Migration Information Source (migrationinformation.org) was started as a hobby by its an American-born editor, Kirin Kalia, 32, who describes herself to the NY Times as "half Dutch, half Indian, 100 percent American and total migration geek."
The Source covers a wide range ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Antarctica
Migration junkies, unite.
Migration Information Source (migrationinformation.org) was started as a hobby by its an American-born editor, Kirin Kalia, 32, who describes herself to the NY Times as "half Dutch, half Indian, 100 percent American and total migration geek."
The Source covers a wide range ...More on global happiness
Since Eric Weiner's book, The Geography of Bliss tops all kinds of bestseller lists, the concept of happiness--and the concept of measuring it--seems to be high priority. Why we are so obsessed with happiness is certainly interesting, but even more interesting, I think, is ...First flight to Antarctica
Antarctica is one of the most difficult places on this planet to visit for the simple reason that planes do not fly there.
Well, that was the truth until last week when the first ever airline touched down on the frozen Arctic surface just four hours after leaving Australia. ...NY Times: 53 places to go in 2008
Yesterday's NY Times travel section depicted the 53 "it" destinations of 2008.
Laos made number 1, as the new Vietnam and Cambodia of Indochina. The photo, by Tanja Geis for the NY Times, is of stupas on the grounds of Pha That Luang in Vientiane, Laos.
My home town, ...First tourist trips to the South Pole
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In today's over-traveled world, I've always just assumed that tour operators can take clients to every corner of the globe.
Apparently the South Pole, however, has always been an exception--until now, that is.
The news out of London is that a British travel outfitter will ...Antarctic tourism booms: environment to suffer?
Lonely Planet has been publishing guides to Antarctica for a while now. It's now a regular stop on the cruise ship circuit. And it's a popular destination (at least among my peers in Alaska) for seasonal work. As the icy continent becomes more popular, it is also becoming ...Seeking out vacation spots without cell-phone coverage?on purpose!
For those who are able to do so, leaving your cell phone at home when you go on vacation enhances that vacation experience immeasurably. Those who find they can't leave the cell phone at home, however, might want to opt for a destination where, despite how hard you try, you ...Who owns Antarctica?
According to a report from Reuters, Britain plans to submit a claim to the United Nations to extend its Antarctic territory by a million square kilometers. However, the claim could cause tension between Britain and a few South American countries -- Argentina is working on a ...Thin Green Line
I go on and on here about how much I love our country's national parks. I don't have a particular fondness for the National Park Service's parent agency, The Department of the Interior (where I worked for two years and which, under the Bush administration has become, ...On the Road, Cold Coffee Is a Good Thing
Struggling to find a good cup of coffee while traveling to remote areas? There is hope for us!
I am a huge iced-coffee fan in the summer time. A friend recently introduced me to a great new thing: cold-pressed coffee. Instead of using hot water and adding ice cubes (often ...International Polar Year
Remember that song by Donald Fagan IGY? Probably only a few of you do. The older ones, like me. OK, I'm not THAT old, but I'm old enough to remember Steely Dan before anything they'd done was remixed. Anyway, I bring up IGY, which stands for International Geophysical Year, ...The Extreme List
Sure, there are the 1000 Places to Go Before You Die. That's a fine list and one that can help the average traveler see the best places in the world before drawing your terminal breath. But is there such a thing as Extreme Things to Do Before You Die. I mean, there seems to ...Top 10 Causes of Travel Deaths
To date I'd like to think I've been pretty lucky in dodging death on some of my travels abroad and at home. Seeing how I got dumped on by two different birds on two different occasions last year in Tajikistan, for the first time in life and walked away without avian flu I'd ...Photo of Every Country
The Century Club is an organization we've blogged about here before. The group is made up of people for whom traveling the world might be called an obsession. Century, or 100, is the operative term, as the group restricts membership to you if you have NOT been to at least ...Strange Statues
There is a statue in Central Park from Alice and Wonderland that is delightfully odd. It features the well-known assortment of characters from the Lewis Carroll book, but the face on the Mad Hatter is, well, mad. I sometimes walk by a find myself looking into his bronze ...Karl Bushby's Goliath Expedition
There are epic trips and then there are...well, there is Karl Bushby's Goliath Expedition. Bushby, an ex-paratrooper is in the midst of undertaking one of those trips that truly flabbergast. He's trying to walk around the entire globe. The self-declared stats he has on his ...Driving Orientation Map
Heading to another country? Going to be doing some driving? Then you might want to check out Strange Maps' strange map of driving orientation. Plotted by whether a country engages in left-handed or right-handed driving, the map looks vaguely like a map of the former British ...Worldmapper
A very cool use of technology, geography and demographics can be found over at the site Worldmapper. They have developed a really amazing algorithm that allows you to see the world and the various sizes of the country therein, through various statistics. Countries look ...The World's Coldest Cartwheel
Few people get the chance to visit the south pole, and even fewer are thick-skinned enough to celebrate their arrival by donning a swimsuit to cartwheel across the snow in a -44.7°F wind chill. A girl by the named of Sandwich (she got her nickname from a sandwich-shaped ...National Geographic's Genographic Project
Having just gotten the results of my ancestor's genetic journey from the National Geographic Genographic project I can't say that I'm all that surprised about my findings. However, before I dive right into the details of what my own DNA sampling revealed perhaps I should ...
