Hey! So how're you doing?

Here's some bits and dabs from the world of not staying at home.

Las Vegas has opened the new Terminal 3 for International carriers and some domestic carriers like United. It is more connected to the rest of their terminals than their old International terminal, so should make it easier to get around the airport.

The old terminal was originally for charter flights, and had only 4 gates. This new one has 14 gates, 7 for international, 7 for domestic. It cost $2.4 billion and took 5 years to build. 14 gates doesn't seem like very many, and I wonder if they will soon feel cramped.

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I don't know if you care about space travel, but here is a video of the retrieval of a solid rocket booster from the final space shuttle launch. The booster rockets fall into the ocean and are retrieved to be sent back to Utah where they are refurbished and re-used. Mr. Traveltales used to be an aerospace engineer, you know.



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Delta is testing do-it-yourself boarding turnstiles - put in your boarding pass to release the barrier. Lufthansa has had them in various airports around Europe for several years, and travelers report that they like them, but are not sure how those who travel less frequently will do with them. I think as long as there is someone there at the gate representing the airline in case there are questions or problems, it would be okay.

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This isn't travel-related, but I came across it while looking around: 14 percent of broken legs in children are caused by adults holding them on their lap to go down playground slides. The kids catch their foot on the side and break their leg, just that fast. The adults think they are keeping them safe, and feel horrible about it, and the other adults in the family blame them for the accident, so there is family tension. I'd hate to be the grandparent or baby sitter who does this and has to explain to the irate parent why the trip to the playground ended up in the emergency room.

As non-parents, in this age of parental paranoia, and false accusations of sexual predation, we don't even look at peoples' kids out in public, or talk to our friends' kids or grandkids any more than we have to. It is a world that doesn't exist for us.