Toronto's CN Tower Claims New World's Record

City News Toronto:  The CN Tower’s EdgeWalk has claimed a Guinness World Record, adding to the title already held by the tower itself.

The attraction will be named the highest external walk on a building at a Nov. 17 ceremony. Guinness representative Carey Low was in Toronto on Tuesday to present the award to the tower’s chief operating officer Jack Robinson.

She handed out the plaque on the EdgeWalk’s platform, 356 metres (or 116 storeys) above the ground.

"I am personally delighted to award this certificate to the CN Tower ahead of the ceremony,” Low said.

The EdgeWalk offers a birds-eye-view of the city, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

It costs $175 to strap in for an open-air walk along the 1.5-metre platform that runs along the tower’s highest pod. The entire experience will run 1.5 hours, with the walk itself lasting between 20 to 30 minutes.

Up to eight people can make the hands-free trip at the same time, supported by a harness and pulley attached to an overhead rail. In 2010, the CN Tower was named the world’s tallest tower, an honour it has held for over 34 years.

EdgeWalk Video:

Tickets for 2012 Electric Daisy Carnival on Sale Today

Vegas Chatter: Vegas' inaugural Electric Daisy Carnival sold 85,000 tickets in 24 hours. And, that's when quite a few of us didn't know just what to expect.

But, now we know what's in store (and how to survive it) so loads of folks are limbering up as the first batch of tickets for EDC 2012 go on sale starting at noon PST.

Sadly, only 3-day ticket packs will go on sale today. You'll have to wait for a yet-to-be-announced time for single day admissions. Three-day general entry tix will start at $215 and VIP 3-day passes will start at $500. Yes, we said "start at." You'll only be able to purchase them online at ElectricDaisyCarnival.com or via Insomniac.com so get thee to a reliable Internet connection now.

Some 230,000 people partied from dusk to dawn over three days for EDC this past summer. EDC 2012 will return to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway June 8-10.

A Makeover at Age 125

Los Angeles Times: The Statue of Liberty hosted a 125th anniversary celebration Friday and then decided to take off the rest of this year and part of the next.

Being a hostess, of course, can be a lot of work, but in this case, it's a lot of work that's being done to the hostess that will keep her closed for about a year.

Now the party is over, although the National Park Service emphasizes that Liberty Island will remain open during the $27.25-million renovation.

About 3.5 million people visit Liberty Island in a year, but only about only 2,500 tickets a day have been available for the inside tour of Lady Liberty, which means about two-thirds of the visitors don't go inside. Because the work is inside, the view of the statute will be largely unobstructed, the park service says.

Among the improvements to the lady are new elevators and stairways and rehabbed restrooms. Visitors will still be able to take the ferry to the island.

The United States received the statue from France, and it was dedicated Oct. 28, 1886, with President Grover Cleveland in attendance. George Cleveland, the grandson of President Cleveland who is said to bear a striking resemblance to his grandfather, attended the Friday ceremonies.

For info on visiting, see the National Park Service website. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed, follow the work on Twitter (@StatueLibrtyNPS) or like it on Facebook.

Gun Lounge to Open in Las Vegas

The Daily Mail: Las Vegas is well known as a destination where – if such things are to your liking – you can indulge in a few days of heavy gambling and partying.

But now it seems that visitors to Sin City will be able to try their hand at another, rather more dangerous pastime – shooting automatic weapons.

Before the year is out, America’s most notorious city will see the doors open on a club where guests will be allowed – and encouraged – to fire high-powered rifles.

The brainchild of Genghis Cohen, the impresario behind Tabu, an infamous club at the city’s MGM Grand Hotel, Machine Guns Vegas is set to open on December 15.

Situated just behind the Mirage Hotel near the city’s central Strip, Las Vegas’s first ‘ultra gun lounge’ will glamorize the use of firearms. Guests will be taught how to fire weapons by 'stunning gun girls’.

'The world is now ready for a "Gun Lounge",' Mr Cohen says. 'Stunning "Gun-Girls" trained in gun-handling [will] look after VIP guests.'

Mr Cohen is quick to dismiss any safety concerns, commenting that: 'All Machine Guns Vegas girls are certified Range Safety Officers through the National Rifle Association.’

