Jun 22nd, 2009 at 1:30PM: Imagine. There you are driving along an expressway in South Florida. You're checking the rear-view mirror and side-view mirrors, watching the distance between you and the cars in front of your car, smoothly navigating traffic. You're doing a swell job, and then there's a surprise--something you weren't planning on. A yellow object comes into view. A large yellow tropical bird, perhaps? Your heart ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
bizarre posts
83-year-old lands plane on expressway
Jun 22nd, 2009 at 1:30PM: Imagine. There you are driving along an expressway in South Florida. You're checking the rear-view mirror and side-view mirrors, watching the distance between you and the cars in front of your car, smoothly navigating traffic. You're doing a swell job, and then there's a surprise--something you weren't planning on. A yellow object comes into view. A large yellow tropical bird, perhaps? Your heart ...Pilot nightmare: Passenger flings open door and jumps out
Apr 18th, 2009 at 10:00AM: Here is a scene that I think would take one of the top spots of a pilot's worst nightmare.
Right when you're flying 23,000 above one of the coldest places above Canada this time of year, one of your two passengers, the one who has been freaking out, totally loses his marbles, flings open the door and jumps out.
That's what happened a couple days ago to two pilots who were taking two passengers ...Gadling Take FIVE: Week of April 11--April 17
Apr 17th, 2009 at 6:00PM: How wonderful to be in the middle of April when the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining. By now, you've noticed Gadling has a brand new look. Kudos to the design team! We're pleased as punch. With wider photos, Karen can show off her photography expertise all that much more.
Along with the changes, we found out that Tynan, thankfully, survived a mugging. He has tips on what you need to ...Tunisian pilot who prayed while crash landing a plane gets 10 years in jail
Mar 25th, 2009 at 5:30PM: If I were a pilot landing a plane after the engines had conked out on me, I might pray. That doesn't mean I'd take my hands off the controls and stop doing my part to aim for a safe landing, but perhaps there would be words beseeching a power bigger than myself for a dose of divine intervention. It couldn't hurt. Right?
For the Tunisian pilot I read about in the guardian.co.uk, uttering a prayer ...Gadling Take FIVE -- March 14-March 20
Mar 20th, 2009 at 7:15PM: Happy first day of spring! This week we're having a book give-a-way. Pico Iyer's book The Open Road: Global Travels of the 14th Dalai Lama can be yours. All you have to do is leave a comment about a place that captured your attention at the end Iyer's Talking Travel interview. Two winners will be picked in a random drawing.
Mike just came back from his awesome trip to New Zealand and Australia. ...Passengers revolt and refuse to fly without a new pilot
Feb 4th, 2009 at 9:30AM: Last month, two passengers heading through airport security thought a pilot was drunk and called the authorities. Last May, a pilot was found drunk and naked in the woods. In this latest what-is-wrong-with-the-pilot episode, more than 100 passengers on a Boeing 767 jet bound for New York from Moscow signed a paper saying they thought the pilot was three sheets to the wind.
This happened after the ...In Dubai, money can buy you a room on a refrigerated beach
Dec 16th, 2008 at 10:30AM: Sometimes the creativity that blistering hot weather breeds is truly mind-boggling: Pallazo Versace Hotel has decided to create a temperature controlled beach extending out and around its new hotel in Dubai, so that the "top people" (ugh) don't burn their feet. "We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on," says Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace. Of course, ...Doctor turned over to FBI for trying to use front toilet in aircraft
Aug 12th, 2008 at 8:20AM: A 65-year old Indian urologist was turned over to the FBI after he tried to visit the toilet in the front of the airline. The first time the doctor tried to use the toilet on the Southwest flight, it was occupied by the captain, so he went back to his seat. When he saw the captain come out, he got up to go again when he was pushed back into his seat by airline staff. Apparently this was because ...Latest accident at Six Flags is another safety reminder
Jun 29th, 2008 at 1:40AM: Perhaps it's the word amusement that helps make amusement park accidents seem so devastating. The latest accident I heard about on the news tonight is too awful to imagine and is a reminder to go over safety lessons with teens over and over and over again.
