Nudy Sleepwalkers on the Rise 

Workers at a chain of budget hotels are being given advice on how to deal with naked sleepwalkers.  A study by Travelodge found there had been more than 400 cases in the past year, almost all involving men. Sleep experts blame stress, alcohol abuse, lack of sleep for the disorder, eating cheese or consuming too much caffeine . A number had walked into the reception area asking for a newspaper or saying they wanted to check out. The advice includes keeping a supply of towels in reception to help preserve a guest’s dignity. Hah!

Sleepwalking 101: Sleepwalking is also called “somnambulism.” It is a parasomnia. A parasomnia involves undesired events that come along with sleep. Before walking, you might sit up in bed and look around in a confused manner. At other times, individuals may bolt from the bed and walk or run away. Your eyes are usually open and have a confused, “glassy” look to them. It can be very hard to wake a sleepwalker up. When you do wake up, you can be very confused. You might even attack the person who wakes you. Men, especially, are often violent during these episodes. Sleepwalking most often occurs in the first third of a night’s sleep or during other long sleep periods. Sleepwalking is more common in children and affects both boys and girls. The rate of it in children is as high as 17%.

Turning A Business Trip Into A Mini-Vacation

As work is increasingly making inroads into leisure time, many business travelers are finding ways to turn that equation around — combining their travel for work with time for cultural and historical sightseeing. The majority of adult American travelers (81%) have included a cultural or history-related activity while traveling, according to a 2007 report by the Travel Industry Association, while 62% regard learning about other cultures as important when they travel. Almost one in four of all trips in the United States in 2005 included a cultural or historical activity, the survey also found, and those travelers spent considerably more per trip on average, and stayed longer, than those who did not.

 Singapore Airlines better have a strong cleaner for those love stains.

Luxury cabins will return to the skies this month with the launch of a new ’super-first’ class on the Airbus A380 double decker. Singapore Airlines, which took delivery of the first of 19 A380s in Toulouse today, revealed that the planes will have 12 private suites for its top paying passengers.  

Each suite contains a leather seat and a full-sized bed with mattress. Unlike many airline ‘flat beds’ no part of the seat converts into the bed. The bed will be made up by cabin crew with Givenchy-designed duvets and cushions. The two middle suites can be converted into doubles for couples. Entertainment is provided through a 23-inch flat-screen TV, with a choice of 100 films and 180 TV programmes, and 700 CDs. Notice there’s no roof over this suite. People will be able to “peek” over the top. Mile high club and voyeurs galore.!

Chinese Billionaires On The Rise

China has more billionaires than any country except the United States, as soaring stock and property prices helped to boost wealth among the country’s super-rich. The number of Chinese worth $1 billion or more jumped to 108, from 15 last year, growing much faster than in western countries. There’s still plenty of growth opportunity as China’s top entrepreneurs turn their sights to the vast underdeveloped and largely unregulated economic hinterland. 

 Yang Huiyan, 25, tops the list after receiving $17.5 billion from her property developer father. Last year’s champion, Zhang Yin, fell to second place even as her wealth tripled to $10 billion after a surge in the share price of Nine Dragons Paper.  Zhang, the world’s richest self-made woman, continues to widen the wealth gap with western counterparts such as U.S. television host Oprah Winfrey, eBay Inc (EBAY.O) founder Margaret Whitman and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, according to the report.

In a sign that China’s economic growth is largely driven by construction and manufacturing, rather than by science and technology, seven of China’s 10 richest people are mainly or partly in the real estate business.

… and Airlines

Five airports with the worst on-time arrival performance:

• New York’s LaGuardia International Airport; 57.6%

• New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport; 58.7%

• Philadelphia International Airport; 61.3%

• New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport; 62%

• Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport; 62.3%

Five airports with the best on-time arrival performance:

• Houston Intercontinental Airport; 82%

• Salt Lake City International Airport; 80%

• Oakland International Airport; 77.8%

• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; 77.5%

• San Diego International Airport; 77.4%

Five airlines with the lowest on-time arrival rates:

• Atlantic Southeast Airlines; 55%

• United Airlines; 66.2%

• Alaska Airlines; 67.1%

• Comair; 67.2%

• American Eagle Airlines; 67.5%

Overall global wealth grew 7.5% in 2006 to nearly $100 trillion, the fifth consecutive year of expanding wealth.

