Summer used to be a little less flashy and fleshy in Vegas, but with the advent of adult party pools using celeb "hosts" to draw crowds, stars are flocking, and so are vacationers.

Saturday, Holly Madison -- former Hugh Hefner galpal and now the headliner of Vegas' popular Peepshow -- was the lure at the Flamingo resort's GO Pool. She danced, entertaining a crowd partying by a waterfall in lagoons. That girl gets around: Last Fourth of July weekend, she was the draw at MGM Grand's Wet Republic pool.

These events generally are open to the general public, though you usually have to stand in line and hope to be let in and fork over a cover charge.

Fourth of July weekend got off to a bang with singer Nick Lachey's Friday night bachelor party at TAO Nightclub at The Venetian. The revelry included a cake topped with a ball and chain (not so sure fiancee Vanessa Minnillo would find that funny). But she also had a bachelorette party in Vegas recently -- at venues including The Palazzo's Lavo nightspot and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas resort's Marquee Dayclub pool. Temperatures soared into the 100s during the day, and singer Rihanna heated up Saturday night in concert at Mandalay Bay.

Meanwhile, Vegas also is courting the family crowd with a "3 for $54" promotion. That gains admission to three of the following attractions:

• "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" at Luxor
• "BODIES… The Exhibition" at Luxor
• Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay
• "Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat" at The Mirage
• The roller coaster at New York-New York
• Adventuredome at Circus Circus
• "CSI: The Experience" at MGM Grand
• "Spongebob 4D Ride" at Excalibur

For more info on the promotion, click here. In conjunction, Excalibur has room rates starting $34 a night, depending on availability; Circus Circus at $43 per night; Luxor, from $45.

When landing in St. Maarten, on the Caribbean island's Dutch side at Princess Juliana Airport, a certain strip of beach is visible out the plane window.

Of course, it's not just a simple view--planes essentially land on top of beach goers on Maho Beach in order to land safely.

If you've ever done the landing, it's quite jarring.

Out the window, you can essentially see every detail of the semi-worried sunbathers below, right down to whether a bathing suit has polka dots or not.

It's all very "Wayne's World", like when Wayne and Garth park their car near an airport runway to watch the underbelly of an airplane land. Except in this case, it's innocent beach goers.

The beach has gained notoriety for its nearness to the airport and is, it seems, consistently flooded with tourists who want to catch a close-up glimpse of a plane. Note to self: It's REALLY loud.

via:cnn

Havana, Cuba -- What is your favorite neighborhood? Why?

It's a touristy area but one that's really well kept is old Havana so when I haven't been for a while I get in a nice early morning or late afternoon stroll, get a cup of coffee, listen to the bands who play Buena Vista Social Club-style music, which is probably a bit touristy for Cubans but it's really nice.

Where is the best place to people-watch?

By far the best place is the Malecon, the sea wall. Think of it as Cuba's free bar. Every night, especially at weekends, hundreds of Cubans go down there, often with a bottle of rum, to sit on the wall. People promenade; others strum music.

It's crowded and rowdy in some areas and quieter and more romantic in other spots, so depending on your mood you can pick a place that suits.

Where can you get the best view of the city?

There's a building called FOCSA that has a bar and restaurant at the top. I'd skip the restaurant but the view is great, so go up and have a drink and look out over the city.

There's also an old Spanish colonial fort called El Morro on the other side of the bay from Havana. You can get there by car. It has a couple of state-run bars and restaurants. Again, I wouldn't eat there, but it's a nice place to go at sunset, have a drink and enjoy the view of the bay and the seafront.

How do tourists stick out and what's the best way to blend in?

You can't blend in. It's very difficult. And they don't want you to! If you get a tan and don't carry a camera, that'll help, but it's hard not to stand out.

What's the biggest misconception about your city?

Maybe the old cars. There are a lot of old cars but most people are surprised when they come that probably the most common are 1980s Russian Ladas because of Cuba's closeness to the Soviet Union. So you see lots of boxy cars driving around, and plenty of new cars.

The old American classics aren't disappearing, but so many other cars have hit the roads that they aren't as obvious as they used to be.

Where should people stay in Havana?

There are two ways to do Havana: hotels and private homes. All hotels are either state-run or joint ventures with big hotel chains.

Depending on your budget and what you're looking to experience, private homes are a great way to discover Cuban life.

From accommodation near old Havana, which can be a bit more basic as demand is higher there, or further afield, where some homes even have swimming pools, for around 25-45 bucks a night you'll get a room with air conditioning and a private bathroom.

Where do you go to relax?

To the Hotel Nacional -- it has an outdoor grassy lawn that overlooks the Malecon. It's a good place to take kids because they can chase the peacocks that wander around and roll around in the grass while you relax with a drink and watch the world go by.

What essential thing should visitors see/experience if they only have a few hours?

Old Havana in the day and the Malecon at night.

What's the biggest tourist trap? Is there a "tourist trap" that's actually worth seeing?

You have to recognize that tourism is an important source of income. You'll stick out, so everywhere you go, people will spark up a conversation with you. Generally they are looking for something -- commission from a restaurant for bringing you there, or to sell you some cigars, that sort of thing. You can't stop it, so recognize it for what it is -- people simply trying to make a living -- and take it with a bit of good humor.

