Travelling Lighter

Ask for an aisle seat at the front of the plane so that you can to stand up with greater ease, stroll in the aisles, or simply stretch. It's easier to get the attention of flight attendants for extra blankets, pillows, or other in-flight amenities from the front. Aisle seats are best for shorter flights, where you don't anticipate going to sleep.

Arrive light and rested; don't travel with heavy packages. Mail them to your destination via UPS 2nd-day air or, if you have a week, UPS ground tracking. This is an economical and reliable way to know your packages await you. Mark your packages profusely with your name and the words, "Hold for arrival of guest YOUR NAME arriving on DATE." Wrap your packages as if an orangutan will be handling them.

Travel with carry on bags only. Buy the roll-on carts to avoid toting your bags from the airport parking lot to the plane. Most tote systems are made to fit the airline aisles, the overhead seat com-partments, or under the seats.

The Stress of Airline Travel

It's all too obvious: Airline travel has become increasingly stressful in the last few years. Consider the following: Once you arrive at the airport grounds, there's the issue of parking the car, making your way to the shuttle, and so forth. The delays you can experience once you're actually at the airport can exceed the time it took you to get to the airport.

Inside the airport, you have to either check your bags, or, if you're wiser, use rolling luggage or all carry-ons and make your way directly through TSA "the system." You have to clear the line that already forming and ensure that you have the right ticket, and the right identification. Finally, it's time to get on the plane.

Once you board the plane, you have to sit in a chair that was designed to seat the greatest number of people possible in the plane's cabin, not for your comfort. The shoulder width of most seat backs is two to three inches fewer than the typical adult male's shoulder span. The leg room is nonexistent. Unless you choose the bulkhead row or emergency exit row, or happen to be in first-class, forget about having an enjoyable flight.

Then there's the forced air within the plane. The air is actually drier than most of the world's deserts. You get a tiny beverage served every 30 to 60 minutes.

If you're on a single aisle plane, making your way to the bathroom can be a hassle. The thought of stretching or getting any kind of exercise is nearly out of the question unless you're very adept at seated exercises. When you're about to begin eating, the pilot will announce, "We're heading into turbulence."

Jail Time for Cell Phone Drivers

An article in the London Telegraph by David Millward and Christopher Hope reports that "Motorists caught using a hand-held mobile phone while driving could be jailed for two years under tough new guidelines issued today by prosecutors. Drivers who adjust sat-navs, tinker with MP3 music players such as iPods or send text messages at the wheel could also face prison sentences."

"Prosecutions will be brought if by using the equipment a motorist is judged to have posed a danger to other drivers, such as causing another car to swerve. Using a hand-held mobile while driving was outlawed in 2003, but it is estimated that half a million motorists flout the ban each day."

"Existing guidelines restricted prosecutors to pursuing only a charge of careless driving, for which the maximum fine is $10,000 along with up to nine points on a motorist's license. But under the new rules, drivers could be charged with dangerous driving, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail."


I has heartened to learn that U.K. police now check mobile phone records after road collisions to see if the driver was making a call. An excellent move and one that will help guard other people's Breathing Space.

Wanted: Fewer People in the U.K.

"Overpopulation is the main cause of environmental degradation," says Madeleine Bunting, writing in the London Guardian. Common sense tells us that, "if the planet's resources are being grossly depleted, there are just too many of us about." Yet none of the main environmental lobbying groups will mention that obvious fact "because of the unpleasant associations it brings
with it."

If we admitted that there were too many of us on this "crowded island" of Great Britain, we'd have to either limit immigration, which would seem racist, or limit family size, which would seem authoritarian. So the Green lobby tries to insist that if we all just recycle more and drive less, we can live together in ever-greater numbers. If only that were true. At the current rate of increase, by 2074 Britain will be the most densely populated country in the world after Bangladesh.

"How many more people can you squeeze into cities that already seem to be choking under the weight of their population density-the buses and trains packed, the streets clogged, and the parks on a Sunday afternoon teeming with people?" The challenge of the next few decades will be to have that debate "while steering well clear of racism."

Jeff's take: such a shame that honest debate about over-population and its enormous negative effects is stifled by the PC police.

China Flagrantly Overpopulates

From the BBC and the Xinhua news agency:
China's top family planning body has warned of a "population rebound" as couples flout one child policy rules. The widening wealth gap could lead to a rise in birth rates. Newly rich couples can afford to pay fines to have more than one child, while rural couples are marrying earlier.

China is keen to curb its population growth, and the controversial family planning policy, implemented in the late 1970s, is meant to limit urban couples to one child and rural families to two. But rising incomes mean that some newly rich couples in urban areas can easily afford to break the rules and pay the resulting fines. However, the number of rich people and celebrities having more than one child was on a rapid increase, and nearly 10% of people in this category had three children.

