Gadling

Gadling fave ladyexpat does it again with this wonderfully psychedelic shot of the Jogyesa Temple in Seoul, South Korea. The colorful lanterns are hanging in honor of the Buddha, whose birthday is celebrated on March 12 this year.

If you'd like your photo considered for Gadling's Photo of the Day feature, head on over to our Flickr pool and upload away.

I find this map (click to enlarge) interesting in that it not only features a bunch of domain codes I've never heard of, but it also manages to look surprisingly similar to an actual world map-- without a single line being drawn.

Want to display your worldliness and nerdiness all at once by hanging this piece of girl-repellent on your wall? Thirty dollars a piece while supplies last.

[via Chris Blattman]

How did you decide where you'd call home for your adult life? If you're like most people, the decision wasn't much of a decision at all. Chances are, you found yourself in a particular place through a combination of career inertia and personal attachments.

It seems that not many people give a whole lot of thought to the question of where exactly they're going to spend most of their lives. But economist, author, and Colbert Report guest Richard Florida argues in his new book, Who's Your City, that this is one of the most important and underrated decisions people will ever make.

Recently, I interviewed Prof. Florida about this thought-provoking idea, and he explained why the choice of where to live is more important than ever, why it's a decision so often overlooked, and how to find the perfect city for you.

AH: People take great pains in considering what careers to pursue and whom to marry, but little thought is given to where they will spend the bulk of their lives. Why is that?

RF: When making life decisions, we have always thought of two questions: the "what" and the "who." What will I do (i.e. job, career path, educational training), and "who" will I do it with (i.e. life partner, friends, etc.) Without question, both of those decisions – the "what" and the "who"– mean a great deal to our lives. But there is another decision that has an equal, if not greater, effect on our economic future, happiness, and overall life outcome. The question of "where."

Finding the right place is as important as- if not more important than- finding the right job or partner because it not only influences those choices but also determines how easy or hard it will be to correct mistakes made along the way. Still, few of us actually look at a place that way. Perhaps it's because this seems so obvious that people overlook it or, most likely, so few of us have the understanding or mental framework necessary to make informed choices about our location. In Who's Your City, I provide my readers with a guide for making their place decisions the most successful they can be.

AH: In your new book, you write that, rather than technology "flattening" the earth, the world is actually becoming "spiky." If technology essentially allows people to work from anywhere, why do you claim that the choice of where to live is now more important than ever?

RF: The place we choose to live is the most important decision we ever make, largely because it influences and shapes all the others: from job opportunities and career options to our investments, the friends we make, the people we date, the mates we ultimately choose and the way we raise our families. Place remains the central axis of our time-more important to the world economy and our individual lives than ever before.

AH: What are the best ways to discover whether I'll enjoy living somewhere before I actually move there? Just visit and walk around?

Over at his wonderfully entertaining travel blog Killing Batteries, Lonely Planet author (and former Gadling contributor) Leif Pettersen offers his "Definitive Guide to Hostel Etiquette." (Okay, the post is from last year. What's your point?)

Among the tips:

• Just because you're merrily drunk doesn't mean I'm merrily drunk. This goes double for any time after midnight, because unless I've recently told you otherwise, I like sleep more than I like you.
• You are not the center of the universe, I don't care how long you studied in Paris.
• Spontaneous farting is only funny under very precise circumstances. It requires exquisite comic timing that most of you don't have, so better to just save yourself the embarrassment and do the slow release or, better yet, leave the room.
• Do not have loud sex in the room while everyone is asleep and if you do, don't get mad and demand "privacy" when the rest of us sit up and bemusedly watch.

There are 23 more. Check 'em out.

[HT: Brave New Traveler]

When a Dutch schoolteacher named Paul van den Heuvel began gathering materials for a history lesson on Anne Frank, he probably had no idea that he'd make a bit of history himself. As he was looking through some of his father's old books, he discovered an old postcard displaying a Christmas bell and signed with one very famous name: "Anne Frank".

Curators at the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam have already confirmed that the card is genuine, stating that this card resembles another already in the museum's collection. The card was apparently sent in 1937, eight years before Anne Frank's death.

The Diary of Anne Frank is still the world's top-selling book about the Holocaust, documenting the months Anne and her family spent hiding from the Nazis during World War II.

More here.

The Japanese diet has historically been one of the healthiest in the world, consisting mainly of rice, vegetables, and fish. But the increase in "Western"-style fast-food joints has forced many Japanese to loosen their belts several notches.

Statistics from Japan's government show that, on average, Japanese males are ten percent heavier than they were only ten years ago, and the women are packing it on almost as much.

This news has driven the Japanese government to require employers to reduce the number of overweight employees by ten percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2015. Men whose waistlines exceed 34 inches will be considered overweight, while the limit for women is a downright husky 35 inches.

More here.

Ask English travelers what they miss most about home, and before they mention mom or dad or friends or their bed, they'll probably say a classic English breakfast. Over at the Times Online, Giles Coren explains how-- delicious though it may be-- the 3,000 calorie monster breakfast currently offered by one restaurant chain is slowly killing those audacious enough to consume it.

