Destination: United States
Sure Sign of Spring: Road Trips
by Jenna Schnuer | 04.03.09 | 2:15 PM ET
Ah, early spring. Flowers have started to poke their heads out of the ground. Birds seem that much cheerier and chirpier. And, of course, dreamers across America are plotting the perfect road trip in their minds and Moleskine notebooks. (Come on, admit it—we’re all Moleskine cliches.)
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Yahoo! BuzzLas Vegas Strip Tips
by Alexander Basek | 04.03.09 | 2:09 PM ET
Do check out HotelChatter and Jaunted‘s glitzy new spawn, VegasChatter. Where else would you find out about an all-male revue at Hooters?
Invasion of the Hungarian Pigs
by David Farley | 04.03.09 | 12:15 PM ET
There are several different types of pig species (or, if you will, sub pigs). The bearded pig is one I’d certainly hate meeting in a dark pig pen. The Indo-Chinese warty pig is another ominous-sounding swine. In all, there are over two billion pigs on the planet right now (and if they’d ever join forces with monkeys, we’d be in big trouble). Most of the pork we eat comes from the generic domestic pig (or sus scrofa domesticus) and, thanks to mass breeding, its offerings have taken on rather bland notes. Not that we’d know it unless we began eating another species of swine. And, in fact, some restaurants around the country are letting diners do just that.
Interview With James Wallace: Reflections From an Aerospace Reporter
by Rob Verger | 04.03.09 | 9:26 AM ET
Photo courtesy of James Wallace. Award-winning reporter James Wallace covered aerospace for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for more than 12 years. He worked for a total of 27 years at the paper, which recently stopped printing and transitioned to an online-only version with a comparatively tiny reporting staff. When that happened, Wallace’s job disappeared.
Wallace, who wrote a goodbye blog entry, is the author of two books, “Hard Drive” and “Overdrive,” both about Microsoft.
I caught up with him over the phone to hear about his years on the aviation beat.
World Hum: You covered aerospace for 12 years. How have you seen commercial air travel change during that time?
The Deep-Sea Discoveries of Papahanaumokuakea
by Pam Mandel | 04.02.09 | 2:32 PM ET
The submersible plunged into the deep waters of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in 2007, but it’s only recently that we’re learning about what was found there. Seven new species of bamboo coral have been identified in the protected area northwest of Hawaii’s main islands. Researchers also located a coral graveyard that might have died a million years ago. The NOAA site has some pictures of the coral, the submersible used for exploration at depths of over 5,000 feet and, whoa, cool, that’s a robot arm poking a sponge. And, uh, a milk crate? Whatever is best for science, I guess.
Manga Madness
by Julia Ross | 04.02.09 | 1:14 PM ET
For all you manga fans out there, here’s a round-up of breaking news from both coasts. A San Francisco-based publisher recently released seven translated volumes of the classic Oishinbo series, which follows the adventures of a young food journalist as he searches for the “ultimate menu.” (Tintin meets sashimi?) The New York-based Japan Society is running an exhibit called “Krazy! The Delirious World of Anime + Manga + Video Games” through June 14. And in Washington, D.C., the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is showing “The Tale of Shuten Doji,” an exhibit of scrolls and screens depicting the popular Japanese folk tale as action thriller—an Edo period art form considered a forerunner to manga.
See This Now: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House
by Jim Benning | 04.02.09 | 12:16 PM ET
Will T.C. Boyle’s new novel, The Women, and Nancy Horan’s novel, Loving Frank—both about Frank Lloyd Wright and the women in his life—boost interest in Wright’s architecture and visits to the houses he designed? Perhaps, but Wright’s buildings are hardly hurting for visitors.
Wright’s Fallingwater house, which Time magazine declared his “most beautiful job” shortly after it was completed in 1937, has seen millions of visitors over the years. Located 50 miles from Pittsburgh, it’s worthy of adoration, spanning a waterfall and still somehow blending nearly seamlessly into the landscape. By all accounts, it was the inspiration for Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. The New Yorker once called it “Wright’s extraordinary essay in horizontal space.”
Filmed Here: ‘Men in Black’
by Eva Holland | 04.02.09 | 12:15 PM ET
Photo by Eva Holland I celebrated the spring weather this week by heading out to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, aka “the Central Park of Queens,” for a wander in the sun. I didn’t know much about the park, beyond the name of the nearest subway station—so imagine my surprise when I walked through the gates and saw ... an extra-terrestrial spacecraft?
