Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 26, 1999

Ahoy, Little Mermaid

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (NYT) -- Walt Disney knows a good thing when it sells it. So it should be no surprise that its second cruise ship will be much the same as its first -- except for the launching delays.

The Disney Wonder, scheduled to begin sailing Aug. 15, will look just like the Disney Magic from the pier. And once a passenger boards, the differences will be mainly decorative. Where the Magic is Art Deco, the Wonder will be Art Nouveau. Where a statue of Mickey Mouse dominates the lobby of the Magic, in the Wonder's lobby, designed by Adam Tihany, it will be Ariel, the Little Mermaid. In the Magic's top restaurant, Lumiere's, the mural is a scene from Beauty and the Beast, while on the Wonder, the mural in Triton's will be from The Little Mermaid.

The sister ships, both built by Fincantieri Shipyards in Italy, are 83,000 tons, with 12 decks and 875 cabins for up to 2,400 passengers. Both have three pools and three dining rooms, and use a dining plan that places passengers in a different restaurant each night. Both sail from Port Canaveral, Fla., on three- or four-day cruises to Nassau and Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas. Sailings can be combined with three or four days at Disney World.

Changing aviation

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Jetblue plans to offer its passengers live satellite television programming, a feature that analysts say could revolutionize in-flight entertainment throughout the aviation industry.

The new discount airline, which is scheduled to begin flying out of New York's Kennedy International Airport early next year to as-yet unspecified destinations, will use special antennas on each of its Airbus A320 aircraft that was developed by Live TV, a joint venture between the Harris and Sextant In-flight Systems. The antennas will receive programming from three satellites that broadcast the satellite television service offered in the continental United States by DirecTV, a unit of Hughes Electronics, which is itself owned by General Motors.

Five-inch, high-resolution television screens will be installed on the back of each Jetblue A320 seat, while armrests will be equipped with plugs for headsets as well as volume and channel controls. No decisions have been made yet about what channels Jetblue will offer; by Federal law, DirecTV can only broadcast cable, not network, television programming in flight. Jetblue will charge $3 to $5 for its TV service, depending on the length of the flight; payment will be by credit card swipe.

Jetblue will be among the first carriers to feature live satellite television programming. Delta Air Lines used DirecTV on one flight in October 1996 to broadcast the fourth game of the World Series between the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees. John Kennedy, a Delta spokesman, said the airline had no plans to reintroduce this service. DirecTV also has been selling its service to private jet owners since last year.

Fake lab rats

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Lab rats, take a load off. A new high-tech, hand-crafted rubber rat eventually could save the lives of hundreds of thousands of rodents used in laboratory experiments each year, say animal rights activists and the Dutch pharmaceutical company that developed the lifelike latex substitute.

About 3,000 rats are killed annually for educational or research purposes in the Netherlands alone, where rats and mice are used in more than 500,000 tests a year, according to the Dutch anti-animal research group Animal Testing Free. "In the Netherlands, the alternative will save a couple hundred rats per year, but it's about more than just the animals which will be saved. It is proof that there are realistic alternatives," said spokeswoman Marja Zuidgeest.

PVC-Rat, as the new product is called, made its debut in March after years of research and development. The rat is specifically designed for micro-surgical laboratory experiments in universities, hospitals and clinics. Although one other company makes an artificial rat used for practicing intravenous and oral drug administration, the PVC-Rat is the first alternative upon which surgical operations can be conducted, said Chairman Rene Remie of Microsurgical Developments, the creation's designer.

"It looks like a real rat, but it's lying on its back with its stomach open and you can see veins and the liver and other organs," said Puck Bossert of Belgium-based Solvay Pharmaceuticals, the product's manufacturer.

The week that was

HOLLYWOOD (AP) -- Here are some entertainment highlights during the week of July 25-31:

55 years ago: Darryl Zanuck announced that all future 20th Century Fox musicals would be made in Technicolor.

50 years ago: Mighty Joe Young starred Terry Moore, Ben Johnson and Robert Armstrong.

45 years ago: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb and Rod Steiger starred in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront. The film won eight Oscars including best picture, best director and best actor (Brando).

30 years ago: Neil Young made his first concert appearance with Crosby, Stills and Nash. The band played at the Fillmore East in New York.