Pickpockets welcome!

Here’s a guy who sets himself up to be pickpocketed and then picks the pickpocker’s pocket! Take My Wallet, Please.

How do you track down pickpockets?
I stuff my wallet with paper and keep it in my pants pocket. Then I linger in prime tourist spots in foreign cities. Sooner or later, someone steals the wallet, and I try to steal it back.

He consults to foreign governments, coaches cruiseship travelers and leads workshops.

Stuck in DC

I’m in Washington DC and it’s the first time I’ve wanted to go home early and just couldn’t because the flights are all full.  It’s a strange feeling.  (I have been stranded due to snow storms before but the last time that happened I had Frank to keep me company.)

Luckily, it’s not a bad thing to be stuck in DC since I have great collegues to hang out with during the day and my cousin Leif is an excellent city host and has made dinner plans for us.

Can your cell phone cause an airplane to crash?

If, like me, you are a bit skeptical that your cell phone, or even more unbelievable, your iPod might cause a problem on an airplane, IEEE has an article that attempts to explain the danger and point to specific annecdotes where electronic usage might have caused navigation problems, IEEE Spectrum: Unsafe At Any Airspeed?.  While I’ll continue to turn my cell phone off, I still maintain that if my iPod is causing problems with the airplane’s electronics than we have much bigger problems with airplane electronics.  I hope they are more robust than that.

Flying with Famous People

Here’s a cute story of a couple trying to smuggle their dog into Hawaii (which has a six month quarentine): Busted! Please Put the Dog Down, Sir, and Step Away – New York Times.  But what I want to know is how did they just happen to end up on a plane with Mickey Hart and Bill Cosby?  What are the odds of that?  I’ve been flying a lot of a long time and the only famous person I noticed was a professional basketball player.  And I only noticed him because all the kids in the airplane were leaning in the aisle trying to catch a glimpse of someone in business class and there was this six foot six inch plus guy in business.

Pictures from Sailing Class

I had a great week sailing in the BVI on the Moorings boat Salaway with Offshore Sailing School.  I made new friends and learned a lot.  One of the coolest things we learned was how to "heave to", how to stop in the middle of the ocean.  The joke of the day was several thousand dollars and a whole week of class and we learned how to stop!

Here are the pictures I took.

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