2010 › May

Daily gear deals – $20 Chargepod kit, $25 rolling duffel and more

by Scott Carmichael on

Here are the hottest gear deals for today, Wednesday, May 26th 2010. Remember, these deals are often valid for just one day, so act fast before they are gone.

Today’s first deal comes from Yugster, where you’ll find the Chargepod 6-device charger on sale for $19.95. In the kit, you get the Chargepod unit, home and car chargers, a pouch and an assortment of popular charging adapters. Click here for this deal.

Keep the TSA out of your bags with this 4-pack of Masterlock luggage locks. Of course, if they really want to get into your bags, they’ll still manage, but this may slow them down a little. Pack has 4 locks that are keyed alike. On sale for $10.99 at Amazon.com.

Carry more stuff with this Sharper Image 31″ rolling duffel. Obviously, it won’t fit in the overhead compartment, but it’ll work fine for those once-a-year trips that force you to check a bag. The bag features a pull-out handle and is made of ballistic nylon. On sale for $24.99 over at sellout.woot.com.

Charge two USB devices at the same time with the Elago USB charger. Perfect for charging your phone and anything else you carry along with you. On sale for $8.99. Click here for this deal.

Galley Gossip: Goodies for the crew

by Heather Poole on

I’m taking a trip next week to Las Vegas. Is there anything I can bring the flight attendants and pilots as a little token of my appreciation. You guys work a really hard job. I just saw the Capitalism Micheal Moore movie and I had no idea that pilots and flight attendants got such a raw deal from their employers. I thought about making cookies or muffins? Any ideas would be great – Tina B.

Thank you for thinking of us, Tina, that’s really nice of you! But you don’t have to bring us anything for doing our jobs. Except maybe a smile. A little eye contact goes a long way, too. You’d be surprised what a difference that makes in this day and age of travel when passengers rarely acknowledge our greetings during boarding and won’t remove their headphones when we’re trying to ask them what they’d like to drink. Don’t even get me started on passengers who actually say please and thank you! When I hear those simple words I can’t help but provide nonstop refills on drinks. No joke, tears just about came to my eyes on a recent flight when a little girl named Fallyn made the crew a thank you card for being nice and making her feel so comfortable.

“You must work for an airline,” I said to Fallyn’s father with a knowing wink.

He looked at me funny. “No. Why?”

Because it was the nicest thing I’d heard in a long time!I’m not alone. When my coworker spotted Fallyn’s card hanging up in the aft galley, he told me about the time a kid on one of his flights drew a picture of him, Cart Man. My colleague actually had the picture made into a magnet and to this very day – fifteen years later – it still hangs on his fridge. Little things really do mean a lot.

If you really want to bring something edible for the crew, make sure it’s wrapped and sealed. I’d hate for you to waste money on those who might be afraid to eat anything for fear it might not be safe. That’s why candy is always a good choice. Julie, creator of Jet Line Clothing, brought the last five crews York Peppermint Patties. A Delta flight attendant, and prettiest laviator, never commutes home without Toblerones. I’ve had pilots bring donuts and frequent fliers (regulars) hand out everything from chocolate covered strawberries to gold hoop earrings (on Christmas). I’ve even received coupons to fast food joints and a five-dollar gift card to Starbucks. Recently a passenger gave me a pen. It’s my favorite pen. I keep it in my uniform blazer pocket. Oh and discarded magazines always make my day!

Whatever you decide to bring for the crew will be appreciated. Trust me! And watch how quickly your beverage gets refilled.

Whenever I bring treats for the crew, I’m never sure how to distribute the goodies. It’s easiest to hand it to the flight attendant at the front as I’m boarding and mention it’s for the entire crew, though I’m usually in coach. I’m often on regional jets and it’s unusual to have more than two flight attendants. I assume they’ll share (and with cockpit crew too) but I never know. – Mickey

Not only will it be easier on you to pass off the goodies to the flight attendant at the boarding door, it’s easier on us as well. With airplanes being turned around quickly, full flights staffed with minimum crew, and not enough bins for all that luggage, boarding can get very hectic. When things calm down the flight attendant working the front of the aircraft will let the rest of the crew know that a passenger brought something special for them. But go ahead and let a flight attendant working in the back know you brought something for the crew. Not only will this ensure that everyone shares, it also lets us know WHO brought the treats on board so we can be sure to thank the correct person.

