Chicago’s thoughtful guide for folks who have disabilities

by Jamie Rhein on

Over this past year, each time I’ve gone to the Columbus Zoo, I’ve looked at the hopefully temporary location of handicapped parking and thought, “This is not very handicapped friendly.” It’s too far from the main gate. By the time a person hoofs it to the main gate, it’s been a hike already. The main gate, to be fair, is going to be located elsewhere once the water park is finished, and the details for connecting the zoo to the new water park are completed. I’m assuming the gate will once more be closer to the parking lot. In the meantime, there’s a bit of a long walk. Possibly, the walk seems long because before the renovations started, handicapped parking was right at the gate.

For anyone who has a disability, or who travels with people who have disabilities–where accessibility to attractions is a concern, Chicago has developed a guide to help folks find the easy places to visit. “Easy Access Chicago” highlights all those spots that are handicapped accessible and provides details about visiting those places.

As people get older, but still have a desire to get out and enjoy travel, this type of guide is a great idea. I hope other cities follow suit if they haven’t already. It seems this guide would be useful for folks packing a stroller as well. You can download the guide at http://easyaccesschicago.org/ or call 1-800-226-6632 to order one. The guide is free.

Walking from the UK to India with no money

by Iva Skoch on

You think walking from Bristol to Gandhi’s birthplace in India–through the war-torn Afghanistan–is bad enough? Try doing it with no money in your pocket. A 28-year-old British man, Mark Boyle, started his 9000-mile journey on Wednesday with just a few T-shirts, a bandage, sunscreen, a knife and spare pair of sandals.

Boyle is an ex-dotcom businessman who is planning to walk 15-45 miles a day and not touch any money, credit cards or travelers’ cheques the entire time. Why, you ask? To show his faith in humanity and get back to a more communal way of living.

You can follow his journey here.

Best prank ever: Stopping time at Grand Central Station

by Jerry Guo on


I wish I had been there. This is possibly one of the most astounding (visually at least) stunts ever pulled. No exaggeration–just watch the video.

Over 200 New Yorkers recently walked into one of the busiest train stations in the world, New York’s Grand Central Station, and at exactly 2:30 pm, all froze in place. There’s one guy in the video who froze just as he was stooping down to pick up some scattered papers. Talk about commitment.

Get the full briefing on the backstory here.

UPDATE: Part 2 of this prank, now in London and now even more impressive.
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Even more pranks:

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A behind-the-scenes tour of Wolong Panda Reserve

by Jerry Guo on

Awwww. Who doesn’t love pandas? Especially 20 adorable baby pandas playing in a “panda kindergarten.” Below is a gallery of exclusive photos from my reporting trip to Wolong Panda Reserve, the world’s most famous captive breeding center for these highly endangered animals.

Unfortunately, my big story for Science Magazine is behind a subscription wall, but you can check out a short story about my visit to Wolong here, for another magazine, The Scientist. There’s a fun little slide-show with even more pictures from that trip here.

I highly recommend visiting Wolong, particularly because they have a couple hundred pandas at the breeding center. It’s also set against an absolutely gorgeous backdrop. Oh, and if you have $100 to drop, you’ll even be able to hold your very own panda!

If you want to donate to help save these amazing animals, the two organizations that are doing incredible work (trust me, I interviewed them extensively) are WWF and Conservation International.

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The best of the Galapagos

by Jerry Guo on

This week, the New York Times travel section started a series on sustainable traveling. The inaugural column, headlined “Can Darwin’s Lab Survive Success,” is probably the quintessential case for illustrating the pros and cons of eco-tourism.

A couple summers ago, I spent a month camping in the Galapagos Islands, working as both a journalist reporting on the island’s problems with invasive species (partly due to the booming tourism industry), and as a research assistant for a National Geographic-funded study on the archipelago’s famous giant tortoises. The Yale lab that I was working with have been doing some truly amazing stuff on these animals–for instance, finding a long-lost relative of Lonesome George, the rarest species in the world (population of 1).

The story I ended up writing for Science Magazine about invasive species can be found here. And below are two galleries of exclusive photos from our fieldwork on Santa Cruz, as well as some fun little side-trips to Isabela (where I horse-backed to its biggest volcano) and around Santa Cruz.
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