As a parent of a teen, I know that the diatribe of safety lessons may not actually keep my daughter that much safer, but what else is a ...Terrorist themed restaurant in Lebanon
Jun 23rd, 2008 at 8:30AM: Who said terrorism and violence couldn't be laughed at, or to that matter, even eaten!? Fast food restaurant "Buns and Guns" in Beirut allows you to do both. In a space decorated as if a military post (with weapons, ammunition and camouflage netting hanging from the ceiling), this eatery serves "rocket propelled grenade" (chicken on a skewer), "terrorist bread" and other dishes called ...Dubai plans "Tower in Motion"
Jun 22nd, 2008 at 9:40AM: Nothing phases me in Dubai anymore. Anything and everything is possible in this city, so when I read news like this: "Dubai plans self-powered skyscraper with individually rotating floors," I'm quite numb. Opening para: "A $350 million tower to be known as the Dynamic Architecture building is to be constructed in Dubai. The 68-story tower will feature floors that can be individually rotated via ...China renaming menu items to make them less bizarre
Jun 19th, 2008 at 11:30AM: Sometimes not knowing the language of the country you are visiting is a good thing.
How else could you possibly justify ordering a local dish called "Husband and wife's lung slice" or possibly "Chicken without sexual life" in Mandarin? This way, you simply believe something must have gone awfully wrong with the translation. Chances are, it is an accurate translation. China is known for a wide ...Tours where you get to be Indiana Jones
May 6th, 2008 at 11:40AM: As if traveling to a new country wasn't adventurous enough, a Spain based company called "Viajes Con Imaginación" (Vacations With Imagination) has started offering trips to Egypt where they not only organize your entire itinerary, but they also plan strange things and make them happen to you. For example: robberies, kidnappings, ghosts coming to haunt you at night -- it's all part of the ...The world's craziest houses
Apr 8th, 2008 at 10:40AM: They say that "home is where the heart is," but I have to wonder when I look at the at the "Gravity-Defying Homes" gallery over at design site PointClickHome. Perhaps the expression is better written as "home is where the crazy is?" Point Click Home's gallery features a slideshow of some of the most surreal and interesting houses from around the world, including strange structures in Russia, The ...Genitalia restaurant in China
Mar 16th, 2008 at 10:20AM: If you think that eating water-buffalo penis, a yaks knob with a hunk of foreskin, a dog's penis, bull's penis tip, bull's perineum, or deer-penis juice is gross (excuse me one minute while I go to throw up), think again. Apparently they're delicious delicacies, with energetic and virility benefits that rich Chinese people (mainly male members of the Communist Party) pay up to £250 for. ...Bizarre Japanese kinks: school boy cafes and more
Mar 7th, 2008 at 12:00PM: While Japanese men get their kicks from "maid cafes", Japanese women are getting their kicks from "school boy cafes" where waiters dress like teenage boys who go to boarding-school. If I've understood clearly, these Japanese women do not want to get with these men dressed as school boys, but their thrill factor lies in the romance that they see (or imagine) between the boys at the cafes -- ...Obama Japan supports Obama America to boost tourism
Feb 16th, 2008 at 12:00PM: A town of 32,000 people in Japan called Obama is raging with support for Barack Obama as a means to increase tourism to their town. An Obama presidency could boost the city's recognition and possibly increase foreign tourism. The symbol you see here is an unofficial illustration of the group that supports Obama, clearly not for his policy, but for his name. How's that for strategy to enhance ...Dubai shuts down for Bush visit
Jan 13th, 2008 at 10:00AM: It has been declared a public holiday in Dubai tomorrow because of Bush's visit. The notice people get? Not even 24-hours. All private and public sectors will be closed, and so will all the main roads. In other words, doing anything tomorrow will either be painful, or impossible. Dubai abruptly declared dysfunctional like this for a day, is an example of how your life can be thrown into ...Visa problems? Maybe you should visit the Visa God
Jan 3rd, 2008 at 4:00PM: My fellow Indians have found a new way to secure visas to the West. Go to Hyderabad, take 11 rounds of the Chiklur Balaji Temple and voila, your visa will not be rejected. A temple that has been around for about 100 years hardly drew anyone until recently, thanks to the reincarnation of Hindu Lord Vishnu into "Visa God", it now draws 100,000 visitors a week. People go as early as 6am to avoid the ...Christmas in Madrid, where's your wig?
Dec 24th, 2007 at 3:30PM: One of the strangest things people do in Madrid for Christmas is wear crazy wigs around the city. What's stranger is that nobody really knows why! For the last 30 years or more, Plaza Mayor has been home to a Christmas market with over a 100 stalls that sell all sorts of things: miniature statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary; novelty gift-wrapping material; carnival accessories like tinsel wigs, ...
