Travel Blog: News and Briefs
The Search for Steve Fossett: Why Are They Finding So Many ‘Uncharted Plane Wrecks’?
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.07 | 11:57 AM ET
It’s been more than a week since adventurer Steve Fossett and his single-engine Bellanca disappeared during a flight from a private airstrip in Western Nevada. Searchers have been looking for him and his plane in a rugged area “twice the size of New Jersey,” according to ABC News, and though they haven’t found either, they have identified at least six “uncharted wrecks” in the Sierra Nevada. Slate’s Explainer wanted to know how so many crashes could go uncharted, and discovered that the area contains many more crash sites that have never been found.
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Yahoo! BuzzFrom Ireland to Iyer: Inside Condé Nast Traveler’s 20th Anniversary Issue
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.07 | 9:18 AM ET
Guardian Picks Top 10 Hostels in the World
by Jim Benning | 09.11.07 | 11:30 AM ET
Making writer Benji Lanyado’s list of the top hostels around the globe: Art Hostel in Sofia, Bulgaria (“The Bulgarian avant garde is still in its infancy, and it’s mainly in this hostel”); the Gershwin in New York City (pictured)—yes, a hotel (“Just off 5th Avenue, the building is a 13-storey homage to Andy Warhol and all things pop art”); and Hostel Celica, Ljubjana, Slovenia (at the former prison, “People turn up for tours of the Celica even if they aren’t staying”).
Singapore, Brand That Nation!
by Jim Benning | 09.10.07 | 3:26 PM ET
Photo by Alex.ch via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
The latest focus of Brand That Nation!—our tip sheet for countries that may or may not be considering new branding campaigns and that just might want to improve their image in the U.S. travel market, where simple, easy-to-remember slogans are key: Singapore.
Location: Southern tip of the Malay peninsula in Southeast Asia
Capital: Singapore City
Noteworthy factoids: Durian fruit is not allowed on public transportation. Also, Singaporeans hold the world record for the most people exercising simultaneously while wearing green.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From Singapore to Singapore Slings
by Michael Yessis | 09.07.07 | 3:57 PM ET
Octoberfest is on the horizon, so it fits that beer and cocktails are at the top of travelers’ minds this week. That, and getting where they need to go on a budget. Here’s the Zeitgeist:
Most Popular Travel Story
Iloho (current)
Budget Travel Costs for 94 Cities around the World
* Montreal, Canada (pictured) ranks No. 60 in the survey.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph UK (current)
Singapore: The City in a Suit
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Extreme Cocktails Sizzle in Las Vegas
* Warning: Do not dip your fingers into the Warp Core Breach!
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (posted this week)
Got Airline Complaints? Join the (Very Large) Crowd.
Most Read Feature
World Hum (posted this week)
We Don’t (Really) Know Jack
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
How to Enjoy Oktoberfest Like a Local
* Read this before you try the weisswurst.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Hotels Combined
Southwest Airlines Veers Into Fashion Controversy—Again
by Jim Benning | 09.07.07 | 3:54 PM ET
The airline that once booted a passenger off a flight for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words Meet the Fockers—it had pictures of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice— is making travel fashion headlines once again. Southwest Airlines apparently didn’t care for the skirt and top that 23-year-old college student and Hooters waitress Kyla Ebbert wore aboard a flight two months ago from San Diego to Tucson. Reported the San Diego Union-Tribune this week, Ebbert “had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon in Tucson, where temperatures had topped 106 all week. She arrived at Lindbergh Field [in San Diego] wearing a white denim miniskirt, high-heel sandals, and a turquoise summer sweater over a tank top over a bra.” The U-T has a photo of said outfit.
Maps, Mumbles and Miss Teen South Carolina
by Michael Yessis | 09.07.07 | 12:46 PM ET
I don’t want to pile on Lauren Caitlin Upton, the Miss Teen USA pageant contestant from South Carolina who botched her answer to the question, “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?” As of this morning, the video of her awkward response has been viewed more than 13 million times at YouTube. Now, the Web site Maps for US has given her assertion that “some people out there in our nation don’t have maps” some additional infamy, parodying telethons and asking people to donate maps.
