Photo of the Day (08.26.08)

by Grant Martin on

Mallorca. This island situated some 250km of the southern coast of Spain is the largest of the Balearic Islands and home to some of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. You may have heard of the Mediterranean party capital Ibiza? This is right next door.

I’ve been tossing around the idea of crashing in Palma, the capital of the Mallorca (and of the entire archipelago)
for Thanksgiving this year and believe that this photo taken by jonrawlinson may have finally helped me commit. Now, if only I could find good plane tickets.

Have any cool photos you’d like to share with the world? Add them to the Gadling Pool on Flickr, and it might be chosen as our Photo of the Day.

Brook Silva-Braga on long-term travel and his newest film

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Ever thought about taking a video camera with you on your next trip? Over at Brave New Traveler, Gadling alum and documentary filmmaker Brook Silva-Braga talks about the challenges of shooting video while on the road, why long-term travel isn’t so scary after all, and what his next video project is about. The interview is well worth a read.

Brook has done more to preach the benefits of long-term travel than just about anyone I know, and he sums up his argument for it thusly: “To me the most powerful evidence in support of long-term travel is this: I’ve never met someone who gave it a try and didn’t like it. It’s only people who don’t go who can list all the problems with it.”

For those wondering what Brook has been up to recently, you won’t be disappointed. Brook is following up his award-winning documentary A Map for Saturday with a new film called One Day in Africa, which is an attempt to “show a more nuanced version of Africa than the devastatingly dire or falsely hopeful stories we see so often.”

Brook plans on releasing that film in early 2009– we’ll keep you posted.

Read the whole thing at BNT here.

David Byrne of the Talking Heads gives cycling in NYC a boost with his bicycle racks

by Jamie Rhein on

PopEater gave me a heads up about David Byrne of the Talking Heads designing bike racks in Manhattan in order to promote bike riding. The bike racks are finished and in place. Each reflect its location. For example, head to Wall Street and you’ll find one shaped like a dollar sign. Here is a link to his Web page that shows the racks and where they are located.

The video is a clip from this past July. The rack on Wall Street is one of them shown. Plus, you’ll get a feel for Byrne and the experience of bike riding in Manhattan. If you do bike ride, watch out for vehicles.

A taxi driver opened his car door without looking first which caused someone near and dear to me to fly over the door and break his collar bone.

Co-author of “100 Things to Do Before You Die” recently died: Sad news and a reminder to not wait to travel

by Jamie Rhein on

If there was ever an indication that one should seize the day and not wait to take that wonderful trip you’ve always wanted to go on, it’s this story at msnbc.com.

Dave Freeman, the co-author of 100 Things to Do Before You Die: Travel Events You Just Can’t Miss unexpectedly died on August 17. He fell and hit is head in his own house. He was only 47.

As a person who is reaching a hallmark birthday this coming Saturday, I can say that the title of the book certainly gives me the sense that time can slip by if one is not careful. Freeman’s death, illustrates the point. It also points to how unpredictable life is anyway, so why not take chances?

Sure there are the health threats that may loom in the future: cancer, diabetes and heart failure that niggle at you to hit the road while you still can, but there is the truth that anything can happen at any time, so don’t fret the small stuff and travel. Take a risk.

A friend of mine once borrowed money, for example, to come to visit me while I was a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia when we were both single. Years later, she recently returned from a trip to Peru with her husband. They left their elementary age children at home.

Whenever I wonder if a trip makes sense, I think of my friend, and how her life has continued to be one open to surprises even though she is the most organized person I know. She’s the reason I applied to go to school in Denmark when I was in college. I partially tribute her to my life that is largely one filled with travel.

For ideas on where to start traveling and what to look for when you go, Freeman’s book is a place turn to for ideas that offer some extra umph. I’m sure Freeman felt the pull of urgency to not waste time which is probably why he picked this topic in the first place. I hope that Freeman was able to see and do the 100 ideas he wrote about.

If you pick up the book and hit one of the places Freeman and his co-author Neil Teplica recommends, tip your hat to the sky and give him a big thank you.

If any of you have used Freeman’s and Teplica’s suggestions already, please let us know. It would be neat to see just how many people Freeman influenced while he was gracing the planet with his presence. How wonderful that his influence can live on.

Block on in-flight Internet phone calls bypassed – for now

by Scott Carmichael on

When airlines (slowly) started introducing in-flight Internet access to their flights, they were very quick to point out that “VOIP calls” would not be possible. VOIP stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol”, and basically means making phone calls over the Internet. All popular VOIP applications like Skype and Vonage have been blocked.

The airlines, and the provider behind the service obviously do not want a plane full of people chatting on the phone, yelling loudly about how they just made a fortune on the stock market. The other reason is of course because each flight only has a limited amount of data to share between all the passengers. If half the plane suddenly starts calling their aunts and uncles, regular web browsing would become impossible when all the bandwidth is sucked up by phone chatter.

Of course, when you tell people they can’t do something, their natural response is to see how they can prove you wrong. It took a week, but the block on VOIP calls has been successfully bypassed. By using a web service called Phweet, passengers have been able to make phone calls to their friends. The system only works with people who have a Twitter account, but it’s better than nothing. Of course, now this workaround has been published, it will only be a matter of time before the fun comes to an end, and the creative minds will have to find another working solution.

(Source: Wired)