Coozer-Bits.

Yipes: Hezbollah forces collapse of Lebanese government.

Travel: 41 places to go in 2011.

Creepy: Belgians urged not to shave.

Sad: Corruption raised Haiti's death toll.

Sad: 170 killed in landslides near Rio.

Tourists in Rome to face new tax.

From CNN:

A new tax on tourists to the Eternal City is causing controversy, with hotels expressing fears it could hurt their business and scare tourists away.

As of January 1, nonresidents of Rome must pay the extra charge when staying at a hotel or visiting any tourist site, such as a museum, that charges admission.

Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno introduced the tax law last year after the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi cut funding to Italian cities, including Rome, as part of austerity measures.

The new tax will cost 3 euros ($4) per person per night for four- and five-star hotels and 2 euros ($2.70) for lower categories. Small children are exempt.

The tax will also see an extra 1 euro ($1.35) charged at the city's museums and other tourist attractions.

The new law applies not only to foreign tourists, but also to Italian tourists and business travelers who are not Rome residents.

Rome had a similar tourist tax law in the past but it abolished it 20 years ago.

The city of Rome says the tax will generate around 200,000 euros (nearly $268,000) a day, for a rough total of 80 million euros ($107.2 million) a year. It has said it hopes to invest the money in improving its cultural heritage and other city infrastructure without taxing its citizens.

Rome gets about 30 million tourists per year.

US traveler to be caned for overstaying visa in Singapore.

From Gadling, submitted by JenK:

Tourist visas and their respective extensions are a matter of hot discussion among travelers in Southeast Asia. Many countries only issues visas for 30, 60 or 90 days, but the long term traveler often has reason to stay beyond. As a result, many simply cross the border into another country, stay for a bit and turn right around, earning another tourist visa on the inbound journey. Some even riskier folks choose to stay past their visa date and simply face any punishment that the state issues forth. Usually, that penalty is minor.

That is unless you're Kamari Charlton, a US citizen who recently overstayed his visa in Singapore and who has now been sentenced to three lashings with a cane. Mr. Charlton, who stayed nearly six months longer than his visa allowed, was in the small Asian city state while his wife was on a medical visa. On departure he was detained pending investigation of assorted fiscal adventures -- when it was then revealed that his visa was past due.

The plot further thickens with Mr. Charlton's claim that he was discriminated against in the ruling -- a similar case with an Asian relative was dismissed with a fine.

Needless to say, this serves as a pretty extreme reminder to mind your visa's due date when entering a country. The consequences could be stronger than you think.

Coozer-Bits.

Sad: Study finds foreclosure crisis was highly racialized.

D'oh: US sues American Express for anti-competitive policies.

D'oh: Looking to head off FCC probe, Verizon to refund $90 million to subscribers.

Health: Sleep loss limits fat loss.

Travel: Liquids might soon be allowed back on planes.

Music: 10 bands from the 90s that aren't reuniting (thankfully).

Sad: 1 in 8 parents can't afford pediatrician care, even if insured.

Southwest intercepts package containing dozens of human heads.

Try not to lose your head when you travel. From MSNBC:

Dozens of human heads were intercepted by a Southwest Airlines employee last week, the airline confirmed Thursday.

The heads, which were intercepted in Little Rock, Ark., were handed over to local officials who are now investigating whether or not the heads were properly obtained.

Southwest officials said the airline refused to ship the package because it was not labeled correctly. "And then when we found out what was in the package, we contacted local authorities and they contacted the coroner," said airline spokesman Marilee McInnish.

The package was on its way to the Fort Worth office of Medtronic, a Minnesota-based medical research and technology company, NBC's affiliate in Dallas Fort-Worth reported. Little Rock police handed the package over to the country coroner.

The coroner is currently investigating whether the heads were legally obtained.

"We've come to the conclusion that there is a black market out there for human body parts for research or for whatever reason," Pulaski County coroner Garland Camper told NBC Dallas Fort-Worth. "We just want to make sure these specimens here aren't a part of that black market and underground trade."

