Planning on visiting London in 2012?

Read this before you book. I think everyone outside Westminister accepts that it's a massive exercise in hubris bequathed by one dimwitted publicity-addict mayor to another, but all the same some poor bugger's bound to accidentally buy some tickets.

If they do actually complete any of the facilities they're bound to collapse as soon as somone tries to do something silly like walk into them.

Still, could be worse

They always said the logo would evolve. This one's inspired by a comment thread on Fark, created by my pal D-Hutch and I did all the stealing and cajoling.

"Folks, if those of you seated on the left hand side look out of the window you'll see a van wedged under the plane"

I don't normally run stories involving travel fatalities, as this one appears to do, but the news item does carry with it an extraordinary picture.

The 20 most annoying airports in the USA

Forbes has a list of the Top 100 airports in the US for delays. I know you're a modern person, though, with no time to waste on reading long lists or taking your ADHD medication. Here's the 20:

1: Chicago, Ill.: O'Hare

2: Newark, N.J.: Newark Liberty International

3: New York, N.Y.: Kennedy International

4: New York, N.Y.: La Guardia

5: Dallas/Ft.Worth, Texas: Dallas/Ft. Worth International

6: San Francisco, Calif.: San Francisco International

7: Boston, Mass.: Logan International

8: Philadelphia, Penn.: Philadelphia International

9: Atlanta, Ga.: Hartsfield-Jackson

10: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.: Minneapolis St. Paul International

11: Denver, Colo.: Denver International

12: Detroit, Mich.: Detroit Metro Wayne County

13: Seattle, Wash.: Seattle/Tacoma International

14: Charlotte, N.C.: Charlotte Douglas International

15: Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles International

16: Washington, D.C.: Dulles International

17: Phoenix, Ariz.: Sky Harbor International

18: Las Vegas, Nev.: Mc Carran International

19: Miami, Fla.: Miami International

20: Washington, D.C.: Washington National

If airline delays really float your boat, WCBS-TV have (inexplicably) got a picture gallery of the worst offenders

From BBC Radio Kent

HOME OR AWAY

With the credit crunch, recession and the whole green anti-flying campaign looming over the summer holiday season, how about focussing on holidays closer to home? Or, cheaper still, AT HOME? In "Sod Abroad" Michael Moran explains why'd you'd be made to leave the comfort of your own home. It's a silly, joyous collection about the impossibility of having any kind of fun on holidays either in the UK or abroad and has assorted lists of great things you can only do at home, if you ever had any time there, plus detailed critiques of assorted holiday destinations and even one fairly scientific equation. "Sod Abroad" by Michael Moran - John Murray paperback original - £7.99

A standard Air Rage story..at first

So here we are with a fairly routine story of some rather silly woman going nuts because she wasn't allowed to smoke on an aeroplane. Irrespective of your views on the creeping criminalisation of smoking, the idea of someone sparking up a gasper in the confined environs of a tourist jet is a pretty antisocial affair. Even if you ignore for one moment the spectre of the 'shoe bomber'

Here's what bothers me about the story though: She was restrained with the standard 'flex cuffs' which Sky Marshals carry to restrain terrorists, or more commonly people who've got a bit carried away with the in-flight gin-and-tonics.

And she Hulked out and broke them. If an average (one assumes) 35 year old woman can bust out of these things motivated by no more than the love of Woodbines, what possibility would there be of preventing some bomb-happy zealot from spearing the next 737 flight to Alicante into Canary Wharf?

Just a thought...

The Top 6 things banned by Airport Security

As enumerated by the always rather interesting Unsought Input

Explanation and illumination over at the UI site, but that handy bullet-point chart in full is:

1: 3.2oz of toothpaste

2: A MacBook Air

3: Some breast milk

4: Any book with either some dynamite on the cover, or Harry Potter, or both

5: One of those admittedly rather annoying flashing LED badges

6: Our old favourite, the Transformers T-shirt

I'm sure there are other exciting and unexpected things that airport security will take arbitrary exception to. Why not fly somewhere and find out what they are?

Multimedia Wednesday!

First in a series of at least one, your chance to hear my interview with a nice chap at BBC Radio Lincolnshire as I try to persuade him not to fly to Boston.

Click!