In China, would you buy meat from this guy?

by Jeffrey White on

I’ve spent nearly five years living in a region that has arguably the best beer in the world.

Central Europe, with the two brewing powerhouses of the Czech Republic and Germany, is heaven for beer drinkers, not only for the pleasure of pubs but for the loads of beer festivals that take place each year. Having been to my fair share, I thought I knew what a beer festival sounded and looked like.

Safe to say, not like this video from the Qingdao International Beer Festival in China I just stumbled on.

But that’s not my real issue. My real issue is the dancing guy acting like he’s at some rave, selling meat on a stick. Would you buy meat on a stick from this guy? (Perhaps, only at a beer festival could you even justify it…)

Airport baggage thief admits to stealing over 600 bags

by Scott Carmichael on

Yikes. Turns out not all baggage thieves are sophisticated criminals.

Dallas police just arrested 39 year old Patrick Brown who was stealing up to 3 bags a day from Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and Tulsa airports.

He’d wait at the carousel, then when bags circled once or twice, he’d snag them and leave the airport.

In total, he stole over 400 bags from DFW, 200 from Houston and an unknown number from Tulsa. Brown stored the bags in a storage unit, and sold them at a local Dallas flea market.

A buyer at the flea market discovered a name tag in the luggage, contacted the rightful owner, and the police got involved. So, if you passed through any of those airports, and you thought your bags never made it to the carousel, you may want to contact Dallas police.

Competitours Race Day 5 – Paris “We won!” (with Video)

by Kent Wien on

As part of our Gadling on the Road series, Kent Wien and his wife Linda are participating as Team Gadling in the first run of Competitours, an Amazing Race like competition taking place in three different countries in Europe. Race along as Kent documents their progress.

All eleven teams gathered at the train station in Brussels for our journey to our next destination, which had just been revealed before dinner. Sure enough, we were going to Paris.

I made it to Paris a few times last year but I didn’t feel like Linda and I had any advantage over any of the other teams, since the challenges were rather varied. And I was more interested in the challenges that I wasn’t familiar with, avoiding the Pont Neuf and Catacombs challenges in favor of the more out of the way tasks.

We poured over the 6 pages of options for Paris and the surrounding area. We knew we’d have to come up with either two 30-point and one 15-point challenge or better yet, a 60-point plus one 15-point challenge to reach our maximum limit of 75 points for the day.

The 60-point challenge was risky. A day trip to the Loire Valley to tour the

Handsome, universally beloved travel blogger defeated by overhead luggage bin

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Yes, even the most experienced travelers among us make utter fools of themselves every now and then.

Exhibit A: This painful-to-watch three-and-a-half minute episode in which yours truly attempts to shove, coax, and prod a too-large backpack into a too-small overhead luggage compartment. Hilarity and exasperation ensue.

With sarcastic commentary from Ben Leventhal of Eater.com.

The future of airport screening – 3D HD images?

by Scott Carmichael on


This is pretty damn impressive – GE is showing off a demo video of their newest luggage scanning equipment.

Unlike current systems that present the screener with a grainy 2D image, the GE “CTX 9800 DSi” is able to grab images from all angles, and present it in HD.

The device just gained TSA certification, which probably means some of our tax money will be going towards buying them to help protect our airports from terrorist passengers.

Then again, knowing how much theft occurs in the baggage area, it could also just be a fantastic new tool for thieves to find better valuables.

(Via: Engagdet)