Island Hopping and Globe Trotting

New Yellowstone cell tower OK’d

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. » The National Park Service has decided that Verizon Wireless can build a 100-foot-tall cell tower near Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone National Park.

A permit clearing the way for construction of the new cell tower was recently approved by John Wessels, director of the Park Service Intermountain Region.

Cellphone service originating from inside Yellowstone is currently limited to the Mammoth, Old Faithful, Canyon, Tower-Roosevelt and Grant developed areas.

The new cell tower will cover the developed area on the north side of Yellowstone Lake.

The tower won’t be visible from the nearby Lake Hotel, Fishing Bridge and Lake Lodge Historic Districts or area hiking trails, the park service said.

Exhibit examines spacesuits

WASHINGTON » The familiar exteriors of astronauts’ spacesuits often hide all of the ingenuity and mechanics that are built inside and were first imagined as "wearable spacecraft."

Now a new art exhibit, "Suited for Space," opening Friday at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, highlights the creativity behind the suits that allowed humans to explore the moon and aspire to fly farther from Earth.

X-ray images and photographs show the suits in intricate detail. The show is traveling next to Tampa, Fla., Philadelphia and Seattle.

Fliers can print bag tags at home

Los Angeles » At Iberia Airlines you can now bag it and tag it yourself.

The Spanish airline says it is the only carrier to let passengers print out their own baggage tags at home. Seattle-based Alaska Airlines tested home-tagging for passengers flying from Seattle to Hawaii last year but has not continued the program. Alaska, along with several other carriers, lets passengers print out luggage tags from airport kiosks.

At Iberia, ticketed passengers print their luggage tags at home and download their boarding passes onto their smartphones. Once at the airport, Iberia fliers simply hand their luggage to a counter attendant and head for their screening gate, where they flash the boarding pass on their smartphone screen.

The technology can cut as much as 30 minutes off the time passengers spend waiting in line at airports.