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Dubbed a "business necessity" rather than a leisure destination, Newark in New Jersey, US, has landed the top spot as the world's least friendly city. Newark's "extreme traffic and poor signage" have been cited as reasons for the city's lack of congeniality, while its status as an airport city is said to make it crowded and overpriced. One disappointed traveller recently said Newark was "one of the saddest looking cities" they had ever seen.

Crossing the Atlantic on the original RMS Queen Elizabeth. I hate the modern world. On a side note; I think I gained at least two pounds just watching the segment on dinner.

Guards in civilian clothes will be patrolling France’s trains from October, as a new law comes into effect following a foiled terror attack last year. The move has been planned since August last year when train passengers overpowered a man who had opened fire with a Kalashnikov on a train between Amsterdam and Paris. […] Introduction of the changes took so long due to the complicated process of rewriting French law, but also the time needed to train and equip the guards. The guards will be on patrol in pairs on regional trains, TGVs, and even on commuter lines. …

Video of a graphene battery running a vehicle

Instead of hearing your flight attendant simply go through safety measures before takeoff -- fasten your seatbelts, turn off your mobile devices -- now, some are really trying to get your attention... by telling jokes! Watch as this Southwest flight attendant's safety speech turns to comedy sketch.

She said: “We were at least three hours into the flight, everybody had eaten and was asleep. “It was very quiet. There seemed to be lots of children on the flight. “Then out of the blue the plane just dropped and everybody who was unbuckled went flying.” She said people flew headlong into the ceiling of the plane, suffering cuts to their heads. A few passengers had broken bones, she claimed. ... The flight attendant across from me, she slammed her head. She’ll need stitches.” The plane plummeted twice, Ms Boriack said, and during the second fall many of the...

The face of an ancient female Egyptian mummy has been reconstructed with the help of 3D printing and forensic science techniques, an important step to better understand who she was. Other crucial details about her health have also been gathered, completing the picture. This reconstruction was only made possible due to the work of a multi-disciplinary team led by scientists at Melbourne University, combining medical research, forensic science, computerised tomographic (CT) scanning, 3D printing, Egyptology and art. It all started when Dr Ryan Jefferies, curator at the University's Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, stumbled across the skull...

A deadly plague haunts Venice, and it’s not the cholera to which Thomas Mann’s character Gustav von Aschenbach succumbed in the Nobel laureate’s 1912 novella “Death in Venice.” A rapacious tourist monoculture threatens Venice’s existence, decimating the historic city and turning the Queen of the Adriatic into a Disneyfied shopping mall. Millions of tourists pour into Venice’s streets and canals each year, profoundly altering the population and the economy, as many native citizens are banished from the island city and those who remain have no choice but to serve in hotels, restaurants and shops selling glass souvenirs and carnival masks.

Mosquito moms can transmit zika virus to their offspring — at least in the lab, a new study shows. If this also happens in nature, the virus might be able to survive in tough mosquito eggs even when cold weather, dry spells, and pesticides kill off the infectious adults. Mosquitoes can transmit viruses in the same family as Zika, such as yellow fever and dengue, to their offspring — but it wasn’t clear whether this was also true for Zika. So scientists led by Robert Tesh, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch, injected Zika virus into approximately...

A truck carrying Takata air bag inflators and a load of volatile ammonium nitrate crashed, caught fire and exploded in southern Texas last week, killing a woman and injuring four others. Takata says Monday that the truck operated by a subcontractor crashed in the small town of Quemado, near the Mexican border about 140 miles from San Antonio. The company says it sent people to the site and is helping authorities investigate the crash. …

BENSON – The Benson Visitor Center’s murals and historic displays will be sharing the spotlight with a new attraction. A model train — the detailed replica of a Union Pacific SD 70 locomotive pulling five railcars — is now circling around the inside of the visitor center, mounted high overhead on a track suspended from the building’s ceiling. The project marks the first phase of a series of model train displays planned for the visitor center by Bob Nilson, tourism supervisor for the City of Benson. Funding for the train, track and support structures came through a $6,000 grant from...

They’re having a birthday-- and it's a big one. The National Park Service turns 100 on Aug. 25 and parks around the country are celebrating the milestone. Starting Thursday, entrance to the 124 parks that usually charge admission is free through Sunday (Aug. 28). Throughout the nation, special events at over 400 parks will celebrate the centennial. From birthday cakes and cupcakes to special classes and programs, most parks have something special planned. National parks may be synonymous with camping and hiking today but Americans haven't always been able to enjoy these protected lands. The story of the national...

Photo at link. A Southwest Airlines flight from New Orleans to Orlando made an emergency landing Saturday morning in Pensacola after a mid-air malfunction sidelined the plane’s primary engine. Federal investigators are now trying to determine the cause of what a Southwest spokesperson described as an “mechanical issue with the number one engine.”

There are over 38,000 Mexican restaurants across the United States. Mexican food is the most popular international cuisine in the U.S., representing 42% of all ethnic food sales. It’s represented on the menus of one in every 10 restaurants in the United States. With so many Mexican restaurants to choose from, the real question becomes how to spot authentic Mexican food.

Smail Ayad is accused of killing Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, in a frenzied knife attack in which he is said to have screamed 'Allahu Akbar'. ... s Ayliffe-Chung was butchered in a bloody rampage in front of 30 horrified witnesses on Tuesday night at the hostel in north Queensland. On his arrest, Ayad allegedly lashed out at police officers and had to be wrestled to the ground and handcuffed. Ayad then bit a detective in the leg in the police van on the way to the station and had to be subdued using pepper spray and a Taser, it is claimed....

Breakthrough Starshot is one of the more exciting scientific ideas that has popped up in the past decade, with its promise to deliver hardware to the nearest star in time for many people currently alive to see it. While the idea would work on paper as an extrapolation of existing technology, there are a lot of details that need to be thoroughly checked out, because it’s possible that one of them could present a show-stopper. There’s a bit of good news there: Breakthrough Starshot is apparently funding the needed research to give its concept a thorough vetting. A recent posting...

For about $700 you can travel more than 6,000 miles, from Moscow to Beijing, aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, the single longest railway line in the world. Built between 1891 and 1916 to connect Asian and European cities across the great span of Russia, the Trans-Siberia Railway celebrates its centennial this year. Crossing a record seven time zones and offering up vast landscapes, the world's longest railway line has always attracted adventurers during its 100 years in service.

If you thought trips to the airport were tough enough, now it seems flyers have been forced to drag their bags along the side of the road just to get in and out of LaGuardia. Was it a case of poor planning by the Port Authority? And will things gets worse as construction clogs the airport? As CBS2’s Lou Young reported, building the new airport at the old airport was bound to cause problems, but no one was expecting this kind of trouble.

About 1,500 Americans floating down a river that separates the United States from Canada had to be rescued from the water when strong rains and winds sent them illegally into Canadian territory, the country's coast guard said on Monday.

The State Department issued a warning on Monday urging U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to Iran, which has made the detention of American a priority. The latest travel advisory, which emphasizes Iran’s desire to capture U.S. citizens, comes on the heels of a growing scandal over the Obama administration’s decision to pay Iran $400 million in cash on the same day that it freed several U.S. hostages. The payment has been cast by lawmakers and others as a ransom payment and prompted increasing concern among U.S. officials that Iran is making arresting Americans a priority. The travel warning is mean...