Visitors can stand inside the wall that re-circulates 11,000 gallons of water each minute.
Besides providing cooling mist, the visual effect is surreal.
PORT OF HOUSTON BOAT TOUR:
Since 1958, the 95-foot-long Motor Vessel Sam Houston has been taking visitors on a 90-minute cruise of the Houston Ship Channel, home to one of the world's busiest ports and among the world's largest petrochemical complexes.
The museum is home to the largest collection of sculptures by French artist Auguste Rodin outside of Paris.
Restoration work includes interior and exterior renovations, garden rejuvenation and a reinstallation of the collection.
A series about his project, "How to Travel the World for Free," is airing on some PBS channels throughout May and June, using video Wigge shot of his adventures.
At first, Wigge scrounged for food from garbage bins behind supermarkets, but he soon realized that Dumpster diving wasn't necessary.
In Latin America, he found that people were very helpful if I went to their door and said, 'I have no idea where I will sleep tonight, can I sleep here?' There was this helpfulness, this hospitality, maybe because many people there are poor and they know how it feels.
In Las Vegas, he engaged in pillow fights for $1 on the street and offered his back as a "human sofa" for tired visitors.
The other workers were accustomed to handling tents and meals for tourists along the 50-mile, five-day route, then running ahead carrying 60 pounds of luggage on their backs in time to set up the next campsite before the tourists arrived, all at 14,000-feet elevations.
After two days, they put his luggage on horses and allowed him to walk at a regular pace rather than staying behind and running ahead to help with campsites.
To film himself and collect footage that was high-enough quality for TV, Wigge carried a Canon HDV 1080i camera with a good wide-angle lens and microphone.
Once he'd achieved his goal of starting out with no money and completing a one-way trip to Antarctica, he had no qualms about accessing a bank account for return fare to Germany.
Airport managers are already expecting an increase in international travelers over the next decade, and they hope the terminal will convince airlines to route even more of their overseas flights through the city.
The center is being built on 30 acres (12 hectares) of waterfront property with help from local shipping company Grupo B&R. It will feature a marketplace, restaurants, bars and a water attraction, Carnival said.
[...] on Tuesday, officials in Puerto Rico announced that the U.S. Caribbean territory would be the home port for a Royal Caribbean cruise ship next year.
The HD camera went live on North America's tallest fall Monday, allowing anyone with computer access to watch in stunning detail as shadows race across the towering granite monolith over which Yosemite Creek crashes in a series of plunges and cascades.
"In a lot of ways I equate it to all of the beautiful picture books that we've had on our coffee tables, or the art from the 1870s that made Yosemite exciting to people around the world when they saw it for the first time," said Michael Tollefson, president of the nonprofit Yosemite Conservancy, which placed the camera there.
At Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a webcam shows traffic on the boat launch ramp at Bullfrog, Utah (http://1.usa.gov/J4P8L5).
The Conservancy's cameras in Yosemite National Park are positioned for dramatic impact: the movement of the sun on the falls and formation of ice in the winter, the gathering of summer rain clouds atop Half Dome, rock climbers scaling El Capitan. (http://www.yosemiteconservancy.org/webcams)
The new camera and one in the Ahwahnee Meadow pointed at Half Dome are HD optimized for computer viewing at 1280x720 pixels resolution, or 720p.
The eventual goal, said Tollefson, is to upgrade to live video streaming at all of the Yosemite cameras that already attract 400,000 viewers a year.
Pushing up his sleeves and letting his fingers make one more run through his deliberately tousled hair, he reaches for a bit of charcoal on his studio table and goes at the three finished canvases again.
The work will be hanging in the entry of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture as part of the annual Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival, which opens in Santa Fe on May 25 with Abeyta being recognized as this year's "living treasure."
[...] festival organizers say the reasons were clear: his style, his time spent mentoring other young Native American artists and his refusal to fall back on formulas when it comes to creating art.
Curators, gallery owners and collectors say the stereotypical images of horses and Indians clad in feathers have given way to more contemporary work that stems from spiritual sensibilities often rooted in nature, tradition and culture.
The show has grown over the last seven years, but its mission to raise money for the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture remains the same.
The museum receives state funds for operating expenses, but money for staging exhibitions must come from private sources.
Aside from having his work in museums and private collections across the country, his accomplishments include a painting that served as the official illustration for the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.
At the Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, director Peter Stoessel pointed to three very different pieces by Abeyta: a landscape made of large, angled brush strokes, a charcoal drawing of biomorphic shapes and a collection of panels featuring baseballs, birds and butterflies.
Back at Abeyta's second-floor studio just off the Santa Fe Plaza, the artist continues to juggle time between an interview and the curators who are there to collect his charcoal triptych.
The inspiration may be inherent, but he says the creativity can evolve much like Indian art has from the early days of utilitarian cookware and painted hides.
