Photo of the day – Feeding the fish

by Meg Nesterov on

Visitors to India know that cows are considered holy and not to be eaten, but in some parts of the southern state of Karnataka, you can cross fish off the menu too. The fish at the Sringeri temple on the banks of the Tunga River are also considered sacred and fishing is banned, though pilgrims and visitors can feed the fish puffed rice. As photographer and Flickr user PointingandShooting notes, all that food can make for some enormous fish!

Make it a New Year’s resolution to add your photos to the Gadling Flickr Pool; you could be the next Photo of the Day.

How to access free WiFi in Rome

by Jessica Marati on

Anyone who has ever tried to access free WiFi in Rome probably won’t be surprised by a recent Business Insider headline proclaiming that Italians Don’t Care About the Internet.

According to a report released by ISTAT, Italy‘s official statistics bureau, only 54.5% of Italians have access to the Internet, and 26.7% of Italians think the Internet is “useless” and “uninteresting”.

It follows, then, that it’s damn near impossible for tourists to access the Internet in Italy’s capital city. Though cafes are ubiquitous, there are few with free WiFi, fewer with available electrical outlets, and only a handful with baristas that don’t give you dirty looks after thirty minutes of web surfing.

Thankfully, the city is taking steps toward a more connected capital with its Roma Wireless program, which offers free WiFi hotspots throughout Rome. There’s a catch, though: the free WiFi service is only available to individuals with a valid Italian cellular phone number. It’s well worth the effort to obtain an Italian SIM card if connectivity is important and your stay is longer than a few days.

The first step is to visit a local mobile provider. TIM, Italy’s largest, has offices throughout central Rome, including one on Via del Corso and one in Piazza dei Cinquecento near the Termini main train station. A new SIM card costs 10 euro, with 5 euro of included credit, and you’ll need your passport to register for a TIM account.

Once you have your new number, just visit a hotspot, plug your number into the registration page that pops up, wait for a confirmation text message, and get one hour of free WiFi per day. Any more, and you’ll have to face the wrath of the barista.

Understanding the sport of Wellie Wanging

by Jessica Festa on




No, it’s not what you think it is, although it still not your usual sport. Wellie Wanging, also known as Gumboot Throwing, is a sport in New Zealand that consists of throwing a Wellington boot, which is basically like a rubber galoshe, as far as possible within a set boundary. While it originated in Great Britain, the sport’s major event, Gumboot Day, occurs in Taihape, New Zealand. The celebration of gumboots began in 1985 and occurs each year on the Tuesday after Easter. While the sport may sound silly, people take it pretty seriously, and there are very specific official rules, such as “the use of wind assistance is allowed and, indeed, encouraged. Waiting for a suitable gust, however, is limited to one minute. No artificial or man-made wind is to be used” and “no tampering with the welly shall be allowed. Factory finish only. No silicone polish is to be applied”.

Want to experience Wellie Wanging for yourself? The 2012 Gumboot Day Festival will take place on March 10th. To get a better idea of the game’s technique and form, check out the video above.

Food Landscapes: Carl Warner replicates landscapes with food

by Elizabeth Seward on

If you’ve ever gazed upon a landscape so rich you’d like to just eat it, you might be interested in Carl Warner‘s Food Landscapes. Warner is a British photographic artist with, you could say, a taste for travel. He’s an architect of edible landscapes. With minimal Photoshop assistance, Warner creates fantastical images of believable landscapes… but there’s a twist: the trees in the image are broccoli. The water in the image is salmon, the rocks are potatoes. He builds his landscapes on tabletops with real food, but he builds these 3D scenes in such a way so that a brilliant landscape can be reflected in a photograph of the tabletop construction. So attention travelers and fans of travel! If you appreciate both scenery and food, this book might be a safe bet for your next coffee table book shopping spree.

iPhone app sees language barriers as opportunities

by Chris Owen on

Potential language barriers have international travelers learning the basics of communication before arriving in a foreign land, just to make their way around. Knowing common terms, even with a limited vocabulary, can go a long way to fulfilling needs. But what about making friends during travel and communicating with them later at home? A new iPhone app has the answer and is available now.

Transfire XP brings the first chat and instant-messaging app with real-time, translated text. The free application features a user-friendly interface, fast message delivery, and supports over 50 languages.

Say for example, your new Argentinian friend, Javier, speaks only Spanish. With Transfire XP, you can now chat with each other in real-time, without any language barrier. Send a message wishing Javier a “Happy Birthday!”, and he will read “Feliz Cumpleaños!” on his phone. Javier then responds, “Gracias,” and you read, “Thank you.””The use of chat applications continues to grow as a replacement for text messaging. Transfire is on it’s way to becoming the gold-standard in instant messaging and translation for your iPhone. We hope Transfire will improve communication barriers on a global scale,” explained Elik Topolosky, co-founder of TNT Creations, Transfire XP’s creator.

The Transfire XP app finds contacts on your local phone or device, and supports contacts from gchat and Yahoo Messenger. Support for more chat platforms will soon be added, including Facebook, ICQ, Baidu and others.

“Transfire isn’t just meant to overcome language barriers; it’s a slick social networking app that sees barriers as opportunities,” adds Jonathan Topolosky, TNT co-founder

Flickr photo by avlxyz