The video below, via Outside Magazine’s excellent blog, shows an amazing Scottish biketrials rider named Danny MacAskill absolutely running rampant all over Scotland’s capital.
If you’ve never heard of trials riding before, the sport (at it’s best) can feature a rider jumping fences, hopping up on roofs, doing flips off trees, and all sorts of other mind-boggling stunts– all without a foot touching the ground. Trials riding, incidentally, may also be the world’s most painful sport to learn.
Over 2.4 million people have already watched the video below, which really gets good at the 1:02 mark.
After four long years of filming and recording musicians around the globe and featuring them in their wildly popular documentary, “Playing for Change,” the organization’s 10-song CD and 7-track DVD entitled “Songs Around the World” is being released TODAY. You can buy the recording online HERE or purchase it from your local Starbucks café.
This music compilation demonstrates that the world can unite through music regardless of race, gender, religion and politics. The proceeds to the music compilation goes toward helping to spread music to disadvantaged youth around the world.
Here is one of their newest videos which features U2’s Bono singing Bob Marley’s “War/No More Trouble.”
I was also pleasantly surprised to discover the Playing for Change website has experienced some really nice upgrades! There is a very sleek and frequently updated blog, as well as an online shop where you can buy cool clothing and accessories.
I absolutely love this organization and encourage you to check it out or give what you can.
NOTE: You can stream all of Playing For Change on AOL Music for free through May 4, 2009.
Several buildings in Manhattan and New Jersey were evacuated earlier today, after officials spotted a Boeing 747 jumbo jet flying over the city escorted by fighter jets. As it turns out, the jet was one of President Barack Obama’s backup aircraft that was circling for a photo op. The whole operation was supposed to have been coordinated among the FAA and local officials, but apparently the message wasn’t communicated too well. The WSJ has video of the circling jets below. Imagine watching this from your highrise in Manhattan.
We tend to get in trouble here when we call someone a moron, but I really don’t have any other way to describe what happened to the guy in the video clip posted above.
No matter how often people are warned, and no matter how many horror stories people read, there are always going to be travelers who take their mobile data service abroad and download as much as they would back home.
The guy in the video went to Mexico, and in his infinite wisdom started downloading Wall-E using his data card. End result? One video of a cute robot, and a mobile phone bill for $62,000. Oops.
The math is simple – international data on most operators will cost you about $20 per megabyte. Wall-E in HD is about 3 Gigabytes.
AT&T eventually helped the guy out by lowering his bill to a much more reasonable $17,000, but that is still about the price of a nice family car.
So, please remember to turn off your International data, or to call your operator and have them add an International data package. Just be sure to keep a very close eye on your usage. Downloading a couple of emails won’t add too much to the bill, but downloading an HD movie with your mobile card is about the dumbest thing you can do.
Upon the suggestion of a family friend, my parents treated me to a $1 movie to see “Taken,” the new movie with Liam Neeson. My dad had told me his friend thought it would be relevant to my travels abroad, but after reading the synopsis, I kind of scoffed at the idea that the movie could have anything to do with me! After watching the movie, however, I can now see how it could in fact have to do with me, any solo female traveler, and travel safety in general.
The film’s plot is based on a real existing crime in Europe. In this case, an Albanian mafia group in Paris solicits information from female tourists, kidnaps them, gets them hooked on drugs, and then uses them in shady sex trade deals. Although this would appear to be a ridiculously convoluted storyline, the ease with which the mafia identifies and eventually captures these innocent girls is pretty easy to imagine. In the film, a man simply asks to share a cab into the city and then invites the girls to a party later that night. Suddenly, they’re taken. Luckily, in the film, the father happens to be on the phone when his daughter is captured and also just happens to be a former spy. He single-handedly rescues his daughter from these dangerous and scary mafiosos. (Making matters worse, when he seeks the help from a former French spy, he discovers the mafia group is actually paying the government to keep its despicable operation running).
Unfortunately, not every girl can be so lucky. It was both funny and scary when, after the movie, my parents said to me, “Well, at least you know there’s no way we’ll be able to save you.” And it’s true. If I did find myself in that situation I would pretty much be at the mercy of the cruelty of my captors, which is not a very pleasant thought.
Females absolutely have to keep their wits about them more than men do — both at home and abroad. The first time I traveled to Colombia I was honestly scared of getting kidnapped. I was particularly wary of taking night buses. Fortunately, Colombia is a far safer place than people believe it to be, but it doesn’t mean that you can travel everywhere and anywhere to your heart’s content.
It’s a shady, shady world out there, so if you’re female and traveling alone, use really clear judgment:
NEVER get drunk or go to a party where you don’t know anyone (even if you’re going with another female travel companion).
Never hitchhike alone.
Always take a certified cab if you don’t feel safe walking back to your hotel at night.
Always do whatever is within your power/control to be safe even if it means staying in at night, taking a day bus, or not going somewhere altogether.