Gadling Take FIVE: Week of Jan. 17 – Jan. 23

by Jamie Rhein on

When looking for posts this week that fit into a theme, I couldn’t quite see it. In that case, here is an assortment of posts that range from the useful tips to the thought provoking.

And, in light of the new U.S. president, here’s Jeffery’s President Barack Obama: How will he stack up as traveler-in-chief?

Undiscovered New York: Famous city cemeteries

by Jeremy Kressmann on

This week Undiscovered New York is “digging up” a rather morbid topic: the cemeteries. The New York City metropolitan area has a population of around 18 million residents. However this number only reflects those that still have a pulse. When you’re talking about an urban area with history dating back to the 16th Century, we’re talking about millions and millions of lives that came and went within the confines of the city’s boundaries. And they all had to be buried somewhere.

When one thinks of a cemetery, it’s a place that’s frequently associated with stagnation and death. Yet the constant dynamism and momentum of New York does not allow any site to remain at rest. New York’s many cemeteries remain an important part in the city’s constantly changing patchwork and are filled with not only the stories of the past but also of the city’s future and continued vitality.

After the jump Undiscovered New York will take you inside some of the city’s most famous cemeteries. Interested in learning about New York’s role in the invention of baseball? Want to visit the habitat of a flock of tropical birds living in New York City? Would you be curious to know there’s a cemetery smack-dab in the middle of the East Village? Click below to get the whole story…
Green-Wood Cemetery
Arguably one of New York City’s most famous grave sites, Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 in an area just southwest of the Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Among those interred at Green-Wood include 1980’s downtown auteur Jean-Michel Basquiat, infamous 1800’s gang leader William “Bill the Butcher” Poole (portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York), as well as hundreds of early pioneers of a new 1800’s sport called baseball.

Visitors to Green-Wood will most certainly want to check out the Gothic Revival entrance gate at the cemetery’s entrance on 5th Avenue and 25th Street. In addition to the beautiful design, it’s also the nesting grounds for a flock of monk parakeets from South America that now call the cemetery home. The birds escaped from a container at JFK Airport in the 1960’s and have populated the area ever since.

New York Marble Cemetery
Hidden in the heart of New York’s happening East Village neighborhood, the New York Marble Cemetery and is the oldest non-sectarian cemetery in the city of New York. First established in 1830, the cemetery was founded to deal with recent outbreaks of Yellow Fever. Though the Marble Cemetery houses a few notable New Yorkers, it’s more impressive for its location. Hidden behind a narrow metal gate on Second Avenue, visitors enter a quiet walled sanctuary surrounded on all sides by the bustling urban life of Manhattan. The cemetery is typically open the fourth Sunday of each month, March through November, for those interested in checking it out.

Trinity Church Cemetery
Directly across from Ground Zero lies one of Manhattan’s most famous cemeteries, and the only active grave site within the borough, at Trinity Church. The church’s graveyard at 74 Trinity Place is the final resting place for some of America’s most famous figures, including Alexander Hamilton and New York fur baron John Jacob Astor and steamboat inventor Robert Fulton.

Starlings in flight

by Brenda Yun on

A popular video popped up on the internet recently of a spooky looking bird formation and, being the curious person I am, I had to know where the video was filmed and what kind of birds offer this fantastic sight.

I found a better informational video dated nearly two years ago that explains the gorgeous natural sight of winter starlings in flight. These marshy birds dance in the air by the thousands, taking flight for social position in the air.

As you can tell, these starlings prefer open fields where they can take advantage of the wintry air stream to “commute” and warm their bodies in the cold weather. According to this video, these birds do their lovely dance in the late afternoon at dusk all over rural parts of the UK (this video was filmed at Otmoor near Oxford) and Scotland. Quite a sight to behold, and yet another way to enjoy the winter months.

Man Caught at Airport with 200 Birds in his Suitcase

by Josh Lew on

A man was arrested at the airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil after 200 canaries were found in his suitcase. The smuggler is a resident of Brazil and had just gotten off a flight from Peru. Over 60 of the birds were dead. The others are being returned to Peru by a more humane means of transport. The man has been charged with animal trafficking and is currently being held by police in Sao Paulo.

The birds were found after a routine x-ray at a security checkpoint. They were stuffed into 4 cages inside a large suitcase. The deceased birds had succumbed to suffocation and dehydration.

Of more interest to authorities was the fact that the particular species of canary is considered invasive and would have posed a threat to similar birds native to Sao Paulo. Exotic bird smuggling is a huge problem worldwide. Not only are certain birds endangered or considered a threat to local wildlife, there is a risk of viruses and diseases, like H5N1, spreading because of the illegal importation of exotic birds.

Photo of the Day (08/28/08)

by Kent Wien on

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from Damiel who captured this picture in front of Notre Dame, in Paris. Damiel has a great collection of pictures from his trip there last week. He really did capture much of the city in perfect clarity. Nice job!

I’m always a sucker for a narrow depth of field, which brings out the subject in the photo in detail. This picture is a good example of this technique.

Are you a Flickr user who’d like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling’s Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!