I was doing some browsing around for interesting video on
Google video and came across this pretty cool piece about the Puerto Rican
rainforest. I am guessing that we’re going to start seeing a lot more interesting travel video on Google in the
coming months/years. Already there is a fair amount, if you search travel when you go there. Some of the stuff now is just
horrendous, so I’m kind of hoping that a much better rating system is developed to weed out the bad from the good, but
for now, a quick search can make for some light lunchtime viewing.
Ajeet Bajaj First Indian to Pole
Cool story from Stellar Magazine. An Indian named Ajeet Bajaj is now the first Indian (from India, not Native American) to reach
the North Pole by using skis. Bajaj is well-known inside his own country and is a big time adventurer. He managed the
trip with three other Americans. When he reached the pole, he planted an Indian flag before turning around and coming
back on cross country skis.
GADLING'S TAKE FIVE: Week of April 22
Your attention please! I said your attention
please! Since it’s the end of the week it is now time for me to present to you five fine posts you may have missed over
the last few days. Just make sure you never miss them again. (Smile.)
5. Casanova’s Pizzeria – Oakford, PA
As
you may have noticed I haven’t been blogging as much as usual, but it’s for good reason and cause. For starters I was
out sampling the town in Oakford, PA earlier this week to bring you dispatches on what the natives are eating. If you
ever find yourself in the area make sure you check out Casanova’s Kitchen and be sure to order the
"scrapple."
4. America’s Best Campsites
Although camping
may not be Karen’s activity of choice, she points those ready to soak up all that nature has to offer to a fine piece
out of Sunset Magazine on America’s Best Campsites. Grab you sleeping bag, tent, and other camping gear and head on
over to Karen’s blurb.
3. Buenos Aires: Newest Expat Oasis
For
those of us looking to jump ship when things in America have gone completely haywire why not head south to South
America? Better yet, make it Buenos Aires where it is said to be the latest and newest expat oasis. Neil does a
fantastic job offering his insight on other expat locales like Prague in addition to providing his forecast on the
scene Buenos Aires.
2. Tipping Tips
Thanks to Erik I know not to ever leave a tip in Japan, where the pocket change can often be considered an insult.
Whew! But what about tipping here in the U.S.? What is the norm these days? If you’ve ever been a little unsure on how
much you should leave after having your fine meal and glass of wine click here to get all the guidance you’ll need.
1. More on Ugly Americans
It disheartens
me to go abroad and find my fellow countrymen acting a snobbish fool. Had they no clue what the outside world was like?
Did they not know everything that goes down in America doesn’t necessarily go down overseas? I’m sure you’ve come
across an ugly American at one point or another or maybe you are an ugly American. Sigh. Again, Erik does wonderfully
in getting a debate started or the World
Citizens Guide and whether or not we are as bad and as ugly as they really think we are.
The New Yorker on Maps
Last night on the subway down to the
Lower East Side, where I went to a party in one of those apartments that make you feel like you yourself live in a
Third World hovel, I finished up an article from
last week’s New Yorker about maps. It is really good and I urge your to read it.
The piece was written
by Nick Paumgarten, one of my favorite writers at the magazine, and it examined the history and changing nature of maps
in the human experience. Paumgarten looked at some of the new extraordinary mapping services like Mapquest, that have changed our lives. He goes out on the road with a couple of guys who
actually do some of the human legwork that makes Mapquest accurate, guys who check on whether signs have changed or if a
one-way road is mislabeled. Fascinating stuff. Really.
But more specifically, the piece examined our
relationship to maps and how, with the advent of GPS and online services like Mapquest, our relationship with geography
is changing. How exactly? Well, that’s difficult to say. The old school cartographic folks would say that when we print
out a Mapquest map, we get only a small slice of the world presented to us, a swatch of specific geographic information
that has been separated from the larger picture, a larger picture that is provided when we look at maps the old
fashioned way, all spread out and inviting, revealing the broader world and your place in it. But the new tech folks,
the Mapquesters and the GPS nuts and the folks behind a company called Navteq
suggest that mapping and directions and finding out where you are and where you’re going, all these things are
undergoing a massive revolution that will make sure you never get lost again…and/or that you will never NOT know
where the closest Starbucks is.
Anyway, really good reading.
America's best campsites
Let me just say right now: I am NOT a camper. My husband, however, is, and he tells me that his goal in
life is to see me strolling away from campfire deep into the woods, with a shovel in one hand, and a roll of toilet
paper in the other… whistling, no less.
I tell him to keep hope alive.
That said, he might
actually have a chance if he takes me to one of Sunset Magazine’s top campsites in the
United States. Featuring sites from Arizona to Wyoming, this article provides details on what amenities each
campsite has to offer, including how to get your pick of available campsites. And since some of them actually
have a restaurant nearby, my husband might … might, I say … talk me into doing this.
Once.