And while the 'lounge' will have a luxurious atmosphere, alcohol will not be allowed on site.However, the club will actively link gun use to fashion and high-end brands.

‘Louis Vuitton and Prada accessories for your guns and ammunition are available for purchase’, Mr Cohen continues.

And the lounge will celebrate the deaths of figures such as Osama Bin Laden, with guests able to train their rifles on targets that include the former al-Qaeda leader.

‘There is a full range of targets including Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and [Muammar] Gaddafi,’ Mr Cohen adds. ‘The works.'

Husband-and-wife team Mike and Leanne Heck, who have hosted celebrities such as Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton, Cher and Ice T for shooting excursions, will also be on hand to help visitors with their weapons.

Mr Cohen says: 'Gun Ranges in America have always been tacked on to gun stores up until now. We're the first luxury, dedicated gun lounge in the world. Machine Guns Vegas has changed everything. The right to bear arms was in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. The building blocks of this great nation.'

Statue of Liberty Webcams Switched On

As scheduled, five webcams attached to the Status of Liberty’s torch in New York harbor went live today, offering views not seen by the public in nearly a century.

Today marks the 125th anniversary of the dedication of the copper-clad monument, which was a gift from France to the people of America. Webcam viewers will be able to watch live video streams of traffic, boats and airplanes in high-resolution panoramic images showing the Manhattan skyline, the city's borough of Brooklyn and neighboring New Jersey.

Officials closed the torch to the public in 1916 during World War One following an explosion at a nearby munitions depot, blamed on German saboteurs that damaged the statue. Since then, the sweeping views have been seen only by a handful of people involved in the statue's maintenance.

"It's a heck of a climb," said Briganti, who last made the difficult ascent in the statue's right arm in the 1980s.

The Hotel Made of Salt

Daily Mail: At first glance, you could be forgiven for mistaking these images for a beach house, with the floors dusted in a layer of sand and walls made from stone. But in fact everything in this incredible South American hotel is made from salt - including most of the furniture.

The Hotel de Sal, near Colchani, Bolivia, hosts guests who have come to visit the stunning salt flats where vast expanses of salt lakes give the surreal impression of the earth meeting the sky. Tourists typically stay for a few days to see the natural wonders of Bolivia's most notorious attraction before moving on to the next stop of their journey.

For £84 ($135) a night, lodgers can rent a double room - complete with their own salt bed of course - and breakfast.

Tour guide Pedro Pablo Michel Rocha, of Hidalgo Tours, works with the hotel to provide trips in the south of the country. He said: 'I love it when visitors come to this place for the first time. They can't get over the fact that everything is made out of salt and I've even seen a few people lick the furniture to make sure!'

'It is a wonderful experience to come somewhere like this where they've used the natural materials available to create something like a hotel.'

The infamous salt flats in Salar de Uyuni were formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. The plains are covered by a few feet of salt crust which has an unusual flatness and covers a pool of brine which is exceptionally rich in lithium.

Although tourists have long been visiting the area, it wasn't until around five years ago that interest grew in extracting the 5.4m tons of lithium which is found just below the surface of the salt.

The lithium in the area makes up half the world's supply and is used in batteries for mobile phones and computers, as well as being a key element in electric cars.

Fantasy Fest Underway in Key West

Washington Post: Key West’s decadent Fantasy Fest is under way with a packed schedule of masquerade balls, street parties and costume contests.

This year’s theme is “Aquatic Afrolic.” The annual festival continues through Oct. 30 with nearly 50 events including a costume competition for pets and their owners and a headdress ball. An evening parade on Oct. 29 is expected to attract more than 50,000 revelers.

At the kickoff Coronation Ball Friday, Key West residents Dave Taylor and Surrey Westrupp were crowned king and queen. Candidates campaigned for their crowns by staging fundraisers that amassed $181,480 for the AIDS Help organization.

Fantasy Fest debuted in 1979 to bolster tourism during a slow period. Now, tourism officials said it pumps some $30 million into the Florida Keys economy each year.

First Segway Park Opens in Denmark

NY Daily News: The world's first off-road Segway course opened its doors in Aarhus, Denmark on Friday.

Modeled as a miniature version of Yellowstone National Park, the course offers riders the chance to steer their two-wheel Segway scooters through mountains and waterfalls in a giant indoor hall.

