Is this how desperate we have become to cut the costs of flying?

In a monthlong trial, Japan's All Nippon Airways is asking passengers to empty their bladders before boarding to lighten the passenger load.

Airline officials predict flying a lighter aircraft, and thus using less fuel, will lead to a 5 ton reduction in carbon emissions over 30 days.

Based on an average human bladder capacity of 15 ounces, they said, if 150 passengers relieved themselves on board an aircraft, this would amount to 63.7 kilograms -- or 140 pounds -- of extra waste to transport.

If the results are positive, pre-flight trips to the bathroom may become de rigueur.

Greene County's first major quilt show will be held Thursday through next Sunday at the Greene County Historical Society Museum in Waynesburg. The show will feature quilts from various time periods, demonstrations and quilt sales.

Organizers from the Greene County Tourist Promotion Agency and historical society hope to make the quilt show an annual event.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, attendees can browse quilts on display, but no food will be offered. The show's full festivities begin Friday; hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. next Sunday.

On Friday, the show's featured guest will be Pauline Fisher, an American Quilter's Society-certified quilt appraiser. Ms. Fisher of North East, Erie County, will appraise quilts at $35 per piece. Appraisals will take approximately 45 minutes and include a complete description, evaluation of the factors affecting value, photographs and the quilt's value. They're available by appointment only. For more information, or to schedule an appointment for a quilt appraisal, call the tourist agency at 724-627-TOUR (8687), e-mail tourism@co.greene.pa.us or visit www.greenecountytourism.org.

Visitors are asked to donate $2 to the tourist agency, and a portion of all quilt sales benefits the museum.

San Francisco was named the best U.S. city to visit for the 17th year in a row in Conde Nast Traveler magazine's 2009 Readers' Choice Awards.

The awards appear in the magazine's November issue, ranking the best cities, cruise lines, airlines, hotels and resorts worldwide based on responses from 25,000 readers in the Conde Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Survey.

Charleston, S.C., took the No. 2 spot on the U.S. cities list, followed by Santa Fe, N.M.

In the category of top islands in North America, Kiawah, S.C., was first, followed by Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, and Nantucket, Mass. Top islands in the Caribbean/Atlantic were Bermuda, St. John and St. Barts.

Italy swept the top three spots for top cities in Europe: Florence, Rome and Venice.

Virgin America was named the best U.S. domestic airline for the second year in a row with JetBlue Airways at No. 2 and Midwest in third place.

Singapore Airlines won top spot for international route airline, a category it has won for 21 of the past 22 years. Emirates took second place in the global airline category, followed by a tie for third place between Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific.

Conde Nast Traveler introduced a new cruise category in the Readers' Choice Awards this year for mega-ship cruise lines, with Celebrity coming in first, followed by Disney and Cunard. In the category of large ships, Crystal, Regent Seven Seas and Cunard took the top three spots, while in the small ship category, Sea Cloud, Yachts of Seabourn and Regent Seven Seas were the winners.

Winners in top car rental agencies were Hertz, Enterprise and Avis.

In the category of top hotels in the United States, the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Ky., took top honors, followed by The Peninsula in Chicago and the Mandarin Oriental in Boston. For top small hotels in the U.S., Blantyre in Lenox, Mass., was No. 1. Second-place winner was The Swag, located in the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina, just outside of Waynesville and about an hour from Asheville. Third place went to Tu Tu' Tun Lodge, in Gold Beach, Ore.

Railroad engineer Casey Jones rode to glory and into American folklore trying to stop his Illinois Central passenger train before it hit a stalled freight train in 1900.

His was the only death that foggy and rainy night at Vaughan, Miss., and his fame was spread by a ballad written by another railroader.

A museum dedicated to John Luther "Casey" Jones has just opened at Casey Jones Village in Jackson, Tenn., where he lived. The museum is in the same location where Jones' home has been preserved. Jones picked up his nickname because he was born in Cayce, Ky.

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground, a historic driving route that meanders 180 miles through four states, has been named a National Scenic Byway.

The road runs from Gettysburg, Pa., site of the famous Civil War battle, through Maryland and Jefferson County, W.Va., to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia.

The route, which generally follows the Old Carolina Road, was created by the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting American history and culture.

On its Web site, the partnership claims its region contains more sites of historical value than any other in the nation, encompassing "11,000 years of dense history from ancient burial grounds and Native American history to 400 years of European, American and African American heritage."

Destinations relate not only to the Civil War, but also to colonial and presidential history, African-American heritage and the grand estates of some prominent Americans, including James Madison and Gen. George C. Marshall.

"This route not only carried this country's Founding Fathers, but also the not-so famous men and women whose ideals have shaped this great nation, making this road a destination unto itself," said John Fieseler, executive director for the Tourism Council of Frederick County, Md.

Along the route are thousands of National Historic Register sites, 49 national heritage districts, nine presidential homes and 13 national park units.

The Federal Highway Administration created the National Scenic Byways Program in 1991 to recognize roads with unique archaeological, cultural, historical, natural, recreational and scenic qualities. It has since designated 125 such roads, including five in West Virginia, two in Maryland and one each in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Details at www.hallowedground.org and www.byways.org.

Parking garages usually aren't the most attractive buildings in a city, but they are the subject of a new exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington.

The exhibit, "House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage," is on view until July 2010. It is the first major exhibit to explore the history of the familiar structures.

Curators say parking garages are more than just concrete decks. They have been showcases for innovation and at times served as platforms for the best-known architects of the 20th century. The exhibit features the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, among others, and includes art as well as footage from TV and movies.

The exhibit starts with photographs, drawings and a vintage 1927 Ford Model A.

Works of art by Michelangelo and Vermeer are among 62 items from the Louvre in Paris now on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

"The Louvre and the Masterpiece" features items drawn from all eight of the Louvre's collection areas, covering 4,000 years of art.

The exhibition is made up of three sections, exploring the themes of changing definitions of a masterpiece; authenticity and connoisseurship; and the evolution of taste.

One display looks at how ancient objects created before the concept of a masterpiece existed can still be considered exceptional because of their beauty or the technical expertise involved in their production. In some cases in the show, similar objects are displayed together, and visitors are encouraged to find the piece in the group that's considered a masterpiece.

The exhibit comes to Minneapolis from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. It's presented by U.S. Bank.

"The Louvre and the Masterpiece" runs through Jan. 10, 2010. Details at http://www.artsmia.org.

For the first time, the famed and feared Hope Diamond is on display without its ornate setting at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Perched atop a light gray display post, the 45.5-carat, walnut-size diamond will be on view by itself for several months while a new setting is prepared.

Called "Embracing Hope," the new setting will surround the star gem in a ribbon of white diamonds. It was chosen from three proposals in an online vote, winning 45,000 out of a total 110,000 votes cast, said Cristian Samper, director of the museum.

The new display is part of a celebration of the Hope Diamond's half-century at the museum. It was donated in 1958 by jeweler Harry Winston, whose firm is preparing the new setting.

Long rumored to carry a curse, the diamond has brought the museum "nothing but good luck," museum officials say.

When Mr. Wintson donated the diamond he hoped it would inspire many other gifts so the U.S. would have its own crown jewels.

Previously the Hope Diamond has been shown in a platinum setting, surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds, suspended from a chain containing forty-five diamonds. The Hope will return to this original setting in late 2010.

Formed more that a billion years ago, the diamond was mined in India and later is believed to have been part of the French crown jewels, having been stolen during the French Revolution. It later came into the possession of Henry Philip Hope, whose name it carries.

Its blue color comes from the element boron included in the stone itself. Exposed to ultraviolet light, the Hope Diamond glows red-orange.

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