ARCHIVES


How safe are e-passports?
	Electronic or e-passports were designed to strengthen border security, while also speeding immigration checks. Virtually the same as traditional passports, they include a small integrated circuit embedded in the back cover. This chip is meant to securely store biographical information and digital imaging. Unfortunately researchers claim they are not very secure at all. There are ways to pull information from machines reading the passports’ chips, transferring it to a forged read-write chip. There's also potential flaws allowing someone to replicate fingerprints from these chips, as well as ways to disrupt passport readers. This means people can manipulate the readers to approve defunct passports, as well as forged ones. At this time the U.S. Department of State’s website has no response to these new findings.


Traveling Securely
	Anyone losing important documents during travels knows the hassle it entails. www.KeepYouSafe.com LINK offers an online "travel safe" storing a virtual copy of your most important personal documents like credit cards, passport and tickets. The service is given the thumbs up from Fodor's Travel Wire. Our own solution: scan and email all travel documents to yourself, prior to travel. That way, you can easily access and download the information from any internet café.


Paperless Tickets
	We all hear about responsible tourism, but what about its antonym, irresponsible tourism? www.irresponsibletourism.info LINK promotes a forum for concerned citizens wanting to draw attention to unacceptable behavior. Now's the time to blow that whistle and dob in a mate… Topping our irresponsible list are "paperless" e-tickets. Paper tickets' demise has finally come, with e-tickets the mandated norm by mid '08. First issued by Alaska Airlines in 1995, e-tickets save the airline industry some $3 billion a year, or $9 for each ticket of some 400 million issued annually. While that apparently keeps 50,000 mature trees from pulping, we question the need to now print itineraries on A4 sheets -- especially when airline website don't offer easy to use "Print this page" icons in html format. Aren't we creating an even worse environmental mess of the world's forests?


Chattering Class
	We can't figure out all the fuss about phones on planes. US carriers have offered seat phones for decades, as have international airlines. So why the complaints now about sitting in the chattering class? In January '08 Emirates raises the stakes, allowing in-flight cell calls from your own phone. The system also allows crew complete control to disable calls at certain times for safety. Cut price Ryanair plans to follow suit. While the two airlines have not announced their charges, research indicates demand drops at US$3 per minute threshold. More remarkably, most American surveys say US passengers don't want it.


A380
	A new era in aviation history begins Oct. 25, with the inaugural super-jumbo A380 flight from Singapore to Sydney. The 450 passsengers were feted by celebrity chefs Sam Leong of of Singapore's and Matthew Moran of Sydney. The chefs created three different menus, from steamed black cod wrapped in cabbage served with sautéed hon shimeji in soya bean crumbs, to pan-roasted Muscovy duck breast with black cherry jus and a light celeriac puree. As for the champagne: Dom Perignon Rosé vintage 1996 for first and business clases, and Charles Heidsieck NV in economy. The world's largest commercial passenger aircraft, with two full floors, can hold 850-plus passengers in a full economy scenario. But Singapore Air plans to cash in on its prestige, limiting seat numbers to half that, as do most other airlines slated for delivery. The A380 was delayed some 18 months before its first delivery, but airports were also slow to remodel for the planes' two-floored seating and mammoth size (its wing span is equivalent to two football fields). Considering the Boeing 747 dominated, if not monopolized jumbos for almost 40 years, start getting used to this behemoth. Globetrotting Gourmet already has reservations to fly the new craft in November, so look for a run down in the next issue. Already critics claim he airplane is less Green friendly than promised. see link Sex in first class?


Executive Jet Taxes
	Are executive jets paying their fair share? With skyrocketing airline taxes and surcharges costing up to 50%+ of a ticket, the distribution of taxes and fees is becoming a big issue. According to US FAA, airlines and their passengers use about 70 percent of air traffic control costs, yet contribute almost 95 percent of the revenue into the Airport and Airways Trust Fund. Expect class action suits soon.


World food prices are predicted to soar
	Worrying factors have sprung up that might erase the status of food as a readily available and easily affordable commodity. The UN predicts global warming will cause agricultural falls of up to 20%. Scarce supply is also causing inflation, as shown by Chinese food prices jumping double digits and Chicago wheat futures stratospheric. Consequently, some investment counselors recommend investing heavily in the agriculture and farming industries to bank on the continuous food price hikes. Even more troubling are the potential effects of rising food prices on the developing world. The UN declared earlier this year that its food programs are insufficient to feed the 90 million people on its aid list. One top culprit is the rise of bio-fuels, leading to farmland production directed towards industrial use.

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