Mountainfilm Festival announces guest speakers

by Kraig Becker on

Organizers of the Mountainfilm Festival, held annually in Telluride, Colorado, have announced the list of this year’s special guests which will be on hand for the event. That list includes an impressive array of activists, artists, and adventurers who will share their stories and experiences, while also discussing some of the pressing topics of the day.

This year’s fest will take place from May 27th to the 30th, and will kick off with the Moving Mountains Symposium, a full day event that includes lectures and panel discussions focused on the theme of “awareness into action .” The three days that follow will be filled with guest lectures, art displays, social events, and some of the most amazing adventure films you’ll ever see.

Amongst the guest lecturers this year will be Dan Austin, one of the co-founders of 88Bikes, an organization dedicated to providing bicycles to needy children around the world. He’ll be joined by wildlife and nature photographer Paul Colangelo and National Geographic Explorer in Residence Wade Davis, as well as Geoff Tabin, a doctor who works tirelessly to cure people with preventable blindness in developing countries. To check out the entire list of guest speakers, click here.

Take advantage of early bird discounts on passes for the Mountainfilm Festival if you purchase before May 1st. Click here to order your passes now and start making your plans for Telluride this spring.


The London homeless thrive as tour guides

by Justin Delaney on

I have hired some strange tour guides. One was a Balinese man that cackled like a quick fire dub step remix of the word “huh.” One was a spy for the Myanmar government whose eyes widened in the car’s rear view every time I fumbled with my iPod. One made me promise that I would marry my girlfriend when I returned home. Others still furthered strange agendas upon my explorations.

Never though, to the best of my knowledge, have I toured under the guidance of a homeless person.

Thanks to a group called the Sock Mob, the London homeless are taking to the streets and finding a calling as tour guides. The Sock Mob is a volunteer organization that interacts with the city’s homeless or “rough sleepers.” They engage the homeless in agenda-free conversations, distribute socks, and generally commit altruistic deeds. They also have spearheaded a tourism program called “Unseen Tours” that allows travelers to take in some of London’s sights with a homeless tour guide. The lens of homelessness provides a unique perspective on landmarks such as London Bridge, and the guides also showcase hidden corners of the city that a conventional tour may miss. The tours meet every Friday at 7pm and every Saturday at 3pm. Cost is roughly $10, “depending on your circumstances.”

Rescuers work to save “sacred” Vietnamese turtle

by Melanie Nayer on

How do you save a sacred Vietnamese turtle? Very, very carefully, according to dozens of veterinarian workers in Hanoi who are trying to capture a rare giant turtle in desperate need of medical attention from Vietnam‘s Hoan Kiem Lake.

Workers waded through the lake to try to save the giant freshwater turtle so it could be pulled to land and treated. The animal – one of only four Rafeteus swinhoei believed to be alive today – is one of the world’s most endangered turtles with roots back hundreds of years. In fact, some even believe the sacred turtle is the same mythical creature said to have helped a Vietnamese king fend off the Chinese nearly six centuries ago.The news of the turtle’s wrecked condition sent hundreds of Vietnamese into action, working and watching while rescuers tried to pull the turtle to safety. Photos detail open pink sores on its neck and legs and lesions on its shell, which stretches 6 feet long and 4 feet wide.

Some experts blame the sewage and trash-filled lake for the turtle’s condition, and locals have worked for days to removing chunks of debris from the lake and pumping in fresh water. Last week, a small island in the lake was expanded with sandbags to form a platform large enough for the turtle to rest, complete with a little pond.

According to Yahoo! news, many Vietnamese believe the turtle is the same one described in the legend of King Le Loi, who is said to have defeated Chinese invaders with a magic sword given to him by the gods. After the victory,a giant golden turtle is said to have risen to the surface and snatched the sword from the kid’s hands, then plunged back into the water to return the sword to its owners.

[via Yahoo!]

Flight attendant weight restriction causes uproar

by Justin Delaney on

Thai Airways International imposed body mass index and waistline restrictions on its 6,000 flight attendants last June. According to the Bangkok Post, all flight attendants, both male and female, were given six months to comply with the weight restriction. For female attendants, a BMI of 25 and a waistline maximum of 32 inches was implemented. The male attendants had restrictions of 27.5 BMI and a 35 inch waistline. To compute BMI, check out this handy calculator.

