Travel Blog
‘Up in the Air’: The Movie
by Eva Holland | 02.25.09 | 10:23 AM ET
World Hum’s been keeping an eye on Walter Kirn’s travel-centric novel, Up in the Air, since the site was brand new. The book, which follows frequent flier Ryan Bingham as he embarks on a mileage-running binge, brought us both one of our favorite terms—Airworld—and one of our favorite fictional travelers. So naturally, the news about an upcoming film adaptation provokes both excitement and anxiety.
The good news? Early signs about the production are positive: Jason Reitman, who did great work (in my book) with both “Juno” and “Thank You For Smoking,” has signed on as writer-director, and no less a heavyweight star than George Clooney will be playing the mile-hungry protagonist. There’s no firm release date yet, but Jaunted notes that “Up in the Air” was spotted filming at Detroit’s DTW yesterday.
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Yahoo! BuzzMorning Links: Venice Cokes Up, an Epic (Paper) Plane Video and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.25.09 | 9:44 AM ET
Newspapers: Still Big in Japan
by Julia Ross | 02.24.09 | 5:45 PM ET
From the front page of today's Asahi Shimbun. As many of us await the impending death of U.S. newspapers, it’s helpful to remember that the paper-and-ink medium thrives in other parts of the world, where Internet penetration remains relatively low. Such is the case in much of Asia, Time reports this week. India alone reported 11.5 million new newspaper readers in 2008, spread among a whopping 65,000 newspapers across the country, and Indonesia’s market has grown from a few dozen papers in 1998 to about 800. The Japanese, despite widespread online access, are still the world’s most dedicated newspaper readers, subscribing to more than one paper per household, on average.
So, how does this tie into travel? After reading the Time piece, it occurred to me that in a couple years, spying newspaper readers in subways or cafes—or being able to get one’s hands on an actual newspaper itself—may become as novel as slicing into a durian fruit for Western travelers visiting Asia. Imagine picking up the latest Asahi Shimbun as a souvenir on your way out of Narita. With kimono weavers on the way out, printing presses could be the next big thing in niche tourism.
New Zealand: The Dream Destination for ‘Ecomigrants’?
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.24.09 | 1:57 PM ET
Hawaii vs. Office of Hawaiian Affairs
by Pam Mandel | 02.24.09 | 12:48 PM ET
A brief disclaimer: I’m not an expert on legal matters and while I’ve been doing lots of reading, there’s still lots I don’t understand. Because of that, I absolutely welcome your more enlightened comments on the case. I’d just like to get you interested in what’s happening and why it’s a big deal, I’m going to keep it brief and send you elsewhere to more expert commentary. Now, in summary:
The Hawaiian State Supreme Court previously ruled that the state (Hawaii) could not sell lands ceded in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy until a settlement on those lands had been reached with the Hawaiian people. The gist? The lands were ceded to the U.S. government by those who had no right to do so.
The state of Hawaii is appealing the decision—it wants the right to sell those lands. It says that its ability to manage the lands is impeded by this ruling. That’s the bare bones of the case. But Native Hawaiians see a lot more at stake in the Supreme Court’s first case tomorrow.
Why Do Airplane Wings Generate Lift?
by Rob Verger | 02.24.09 | 11:33 AM ET
Believe it or not, there is something of a long-time scientific debate about why airplane wings work. There are two ways of looking at why a wing generates lift, and neither is perfect. The first and most common method has to do with Bernoulli’s principle. (How Stuff Works has a more thorough explanation.)
The second way has to do with Newtonian physics, and simply put, this theory basically proposes that air deflected off the bottom of the wing is what keeps the plane in flight. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the wing’s reaction to the deflected air is to move upwards.
But I’ll focus here on the Bernoulli explanation. (Although some say that Bernoulli is not the best way to explain why wings work, I find it interesting, so here goes.) Bernoulli’s principle basically states that faster-moving fluid—and here, think of air as a fluid—creates an area of lower pressure. A quick experiment to illustrate this: Take a piece of paper and hold it parallel to and a few inches away from a vertical surface, like a wall. Now blow hard between the wall and the paper. The quick-moving air you produced between the wall and paper created an area of low pressure that drew the paper towards the wall.
Richard Gere: World-Changing Innkeeper
by Eva Holland | 02.24.09 | 11:05 AM ET
The Hollywood superstar recently bought and restored a derelict 18th-century Westchester inn, and—as he and his wife recently told New York magazine—they’re hoping to make it into much more than a spot for a good meal or a night’s rest. “I want this to be a place where the minds of people who could change the world would meet,” said Gere. (Via NewYorkology)
Morning Links: A Hard-to-Find French Town, Photos of Carnival and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.24.09 | 8:55 AM ET
- Video: The Battle of the Oranges.
- A French town wants a new name that’s easier to find via search. It’s current name? Eu.
- Blog to watch: World Hum contributor Daisann McLane has launched a companion blog to her National Geographic Traveler column.
- Florida bans fish pedicures. What’s a fish pedicure? Here’s some video of McLane getting one in Malaysia.
- Photos: The Big Picture goes to Carnival.
- $28,067.31 for a “wireless session” on a cruise ship? Here’s the tale. (via Cruise Log)
- Some compelling photos of 19th- and 20th-century railway lines by Mark Ruwedel.
- Love this graphic: The most-used subway systems in the U.S and around the world.
- My obsession with travel typos continues: Here’s a look at NYC Transit’s Top Typos!
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The Economy is Affecting Hotels in Strange and Curious Ways
by Alexander Basek | 02.23.09 | 4:51 PM ET
How curious? People are going to Philadelphia—on purpose! (I keed, I keed. Please don’t throw any D batteries at me) According to the AP cities like Portland, Oregon, Philly and Palm Springs have growing tourism numbers—Portland even has hotel rates that are rising—as visitors take short-hop trips instead of visiting more far-flung destinations. Some of the visits are buoyed by cheap domestic airfares as well.
