Travel News Blog

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:48:51 GMT

Invitation to the Dance Movie Blog

The curtain rises today on Marilyn Ferdinand''s week-long Invitation to the Dance Movie Blog-a-Thon.

"Who''s the greatest dancer in film?" asks Jonathan Lapper in an entry that features a terrific clip of the Nicholas Brothers. (That''s not his answer, by the way, as he explains.) For me, it''s always been Fred Astaire - a damn fine singer and dresser, too. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:42:36 GMT

Manila Ups the Ante

Everyone knows Manila. Some people can probably even find it on a map. But not many people have been there. The capital of the Philippines is a densely populated, sometimes dangerous place. While there is lots to do, especially if you are interested in shopping and sightseeing, it seems like Manila's tourist industry lives in the shadows of other Southeast Asian cities. Many visitors who are coming to the Philippines see Manila as a stop-off point before they head to the beach or outer islands.

This year, Manila is focusing an reinvigorating its tourist trade. Business is set to boom:

The Mall of Asia is a huge shopping venue located near the already popular San Miguel by the Bay entertainment promenade. There is a new Science Discovery Center, which includes a planetarium, in the mall.

Developers have their sights set on upscale tourists with Bagong Nayong Pilipino Manila Bay Integrated City, which is slated to open in 2010. The planned city will have hotels, malls, casinos, and a theme park.

Transportation can be tricky in Manila. To solve that Wow Manila Sakay Na! minivans provide hourly service between 15 of Manila's most popular historic sites. For a little more than $10, tourists can get a day pass to use the service.

Manila is a huge city. While is might lack the charms of other Southeast Asian metropolises, it is doing its part to make itself into a viable choice for tourists interested in visiting the region's biggest cities. Posted by: Josh Lew      Read more     Source

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:30:31 GMT

Online viewing tip-NYFF45-1

For the last couple of years, the best part of the New York Film Festival for anyone not in New York has been watching Jamie Stuart's essay-ish shorts; the first of this year's round has just gone up at Filmmaker.

While you're there, you might check Erica Abeel's a brief chat with Scott Foundas about the selection process. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:29:29 GMT

San Francisco: Where to Find the Singles

Ever since I moved to San Francisco, I've always felt like it was a city for single people. There are a plethora of people there who are interested in dating, people who are young and vibrant. And there are plenty of places for them to go to meet each other and things for them to do together. It's a wonderful city. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the people who live there are generally open-minded folks who take a fun approach to dating and to finding a way to make the dating life work for them.

So, yes, I've always known that there were lots of single people looking for each other in the city of San Francisco. But now a Forbes survey confirms that I'm right. The annual survey ranks cities in terms of how great they are for singles based on criteria like the nightlife, the culture and the cost of living alone. It's hard to believe with that latter criterion on there that San Francisco made the list since it sure isn't cheap to live on your own in San Francisco. But that just proves how cool the city is for young people looking to find love or simply explore the town on their own. Posted by: Kathryn Vercillo      Read more     Source

Sun, 13 May 2007 21:38:53 GMT

Lessons From The Seat of a Bike

Less than half of the days in Cleveland are sunny and today there isn't a cloud in the sky - the sun is shining and the temps are a perfect 74 degrees.

Time to get outdoors.

I try to walk in the neighborhood each day but today I felt like doing something different. So I pulled my bike out of the garage, checked the tires for air and climbed aboard for the first time in over five years.

It is amazing how quickly you remember how to ride, the wind whipping your hair and in moments I was 12 years old again trying to ride with no hands.

As I rode around the neighborhood, three things came to mind:

Perspective:

As we rush through life we miss so much. Just the simple act of going the same way everyday robs us of new views. The other day instead of going left from my front door I went right. I still walked the same distance but approaching the yards and homes from the opposite direction allowed me to see yards, flower beds and homes in a totally different way. On the back of a bike I was able to travel further distances and so ventured down cul-de-sacs that I'd previously missed.

I realized that for my business I need to also take time to view how I approach each day, each project, and each customer from a different perspective. What have I been missing because I always see things through the same eyes? What could I do better; different that would benefit my customers, my bottom line? Hmmm.

Resistance

I quickly realized that when traveling in a car, roads that appear to be level are in fact gradual up hill climbs. As the wind pressed against me and the road gradually tilted upward, my knees and legs felt the challenge. I pressed forward - pressing on, missing what was around me because I was hunkered down against the resistance.

Ah - you know where I'm going, right? Is there someone in your department, your business, your life that is a resisting force? Perhaps a chronic negative attitude, a nay-sayer, someone who thwarts your every move forward until you have to by pass them or press through them?

