One lucky fan of AirAsiaX’s Facebook page will win the trip of a lifetime – a private plane ride from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on an Airbus A330 for themselves and 302 of their Facebook friends, plus three nights of free accommodations.
The contest is being held in celebration of the airline’s new Sydney to Kuala Lumpur route, which launched earlier this month. The trip will take place November 2-5.
“Our bold move is part of our social media promotion drive offering our awesome guests a little X-citement, while testing our social media strength and influence. We believe that the idea will also lift our brand further in Australia and the surrounding region,” said AirAsia X CEO Azran Osman-Rani (pictured below).
To enter, fans can use a specially designed app to “fill the plane” (manually or automatically).
What we really wonder – do most people have enough Facebook friends to fill a plane? And do you really want to fly with all of those people? And which 11 friends will you choose to join you in first class?
Just one little side note – amenities on the plane, like booze and food, aren’t included.
One of the joys of travel is taking great photographs of the places we visit and sharing them with friends and family back home. In the age of mobile Internet access, and services like Instagram and Twitter, it is easier than ever to chronicle our journeys through photos no matter where we are at any given time.
That includes the International Space Station it seems as Dutch astronaut André Kuipers has been sending a steady stream of images back to Earth since he first arrived there in December. André snaps photos with his trusty camera then uses Twitter to share those images with the more than 215,000 people who follow him. As you would expect, the photographs are often stunning shots of the Earth, the ISS or some other heavenly body.
This is the 53-year old physician’s second trip to the space station where he conducts experiments in a wide range of fields including microbiology and physiology. He is scheduled to remain in orbit until July 1st, so until then we can all continue to enjoy his fantastic photos by following him at @astro_andre. You can also read his blog, which he updates regularly as well, by clicking here.
Both images in this post are courtesy of Kuipers. The one above is of the moon setting behind the Earth while the one below is the ISS over Europe. Both are beautiful.
“When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth,” they say in the zombie movie classic “Dawn of the Dead.” Let’s hope they don’t have smartphones, or they might find you stocking up supplies or searching for the closest gun store. Map of the Dead is an interactive, Google-map based website designed for zombie survival. Just enter your location and you’ll get nearby resources like liquor (hey, you might as well have a drink) and hardware stores to help you survive the zombie apocalypse. The map also shows you danger zones marked in red, basically areas with large, man-made structures where more zombies are likely to congregate, so steer clear of airports.
Should the apocalypse be more of the mutant-and-killer-robot variety, this film has you covered for post-nuclear survival.
Throughout the year, Gadling has reported on and reviewed what we see as the industry’s best travel websites and new products.
But today, nominees for the 16th annual Webby Awards – the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet – were announced. The awards focus on professionals and projects, including Websites, interactive advertising and media, online film and video, and mobile apps.
“The nominees mirror this incredible year on the Internet, from memes to viral videos to cultural movements and extraordinary creativity,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards.
There are Webby Awards for a variety of categories, including travel and tourism. Travel-focused websites and magazines, such as National Geographic (Best Magazine Website) and Sonia’s Travels and Appetite For Life (Best Web Personality) were also nominated.
Want to vote on your favorites?
At the time of her maiden and final voyage, RMS Titanic was the most advanced vessel of her day. Proud owner White Star Line thought her unsinkable and set out to show the world their new ship. Little did shipbuilders know that the grand ocean liner’s enduring legacy would not be a new record crossing the Atlantic but a warning to the future. A warning that, while well heeded, could not stop near-tragedies of modern day maritime history.
Out of 840 staterooms, almost half were first-class accommodations. The ship was built for pleasure and beauty. It was filling that order, which would contribute to the loss of life just days after launching Titanic. The ship was designed to hold 32 lifeboats but only 20 were on board.
Cruise line management thought too many lifeboats would take away from the beauty of the ship. The 20 lifeboats on board Titanic could carry a total of 1,178 of the 3,547 passengers the ship might have if fully loaded. On that tragic night in 1912 when Titanic sank, the SS Californian was the closest ship to Titanic and many believe it could have easily rescued all on board. Unfortunately, the radio operator went to sleep not long before Titanic started broadcasting emergency distress messages.
After the Titanic sinking, ships were required to have enough lifeboats for everyone on the ship. Existing ships were refitted in a variety of ways and ship design changed to address safety issues.
The International Convention for the Safety of Life A Sea (SOLAS) is a treaty passed in 1914 in answer to the sinking of the Titanic. It addressed the lifeboat issue along with specifying emergency equipment and procedures including radio watches.
Today, advanced weather forecasting and navigational equipment on cruise ships take advantage of the great strides made possible by modern technology. GPS monitoring allows cruise lines to know where cruise ships are at all times. On-board video surveillance systems keep track of passengers and crew and are often called upon to solve cases of crime at sea.
Today, there are plenty of lifeboats for all passengers and crew. But the near-disaster of Costa Concordia, the ship that was grounded in Italy earlier this year, profess that simply having enough lifeboats may not be the answer. Laid on its side, many of the emergency craft were rendered useless and had it not been for quick-thinking crew members and sheer luck, the number of lives lost could have been far more.