In the countryside, too, the rules are being flouted... because of the traditional preference for sons. Experts say this preference has led to the under-reporting of female births, as well as abortion of female fetuses and female infanticide. By the end of 2006, China's population stood at 1,314,480,000, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, with males accounting for 51.5% of the population.

Your 2007 Vacation

At this site: the New 7 Wonders of the World you get to make your vote for what you believe ought be regarded as the new seven wonders. Seems like a marketing ploy, but it did get me thinking. Here’s what I would choose:
* Great Wall of China
* Europabrucke over Italy's Brenner Pass
* Machu Picchu
* Stonehenge
* Easter Island Statues
* Ruins of Ephesus
* Mount Rushmore

Runner's Up
* Ankgor Wat
* Sydney Opera House
* Panama Canal
* Colosseum
* Statue of Liberty
* Acropolis
* Eiffel Tour

You deserve breathing space this year. Which site will you visit?

Bad taste all Around

This appeared in today’s news and is either an indication of capitalism run amok or simply the inability of management to contribute to passengers’ sense of breathing space.:

“US Airways to place ads on barf bags”

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- US Airways wants to make the most out of a nauseating situation. The Tempe, Arizona-based airline plans to sell advertisements on its air-sickness bags -- those pint-sized expandable envelopes tucked between the in-flight magazines and safety cards.

"They're in every back seat pocket," said spokesman Phil Gee. "We figure while it's there, why don't we make it multipurpose?

– what’s next? Toilet paper rolls with ads on each sheet?

End of the Work Day

Do you sometimes get anxious in the late afternoon or as you make your way home at the end of the work day? "With emails, faxes, voice mail, "snail" mail, memos and reports, your boss, and your peers, in too many offices 4:45 p.m. can be as hectic as 9:15 a.m. Here are some tips for heading home with more energy and peace of mind:

* Each day, before you are about to leave, pause for a minute to acknowledge yourself for what you accomplished or did not accomplish. This simple mental exercise frees you to experience the rest of your day.

* Once inside your car or on the bus, consider that you are already "home." You don't have to wait until you are actually in the door and kicking off your shoes.

* If traffic is slow, stop off at a drug store or hardware store and get the household items you usually buy on Saturday.

* If you perpetually bring work home from the office, give yourself a break -- several times a week come home empty-handed.

Avoid the Post-Vacation Slam

Would you like to minimize stress following your travels? Suppose your time away from the office is ending. Once back at work, you have a stack of phone messages on your desk. Your mail is eight inches high. There are memos, reports, and announcements all over the place. You experience extreme pressure to catch up. The moment you return, the whole
world seems to falls in on you.

The Remedy? Plan your trips so that you return before you announced you would. Include a "decompression" phase in your plans; your trip is not complete until you comfortably reintegrate yourself. Also:

* Take one less vacation day and build in a day for transition and decompression rather than coming back too abruptly.

* Avoid returning to work on a Monday; it's already a high-pressure day.

* Instruct others to handle or reroute as many phone calls as possible; and to segment your mail and other papers that come in. Return to a clean office and a clean desk.

* Unpack all your bags quickly. You may be tired, but the task will only be more burdensome later. Put all notes and papers in their place as soon as possible if you ever intend to act on them.

Stress of Getting to the Airport

Simply getting to the airport has become increasingly stressful in the last few years. (Nevermind TSA), consider the following:

1. You have to pack the night before or very early that morning, and that in itself is an unusual burden. Then, largely because people are going to bed later and sleeping fewer hours per night you need to get to bed at a reasonable hour and get up on time.

2. Unless you've allowed plenty of time to get ready in the morning, you have to dress and groom yourself more quickly, and get out the door at a specific time.

3. Then there's the trip to the airport. If you're driving, you have to make sure your car is in tune, hope that the traffic won't be too bad, and that there will be no other circumstances that prevent your timely arrival. If you're taking a taxi or shuttle, you still have to hope that it comes on time, and that it doesn't experience the same problems on the road that you might have.

Urban Areas with Worst Traffic

The 10 urban areas with the heaviest traffic:

1. Los Angeles
2. San Francisco
3. Seattle
4. Washington
5. Chicago
6. San Diego
7. Boston
8. Portland, Ore.
9. Atlanta
10. Las Vegas

Sane Airplane Travel

Wear loose and comfortable clothing while on board. Sitting in an airplane seat is confining--you don't need to add to it by wearing heavy clothing, restrictive belts, or tight shoes--unless you're meeting a client immediately.

If you do want to sleep--regardless of where you're sitting--as Gerry Tausch would say, don a baseball cap with a sign on the rim saying, "Sleeping, do not disturb," or simply, "Do not disturb." When you want to work, wear a cap with the words "On deadline, please do not disturb." Both messages work well.