Be aware that in some of the late-night dance places, as in many tourist spots, you can get hustled. If you want to avoid people trying to make a buck off a tourist, try and experiment with some private restaurants that aren't in old Havana -- you may have a more authentic, interesting experience too.

Shasta Darlington is an international correspondent in Havana

What's the food scene like in Havana?

It used to be a joke in the 1990s during the post-Soviet economic crisis that the three main failures of the Cuban revolution were breakfast, lunch and dinner -- that's not true any more.

Since the restrictions on private enterprise were relaxed last year, more businesses are opening up and the number of restaurants is mushrooming, so there are suddenly far more exciting places to visit. Often they're run out of people's homes (establishments known as "paladares"). You'll find good food, good service and it's a really nice experience.

Which restaurant would you take your loved one to for an anniversary or other special occasion?

One that's been around for a few years is La Guarida. It's in a sketchy part of town, a relatively poor part right in the center, but in Cuba everywhere's pretty safe. It's in a very typical Cuban building, the sort that you think of when you think of Havana -- falling down, crowded with people. You walk up three flights of stairs to get there. The movie "Strawberry and Chocolate" was filmed there, then it was turned into a restaurant. It has a great atmosphere, it's very romantic, there's great kitsch décor and you can really feel the culture dripping off the walls.

A new option is L'Atelier in the Vedado neighborhood. It has high ceilings, breezy curtains, very nice food and atmosphere and an outdoor space where you can lounge around on pillows and have drinks. It serves international cuisine that's more original than a lot of restaurants here -- a nice mix.

Are there local specialty dishes or drinks that visitors must try?

One typical dish that I really like is ropa vieja -- it means "old clothes" -- shredded beef with spices, usually served with rice and beans. Cubans do wonderful black beans. Another specialty is malanga fritters -- it's a tuber like a potato and they often mash it with garlic to make these amazing fritters.

The national drink is of course the mojito. Don't leave without trying one - they're delicious. Experiment with rum while you're here, too -- they make everything from cocktail white rum to some very nice dark aged rum that you can drink on its own -- sip that on the Malecon, it's a nice way to spend an evening.

Where's your favorite place to spend a night out on the town?

The best thing to do at night is go and listen to jazz -- there's lots of great Latin jazz in Cuba -- or go salsa dancing. Cubans are great salsa dancers and there are lots of quality venues. For a more authentic experience, go in the early evening, at around 7pm, to a matinee -- it's cheaper and that's often when Cubans go. Later on, towards midnight, you'll find more tourists. Restaurante 1830 is a great place for this. You can watch the dancing while relaxing under a mango tree in the garden.

What is a good local souvenir?

If you're not American, cigars and rum are terrific options. Obviously if you're American you can't bring most things home, but you can still buy art -- that doesn't break the embargo. There are lots of great crafters and artists and if you go to the arts and crafts market in old Havana you can find terrific photos or small paintings that easily cost under $20.

Instead of getting away from it all, go underneath it, and escape to some of the world's unique underwater restaurants and hotels.

You'll have to wear scuba gear and a bathing suit or use a boat to get to some of these undersea retreats.

Jules' Undersea Lodge

Feel like a superstar at this resort. Celebrities such as Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Jon Fishman of Phish and former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau have visited this underwater lodge in Key Largo, Florida.

To reach Jules' Undersea Lodge, you must scuba dive 21 feet down. You'll enter through a 5-foot-by-7-foot opening at the bottom of the lodge, where you'll be greeted with amenities you'd find at an above-ground hotel: a cozy bed, a telephone, books and a VCR/DVD for movies.

You'll breathe easy inside this air-conditioned lodge, which is filled with compressed air to prevent water from flooding the rooms.

Visitors must scuba dive 21 feet beneath the water to reach Jules' Undersea Lodge.

The living quarters include two private bedrooms, a wet room where divers leave their gear and take a shower, and an 8-foot-by-20-foot multipurpose room for dining and entertaining.

One couple named their baby Jules after discovering that their recently conceived child had accompanied them to the underwater hotel. Another couple's visit inspired them to change careers and open a dive shop, according to the owners.

A night's stay costs $400 to $500 per person, depending on the package.

Ithaa Undersea Restaurant

Ithaa Undersea Restaurant sits 16 feet under the Indian Ocean.

Watch sea life swim around you as you dine in this underwater getaway.

Set in a picturesque corner of the Maldive Islands, Ithaa Undersea Restaurant claims to be the world's first all-glass underwater dining establishment.

This luxury restaurant, which has welcomed thousands of diners since 2005, sits 16 feet deep in the Indian Ocean and is surrounded by sea life and a coral reef.

The six-course dinner menu often features French dishes from executive chef Nicolas Boutin and is priced at $320 a person. A lighter three-course lunch menu is available for $195 a person. Both meals include one glass of bubbly champagne.

If you're dining at lunch, don't forget to bring your sunglasses. The sun's rays illuminate the water and make the restaurant so bright inside that diners and the wait staff need eye protection.

Utter Inn

The Utter Inn is located on Lake Mälaren in Sweden.

If you're looking for a simpler underwater experience, consider the Utter Inn in Västerås, Sweden, which is a single-room hotel containing just two twin beds and a table.

This underwater spot, which looks like a small red house above the water, lies nearly 10 feet below the surface of Lake Mälaren and can be accessed only by boat. Panoramic windows in all directions allow guests to watch fish and other aquatic life swim by.