McInnish said it was her understanding that the heads were going to be used for educational and research purposes.

US warns on Thailand travel, evacuates embassy staff.

From Raw Story:

The United States warned its citizens Saturday to avoid non-essential travel to Thailand and began evacuating non-essential embassy staff and families due to unrest in the country.

The State Department said in a statement it would allow non-essential US personnel and their dependents to leave Bangkok if they chose due to escalating violence.

"US citizens should defer all travel to Bangkok and defer all non-essential travel to the rest of Thailand," a statement said.

"The Department of State has authorized the departure of all non-emergency US government personnel and eligible family members from Bangkok," the statement added.

The announcement came following two days of street battles between soldiers and anti-government "Red Shirts," which caused fatalities and injuries. The military declared one area of Bangkok a "live fire zone" as troops struggled to regain control.

Scenes of urban warfare erupted on the southern and northern fringes of the Red Shirts' sprawling encampment in the heart of Bangkok, after the army moved in Thursday to seal off the area.

The United States Thursday closed its embassy in Bangkok and said it was "very concerned" about the violence between the Thai government and protesters there.

US embassy personnel who live in affected areas are being relocated to housing outside of the affected areas, the State Department said.

Ryanair going ahead with on-flight pay toilets.

From the Consumerist:

Almost a year after announcing their plans to charge passengers for using toilets on their planes, discount airline Ryanair is finally pushing ahead with not only installing the pay potties on their jets, but cutting down the number of toilets available to passengers.

Or as the very British Daily Mail puts it: "Spending a penny on a flight will soon cost as much as a pound."

Ryanair is currently redesigning their cabins to install the pay toilets on 168 of their planes, which will cost about $1.40 per trip to the loo. Additionally, they are cutting the number of toilets on the plane to make room for extra seats.

Airline passenger protections to go into effect in April.

From NY Times:

The federal government is about to take a larger role in protecting airline passengers, starting with a new rule allowing travelers to get off a plane stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours.

That rule, which passenger advocates have long wanted, and others adopted by the Transportation Department signal a shift from a grass-roots fight for passenger rights to an era of stronger government-enforced consumer protections. The rules, officially labeled Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections, take effect April 29.

Although tarmac delays of three or more hours are increasingly rare, they still occur and leave misery in their wake, as a diverted Virgin America flight demonstrated on March 13, when passengers were stuck on a plane for more than four hours at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh/New Windsor, N.Y.

Other policies may affect far more travelers, including one that requires more disclosure about airline delays before a ticket purchase so customers can avoid flights that perform poorly. That marketplace pressure could provide an incentive for the industry to address the causes of delays.

Airlines will have to publish within their search results the on-time record for each flight and how often it has arrived more than 30 minutes late, highlighting flights that have arrived more than a half hour late more than half the time. Airlines will also have to note the cancellation rate for any flight canceled more than 5 percent of the time.

Rat sightings in hotels up 30%.

From USA Today:

Have you seen a truly unwanted guest - I'm talking about a rat - scurrying about your hotel lately?

Chances are you have, if TripAdvisor.com's unscientific "rat" analysis conducted for USA TODAY's Hotel Check-In at all resembles reality. By analyzing its January and February U.S. hotel reviews, TripAdvisor found that reviewers mentioned the word "rat" 31% more times vs. a year ago.

The analysis, of course, is not scientific. The uptick could easily be explained by an increase in the number of reviewers writing about escaping "the rat race" or partying at hotels favored by "the Rat Pack."

But it could also hint at a slight uptick in rat sightings this year vs. last year.

French hotel lets you pay to be treated like a hamster.

From Gadling, courtesy of JenK:

Hands up if you ever had the sudden urge to be treated like a hamster for a couple of days? Well, your wish has come true, though it will involve a flight to France.

In the French town of Nantes, you can pay just under $150 a night to eat hamster food, run around in a giant wheel, and sleep in hay stacks.

