Legion of Angels News Archive

With persistent energy costs turning green habits from trend into standing policy, environmental measures that would have dazzled just a few years ago are becoming as expected and unimpressive as compact fluorescent light bulbs. You’d be hard-pressed to find a Motel 6 or truck stop without some level of green certification.

In a bit of a shock, this year’s Sustained Excellence award winner from the Environmental Protection Agency went to New York City’s downtown Marriott. Yes, that Marriott—in the sweltering asphalt of Manhattan’s Financial District. Insiders, however, weren’t surprised. Marriott announced a company-wide policy to cut energy consumption (not just costs) by 25 percent by 2017; they’ve also debuted “spudware,” biodegradable cutlery made from potato and soy, and turned golf courses into Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries.

With corporate titans making very public efforts to go green, it’s little surprise that some self-described Friends of the Environment aren’t what they claim to be. One hotel whose brochure claimed to be “eco-friendly” was backed up in practice by nothing more than an optional recycling program. Such puffery—called “green-washing”—is hampering the industry and the larger environmental movement. It always pays to double-check a hotel’s credentials and give so-called green thumbs the white-glove treatment.

Still, even in the last year, great strides have been made. Going green now entails more than unwashed towels and unlikely flavors of organic toothpaste. Sustainability is an important criterion for eco-conscious travelers—and not just for visitors from San Francisco and Vermont. At the Wyland Waikiki in Hawaii, for example, guests are treated to the largest collection of work by renowned marine artist Robert Wyland, whose murals of sea life are meant to inspire environmental preservation.

For your inner pedicured cowboy, Montana’s Bison Quest Sanctuary and Spa reconnects guests with wildlife through encounters with a buffalo herd. “We’ve had a bison herd for well over a decade,” says Pam Knowles, wildlife biologist and founder of the private sanctuary, “and it has become obvious to us over the years that people are fascinated with bison in a natural setting.” The 480-acre private ranch plans on staying small and sustainable in Big Sky country. “We currently have one cabin and two tipis, with the second cabin slated to be finished this fall,” Knowles says. “We don’t plan to ever be bigger than that.”

Though staying green is often about staying small and sustainable, many big urban hotels (like the Marriott) are getting in on the act. The Seaport Hotel in Boston, for example, boasts chemical-free, electrolyzed water instead of bleach for cleaning. Management also composts food waste with the first BioX decomposing system in New England and uses its purchasing power to encourage other industries to go green by buying from environmentally sound suppliers. And by cultivating an on-site herb and vegetable garden, they reduce their dependence on outside suppliers even more.

Clearly, if straight-laced Boston can be just as environmental as flowery San Francisco (where the Hotel Triton, a Kimpton hotel, has led the eco-charge), environmentalism is gaining traction in the public awareness. The same could be said for Arkansas, where the Lookout Point Inn in Hot Springs has got it going on, ecologically speaking. There, old sheets and towels are donated to charity and unused paper products are given to the staff. Having a natural hot spring to take a warm soak in also helps cut heating costs.

Heating costs may be low by default in sunny Key West, but the Banyan Resort still goes green with a solar-powered pool, a deck made from recycled lumber and grounds that are xeriscaped. That is, landscaped with water-conserving plants. Throughout the country, hotels’ growing array of eco-innovations provides inspiration to hoteliers and guests alike.

Source — MSNBC

(Travel + Leisure) – It’s no surprise: Americans are super-opinionated, especially about the cities they live in and the places they visit. In fact, their feelings are so strong that in the 2008 America’s Favorite Cities survey — conducted by travelandleisure.com and CNN Headline News — Americans voted more than 600,000 times on 45 characteristics of 25 cities, weighing in on things like shopping, food, culture and nightlife, as well as cleanliness and affordability.

In 2007, there was a lot of cheering from cities that clinched the No. 1 spots, like Chicago, Illinois, (dining) and Austin, Texas, (best singles scene). But we also saw a lot of upsets — upset people, that is. After all, someone had to come in last. Unfortunately for the proud people of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, America voted them dead last in the category of attractive people. And Los Angeles, California, took the prize for least friendly city, a category that most expected New York City to sweep.