During your stay, hang out on the above-water deck to sunbathe, read or fish. Guests are also invited to use an inflatable canoe to explore a nearby uninhabited island.

No cooking is required at this getaway. Instead, order dinner and have it delivered.

A typical night's stay at the Utter Inn costs $212 per person.

Poseidon Undersea Resort

Poseidon Undersea Resort is scheduled to open in late 2012, according to the developer.

Sleep next to exotic sea life at Poseidon.

This underwater five-star luxury hotel in Fiji, set to open in late 2012, has been marketed as the "world's first sea floor resort."

The 24-room Poseidon Undersea Resort will sit 40 feet below the crystal clear waters of a Fijian lagoon, next to a coral reef.

Guests will be required to spend two nights in the underwater hotel and four nights at a more traditional beach resort and over-water bungalows on a 222-acre island called Poseidon Mystery Island.

The high-end hotel will feature an underwater restaurant, library and theater area.

Above the water, visitors can check out wine-tasting classes and a nine-hole golf course, or be pampered with spa treatments.

Be prepared to open your wallet wide at this resort. The cost for this exclusive experience is $15,000 per person (when sharing a room) or $30,000 a couple.

Forbes Island

Forbes Island in San Francisco offers dining both above and below the water.

Reachable only by boat, Forbes Island off Pier 39 in San Francisco offers above- and below-water dining.

Featured on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," the island was once home to millionaire Forbes Kiddoo.

On the menu are French culinary classics like coq au vin or filet mignon with a truffled Bordelaise sauce, local seafood such as halibut or Pacific Coast salmon, and a large wine list.

In the underwater area, guests can peer through several portholes while dining in a dark wood-beamed room accented by a giant gas fireplace and a large collection of nautical antiques.

Above the water, dine outside or in rooms with spectacular views of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz, Coit Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The price range for an entree is about $20 to $39. Wines by the glass start at $9.

If the stories circulating around company water coolers are true, frequent-flier miles are worse than useless. Why? Because, the story goes, every time a hapless customer tries to cash in his hard-earned miles for a free trip, airline reps just roll their eyes and respond mock-respectfully, "Sorry sir, we have no seats available for award travel on that flight."

The award challenge in perspective 

How hard is it, really, for frequent flier program members to get what's coming to them?

Unfortunately, there's no central repository of frequent flier data (as, for example, the DOT maintains for arrival and departure data). So there is no definitive answer to the question.

The airlines in recent years have included frequent flier program statistics on their websites, as part of their so-called customer care commitments. As an example, American, operator of the first modern mileage program and one of the largest, reports that AAdvantage members were able to redeem more than 165 billion miles in 2010 to claim almost 7.2 million awards for flights, upgrades and car rentals. Of those, 5,252,293 were free flights on American, and 590,374 were upgrades.

Those are impressive numbers, but they leave the crucial questions unanswered. How many times were AAdvantage members able to book their first choice of award flights? How often were they forced to revise their plans due to award bottlenecks. How many times did they have to redeem twice as many miles for an unrestricted award to circumvent those bottlenecks? And how often were they stymied completely, utterly unable to find any award flights that were both acceptable and available?

Except for the airlines themselves—and they're not saying—no one knows the definitive answers to these questions, either as they pertain to the program of American or to the programs of other airlines.

What we do know, anecdotally, is that miles are not readily redeemable for capacity-controlled awards. And for reasons that aren't difficult to discern—a combination of full flights and slim profits—redeeming them for award flights is harder than ever.

Award-seat allocation: Behind the scenes 

Before turning to specific suggestions for getting an award, let's take a moment to consider the reason award seats can be hard to come by.

On one hand, airlines want to deliver on the promise implicit in frequent flier programs: a free ticket after you've earned the required miles. Indeed, to break that promise too often, to too many customers, would incite a huge consumer backlash, turning a customer-incentive program into a customer-alienation program.

On the other hand, in the interest of fiscal responsibility, the airlines are loathe to give away seats that might otherwise be sold to revenue customers. The direct cost of flying an award passenger from point A to point B is essentially the cost of a meal and some extra jet fuel, less than $25 in most cases. But if that award passenger has displaced a revenue passenger, the cost to the carrier can easily multiply ten-fold or more.

Moderating between these two conflicting considerations is the arcane practice of yield management. The aim of yield management is to squeeze every last dollar of potential revenue out of each and every seat on each and every flight. To that end, airlines employ highly sophisticated software to make seats available for sale at different price points, depending on historical data, current demand, days remaining before the flight closes, etc. It's a dynamic process, with the number of seats available at different fares changing continuously.

Award seats are simply treated as another fare "bucket," albeit a non-revenue one. And because there's no revenue generated by frequent flier tickets, naturally they receive lowest priority in a program designed to optimize revenue. On a flight which might sell out—based on its past performance and current sales—the software will minimize, or eliminate altogether, award seats for that flight. If, closer to the departure date, the flight still has seats available, more award seats might be made available.

To the flexible (or lucky) go the awards 

As already intimated, the key to getting awards is the "F" word: Flexibility. So if at first you don't succeed, try the following, singly or in combination, until "No" gives way to "Yes, madam, we do have award seats on that flight."