According to the first two paying guests, being able to experience how a hamster lives helped them "come out of their daily routine". Well, yeah, I can see how pretending to be a hamster for a couple of days will change things a little.

The owners of the "Hamster Villa" run a company that specializes in unusual and bizarre hotels. One of the owners used to dress up as a hamster, making their venture just a bit weirder. Sadly, the new "hamsters" in this hotel are already demanding WiFi access and a flat panel TV, so the current $150/night rate will be going up in the near future.

Check-in system failure affects 485 airlines worldwide.

From News.com.au:

ALL Qantas check-ins have been thrown into chaos, after the computer check-in system failed across the country and the world.

The Amadeus program used by Qantas to check in passengers went into meltdown at about 5pm (AEDT) yesterday across the network, the Herald Sun reports.

The computer glitch was rectified just after 8pm, but the airline reported delays of between 45 minutes.

Qantas said services across the country are returning to normal.

During the system shutdown staff were forced to check people in manually, which was the major cause for delays.

All Qantas flights across the country were affected, along with another 485 airlines across the world.

Major airlines such as British Airways, Air France, South African Airways, Thai Airways, Lufthansa and United Airlines were all affected in the global check-in chaos.

Gone Adventurin'.

I just got back into the swing of posting more often, but unfortunately I won't have access to the Coozer Files for the next week or two. I'm heading off into unknown jungles and swamps to wrangle giant otters and avoid dengue fever.

In the meanwhile, please reply to this post with links to any Coozer-worthy article. This way, y'all can keep each other apprised of zombie and robot and Jeff Goldblum happenings. I'll also put them up when I get back as a retrospective Coozer-Bit.

Tourists desperate to find lesbian city.

From News.com.au:

Swedish tourism bodies have been swamped with inquiries from millions of men captivated by a mythical town rumoured to be home to 25,000 sex-mad lesbians.

The town of "Chako Paul City" is said to have been founded in 1820 in the northern Swedish woods by a wealthy man-hating widow.

Two blonde women are rumoured to stand guard at the town, which also features a medieval castle.

Many of the town’s female residents became lesbians “because they could not suppress their sexual needs”, Chinese news service Harbin News reports.

The myth has been embraced by the Chinese media, with millions of men crippling the country’s internet providers trying to find out how to get to the town.

However, men have been warned by media reports that they risk being “beaten half to death” by police if they dare pay a visit.

"I've no idea where this came from but it's not true," local authorities' spokesman Claes Bertilson told Sweden’s new service The Local about the rumour.

“At 25,000 residents, the town would be one of the largest in northern Sweden, and I find it hard to believe that you could keep something like that a secret for more than 150 years.”

JetBlue offers $599 pass for unlimited flights.

This would be awesome if they flew anywhere good. From CNN:

JetBlue Airways will offer an "all-you-can-jet" pass for $599 in which passengers can book an unlimited number of flights within a one-month span, the airline said Wednesday.

Pass holders can fly to any of JetBlue's (JBLU) 56 destinations between Sept. 8 and Oct. 8, with no seat limitations or blackout dates, the company said in a release.

Airline equities analyst Bob McAdoo, of Avondale Partners, said he "has never seen a promotion like this before."

In fact, Air Canada had a similar promotion in 2007, where it offered an unlimited flight pass starting at $1,657 per month.

Still, with JetBlue flights already slashed as low as $100, customers might have to fly 6 or 7 times in a month before they break even.

Back from Spain!

Spain had no idea what was coming. I cleaned those cities out of all their tapas and wine. From henceforth I shall be known as El Matador de Jamon.

Pics and travelogue to follow, but first I gotta see what's going on in the world. Also, I just remembered I never finished my write-up on Hong Kong. Whoops.

Be Back Soon!

The Coozer Files is going on a tapas binge.

We'll be back soon!

Please don't forget about us, and use the next few days to post comments and have conversations in posts with other Coozer-Philes!!

Coozer-Bits.

WTF: Swedish parishioners unveil giant Lego Jesus.

