Gadling + TBEX = Meet us in Vancouver

by Mike Barish on

This weekend, travel bloggers from around the universe (granted, most are from Earth) will descend on Vancouver, Canada for the annual Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) conference. Workshops will be held, the industry will be discussed and, ideally, bloggers will acquire some tools that allow them to deliver richer and higher quality content for all of you readers out there. If you happen to be attending TBEX, you’ll notice that Gadling is very well represented on the many panels. We don’t like to brag (we’re too busy being good looking to boast), but we’re thrilled to be talking shop with so many wonderful writers.Our fearless leader, Grant Martin, will be on the “Keep it Churning” panel with fellow Gadlingers Paul Brady and Pam Mandel. Here’s hoping that this panel does, in fact, teach us all how to make homemade butter. Paul will also be on the “Non-Narrative Travel Writing” panel, while Pam will be on the “Narrative Travel Writing” panel. We fear that they might end up feuding West Side Story-style (Paul’s a Jet).

Our features editor, Don George, also happens to be the godfather of travel writing. He joins Pam on the “Narrative Travel Writing” panel. David Farley will cover that topic, as well, and he is often mistaken for the Godfather of Soul.

Annemarie Dooling is an unseen force here at Gadling. She helps us with social networking (you know we have a Facebook page and Twitter account, right?). She’ll be on the “Branding & Niche Expertise” and “Non-Narrative Travel Writing” panels.

Lastly, yours truly will be there on the “Monetization Reality Check: Get Creative” panel. I plan to dress and act like Matthew Lesko. I’ll also be joining some PR folks for the “Blogger + Industry Jam Session,” at which I will demonstrate my human beatboxing abilities.

Rumor has it that Gadlingers Jeremy Kressmann and Eva Holland will also be attending TBEX. We suggest that you find them, give them big hugs and buy them cocktails.

We’re thrilled, flattered and honored to be representing Gadling at TBEX. It should be a tremendous weekend and we hope that we can share some of our knowledge with everyone in attendance. The other speakers are fantastically talented and it’s humbling to be joining them on these panels. You can view the full TBEX schedule and speakers list.

We can’t wait to see everyone there and encourage you to say hello if you see us. Just don’t bother Eva if the Stanley Cup Finals are on.

Inside the WBEZ Studios in Chicago to Learn about the Rust Belt

by Paul Brady on

At the outset of my trip, I needed some guidance. A sort of Rust Belt Virgil, willing and able to orient me to the exciting and dynamic and tragic state of the Great Lakes region. With my route passing through Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, there seemed no one better for the job than Micki Maynard, a journalist now spearheading a public radio project called Changing Gears.

More than just a radio show, Changing Gears is a multi-year, multimedia effort that aims to tell the stories of people in the Great Lakes, through radio, yes, but also online and in video, with reporters stationed around the region. The questions they’re asking: How are people in this part of the country reinventing their cities, their local economies and even themselves in the face of cataclysmic change? Those are the stories Changing Gears hopes to capture and some of which Micki shared with us in our video interview at the WBEZ studios on Chicago’s Navy Pier.

Traveling the American Road – Changing Gears’ Micki Maynard


Riddle of pyramid’s secret hieroglyphs solved

by Sean McLachlan on


Last month we reported on some secret writing discovered in the Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, near Cairo. A robot with a camera went down a mysterious passage only eight inches wide and found some hieroglyphs daubed with red paint onto the floor of a secret chamber at the end of the tunnel.

Egyptologist Luca Miatello has deciphered the writing and says they’re engineering marks. They make the number 121, which corresponds to the length in cubits of the so-called Queen’s Chamber of the pyramid.

The numbers are written in hieratic. Ancient Egyptian writing had three forms. Proper hieroglyphs were the most formal style and the one we usually associate with ancient Egypt. Hieratic was a cursive style that was quicker and easier to write. It was usually used for religious texts but since a royal tomb was a highly sacred place, it’s no surprise to find it here. Demotic was derived from hieratic and was used much later, after Egypt had lost most of its power and glory. All three styles are often termed “hieroglyphs”.

The numbers in the pyramid are sloppy, as if written by some foreman who wasn’t completely literate. Because of this, new interpretations of the writing will probably be published in the future.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Plane dumps thousands of pounds of fuel over Lake Michigan

by Libby Zay on

Citing mechanical problems, an American Airlines flight en route to China dumped 151,000 pounds of fuel over Lake Michigan on Sunday night.

According to an American Airlines spokesman, the fuel was dumped over the freshwater lake after an emergency forced the plane to return to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport about 90 minutes after departing for Beijing. The fuel had to be dumped because landing overweight would have created problems, and even after the gas was unloaded the plane blew a tire when it touched down.

The spokesman claims dumping the fuel did not harm the lake because the fuel evaporates before it reaches the surface. However, one of the 249 passengers on board told NBC Chicago he watched from the plane’s window as the fuel was evacuated into the body of water.

[Photo by ReneS/Flickr]

Dolly Parton’s ‘Pirates Voyage’ replaces ‘Dixie Stampede’ in Myrtle Beach

by Libby Zay on

Pirates and mermaids have taken over Dolly Parton’s popular Western-themed Dixie Stampede theater show in Myrtle Beach, hoisting the Jolly Roger where cowboys had previously performed stunts for 19 years.

The Dixie Stampede dinner show, which is still running in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri, closed its doors in South Carolina last year. After an $11 million renovation that included installing a 15-foot, 750,000-gallon lagoon and three 30-foot pirate galleons, Pirates Voyage will begin tumbling, swimming, singing, dancing and sword fighting for the general public tomorrow. Tickets are $41.99 for adults, $21.99 for children age four to 11, and free for children under the age of four.

Parton says she began thinking of a pirate-themed show five years ago and maintains the idea had nothing to do with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film franchise, but admits the “timing couldn’t be better” for the marauders to take over the show. Parton herself appears in an introductory video, can be seen swimming with the mermaids through the use of computer technology, and (of course) contributed to the soundtrack.

[Photo by Bruce Smith, AP]