Book early or book late 

As with revenue seats, award seats generally become available in CRSs (the computer reservations systems used by airlines and travel agents to book travel) 330 days before the flight date. That's your first window of opportunity and, in theory, the optimum time to request an award. As a practical matter, it's difficult for most travelers to plan a trip almost a year in advance.

At the other end of the advance-booking spectrum, it is sometimes easier to book last minute (within two weeks of the flight date, say), when award seats may be added back into inventory on flights which aren't selling out.

• FREQUENT FLIER DEALS: 

There are opportunities in the middle term as well. Many airlines manually review their seat allocations 120, 90, 60 and 30 days in advance. After each review, depending on the analyst's finding, more (or fewer) award seats may be made available.

Book on off-peak days 

Which days are peak and off-peak? It depends. To a predominantly business-oriented destination like Chicago, peak days will be Tuesday through Thursday, primetime for business trips. Las Vegas or Orlando, because they draw a leisure-focused clientele, see their traffic peak around the weekends.

In addition to the day-of-the-week ups and downs, there are annual cycles. The summer migration to beach cities. Spring break in Florida. Winter holiday getaways to Hawaii. Summer vacation trips to Europe.

The trick is to identify the lows and highs for the flight of your choice, and plan to book award travel during the former and away from the latter.

Travel on holidays 

While it typically ranges from very difficult to impossible to book award travel on the days just prior to and after holidays, you can often find award seats available on the day of the holiday itself.

I have used frequent flier tickets for travel on both Christmas and Thanksgiving. True, I sacrificed some of the time I might otherwise have spent with friends and family. But in both cases, the planes were relatively empty and the ground and cabin crew were in festive moods. And on the Christmas flight, the airline even waived the fee for the movie in economy class.

Be a contrarian destination-wise 

All things being equal, an award ticket to Omaha is easier to snag than one to Oahu. And mid-winter, the difference will be most pronounced. (You may also find that award trips to smaller, less-served destinations represent good value, since the price of a revenue ticket may be higher than on more competitive routes.)

Listen to the airlines 

Sensitive to the need to maximize program members' satisfaction, airlines are increasingly offering members award redemption advice proactively. Example: American, United, and US Airways all publish lists of recommended award destinations, highlighting city pairs with the most award availability over the upcoming months.

Also, it has become standard practice for the airlines to offer periodic award sales, discounting award tickets to selected destinations. The destinations are selected, of course, precisely because they're not in demand, so by taking advantage of them you enjoy both a lower mileage price and a better chance of getting a seat on your first choice of days and times.

Leverage your elite status 

Elite status confers a number of benefits when it comes to award time.

First, many programs systematically give elite members less fettered access to award seats.

• ELITE STATUS: The ultimate frequent flier perk

In addition to the published benefits accruing to elite status, there is the undocumented special consideration that airlines extend to their best customers. A reservations supervisor may be empowered to override capacity controls on award seats, and a caller's elite status might be sufficient reason to do so.

The old "It never hurts to ask" adage is especially true if you're elite.

Fragment the family 

Award travel is flagrantly family-unfriendly. While there may be two award seats available on a given flight, the odds of there being three seats are much lower. Four seats? Not even on a Saturday-night red-eye to Peoria.

If you're a family of three, four or more, consider the following options:

• Divide the family into two or more groups, and try booking each group on separate flights timed to arrive within an hour or two of each other.

• Combine awards and revenue tickets.

• Combine restricted and unrestricted awards (see below).

Pay for help 

The airlines have done a masterful job over the past 10 years of training travelers to make their bookings online. For paid trips, that's fine, since seat availability is rarely an issue. But because of the capacity controls on award seats, and the limits of the reservations software itself, booking free trips online can be a challenge.

When attempts to book award trips online prove unsuccessful, consumers would do well to recall that most airlines still operate call centers, staffed by professionals who solve reservations problems all day, every day. A reservations agent may be able to override the restrictions on award seats on a particular flight, or create an itinerary that makes use of connecting flights via less in-demand airports.

Making award reservations by phone isn't free: there's a service fee ranging from $10 to $20. But that's a small price to pay if it makes the difference between failure and success in booking award travel.

A variation on the "pay for help" theme is to secure the services of a travel agent, preferably one who specializes in making frequent flier award bookings. Once again, there's a fee, but one well worth paying if the agent can get you where you want to go.

Pay the full price 

Lastly, and only as a last resort, consider cashing in more miles—typically twice as many—for an unrestricted award.

Most airlines divide their awards into two categories, restricted (sometimes called saver awards) and unrestricted (known as rule-buster or anytime awards). Reflecting the revenue fares on which they're modeled, restricted awards are cheaper but less flexible, while unrestricted awards cost more miles but have fewer restrictions.

Specifically, anytime awards, as the name suggests, are available without date constraints. And as well, capacity controls are either relaxed or lifted entirely.

While paying double miles effectively cuts in half the value of the miles redeemed, it may be the only alternative to just staying home. In the realm of mileage programs, the best deal isn't always a good deal.

Cirque du Soleil wants to recreate Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Sin City.

The Mandalay Bay hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip plans to open a sprawling entertainment complex that includes a Jackson-themed lounge, an interactive memorabilia museum and a theater designed to replicate the iconic refuge of the deceased musical legend, Cirque du Soleil president Daniel Lamarre said Wednesday.

