World Refugee Day

by Adrienne Wilson on

Today is World Refugee Day and it wouldn’t feel right for me to blog without giving it a mention here on Gadling. June 20 was officially recognized as World Refugee Day back in 2000 when the United Nations General Assembly sought to celebrate the contribution of refugees worldwide. This year’s theme is “Hope,” where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) hopes to draw the public’s attention to the millions of refugees globally, forced to flee their homes.

There are two events scheduled this weekend worth checking out if in the Washington D.C. area if you’re around. The first is an afternoon of exhibits, dance and musical performances by refugee artists and youth at the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall on Saturday, June 24, 2006 from 12 pm to 4 pm. Additional details can be found by clicking here and personally if I were anywhere around this venue I would seriously make it top priority this weekend.

Can’t make it, but still interested in World Refugee Day? Head to Slate where you can find a collection of Magnum Photos showcasing refugees from all over. The shot above is from a refugee camp in Kurkushetra, India from 1947 taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Cool Capitals

by Erik Olsen on

A lot of Flash interfaces for travel sites are too heavy and very confusing. Flash designers are often more self-involved with the design of a site rather than the functionality. I came across a site this morning that surprised me by its usefulness. Called coolcapitals, the site’s reach is limited as they only cover a few European cities including Amsterdam, Antwerp, Vienna and Zurich, and I hope they decide to expand, because the site is very informative.

So you click into one of the capitals and you find information on fashion, food, nightlife, hotels, etc. The interface is cute, with little people walking around and blocky little 8-bit buildings. Very cool.

Racing to the Pole…on 4 Wheels

by Erik Olsen on

A really cool story from the guys at Autoblog who introduce us to Voyage Concepts’ Jason De Carteret, who is leading a team of drivers into uncharted racing territory in, of all places, Antarctica. The effort puts a new spin on our notions of the land/speed record as the team will hurtle from the Antarctica port of Patriot Hills to the geographical South Pole in just over 69 hours, averaging marginally more than 10 MPH over the 700-mile trek.

The team will be riding in a somewhat unorthodox vehicle, a heavily-modified 15-passenger Econoline van, “which was converted to a 6×6 drive configuration and outfitted with 44″ tall tires”, to quote the autoblog guys. They also tell us that the van’s 7.3L Powerstroke engine burned 360 gallons of diesel along the way. Ah, gotta love efforts to stop global warming.

Roadside America

by Erik Olsen on

Everyone has heard of the World’s Largest Ball of Twine and the odd assortment of Americana that dots much of the American Highway System. But what about the Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida? Or, say, the Stevedore Man in Everett, Washington. 

These and many more quirky, but fun sights can be found and mapped over at Roadside America, a site dedicated to American arcana. I was surprised by how elaborate and well organized this site is, and have bookmarked it just in case my next big trip out of the city involves extensive driving. Because, let’s face it, we just don’t see enough off-beat, cheesy tourist destinations in our regular day.

Goliath Expedition

by Erik Olsen on

Talk about a massive travel project. Well, it even has a name to match its scale: It’s called the Goliath Expedition.

The Goliath Expedition is  Karl Bushby’s 36,000 mile gargantuan trek around the world. A monster, nay, Goliath effort to basically walk around the world. He began in the Chilean town of Punta Arenas, and started hoofing it through all of South America, Central and North America, then crossing from Alaska into Siberia using the frozen Arctic waters of the Chukchi Sea (north of the Bering Straits) as a land bridge (ah, land bridge…hasn’t someone thought of that before???). He then heads across Europe through Siberia to Western Europe. Again, all on foot.

Pretty impressive. You can follow the whole exploit at Karl’s site: the Goliath Expedition.