry Trends and Market Share Report (I must have at some point), but if your memory is as faulty as mine is, here’s a good wrapup of the results. And I found this to be really interesting:

Two general travel exhibitions with a special focus on the MICE market are MITT in Moscow and World Travel Market in London. Frederique Maurell, senior events and sales manager of MITT organiser ITE Travel Exhibitions, says the decision to launch a separate MICE workshop in Moscow last September was in response to the growing strength of this sector in Russia.

“More than three million Russians are travelling internationally on business trips each year and this figure is rapidly increasing,” she says. “Though new congress centres are being built, the available infrastructure is not matching the growing demand as more than 60% of Russian corporate meetings are held abroad. The budgets allocated to business expenses are increasing in small, medium and large companies.

I’ve been hearing tons about how meetings are booming in Asia, but hadn’t really thought about Russia as a growing major player. Interesting!