"This place, Mandalay Bay, is going to become the home of Michael Jackson in many, many ways," he said at an announcement at the casino attended by Jackson's older brother, Jackie.

John Branca, co-executor of Michael Jackson's estate, said the attraction will offer fans a permanent place to celebrate, as well as give them the opportunity to see some of the objects displayed at Neverland Ranch.

"Very few fans would ever get to visit Michael's Neverland Ranch because of its remote location," he said.

Plans for the Las Vegas lodestone, set to open in 2013, are part of the budding business relationship between the acrobatic troupe and the pop star's estate.

Cirque du Soleil's homage to Jackson kicks off in October, with the most expensive show in the French company's history. The $57 million Michael Jackson, The Immortal World Tour will open in Montreal and hit 30 cities including New York, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The tour's Las Vegas stop at Mandalay Bay will kick off with a fan convention in December as a preview to the permanent Jackson attraction.

Concept art for the touring show's set prominently features a massive tree symbolic of a favorite oak that was outside Jackson's Neverland bedroom. The singer nicknamed it the Giving Tree and had a perch built atop it where he wrote music and sometimes slept.

For Jackson's Thriller, tombstones overwhelm the set in a nod to the music video's horror-film motif and gyrating zombies.

Excerpts from Jackson's music videos will be part of the 90-minute show, with no specific performer representing Jackson. Immortal will also feature as-yet-unreleased songs that Jackson finished before his death in 2009.

The tour then goes to Europe, Lamarre said, while Cirque producers open a more intimate, theatrical show at the new Las Vegas theater.

Jackson's estate and Cirque will each own 50% of both projects and share equally in the cost of putting on the productions.

Tour director Jamie King said he searched for acrobats, dancers and musicians from across the world who could capture Jackson's spirit and showmanship.

"I feel like I am not doing it alone, I feel like I am doing it with Michael as my co-director all the way," said King, who has directed concert tours for Madonna, Rihanna and Celine Dion and is a former Jackson back-up dancer.

Jackson admired the Canadian troupe's work and attended Cirque shows in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. His support, Lamarre said, helped build the company.

Cirque du Soleil has since become as ubiquitous on the Las Vegas Strip as all-you-can-eat buffets or buzzing slot machines, with shows in recent years honoring Elvis Presley, Celine Dion and the Beatles.

Mandalay Bay, long home to Disney's The Lion King musical, has never hosted a Cirque show before.

Mandalay Bay President Chuck Bowling said the Jackson attraction will strengthen the casino's financial health in future years.

The theatrical performance will take over The Lion King stage when that show closes in December, and some venues in the casino will have to be relocated to accommodate the mega attraction.

Lamarre said the changes will be permanent.

"The tradition here is our shows last forever," he said.

by: paul carr

This time last week, I wrote about my backstage tour of Cirque Du Soleil’s KÀ, at the MGM Grand. I also promised to go back and talk to the show’s technical director, Erik Walstad for TechCrunch TV.

In the video below, Erik talks about the technology behind Cirque’s most complex show, and in particular the two gigantic moving stages that form its centerpiece. Then we head to the auditorium to see that technology in action, as Erick’s team reset the show ahead of the night’s performance.

As I wrote last week, a video can’t begin to do the show – or its technology – justice, but Erick’s explanation of how the ‘Tatami Deck’ stage is just like a kitchen drawer is at least better than anything I could possibly write about it.

(And finally, there’s a special feature tucked at the end of the video. Spoiler alert: if you love English narrowboats, you won’t want to miss that.)

by:paul carr

What happens in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas.

Where once it was possible to fly to the middle of the desert, get absolutely wrecked on frozen margaritas and warm hookers and then return to civilization as if nothing had happened, today it’s impossible to so much as open a minibar here without someone taking a photo and broadcasting it on Facebook. Savvy to this new reality, even the most shitty hotel on the strip – which is to say, The Riviera – has aTwitter account.

And yet, despite the millions of tweets and status updates that flow in and out of Sin City every weekend, Vegas remains a town to which technology simply cannot do justice.

For a start, the hotels are temples to physical spectacle, filled with gigantic fountains, exploding pirate ships, gondola rides, showgirls, lions and tigers and reproductions of Michelangelo’s David (oh my). Every bar and casino has a theme – from Jimmy Buffet’s Margaretaville to the preposterous Pussycat Dolls lounge in Caesars Palace. You could spend all day watching clips of this stuff online without even starting to understand what it’s like to be here.

Even at the seediest end of the market – which is to say, the sex end – where, traditionally, analogue pleasures; strip shows, adult theaters, even hookers – have lost market share to Internet porn viewed in the comfort of one’s own home, the Vegas sex industry continues to thrive. “Passers” – commission-paid workers handing out flyers for escort services – line the strip, sometime three deep. Every casino worth its salt has a topless review and, of course, Nevada is the only state to offer legalized brothels.

To paraphrase a travel-writing cliche, Las Vegas is a city of technological contrasts. Nowhere else on planet earth understands more effectively how to harness technology in order to deliver overwhelmingly physical experiences. And in Las Vegas, no experience better demonstrates that tech-reality hybrid  than Cirque du Soleil’s ‘KÀ’.

