I’m afraid of heights, but this looks pretty freakin’ cool. A company called Fantasticable has begun installing cables in various mountainous locations around Europe (I think — the site is in French, so it’s tough to tell) where you can hook up to a harness and rocket through the valley like a jet-powered bird.
Here’s a YouTube video of some brave people taking the Fantasticable for a spin in the French commune of Cerdon. This thing is seriously fast and high up. I wanna try!
With so many new bloggers it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with who’s who and whose blogging what piece of scrumptious travel news and oddities from around the planet, but fear not. I’ve read line by line through every post this week here on Gadling and now I give you this brief summary of five from some of the newbies and the old to while away your Friday night.
5. Introducing Gadling’s “Video of the Week”:
Newcomer, Justin Glow does a fab job of bringing a new category to Gadling. Even though we’ve showcased a video or eight in the past we’ve never honored or singled out one for “Video of the Week.” Now is your opportunity to have your travel footage featured on Gadling! Dark Havana alleys, bustling Bangkok markets, or mellowing out on la playa in Ibiza – you’re the driver and the director so you call the shots. Now where are we gonna go?
4.Bad Drivers with Bad Directions:
Speaking of drivers, Dave points us to a great post on man vs. the machine. The machine is the ever-so-popular GPS device man has decided to place all confidence and common sense into while driving on the road. The combination of the two sometimes leads us safely to our final destination or sometimes it simply causes us to ram up against a telephone pole.
3.Travel Theory #124: Travel is Good for the Ego:
Need to boost your spirits and confidence? Why not hit the seas, the road or take a hike? It’s no secret that a good week long vacation away from your home digs does wonders on the mind, body and ego. Take a look at the list at how travel can be just what the doctor ordered and start planning your escape today.
2. Permafrost Disappearing, Siberia Terraforming:
I don’t know if I’m directing you to the post or some of the surprising comments it seems to have generated. Overall, it is this plug on global warming and its effects on Siberia that is most certainly worth a glance. The planet is crying. Can you hear it?
1. New Passport Rules Tomorrow:
Here is a friendly reminder to get your passports my fellow American travelers. Travel by air to Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas or any nation in the Western Hemisphere will require a valid U.S. passport. Afraid to fly or too darn lazy to get a passport? Apparently these rules only apply to air travel, so you can still enter Canada with your driver’s license by car according to the Canadian border patrol officer I spoke to this week. Both land and sea dates keep getting pushed back, but if you travel by air you sure better have one.
Having just gotten the results of my ancestor’s genetic journey from the National Geographic Genographic project I can’t say that I’m all that surprised about my findings. However, before I dive right into the details of what my own DNA sampling revealed perhaps I should start by revealing how I came to find out about this incredible project and what it is all about.
It was at the bazaar in Khorog, Tajikistan while I was waiting on the packed marshutka to take me and the rest of the passengers on a 16 hour drive down from and thru the Pamir mountain region back into the country’s capital city, Dushanbe when I noticed an individual walking, snapping shot after shot of the Tajik people in their everyday life. I shot a smile as to say “you’re not from here either,” which earned me some conversation and a more comfortable ride to the city with the photographer that minutes later I found out a was a part of a team from National Geographic working on the Genographic project. Their team which included some Russian scientists, Geneticist, Spencer Wells and video/photography crew had just wrapped up a few days worth of sampling some of the indigenous people of the Pamirs and Tajikistan’s Wakhan Corridor. Their work here was complete and it was time to take the samples to the lab, but not without the long, bumpy ride back down in a marshutka. They kindly allowed me to swap out of the super-cramped vehicle I was supposed to ride in for a little more space in their two marshutka caravan. This is where my journey into the project began.
According to what the team told me on the ride down and the official Genographic website, “DNA studies suggest that all humans today descend from a group of African ancestors who – about 60,000 years ago – began a remarkable journey.” The footprints of their journey can be found in your genes. The more I thought about the project, the more my curiosity got a hold of me and finally I went out to the Nat Geo Explorer’s Hall in D.C. and picked up my own participation kit. This is part two of my journey.
It wasn’t as if I were expecting my swab test/DNA results to tell me my ancestors had started in East Africa, worked their way into Estonia before hitting up Tibet, cruised over to Hawaii and finally decided to settle on into Mississippi, but at the same time I was. I wanted the results to show me a dynamic journey from point A to point B that with the right amount of savings I could relive one day on my own. Considering I’m African-American and my DNA identifies me as belonging to a specific branch called the haplogroup L3 group on the human family tree, my maternal ancestor’s journey is depicted in the map above and as you can see stops in Africa. Ditching science and going with what I know from history I’m guessing my people later went on an excursion against their will across the Atlantic Ocean. And even though my tests didn’t tell me anything mind-shattering I did gain a better a understanding of genetics, my personal sequence of letters and the name of the markers found inside of myself.
In the long run I’m still planning on reliving a good portion of the journey as a “trip of a lifetime” sort of deal. This will be part three of my journey. Right now, I’m encouraging all those with the slightest interest in science, DNA and genetics or perhaps just themselves to see where out of Africa their own ancestors took off from and where they journeyed before deciding to rest in one place. If you’re Asian, Caucasian, or Hispanic I imagine the results could be earth-shattering, though there could be a few African-Americans with some surprising genetics as well.
Scope out the Genographic project here and learn how to participate. They’ll explain all the particulars much better on the site.
Next time you’re in Mauritania, Africa, don’t forget to take a ride on what is probably the world’s longest train, measuring in somewhere around 3km long (1.8 miles), depending on cargo load. The train ride was mentioned on Gadling last summer in a post from Adrienne, but I ran across some more information and even a video (YouTube, what don’t you have?), so I figured an update was due.
For around $5, you can travel from Nouadhibu to Zouerate (about 700km, 434 miles) which takes about 12 hours, according to this site. Apparently they’ve just recently installed passenger cabins on the train, so you don’t have to ride on top anymore. That’s a plus.
If you don’t plan on visiting Mauritania any time soon, but still want to see a world’s longest train, head to Hamburg Germany’s Miniatur Wunderland where the world’s longest model train rests. You should refrain from attempting to ride this one, though.
Check out a video of the Mauritania train passing by (this sucker is LONG!), after the jump:
Today we are debuting a new feature here at Gadling called the “Video of the Week.” This means that every Monday from here on out we will feature a brand spankin’ new video from Gadling readers right on our front page. So grab your camera and start documenting! We’re looking for anything that’s travel related, whether it’s a short clip from your last vacation, a profile of your hometown, or a local restaurant review — anything that tells us something about the part of the world you live in, or have recently visited. Just be creative! Length and editing/video quality are mostly unimportant, though a 5 second cell phone video shot at night might be pushing it a bit, so use your best judgment.
A YouTube group has been set up to collect submissions, though even if you aren’t interested in sharing we urge you to join the group to keep track of all the interesting gems that are uploaded by Gadling readers from around the world. If, however, you plan on posting a video, simply upload it to YouTube as you would any other video, then join the Gadling.com Group and hit “Add Video.” This will let you select (out your list of previously uploaded videos) the one you want to add to the group. Easy as pie!
Since this is the inaugural week and we don’t have any submissions, I’m posting one of my own videos. When it comes to editing, I’m a sucker for two things: slow motion and time lapse. In this video, I set a camera up in the corner of the independent movie theater I work at while an auditorium full of people stream out like busy little bees — all shot at about 600% normal speed and set to Aphex Twin’s 4. Enjoy: