Bees on Airplane Terrorize Passengers

Daily Mail: Imagine being trapped in a confined space with not just one, but two swarms of bees buzzing around you.

That was the terrifying situation passengers endured on board a Russian aeroplane after bees escaped from a container into the cabin.

The creatures were being transported in two large cardboard boxes, stored in cupboards on the Boeing 757, but as soon as the plane took off from the far eastern city of Blagoveshchensk they began to creep out.

With bees buzzing around their ears, some business class passengers started to panic. Flight attendants scrambled to try and seal the bees inside their cupboard by taping its door shut. Eventually they managed to secure them inside, and the flight was able to continue its ten-hour journey to the Russian capital.

The incident - which has echoes of the cult Samuel L. Jackson movie Snakes on a Plane - has raised security concerns in Russia. The bees were allegedly being transported at the behest of a senior airport official at Blagoveshchensk.

According to Russian newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta, the official had asked the trafficker to carry the boxes to Moscow where he would be met at the airport. Official airport documents quoted one of the flight's business class passengers as saying that the trafficker was 'slightly drunk.'

The incident took place on May 28 this year but was only reported recently.

A spokesman for the Yakutia airline confirmed that several passengers had panicked during the incident. The spokesman was unable to say whether the bees had stung anyone.

Following touch down in Moscow, the plane was defumigated and allowed to carry on to its next destination, Barcelona in Spain. However, when it arrived in Spain, a new crew discovered that the fumigation had not been completely successful with five bees still on the plane.

Baggage handlers in the country have claim that senior airport officials routinely disregard air safety rules.

Staff working at the Blagoveshchensk airport told Rossiiskaya Gazeta that the senior official 'can carry on board anything he likes.'

The Top Ten Types of Annoying Airline Passengers

Jaunted: Do you have things in your job that annoy you? Do you notice it's the same things that annoy your co-workers? Yeah me too. As a flight attendant I get asked over and over again what is the most annoying things passengers do? I always tread lightly, because flight attendants get accused of, well, complaining too much. And, believe me we can probably complain better than most.

In fact there's an old joke:

Q. How many flight attendants does it take to change a light bulb?

A. Zero, because we'd rather sit around in the galley and bitch about it.

So, what behaviors annoy flight attendants the most? Well, besides urinating in the aisle, and other super gross activites, here are Ten Types of Annoying Passengers:

1. The Manner-less: Just a "please" and "thank you" goes a long way in our world. We hear “what ya got” and “gimme a coke” far too often. Also, if we offer a meal choice and they don't like it, it's okay to just say no thank you; only five year olds wrinkle up their nose and say "ewww."

2. The Amateur Geographer: Flight attendants don't know our exact location coordinates, especially in the middle of in-flight service. And chances are we don't know what body of water that is below us either.

3. The Pen-forgetter: Passengers that leave home without one are particularly annoying, especially on an international flight with forms to be filled out. And, yes we know you are glaring at the pen on us when we say no we don't have one. Flight attendants are required by the FAA to have a pen on them at all times.

4. The Smartphone Addict: Those who insist they're about to turn off their phones even after we've already asked numerous times usually reply, “I know! I am turning it off!" But they're not—they're texting and it's not like we can't see that. It's just as annoying for us to ask as it for them to have to comply. Just do it!

5. The Thirsties: They need a drink of water as soon as they board the plane and need to use the lav just as urgently. We understand there are close connects and exceptions, but most passengers have been sitting out at the gate area with ample time to use the restroom and get a drink of water.

6. The Headphones Wearer: We ask: “Would you like something to drink?” No response. "Would you like something to drink?" Nothing. Wave in front of face. Nothing. Wave in front of face again. Confused look. “Would you like a drink?” “What?” Motion someone drinking. "Ahh, gimme a coke." Is it possible they didn't see the bar cart coming?

7. The Trash Collector: It's super gross to be handed trash during in-flight service, especially when they blindly put it wherever, like in our ice. And let's not talk about handling dirty diapers or wiping their nose or face and then trying to hand us the tissue.

8. The Free-for-all Parent: Passengers that let their kids run wild on the plane and then expect and ask the flight attendants to watch them are of course expecting too much. This behavior often includes parents telling us to return their children to buckle up their seat belts.

9. The Dare to Barer: Perhaps this type of passenger shouldn't bother us because it's a personal choice thing, but they do. We're talking about those who use the lavatory in their bare feet. Maybe it's because we care so much about the well-being of our passengers?

10. The Coffee Snob: It's a safe bet that passengers probably didn't have breakfast with their flight attendant, so you need to let them know how you take your coffee. If they're picky and don't indicate their preferences, there's no reason to get mad. And to my people in the north east, "regular coffee" does not mean milk and sugar; it just means not decaf to the rest of the country.

About the Author:

Sara Keagle is a Flight Attendant for a major U.S. Airline with over twenty years of experience. On her blog TheFlyingPinto.com she shares advice on making air travel less stressful for all and offers peeks behind the galley curtain. She also co-hosts The Crew Lounge, a weekly podcast that gives insight into the career of a flight attendant.

Fukuburger Hitting the Streets in Los Angeles

Vegas Chatter: Vegas food trucks got prime time exposure over the weekend when the latest episode of "The Great Food Truck Race" on the Food Network ended up featuring quite a few of the city's best meals on wheels. Now at least one popular food truck is making tracks to Hollywood to seek even greater fame and fortune.


Fukuburger is hitting the road with plans to roll into LA this September, but Vegas foodies shouldn't mourn the loss of its mouth-watering burgers. The food truck will stay in Sin City, but Fukuburger -- the restaurant -- will pop up near Sunset and Hollywood. The eatery will have 60 seats and will serve full-size versions of the sliders we've come to love.

Fukuburger first hit the streets of Vegas last July. In case you've ever wondered in between mouthfuls, fuku means "luck" in Japanese.

Virgin America Adding NFL to Inflight Entertainment

USA Today: To beef up its sports content in time for the football season, Virgin America is adding more network channels to its in-flight entertainment system.


The California-based airline, which is one of the few carriers to offer seatback TV for domestic flights, says the NFL, college football and other sports games televised on NBC and FOX in the New York area will be broadcast live starting this month, adding to its current broadcast of ESPN and CBS content.

The channels are part a new lineup of satellite TV and movie programming being rolled out in its Red in-flight entertainment system. "In addition to more eclectic content, our travelers have been asking for more live sports and news," says Virgin America CEO David Cush.

In adding four new stations - NBC-NY/WNBC (live), FOX News (live), TBS (live) and FOX-NY/WNYW (live) - it'll broadcast 24 channels.

The Red system also provides more than 35 on-demand films, 3,000 audio files and video games.

Yankee Magazine's New Leaf-Peeping App

AP: Yankee magazine is going mobile with a new app for chasing fall color.

The magazine, which released its annual fall issue Tuesday, is also sponsoring a contest to pick the best foliage town in New England.

Last year, the magazine's editors named Kent, Conn., as the best town in the region for fall color, but this year the public is invited to make the choice by nominating and voting via YankeeFoliage.com. The "Readers' Choice Best Foliage Town in New England" winner will be announced on Sept. 28.

Yankee's new Leaf Peepr app, free and downloadable for iPhones and Droids, lets users check color status by region or zip code, and also offers interactive elements like the ability to upload new reports and photos to YankeeFoliage.com's fall foliage map. Leaf color on the Leaf Peepr app is coded as green, turning, moderate, peak, fading and gone.

The YankeeFoliage.com website also offers more than 30 scenic routes across New England, including 12 new road trips for 2011. There are driving tours for each of the New England states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont — as well as recommended routes for certain regions such as Moosehead Lake in Maine and Route 100 in Vermont.

Features in the magazine's September/October issue include a look at the Topsfield, Mass., annual fair, this year set for Sept. 30-Oct. 10, said to be the oldest agricultural fair in New England, dating back to 1820; a list of five notable country stores in Vermont (Willey's in Greensboro Village, Currier's in Glover, Dan & Whit's in Norwich, Floyd's in Randolph Center, and Warren in Warren Village); and tips for carving a pumpkin (use an ice-cream scooper and scouring pad to clean it out, cut the lid from the bottom, not the top, and seal the cut edges of your design with Vaseline).

Editor Mel Allen writes in the magazine that he hopes the issue will inspire readers "savor a cider doughnut, or take a camera to a marsh or a lake in the early morning, or even set out to get lost for a while in the maze of country roads somewhere."

To vote in Yankee's contest for best foliage town, click on "Vote for your favorite town" on the lefthand side of YankeeFoliage.com. Type a town name in the white box next to "Choose your favorite foliage town," then click on the correct place from the list of choices that pops up.