The numbers of millionaire households globally grew by 14%in 2006 from 2005 and now control a third of the estimated $100 trillion in wealth, a new study by Boston Consulting Group released. These 9.6 million families, comprising 0.7% of world’s households, now control some $33.2 trillion, the BCG study found. About half are located in the United States and Canada, a quarter in Europe and a fifth in the Asia-Pacific region.

The study, seventh in a series, found that assets held by non-wealthy households - defined as those with less than $100,000 in financial assets - declined slightly from 2001 to 2006. But assets held by households with more than $100,000 climbed from $51.4 trillion to $84.5 trillion during the same period. The study attributed wealth gains mainly to two factors: increased savings and market gains for stocks, bonds and cash, reflecting wealth managers’ long-held view that market investments are a key factor in building wealth. The study found that overall global wealth grew 7.5% in 2006 to nearly $100 trillion, the fifth consecutive year of expanding wealth.

Southwest will begin providing connecting domestic flights to passengers arriving in the U.S. on international airlines and soon to be flying throughout the continent

Now facing rising costs, more competition from copycats and the prospect of slower domestic growth, Southwest Airlines is planning to make its boldest move ever: Next year, Southwest will begin providing connecting domestic flights to passengers arriving in the U.S. on international airlines. “We have to find a way to get our revenues up, and there are two basic ways to do it,” Chief Executive Gary Kelly said in a recent interview, “higher fares or get more passengers per flight.”

Barring higher fares, Southwest will aim for the latter. Eventually, the airline might even fly its own international routes, perhaps first to Mexico and Canada before taking on Asia and Europe. Hope they provide a meal on those flights. LAX could play a key role in its international expansion plans. But the airline right now can’t claim any more LAX gates — other carriers already have dibs on them — and that could force it to look elsewhere, such as San Francisco International Airport. In November, Southwest will launch eight daily flights each way between LAX and San Francisco, with promotional fares starting at $39.

Cash and Traveler’s Checks incurred high breakage costs, the amounts spent converting unused foreign currency back into local currencies

Debit cards are emerging as the cheapest way to pay for purchases and withdraw cash abroad, a study said Monday. The study of the “real costs of foreign currency transactions” for outbound travelers in 12 markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East by MasterCard found that debit cards had the lowest overall costs among the foreign currency products.

Cash and traveler’s checks incurred high breakage costs, the amounts spent converting unused foreign currency back into local currencies. For a US$500 transaction, the cost was typically 1.9%. Credit cards, traveler’s checks and cash averaged 2.5 to 2.6%.

Starts Nov. 12 to Nov. 26

The project that hopes to supply developing-world schoolchildren with US$188 laptops will sell the rugged little computers to US residents and Canadians for US$400 each, with the profit going toward a machine for a poor country. The One Laptop Per Child project expects that its “Give One, Get One” promotion will result in a pool of thousands of donated laptops that will stimulate demand in countries hesitant to join the program. It will be offered for only two weeks in November.

The catch is that “Give One, Get One” will run only from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26. Thailand, Uruguay, Nigeria, Brazil, Libya and Rwanda are among the countries that could be in the first wave of laptop customers, though specifics have not been announced.

2008: Looking Forward To It

Most of the impact of the global credit crunch will be felt in 2008 and the United States will be hardest hit, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo Rato. World economic growth should remain high next year but looks set to be below the levels of 2006 and 2007 and downside risks increase the longer financial markets remain in crisis. “It has an effect on the real economy which will be felt more in 2008, with greater intensity in the United States, less in other areas,” he said. Financial institutions have cut inter-bank lending to limit exposure to U.S. subprime home loans that were sold around the world via packages of asset-backed securities. Central Banks have injected liquidity to compensate for the liquidity squeeze. A few more months will be needed to access the full impact on banks, companies and governments. Yikes!

Your Purchasing Limit Of Balloons: 10

The worldwide helium demand is outpacing supply, and any interruption in production and delivery can throw the market off balance. Helium plants expected to be fully operating this year in Qatar and Algeria were delayed and, in some cases, shut down. In September of last year, Exxon Mobil Corp., one of the nation’s largest private producers of helium, shut down a plant in Wyoming for scheduled maintenance. Two months later, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management — which operates the Federal Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas, and provides crude helium to private refineries — did the same with its helium enrichment plant.

