If you have any sensitive information on your laptop or other electronic devices, you may want to store it elsewhere when crossing the border, according to this article in Travel Weekly (free sub req’d). From the item:

A federal appeals court in Pasadena, Calif., ruled that the federal government has a nearly absolute right to inspect the contents of the laptop computers and other electronic devices of international travelers entering the U.S., even without “reasonable suspicion.”

The ruling prompted a warning from the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) that corporations and their business travelers should limit the amount of proprietary data on laptop computers and other devices when travelers cross U.S. borders. It also warned that personal data, including photographs, finances and e-mail, are subject to examination by Customs and Border Protection inspectors.

Update: The Electronic Frontier Foundation is fighting this one:

In a letter sent to the House and Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary committees today, the coalition urges lawmakers to consider passing legislation to prevent abusive search practices by border agents and to protect all Americans from suspicionless digital border inspections.

“Our computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices hold a vast amount of personal information like financial data, health histories, and personal emails and letters,” said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “In a free country, the government cannot have unlimited power to read, seize, and store this information without any oversight.”

Check these out: Craziest Shoes From Around The World. While they’re all just bizarre, I’d pick these as the weirdest:

They’re just wrong on so many levels…

According to this Wired blog post, Delta is planning some new coach seating that may actually not be horribly uncomfortable. Here’s a snip:

Tall, sleepy air travelers, rejoice! The Cozy Suite manages to stretch legroom by two inches while fitting airplane seats into the standard economy class 32″ pitch. It does this by offsetting the seats diagonally: they still point forward, but each chair sits behind its neighbor. This staggered arrangement also means that there is space to put in a padded side section to lean against and get some proper mile-high shuteye.

We may have to wait a bit, but supposedly relief will be coming to Delta 767 and 777 passengers by 2010.

There’s a great bit in the April 28 New Yorker called “Pope-a-Palooza,” about how events producer Chris Wangro dealt with a 25,000-person youth rally/music festival for Pope Benedict XVI (it’s not available online, unfortunately). Some of my favorite parts were about how he Pope-ified a Rolling Stones set, and about how he rallied some ex-Grateful Dead roadies and catering folks to the cause.

Who would have thought you’d have to reassure the crowd that the water in the water bottles hadn’t been blessed, so the kids would drink and stay hydrated? Or that you’d have to remind crew not to wear their Black Sabbath t-shirts? Special events production is definitely not for the faint-hearted!

This is day two of the Virtualis convention center grand opening in Second Life, and it’s going a little more smoothly for me than yesterday. First and most importantly, I’ve been able to actually hang out for entire sessions, instead of bopping in and out and all about like I was yesterday. I missed James Hogg’s session this morning on emergent technologies, which from what I hear was really good. But I did get to sit in on CMP Boot Camp by Bonnie Wallsh and Marianne McNulty, which was really informative–I somehow get the impression that they’ve done this topic before! There was someone there who had been doing events in Second Life for a long time (relatively speaking) who had never heard of the Certified Meeting Professional designation, and he sounded interested in it. Actually, this guy says he’s been earning a living putting on events in Second Life for a couple of years now, so if you’re looking for a job, you may want to expand your horizons outside of the usual desired city and state.
Here’s a shot of Joan Eisenstodt’s session yesterday in the Eisenstodt Learning Center, which is so cool.

Anyway, then Joe Pine did a keynote on the experiential economy that came off, I thought, much better than the session he did with his fellow Authenticity and The Experience Economy author Jim Gilmore at PCMA in January. It didn’t cover a lot of new ground for me, but it was really fun to see him talk about virtual experiences from inside a virtual experience. I wish he’d done something a little more experiential than the usual PowerPoint presentation, just to prove the point, but the content was terrific.

Taking a break now before heading back to the Virtualis main ballroom for John Foster’s international contract negotiation session in a few minutes. It’s still a little frustrating for me because my Mac seems to have some sort of firewall built in that won’t allow me to use the Second Life voice chat. So I’m using my PC laptop, which allows the voice chat, but is brought to its knees (ankles? toes?) by the Second Life program; everything (especially my avatar) moves jerkily and in slo-mo, and things take a long time to reach full resolution. But it’s still really cool.

One thing I’m enjoying is being able to comment via text chat as the session goes on. I don’t know if that’s distracting to the speaker or what, but the running commentary added another dimension to it for me. Especially the funny bits.

OK, back to the ballroom…

Check it out–the virtual convention center in Second Life, Virtualis, is having its grand opening today and tomorrow. (For one person’s impression after taking a tour, check out Rob Everton’s review–not much I can add to it, other than you really do have to see it to believe it.)

Anyway, there’s a bunch of good meeting planner info goodies being offered as part of the celebrations. Today I got to check out some of the opening ceremonies, including an address on innovation and education from Stuart Mann, Ph.D, Dean, Harrah College of Hotel Administration, University of Nevada-Las Vegas; and a funny, funny bit from Tim Wilkins. I also made the teleport over from the ballroom to the Eisenstodt learning center (which is unbelievably cool–I have to post some pics from there) for a session by Joan Eisenstodt on learning environments.

I kept having to skip out to get work done (including one time during the keynotes when somehow my mic was apparently transmitting phone-ringing and keyboard tapping noises, even though I and my phone were several rooms and closed doors away. Must have been a ghost in the machine!). But I hope to be able to really get into more of it tomorrow.

If you want to join in the fun, just drop Virtualis founder and President of Corporate Planners Unlimited, Inc., Dan Parks an e-mail. (It’s free, but you do have to register with Dan so he can make sure only people who should be there are there–there are some riff-raffy types in Second Life, just like in the real world.)

Tomorrow’s agenda looks really good, too, with sessions on emerging technology with James Hogg; a CMP bootcamp; a keynote by Experience Economy author Joe Pine; legal eagle John Foster on international contracts; and fellow legal eagle Barbara Dunn on meetings-related intellectual property issues.

Then on to fireworks and dancing with live bands. I hope to see you there.

This time it’s Let’s Talk Trade Shows, written by Joyce McKee. It looks like she’s been blogging since December, and I’m just now hearing about it (shame on me!). Anyway, lots of good trade show items on there. Among her recent entries:

How to Thrive – Not Just Survive – This Economy with Brilliant Marketing (who could resist that headline?), about how to download a special report on the topic that got a rave review from at least one reader so far.

‘Marketing During a Downturn’? Let The Numbers Do The Fighting For You…

and lots of other good nuggets about marketing in today’s most interesting environment. Not only is the info good so far, but she’s a dog lover like me! Another blog to add to my RSS reader.

P.S. New folks are great, but I still miss Rich and his TSMI Trade Show Marketing blog like crazy.

If you want to learn about learning, human intelligence, and all that jazz, Wired has been pumping out some fascinating articles lately: Get Smarter: 12 Hacks That Will Amp Up Your Brainpower. When it comes to meetings and adult learning, this one might be particularly useful: Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

I got this fortune last night and it struck me as fairly profound, in a fortune-cookie kind of way:

Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

May you be both free and happy on this beautiful spring Monday.

If your VIPs have adventurous tastebuds, you may want to order some vittles from Edible.com, which offers up tantalizing yet horrifying (to me, anyway) F&B options like scorpion vodka, green crocodile curry, weasel coffee and reindeer pate. Yumm.

(via BoingBoing)