Fast descent into conflict

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has faced up to a polar explorer over claims that oxygen masks apparently failed to work during an emergency landing.

The UK Telegraph Online reported that Pen Hadow, the Arctic adventurer, told how passengers feared they were going to die when the aircraft made a steep descent of almost 40,000ft for an unscheduled landing in France after cabin pressure systems failed.

The explorer, who became the first man to walk solo from Canada to the North Pole in 2003, said afterwards that several masks - including his own and that of his nine-year-old son Wilf - had seemed to fail to produce air, leaving the boy "hyperventilating".

Interestingly, in emailed responses to the Telegraph story, O’Leary’s claims that the oxygen masks operated normally during the emergency had a lot of support.

Little Wilf, readers claimed, was hyperventilating because – like the other passengers – he was frightened by the sudden descent.

Ryanair boss in row with explorer Pen Hadow over emergency landing.

Taj and titillation best avoided

What do sex shows in Amsterdam, trains in the UK and the Taj Mahal have in common?

They’re all rip-offs, says the Backpacker Blog in the Melbourne Age

Accommodation in Moscow and a train ride up the Jungfrau also rate a mention.

Café readers can add their own favourite rip-offs to the list. Send us your comments.

The world's great rip-offs

The best little toilet in Tennessee

The public men's room at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, has been voted the best restroom in the United States for 2008 in balloting conducted for Cintas, which supplies restroom supplies and work uniforms.

Hotel management has photos of weddings conducted there.

And, says USA Today, who knows what political intrigue has played out in the comfort stop across the street from Tennessee's legislative offices?

Nashville hotel men's room named best in nation

The Olympic Effect

Meanwhile, here’s the Café’s take on what will happen now that the Olympics is over.

1. Heartbreak Hotels

It is natural that after a high comes a low. After celebrating record revenues during the two weeks of the Games, hotels in Beijing will now scramble for business. Things which fell under the “we will do this after the Olympics” will be done. This will include changing jobs, dropping rates and anything in between.

2. Life Usual

The city will go back to life as usual. Cars will be back on the road. Traffic jams will be back. The millions of flower pots will go back to where they came from. Good news for hotel guests – limousines will no longer be able to charge RMB2,000 for a 30-minute ride.

3. Pent-up Demand Unleashed

At least that’s what we hope. That the Chinese who were putting off their travels till after the Olympics will now start wandering the earth. And that the foreigners who were putting off visiting China till after the Games will now surge back in.