More precisely: what I saw was the observation tower of the now-abandoned New York State Pavilion (a relic from the World’s Fair), which served as a murderous alien’s would-be get-away vehicle in the climactic scene of the 1997 Will Smith flick, Men in Black. I’d seen the movie before, of course, but had never known where that final battle was set. Coming across the “space ship,” and the nearby Unisphere (which also plays a role in the battle), got me thinking about action movies and the major landmarks they use as props.
Help for Hungry Travelers Who Can’t Handle Gluten
by Jenna Schnuer | 04.02.09 | 11:15 AM ET
Having grown up with a sibling who has a major food allergy, I give a huge thumbs-up to anybody who helps ease the way for food intolerant folks on the road. Fellow travel writer (and friend) Hilary Davidson does just that on her Gluten-Free Guidebook. Her latest piece discusses Philly tourism’s online guide to gluten-free restaurants.
Know of other online guides for allergic eaters around the U.S.? We’d love to hear about them.
Five Best Mood-Matching Museums
by World Hum | 04.02.09 | 9:25 AM ET
(c) Sam Buxton, courtesy Kinetica What kind of art do you feel like today? Hayden Foreman-Smith knows where to go to match any mood.
Air Travel Now, in Numbers
by Rob Verger | 04.01.09 | 1:51 PM ET
- Percentage of fewer passengers who will fly domestically on U.S. airlines in 2009, according to an FAA prediction: 8.8. (The Middle Seat Terminal reacts to the prediction.)
- Average recent cost of a domestic round-trip ticket over Memorial Day weekend, according to Travelocity and USA Today: $295.
- Percentage decrease of the cost of that Memorial Day weekend ticket from last year: About 10.
- Amount the International Air Transport Association predicted the world’s airlines could lose in 2009: $4.7 billion.
- Amount the world’s airlines lost after September 11, 2001: $23 billion.
- Number of planes American Airlines announced it would make Wi-Fi available on: more than 300.
- Number of miles a JetBlue employee traveled while in the cargo hold of an Embraer 190 after reportedly falling “asleep in a cargo bin” and accidentally traveling from New York to Boston: 200. (Reuters reports that he was “unharmed and not charged with any crime.”)
Washington, D.C.
by World Hum | 04.01.09 | 12:28 PM ET
REUTERS/Larry Downing A tourist walks under cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington.
Tangled Up In Blue
by Rob Verger | 03.31.09 | 12:19 PM ET
Two weekends ago, when I flew from New York City to Portland, Maine, on JetBlue, my plane, interestingly, had a name: “Blue Complete Me.” On the return trip, the plane, an Embraer E190, was named “Luiz F. Kahl.”
All JetBlue aircraft have names, and all but two of them have the word “blue” in it (although sometimes “blue” is written in another language). Some of them are pretty funny. The plane with tail number N599JB is called, “If The Blue Fits,” number N542JB is “Deja Blue” and N612JB is “Blue Look Maahvelous.” There’s even a humorous thread on FlyerTalk.com in which people play the JetBlue “name game,” listing the names of the JetBlue planes they have flown. Weird, right? (Among U.S. airlines, Virgin America also names its planes. One is called, “My Other Ride’s a Spaceship.”)
It’s definitely all part of JetBlue’s quirky branding strategy, but still, I find these names amusing. Names like “Hasta bluego” and “Parlez-blue?” make me smile and roll my eyes.
Civil War Parks Need You
by Sophia Dembling | 03.31.09 | 10:47 AM ET
Continuing on a theme, this Saturday, April 4, is the 13th annual Park Day, an event sponsored by the Civil War Preservation Trust and the History Channel that invites volunteers to help clean and tidy Civil War sites from Florida to Illinois and numerous points between.
Last year’s Park Day attracted a couple of thousand volunteers. Talk history with like-minded folks while you help preserve it. Check the CWPT website for locations, times, activities.
Alaska Airlines Copes With Mount Redoubt and Tweets, Too
by Rob Verger | 03.31.09 | 9:16 AM ET
Alaska Airlines announced Monday afternoon that flights to and from Anchorage were operating “on a limited schedule” due to the eruption of Mount Redoubt, and that the status is being re-evaluated every hour. Clearly, it’s a fluid situation. For information, visit the the carrier’s website or follow its snappy updates on Twitter.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory is also Tweeting about the mountain’s status, as previously mentioned.