Hotel Room Bugaboos

New York Times: And you thought all you had to worry about when you checked into a hotel was bedbugs.

On Page 18 in the Manhattan district attorney’s filing recommending dismissal of the sexual assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a detail that was disquieting if not disturbing: In his $3,000-a-night hotel suite, detectives found semen stains on the carpet and the wallpaper from other men.

“That is not a surprise to me,” said Lawrence Kobilinsky, the chairman of the department of sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who has done forensic work in places like hotel rooms. “People think when they go to a hotel, they’ve got a nice, clean pristine place to stay. I did a study in hotel rooms with UV lamps and I found stains all over the place, not just on floors and furniture but on bedding, the linen, the bedspreads. I found it all over the place.”

In sum, he said: “You know you’re not getting a sterile environment when you check into a hotel.”

It is enough to make some say they would never stay in a hotel room again.

Some of Dr. Kobilinsky’s discoveries might be enough to make them stay out of a lot of places, too. Movie theaters, for example. “I went into movie theaters in various places within New York City,” he said, “and I found dried semen samples on the seats. And I had to do it surreptitiously with a hidden camera to document what I had seen.”

But back to what detectives found in Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s suite at the Sofitel New York, on West 44th Street, where a 33-year-old housekeeper said she had been sexually assaulted.

“It’s a forensic fact that when you go in and look at a crime scene in a hotel,” Dr. Kobilinsky said, “you’ve got to be careful interpreting what you see.” There could be “historical DNA,” he said, that is, DNA from the room’s previous occupants.

That, apparently, was the case when detectives began going through Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s suite.

Three stains on the carpet “contained the semen and DNA of three different unknown males,” according to the filing recommending dismissal of the charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, “and one other stain contained amylase and a mixture of DNA from three additional individuals.” Amylase, the filing explained in a footnote, is “an enzyme found in semen, saliva and in other bodily fluids, including vaginal fluid.”

There was also a stain on a section of wallpaper, the filing said. It “contained the semen and DNA of a fourth unknown male.”

Dr. Kobilinsky he was not surprised that the police found DNA in the suite that did not match Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s. “Who knows how old those stains are?” he said. “DNA is a pretty sturdy molecule. It doesn’t deteriorate that readily, and not from aging. It is true that certain bacteria or fungi can break down DNA and certain types of soil can break down DNA, but normally it’s in a place where it’s not being assaulted, so to speak, by environmental factors, it survives. So it could be a day, a week or a month old, or possibly older.”

Vacuuming a rug, as hotel housekeepers routinely do, would not normally destroy the DNA, he said.

But what about subsequent guests?

“The chances are minimal that you’re going to become infected with some agent present in semen, not that it’s impossible,” he said. “But viral substances will survive several days unless something intercedes. H.I.V., for example, will survive under those conditions for at least four or five days. But the chances of somebody coming down with an infectious disease are almost zero.”

Germany's Nuclear Theme Park

Daily Mail: These extraordinary images show what could be the world's most bizarre theme park - built around an abandoned nuclear power station.

Wunderland near Kalkar, Germany, cleverly combines a never-been-used multi-million-pound reactor with classic fair rides, including a merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, carousel and log flume.

A swing ride has even been fitted inside the old cooling tower, while a 130ft-high climbing wall features on the outside.

When it was originally built in 1972 the construction - dubbed the SNR-300 - was destined to be the world's most technologically advanced nuclear power plant and Germany's first fast breeder nuclear reactor.

But 12 years and more than £3 million later, the project was eventually cancelled after a series of public protests and nuclear disasters elsewhere, including Chernobyl.

Dutch businessman, Hennie van der Most, bought the entire complex for an undisclosed amount in 1995.

By 1996 there were a few hotel rooms on the site, which gradually expanded to several hundred - as well as bars and restaurants.

Since 2002, the park has seen the addition of more than 40 rides and a museum as well as a miniature golf course and tennis courts.

A spokeswoman at the park said they received some 600,000 visitors a year and employed about 550 people during the high season.

She said: 'People come from all over the world because they are completely fascinated by the park. It's totally unique and that's what draws people in. It's not something you see every day. Some people worry it's unsafe but it is 100 per cent safe. Because the nuclear power station has never been put to use, the whole complex is guaranteed free of radiation.'

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