GRANVILLE, France (AP) — Going back to where it all began, a new exhibit in the childhood home of legendary designer Christian Dior in Normandy sheds new light on the house's huge contribution to the silver screen.
The setting also provides rare insight into how a young Dior, who liked to spend time in the garden, became inspired by the Granville landscape and decided to dedicate his life to fashion.
The exhibit features a rare collection: three floors with 50 glittering gowns, worn by actresses including Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Rita Hayworth, both on and off the screen from 1942 to the present day.
Standing against a huge photo of Hayworth reclining in an intimate setting with Dior — it's visual proof that from the outset, cinema stars swarmed around the house.
True enough: the exhibit testifies to the house's staying power, ending 65 years later with the black tulle bustier worn by French actress Marion Cotillard's at the 2009 Academy Awards.
Another actress deeply linked to the house was fashion icon Marlene Dietrich — who loved Christian Dior so much she moved just down the road on Avenue Montaigne.
Beyond the exhibit, the museum and surrounding gardens hold many clues as to what drove Dior artistically — both in his theatricality and the aesthetic codes.
A series of personal blows swiftly plunged Dior into the experience of adulthood: his beloved mother died unexpectedly in 1931, and the Wall Street Crash forced the family to sell the house not long after.
The 40-year-old oil company employee and filmmaker from Anchorage will move to the mostly uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound at the end of May, completing a dream he's been contemplating for 17 years.
Baird will build a 12x12 shed to shelter him from the elements, and he plans to hunt and fish and fend off an occasional black bear during his sojourn to the Alaska wilderness.
Like many islands in Prince William Sound, people digging into the beach there can still find oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
[...] she's written a book about people coming to Alaska to live the remote lifestyle and is in the process of trying to find a publisher.
Some abandoned supplies from those people making earlier attempts can still be found strewn on the beach.
"Heavy weather is going to be a constant companion," said RJ Kopchak, a Cordova businessman and former commercial fisherman.
There are building restrictions on the uninhabited island, Baird said, so he will have to construct his makeshift cabin without digging into the ground for a foundation.
"Probably the biggest challenge is the isolation," he said, adding it was an issue for some of his classmates in an Air Force Academy survival training course.
Once he returns to civilization, he'll edit the video and try to sell it as a documentary series.
GDANSK, Poland (AP) — Gdansk offers a chance for visitors to take in scenes of sea, ships and spires set in a magnificently reconstructed Old Town while contemplating the ups and downs of European history, including the famous shipyard strike led by Lech Walesa.
The city, already one of Poland's key tourist attractions, will see an influx of some 300,000 soccer fans and tourists in June alone when Gdansk hosts several games during the European football championship.
World War II began in Gdansk, and today many visitors flock to the peninsula of Westerplatte, where the Germans opened fired on a Polish garrison on Sept. 1, 1939, some of the opening shots of the conflict.
Ships dock in the water, with bustling cafes and shops with more amber and trinkets creating a lively atmosphere in the shadow of more historic structures.
Spend all the hours you want gazing over the red-tiled roofs of Old Nice, but it's highly unlikely a Cary Grant-lookalike will come scrambling over the chimney pots like the scene in "To Catch a Thief," which was set on the Riviera.
Old Nice, the historic part of the city, is a maze of alleys and small squares in a roughly triangular shape bordered by the sea, a hill that was once home to a castle and Boulevard Jean Jaures.
The Nice Jazz Festival takes place each July (this year July 8-12) and for winter fun, Carnival unfolds in February ending on Mardi Gras with parades and "flower battles" in which costumed characters on floats throw flowers into the crowd.
[...] the local celebrity factor is really amped up each spring during the annual film festival in the once-sleepy fishing village of Cannes, about 15 miles southwest of Nice (this year May 16-27).
Eavesdrop on suited executives traveling in pairs and talking distribution deals in New York accents, watch the harassed "gendarmes" as they try to bring order to traffic, and look on as local photographers make like paparazzi and shoot passers-by.
There's no chateau, but there are ruins, green spaces and a fabulous, panoramic view of Nice and the curving sweep of the waterfront.
Options for a sit-down meal in Old Nice range from casual cafes, like Cave de la Tour, to restaurants like Le Bistro Gourmand, which won a Michelin star only a year after opening.
Take a walk on the Promenade des Anglais, a seaside pathway that got its name in the 19th century from British tourists who would come for wintertime visits on the advice of their doctors to escape the English cold.
Have a few coins ready to buy a ticket; it can be difficult to use American credit cards in French ticket machines because of technical compatibility issues.
Options include Hotel Beau Rivage, 24 rue Saint Francoise de Paule, offseason rates start at about 165 euros, http://www.hotel-nicebeaurivage.com/web1/ and Hotel Suisse, Promenade des Anglais, 15 Quai Rauba Capeu, advertised rates start at 195 euros, with Internet discounts at http://www.hotel-nice-suisse.com/uk/index.php .