On my bike I realized that if I changed gears, I was able to manage the resistance with very little effort. Is there a different approach you can take with those resisting your efforts?

Take a Second Look:

It's still very early spring here in Ohio and as you race down the street the trees still look barren - no hope of the summer greenery that we trust will occur. And yet, on the seat of my bike, I could see the baby buds just beginning to form on the tips of the branches. A pale hint of fresh green coated each bud. The promise of springtime just moments away.

In my business I wonder if there are things that need a second look. Projects, ideas, harebrain schemes that perhaps I thought were dead that need another look. Is there something that you've put on the back burner that perhaps deserves a second look?

So there you have it - my lessons from the back of my 10-speed bike. Oh and two other things: those cushy gel bike seats are a great thing - sure wish I knew which of my kids took mine and boo-boos hurt a lot more when you are an adult.

Now get out there and hop on your bike and take a look around you with 12-year old eyes. What do you see? Keep the band aids handy.

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Professional Writer, Not ReaTour de Force Prime Time AllWrite Ink Posted by: Deborah Brown      Read more     Source

January 7, 2007, 9:29 PM CT

New sucker-footed bat in Madagascar

Researchers have discovered a new species of bat that has large flat adhesive organs, or suckers, attached to its thumbs and hind feet. This is a remarkable find because the new bat belongs to a Family of bats endemic to Madagascar--and one that was previously considered to include only one rare species. The new species, Myzopoda schliemanni, occurs only in the dry western forests of Madagascar, while the previously known species, Myzopoda aurita, occurs only in the humid eastern forests of Madagascar, as per new research recently published online in the journal Mammalian Biology. The new species is obviously different from the known species based on pelage coloration, external measurements and cranial characteristics, as per the researchers.

Myzopoda are often found in association with broad-leaf plants, most notably Ravenala madagascariensis or the Travelers' Palm, a plant that is endemic to Madagascar but has been introduced to numerous tropical countries. Myzopoda are found in association with such plants because they can use their suckers to climb and adhere to the leaves' flat, slick surface. They are presumed to roost in the leaves during the day.

Myzopoda were considered endangered because of their limited distribution and the notion that the family included only one species. The new research, however, modifies both of these ideas.........

Posted by: Marlene      Read more         Source

December 15, 2006, 9:13 PM CT

Santa Fe In New Mexico

Santa Fe was once the capital of Spain's, and then Mexico's, territories north of the Rio Grande, but its visible history extends far back into time beyond the arrival of the Spanish; it is thought to have been the site of Puebloan villages that had already been long abandoned by the time the Spanish arrived in 1607. It became the state capital when the territory of New Mexico achieved statehood in 1912.

In the early 20th century, the area attracted many artists, such as Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. The region remains important on America's art scene. The arrival of Igor Stravinsky and the founding of the Santa Fe Opera, one of the world's leading opera companies, had a similarly invigorating and enduring influence on the musical community. A number of people go to Santa Fe for spiritual gatherings and to practice meditative arts at the a number of spas and resorts that are in and around Santa Fe.

Santa Fe is rooted in paradoxes. On the one hand, it is one of the United States' oldest cities (by some reckonings the oldest), and a number of residents can trace their roots, and property holdings in town, back to the 17th century. Conversely, it has also been the target of a teeming influx of wealthy immigrants in the last 30 years or so that has spurred a great deal of new construction and created outrageous prices for real estate -- and drastically elevated taxes on old family properties, a number of of which are owned by families that can't afford the taxes. The tension between new and old, rich and poor, etc., is a persistent undercurrent in the community. These and other factors (not the least of which is a well-deserved reputation as a haven for flamboyant characters) contribute to one of Santa Fe's enduring and proudly-worn nicknames: "The City Different."........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

December 5, 2006, 4:59 AM CT

Rise In California Temperatures

Increasing temperatures in California during the next 45 years could negatively affect the amount of almonds, walnuts, oranges, avocados and table grapes that Americans put on their tables.

According to new research in the journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, production losses in some of California's most popular crops could be as high as 40 percent by mid-century.

In the study, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory evaluated the impact of climate change on six major perennial crops in California: wine grapes, almonds, table grapes, oranges, walnuts and avocados. Each of these crops is typically planted only once every 25-40 years. However, so that climate can change considerably in the lifetime of individual vines or trees.

Using more than 20 climate models, the authors assessed the response of these crops to projected changes in temperature (an increase of 2 degrees to 4 degrees Celsius) and precipitation.

