Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Recent Comments:
Lille: Five day trip tips {Gadling}
Nov 17th 2011 10:43AM Eat carbonnade (sweet beef stew made with beer), and seek out Flanders / Belgian beers, in particular the Flanders reds, which are lovingly sour.
Also, the sister-art museum, the classical art museum is quite nice.
Also, watch "Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis", ("Welcome to the sticks"), a very light comedy about Lille and the Ch'tis culture starring Kad Merad and Danny Boon.
Video: baby bear attack? {Gadling}
Aug 27th 2011 1:34PM I have had the pleasure of playing with a baby bear. It is truly a remarkable experience.
The one that I played with was a young, several months old black bear cub in a very rural state's wildlife preserve.
Its mother had been poached (and her body was not retrieved by the hunter), and the cub was part of the evidence against the poacher, who had just been caught. Fortunately, the cub was found braying by his mother's body by wildlife officers. Once it was handled by people, it would never be able to live in the wild again, so the cub was ultimately sent to a zoo. Once bears become used to human interaction, they will approach humans in the wild (don't feed the bears, people!) and are therefore quite dangerous and in danger themselves.
So, it was a heartbreaking situation; but one that I'll also treasure. That bear was fabulous.
Why you shouldn't be concerned about airport x-rays and patdowns {Gadling}
Nov 17th 2010 3:18PM Problem 1: The backscatter devices are possibly not healthy. In fact, if you have had treatments for cancer (particularly breast cancer), or are pregnant or are currently breastfeeding the medical establishment suggestion is to not be subject to these dosages of radiation. Some of these machines are under the medical establishment recommendations, others are above. The TSA, however, does not make explicit any of this when you are THERE, about to be subject to it; so unless you are fully aware in advance of the screening, you (and primarily women) are very much at medical, as well as privacy, risk. (Doctor, Pilot, and Flight Attendant unions, as well as Hero Captain Sullenberger, have all spoken out against these devices due to fears of repeat exposure as much as fears of privacy invasion).
Problem 2: if you "opt out," you have to endure "enhanced pat downs," which it does not sound like the author has actually experienced. They come into contact with parts of your body that most people offer only to lovers or doctors. This contact is such that there have been reports of sexual assault victims experiencing recursive trauma from these enhanced searches.
Problem 3: we have no choices. As the recent John Tyner case proves, even if you elect to OPT OUT of being subject to privacy-invading radiation, and you OPT OUT of being felt up against your will, you are still apparently subject to a $10,000 fine, despite leaving the airport and posing no threat to anybody. This is perverse.
I read this entire article with an asterisk (*) after "It's not that bad"*) because, as a frequent traveller, I have had a similar experience as the author.
however, I also do not feel it is, in any way, legal, justified, or appropriate to subject anybody to the three problems I've set forth. So, given those choices, we're forced to OPT OUT. It is that bad*.
Bagball: a smelly traveler's best friend? {Gadling}
Nov 30th 2008 10:32AM Funny. I'm looking into travel tips for going to more "dangerous" places, and have recently found a tip from Robert Young Pelton:
"One Tip: Line the interior with a garbage bag to keep clothes dry, and pack it with dirty laundry on top; it keeps out the riffraff. "
Seems like RYP would leave the gymball at home, though I'm investigating it.
Merry Christmas: win two round trip tickets on JetBlue + noise canceling headphones {Engadget}
Jan 1st 2008 12:58PM Whoa! I want to go to Los Angeles! Yippee!
