China's very first fully homegrown aircraft has hit the skies at last, bringing China's aviation industry another step closer to competition in the global market. The ARJ-21, a regional aircraft built at the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, flew its maiden flight last Friday, after delays from suppliers held up the jet for about eight months.

With its new jets, the Aviation Industry Corp of China, or AVIC, expects to compete with Canada's Bombadier Inc and Embraer SA of Brazil. AVIC officials expect the ARJ-21 to be certified airworthy by early 2009, and the company will start delivering planes to customers by the second half of next year if all goes according to plan.

According to the Chinese government, airlines have ordered 206 of the jets so far, and demand is expected to increase. Experts estimate that China's growing domestic airline industry will require about 900 new mid-sized regional jets over the next twenty years, and the ARJ-21 should control most of that market.

The jets are designed to carry 70-110 passengers and have a flight range of 3,680 kilometers, or 2,286 miles.

Following the lead of Etihad Airways, more than a dozen international carriers have sought out secondary airports to get passengers out of Thailand. Tiny U-Tapao Airport in coastal Rayong (a few hours south of Bangkok) has seen 50 flights per day. Passengers have been squeezing into the one terminal, but tents and portable toilets have been sent up outside to help with overflow.

Don Muang, the old international airport in Bangkok, has also been receiving some international flights, though the chaos in Bangkok makes U-Tapao a better choice in the eyes of most carriers.

Meanwhile, anti-government forces are still controlling Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok's international airport. Protesters are in the terminals and armed guards loyal to the protesters have set up checkpoints at various points around the airport. Small bomb blasts are occasionally heard throughout the airport grounds and a news truck was recently riddled with bullets after it was stopped at a PAD checkpoint. No one in the truck was injured.

Police have surrounded the airport and are organizing themselves. An end to the stand-off is most likely immenant. The question is, will it be a peaceful or violent end.

[full coverage: The Nation and BKK Post]

There are lots of valid excuses for being late to work. Your power was out so your alarm clock failed to go off. Your kid was sick and you had to take him to the doctor. You passed out at the brothel and didn't have money for a cab. The problem with all of those excuses is that you have no way to prove to your boss that you're telling the truth. But validating your tardiness just got simpler if you take the subway in New York City.

According to the New York Post, the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is going to start emailing commuters notes to provide to their bosses to verify subway delays that may have caused late arrivals. The New York City Transit division has long provided notes to commuters but required individuals to call a customer service number and then wait upwards of two weeks to receive a letter in the mail. These notes detail what lines the commuter claimed to have been using and any reported delays during the specified times.

In an effort to modernize, the MTA will soon allow commuters who were inconvenienced by subway delays to submit an online form and then receive an expedited email response. They hope to have the online system up and running by mid-2009. Currently, 34,000 people per year contact the MTA for notes to prove that they didn't simply oversleep due to the heavy drinking that they rely on to help them cope with their mind-numbingly droll lives.

As a NYC resident who relies on the oft-delayed subway system, I'm looking forward to the ease of use of this new online system. Granted, my habitual tardiness can only been blamed on pathological use of the snooze button and a penchant for long morning showers that involve a good cathartic cry. But all my boss needs to know is that the F train got held up because of sick passenger. Everyone's just more comfortable with that story.

Yesterday, while wandering through Westside Market in Cleveland, I passed by several stalls laden with baked goods, some sporting poppy seed. The poppy seed strudel was mighty tempting. This brought to mind the sidebar I saw that was attached to the article about Michelle Palmer's and Vince Acors escape from jail time in Dubai after they allegedly had sex on the beach.

Before Palmer and Acor's legal woes in Dubai, there was an earlier account about how people who bring poppy seeds into the UAE can also meet serious trouble. There could be trouble even if there are only a few seeds dribbled on a coat after eating a bagel before heading off to Dubai. Iva posted on that very situation back in February. There was one Swiss person who had eaten a bagel with poppy seeds and was arrested.

All Jim Birch wanted to do was a bit of exercise. He's been exercising for years on the 4th Street median in Santa Monica. As I posted earlier, people are getting cited and fined for such unruly behavior. Doing any sort of exercise except for jogging or walking is not allowed on the medians anymore.

Birch and others aren't too happy about that. This video is a lighthearted, but sort of serious faux newscast where Birch stages a protest by doing a bit of exercising so he can get arrested--kind of. This is such a Santa Monica scene.

Look for the part in the video of people exercising on the sidewalk. There's even a yoga mat.

The father of a family friend of mine recently passed away in Taiwan. He was a well-respected Taiwanese dignitary, and mourning his death will continue until his burial next week. In the meantime, family members leave the front door of their home open and people stop by to express their condolences.

There's a lot of crying going on in Taiwan these days. Former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian ended his two-week hunger strike that was an effort in protesting his recent arrest. He has been accused of bribing and money-laundering - the proof of which has been uncovered in three Swiss bank accounts. Despite this proof, he wrote a poem that was published in the Liberty Times on November 25th, saying he would die for Taiwan's independence from China. He continues to accuse Taiwan's current administration of pandering to its communist neighbor.