Where in the World Are You, Christy Quirk?
by World Hum | 09.06.07 | 11:11 AM ET
The subject of our latest nearly up-to-the-minute interview with a traveler somewhere in the world: Christy Quirk, a writer and consultant. Her response landed in our inbox this morning.
World Hum: Where in the world are you?
Will ‘On the Road’ Ever Be Made Into a Movie?
by Jim Benning | 09.05.07 | 4:39 PM ET
Exactly two years ago today, we noted that actor Billy Crudup had been cast to star in a movie version of “On the Road.” The producer would be Francis Ford Coppola, who has owned the movie rights for decades. It was to be directed by Walter Salles of “The Motorcycle Diaries” fame and production was to begin in 2006. So what happened? Where’s the film now? An Aug. 17 Cincinnati Enquirer piece claims production on a Salles-directed “On the Road” film is set to begin next year, and that the cast has not been announced. According to the paper, “Scouts for American Zoetrope, Coppola’s production company, have visited Cincinnati and photographed potential location sites for the movie.”
Got Airline Complaints? Join the (Very Large) Crowd.
by Michael Yessis | 09.05.07 | 3:04 PM ET
The U.S. Department of Transportation reported 1,455 complaints about U.S. airlines in July, the highest number it has received in seven years. From a USA Today story: “Airlines blame the high number of July complaints on bad weather, packed planes, airport congestion and an aging air-traffic control system.” Hmm, maybe U.S. airlines can try solving their problems this way.
Related on World Hum:
* Airline Columnist on Dirty Planes: ‘I’ve Got More Horror Stories Than Edgar Allan Poe’
Photo by Michael Yessis
Search Under Way for Adventurer Steve Fossett
by Jim Benning | 09.04.07 | 3:15 PM ET
Searchers are looking for a plane belonging to Steve Fossett, known widely as the first person to fly around the globe solo in a balloon. “Fossett took off in the single engine Bellanca at 8:45 a.m. Monday at a private airstrip in western Nevada and didn’t return as scheduled,” the AP reports. He reportedly didn’t file a flight plan.
‘On the Road’ Sites, Including a Mexico City Sanborns, Then and Now
by Jim Benning | 09.04.07 | 2:30 PM ET
Fifty years after the publication of “On the Road,” the Los Angeles Times’s Christopher Reynolds observes how a number of places depicted in the book have changed—or not—from Sausalito to New York City. Among the places he includes is Mexico City’s famed blue-tiled Sanborns (pictured).
Nepal Airlines Sacrifices Goats in Front of Troubled Plane
by Jim Benning | 09.04.07 | 1:35 PM ET
Two goats, to be exact. The airline did so in front of a troubled Boeing 757 in Kathmandu in order to appease the Hindu sky god Akash Bhairab, Reuters reports. Apparently the plane had been suffering from electrical problems.
Related on World Hum:
* FAA to Airlines: Speed Up the Boeing 737 Inspections
* Everest Base Camp: ‘The Himalayan Version of Burning Man’
Carbon Offsets: Serious Solution or Eco-Hype?
by Jim Benning | 09.04.07 | 12:53 PM ET
As we’ve noted before, more and more travelers are buying carbon offsets to counterbalance the effects of carbon emitted during their journeys. But just how much good does it do? On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times became the latest publication to take a critical look at carbon offsets, questioning their effectiveness. At the center of the paper’s report is the notion that the carbon offsets industry is “clouded by an approach to carbon accounting that makes it easy to claim reductions that didn’t occur.”
World Hum’s Most Read: August 2007
by World Hum | 09.01.07 | 3:01 AM ET
Our 10 most popular stories posted last month:
1) 10 Greatest Fictional Travelers
2) Environmentalists Protest Launch of Hawaii Superferry
3) Rick Steves: Reflections on Three Decades of World Travel
4) ‘European-Style’ Topless Swimming Pools in Las Vegas
5) Hurricane Dean Heading Toward Mexico’s Riviera Maya*
6) Three Travel Tips: Ways to Save Money in Europe
7) How I Scored a New U.S. Passport in One Day
8) Elliott: Five ‘Ridiculous’ Travel Rules That Should Be Abolished
9) Hurricane Dean Hits Mexican Coast Near Majahual
10) Ask Rolf: How Should I Document My Travels?