"We have 6,000 square meters (64,583 square feet) and have built a copy of Yellowstone National Park, with mountains and waterfalls and tracks ranging from granite to sea-shells -- all sorts of things. You get the feeling you're actually driving in the park," Paul Teichert told AFP.

"A trip in the hall is a cross between a flying carpet and skiing in the Alps. And for those who are doing one of the courses as a race, we have automatic timing mechanisms that make sure they don't cheat," Teichert said.

The Segway is a one person, two-wheel, self-balancing, electrical transportation unit. Teichert said the Danish park was the first of its kind in the world, "and will be the biggest for a long time to come." He said that in tests, women appeared to be better initial off-road drivers of Segways than men.

"They're more careful to start with. Men just go at it and end up on their behinds," he said.

He said senior executives of the US Segway company had announced they would be arriving in Denmark soon to study the hall. He added that security had been a primary concern for constructors and all tracks and courses had been approved by both police and Denmark's Technological Institute.

The Segway was introduced in 2002 amid great fanfare as a means of revolutionising urban transportation. It uses gyroscopes, computers and electric motors to cruise to 12 miles (19 kilometres) per hour.

Webcams & Events to Mark Lady Liberty's 125th Birthday

AM NY: The Statue of Liberty’s torch has been closed since 1916, but starting this Friday, people around the world will enjoy breathtaking vistas from the golden perch 305 feet above New York Harbor.

In honor of the monument's 125th anniversary this Friday, five webcams will go live on Lady Liberty's torch and start delivering live panoramic views of New York City, as well as a rare look at the tablet she cradles in her left hand.

The launch of the torch cams is part of a full day of events, which will include a naturalization ceremony in the morning and a Macy’s fireworks spectacular in the evening.

For more details, and to see the live streams, go to www.ellisisland.org.

If you go:

All events are on Ellis Island

8:45 a.m.-9:30 a.m.: Naturalization ceremony

One-hundred and twenty-five people from more than 40 countries will be naturalized.

10 a.m.-noon: National Park Service ceremony

The main ceremony, which will feature a reading of Emma Lazarus' famous poem "The New Colossus" by Sigourney Weaver and the giving of a gift of friendship to a French representative.

1:30 p.m.: Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
The group will present a donation to the Statue of Liberty National Monument for the 75th year.

7:45 p.m.: Macy's Fireworks Grand Finale

Two barges behind Lady Liberty will launch a 12-minute pyrotechnic display synchronized to patriotic music and an original song.

The TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport

Jaunted: For years, the old TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK International Airport has taunted us. Situated right in front of the new-ish JetBlue Terminal 5, the Eero Saarinen-designed masterpiece was so close and yet, so far.

Opened in 1962 and closed in 2001 after TWA went bust and was taken into American Airlines, Terminal 5 is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and undergoing slow renovations (that's what happens when you've got asbestos and close proximity to functioning flights). It's not been open to the public since, save for a few short months in 2004 for an art exhibition. This weekend, however, the Open House New York event flung open the doors for four hours and half the city showed up to check out this historical gem.

Click here to view more photos.

The Newest Las Vegas Attraction

Vegas Chatter: Card slappers. Costumed characters. Water peddlers. Street musicians. Club promoters. And, now, Occupy Las Vegas protestors.

Vegas tourists will have one more sight to see before they even get into its casinos as the fledgling Occupy Las Vegas movement, which began a few days ago, now has a permanent base of operations just a few miles from The Strip. At least for the next 30 days, anyway.

Protestors have become frequent sights recently on both The Strip and in Downtown Vegas (as seen above). An official website details upcoming actions, including a protest planned for President Obama's visit to Vegas on Monday. There's a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a Livestream page, too.

Animals Escape From Wild Animal Farm

WTVR: Lions, bears and wolves were among the animals found running loose on Tuesday in Ohio, where the owner of an exotic animal farm was found dead on his property, police said.

Sheriff's deputies found about 48 dangerous animals running loose on the farm near the east-central Ohio town of Zanesville, and shot dead about 25 of them, Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz told a news conference.

The owner of the farm, Terry Thompson, was found dead on the ground when authorities went to the site to check on him following reports of wild animals running free in the area.

Lutz described the animals found as "mature, very big and aggressive." The farm was home to a plethora of species including grizzly bears, black bears,lions, tigers and cheetahs.

