Photo of the Day (08/11/08) originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Actor on NWA plane strikes a flight attendant and hits an officer

Actor on NWA plane strikes a flight attendant and hits an officer originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Thank goodness they are not attempting to charge for those hideous blankets and pillows most airlines offer!

JetBlue will begin charging customers for an eco-friendly comfort package on their flights. Travel blanket and pillow--featuring a fabric technology, developed by CleanBrands LLC, that apparently blocks dust mites, mold spores, pollen and pet dander--will be available for purchase for $7 on flights longer than two hours. The pair will come in a kit with a $5 coupon to Bed Bath & Beyond.

So far, we have JetBlue charging us for extra leg room, food and drinks, checked baggage and now pillows and blankets. What's next?

How about extra humidity on board? I'd pay extra for that.

JetBlue to charge $7 for pillows and blankets originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This is truly one of the more bizarre frequent flier miles offerings out there. The folically challenged could really score some free air tickets here.

Bosley, the hair restoration company, is offering 20,000 Delta SkyMiles to anyone who's willing to let them take a look at his/her hair. And, if you--by any chance--decide to go through with their hair restoration procedure, you will earn 150,000 miles.

Well, what do you think?

[Thanks, Chris, for the tip]

Let people look at your hair and get 20,000 Delta miles originally appeared on Gadling on Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Another story to be filed under "What's wrong with people?"

Wednesday night, a 40-year old man aboard a Canadian Greyhound bus traveling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg stabbed and then decapitated a fellow passenger, USA Today reports. He was arrested at the end of the whole thing, in case you were wondering.

This story has gotten extensive coverage all over the world. People have been quoted as saying they'll never take the bus ever again, until safety regulations on buses are in place. I don't know. Can you really draw conclusions from one weird case?

In case you haven't heard exactly what happened, here is a glimpse, according to fellow passengers interviewed by Associated Press:

The victim, who appeared to be about 19, was sleeping with headphones on when his seat mate suddenly began stabbing him as the bus traveled a desolate stretch of the TransCanada Highway, a dozen miles from Portage La Prairie. He stabbed him about 40-50 times.

The bus stopped and the passengers tried to get away while the attacker allegedly began calmly and methodically carving up the man's body. Unbelievable.

Passengers disembarked and braced themselves against the door to prevent the attacker from leaving while they waited for police to arrive. The attacker went back and brought the head to the front and dropped it on the ground in front of the passengers.

Well, this is a good time to ask the question, I guess. Would you take a Greyhound anytime soon?

Passenger stabbed and decapitated on Greyhound bus; passengers question bus safety originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Emirates chucks magazines...to save fuel originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Belize it or not: Living in harmony with M&Ms (monkeys and mosquitoes)

Belize it or not: Living in harmony with M&Ms (monkeys and mosquitoes) originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Photo of the Day: 07/21/08 originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Belize it or not: Caye Caulker; where backpackers outnumber locals

Belize it or not: Caye Caulker; where backpackers outnumber locals originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

No espresso in a to-go cup! No iced espresso! It's the policy, stupid. originally appeared on Gadling on Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Members of the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (and others on the plane) saw the erratic passenger near an exit door, grabbed him, and placed tie wraps on the man.

Makes you wonder what he was doing in the bathroom naked. Some sort of mile-high club self-initiation?

Passenger strips nude, tries to open an emergency exit door mid-flight originally appeared on Gadling on Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I wrote about nurse sharks just last week. In Belize, you can swim with them and pet them. The Australian grey nurse shark is a little different than the kind they have in Belize. Still, it is generally much smaller than the more aggressive great white. It is also not considered a threat to humans, but its bite could still do serious damage.

The "hooked shark" was spotted by divers on Monday as it swam with a group of others near Byron Bay, 500 miles north of Sydney. After the animal was captured and placed in a holding tank, rescuers pushed a stiff plastic pipe into the shark's throat. Blyde then reach down through the pipe to free the hook.

Veterinarian reaches into shark's throat to remove hook it swallowed originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Greetings from Belize.

Belize it or not: Getting away from it all originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Greetings from Belize.

Continue reading Belize it or not: Island-hopping on budget

Belize it or not: Island-hopping on budget originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Greetings from Belize.

