Is this a trip to help prevent piracy? Is it a trip where you can pay to hunt humans? This one scares me.

Paying Money to Murder: Russian Luxury Yachts Offer Pirate Hunting Cruises

In a brilliant–if deeply disturbing–stroke of entrepreneurial genius, Russian luxury yachts have begun to advertise adventure cruises where passengers pony up almost $6,000 USD per day to cruise from Djibouti to Mombasa in search of pirates.

The yachts trawl at a deliberately slow speed, hoping to attract pirates. If attacked, the cruise passengers are ready to respond with heavy machinery: machine guns and grenade and rocket launchers. And if they want to tack on an extra $8.00 a day, passengers can hoist their very own AK-47. Ammo, though, costs an extra $11.50.

And the best thing about getting services from ex-cons is that it will only cost you a pack of cigarettes. (OK I made that part up).

City’s ex-cons to help Naples tourist

Tourists in Naples are being welcomed by ex-convicts who help them cross the streets in the hair-raising traffic, offer information and even escort them through the city’s more dangerous alleyways under a initiative by the Campania region.

Wearing yellow jackets, caps and ID cards, around 70 former prisoners have been posted at points around the city including the port and the station.

Score one for the math nerds (yes I was one as a kid). Researchers think they know how to resync your body clock.

A Mathematics Cure For Jet Lag

Plagued by jet lag? If we can send a rocket to the moon why can’t we figure out how to fly to different time zones and still be fresh? Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the University of Michigan say they have developed a software program that prescribes a light exposure regimen for avoiding jet lag.

Sometimes truth is just much funnier than fiction.

New airline Pet Airways’ only passengers to be four-legged

Soon, pet owners who live in a handful of large U.S. cities will have the ability to do that. Pet Airways plans to begin service on July 14 as the USA’s first pets-only carrier — no human passengers allowed. The introductory fare: $149 each way. For that, pets will be flown in individual crates in lighted and pressurized plane cabins, with a human attendant checking them every 15 minutes. They’ll board, just like people, from their own airport lounges and get overnight lodging accommodations on long-haul flights. Their owners can track their whereabouts at all times online. They can even earn “pet points” as frequent fliers.

The only thing clear about the Clear program is that it is clearly over.

Clear Registered Travel Program Shuts Down

Clear, the biggest private-sector “registered traveler” program in the nation, shut down suddenly last night, and a quarter of a million customers are waiting to find out whether their cards will ever get them out of security-line hell again. (It’s not looking too good right now.) The biggest mystery is not why it failed, but why it hung on as long as it did given the open hostility to the venture displayed by both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the airlines.

I am not sure if being associated with the criminal justice system is the legacy that Jackson wanted but…

Tourists flock to see 1,500 Philippine inmates perform Jackson tribute

More than 1,500 Philippine inmates at a maximum security prison on Saturday performed a Michael Jackson tribute for the public with a dance routine that has become a global Internet hit.

Hundreds of spectators arrived at the jail to see the convicts, including murderers and drug-traffickers, put on the show two days after the music icon collapsed and died.

Other stories that I thought were interesting:

• Royal Caribbean plans 11-night Arctic Circle cruise from Copenhagen
• First hybrid RV to hit the road this summer
• 2009 Airline In-Flight Entertainment Status Update

Air New Zealand is trying a unique approach to get people to watch that safety video. In a video titled “Bare essentials of safety from Air New Zealand” they have Air New Zealand staff wearing only body paint and shot from strategic angles or behind props. The video thanks the crew for “going all out”. It will be interesting to see how other airlines will respond.

I am in Cozumel this weekend and I was flown down here by the Park Royal Resort to review the property (more about that soon). For the flight down they flew me in first class which I never purchase myself (and told them I did not think they needed to provide such for travel bloggers). The last time that I flew first class I was in elementary school so it was interesting for me to see what a first class ticket will buy.

The Comfy Chair

There is no question that a 1st class airline seat has more space for anyone who say… has legs. It is a treat to be able to cross my legs or to lean back and get some sleep after getting on a flight at 6AM. The seat is also wide with extra space between you and your seat mate. First class travelers, on American Airlines at least, still get blankets.

Power to the People

As someone who always travels with a laptop it is a joy to get a power outlet (you need a DC adapter) at the seat so that on a long flight I could catch up on email, edit an episode of the Amateur Traveler, etc. With most airports making it way too difficult to find a power outlet I am usually low on power by the time I even get on the plane.

Coffee, Tea or…

It is strangely civilized to be offered a juice or a glass of water while we wait for the riff-raff in the back to settle in. Getting a meal on a plane is a wonderful throwback. Having to choose between the red and white wine they were pouring was a terrific dilemma. Fresh baked cookies was a treat. The biggest difference seems to be that with a lot fewer people in first class the flight attendants seem a lot less rushed.

So… will I be purchasing first class tickets only from now on? Not likely. While I can certainly enjoy the experience of traveling with the mucky mucks, I can’t imagine deciding that those benefits are worth doubling the ticket price.

