Photo of the Day (12.4.2010)

by Catherine Bodry on

This photo touches on a general feeling I sometimes have about the nature of travel: when I’m jetlagged or simply feeling a little lonely and blue, travel feels like a horizontal line. I’ve simply gone from point A to point B, and I’m still myself no matter where I’ve stepped off the metal tube with wings. Of course, my first encounter with a cloud of chile smoke, or first near-accident crossing a road plants me firmly in the three-dimensional world, and I’m always grateful to be plunged into a new environment.

Thanks to Flickr user Fly For Fun (Gadling’s own Kent Wien!) for sharing this photo with us.

Have any travel-related photos that cause you, however briefly, to ponder your place in space? Upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool, and we just might choose one for our Photo of the Day feature.

Rancher destroys ancient Mayan buildings in Mexico

by Sean McLachlan on


A rancher in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, has destroyed a large Mayan residential complex to make way for pastureland, Fox News Latino reports.

The 2,300 year-old site covers 250 acres and includes many homes, temples, and other buildings. Much of the center of the site was bulldozed away so the rancher could graze his animals there. The rancher claims he recently bought the land and didn’t know the site had any archaeological importance. The government says the site is registered and is launching an investigation.

The rancher didn’t explain how he couldn’t know of the site’s importance if he knew it was so big that he needed to clear it away with heavy machinery. Some of the buildings stood up to ten feet tall. The workers cleared away the town’s main square, including seven buildings and two altars.

[Photo courtesy user Adalberto.H.Vega via Gadling’s flickr pool. This is actually a Mayan site in Honduras and not the site that was destroyed. Sadly, thanks to rancher Ricardo Ascencio Maldonado we can’t get photos of the actual site!]

UNESCO studies Pompeii troubles

by Sean McLachlan on


A UNESCO team has arrived at Pompeii to investigate the recent collapses of ancient walls and buildings, All Headline News reports.

Two Roman walls collapsed earlier this week, and in November the House of Gladiators fell down. Authorities blame heavy rains but there’s a growing controversy over the lack of maintenance at the site.

The Roman city was buried in ash during an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. The ash kept the city remarkably preserved, making it one of the world’s top archaeological treasures.

The team will study the site and give suggestions as to how to preserve it, but the investigators have made clear that it is Italy’s responsibility to do the work. The Italian government has created a task force of archaeologists, craftsmen, and architects to shore up the walls and buildings. Considering that the last conservation project at Pompeii is under investigation for mob connections, it remains to be seen how effective this new task force will be.

[Photo courtesy user Alago via Wikimedia Commons]

China smashes high-speed rail record with 300MPH unmodified train run

by Scott Carmichael on

Earlier this week, the Chinese high speed rail operator pushed one of its newest pieces of rolling stock to 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) during a test run on the new Beijing – Shanghai route.

Train buffs will probably point out that the French SNCF once took their TGV to 357 miles per hour – but they could only achieve that with a highly modified train on a track with more modifications. The Chinese train is 100% stock – and is exactly the same as the one they’ll use on the new route when it opens in 2012.

While the U.S. keeps talking about high-speed rail, the Chinese built or upgraded a whopping 13,000 miles of track, with some brand new routes completed in just a couple of years.

A (Chinese spoken) video is after the jump, but speed is speed, no matter what language it is narrated in.

[Photo: AFP/Getty]

Daily gear deals: $12 iPhone battery, $70 portable DVD player and more

by Scott Carmichael on

Here are the hottest daily gear deals for today, Saturday December 4, 2010. Remember, these deals are often valid for just one day, so act fast before they are gone.

Today’s first deal is for the Kensington iPod/iPhone backup battery pack. This pack charges off a regular USB port and plugs into the dock connector of your phone. We have featured this product in the past, but it just dropped to $12.49, making it well worth another mention. Click here for this deal.

Next up is a 9″ Philips portable DVD player with a 5 hour battery pack. This DVD player obviously plays any kind of DVD, but also supports DIVX and MPEG4 digital video formats. Includes a home and car charger. On sale for $79.97 at Yugster.com.

Next up is another portable DVD player, but this one is designed to install in your car. For $69.99, you get two 7″ screens and all the mounting materials you need. On sale at sellout.woot.com, click here for this deal.

And finally in today’s lineup is a fantastic bargain on the Nikon L110 ultra-zoom digital camera. This 12.1 megapixel camera features a 15x optical zoom, a 3″ LCD display and HD movie mode with HDMI. On sale for $196. Click here for this deal.