Notable changes

For the winners in each category, 2008 brought some surprises. New Orleans, Louisiana, elbowed New York aside as the best city for fine dining. Las Vegas, Nevada, took the No. 1 spot for best singles scene as former No. 1 Austin tumbled to No. 5. In the cleanliness category, Portland, Oregon, swept Minneapolis, Minnesota, out of first place this year.

But other cities maintained their dominant positions. New York held its No. 1 ranking as the country’s best spot for people-watching, while Charleston, South Carolina, was once again voted America’s friendliest city.

Find your vacation

There’s plenty more to explore beyond the rankings. If you’re in the market for a great destination, the Vacation Finder at travelandleisure.com can help you find the perfect city for your interests. Austin and New Orleans, for example, are rollicking destinations for live music, cheap ethnic food and vintage shopping. If something more high-minded is your style, check out Washington D.C. (No. 1 for museums) or New York (No. 1 for classical music).

Travelers seeking the sophistication of cities paired with the exhilaration of the outdoors should head to Honolulu, Hawaii, (No. 1 for active/adventure vacations), Portland (No. 1 for public parks and access to outdoors), or Denver, Colorado, (No. 1 for athletic/active citizens).

If you’re planning a trip with the kids, Orlando, Florida, is still on top, but alternatives like San Diego, California, and Washington D.C. still rate high with travelers. Seekers of romantic getaways should try their luck in Honolulu, Charleston or San Francisco, California, which hold their own particular charms.

And what happened at the bottom of the scale? Did Philadelphia rally voters and push themselves up the attractiveness scale? Did Angelenos take the criticism about being the least-friendly city to heart and begin using a kinder, gentler salute to fellow drivers on the freeway? Read on to find out.

Here are the top three cities in some of the categories, as voted by visitors. Visit travelandleisure.com for the full results, best and worst, for each city and category, as ranked by residents and by visitors.

2008 America’s Favorite Cities Survey

travelandleisure.com and CNN Headline News collected 600,000 votes on 45 characteristics of 25 urban destinations across the United States. Here are the top three cities in some of the categories, as voted on by visitors:

Live Music/Bands

1. New Orleans, Louisiana
2. Austin, Texas
3. Nashville, Tennessee

Destination Restaurants

1. New Orleans, Louisiana
2. New York, New York
3. San Francisco, California

People

1. Miami, Florida
2. San Diego, California
3. Austin, Texas

Skyline/Views

1. New York, New York
2. Chicago, Illinois
3. San Francisco, California

Source — CNN

NEW YORK - Whether you’re summering in New England or on a business trip to Louisville, sometimes you feel like having a cocktail. GQ’s August issue tells you where to find the best drinks in America, and the results might surprise you, from margaritas in Maine to Manhattans in Kentucky.

The magazine says the Louisville restaurant called 610 Magnolia is the best place to get a Manhattan, while fine margaritas reside at El Camino in Brunswick, Maine. Less surprising perhaps is the award for best mai tai going to House Without a Key, a bar at the Halekulani hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii, and the best mint julep turning up in the South, at Elizabeth on 37th, in Savannah, Ga. For a perfect gin and tonic, GQ says head to the Spring House Hotel, on Block Island in Rhode Island.

For a complete list of GQ’s recommendations on where to find 20 excellent cocktails coast to coast, visit http://men.style.com/gq/features/archive/0808.

Source — Yahoo!

The popular 1995 Honda Civic continues to be the top pick among thieves, holding onto that position for the 2007 calendar year, according to the “Hot Wheels” report released in July 2008 by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

And while the types of vehicles being stolen remain consistent from year to year, overall car theft in the U.S. declined almost nine percent in 2007. “The continuing national decrease in vehicle theft is a positive sign that the fight against vehicle theft by law enforcement, the insurance industry and the NICB continues to be effective,” said Robert M. Bryant, NICB’s president and chief executive officer.

The most recent NICB report listed the 1991 Honda Accord as the second-most-stolen vehicle, followed by the 1989 Toyota Camry. In fourth position, the 1997 Ford F-150 was the highest-listed pickup truck as well as the most stolen domestic-branded vehicle. The only other domestic brands on the list were also trucks — the 1994 Chevrolet C/K 1500 and the 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup.

