Travel Blog: News and Briefs
World Hum’s Most Read: Oct. 11-17
by World Hum | 10.17.08 | 8:05 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts for the week:
1) Can ‘The Moses Project’ Stop the Tides in Venice?
2) Berlin’s DDR Museum: ‘There Must Be a Microphone Around Here Someplace’
3) Paris: ‘A Delicate Pale Blue’ No Longer? (pictured)
4) Tokyo: ‘The Premier City in the World for Food’
5) ‘EIMI: A Journey Through Soviet Russia’
Photo by kla4067 via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzDiane Keaton on the Lessons of the Ambassador Hotel
by Michael Yessis | 10.17.08 | 9:40 AM ET
A thoughtful op-ed this week from the actress, who is also a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Reading World Hum in New York City
by Jim Benning | 10.16.08 | 11:11 AM ET
Thanks to everyone who came out last night and packed the room at Lolita bar for our World Hum / Restless Legs reading. It was a lot of fun. We read. We talked travel. We gave away some great travel books. And afterward, many of us enjoyed “pork chop with orange flavor” and lychee martinis at a fine Chinese joint nearby. It will be, we vow, the first of many World Hum gatherings.
Traveler With Solar Panels on Pack: The ‘Love Child of Wonder Woman and the Six Million Dollar Man’
by Michael Yessis | 10.16.08 | 9:43 AM ET
Ainslie MacGibbon reveals how empowering it can be to travel with your own green power source, albeit a limited one. “[T]hese days I don’t go anywhere the sun don’t shine,” writes MacGibbon. “I end up in some interesting places.”
Related on World Hum:
* Solar-Powered Rickshaws Unveiled in India
* ‘Airports are Embracing the Green Zeitgeist’
Solar-Powered Rickshaws Unveiled in India
by Valerie Conners | 10.16.08 | 9:39 AM ET
Currently being road-tested in one of Old Delhi’s busiest markets, “soleckshaws”—as the new solar-powered rickshaws have been dubbed—are considered a boon for rickshaw drivers as much as for the environment. “Earlier, when people hailed us it was like, ‘Hey you rickshaw puller!’ Police used to harass us,” said one rickshaw driver. “Now people look at me with respect.”
Would-Be ‘Hijacker’ Subdued on Turkish Flight
by Valerie Conners | 10.15.08 | 11:57 AM ET
A drunk passenger aboard a Turkish Airlines plane bound for Russia was subdued by passengers after passing a note to the pilot claiming he had a bomb. No weapons or bomb were found on the man, Reuters reports, and the plane landed safely in St. Petersburg where the passenger was taken into custody.
Air New Zealand Introduces Cutting-Edge Messaging Plan
by Eva Holland | 10.15.08 | 10:38 AM ET
Air New Zealand has unveiled an unusual plan to let airport visitors know about its new, faster check-in system: “Cranial billboards.” They’ll be hiring 50 people to shave their heads, have messages about the new check-in procedures temporarily tattooed on their bare scalps and then loiter around the airport in view of passersby.
U.S. Government Twitters for Travelers
by Julia Ross | 10.15.08 | 10:05 AM ET
We were pretty impressed after learning that the State Department had embraced using Twitter and its pithy 140-character messages to issue travel warnings. Now it appears the trend is spreading among U.S. government agencies. The Silicon Alley Insider gives seven U.S. government agencies props for employing Twitter as a way to disseminate information quickly.
The Ins and Outs of House Swapping
by Jim Benning | 10.14.08 | 5:36 PM ET
Budget Travel has some good tips, along with some reflection on the benefits and pitfalls of house swaps. “A born-and-bred control freak, I’ve always chosen my hotels after scouring magazine articles and grilling my friends for recommendations,” Joanna Goddard writes. “When you book a room that way, you know what you’ll get—and you pay for that reliability. House swaps, however, force you to take a leap of faith.”
Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Tourist Reaches Space Station’
by Jim Benning | 10.14.08 | 5:04 PM ET
Don’t worry, Richard Garriott, in our book, you’re no space tourist. You’re a space traveler.
Gordon Ramsay, Hotelier
by Eva Holland | 10.14.08 | 11:43 AM ET
The notoriously foul-mouthed celebrity chef unveiled his first hotel last week in London. We can only hope that expletive-laden reality spin-off shows will follow soon.
The ‘Terminal Illness’ of Airports
by Michael Yessis | 10.14.08 | 10:34 AM ET
Here’s Scott McCartney’s sobering rundown of how the “loss of passengers is creating a vicious economic spiral that is gripping airports across the country.” The accompanying video—shot in a near-empty terminal at California’s Ontario International Airport—punctuates the story.
Related on World Hum:
* Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Fear Grips Global Stock Markets’
The Virtual Forbidden City: Eunuchs, Courtesans and More
by Valerie Conners | 10.13.08 | 3:42 PM ET
Armchair travelers, gamers and the merely curious can now explore China’s famed Forbidden City via a virtual 3-D recreation of the Chinese landmark. Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time is an interactive animated experience developed by IBM that allows users to adopt avatars and explore the city, interacting with other users while participating in activities like training fighting crickets, dressing up like a eunuch or practicing archery with a courtesan.
Related on World Hum:
* In Beijing: A Rainbow of Nations
Photo by jimg944 via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Nuclear Bunker Converted Into ‘World’s First Zero-Star Hotel’
by Valerie Conners | 10.13.08 | 2:09 PM ET
Photo by Fortyseven via Flickr (Creative Commons).
I’m not really sure staying in either a nuclear bunker or a zero-star hotel sounds like a super tempting vacation plan, but folks in Sevelen, Switzerland have embraced the concept, turning an underground bunker into a hotel complete with “artistic decoration and real hotel duvets.”
Amtrak Sets Another Ridership Record
by Michael Yessis | 10.13.08 | 1:41 PM ET
That’s six consecutive years of ridership gains. Americans are embracing rail travel. Now let’s get those high-speed lines up and running.