It’s an interesting phenomenon on two fronts. First, I hope that this is the end of people not going anywhere for vacation; people are leaving home during their time off, even if it’s to visit a place that’s nearby and famous for drug rehab or Cheez Whiz. Second, for hotels, a spate of satellite-style properties is likely in the cards. The Ace is already open in Palm Springs, for example, and rates at the Nines in Portland are at Crazy Eddie levels. As long as we don’t see any hotels with cheesesteak-themed spa treatments, I fully support this trend.
Explore Alberta, Lovely Land of Forests, Mountains ... and Toxic Ponds?
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.23.09 | 4:21 PM ET
Canada’s western province of Alberta—so lovely with a diverse landscape of boreal forest, shortgrass prairie, badlands, dairy farms and the Rocky Mountains—is also home to more than 54,000 square miles of tar sands containing large concentrations of bitumen, or “heavy oil.” The bitumen accounts for many of the oil reserves in North America and has left besotted oil companies re-imagining Alberta as the next Saudi Arabia. Too bad the exploitation of the tar sands is turning out to be the one of the greatest environmental disasters ever seen, according to Climate Progress.
A Very International Oscars
by Eva Holland | 02.23.09 | 2:38 PM ET
Last night’s Oscars ceremony is likely to be up for debate for some time—among the most contentious issues, for me, is the fact that the cast of “High School Musical” got more screen time than most nominees—but one thing is certain: it was the most international Oscars since 2004, when Charlize Theron thanked everyone in South Africa, and the winners from “Lord of the Rings” managed to name-drop just about everyone in New Zealand, too.
In the 2009 edition, there were acceptance speeches smattered with Spanish (Penelope Cruz, for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) and Tamil (A.R. Rahman, the composer for “Slumdog Millionaire”), there were shout-outs to Mumbai (from the assortment of “Slumdog” winners, who took home 8 awards between them), and there were two separate winners from Japan.
My favorite globally-flavored Oscar moments, after the jump:
Security Full-Body Scanners: Invasive? Effective? Both?
by Rob Verger | 02.23.09 | 11:51 AM ET
USA Today reported last week that Tulsa International Airport has started the use of full-body scanners in security. Passengers could decide whether to be screened in the scanner or through the traditional metal detector.
“The 35-year reign of airport metal detectors began its slow descent this week in Tulsa, where for the first time some passengers are skipping metal detectors,” the story reports. “People are instead being screened in a 9-foot-high portal with glass shields that rotate to produce vivid pictures of what is underneath passengers’ clothing.”
Each scanner costs $170,000 and produces “metallic-looking images” that “show outlines of private body parts and blur passengers’ faces.” It can detect “hidden items as small as a plastic button.”
Obviously, some are concerned about privacy, although the story reported that on a recent busy morning at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, only two people opted to go through the metal detector instead of the scanner. Another worry is that the full-body scanners could slow down the screening process. (The TSA has more.)
Ang Lee to Direct ‘Life of Pi’ Adaptation?
by Eva Holland | 02.23.09 | 11:25 AM ET
The movie version of the bestselling novel, which follows the story of a young boy adrift on a life raft with a Bengal tiger after a Pacific Ocean crossing gone wrong, has been in the works for years. Now, after a series of ups and downs, it looks as though the film may be moving forward: Ang Lee, the Oscar-winning director of “Brokeback Mountain,” is in “the final stages of talks” to sign on as director, the Globe and Mail reports. Said the book’s author, Yann Martel: “If Fox closes a deal with Ang Lee, I’ll be very happy. He’s a superb director with a varied and dazzling output ... He’d do a great job with ‘Life of Pi.’”
Heard on the Tokyo Street: ‘Yes, We Can’
by Julia Ross | 02.23.09 | 10:27 AM ET
They loved him in Canada last week for buying maple leaf cookies, but in Japan, they’re hanging on Barack Obama’s every word. It seems the President’s speeches have kicked off the latest language-learning trend among English-crazy Japanese. In the country’s ubiquitous English schools, teachers are urging students to memorize Obama’s speeches line by line, with a passion to match. Reports the Wall Street Journal: “‘The Speeches of Barack Obama,’ a best-selling book that comes with a CD and a glossary for phrases like ‘spin master’ and ‘stop-gap measures,’ sold 480,000 copies in Japan in three months.” I think that qualifies as a trend.
Funny, I haven’t tried this approach in my long struggle to learn Mandarin. Hu Jintao’s speeches somehow lack equivalent ... charisma.
Morning Links: Mexico Travel Alert, Mardi Gras Tips and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.23.09 | 9:46 AM ET
- A bomb exploded in Cairo’s Hussein Square, killing at least one tourist.
- China has closed Tibet to international travelers in preparation for the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile.
- The Washington Post says the latest State Department travel alert for Mexico “reads like the plot of a crime thriller.”
- USA Today/Gallup poll: 58 percent of Americans “will shrink their vacation spending this year—or just not go.”
- Here’s what not to do at Mardi Gras.
- Tom Haines follows the wind in North Dakota.
- World Hum contributor David Farley will be speaking tonight at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.
- The Christian Science Monitor has more on Lucca’s ban of ethnic restaurants.
- Is a lost empire concealed in the Amazon?
- Has Atlantis been found by Google Ocean? Google says no.
- Two travel books made the pages of The New York Times Sunday Book Review: Magic Bus and The Way of Herodotus.
- Another day, another mix-up: A pass for Philly Beer Week features the skyline of New York City. Really, how could you mix ‘em up?
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