Police were warning residents in the area to stay inside to keep safe, and area schools were ordered closed for Wednesday as a precaution. So far, no members of the public were known to have been hurt or killed by the animals.

There was no immediate word on how the farm's owner died, and Lutz said the police work so far has focused on securing the area around the farm, near Interstate 70 about a mile west of the city limits of Zanesville, and making sure the animals were taken care of.

Deputies, their search efforts hampered by heavy rain, were combing the area for any animals still missing, and the sheriff has ordered any spotted by his deputies be shot on sight.

Veterinarians from the Columbus Zoo, and from The Wilds, which is located about 20 miles away, were standing by to offer assistance if needed. The Wilds is North America's largest Conservation Facility for Endangered Species.

Jack Hanna, the well-known Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, was also offering the sheriff any help he could arrange. He said personnel from The Wilds were called in years ago to help local officials over complaints from neighbors about the wild exotic animal farm.

Lutz said authorities were searching for the animals from their vehicles and were not walking through the heavily wooded rugged area. He said his office was also relying on neighbors and citizens in the area to report any animals they see.

Officials in Zanesville and the West Muskingum Local School district have said schools would be closed on Wednesday, while officials in other districts have said schools would close or were considering delaying opening hours.

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Arizona Town Hosts 'Running of the Bulls USA'

Tucson Citizen: Running of the Bulls USA went off without a hitch Saturday in Cave Creek.

The event is touted as a safer version of the famous annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, immortalized by Ernest Hemingway in his novel “The Sun Also Rises.” Similar events have been held in Scottsdale and Mesquite, Nev.

Hundreds of daredevils came ready to run in a variety of costumes. Some had red bull’s-eyes painted on their backs, some wore red-and-white Spanish garb and others donned psychedelic wigs. All were ready to get their thrill on, and all were energized once they crossed the finish line.

As the event, which (progressed toward its halfway point Saturday), nobody had been injured, according to medical officials on site.

John Damasco, a Peoria resident and registered nurse at Arrowhead Hospital in Glendale, created his own T-shirt with his “bucket list” on the back, a short list of all the things he’d like to do before he dies. Saturday, he checked off item No. 12.

He said that when the starting gun went off, he knew the bulls would quickly make up the roughly 75-foot gap from the runners’ starting line.

“First you saw clouds of dirt, then the horns and then the bulls’ faces,” he said.

Damasco’s sister, wife and two children cheered him on from the sidelines of the quarter-mile track. Damasco said he had to persuade his wife, Sue, to let him run alongside more than 20 1,500-pound bulls. He said he was able to win her over because the event uses rodeo bulls, which are tamer and have duller horns than their Pamplona counterparts.

“He loves thrills, and he assured me that this is not like the bull run in Spain,” Sue Damasco said.

Leading up to the event, Cave Creek officials had received dozens of letters in opposition to the bull run, with some people planning to boycott the town. About 2,000 signatures have been gathered online protesting the event. Opponents say the bull run is harmful to the animals and could cause safety problems. Protesters were nowhere to be seen in Cave Creek on Saturday.

Phoenix resident Dean Lambrose survived the run and said that safety isn’t as big an issue as some people think. Lambrose received a rodeo scholarship to Weber State University in Utah.

“This is rodeo stuff,” he said. “These bulls are around humans all day long. They’re pretty domesticated. The traditional theory of running with the bulls has to do with running with them and alongside them. It’s when you start tormenting them that they start to get aggressive."

“This is a good thing. And it’s entertaining.”

Delayed MLK Memorial Dedication Set for Today

Washington Post: Seven weeks after a hurricane wrecked plans for the original ceremony, the dedication of Washington’s new Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial is scheduled to take place Sunday amid sunny skies, pleasant temperatures and a throng of dignitaries from across the nation.

President Obama is slated to deliver the keynote address at 11 a.m., following three hours of pomp and celebration at the site of the $120 million granite memorial on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin, off Independence Avenue.

The crowds gathering Sunday are not expected to be the size of the 250,000 that organizers had predicted for the original dedication. That was planned for Aug. 28, the 48th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington. But the foundation that created the memorial still has set up a stage for entertainers and 10,000 folding chairs for spectators in a field adjacent to the memorial where the public can watch the ceremony on huge TV screens.

