VintageMaps.com

by Adrienne Wilson on

Maps are the sort of thing to get real geeked out about and that’s exactly what happened when I stumbled upon this Vintage Maps site. I pretty much flipped my wig. Reading maps is a skill I’d like to develop more and become a pro at doing, but until that time there’s nothing wrong with collecting a few here and there. Looking at vintage and antique maps and the way someone saw the world from who knows what view is something to marvel.

This antique map of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey in Asia looks very different to me, but it could just be the small photo size of the map. If you’ve got a favorite region of the world it might be worth getting one of these vintage pieces for your library in addition to the maps of the modern world. They’re a little pricey in comparison to the maps you would use on the road today, but I’m sure worth every penny.

Japan and Baseball

by Erik Olsen on

Nothing goes together quite so nicely as baseball and apple pie. Except maybe baseball and sushi. And sake. Or so the Japanese would certainly have you believe. The fact is, while we love our national pastime, lots of other countries out there share our passion for that little stitched, white ball, and among them, Japan may one of the more interesting. This article over at the Continental in-flight Magazine is all about the Japanese fascination, if not obsession with baseball.

It offers some scintillating insight into how and why the sport has become such a big deal over there ,and how they play the game a little bit differently. One thing that didn’t surprise me, but that I thought was cool ,was that there are fewer “stars” over there ,as the Japanese way favors teamwork over superstardom. that’s a fine idea, and one would guess that might also lead to fewer ejections for steroid use (hello!?). I had though that baseball was a relatively new phenomenon in Japan, but it turns out that it was brought to the island in 1872 by Horace Wilson, an American teacher at what is now Tokyo University. Japan’s first team was called the Shimbashi Athletic Club and was organized in 1878 by Hiroshi Hiraoka, who worked as an engineer on U.S. railroads and returned home with a suitcase full of gloves. (OK, I don’t know if that’s true, but it could be).

Anyway, as a nice dose of a different culture this morning, I figured y’all would like the article.

Survey Says! A Kick in the Groin!

by Erik Olsen on

For years and years it was thought that the Japanese were far ahead of us in terms of technology and even aspects of culture (couldn’t we use a dose of Japanese politeness?). I never placed much credibility in that that until I came across this video that convinced me that the Japanese are, in fact a superior culture.

The game show in this video features contestants, males exclusively, who compete in a game of knowledge. The questions are hard…well, I actually have no idea if they are hard or not, but for the sake of argument let’s say they are. All fine and dandy, and no different than the myriad trivia shows we all know and love. What’s so lovely and different is that when a contestant gets a question wrong, he is summarily kicked in the balls. Brilliant, eh? It got me thinking about all sorts of fine ways to improve everything from Jeopardy to American Idol to the Presidential Debates.

DPHOTO: Online Photo Sharing

by Adrienne Wilson on

Sometime long ago when I first discovered the amazing Escape Lab / Route photographic travelouge created by one guy to share his worldwide experiences with friends and family back home, I blogged about it here on Gadling and now I will happily blog about it again. I was blown away by the 3D, 2D, and flat interface of the project. Easy to navigate through and stocked with high quality shots from damn near everywhere I could begin to dream about, I remember feeling jealous. Not from the travels abroad, but from the advanced nature of his online photo album. I wanted one just like or something close.

Thankfully, after what looks like a while in the making, the same dude brings us DPHOTO, an online photo sharing site. I know many of us are already big fans of Flickr and I am by no means trying to start a revolution or move over to DPHOTO, but I promise you it’s worth a look. The high-speed photo uploading of multiple pictures is one of the more impressive features. The album also looks a bit more elegant and sleek than many others I’ve seen. Last night, I set-up an album of my own and was sad to find I exceeded the trial size limit with my shots from across the country, but when more storage space becomes available I’m almost positive it will be the next big deal in online photo sharing.

Word for the Travel Wise (07/28/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

The other day while I was getting my eyebrows shaped I suddenly realized yet again how much of a melting pot America is and while travel abroad is dandy and all, that there is still a lot to learn from the people here. I believe all but eight words were spoken in the Vietnamese language by the staff around me. Hoping they weren’t talking about how out of control I let my bushy brows grow, I later requested some of their Vietnamese lingo knowledge for you guys here. I asked them what ‘to pamper’ or ‘to treat yourself’ would be in Vietnamese, but there was a slight debate on the word meanings there, so I stuck with the one listed below.

Today’s word is a Vietnamese word used in Vietnam:

tam biêt – (pronounced tam be-eh) good-bye

To continue learning Vietnamese online start with phrase list found at the NY Public Library. This Wanna Learn / Geocities page has some free words and phrases listed. It was one of few I could find online for free though you won’t get far. Rosetta Stone offers audio and web courses for a fee and there’s always the opportunity to take a Vietnamese language class in Hanoi, Vietnam with CIEE. For those flying through the country for just a few short days pick up the phrasebook.

Past Vietnamese words: Xe Ðap, xinh xinh, cam hut thuoc