Travel Blog
Freshman Year Abroad: It’s the New Junior Year Abroad
by Michael Yessis | 01.22.08 | 4:41 PM ET
More and more U.S. universities are offering programs to allow first-year students to study abroad. “[S]chools say these programs provide a more globally focused education,” the Wall Street Journal’s Anjali Athavaley writes.
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Yahoo! Buzz‘49 State Capitols’: A Tale of Travel and Suspicion
by Michael Yessis | 01.22.08 | 12:25 PM ET
I feel for Ramak Fazel. Not just because he ran out of money and couldn’t reach Juneau, Alaska, the 50th and final capitol in his quest, but because of the maddening difficulties he encountered as he trekked to the other 49 U.S. state capitol buildings for an art project that makes its debut tomorrow in New York City.
Want a Stress-Free Vacation? ‘Don’t go to the USA.’
by Eva Holland | 01.22.08 | 11:55 AM ET
Matt Rudd has a blunt message for potential U.S.-bound readers in the Times of London: Take your travel dollars elsewhere. There are plenty of places in the world that are just as interesting, he argues, and they come without a “preflight e-interrogation, epic queues at immigration, thin-lipped questioning from aggressive border guards, and an outside chance of a rubber-gloved rectal rummage.”
Thai Airways Flight Attendants Cry, Stop ‘The Air Hostess War’!*
by Michael Yessis | 01.22.08 | 9:21 AM ET
Viewers of “The Air Hostess War,” a sexy new soap opera that debuted on Thailand’s Channel 5 last week, have a different refrain: We like it!
Remembering MLK
by Jim Benning | 01.21.08 | 9:58 AM ET
As we’ve noted, sites honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement abound, including his childhood home in Atlanta and the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where King was assassinated. We’re taking the day off to mark the holiday. We’ll be back tomorrow.
World Hum’s Most Read: Jan. 12-18
by World Hum | 01.18.08 | 4:27 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts this week:
1) The Dogs of Pohnpei
2) The Trouble With ‘Smile When You’re Lying’
3) Sex, Drugs and Changing Times in Amsterdam
4) Will Self: On ‘Psychogeography’ and the Places That Choose You (pictured)
5) How To: Use a Squat Toilet
Photo of man walking in Melbourne, Australia by Mugley, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
What we Loved This Week: CouchSurfing, Sushi and ‘Till the Sun Turns Black’
by World Hum | 01.18.08 | 2:03 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related thing they read, saw, heard or experienced in the past seven days.
Michael Yessis
Helvetica is a documentary about a typeface, but, as we’ve noted, it’s the perfect travel typeface. American Airlines, Lufthansa and the New York City subway system are among those who use the typeface, and the film follows its migration from Switzerland throughout Europe and the United States. It’s beautifully shot, something I didn’t expect from a film about a ubiquitous font. Here’s a montage shot in Berlin:
Engines at Fault in Heathrow Crash
by Michael Yessis | 01.18.08 | 1:37 PM ET
A preliminary report about the British Airways flight that crashed at London’s Heathrow Airport this week said the craft’s engines “failed to respond to demands for thrust,” according to BBC news. All 136 passengers and 16 crew members survived the landing, putting a spotlight back on how passengers can enhance their chances of living through a crash. Tonight on 20/20, John Stossel will take a look at whether it’s safer to sit in the front or back of the plane. ABC News also has a Web report.
Related on World Hum:
2007: Safest Year for Air Travel Since 1963
Talking Presidential Candidates as Global Travelers With Peter Greenberg
by Michael Yessis | 01.18.08 | 12:57 PM ET
The World Hum 2008 U.S. Presidential Candidate Travel Scorecard hits syndicated and XM satellite radio airwaves this Saturday when writer Julia Ross talks about it with Peter Greenberg. The show runs live from 10 a.m. to noon, and will be archived afterwards at his Web site.
Found Document Reveals ‘Mona Lisa’ Identity
by Michael Yessis | 01.18.08 | 12:51 PM ET
She’s Lisa del Giocondo, wife of Florentine businessman Francesco del Giocondo, according to a document found at the University of Heidelberg in Germany by Armin Schlechter. So, some of the mystery is gone, but I’m sure it’ll continue to draw David-like crowds.
Related on World Hum:
* Checking Off the Mona Lisa
Italian Officials Consider Moving Michelangelo’s David
by Michael Yessis | 01.18.08 | 9:09 AM ET
It’s because of the tourists. The gobs and gobs of tourists. Tuscany’s cultural official Paolo Cocchi says Florence’s city center, particularly the Galleria dell’Accademia where David has resided for the past 135 years, has become overwhelmed by travelers wishing to see Michelangelo’s masterpiece. He has proposed moving what the Independent calls the “world’s most famous image of manhood” to a not-yet-built cultural center at the edge of Florence. That may relieve some congestion in the city center, but it’s not sitting well with Florence’s “art elite,” according to the Independent.
From Igloolik to Timbuktu
by Eva Holland | 01.17.08 | 1:20 PM ET
Photo by Jean and Nathalie via Flickr (Creative Commons)
I always look forward to Stephanie Nolen‘s latest dispatch from Africa in The Globe and Mail—and not just because she’s probably the biggest name ever to come out of the journalism school at my alma mater. She is a master at finding unexpected stories that go well beyond the usual “Troubled Africa” fare, and this week, a story from Mali is no exception.
On Ethical Travelers and Meatheads
by Jim Benning | 01.17.08 | 1:10 PM ET
Rolf Potts has a “slight rant.”
Nine Independent Bookstores Worth a Trip
by Jim Benning | 01.17.08 | 12:58 PM ET
The AP offers up a list with all the usual U.S. suspects: City Lights, Books & Books, Politics and Prose, etc.
Tom Petty’s Los Angeles, from a Travelodge to a Long Day in Reseda
by Jim Benning | 01.17.08 | 11:59 AM ET
Photo by SykoSam via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Living in Southern California, which features prominently in so many pop songs, it’s hard not to develop a soundtrack that reverberates through your head. For me, sweet and melancholy Tom Petty songs are a big part of that. I can’t drive along Mullholland, or on the 101 through the Valley, for example, without hearing “Free Fallin” (“I wanna glide down over Mulholland”) or those lines about the “long day living in Reseda,” with the “freeway running through the yard.” In fact, passing through Reseda, against my better judgment, I always find myself keeping my eye out for that sad house by the freeway.