"Climate change should be an important factor in selecting perennial varieties and deciding whether and where they should be planted in California," said David Lobell, the lead author of the paper who collaborated with scientists at the Carnegie Institution, Stanford University and UC Merced. "This study indicates that warmer temperatures will tend to reduce yields of these crops in their current locations".........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

November 16, 2006, 7:50 PM CT

Money Causes Changes For Better And Worse

Money changes everything, and that includes changing people's motivations for the better and their behavior toward others for the worse, according to a new study published in the international journal Science.

Florida State University psychology graduate student Nicole Mead in Tallahassee, Fla was among a group of researchers who found that the concept of money brings about a state of self-sufficiency that allows people to work harder and more independently to achieve personal goals but makes them more socially insensitive in the process.

"Money changes people's motivations," Mead said. "They want to work really hard to achieve their goals. Consequently, they are less focused on other people. In this sense, money can be a barrier to social intimacy".

Kathleen Vohs, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, is the lead author of "The Psychological Consequences of Money," which would be published in the Nov. 17 issue of Science. Mead and Miranda Goode, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia, are co-authors.

Mead helped design and conduct five of nine laboratory experiments, most of which involved having participants complete a number of different tasks while being exposed to "play" money or other visual references to money. The researchers found that those exposed to reminders of money worked longer on tasks before asking for help and were less helpful toward others. They also preferred to play alone, work alone and put more physical distance between themselves and a new acquaintance.........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

November 6, 2006, 7:35 PM CT

Silent Eco-friendly Plane

MIT and Cambridge University researchers will unveil the conceptual design for a silent, environmentally friendly passenger plane at a press conference Monday, Nov. 6, at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London.

"Public concern about noise is a major constraint on expansion of aircraft operations. The 'silent aircraft' can help address this concern and thus aid in meeting the increasing passenger demand for air transport," said Edward M. Greitzer, the H.N. Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.

Greitzer and Professor Ann P. Dowling of Cambridge University are the lead principal scientists on the Silent Aircraft Initiative. This collaboration of 40 researchers from MIT and Cambridge, plus many others from more than 30 companies, was launched three years ago "to develop a conceptual design for an aircraft whose noise was almost imperceptible outside the perimeter of an airfield in an urban environment".

While originally conceived to make a huge reduction in airplane noise, the team's ultimate design also has the potential to be more fuel-efficient. In a typical flight, the proposed plane, which is designed to carry 215 passengers, is predicted to achieve 124 passenger-miles per gallon, almost 25 percent more than current aircraft, according to Greitzer. (For a down-to-earth comparison, the Toyota Prius hybrid car carrying two passengers achieves 120 passenger-miles per gallon.).........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

October 31, 2006, 4:35 AM CT

Laptops Will Link Global Learners

The real star at an Oct. 19 lecture by Nicholas Negroponte was not the Media Lab co-founder and computer-aided design pioneer himself but what he brought to the Department of Architecture classroom at MIT--a model from his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.

After Negroponte finished outlining plans for creating and distributing the inexpensive computer to children in developing nations, the audience crowded the podium to examine the cheerful green-and-white 2B1 model. While Negroponte apologized for bringing a model, not a prototype, his audience still wanted a closer look. They turned and twisted the screen and the wi-fi antennas. They pressed fingers to the kid-size keypad. They weighed it in their hands.

"It's adorable," exclaimed Diane Sloan, a 1980 graduate of MIT's Sloan School. "It doesn't feel cheap," said Francois Proulx, a student visiting from Montreal. "It has something about it," agreed Yasmine Abbas, a 2001 graduate of MIT's architecture program. She added, thoughtfully, "If it touches the children, it's going to change a lot of things as well".

That is Negroponte's goal. Negroponte, who began his association with MIT as an architecture student in the 1960s, sees computers and technology as a way to help children educate themselves. OLPC, launched as a non-profit organization in 2005, aims to sell the laptops inexpensively to governments, which will then distribute them for free to children.........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

October 22, 2006, 9:45 PM CT

EXT Still The Stupid Of Trucks

The Detroit News reports: EXT still the Cadillac of trucks. We're well aware how dim we are, but isn't calling an item "The Cadillac of (whatever)" supposed to mean it's the best at what it is meant for? As in, "The new MacBook is the Cadillac of laptops" or "Google is the Cadillac of search engines" or "Alison Krauss is so smokin' hot we'd fake our own death, move to Tennessee, and change our name to be with her".