Go watch this video clip from the show. It’s incredible: two giant movable stages move above a gaping void; the main stage (“the sandcliff deck”) rotating from level to vertical and back again while a cast of characters jump and dance and spin and fly on, below and above it. The Los Angeles Times said the show “may well be the most lavish production in the history of Western theater. It is surely the most technologically advanced.” Jim Hutchison has some amazing photos of the sandcliff deck, and the rest of the set, here.

But nothing on YouTube can possibly do justice to how it feels sitting in the audience during a performance. Each seat has two speakers built into the back to provide the deeply eerie effect of being surrounded by voices and noise throughout the performance. The entire auditorium is ringed by towering metal gantries, columns and walkways on which, before and during the show, characters stand, shrieking, yelling and playing drums. None of that, though, distracts from the sheer balls-out awesomeness of seeing the giant mechanical stages doing their thing.

For a start they move silently – it really is as if they are floating in space. And the physical changes they undergo through the show – flat and covered in sand one moment; a vertical cliff face the next (hence “sandcliff deck”) – is more magical than anything David Copperfield ever managed to pull off. At one point in the show – just because it can – the entire stage turns into a kind of gigantic Microsoft Surface, on which – still vertical – the cast perform a fierce battle scene with horizontal and vertical running, jumping and flying. Each time a character lands, the stage explodes with light and colour. Oh, and then there’s an “arrow” scene, where archers standing on a gantry fire arrows into the vertical stage; arrows which then act as climbing pegs for characters to scale the wall, before jumping 70 feet into the void.

Two years ago, I described seeing ELEW playing piano live on stage in San Francisco, and how it underscored for me the thrill of live experiences — and how those experiences will never, ever be replaced by technology. KÀ gave me the same thrill, but with the added bonus of seeing the amazing potential for technology to augment live performance. The technology in KÀ delivers real-world experiences that would have made our theatre-going grandparents’ heads explode.

And then things got way, way more interesting.

I guess someone at Cirque du Soleil is a fan of TechCrunch because, a few days after I arrived in Vegas, an email arrived from KÀ’s publicist, Jeff Lovari, inviting me to take a “TD tour” of the show. Which is to say, a backstage tour, during an actual performance, lead by KÀ’s technical director,  Erik Walstad.

Hell fucking yes.

And so it was on Wednesday of this week, I found myself standing several stories below seating level, watching a succession of the world’s most talented acrobats jumping 70 feet from the top of a floating stage and landing on giant airbags not two feet in front of me. To explain everything I saw during Erik’s 90 minute tour  would probably take me a dozen posts. Instead I’m going to try to cram it all into two: starting here will a few of the raw facts, and then followed up next week (schedules permitting) with a video interview with Erik in which I’ll ask him to explain exactly how everything works.

Ok? Ok. Here we go…

KÀ took almost a decade from conception to completion. Prior to the show’s opening, the stage from the previous show (EFX) was torn out and then the entire inside of the MGM Grand’s theatre was demolished, leaving just the walls standing. Then diggers excavated a pit deep into the ground to make way for the show’s main “void”, and the years-long task of constructing KÀ’s enormous set could begin. The distance from the lowest depth of the void to the highest point of the “grid” from which acrobats jump, fly and bungee, is 98 feet.

The main sandcliff deck stage weighs 50 tons and can rotate 360 degrees and tilt from flat to 100 degrees. Watching the stage move from backstage, you’re struck by the amount of noise it makes: it’s virtually silent, a feat achieved by housing all of the hydraulic machinery on the roof of the building.

The lengths taken to ensure the safety of performers are so extreme that they’re almost comical. At the start of the show there’s a brief scene where a cast members walks from one end of the stage to the other. To the audience, it appears like the safest feat in the world – the front of the stage is maybe two feet from the ground. If, however, they could see behind the performer, they’d realize that the drop on the other side of the stage is closer to 20 feet. As a result, as the performer walks, a series of hidden airbags, like those used by stuntmen, inflate and deflate to provide a cushion should he fall. It’s kind of amazing to watch, a bit like Penn and Teller’s classic Sleight of Hand Explained routine.

Whenever performers are on any of the gigantic floating stages, an array of airbags – supported by two giant nets – sits up to 70 feet below them, ready to catch them when they land, either deliberately or (rarely) accidentally.  Traditional safety nets can’t be used on their own because the performers are falling so fast, they’d simply bounce right back out again.

Due to the large number of performers jumping and landing in quick succession, each airbag consists of a number of separate cells, each of which can inflate and deflate independently. When a performer lands, air is forced out of their target cell, which is then instantly re-inflated allowing the performer to stand up and walk away. At some points in the show, this happens several times a minute.

In case the power should fail during a show, each of the airback pumps has its own uninterruptible power supply, good for half an hour, ensuring a safe landing even if all else fails. “Half an hour is probably enough time for someone to land” says Erik dryly.

The arrow scene, where the sandcliff stage becomes a vertical climbing wall, is a variation of the old carvinal knife throwing trick. When each archer fires his dummy arrow, a matching “arrow” is propelled out of the walls’s surface, giving the illusion that it has hit its target. A little puff of “dust” completes the illusion. After that, though, things get more complicated as performers climb up and down the arrows while more arrows land and others disappear. To ensure the performers’ safety, each arrow (or “peg” as they’re called) contains a sensor which prevents it from shooting outwards if someone is standing or laying on top of it (“otherwise they’d be impaled, which would be bad”). Likewise, the pegs can only contract with less than 20lbs of pressure, so if a performer is still hanging off one, it stays put. And if all that wasn’t enough, the wall also contains a bank of “emergency pegs” which can be shot out to form an escape ladder/bridge if anything goes wrong.

