Don’t forget to vote in Airline Madness

by Mike Barish on

Airline Madness is Gadling’s tournament of airline annoyances. You can catch up on all of the previous tournament action here.

Polls are still open in the second round of Airline Madness. Don’t forget to vote to see who will advance to the Final Four of our tournament of airline annoyances. Go ahead and share your thoughts on the match-ups in the comments, share with your friends and voice your opinions to us on Twitter and Facebook. Polls close on Friday at 11:59PM EDT.You can easily jump to any of the second round match-ups be clicking the links below.

More Airline Madness:
First round match-ups
#1 Annoying passengers vs. #16 Disgusting bathrooms
#2 Legroom vs. #15 Inefficient boarding procedures
#3 Lack of free food/prices for food vs. #14 Cold cabin/no blankets
#4 Baggage Fees vs. #13 Obese people who take up two seats
#5 Lack of overhead space vs. Inattentive parents of crying babies
#6 Change fees/no free standby vs. #11 Lack of personal entertainment/charging for entertainment
#7 Rude airline staff vs. #10 Having to turn off electronic devices during takeoff & landing
#8 People who recline their seats vs. #9 People who get mad at people who recline their seats
Hotel Madness: Gadling’s tournament of airline annoyances

Catch up on all the Airline Madness here.

Nominate Gadling for best Travel Blog!

by Grant Martin on

Nominations for the tenth annual bloggies opened up late last week, the annual who’s-who of blogs out on the interwebs. Readers savvy in the blog community are encouraged to drop off their favorite nominations until February 12th, with categories ranging from Best African Blog to Best Photography Blog to most important of all: Best Travel Blog.

We’d love if you could stop by and drop off a vote of confidence for Gadling — it’s not even necessary to fill out a nomination for each category, you just have to nominate a minimum of three blogs.

Once nominations are filed then it’s off to the races on January 21st, when five of the top contenders in each section are revealed for public voting. Everything comes to a head at this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas this March, where winners will be announced.

We promise to thank every single one of you if we reach the podium. Until then, you can nominate us by clicking here.

The remote vote

by Annie Scott on

Absentee ballots are all the rage. Are you a remote voter? It’s not hard to vote, even when you’re traveling, if you plan ahead. But sometimes things go awry.

I still vote in Minnesota. It’s done and dusted – well, done and notarized. I was nervous, though, that my ballot wouldn’t arrive in sufficient time for me to fill it out and get it back to the Secretary of State’s office by tomorrow! As the days of last week drained away and the ballot still hadn’t arrived, I confessed to my roommate that if I couldn’t vote because my ballot never got here, I was probably going to lie about it to all my friends because I would be so ashamed and certain it was somehow my fault. Even though I totally requested the absentee ballot at the beginning of October.

It came. I voted. I swear.

Cue panic for those of you who are away from home and don’t have a ballot! Well, there may still be hope for you. Read on.

First of all, Google “absentee ballot” and the state in which you are registered. The rules vary by state, but in some cases, you can even fax your ballot, and you have until tomorrow!

Here’s an absentee voting FAQ and the link for those of you who requested a ballot and didn’t get one in time.

Now vote. I don’t wanna hear your “but I was in the Alps!” nonsense.

[via: Wired]

Three freebie treats on Election Day

by Jamie Rhein on

After you head to the polls to vote on Tuesday, stop in a Krispe Kreme donut place, a Starbucks or a Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream for a free thanks for voting treat.

As blogger Beth Pinsker wrote on WalletPop, Krispe Kreme doesn’t care who you voted for, but that you voted. If you show up wearing your “I Voted” sticker you’ll get a special star-shaped donut with red, white and blue sprinkles. Some Krispe Kreme places may be handing out the traditional round donut, but with the patriotic sprinkles. This offer is only good on Tuesday, and only one donut per customer.

Starbucks is offering a thank you for voting cup of coffee. I found that out when I was looking up the John McCain/Sarah Palin, aka, Tina Fey video from Saturday Night Live. Here’s a link to the Starbucks ad that is using the election as a way to get people to make the world a better place. I guess coffee helps. It helps me. To get your free tall size cup, go to a Starbucks on the 4th and say you voted.

Ben and Jerry’s is giving out free scoops of ice-cream from 5 to 8 p.m. on the 4th. The free scoops, one scoop per customer are to celebrate democracy. From what I can tell, you don’t need to have voted.

Starbucks is offering a thank you for voting cup of coffee. I found that out when I was looking up the John McCain/Sarah Palin, aka, Tina Fey video from Saturday Night Live.

Here’s a link to the Starbucks ad that is using the election as a way to entice people to make the world a better place. I guess coffee helps. It helps me. To get your free tall size cup, go to a Starbucks on the 4th and say you voted.

On the 4th, Ben and Jerry’s is giving out free scoops of ice-cream from 5 to 8 p.m. The free scoops, one scoop per customer, are to celebrate democracy. From what I can tell, you don’t need to have voted in order to get a treat. Although, I’d vote just in case.

Canada Holds Elections, Conservatives Win but Not by Enough

by Josh Lew on

While their neighbors to the south fret over their own upcoming trips to the polls, Canada got on with it and elected, or in many cases re-elected, its parliamentary leaders earlier this week. The results: the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper won 16 more seats while their Liberal peers dropped 18 seats. However, the results are not enough to give Harper’s party control of parliament. That means that they will have to form a minority parliament, relying on alliances with other, smaller parties to get things done.

Some of the other parliamentary players include the New Democratic Party (NDP), which earned 37 seats, and Bloc Québécois (BC), which now has 50 seats. The BC is a unique party because it seeks the Independence and sovereignty of Quebec Province and is not concerned very much with the rest of Canada. They gained two more seats in this election than they held beforehand. In the end, though, it seems that the elections did not alter the balance of power too much.

[Via CBC]