Youngest Person to Sail Atlantic

by Dave Luna on

Earlier today at 14:00 GMT, 14-year-old Michael Perham navigated into Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua where he became the youngest person to sail the Atlantic Ocean single-handedly. He began the challenging six-week, 3,500 mile voyage in Gibraltar and ended up in the record books.

Though, he didn’t sail away without any backup. His father, Peter, tailed Michael’s yacht — named Cheeky Monkey — to keep an eye on the lad. The two Perhams kept in touch via VHF radio between their boats, and kept in close contact with land via satellite phone.

The trip may be over, but you can still follow the odyssey. Michael kept a travel blog in which he detailed life at sea, technical difficulties, and animal encounters. (And I know how much you like blogs, dear reader.)

I have a lot of respect for Michael’s Atlantic accomplishment. When I was 14, I don’t think I’d even crossed my own street by myself. Well, that was probably just because I was locked in my room transfixed by Jenny McCarthy on MTV’s Singled Out.

Would You Like Polonium With That?

by Iva Skoch on

While the popular sushi restaurant chain Itsu, famous for the recent poisoning incident involving a “Russian spy” Litvinenko, is hurting in London, the new branch that just opened downtown New York is apparently doing quite well, according to a NY Sun article.

Does that mean Americans are getting immune to the different security threats out there? Or does that mean that sushi, not Starbucks, is the new cosmopolitan answer to world peace?

Either way, I hear the “dynamite miso soup” is a hit. Should you be in the financial district of NY, please test it and report back.

Being Cold Is, Well, Cool

by Iva Skoch on

The NY Times had a couple of suggestions for getting cold this winter: Being Cold is the Hot Trend this Winter. The first suggestion was the ice bar newly installed at the Four Seasons in Paris (and not yet on their web site).

I’ve been to London’s Absolut Ice Bar, which is actually kind of fun. It’s been open a year now, and the gimmick is this: you pay an entrance fee and get a parka to wear and enter the small bar. You’re supposedly allowed in for only 40 minutes or so, but the rules are lax. Anyway, the entire bar, tables, and portions of the walls are made of blocks of ice. It’s dark but has colorfully lit surfaces, taking advantage of the transparency of the ice. You’ve got a choice of various drinks–all made with Absolut Vodka, of course–poured into squarish “glasses” which are also blocks of ice. And, yes, there’s one in Stockholm, too. And that one’s linked to the management of the igloo Ice Hotel in Sweden (see Erik’s post about it here).

Another NYT suggestion was the CryoTherapy Center in Slovakia, where you’re stripped down and get chilled from room temperature to below zero in one chamber, then enter a chamber that’s chilled to -184 degrees F, colder than the lowest recorded temperature on earth. Then, if that’s not torture enough, you head to the gym for a workout.

Virgin’s 101 Things to Do in London

by Erik Olsen on

London is a sprawling city whose bustle and thrum can sometimes be overwhelming to the uninitiated. You step off the plane in Heathrow and throw yourself into its maw, and without some guide to help you navigate the winding, car-infested streets, you can quickly get yourself lost…which might not be so bad, truth be told. But let’s say you don’t want to get lost and you are looking for a quick and dirty list of the best things to do in the city. Well, you can always get your hands on a good guidebook, i.e. Lonely Planet’s guide to London. Or you can check out this list of the 100 things you MUST do in London. The list was compiled by the good folks at Virgin and while it contains lorry-loads of basic tourist stuff like visit Big Ben and see Notting Hill, there are also some more creative ideas like taking a lunch or dinner cruise and checking out Spitalfields.

Altogether, it’s a decent little list and face it, 100 Things is a lot of, well, things. So you can pretty much bet that you’ll never get through all of them, but trying to do so would be half the fun.

Photo of the Day (11/15/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on


Here’s a random street art shot taken by Mister Rad while in Soho Square. Looking almost like two separate pictures, I’d say he did a marvelous job with depth of field. And both sides leave me asking questions. Like, what’s the triangle doing on the multi-colored brick and where are all those people heading? Perhaps the answers are far too obvious for those who have spent any time in London, but I’ve only experienced a layover at Heathrow.

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