WASHINGTON (AP) — A decade after hijackers mostly from Saudi Arabia attacked the United States with passenger jets, the Saudis have emerged as the principal ally of the U.S. against al-Qaida's spinoff group in Yemen and at least twice have disrupted plots to explode sophisticated bombs aboard airlines.
Details emerging about the latest unraveled plot revealed that a Saudi double agent fooled the terror group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, passing himself off as an eager would-be suicide bomber.
Before he was whisked to safety, the spy provided intelligence that helped the CIA kill al-Qaida's senior operations leader, Fahd al-Quso, who died in a drone strike last weekend.
The role of Saudi Arabia disrupting the plot follows warnings in 2010 from the oil-rich kingdom about a plot to blow up cargo planes inside the U.S., either on runways or over American cities.
Saudi Arabia, the one-time home of Osama bin Laden, failed to spot and stop the 15 Saudi-born hijackers of the 19 who carried out the September 2001 terror attacks.
U.S. law enforcement officials accused the Saudi government of failing to help adequately in investigations of the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and Hezbollah's bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen in 1996.
[...] a series of devastating al-Qaida strikes against Saudi targets in 2003 and more recently, fears al-Qaida could try to trigger Arab Spring-style revolts in the kingdom, has energized the Saudi government in its war against al-Qaida's spinoff in Yemen, which is composed mostly of ex-Saudi militants.
Saudi Arabia's intelligence services were also galvanized into their current more aggressive action after suicide bombers killed some 35 people at housing compounds for Westerners in Riyadh, in 2003, according to Philip Mudd, a former senior FBI and CIA official.
Through a smartphone app, you broadcast your whereabouts, or "check in" to those places.
[...] I began my break from Foursquare about 15 months ago, I was diligent about checking in to places, mostly around my home in New York.
On Feb. 13, 2011, I checked in to Pat O'Brien's on New Orleans' Bourbon Street after indulging on its specialty drink, the Hurricane.
Restaurants and laundry facilities I frequent in New York suddenly seemed routine and boring.
Sadly, I missed a 10 percent "Newbie Special" discount at Zoes Kitchen in Houston because I didn't check in until I had already placed and paid for a food order.
By contrast, Yelp's reviews service offered places that were much closer, along with options to narrow the list based on price and type of cuisine.
In Little Rock, Ark., one user's tip steered me toward calzone over pizza, and my taste buds were very appreciative.
At LaGuardia Airport, the top "tip" was a joke from The Onion and the second one was a link to an opinion column on airport security.
Foursquare recently added other features, such as opening hours for local merchants and price guides for restaurants, but that's already available through Yelp, which does a better job of curating listings to weed out duplicates.
Someone created "incompetence" as a venue for a local commuter transit agency; 54 people had checked in 71 times the last time I checked.
Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology editor for The Associated Press, became mayor of a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan's Upper East Side on Tuesday.
Last month, U.S. intelligence learned that al-Qaida's Yemen branch hoped to launch a spectacular attack using a new, nearly undetectable bomb aboard an airliner bound for America, officials say.
[...] the man the terrorists were counting on to carry out the attack was actually working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence, U.S. and Yemeni officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Security procedures at U.S. airports remained unchanged Tuesday, a reflection of both the U.S. confidence in its security systems and a recognition that the government can't realistically expect travelers to endure much more.
The Transportation Security Administration sent advice to some international air carriers and airports about security measures that might stave off an attack from a hidden explosive.
The U.S. has worked for years to try to improve security for U.S.-bound flights originating at international airports.
All passengers on U.S.-bound flights are checked against terrorist watch lists and law enforcement databases.
In some countries, U.S. officials are stationed in airports to offer advice on security matters.
LONDON (AP) — It's months before athletes hit the Olympic track, but time is running out for those in another fierce competition:
A limited hotel supply and unprecedented demand from almost a million tourists, media and businesspeople tied to the London Games means that accommodation in the British capital — never a bargain to start with — is more expensive than ever this summer.
Vacation rental agencies and websites have reported a massive boom in business, with many homeowners planning to stay with friends or go abroad so they can rent out their homes.
London tourism officials expect about 900,000 Olympics-related visitors — including athletes, their families, staff, journalists, and tourists — to London this summer, all needing a bed.
Even with many new hotels springing up all over the capital, there are only about 110,000 hotel rooms in the London area — and almost a third of those have been allocated to Olympic personnel.
Tourism officials have brushed off the shortage, insisting that London has more rooms and a bigger range of sleeping options than any other Olympic host city has been able to offer.
A recent survey by London-based international booking website Hotels.com suggested that the average London hotel room rate has doubled for the Olympic period compared to last year, but it's clear in many cases the jump is much steeper.