Meanwhile, high about the stage, the technical team has come up with some other neat safety innovations. In the event that a wire or harness malfunctions, leaving a performer swinging above the audience, a fail-safe device automatically lowers them down over an aisle. “Otherwise we’d have to evacuate the whole auditorium to rescue one performer”.

Each second of the show is perfectly choreographed, with a stage manager calling every cue: every inflated and deflated airbag, every jumper, every movement of the stages. I wore an earpiece during the show and the level of calmness in her voice – as theatrical chaos reigned on stage – was impressive. Even more impressive was hearing cues being given to performers who were in the middle of stunts: many of them wear earpieces too, so they know when it’s safe to perform certain jumps or falls. If you’ve ever watched air traffic controllers at work at a busy airport, you’ll have some idea of the concentration and coordination it takes to call a Cirque show.

The KÀ Theatre seems like a world of its own, but it’s still connected in to the MGM fire detection system. Before every pyrotechnic stunt, the stage manager requests that MGM’s fire officer temporarily override the fire detection equipment in the theatre for the duration of the stunt; then it’s switched back on. This happens three or four times in every show. Because fire detection can only be overridden before a fire is detected, if someone actives a fire alarm anywhere in the shops or restaurants surrounding the theatre then all of KA’s pyrotechnic effects have to stop. Given that the closing of the show is a huge firework display, this can be something of a problem.

For all the years of technical planning that went in to building the KA theatre, the designers only thought to include one stage elevator. As a result, technical staff and performers alike have to share the same elevator during the show. At one point of the tour, Erik and I shared an elevator up to the aerial grid with a gigantic man dressed as a warrior. It was a little weird.

Ok, that’s all for part one. In part two, I’ll sit down with Erik and have him explain the finer technical details of how thew show works, how he became involved with it, and also – possibly – his love of traditional British narrowboats.

cnn

They rumble down city boulevards and country roads across Cuba: 1950s Fords, Buicks and Pontiacs, some in mint condition, others on the verge of collapse.

But a new law regulating property ownership in Cuba could change that.

At the recent four-day summit of the country's Communist Party,President Raul Castro announced that the legal framework allowing people to buy and sell cars and homes was in the "final stages."

What will this mean to the average Cuban?

He didn't provide details, but many Cubans hope it will be the end of half a century of restrictions. Under current law, they can only freely buy and sell cars that were on the road in Cuba before Fidel Castro's 1959 Revolution.

Russian Ladas and modern Peugeots and Kias now outnumber the 1950s classics, but, for the most part, they are owned by the state and cannot be sold on the free market.

Like many owners, Michel outfitted his '52 Plymouth with a diesel engine and turned it into a private taxi. But he might be open to selling it.

"When they open a car showroom, I'll get in and try them all and then I'll tell you what I would do," he says. "I've never driven a modern car."

But he still doesn't think the American classics are in danger.

"If these cars didn't exist, not as many foreigners would come to Cuba to drive around in them and take pictures."

The changes could be much more significant for Cuba's real estate market.

As it stands, Cubans officially own their homes, but they can't buy or sell them. They can only exchange them for homes of a similar value.

In reality, a house trade is generally a complicated process involving illegal agents on the black market and cash. In some cases, buyers will simply marry the seller, put the house under their name and then divorce.

A group of prospective buyers and sellers who gather in the center of Havana said the speculation is that the housing law will be published next month.

"There are people who have money and don't have a house, so the changes are good," said one man who declined to give his name.

Because of the restrictions, there are also instances where three or four generations live under the same roof.

It's not clear how the law will work, but perhaps with an eye on the real estate boom in Russia -- Castro was adamant that he won't allow the "concentration of property."

By Kitty Bean Yancey

Emerald Archer, pretty in a pink bikini top and carrying a foot-long plastic glass filled with a flamingo-colored cocktail, strolls the wide white sands of Playa Chac-Mool with three friends from Toledo.

The quartet has a message for those back home who are, in Archer's words, "burning up the phone" with messages of concern about their being in Mexico. The country has been making headlines with drug-war-related kidnappings and killings, and the U.S. State Department has had a travel warning for Mexico in place since fall, though it mainly involves border towns and violence-plagued cities such as Acapulco and Monterrey, which are on the other side of Mexico from Cancun. Cruise ships have been stopping calls at Mazatln. Recently, the Texas Department of Public Safety took the unusual step of counseling college students to avoid spring breaks south of the border.

"We haven't been beheaded," Archer, a 26-year-old dental assistant, says with a grin. "We've had no problems. People need to chill out."

Aside from the throng of spring breakers partying around her, Americans aren't doing that. Cancun says it welcomed 5.9 million international visitors last year, up more than 400,000 from 2009. But this year, some have canceled trips, say tour operators such as Funjet Vacations.

Cancun — trying to retain its position as the No. 1 vacation destination in the Caribbean — has stepped up security in the tourist zone. Funjet is flying in more than 200 top U.S. travel agents next week to reassure them of the area's safety.