The English breakfast is often seen as England's national dish, and it's a major point of pride among most of the English I've spoken with. As Coren puts it: "The French have their croissant and coffee, the Greeks their sheep cheese and olives, but our morning plateful is honest and shiny and pink. Just like we are."

So how do you squeeze 3,000 calories into a breakfast? Easy. Load the plate with meat, eggs, baked beans, bread, and lots of grease. Keep going. No, still not enough. There you go.

From the article: "The current £7.25 "Olympic" breakfast at Little Chef comprises: 'two rashers of crisp backbacon, British outdoor-reared pork sausage, two griddled eggs, whole-cup mushrooms, crispy sauté potatoes, fresh griddled tomato, Heinz baked beans and toasted or fried extra-thick bloomer bread.'"

So you eat that for breakfast Monday morning and you're hungry again, when, Thursday night?

Once again, life imitates The Onion.

A researcher on poverty and development and a professor at Yale, Chris Blattman is the man behind a terrific blog that focuses on the political, economic, and cultural goings-on in the poorest countries in the world.

Yesterday, Chris tackled an interesting ethical question from a reader: What are the ethical implications of Westerners who are living in a poor African country hiring domestic help? Are there negative culture or economic implications to employing locals to work around the house, and doesn't it seem a tad "imperialistic" or exploitative?

Chris' answer, sensible as always, is a resounding NO! Says Chris: "In my experience, the local job options are nasty, brutish and short. The chance to work indoors, at relatively light labor (cleaning, washing, guarding) is highly sought after."

Exactly right. My advice on the matter would be this: If you view your household workers as essentially "servants," you'll probably feel as if you're simply exploiting them for cheap labor. And if you treat them like servants, maybe you should. But a more sensible approach is to think of them as employees-- which is exactly what they are. You're paying them to provide a service, and more than likely, they are no less than thrilled to be in your employ. Treat them like employees-- or better-- and there's nothing to worry about.

Rather than be paralyzed by guilt, splitting hairs over whether this is properly called employment or exploitation, put yourself in the position of your would-be worker. Now, do you want the wealthy Westerners to hire you, or don't you?

Chris adds that "the bias against hiring help seems to be peculiarly Western. Why is that? Perhaps because the wage paid to domestic servants in the U.S. and Europe is often below the average unskilled wage. Not so in many poorer countries."

Finally, not only is it permissible to hire help if you're relatively wealthy, you may well be obligated: "What's more, in most places I have worked, the wealthy (especially Westerners) are expected to hire help, principally as a means to share wealth. To not hire help is at best odd and at worst improper. Help often become part of the family circle, and employers may help them with children's school fees, emergency loans, and health problems."

[Over the past few days, I've been in contact with former Lonely Planet author Thomas Kohnstamm via e-mail discussing the recent controversy surrounding him. Since he believes he's been unfairly criticized, I offered him the opportunity to share his side of the story on Gadling, as he's already done on World Hum. Here's what he wrote.]

"When I was discussing some of the difficulties faced by guidebook writers, I explained that it was often difficult to visit every establishment and remote town in person. The journalist asked me if sometimes people never visited the countries at all. I said that there is such a thing as a "desk update," which is somewhat common in the whole travel publishing industry (although very infrequent at LP).

He asked if I had ever done something like that and I explained that I had written about Colombia even though I had not gone there for the project. He asked why and I explained that there was not enough money for it (my advance was less than the cost of a flight down). Therefore I did a desk update, which was sanctioned by Lonely Planet. They made the decision that I was to write about it from home, not me.

I did normal research and got additional details from the Colombian girl I was dating at the time. Any professional travel writer out there knows that desk updates happen and are sanctioned by the publisher. It is a budgetary reality."

[Hi, Aaron again. I'd like to, if it's okay with everyone else, pronounce this "scandal-but-not-really-but-maybe-it-is" officially dead and buried. Rest in peace.]

A British father of three named Keith Brown has been sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of possessing .003 grams of cannabis. The man, a council youth development officer, was going through Customs at the Dubai Airport, and apparently had the marijuana particle-- smaller than a grain of sugar-- stuck to his shoe.

Brown is a Rastafarian who was returning from a visit to his family in Ethiopia. He was imprisoned in September of 2007 but sentenced only this week. UAE officials say he will be deported after serving his four-year sentence.

Mr. Brown isn't the only one to feel the wrath of Dubai's draconian drug laws. Last month, charges against a German national were finally dropped after the man spent six weeks behind bars. His crime? Trying to pass through customs with .03 grams of hash in his bag. That's about the size of a speck of dirt, and the man claimed he never knowingly possessed the hash.

The drugs, though invisible to the human eye, are detectable in customs using high-tech equipment, and customs officials are reportedly given a bonus for each arrest. Dubai's drug laws were changed in 2006 so that the possession of even the most miniscule amount of a drug is considered possession.

Well, it's at least nice to hear that Dubai doesn't have any actual crime to worry about.