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

I have always liked this picture of Piazza San Marco taken looking down on it from the campanile on the square. I loved the black and white nature of the scene offset by the brightly color umbrella of a vendor selling food for the pigeons.

Except on the one occasion where I saw Piazza San Marco in the light of pre-dawn the piazza seems always filled with both pigeons and with tourists content to be pigeon perches. In the pre-dawn the square is so completely empty as to unrecognizable.

Doing  business in Rome can be a frustrating affair, as the Italian way of life is not rushed: everything can wait another day. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, so what’s the rush?” they ask. This laid-back business culture is in stark contrast to what prevails in Milan, where hardnosed tactics dominate. Romans will wax lyrical about politics and pension rights endlessly, and they’d rather do that than make a decision: so be patient. It’s the key to success in this city. You’ll probably pick through the details of a contract over a cappuccino in a cafe, rather than in a boardroom. But casual business habits don’t mean casual business attire. Glamour is very much part of the of this city, not least because of the film industry and all its downstream industries, so do dress smartly.

Choose between the elegant Eden Hotel, a Meridien/Starwood property with a rooftop Michelin-starred restaurant, next to the Villa Borghese park; or the deeply trendy Hotel de Russie, akin to a movie-set with its terrace garden and fabulous spa and clientele from the media set; or the more English-style Duke Hotel in the residential area of Parioli, also near the Villa Borghese. Expect to eat late. The trendy bars are to be found around Trastevere, and also along Via Veneto. Eating out is easy, as most bars offer good food. But client entertaining is at its best inside the Eden Hotel.

This is the travel journal from my trip to Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy in 2007.

• Europe - day 1 - Rothenberg
• Europe - day 2 - Rothenberg
• Europe - day 3 - Zurich
• Europe - day 4 - Zurich - Zueri Faescht
• Europe - day 5 - Grindelwald
• Europe - day 6 - Grindelwald
• Europe - day 7 - the road to Nice
• Europe - day 8 - Nice and Monaco
• Europe - day 9 - Nice and Cannes
• Europe - day 10 - Nice and Antibes
• Europe - day 11 - to the Cinque Terra
• Europe - day 12 - the Cinque Terra
• Europe - day 13 - to Lake Como
• Europe - day 14 - Lake Como
• Europe - day 15 - Lake Como to Melano