The dedication is free. Tickets are not required. People can also bring their own picnic blankets and chairs. Gates open at 6 a.m., and spectators can access the West Potomac Park public viewing area via four gates on Independence Avenue SW.

The ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. with an hour-long “Morning Joy” public music program, hosted by journalist and commentator Roland S. Martin. The dedication program, moderated by “PBS NewsHour’s” Gwen Ifill, is set to begin at 9 a.m. in the paved forecourt of the memorial.

That part of the festivities is not open to the public, but will be telecast on the big screens on site and live by some TV networks.

The foundation said it expected members of the King family to attend, along with such figures as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, former NAACP chairman Julian Bond and U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) — civil rights leaders who marched with King in the 1950s and 60s.

Entertainers such as Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Jennifer Holliday and Sweet Honey in the Rock are scheduled to perform. The memorial, which is illuminated at night, includes a small, elegant waterfall and a granite inscription wall with 14 King quotations.

The project has been attended by some controversy — from the selection of a sculptor and materials from China, to the size and severity of the image of King, to a paraphrase of a King quote that appears on the side of his statue. But the memorial, which has been open since Aug. 22, has proved popular with the public.

On a drizzly day this past week, a group of school-age children were lined up alongside the towering statue, as a woman, who appeared to be their teacher, drilled them in famous lines from the “I Have a Dream” speech:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. . . ."

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today....

Cast Members Discuss the Harry Potter Studio Tour

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Harry Potter cast members talk about their excitement for the Warner Bros. "Making of Harry Potter" studio tour. Tickets for the attraction went on sale Thursday, however, the Warner Bros. website experienced a technical glitch. Many fans were unable to book tickets and turned to Twitter to vent their frustrations:

Sarah Roots, Warner Bros. representative, confirmed the site was experiencing problems due to the high level of demand. “We have had an absolutely incredible response since the tickets for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter went on sale early yesterday. We know that some people have been experiencing delays in purchasing tickets, but are currently working hard to accommodate this very high level of ticket demand.”

The tours, which feature original sets including the Hogwarts Great Hall, the Gryffindor Common Room, Ministry of Magic and headmaster Dumbledore's office, plus costumes, props and special effects used in all Harry Potter movies, begin on March 31.

The Leaning Tower of London

The Mirror: Big Ben is turning into our own Leaning Tower of Pisa, a worrying survey has confirmed.

The much-loved landmark’s tilt has become so pronounced it is noticed by passers-by and tourists.

The Palace of Westminster’s clock tower has not been perfectly vertical for years because of shifting ground conditions and tunneling for Tube lines.

Now engineers say it will one day topple over if the lean is left unchecked. Big Ben is the nickname of the tower’s largest bell, but the public generally use it as the name of the whole clock, built in 1853.

The peak of the 315ft tower is 18 inches off where it would be if vertical – a 0.26 degree tilt to the north west. That is one sixteenth of the Pisa tower’s lean.

But a survey for London Underground and the Parliamentary Estates Department found the rate of movement accelerated in recent years. It has caused cracks to appear in walls inside the House of Commons.

Prof John Burland, of Imperial College London, said: “I have heard tourists saying, ‘I don’t think it is really vertical’. They are quite right. The tilt is now just about visible. If it started greater acceleration we would have to do ¬something in a few years.”

The clock moved an eighth of an inch from the perpendicular between November 2002 and August 2003. Since then the tilt has increased 0.04 of a degree each year. At that rate it would crash into Portcullis House, used as MPs’ offices – in 5,000 years.

Cable Car to Span London's Thames River

The Docklands: An animation showing the cable car spanning the River Thames between North Greenwich and the Royal Docks has been released.

On Friday London Mayor Boris Johnson revealed the cable car would be sponsored by Dubai-based Emirates, and called the Emirates Air Line. Gondolas, shown in the animation on this page, will carry up to 2,500 people an hour in each direction across the river.

A £36million ($56.6 million) sponsorship deal with air line Emirates over 10 years means Transport for London can recoup 80 per cent of the construction costs. The two cable car stations will be called Emirates Greenwich Peninsula and Emirates Royal Docks.

But the hunt for more sponsorship goes on before the cable cars open next summer.