Now you’d think that flight attendants would automatically share with pilots, but that rarely happens. At my airline, flight attendants working domestic routes don’t get catered meals. Basically we either eat what we’ve brought from home or first class passenger leftovers. But pilots still get meals on select routes. Therein lies the problem. So if you’re bringing a food item for the crew and you’d like the pilots to also have some, make sure to let the flight attendants know. And when you do so get as close to the cockpit as possible and yell really loudly. That said, flight attendants and pilots tend to get along better at smaller airlines. They treat each other more like family. Probably because they fly together more often and lay over in the same hotels, forcing everyone to be on their best behavior.

Photo courtesy of Thundershead

Swimmer completes Himalayan swim

by Kraig Becker on

A few days back we told you about Lewis Gordon Pugh, a British long distance swimmer and environmentalist, who had traveled to the Himalaya to attempt the highest altitude, long distance swim ever. At the time, he was in Gorak Shep, a small village near Everest Base Camp, acclimatizing and preparing to take his record breaking dip. Since then, he has completed the 1km swim in ice cold glacial waters, but not without a few scary moments first.

Pugh is considered one of the world’s top cold water swimmers, and has traveled the globe making similar swims in an effort to raise awareness of global warming and the effect it is having on the Earth’s environment. In this case, he went to the Himalaya to shine a spotlight on the disappearing glaciers there.

He might have asked himself what he was thinking the first time he took the plunge into Pumori Lake, at 17,700 feet. In his blog, Pugh called his test swim the most frightening day of his swimming career after he almost “went under” twice in 300 meters. The altitude played havoc with his body, making it impossible to breathe and zapping his endurance. Worse yet, he suffered from a bit of altitude sickness as well.

But the next day, Pugh regrouped, found his pacing, and completed his1km swim through waters that were just 36ºF in temperature. In his customary style, he also wore just his Speedo, swim cap, and goggles, which gives me the shivers just thinking about it. It took him 22 minutes, 51 seconds to cover the distance, and the exhausted swimmer was happy to be out of the water when he was done.

Having just been in the same area as Pugh a month or so back, I can tell you that it is difficult to walk and breathe there, let alone swim. I can’t even imagine how hard this must have been for him.

Photo of the Day (5.25.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on
Today’s Photo of the Day comes out of Jasper, Alabama from Flickr user bamassippi. Taken under the stadium lights of a High School football field, I feel that this photo captures a quintessential American summer evening – and with Memorial Day right around the corner, there will hopefully be many of these summer sunsets up ahead.

Jasper is part of Walker County, which once ranked among the world’s leading producers of coal. Settled in 1815, it was named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper, a Red Stick War hero.

Do you have some simple shots that put your hometown in a new light? Share them with us! Submit to our Gadling Flickr Pool and we could feature it as our Photo of the Day!

What’s a microhood?

by Jeremy Kressmann on

We define the places we travel by destination and name. You visit the country of Brazil. Or spend the weekend in Chicago. Hang out in the Latin Quarter in Paris. But as our traveling tastes have become ever-more specialized, there’s been a movement towards defining ever-smaller areas of turf, more specifically called “microhoods.” These specialized places represent areas within large cities, sometimes as small as a block or two, with a dense range of activities, shopping and nightlife options.

Your typical microhood can be found in some of the world’s biggest cities, places like New York City or San Francisco, where urban density is high enough to support a large variety of buildings and businesses in a small area. An area mentioned in a recent investigation of microhoods used the area tagged as “Folsoma” in San Francisco as an example, a small block within the city’s Mission District on Folsom between 7th and 8th Streets. This area, of course, lies within the larger “SoMa,” itself within the confines of the city of San Francisco.

Is the idea of defining a microhood simply a real estate marketing gimmick? Or is there a larger trend at work here? Perhaps as technology allows us ever-more detailed methods to document and explore strange places, the idea of the microhood makes more sense. For others, the microhood helps make sense of a visit to a large and overwhelming city, providing a suggestion of what’s worth seeing to help plan their stay. Ever heard of any microhoods during your travels? Tell us about it in the comments.