Where are The World’s Dirtiest Cities? Forbes recently came up with a list. The 25 cities deemed the world’s dirtiest won their places on the list with disease-infested water supplies, life-threatening air pollution, plentiful raw sewage and rank public sanitation problems. Drum roll, puh-lease. The cities are:

1. Baku, Azerbaijan (pictured)

2. Dhaka, Bangladesh

3. Antananarivo, Madagascar

4. Port au Prince, Haiti

5. Mexico City, Mexico

6. Addis Abada, Ethiopia

7. Mumbai, India

8. Baghdad, Iraq

9. Almaty, Kazakhstan

10. Brazzaville, Congo

11. Ndjamena, Chad

12. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

13. Bangui, Central African Republic

14. Moscow, Russia

15. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

16. Bamako, Mali

17. Pointe Noire, Congo

18. Lome, Togo

19. Conakry, Guinea Republic

20. Nouakchott, Mauritania

21. Niamey, Niger

22. Luanda, Angola

23. Maputo, Mozambique

24. New Delhi, India

25. Port Harcourt, Nigeria

With all the canceled flights hitting travelers this week due to increased security inspections, I thought it would be a good time to highlight some past posts I’ve written about handling unexpected flight cancellations:

Call Airline, Then Stand in Line

Passenger Strategies for Canceled Flights

At the end of the day, there is no magic solution when a flight suddenly gets canceled. Whenever I’m stuck in that situation, I have a three-pronged attack:

1. First, I call the airline immediately with my re-booking request

2. While still on the phone, I hustle to the customer service/re-booking desk

3. Lastly, I embrace distraction. They won’t get you on the next flight, but a traveler should never underestimate the soothing power of some trashy magazines, a laptop, airport nachos and - let’s get real here - draaanks in the terminal’s watering hole.

Just so we’re all clear about this Open Skies business, you know - the agreement that goes into effect this coming Sunday, U.S. travelers may soon have more choices for traveling to and from Europe, but they shouldn’t count on those choices being any cheaper over the long run. Two stories to read, compare, ponder:

Getting to Europe Is About to Get Easier

Open Skies Won’t Mean Lower Fares

And all this leads us to an important question: how much will travelers value choice when prices are roughly the same?

My hope is that the increased competition that comes with the Open Skies agreement encourages better conditions for travelers - even those better conditions have nothing to do with cheaper airfares. Like better schedules, shorter travel times or the availability of more in-flight services…

Here’s an unusual travel-related summer internship: The Four Points by Sheraton Best Brews Summer Intern. Yup, the intern selected will have beer tasting as one of his or her duties for the hotel brand. Says the press release:

This isn’t your frat brother’s job though, the internship will come with the frothy perks of tasting and toasting, but will also include learning the inner workings of the Four Points by Sheraton Best Brews program and the ever expanding craft beer industry and beer business. Like all executive internships, this position will start pouring in June and tap out in August.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what craft beer has to do with Four Points by Sheraton. While I work on that, anyone who wants to apply should get cracking. The deadline for applications in April 26.

Howdy. If you’ve noticed fewer posts here in the last few days, your eyes fail you not. But lest you think I’ve been off on some un-bloggable vacation, I’m here to set the record straight. The content has not waned, it’s merely moved. Paddled, in fact, on over to the new and improved Kayak Insider, the daily travel dispatch from TravelPost.com’s parent company. There will still be posts here on a regular basis, but most of the travel news, deals and advice from around the world wide web will now live happily over there.

Reasons to read the Kayak Insider:

- Comments! While this blog doesn’t accept comments, the Kayak Insider does. Write to us. We like that.

- More bloggers. Instead of just one lone blogger, the Kayak Insider has three. David, Tyler and Lorraine (that’s me).

- Weekly deals. Check in each Thursday for a list of rad weekly deals. Then get right out of this town.

- Interviews. They’re coming. You will like them.

In the coming months, we expect the Kayak Insider to grow by leaps and bounds. We hope you’ll mosey on by and check us out.

Looking for a place to rest your head in North Seattle? We think it might be a good idea to avoid one block in particular. That would be the 12000 block of North Seattle’s N. Aurora Ave., where not one, but two motels have been shut down by the Washington State Health Department in the last week.

Inspectors reportedly first found mold and unsanitary conditions at the Orion Motel and shut it down last week. Next on the chopping block? The Seattle Motor Inn, where health inspectors apparently discovered vanities concealing buckets of “dark brown, fetid water,” mattresses with exposed wires, contaminated water in the pool and inoperable smoke detectors. Eww!

Aloha Airlines declared bankruptcy for the second time in three years this week. The beleaguered carrier blamed competition from low-cost airline go!, which came onto the Hawaii scene in 2006. But the airline’s first bankruptcy occurred before go! became a serious threat, so it’s hard to peg the competition as the problem. It does seem quite clear, though, that there’s just not enough room in Hawaii for three airlines.

Aloha Airlines Files for Second Bankruptcy in Three Years

Instead of leaving Southwest Airlines to roast on the spit of public opinion all alone (you’ll remember that the airline grounded 38 planes last week after the FAA slapped it with penalties for flying unsafe aircraft), the FAA has announced that it has ordered a safety check of maintenance records at every U.S. airline. The preliminary checks are expected to take place over the next week, with completion on March 28. Full safety checks are planned to take place between now and the end of June.

In the vast majority of cases, a hotel closed for a $400 million multi-year renovation project isn’t likely to drop everything to entertain your request for a reservation two years hence. Unless, of course, you’re Steven Spielberg.

Vancouver’s historic landmark Hotel Georgia (which, in its day, housed everyone from heads of state to Sinatra to Elvis) was understandably bowled over to receive a call from Mr. Spielberg, requesting accommodations at the hotel for the 2010 Olympics. The hotel happily obliged and has since been referring to Spielberg as its Guest No. 1 (a far better title than Client No. 9). The hotel is scheduled to open in 2009.

Renovations to the hotel will morph the original hotel’s 313 guest rooms into 168 suites and private residences. Chef David Hawksworth will open a dining room at the property, which will also include a weight-training and fitness facility and an outdoor pool flanked by fireplaces.

Spielberg Booking a Good First Step in Heritage Hotel’s Return to Glamour

The Clear program, which launched yesterday at both Washington’s Reagan National and Dulles International airports, is already reporting record-breaking usage of its new lanes at gateways to the nation’s capitol. Interestingly, I noticed yesterday morning at peak travel time on the West Coast - around 6:30 a.m. - that no one was using the Clear registered traveler lane in the terminal I happened to be entering at San Francisco International Airport. Given all the hype around the program, I was surprised to see that not one person used the lanes during the time I progressed through the security process. Just an observation.