Those of you who have been to Belize before might not find these surprising, but this is my first time here and they surprised me. Here is a brief laundry list:

• The U.S. Dollar is widely accepted. With the Belize Dollar pegged at 2:1 to the U.S. Dollar, it's not surprising. Guess where you should be traveling when the U.S. Dollar is practically worthless? Where they accept dollars, of course! Although Belize is pretty expensive comparing to other Central American countries, the cheap dollar makes it affordable.
• English is all you'll ever need. While guidebook after guidebook tell you people speak Spanish or Creole, Belizeans almost universally speak perfect English. It's the official language, don't forget.
• It's not all jungle. While the UN pegs forest cover at 79% in Belize and the country itself claims to have 44% of its land under some legal land-protection regime, there are whole sections of the country that are open, rolling hills and farmland.
• It's not just the Blue Hole. There's great diving all up and down the world's second-largest barrier reef. The terrain is varied, and so is the wildlife. I can tell you that first hand, as I squeezed in 5 dives in 2 days off two different islands.
• There's a surprising level of development. Literacy is above 75% (depending on the source). The economy is rapidly growing. While the UN's human development index generally puts the country at about number 80 of 177 countries studied (in terms of education, GDP per person, etc.), life expectancy here is in the top 40 worldwide.
• The population density is one of the lowest in the world. With 300,000 or so people in an area the size of the state of New Jersey (which has almost 9 million folks), and 1/3 of people living in Belize City, it's not surprising, really.
• The rainy season (May-November) is quite pleasant here, especially if you stay in the north. We are in the middle of it right now. It rains about once a day, if that, for a while and then it's sunny again. The benefit over the dry season? It's cheaper and there are hardly any tourists.
• People are really friendly, helpful and pleasant. The islands have a Caribbean feel, while the inland is more Spanish-influenced.

I give Belize two thumbs up.

Belize it or not: Top Surprizing Things About Belize originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Greetings from Belize.

Yesterday, I made one of my life-long dreams come true. I dove the Great Blue Hole, a submarine cave about 45 miles off the coast of Belize. They say after diving it, divers are usually either utterly disappointed or absolutely blown away. I found it absolutely amazing.

The Great Blue Hole is circular, over 1,000 feet (330 meters) across and 400 feet (120 meters) deep. It was formed as a limestone cave system during the last ice age. As the ocean began to rise again, the caves flooded, and the roof collapsed.

The trip

To get to the Blue Hole, we booked a diving with the operator Aqua Dives Belize. They offer a $199 per person special now, which was the cheapest deal going, from what I could see. It includes the boat trip out there, breakfast, lunch (on a tiny caye on the same atoll) plus yummy rum punch (after diving), purified drinking water, 3 tanks and weight belts.

(We'd tried Ambergris Divers earlier, and found their staff friendly and competent, but we preferred Aqua Dives and their newer equipment.)

You start out at 5:30am, and make a 3-hour boat ride from Ambergris Caye to Lighthouse Reef. After a total of three dives, they get you back at 5:30pm.

Continue reading Belize it or not: Diving the Blue Hole

Belize it or not: Diving the Blue Hole originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I am in Guatemala today and this picture reminds me of how women carry fruit on their heads up here. (I tried it and it is not easy.)

Granted, none of the arrangements here were quite so fancy.

Danner00 took this picture in Bali. The women look so graceful, dressed in the same color scheme as the fruit.

***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr Pool and post it. Make sure it is not copyrighted, otherwise we can't post it here.***

Photo of the Day (07/14/08) originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• grocery shopping
• place to conduct cell phone calls while driving (with a toddler or two on one's lap)
• doing "donuts" in sand
• place for local youngsters to kiss
• a way to distribute "sticky green" to those interested
• and, of course, preferred form of transportation for lazy tourists who can't walk a full mile into town.
  

Belize it or not: Ways to use a golf cart originally appeared on Gadling on Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Greetings from Belize!

Belize it or not: The World Soymilk Development Index originally appeared on Gadling on Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hello from Belize! What a beautiful little country this is.

I have wanted to come here forever, being a diver and all. As you probably know, the Belize Barrier Reef (stretching from Yucatan all the way to the coast of Guatemala) is the second largest reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef.

We took our first dive trip today, right off the Ambergris Caye island. It was just a shallow dive with a bunch of snorkelers who desperately wanted to "see some sharks." This part of the reef is know for its abundance of nurse sharks, pretty harmless types of sharks who eat by suction (hence the name). Still, they are sharks, aka beautiful creatures.

The dive instructor threw in some bait (an enormous fish head) and a few minutes later, a bunch of sharks (I saw five, the largest at least two meters long) and sting rays (the largest was over a meter across) came by for the feast. It was an incredible sight.

I don't know how I feel about the whole "petting the shark and sting ray" aspect of the whole thing. The instructors caught a couple of the sharks by the fin and let everyone in the group touch them. Same with the sting rays. I felt a little bad for them. I can't be good for them to have a hundred people a day touch them, right?

Belize it or not: The shark petting zoo originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.