Travel Blog
Slideshow: Glaciers, Seen From Space
by Eva Holland | 10.14.09 | 2:13 PM ET
Wired has put together an amazing selection of satellite photos. (Via Kottke)
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Yahoo! BuzzTravel Song of the Day: ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ by The Proclaimers
by Eva Holland | 10.14.09 | 1:07 PM ET
‘You Might be Working at a Bad ESL School…’
by Eva Holland | 10.14.09 | 11:56 AM ET
One expat TESL blogger rounds up some nightmarish-but-true teaching scenarios. My favorite? “... if one American teacher quits without notice and the school, as a precautionary measure, fires all the other American teachers on the spot.”
Airline Karma: Low-Fee Carriers Make More Money
by Eva Holland | 10.14.09 | 10:43 AM ET
Here’s a feel-good statistic from Boing Boing: “The US airlines that created the largest, most redonkulous and abusive fees this year lost the most money last quarter. Airlines with low or no fees lost the least.” It’s enough to make you raise a complimentary soft drink in celebration, isn’t it?
Photo You Must See: Sailing Off Trieste
by World Hum | 10.14.09 | 9:58 AM ET
REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini Sailboats at the annual Barcolana regatta in the Gulf of Trieste near northern Italy. The race is one of the largest in the world with more than 2,000 participants.
Sully Book Watch: ‘Highest Duty’ has Arrived
by Eva Holland | 10.13.09 | 5:07 PM ET
Highest Duty, the memoir from celebrity pilot hero and mustached American Chesley Sullenberger, hit bookstores across the nation today. Over at Gawker, Hamilton Nolan offers his preferred title, which we present in a slightly sanitized form: “How to Crash Land a Plane in a Mother*&$#ing River and 99 Other Life Skills Every Badass Should Know.”
Another new book—Miracle on the Hudson, also released today—tells the story of Flight 1549’s crash into the Hudson River from the passengers’ perspective. USA Today has an excerpt.
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Dashboard’ by Modest Mouse
by Michael Yessis | 10.13.09 | 3:56 PM ET
Looking for the USSR in Moscow
by Michael Yessis | 10.13.09 | 3:02 PM ET
World Hum contributor Jim Heintz says that one of the hardest things to find when visiting the Russian capital “is a sense of how bleak life was under the hammer and sickle.” He writes:
Unlike Rome or Athens, where the tourist is called upon to imagine the glory that once was, in Moscow you have to visualize what wasn’t there. Walk into a food store and imagine the shelves empty; picture the store without a clever name or attractive logo—its sign would have read only “meat” or “milk” or “products.”
These days it’s unlikely that one’s tour guide briefs the secret police at the end of the day. Your hotel may not be cute or comfy, but it’s probably not overtly scary like the Rossiya, a signature Soviet monstrosity that’s now a vacant lot. In a way, this may be kind of a disappointment: Going to the Evil Empire had more cachet than a trip to the Overpriced Capital.
Ken Burns: ‘An Unauthorized Green Room Documentary’
by Michael Yessis | 10.13.09 | 1:56 PM ET
The Colbert Report had a little fun with Ken Burns when he appeared on the show to promote his PBS series The National Parks. The swelling music. The sepia tones. The slow pans. It’s all there. Oh, and there’s potty humor.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |
| Exclusive - Backstage with Ken Burns | ||
Afghanistan: The View From 30,000 Feet
by Eva Holland | 10.13.09 | 12:37 PM ET
The New York Times’ At War blog has a compelling slideshow of black-and-white shots from the window seat of a flight to Kabul. Photographer Moises Saman writes in the accompanying post: “From the air, the impenetrability of this region becomes evident.” (Via @elihansen)
Photo You Must See: A Forbidden View in Beijing
by World Hum | 10.13.09 | 11:25 AM ET
REUTERS/David Gray Tourists look south over the Forbidden City from Beijing’s Jingshan Park.
A Beach Holiday in The Gambia?
by Eva Holland | 10.13.09 | 10:49 AM ET
I’ve always admired the Brits for their more adventurous winter sun-seeking. Every winter, it seems they’re as likely to be found lounging in Kenya or the Seychelles as in the usual Caribbean hot spots—and, once again, the U.K. travel media is going way beyond Cancun with this Times Online profile of a little-known (to North Americans, anyway) West African beach destination. Writer Alex Spence notes: “There are only six sets of traffic lights and a couple of ATMs in the entire country.” Take that, Puerto Plata.
Behind the Eiffel Tower’s Beauty Regimen
by Eva Holland | 10.13.09 | 10:15 AM ET
As the120th birthday celebrations for the Paris landmark continue, EuroCheapo’s Theadora Brack shares “some riveting facts” (har) about the tower’s maintenance regimen.
Photo You Must See: Vintage Wheels in Cuba
by World Hum | 10.12.09 | 5:20 PM ET
REUTERS/Desmond Boylan A classic car passes state-owned farm lands near the village of Quivican, outside Havana.
The Economist: Americanisms to Avoid
by Eva Holland | 10.12.09 | 4:29 PM ET
Here’s an entertaining tidbit from The Economist’s style guide, advising writers for the venerable British weekly on a few American-style variations of the English language that are best left unused. A sample:
Make a deep study or even a study in depth, but not an in-depth study. On-site inspections are allowed, but not in-flight entertainment. Throw stones, not rocks, unless they are of slate, which can also mean abuse (as a verb) but does not, in Britain, mean predict, schedule or nominate. Regular is not a synonym for ordinary or normal: Mussolini brought in the regular train, All-Bran the regular man; it is quite normal to be without either. Hikes are walks, not increases. Vegetables, not teenagers, should be fresh. Only the speechless are dumb, the well-dressed smart and the insane mad. Scenarios are best kept for the theatre, postures for the gym, parameters for the parabola.
And some people think there are no cultural differences to speak of between Americans and their trans-Atlantic neighbors—or should I say neighbours? (Via Gadling)
