Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Headed to Angkor Wat? Beware the Dengue.
by Jim Benning | 08.21.08 | 11:15 AM ET
World Travel Watch notes that, although dengue fever cases in Cambodia are down from last year, “the risk is still high in major tourist areas, especially Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat.” Dengue, of course, is spread by mosquitos that are no doubt loving monsoon season in Southeast Asia. How I hate monsoon season. As we’ve noted, dengue is expected to rise around the world as temperatures increase, and dengue should be taken seriously: The less common hemorrhagic dengue can be fatal.
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Yahoo! BuzzGo Directly To Jail: Headline Writers Go Wild For Monopoly ‘World Edition’
by Eva Holland | 08.21.08 | 10:34 AM ET
Now that the winning cities have been announced for the new “World Edition” of Monopoly, the real fun can begin—and by “fun,” I mean groan-inducing Monopoly-themed puns capping news stories around the world.
Travel Headline (and Video) of the Day: ‘Monkey Stuns Japanese Commuters’
by Jim Benning | 08.20.08 | 1:47 PM ET
The stray monkey showed up at a Tokyo train station. What a scene.
Listening to Writers’ Voices, from Jack Kerouac to Graham Greene
by Jim Benning | 08.20.08 | 11:46 AM ET
Years ago I picked up a CD of Jack Kerouac reading passages from On the Road. Sometimes, during late-night drives on I-5 between Los Angeles and San Francisco, I’d pop it in for an hour or so. As the miles breezed by, my eyes focused on the highway, I’d find myself enjoying not only Kerouac’s musical prose, which I expected, but also the timbre of his voice and the way he emphasized certain words or phrases (“drinking wine-spodiodi and spitting at the stars ...”), pausing for unexpected beats. It was a very different experience from reading Kerouac, and I liked it. I wish I could find more recordings from other writers, but they’re hard to come by.
Nearly 150 Dead in Madrid Plane Crash*
by Jim Benning | 08.20.08 | 11:24 AM ET
Nearly 150 people on a Spanair flight bound for the Canary Islands were killed when the MD-82 plane overshot the runway and crashed during takeoff at Madrid’s Barajas International Airport. Reports the New York Times: “A passenger on a flight that landed just after the accident told the BBC that the Spanair plane lifted off briefly but landed hard on its left wing, and then the left part of the aircraft collapsed.”
* Updated/edited 4:24 PT
American Adding Internet Service to More Cross-Country Flights
by Jim Benning | 08.20.08 | 10:30 AM ET
Fifteen additional planes will offer wireless Internet service for laptops and PDAs beginning today for $12.95. Reports USA Today: “If the service is deemed successful after three to six months, American Airlines plans to roll out the service to the rest of its domestic fleet.” Yes, slowly but surely, airline by airline, plane by plane, we’re moving closer to a day when the sky is one big, happy internet cafe.
Jeffrey Tayler on the Russia-Georgia Conflict
by Jim Benning | 08.19.08 | 1:21 PM ET
World Hum contributor Jeffrey Tayler offers a thoughtful explainer in The Atlantic: “The lessons that emerge from the Russia-Georgia war are clear: Russia is back, the West fears Russia as much as it needs it, and those who act on other assumptions are in for a rude, perhaps violent, awakening.” While we’re on the subject, it’s worth noting that Paul Theroux makes a stop in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in his new book. There in winter, he described the city as looking “as if doomsday had come—snowbound, fozen, corpse-like, frostbitten.”
Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with Jeffrey Tayler: Facing Africa’s ‘Angry Wind’
* The Songstress of Kunming
Photo of Tbilisi street by masterplaan via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Test Your Knowledge of Accents Around the Globe
by Jim Benning | 08.19.08 | 11:22 AM ET
Can you distinguish between an Australian accent and a Kiwi accent? Or a German and Belgian accent? If so, take a crack at this online quiz, which features video of people around the world reading a portion of the Rudyard Kipling poem “If,” followed by multiple choice questions asking you to locate the speaker. It’s fun—and surprisingly hard. Time after time, I thought I knew the answer and, well ... not so much. (Via Very Short List)
Site to Watch: Constant Setting
by Michael Yessis | 08.18.08 | 6:47 PM ET
Right now, somewhere in the world, the sun is setting. And right now, on display at Constant Setting, is an image of a sunset in a place where, at this minute, the sun is setting. The makers of the site do it by pulling Creative Commons photos from Flickr, like the one included in this post. Simple idea, beautiful execution.
And Who Writes the World’s Worst Descriptive Sentences?
by Michael Yessis | 08.18.08 | 4:53 PM ET
From great descriptive writing to writing that’s so bad it’s great. The winners of the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest, which asks writers to compose “bad opening sentences to imaginary novels,” were announced last week. I love this year’s top entry for its evocation of New York City.
Who Are America’s ‘Best Describers’?
by Michael Yessis | 08.18.08 | 2:23 PM ET
Jon Marshall asks, “Which newspaper writers are the best at describing people and places?” He nominates three terrific writers—Jeffrey Fleishman of the Los Angeles Times, Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times, and Dan Barry of the New York Times—but not one of them writes for the travel pages. Too bad. Newspaper travel sections are enduring tough times, but there are still some terrific describers toiling around the country. They deserve some shout outs.
French Food Violations: France’s Entire Image ‘At Stake’
by Valerie Conners | 08.18.08 | 11:13 AM ET
Before biting into your escargot in that bistro along the Seine, beware: a report from France’s agriculture ministry reveals that more than a quarter of France’s eateries violate food safety standards. It’s no small embarrassment for a country that has hoped to have its food named a UNESCO world treasure. “The image of France is at stake,” France’s agriculture minister, Michel Barnier, told the Telegraph.
World Hum’s Most Read: Aug 9-15
by World Hum | 08.15.08 | 4:47 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts for the week:
1) ‘The Monster of Florence’: Murder and the Pursuit of Truth
2) Travel Books We Loved in 2007
3) Paul McCartney Does Route 66 (pictured)
4) Seven Reasons to Have a Foreign Fling
5) Hawaii: Too ‘Foreign’ and ‘Exotic’ for a Presidential Vacation?
Photo of Phillips Route 66 sign by Bear69designs, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Disneyland Paris Meets Rome?
by Valerie Conners | 08.15.08 | 4:13 PM ET
If getting getting scammed out of five euros for a photo with a faux gladiator outside Rome’s Coliseum is your cup of tea, hold onto your chariots: Roman officials have announced plans to build an ancient Rome-themed family amusement park. “You would relive scenes from the Colosseum, from ancient Rome, gladiators or maybe Julius Caesar or other things,” a city official told Reuters.
Has the British Pub Jumped the Shark?
by Julia Ross | 08.15.08 | 12:51 PM ET
Sadly, yes, according to this rather depressing essay in the Telegraph. Britain’s smoking ban and drinks promotions run amok “have transformed the average British pub from a haven of smoked glass, polished brass and mahogany into blaring dumps filled from one end to the other with quiz machines, karaoke stages, and drunken teenagers,” laments Andrew O’Hagan.