A Little Helium History: Helium, the most stable of all the elements, is used to cool the magnets used by MRI equipment and purge the space shuttle’s fuel tanks. Helium also is used in detecting gas leaks in other products and conducting state-of-the-art particle physics research. The gas even has a hand in the semiconductor and computer chip manufacturing process and plays a role in the guiding mechanisms of air-to-air missiles. The federal reserve has become a major world supplier, but that was not the government’s intention. When private demand outstripped the federal need, Congress passed the 1996 Helium Privatization Act, and the reserve was intended to supplement private sector production. The program, however, now supplies about 42% of the domestic demand for helium and 35% of the global demand. Picture Above: Balloon Man: A petrol station owner filled 105 balloons with helium, attached them to his favorite lawn chair, then sat back and drifted away.

People will pay a premium for a language

For jobs in finance and sales, learning key languages (such as Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese) could give you an advantage. Workers who depend on commissions or are looking to introduce products overseas could also benefit, experts say. But bilingualism doesn’t come cheap. You’ll have to spend anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 or more for classes that will give you proficiency in a second language. Those who only speak English can get by in the business world. But if you’re going to study another language, some may be more helpful to your career than others.

Mandarin can be particularly useful, especially in fields such as manufacturing.  People with Chinese language skills are very much in demand. That definitely becomes in your favor when you’re negotiating salary increases. Financial-services professionals could benefit from leaning another language. There’s a lot of deal making around the world. Unless your company funds your instruction, picking up a language could be financially daunting.

A 10-week group class for two to four students costs about $1,500. The Boston Language Institute charges $499 per level — it provides five levels of instruction plus a conversational class — for its group Mandarin classes. Arabic will set you back $599 per level. “In most cases people come here on their own volition…sometimes reimbursed by their companies, sometimes not,” said Siri Karm Singh Khalsa, president of the institute. Many employers might not have a policy that dictates paying more for bilingual workers, says Kurt Ronn, founder of professional-level recruitment firm HRworks. “But if you’re bilingual, that’s going to make you a more desirable candidate. You have a better chance of getting the position and being successful,” he says. Experts also recommend taking time to learn cultural nuances, which can be just as important as speaking a language if you’re looking to close deals.

Still Lower Than Dozens of Other Nations

The life expectancy for Americans is nearly 78 years, the longest in U.S. history, according to new government figures from 2005. That age, based on the latest data available, was still lower than the life span in more than three dozen other countries.  The improvement was led by a drop in deaths from heart disease and stroke — two of the nation’s leading killers, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Researchers also noted continued differences by race and sex. Life expectancy for whites in 2005 was 78.3. Black life expectancy in 2005 was 73.2. Life expectancy for women continues to be five years longer than for men.

There were 5% increases in the rates for Alzheimer’s disease, the No. 7 leading cause of death, and for Parkinson’s disease, which was No. 14. Andorra, a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, has the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Japan, Macau, San Marino and Singapore ranked second, third, fourth and fifth.

Average Price of a Meal in London: $79

London is the most expensive dining capital in the world, restaurant rating company Zagat said Tuesday. The average meal in London costs just over $79, beating out Paris, at nearly $72 and Tokyo, at just over $71, according to the company’s survey of 5,300 Londoners. That makes eating out in the British capital more than twice as expensive as New York, where the average meal costs $39. London is already the world’s second-costliest city. Moscow was rated as the world’s most expensive, while New York, which served as the survey’s base, ranked 15th. Wonder if the food is even good. I never hear about how astonishing British food tastes.

Ads On Your Cocktail Napkins, Tray Tables, Overhead Luggage Compartments and Barf Bags

As airlines look for new sources of revenue to offset rising fuel costs, more carriers are turning planes into marketing vehicles, installing advertising in hard-to-miss places. Several American carriers, including US Airways and AirTran, recently started selling advertisements on napkins or stickers that appear on open tray tables. Over the summer, Ryanair, the European low-cost carrier, has gone further, installing advertising panels on the covers of the overhead luggage compartments and on the backs of closed tray tables. The overhead bins have had a slightly faster uptake than the seatbacks at Ryanair, with advertisements being placed by companies like the Dutch bank ING; Red Bull, the energy drink; and Meteor Mobile Communications, an Irish cellphone operator. Several carriers have even experimented with advertisements printed on airsickness bags. Hey, it works. You’ll always remember that time when you puked in a Red Bull barf bag.

Will other advertisers and airlines climb aboard? Even though marketers are eager to connect with consumers in new ways, they are also wary about annoying them. They’re guaranteed to annoy flyers who forgot to bring a book/DVD player and are just starring at the ads for hours.