Battling image problems

Despite optimistic projections by Mexican tourism officials, visitation by Americans "is flat at a time when it ought to be growing," says Funjet president Mike Going. "It's not to say problems don't exist. But the hype and nervousness" over resort areas such as Cancun and the Riviera Maya to the south "are essentially unfounded."

"The safest people here are the tourists," Erandeni Abundis of the Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau says over lunch at a restaurant overlooking the famously aquamarine sea. "We depend on tourism. We couldn't afford to lose it." To accommodate Americans, visitors now can dial 911 in Cancun for emergencies instead of the 066 that locals use, she says.

Abundis says "not one" Cancun tourist has been killed in drug-cartel-related violence. The state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun and the resort-populated Riviera Maya, accounts for more than 50% of Mexico's income from international tourism, says Jesus Almaguer, CEO of the Cancun visitors bureau.

Statistics on crime are hard to get. The Cancun visitors bureau could not immediately provide them. The State Department publishes a list of non-natural deaths of U.S. citizens in Mexico, required to be updated every six months. It gets stats from the Mexican government, and they are not always complete, says Maureen Webster of Woburn, Mass., whose son Nolan drowned in Cancun in 2007 and was not on the list until she stepped in. In the first six months of 2010, 18 Americans died in Cancun, Cozumel and on the Mayan Riviera, the list says. Most of them drowned. Two non-fatal shark attacks also have been reported in the last two months.

Care taken to keep Cancun especially calm this year is evident from the moment a visitor arrives at the airport. Outside the customs hall, an officer in camouflage cradles an assault rifle. A dozen "tourist advisers" in white shirts and khaki pants greet visitors and point the way past transport touts to approved airport transportation.

Inside a $12 Cancun Shuttle van, Penn State student Frank Csaszat, 20, and friends prepare to party at a resort that's costing each less than $100 a day, including all they can eat and all the booze they can drink. They were advised by parents to "make sure you stick together and stay where the tourists are," he says.

Where the tourists are is on a long, skinny barrier island outside the city of Cancun called the "Zona Hotelera" (Hotel Zone). Poverty abounds elsewhere, but here the manicured boulevard that runs through it is litter-free and lined with high-rise gated resorts. U.S. visitors feel as if they've never left home as they pass an Outback Steakhouse, Starbucks and Chili's and pay in dollars. Here, they can drink at age 18 ($30 for a night of open bar at many nightclubs) and carouse legally till dawn. No wonder Cancun is a draw for the spring-break crowd.

On a recent 80-degree day, a sign outside the Dady'O nightclub heralds an appearance by Jersey Shore's Ronnie. On one stretch of the 15 miles of beach, an emcee atop a stage sponsored by Corona beer directs four bikini-clad volunteers to kneel and suck brew from baby bottles gripped between the thighs of four young men while rap music blares.

The contest spurs yelps of encouragement from dozens of college students, some passing around a beer bong, drunk at 2 p.m. Several young people appear to be passed out on the sand.

Though many American colleges are on break, the beach is not jammed. Hotel occupancy is 71% this week, the Cancun Hotel Association reports. That's not impressive for a popular resort area in high season, when 80%-plus occupancy is usual.

Sorrow behind the smiles

Taxi drivers complain that business is worse than it used to be. Street vendors may wait an hour to make a $1 sale of Mexican crafts.

Cancun hotel rates paid by Hotels.com customers dropped 2% in 2010, from $169.82 to $167.14, the online booker says. Those rates include all-inclusive resorts; Cancun is packed with lodgings whose rates include accommodations, all meals and snacks, booze and most activities.

Despite the popularity of all-inclusives, which abound in Mexico, "traffic to Mexico is challenged," Funjet's Going says. But according to Funjet post-vacation surveys, "91% of people who go to Mexico express satisfaction and intend to go back."

Over quesadillas and margaritas at Cancun's popular Carlos 'n Charlie's — where waiters encourage tourist high jinks and form conga lines with visitors — American Laura Winfree, 24, who came to Mexico on vacation, met a Mexican, married him and writes the blog gringationcancun.wordpress.com, talks about tourism.

She shuddered when she saw headlines last year saying "bombing in a Cancun hotspot." It "was some divey little bar in a (non-touristy) neighborhood so bad that locals won't even park their cars there," she says. "Cancun is pretty safe for tourists. If you had a war going on in Los Angeles, you wouldn't say, 'Oh, don't go to New York.' "

Kelly McLaughlin, a Canadian in Cancun who writes the blog cancuncanuck.com, says the real violence is "thousands of kilometers away. … Crime happens, sure, just like in Miami or New York or Los Angeles. Bring your common sense, be aware of your surroundings and your belongings. Don't buy drugs, don't solicit prostitutes. Millions of tourists visit the Mexican Caribbean every year, and the worst thing that happens to (most of) them is a sunburn or a hangover."

Toledan Nicholas Weiss, 24, on the beach with Emerald Archer, checks in by e-mail after their trip. "We had a great time," he writes. "No problems with any gangs, drugs or scary Mexican cartels."

Samantha Kaleck, a freshman at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania who shared a shuttle with this reporter, reports on her visit: "We didn't run into any trouble. We took taxis to and from all the places we went to. We all stuck together and kept an eye out for each other. …

"We didn't put ourselves in a position to be in harm. My friends and I decided that Cancun is only as unsafe as you make it. I would definitely, 100%, go back."