Those that did not meet the standards are now limited to domestic flights and same day service. They will be further relegated to ground crew if they fail to comply within a year. 41 flight attendants, 28 of them male, did not meet the guidelines and have filed a complaint with the Thailand Labour Protection and Welfare Department for the regulation which “violated their human rights, hurt their feelings, and decreased their incomes.” Although less than 1% of the Thai Airways flight attendant work force was affected, the Draconian measure has stirred up a debate regarding weight restrictions for flight attendants.

The vice president of products and customer services for Thai Airways, Teerapol Chotechanapibal, had this to say about the restrictions:

“…the regulation was aimed at improving the personality of flight attendants, who were an essential part of boosting competitiveness with other airlines, while their health had an impact on services and the safety of passengers. Flight attendants had to be agile and able to evacuate passengers from a plane within 90 seconds in the event of an accident. He said airlines worldwide had implemented similar standards. Stewardesses who are 160cm (5’3″) tall must not weigh above 66kg (145 lbs) while stewards who are 165cm (5’5″) tall must not weigh over 74.8kg (165 lbs).”

Asian air lines are notorious for hiring tall and rail thin flight attendants. A couple years ago, Air India even fired ten employees for being fat. I recall walking through Incheon airport in South Korea and passing a group of Korean Air stewardesses striding along the auto-walk like a gaggle of graceful storks. While I do not mind the inherent rule that flight attendants should be fit enough to assist with potential emergency situations, seeing an explicit weight restriction (an unnecessarily strict one at that) makes the whole enterprise feel cold, calculating, and inhuman. What do you think?

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flickr image via kalleboo

Port of Los Angeles plugs in cruise ships to help environment

by Chris Owen on

Ports and cruise lines are making an ongoing effort to grow the industry in an environmentally responsible matter. The Port of Los Angeles today became the first with the ability to provide shoreside power to three different cruise lines. Using the Alternative Maritime Power system, ships from Princess Cruises, Disney Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line can now turn off their polluting engines while in port.

“The use of AMP™ at our World Cruise Center reduces emissions not just at the Port but improves the quality of air throughout the Los Angeles region,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “The ability to adapt this technology to multiple cruise lines eliminates significant ship exhaust when cruise ships are at berth, and the AMP Mobile is another innovation that demonstrates our commitment to developing cutting-edge technology that can benefit port communities everywhere.”

Having the ability to provide clean power and being able to use it are two different matters. In addition to the port having it available, ships must be fitted to accept the clean power source.The Port’s AMP™ system installed at the World Cruise Center in Los Angeles plugs in two cruise ships at a time and is capable of delivering up to 40 megawatts of power, with 20 megawatts of power delivery capacity to each of the two different ships.

Cruise lines and ports have been working on the ability to provide clean, electric energy from the local power grid for years. Norwegian Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International won awards from the Port of Seattle for making an environmental difference recently.

In January’s first annual Green Gateway Partners Awards the lines were recognized for participating in the At-Berth Clean Fuels program, or use of shore power to plug in and turn off engines while docked at shore.

“Each of the companies recognized have demonstrated that you don’t have to choose between the environment and the economy,” said Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani at the time.

In Los Angeles, the World Cruise Center is the only port where two cruise ships can be connected simultaneously. Cruise ships utilize either 6.6 kilovolts (kV) or 11 kV electrical power distribution systems to plug into shore side power; the Port of Los Angeles can now accommodate either. Currently the power demand of the cruise ships calling the Port of Los Angeles is anywhere between 8 to 13 megawatts of power. A seven megawatt load is equivalent to producing enough electricity for approximately 1,000 homes.

Also in California, the Port of San Diego gained the “plug-in” ability late last year, fitted for Holland America ships. Holland America Line’s Oosterdam was the first to plug in to “Shore Power”, a system designed to help cruise ships go green. Initially the system can handle one ship but plans are for this system to take on more in the future too.

Port of San Diego Completes Shore Power System from Port of San Diego on Vimeo.

Also last year Princess Cruises Island Princess plugged in at the Port of San Francisco to a system that was built as a cooperative effort by the Port of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Environmental Protection Agency, Holland America Line and Princess.

Princess’ shore power program made history debuting in environmentally extra-sensitive Juneau, Alaska in 2001, expanded to Seattle in 2005, and then to Vancouver in 2009. Currently nine of the line’s ships have the capability to “plug in” to a shoreside power source, representing an investment for Princess of nearly $7 million in equipment.