Other perennial favorites among thieves include the Acura Integra and Nissan Sentra. According to the NICB, thieves continue to target these older vehicles because they provide the best market for stolen vehicle parts.

The NICB encourages everyone to follow what it calls a “layered approach” to auto theft protection by employing simple, low-cost suggestions to make vehicles less attractive to thieves. The four layers include common sense, a warning device, an immobilizing device, and a tracking device.

The least expensive form of defense, common sense simply means using the standard anti-theft features of a vehicle by locking the car and taking the keys. The second layer is a warning device or alarm on the vehicle.

The third layer suggests some sort of immobilizing device, such as a fuel cutoff or smart key that prevents the vehicle from being driven. The fourth layer consists of a tracking device allowing law enforcement officers to track and recover a vehicle if stolen.

The NICB study is based on information reported to the National Crime Information Center.

Here are the 10 most stolen vehicles as reported by the NICB — the number in parentheses is the model year most stolen:

1. Honda Civic (1995)
2. Honda Accord (1991)
3. Toyota Camry (1989)
4. Ford F-150 (1997)
5. Chevrolet C/K 1500 (1994)
6. Acura Integra (1994)
7. Dodge Ram Pickup (2004)
8. Nissan Sentra (1994)
9. Toyota Pickup (1988)
10. Toyota Corolla (2007)

Source — MSN

Thirty years ago, when James Lubic attended “watching school,” watch repair was still primarily a family business, typically passed on from father to son. But as technology improved, watches stopped breaking so frequently (and became much cheaper), so people often simply replaced a watch when needed.

Those were very bad developments for families in the watch repair business.

“Watchmaker fathers started telling their kids to go to college, because it became tough to make a living in the profession,” says Lubic, a watch repairer since the 1970s and executive director of the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute in Harrison, Ohio.

Obviously, watches still break and still need to get fixed. But not enough to necessitate many rookie watch repairers. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are fewer than 500 job openings in the field annually. That makes it one of the 10 most competitive jobs in America along with prosthodontists, wooden model makers, hunters and trappers, radio operators and astronomers.

To compile our list of America’s most competitive jobs, we looked at projected annual average job openings from 2006 through 2016, as estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All the jobs on the list have fewer than 500 openings annually.

Some of the fields, like watch repair, are dying. Others, like astronomy, are just such niche professions that the need for new workers is minimal. The same goes for hunters and trappers, “wildlife conservators,” as many in the field prefer to be called. Calling them hunters gives the wrong impression, says one professional.

“Almost everyone in this office has a bachelor’s degree in wildlife or fisheries conservation,” says Kory McLellan, a wildlife conservator in the Vermont office of the United States Department of Agriculture’s animal control unit. “It’s not just, ‘I grew up hunting and I’m going to get a job in this field.’ Yes, we use trapping and forms of hunting as tools for what we do, but it’s not all of what we do.”

So what do they do? That depends on where they work. In Vermont, for instance, Canada geese tend to get sucked into airplane engines if they’re not diverted away from airports. One method for controlling them is a propane-powered cannon–picture a large-scale firecracker–that emits an ear-shattering boom to scare the geese away. Less forceful methods include using Border Collies or hawks to scare them off.

Much of the work is seasonal, keeping the field of professionals small. That’s why many of McLellan’s former classmates didn’t get jobs in the field. “Even more than ever, you need a master’s degree to get a job out of school in this field,” he says. “The pay isn’t great. You don’t get this job for the money. You get it because you enjoy it.”

No one enjoys going to the prosthodontists. They’re the dental specialists who make dentures, bridges and crowns. The need for them is greater than ever, says Gary Goldstein, professor of prosthodontics at New York University, because of the aging population that requires specialized dental treatment. But there aren’t enough schools to train professionals, resulting in a shortage of prosthodontists.

Goldstein says the professional organization has petitioned the American Dental Association to build more schools, to no avail. The bottom line: Take really good care of your teeth.

Source — Forbes