Mahalo: How to Sleep on a Plane

by Justin Glow on

I’ve never been able to sleep on planes. Sure, I doze off occasionally, snapping my head forward every few minutes in a shot of confusion — but I’ve never truly slept in a way that leaves me feeling refreshed upon landing. It’s either too crowded, too loud, too hot, too cold, too comfortable; I can always find a reason to toss and turn. One of the only times I was able to really fall asleep was on an Alitalia flight to India, but that was because they served unlimited, free beer and wine. You get the picture.

The “human powered search engine” Mahalo has a handy how-to on sleeping on a plane. A lot of the info is obvious if you’re a semi-regular flier, but there are some tips that I hadn’t heard before. For instance, did you know the National Sleep Foundation says alcohol prevents sleep? I beg to differ. PLEASE let me differ. PLEASE.

Anyway, the how-to is broken up into 6 helpful steps:

  1. Book the right seat
  2. Prepare before your flight
  3. Use accessories to increase your comfort
  4. Warn people you plan to sleep
  5. Use sleep medications
  6. If money is no object, fly business or first class

Overall, it’s another great guide from the folks over at Mahalo. It should have you sleeping on planes in no time. But since it is a human-powered search engine, I, as a fellow human, would like to offer up a piece of advice for addition. The how-to warns that both the last row and the rows in front of the exit seats often do not recline, so you shouldn’t sit there unless you plan on sitting upright the entire time. Fair enough. However, if your seat does recline, mind the person sitting behind you. Even though the seats are designed to recline with minimal intrusion of your backseat neighbor’s personal space, it doesn’t always work that way — especially if they’re eating. So do everyone a favor, and communicate with the person behind you. Is he or she eating, or working a laptop perhaps? Don’t recline your seat quite yet. Instead, turn around and ask, “I’d like to recline my seat when you’re finished eating. Is that a problem?” Nobody likes a head of hair in their lap as they try to choke down the already-questionable food.

Or you could always just buy the Knee Defender.

Skype-Modeled Technology Lets Travelers Mobile-Phone Home for Cheap

by Catherine Bodry on

A Vancouver, Canada-based company, Eqo (“echo”), has developed a new technology that may ease the financial pain of international phone calls. Their model is similar to Skype, the free software that allows users to make calls over the Internet from their computers. When downloaded to a cellphone, Eqo’s software uses the Internet to make cheap calls locally or abroad.

Here’s how it works: First, a user downloads Eqo’s software to the phone. Next, the software automatically organizes existing contacts into the Eqo application.Then, the phone owner can call any Eqo users for free, no matter where they live. But callers won’t only save by calling other Eqo users. The best part about the technology is that calling someone who doesn’t have Eqo is super cheap — around 2 cents per minute. Not a bad deal.

Unfortunately, it takes time to download and figure out how to use the software, so callers might continue to rely on phone cards. Nevertheless, Eqo is available through Europe and the Middle East, with plans to be available in 60 countries by the end of 2008.

Check out the whole article at the Discovery Channel’s website.

5 Tips to Learning a Language Abroad

by Justin Glow on

Learning a language while traveling abroad is a perfect way to speed up the process. Compared to sitting in a classroom back home, the immersion that stepping into the culture offers is a powerful way to learn at an advanced and rate, and languages can often be picked up much quicker and more thorough when you have the opportunity to close the textbook and head into town.

But you can encounter some speed bumps when learning a language abroad. One friend of mine went to Paris for the Summer and had problems practicing her French because most of the young Parisians she hung out with wanted to practice their English on her! But it can be done, of course, and Rob over at Go Budget Travel has 5 tips to make learning a language abroad easier. Here’s a sample:

  1. Relax — “You are guaranteed to have a number of highs and lows along the way, including days or even weeks when you feel you haven’t made any progress at all. This is completely normal, so DO NOT let it discourage you.”
  2. Remember your goal — “You aren’t trying to learn a new language so you can hit the best-seller list, write poetry, or even compete with other language learners. You are learning a new language so you can communicate with speakers of that language. Nothing else!”
  3. Make it all a game — “A great way to find people that literally have to talk to you and to put your language abilities to practical use, is to give yourself mini-challenges“
  4. Go out, have a drink — “For me, a more effective strategy has always been to go out, have a couple drinks, and meet native speakers that have interests similar to my own.”
  5. Write it all down — “Everyday your brain will be overloaded with new words, rules, and phrases, that’s why it’s important to write it all down.”

For the full skinny on learning languages abroad, head over to Go Budget Travel.

G is for Gnu, P is for..

by Brett Atkinson on

You’re probably still working out how to use your Garmin thingy or get the most out of your Navman, but the bushmen of the Kalahari in southern Africa are becoming adept at using PDA technology to keep track of endangered species.

Special software has been developed which displays more than 40 different plants and animals, and includes different icons to reflect a range of behaviour including feeding, sleeping and fighting. The GPS coordinates and behaviour of each animal is recorded via satellite and then downloaded onto a computer to give conservationists a concise picture of how each species is managing.

It’s part of a system called CyberTracker which developer Louis Liebenbreg hopes to have up and running in most of the world’s national parks within 50 years.

Thanks to Discovery for the headsup and CyberTracker for the pic.