Travel Blog
How the Miss Universe Pageant Explains the World
by Jim Benning | 07.14.08 | 5:03 PM ET
Let’s face it, the Miss Universe pageant isn’t just about beauty. It’s about flaunting power on the world stage. It’s a metaphor for geopolitics. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Miss USA, Crystle Stewart—a Texan—tripped on her jewel-encrusted dress at the pageant yesterday in Vietnam, not unlike her Miss USA predecessor did so famously in Mexico a year earlier. These have been rough times for Miss USA winners around the globe. We can only hope that next year we’ll see a real change in the way the next Miss USA conducts herself abroad.
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Yahoo! BuzzAre Airlines Filling Planes With Less Fuel to Save Money?
by Michael Yessis | 07.14.08 | 3:58 PM ET
A Chicago Sun-Times story explores the possibility. “Facing oil prices approaching $150 a barrel, airlines want to reduce the weight of their planes because more weight requires more fuel,” writes Mary Wisniewski. Among the consequences: Planes are allegedly being diverted to smaller airports instead of circling the airport during delays.
Related on World Hum:
* What’s up With the ‘Open Letter to All Airline Customers’?
* The Long Descent: US Airways to Cut Movies on Domestic Flights
Video: Europe’s Unlikely Hit, Heiligenkreuz Abbey’s Monks
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.14.08 | 1:54 PM ET
It’s not the first time Gregorian chants have rocked the modern music charts, but thanks to YouTube, the Cistercian monks from the Austrian woods are getting lots of attention on the European music charts and have landed a record deal with Universal Music. Oh, and dairy farmers play the monks’ chants to serenade their prize-winning cheese (the good vibes, it is believed, aid the maturation process). I plan to serenade my mizithra with “Music for Paradise.” Here’s a video:
Shrinking Planet Statistic of the Day: English Speakers
by Jim Benning | 07.14.08 | 12:48 PM ET
“Today, almost one-fourth of the planet’s population, 1.5 billion people, can speak some English. And the rate of English’s spread is increasing almost everywhere, from Europe to Asia to Latin America.” And yet, “the greatest growth on radio, television and the Internet is in local languages.” Source: Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World.
Related on World Hum:
* Shrinking Planet Statistic of the Day: Chinese Restaurants
Photo by Arkangel via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Talking Nigeria on NPR
by Jim Benning | 07.14.08 | 12:34 PM ET
World Hum contributing editor Frank Bures chatted about magical penis theft in Nigeria today on NPR. As we noted, he wrote a feature for Harper’s about the phenomenon.
Happy Bastille Day (or Not)
by Jim Benning | 07.14.08 | 11:16 AM ET
Which is to say, if you’re French, you may not be too excited about the whole thing. Writes Susan Nagel in the Los Angeles Times: “Although Americans often think that July 14 is as important in France as July 4 is in the United States, the reality is that the holiday is of less and less significance as the years pass. Today, many French citizens, whether their ancestors went to the guillotine or not, do not take part in the celebrations, and for a variety of reasons.” Among them: an aversion to the holiday’s militaristic bent, as well as to displays of patriotism. Fair enough. But Syrian President Bashar Assad has no qualms about partying in Paris.
Photo by Luigi Versaggi via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
A Visit to Pyongyang
by Eva Holland | 07.14.08 | 11:06 AM ET
An article in the Times of London—written anonymously—offers some darkly compelling details about the secretive North Korean capital. From the unsolicited life advice issued to the author at the border (“A single man may live like a king, but die like a dog”) to the constant surveillance from official “tour guides” (“That is a very journalistic question”), the story creates an eerie portrait of Kim Jong Il’s city. I can’t quite decide if it makes me curious to visit Pyongyang, or glad I’ve never been.
Related on World Hum:
* Top Five Forbidden Vacations for Americans
Blogging in Afghanistan: Getting Online, Off the Grid
by Eva Holland | 07.14.08 | 10:34 AM ET
I’d never really thought about the logistics of blogging in a quasi-war zone until I read this Slate piece about one of Afghanistan’s most high-profile bloggers, Nasim Fekrat. The article shows a Kabul that has been simultaneously thrown back in time by war and launched forward by technology: Fekrat blogs from a laptop powered by a car battery, while teenagers download the latest videos on their cell phones even when all the lights are off.
Photo by TKnoxB via Flickr (Creative Commons)
World Hum’s Most Read: July 4-11
by World Hum | 07.11.08 | 3:42 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts for the week:
1) Ask Rolf: As a Woman, Can I Really Travel Without Much Fear for my Safety?
2) British Couple Arrested for Having Sex on Beach in Dubai
3) World’s Worst Tourists?
4) One Man’s Odyssey into ‘Eat, Pray, Love’
5) Spam Conquers the World (Sort of) (pictured)
What We Loved This Week: ‘King Lear of the Taxi,’ Anthony Bourdain and ‘I Am Cuba’
by World Hum | 07.11.08 | 3:20 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Julia Ross No Reservations premiered its new season on Monday with an episode that made me want to hop the next flight to Laos—a gaping hole in my Asia travels. It’s obvious when Anthony Bourdain is enjoying himself, and it makes for great television. In Laos, his enthusiasm for the people, the food and the landscape was infectious.
The Joys of Vacationing in America: Disneyworld, BBQ and Rhinoplasty
by Elyse Franko | 07.11.08 | 1:46 PM ET
The weak dollar is quickly making the United States a popular destination for Europeans in search of tighter tummies, wrinkle-free foreheads and pert derrieres. Though Europeans have admired American plastic surgery for decades, many have viewed it as a sign of extravagance. But now they’re taking advantage of the dollar’s diminished value and heading across the Atlantic for face-lifts and tummy tucks, often adding a few days or weeks of sightseeing to round out their trips.
New Travel Book: ‘Queen of the Road’
by Elyse Franko | 07.11.08 | 1:10 PM ET
Author: Doreen Orion
Released: June 2008
Travel genre: Couples cross-country travel
Territory covered: North America
EcoFlight Gives ‘Big Picture’ View of Environmental Hot Spots
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.11.08 | 9:21 AM ET
What’s it like seeing a panoramic view of Colorado’s Roan Plateau? With all that wild beauty, you’d think it would be a beautiful thing. But from the cockpit of an EcoFlight plane, you see its dismal fate: Rich with fossil fuels, it’s been dissected by gas fields. Bruce Gordon started the Aspen, Colorado-based company in 2002 to give people aerial tours of U.S. public land threatened by such development and environmental malfeasance.
Europeans Wave Goodbye to the Illusion of 99-Cent Flights
by Elyse Franko | 07.11.08 | 9:11 AM ET
Ken Livingstone’s London: An Ex-Mayor’s Tour
by Eva Holland | 07.10.08 | 4:53 PM ET
Ken Livingstone, the colorful ex-mayor who handed over power in London this past May, shares his favorite London spots in the Guardian. The list is a good one; it’s varied and thoughtful, and shows his decades-long relationship with the city. We’ve talked a lot lately about the future of guidebooks and who, exactly, is most qualified to write them—if Livingstone’s list is anything to go by, could retired local politicians be the secret sauce the industry is looking for?
Related on World Hum:
* ‘Where on Earth is a Casual Public-Transport Drinker To Go?’
* TripAdvisor to Athens: Dirty Isn’t Sexy or Cool, Unless You’re London
Photo by 13bobby via Flickr (Creative Commons)