Anyway, are aren't trucks meant to carry stuff? You could say it's the most luxurious pick-up truck made. And you can't say "By saying Cadillac we meant luxurious" because you can't equate Cadillac with luxury anymore since it's been trumped by a number of.........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

October 12, 2006, 9:37 PM CT

Solio Universal Hybrid Charger

Solio, the Universal "Hybrid" Charger , can charge all of your handheld electronic products, even if you've been relocated to Antarctica. It works by absorbing power from the sun and storing the energy within the Solio's own internal battery (charging Solio's internal battery takes 8-10 hours of direct sunlight). If your igloo comes with a wall socket, you can also plug it in to charge it.

Not only can it charge your cell phone, but also your PDA, digital camera, and game player.

(It includes seven tips and cables, so it's compatibile with most devices.) To give you an idea, one hour of sun will give you enough juice to play your iPod for about an hour. When fully charged it can charge your cell phone twice over.

At the Clinton Global Initiative (which brings together a community of global leaders to 'devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges') soiree in NY, they gave Solio as one of the gifts for its 1,500 participating members. Movers and shakers such as Richard Branson, Tony Blair, The King of Jordan, Bill Gates, George Bush and a number of more received their own energy sources.........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

October 11, 2006, 9:09 PM CT

Seek Architecture

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Next to nature the craft of humankind offers so much too experience. Start now! www.charismatravel.net for all your ground arrangements. Moscow's best!........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

September 26, 2006, 8:58 PM CT

Cars Of The Future

They looked incongruous as they pulled past the Chevrolets and Toyotas in East lot--an antique Stanley Steamer, a yellow-striped city bus, a motorcycle with a passenger seat made from a diner's counter stool, a tanker with a bucolic scene painted on the side and dozens more. In they rolled, horns honking amid the occasional deep "ooooh-gah" of the steam car's Klaxon.

The AltWheels caravan of 46 environmentally friendly vehicles had arrived at MIT's Stata Center amphitheater.

AltWheels--the second New England event of its kind--is an all-volunteer, multiday, multivenue event designed to raise public awareness of commercially available vehicles that provide alternatives to the gasoline-powered automobile.

"Even though the price of fuel dropped 20 cents, there's a need for this," MIT Chancellor Phillip L. Clay told the crowd of drivers, inventors and curious onlookers. "With Ford and others, MIT works hard with industry to advance fuel and energy research. This caravan represents the work of many at MIT".

John Heywood, director of the MIT Sloan Automotive Laboratory, said he's been involved in the automotive field "a long time, but it's never been this lively and exciting".

As the Hood blimp circled overhead, a crowd milled around the vehicles--some ordinary in appearance, others that seemed out of place on a city street. There was the Moonbeam, which Maine inventor Jory Squibb called "an experiment in resource-stingy transportation." A tiny three-wheeled contraption built from secondhand motorcycle parts, the Moonbeam gets up to 100 mpg, and Squibb uses it for 90 percent of his travel needs. Retired electrical engineer David K. Nergaard drove his circa-1890 Stanley Steamer, a steam-powered vehicle that attracted a covey of MIT students who peered at its parts as they puzzled out its principles.........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

September 18, 2006, 6:23 PM CT

Zermatt

There is this very nice hotel across the street from our campground in Zermatt that has a Wi-Fi LAN for their guests. Nice of them to not have any security on it, so I can mooch off of them.

This will frankly be the first e-mail I have written where I haven't felt rushed, because there is a clock ticking, and I have to feed the machine another Euro (or Franc) lest I loose my work.

We are in Zermatt. We rode up the Rhone river from Lake Geneva, and it was frankly the best riding of the trip.........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source

September 18, 2006, 5:44 PM CT

Island Ferries Take on Role

Ferries that connect Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are taking on another role - research vessels.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist Scott Gallager and his colleagues have installed a package of sensors on the 235-foot freight ferry Katama to measure water quality and to photograph plankton as the ferry crisscrosses the western side of Nantucket Sound year-round, several times daily.

"Hitchhiking science on a ferry provides a terrific opportunity for us to better understand how water quality and ocean life change over time," Gallager said. The measurements for the Nantucket Sound Ferry Scientific Environmental Monitoring System began in May.

With the interest and cooperation of the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, which operates the ferry service between Cape Cod and the islands, Gallager and his colleagues developed a sensor package to measure water temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, and water clarity, and take images of plankton living in the water column. Real-time data from the sensors travel over a wireless connection to Gallager's shore-based lab, where he and WHOI colleagues Steve Lerner, Emily Miller, Andrew Girard, Andy Maffei, and collaborator Kevin Fall from Intel Corporation make them available to researchers and the public on the project Web site, http://4dgeo.whoi.edu/ferries.........

Posted by: Marlene      Permalink         Source