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Amazing Race 14, recap 11: Beijing, China's food is awesome--- and awful {Gadling}
May 5th 2009 12:43PM "If Luke and Margie win what a great boost for women over forty and people who are deaf. They can kick butt."
Yeah, and they can shoulder check women out of their way also.
Homeless UK man is a real-life Viktor Navorski {Gadling}
Feb 22nd 2008 4:22PM The real life Viktor Navorski is Merhan Karimi Nasseri, "an Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 8 August 1988 until August 2006, when he was hospitalized for an unspecified ailment." (Wikipedia) Stephen Spielberg's Dreamworks company is reported to have paid Nasseri $250,000 to use his story for the movie "The Terminal".
Geo-tagging photographs with a GPS unit {Gadling}
Dec 31st 2007 3:39PM You don't need this specific device if you have some type of GPS that lets you save track logs. There is/was a project at Microsoft Research called the World Wide Media Exchange -- they created a utility that does the same thing with the track log from any GPS. It's not fancy and doesn't have a lot of features, but it's free and it works for geotagging your photos. The original site is http://wwmx.org, but the download links seem to be disabled at the moment. An alternate download site at http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads/Details/eadb6a33-b1b8-4c4d-b713-64fae728f74f/Details.aspx seems to be still working. You can also do a Google search for "location stamper" and you'll find several articles about the utility.
A Town That Makes its Own Money {Gadling}
Jun 22nd 2007 12:32AM Ithaca, NY has its own local currency system as well. I saw a show about it on PBS, and it seems to be really successful.
http://www.ithacahours.org
Video: 747 Makes a Very, Very Low Landing {Gadling}
Jun 15th 2007 6:10PM If you listen, you can hear the pilot throttle up once, then I'm pretty certain a second time right before the nose of the plane reaches the beach. I'd bet that pilot needed new pants too -- imagine the view they get. Actually, no need to imagine -- there's a cockpit view of a landing on this runway at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksmDuXO_k6E -- of course, this one's a far better landing.
Japan's Capsule Hotels {Gadling}
Feb 18th 2007 12:24PM Capsule hotels may be fine when you're truly on a budget, but it's not the only cheap lodging. You linked to the Asakusa Capsule Hotel, which charges 3000 yen (about $25) per night for the capsules. Last December, I stayed in a ryokan (Japanese style inn) in the Asakusa district, and it was only 4300 yen (about $36) per night. For that, I got a small but nice room (about 7 1/2 x 10 feet) with a futon, a little table with a tea set and a pot of hot water, and a TV, plus, ohmygod the luxury, my own toilet, shower, and bathtub. There was a refrigerator in the hall, and a PC with internet access, and with only about 12 rooms, there usually wasn't any wait. Their web site is http://www.toukaisou.com. No kids allowed, and expect the room to be small, but it's great for one person, or two if you travel light or you're okay with stepping over your suitcases. But this is just one of many across the country, so if you're planning a budget trip to Japan, search for ryokans as well as capsule hotels and consider both options.
Backcountry Blog {Gadling}
Oct 29th 2006 10:52PM If anyone's interested in climbing Rainier, I strongly recommend doing it the way I did this summer. I participated in the American Lung Association of Washington's "Climb for Clean Air" program. It's basically a walkathon with 10,000' of elevation gain. If you know enough people that you can reach the fundraising requirements, most of the gear is provided, the Rainier Mountaineering guides are provided, etc. (Which could save you a lot of money if you are able to get your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc. to contribute.) They have group training hikes from February through July, monthly meetings, and a mailing list where participants can discuss clothing and equipment, food, training, fundraising, etc. Climbing Rainier was so far beyond the simple day hiking that I'd done previously, but their training hikes were enough to get me ready. They've been doing this for years and really know how to prepare people for the mountain. I forget the exact numbers, but hey say they have a much better success rate than people who just go through one of the guide services on their own. And you're climbing with some really nice people that you've gotten to know over the past few months, which is a definite plus. And they definitely take good care of you. I mean, Lou Whittaker himself taught my climb school. That was very cool. Oh, and we raised a quarter million dollars for the Lung Association, which I suppose is a good thing as well...
If anyone's interested, the current URL is http://www.cleanairchallenges.org/climb_for_clean_air. They seem to be migrating from http://www.alaw.org to this new site, so there doesn't seem to be much there right now. There's a guy who set up a web site with pictures from last summer's climb at http://www.cfca2006.org. And if nothing else, just Google "climb for clean air", and you'll find lots of information.
Photo of the day (6/11/2006) {Gadling}
Jul 12th 2006 11:07PM I'm not sure where this picture was taken, but there is a place like this in Rome, called the Cemetery of the Capuchin Monks.
http://www.xo4.com/Capuchin/capuchin.html