It is not as uncommon as you would hope that people go over the side of their cruise ship and are not heard from again. A man was recently saved after 3 hours in the water. How was it that you said he fell overboard again?

Man Overboard: Carnival Inspiration

According to reports, Larry Miller, 46, fell overboard from the cruise ship as it was returning to the Port of Tampa at 4 a.m. this morning. Fortunately for Miller, the crew of a pilot boat spotted him in the shipping channel near the Sunshine Skyway shortly before 7 a.m.

A spokesperson for Carnival Cruise Lines told Bay News 9 that, “Miller fell overboard when he climbed on a railing to get a better view of a boat as it passed by. He slipped, then fell overboard.”

Planes land safely everyday without making the news. What does make the news is when this happens after the pilot has died.

Pilot dies flying plane to the US

Nearly 250 airline passengers landed safely at their destination after the captain of the plane died mid-flight.

Losing your luggage is not uncommon these days with the airline industry. Losing your children should be.

2 girls put on wrong Continental Express flights

Continental Airlines said Tuesday it has taken steps to ensure that proper procedures are followed after two unaccompanied girls were placed on wrong Continental Express flights over the weekend.

An 8-year-old College Station girl erroneously ended up in Fayetteville, Ark., and a 10-year-old Massachusetts girl was mistakenly sent to Newark, N.J., after boarding planes operated by ExpressJet, which is under contract with Continental.

How much do you love your job and your employer. Do you love it enough to work there for free? If not, let’s hope you don’t work for British Airlines.

BA staff may be working for free

According to Bloomberg, British Airways recently asked its 40,000 employees to consider laboring for nothing for up to one month. “Colleagues are being urged to help the airline’s cash-saving drive by signing up for unpaid leave or unpaid work,” read an article in BA News, the carrier’s in-house newspaper. Chief executive Willie Walsh, who has pledged to forgo his $100,000 monthly salary in July, said the airline was caught in a “fight for survival”.

Other stories that caught my eye:

• Woman who missed Flight 447 is killed in car crash
• WHO declares swine flu pandemic
• Pilots and control towers, some real life exchanges

Next time you race to catch a train… try and make sure you get INSIDE the train.

Tourist Chad Vance clung to Ghan train for two hours

A YOUNG American tourist has survived a terrifying train ride in which he clung to the outside of the legendary Ghan in the freezing dark as it hit speeds up to 110km/h in the South Australian Outback.

Chad Vance, 19, frantically pursued The Ghan after missing it in Port Augusta, managing to climb on and squeeze himself into a tiny stairwell as the train raced for almost 200km through the night.

Ever since SARS, China has take quarantines seriously as the mayor of New Orleans learned this week.

New Orleans mayor quarantined in China for possible flu exposure

The mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, has been quarantined in China after possible exposure to the H1N1 virus, his office said Sunday.

Mayor Ray Nagin, who traveled to China on an economic development trip, flew on a plane that carried a passenger being treated for symptoms suspected to be from the virus, commonly known as the swine flu virus, the mayor’s office said in a statement.

Want to take your 9mm pistol with you when you move? No problem, just get your roommate who works for the airline to help you sneak it on. Great idea… right?

FBI: Airline worker helped roommate get gun on jet

The FBI charged a US Airways employee with helping his roommate get a concealed, semiautomatic handgun onto a plane departing Philadelphia early Thursday.

Customer service agent Roshid Milledge switched black carry-on bags with passenger Damien Young at the gate so Young could board the 7 am flight to Phoenix with the unloaded 9 mm weapon, the FBI said in an affidavit.

Expect this study to spark a debate over how you should travel if you want to save the planet.

Train can be worse for climate than plane

True or false: taking the commuter train across Boston results in lower greenhouse gas emissions than travelling the same distance in a jumbo jet. Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is false.

A new study compares the “full life-cycle” emissions generated by 11 different modes of transportation in the US. Unlike previous studies on transport emissions, Mikhail Chester and Arpad Horvath of the University of California, Berkeley, looked beyond what is emitted by different types of car, train, bus or plane while their engines are running and includes emissions from building and maintaining the vehicles and their infrastructure, as well as generating the fuel to run them. (Table 1 on page 3 has a complete list of components that were considered).

But the bad news for the airlines:

World’s airlines set to lose $9 billion

The world’s airline will lose $9 billion this year on top of $10.4 billion lost in 2008, IATA has warned.

The airline body’s director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani cautioned that a return of rising fuel prices was putting recovery from global recession at risk.

Airlines post 79% on-time rate in Apri

But some things have actually improved… of course it is easier to be on time when fewer passengers are getting on the plane.

U.S. airlines’ on-time performance improved in April compared to the previous month and the same month last year, according to a monthly federal report released Tuesday.

The 19 largest carriers recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 79.1%, better than both the 77.7% of April 2008 and March 2009’s 78.4%, according the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight is considered on time if it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule.

Some other blog posts that I liked:

• Seven Ways to Immerse Yourself in Spanish at Home
• 9 of the Weirdest World Heritage Sites
• Traveler’s 101 - The Complete Travel Tip Post