Mr Johnson said: “There will be further commercial opportunities associated with the stations.”

However Mike Tuffrey, Liberal Democrat London Assembly budget spokesman, said: “Transport for London admit that this sponsorship deal only meets 80 per cent of the construction cost. This leaves many millions of pounds worth of funding to be found from TfL’s budget.”

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Harry Potter Studio Tour Hopes to Cast a Spell

The Gaurdian: As all good students of the Harry Potter saga know well, Muggles are not usually allowed at Hogwarts school of witchcraft of wizardry. However, a new exhibition will soon give those not gifted with magical powers the chance to see some of the famous Potter film sets, such as the Great Hall and Dumbledore's office, for themselves.

The Harry Potter tour is opening in spring 2012 at Leavesden studios near Watford, where the film series was shot between 2000 and last year. Over the course of three hours, visitors will view original sets, costumes, props and effects that were used in all eight movies, from 2001's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to this year's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Highlights include a recreation of the giant spider Aragog suspended from the ceiling, and the opportunity to pose for photographs in one of the "flying" Ford Anglia cars used in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Buckbeak the Hippogriff is also said to be making an appearance.

Potter fans in the US have been able to visit Universal Studios' The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park since June last year in Orlando, Florida, but the new tour offers the chance for British Muggles to take a look inside JK Rowling's world for the first time without getting on a plane.

Leavesden remains a working studio – in fact it will be one of Europe's largest production centres for film when it reopens as Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden next year. "We have an amazing resource in this country which is tens of thousands of incredibly talented film technicians, film-makers, writers and actors," Josh Berger, the head of Warner Brothers UK, told the BBC.

The studio announced its decision to buy the facility, which sits on the site of the former Rolls-Royce factory at Leavesden Aerodrome, last year. It will make Warner Bros the only Hollywood film studio with a permanent base in the UK, and the company's £100m ($154 million) investment will create a facility that is larger than Warner's lot in Burbank, California.

The new Potter tour has received the enthusiastic backing of some of Hogwarts' former pupils. "It was such a magical place to grow up," said Daniel Radcliffe, who played Potter in all eight films. "People will be amazed to see the incredible sets that we've worked in all these years."

"I had the time of my life making these films at Leavesden studios," said Emma Watson, who played Hermione. "It's so wonderful that it's still going to be around for years to come."

Tickets for the new tour must be ordered in advance and will go on sale on 13 October at the price of £21 ($32.50) per child, £28 ($43) per adult and £83 ($128) for a family of four. Warner says around 5,000 visitors will be able to visit the facility on any given day.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Sets New World Record

eTurboNews: The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta again set the world record for most balloons launched in one hour, sending 345 hot air balloons into the sky from Balloon Fiesta Park during the opening day of Balloon Fiesta.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Inc. is seeking the world record for the greatest mass hot air balloon ascent in one hour from Guinness World Records.™

"There's no better way to celebrate the 40th Balloon Fiesta than breaking a world record on our opening day," said John Sena, President of the Board for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. "It was a beautiful day and a signature moment for the world's premier balloon event."

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is no stranger to world records, in 2000 Balloon Fiesta set the same record by launching 329 balloons in one hour.

The 12th Lorraine World Air Balloon Festival in Chambley-Bussieres, France launched 343 hot air balloons in one hour, earlier in 2011.

Boeing Cornfield Becomes Tourist Attraction

A week ago, Boeing delivered its first 787 Dreamliner to All Nippon Airways. Then on Thursday there was another celebration when Boeing voice president Jack Jones cut a ribbon at the unique maze at the Boone Hall Plantation.

The maze pays homage to the new South Carolina plant where about 5,000 Boeing workers will produce the Dreamliner. The ribbon cutting was the beginning of a two-day weekend festival at Boone Hall.

Boone Hall contracts with a corn-maze designer who creates the intricate field by using GPS guidance to expertly cut the field into varying designs.

Boeing announced plans to build its 1.2 million-square-foot North Charleston assembly plant in 2009. 

 “Early in our talks with Boeing, it became very, very clear that Boeing had tremendous commitment to the community, to its employees and to its company,” said Rick Benthall, Boone Hall spokesman. “It was a priority, for anything they were involved in, that first their employees could benefit … and that the community could benefit.”

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