Zombie Watch: Dozens of mummies discovered.

Yipes: Woman vs. polar bear. Some pics here (not graphic, but jeez..).

Lame: New popular dating site matches shallow cute girls with sugar daddies.

Yipes: American termites infesting Japan.

Zombie Watch: Resurrection: A History of Myths.

Travel: 7 tips for buying summer airfare to Europe.

Creepy: Mom harvests son's sperm.

TV: NASA to announce module name on Colbert on Tues.

Duh: 1 in 5 Americans find socialism superior to capitalism.

Yipes: Barack Obama's brother refused entry into UK due to sex attack.

Yipes: Drunk prisoner causes 400-prisoner rampage, millions in damage.

Science: Researchers model structure of our internal master clock.

Thailand declares state of emergency, tourists trapped.

From News.com.au:

Australians holidaying in Thailand have been thrown into chaos with the troubled nation last night declared a terrorist risk.

At least 5000 Australians are registered with the embassy, many enjoying the school holiday break with their families.

They were told to get out of Bangkok and nearby resorts or stay in their hotel rooms as rampaging protesters swarmed into the streets.

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said the number of Australians in Thailand was likely to be much higher.

Bangkok descended into a second day of violence after the Government declared a state of emergency.

Thousands of protesters stormed a government building and fired shots as they chased new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva from his office.

Coozer-Bits.

Sad: Black girls 50% more likely to be bulimic than white girls.

Health: Shellfish and inkjet printers hold key to to faster healing.

Awesome: Goodbye needle, hello smoothie! New vaccines may be tasty.

Science: NASA scientists find clues to the secret of life.

Lame: Madoff scandal deeply impacted life science research.

Sad: Old books could cause problems for libraries.

Sad: Girl, 18, hangs herself after boyfriend texts pic of her around school.

Sad: Darth Vader in cancer battle.

Politics: Syrian president praises Obama, wants to help mediate.

Misc: Wisconsin's new slogan faces pushback.

Lame: Bush aide gets 30 months for stealing $600,000 from Cuba democracy program.

D'oh: Does China have better anti-monopoly laws than the US? Takeover bid by Coca-Cola shot down.

Duh: Some schools may be breeding grounds for killers.

D'oh: Lawyer defending dirty cop discovers he's on his client's hit list.

Travel: US warning over Tokyo nightlife after Americans keep getting drugged.

D'oh: Sarah Palin to give huge speech - only she doesn't know about it.

Trends: Easy access to info creating more and more mistrials.

Duh: Bush's first post-prez speech met with protesters, flying shoes.

Duh: Diebold admits its voting machines can delete ballots.

Misc: Queenryche's singer doesn't want your silent lucidity when it comes to thanking troops!

Trends: Whoopie pies making a comeback! (I just like saying "whoopie pie.")

Coozer-Bits II.

Duh: What sells in a recession: canned goods and condoms.

Funny: Protesters disrupt beauty pageant with stink bombs.

Follow-Up: Soldier charged with death of 16-year-old girl at army barracks.

Russian Crime Watch: Drunk cop hacks off subordinate's hand.

Science: Japanese astronaut to record the smelliness of his underwear. (Don't Japanese salarymen do this anyway?)

Local: American Airlines plane falls apart over Queens, makes safe emergency landing.

Science: Intelligence mapped in the brain.

Science: Researchers create "map of science."

Funny: Coulter, Maher spar in debates.

Lame: Phish narc'd on all their fans, even bankrolling 200 cops to make drug arrests. Oh, and their music sucks.

Sad: Man-made trash devastating world's oceans.

Lame: NASA won't commit to Colbert module. (I suspect the opposition is made up of Firefly fans who are pushing for "Serenity")

D'oh: Drunken man asks cop for hug, gets arrested.

WTF: Utah, Hawaii, and Wyoming top happiness poll.

Travel: With tourism down, Berlin launches a friendliness campaign.

WWIII Watch: Chinese president calls for "mighty" military support.