Photo of the Day (7.6.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on
This week I went aboard Virgin America’s inaugural flight from San Francisco to Toronto; and having visited Toronto only once before when I was young, I didn’t have very high expectations for Canada’s largest city. On this visit, I took the time to explore some of the outlying neighborhoods (Kensington Market) and cultural districts that really give Toronto a sense of flavor and diversity, and saw a different side that I can’t wait to visit again.

Flickr user PDPhotography has an incredible collection of photographs from Toronto that really capture the vibrance & quirks of the city. This shot was captured at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, which takes place next month from August 20th to September 6th.

Do you have summertime shots of a city you love? Share them with us! Submit to our Flickr Pool and your image could be our next Photo of the Day!

Passing the time on your long flight

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Unless you’re like Gadling blogger Grant, who might have been genetically engineered by Boeing, it’s inevitable you’re going to get bored on a flight sooner or later. This is especially true on transcontinental flights, where you’re guaranteed to be stuck inside your cylindrical prison for at least 6 hours if not longer. No matter how many awful in-flight movies, magazines and episodes of The Wire on your iPod you have to amuse yourself, you can still expect to get bored eventually.

For the gaming-obsessed bloggers at Joystiq, the tedium of these long flights is just an opportunity to invent some creative ways to pass the time. If you’re desperate to hold back the boredom (or just cannot sleep on planes like me) consider the following (questionable) game suggestions:

  • BING! – This game only requires a bag of airline pretzels or snack mix. Start with three pretzels and set the rest to the side as the “house.” Each round bet one, two or three pretzels on which side of the airplane cabin will be first to ring their flight attendant call button. If you guess right, take as many pretzels as you bet from the house. If you lose, put the pretzels back. Keep playing until you’ve either won or lost all the pretzels from the middle.
  • In-flight Catalog Scavenger Hunt – As one Joystiq commenter suggests, compete against a friend to find the most ridiculous items from the in-flight catalog. The person to find the item with highest cost-to-uselessness ratio wins. Keep your eyes peeled for the remote control dragonfly.
  • Cellphone standoff – As the plane begins to land, try to guess the number of cellphones that will be turned on/make noise between the moment the wheels touch the ground to when the seatbelt light is turned off.

We don’t necessarily suggest playing these games unless you’re desperate, but with flight delays and long waits on the tarmac all but standard these days, it’s always good to have a few backup options. What do you do to amuse yourself on long flights?

Forget parties, now it’s time for real Halloween.

by Martha Edwards on

Halloween weekend has come and gone, and with the parties being over, now is the time for the real spirit of the season to reveal itself; Instead of costume parties, now we’re talking about good, old-fashioned frights.

Got plans for the real Halloween this year? If not, why not consider going to a to one of these events, where they’re sure to put on a good show. According to Reuters, here are some creepy amusements going on this year:

  • Six Flags: Visitors to Six Flags have option of participating in the Secret Coffin of Fear, in which you lie in a coffin with meal worms for one minute — ick!
  • Universal Studios, Californian: Visitors to the House of Horrors will be haunted by some scary villains from the movies, including Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees.
  • New York’s Halloween Parade: More than 2 million people are expected to attend this parade, happening October 31st at 7pm.
  • Camp Blood, Carrollton, Georgia: Crazies with chainsaws and swamp-dwellers will greet visitors after a walk through the scary forest. Sounds really frightening!
  • Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia: Looking like a medieval castle, this abandoned prison is a natural place for a haunted house.

Expect a $1.1 Billion Facelift at Disney’s California Adventure

by Martha Edwards on

Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim is planning a renovation to the tune of $1.1 billion, which is more than they spent building the theme park just six years ago. On the agenda? They’re going to add more shopping, focus on the connection to Walt Disney’s life and develop a new area that will focus on cars, among many other things. For the complete low-down on all the changes that will happen over the next few years, check out this article.

The reason behind the overhaul? Visitor numbers have been disappointing — only 6 million people went last year, even though the park was meant to attract at least 7 million every year. And what’s worse, the price of admission has been on sale since it opened in a bid to lure visitors.

I’ve never been to California Adventure, and honestly I haven’t really even heard about it except in passing, so maybe they should work on the marketing angle too …