A person could get pretty depressed when taking a gander at how money, or rather the lack of it is influencing the places we love to go.

Perhaps some of the change is due to cultural shifts that would happen anyway. It's hard to tell sometimes exactly what condition is causing the change.

This week at Gadling, there are a few posts that have to do with changes that are taking place around the world.

• In France, fewer people are hanging out in cafes these days. Jeffrey gives the issue some thought in one of his posts.
• Brenda provided more insight regarding the woes of Hawaii's travel industry. As a person from the state, and a world traveler, she has an understanding of the factors that are influencing people's vacation decisions.
• In a post yesterday, Brenda also offered musings about the state of travel given the fact that there are so many places that seem inhospitable. She's interested in Cuba and wonders if Americans are welcome.
• Aaron, however, usually a sunny sort, has great things to say about travel in Chile. If you don't catch this one detail while you read, he'd love to go back and is looking for someone to take him along.
• On another positive note, if you want to feel great today, look at ImprovEverywhere's latest video. As their latest stunt proves, everyone in the world could use a rousing welcome home--even if it's from a group of total strangers. All you need is signage, balloons and warm, smiling faces.

Remember the names Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors? They are the two Brits who weren't really a couple until they met at a champagne brunch in Dubai, got drunk, and then proceeded to get frisky on a beach. Before that party, they didn't know each other. After they became better acquainted after a cocktail or two, or who knows how many, their friskiness got them much international attention and jail time.

I sort of stood up for Ms. Palmer in an earlier post this summer before all the news came out that perhaps she had been warned by the police to stop her frolicking with Mr. Acors because what they were doing looked a like having sex. Instead of listening to the men in blue, or whatever colors the police wear in Dubai, she kept on with her male companion, who from the sounds of it, had about as much sense as she did. The two have claimed innocence to the sex part. Kissing? Yes. Nookie? No.

Regardless of what really went on, as Josh later posted these two were given a three-month sentence. I found out at Jaunted that these two are leaving Dubai after avoiding jail time. Instead of jail, their behavior will cost each them the equivalent of $272 and deportation. [Here's an L.A. Times article with more info.]

That's not such a bad amount of money, but I bet neither of them will look at an expanse of sand the same way again.

And for the rest of you who feel like a bit of friskiness on the beach, it can get you jail time. Really. Even in the U.S., sex on the beach can get you in trouble. If not jail time, there may be a world of embarrassment in your future.

The internet is abuzz with news from abroad right now. Thailand's Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok remains closed; India is reeling from a devastating terrorist attack aimed at British and American tourists in Mumbai; Raúl Castro is open to ending Cuba's 40-year feud with Washington, thereby allowing Americans to travel there more "freely." The last thing most Americans want to do right now is travel to a place where they are not welcome. We no longer want to travel because there is a greater fear of it. The state of things as we knew them is suddenly turning on its head.

Fear exists even in the most intrepid travelers. As a solo, female traveler stepping off the plane in Vanuatu, Myanmar and Colombia last year, I had little knowledge of exactly what I was walking into. However, the one thing I have going for me every time I travel to some less-trodden destination is that, although I carry a U.S. passport, I don't look American and I'm from a state that sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from the mainland.

This time six years ago, I was pregnant and living in New Delhi, India. On one of my journeys to a sonogram appointment, the taxi passed by one of the Indian government buildings where terrorists had attempted an attack that day. The camera crews and reporters were just leaving.

Later at the doctor's office, as I saw a clear image of my son thanks to 3-D technology, the curve of his nose and the way his hand rested against his cheek showed the contrast between his life on the inside and what life felt like on the outside. There was a sharp division.

Generally, I see the world as a safe place. Even when we continued to live in India, the various incidents of unrest did not startle us much. We went about our lives like most people do. We worked, visited with friends and took interesting trips to various places where I never felt unease.

Since we left India, two places we used to go regularly in New Delhi have been bombed. Orissa, a state we visited before we moved to India has been fraught with religious unrest.

Now, with the latest hostage situation and killings in Mumbai--a place we did not get a chance to visit but planned to if we had not moved back to the U.S, the division between safety and danger seems all that more acute.

I'm certain that if we were still living in India, we'd be going about our business as usual and we would probably be on a Thanksgiving weekend away somewhere at this moment. Perhaps, we'd be staying at one of our favorite raj palaces turned into a hotel surrounded by countryside with nothing but tiny villages for miles.

Still, the news coming out of India gives me the feeling that sometimes, as mundane as home may seem, home feels like a blessing.

Then again, it's always good to travel to remind oneself, that in most cases, the world is safe despite the news.

[This article posted 2 hours ago in the Business Standard says that the hostage situation is under control. The photo is of the Taj Palace burning.]