SkyMall Monday: Towel-Matic

by Mike Barish on

I love to cook. Whether it’s pizza, hot dogs or well-seasoned steaks, I kick up quite a storm in the SkyMall Monday kitchen. But you can’t even begin to imagine the mess that I make. Most of my kitchen adventures result in me being covered in mayonnaise and bleeding profusely. With my hands full of salamis and Rocky Mountain oysters, I have a hard time tearing off sheets of paper towel. The roll ends up coming undone and that breaks my heart. There is nothing more devastating than a paper towel roll unfurled. That’s why SkyMall Monday is so pleased to add the Towel-Matic to the kitchen arsenal!

Thank heavens there is now a device that automatically dispenses paper towels for you! With just a wave of your hand in front of the sensor, the Towel-Matic will present you with one or two sheets. In fact, it can even dispense a half-sheet if you’re one of those people that buys rolls with half-sheet perforations because you’re that anal-retentive about paper towel comsumption.

Why would you need to spend $60 on a device that dispenses paper towel for you? I’m offended by your question but my editors require that I answer it. So, I’ll lean on my dear friends at the SkyMall catalog to explain it:

It never unravels. Built-in optical sensor automatically identifies the perforations on the towel and stops right at the line every time. One-handed operation guarantees perfect tearing and helps prevent the spread of germs.

It identifies perforations! Now you won’t waste valuable nanoseconds of your life finding the perforations on the paper towel with your own eyes.

Think how much easier your life will be now that you don’t have to worry about your paper towel roll looking mildly unsightly. Today is the first day of the rest of your life and you can be certain that you can wipe all that mayonnaise off your forehead.

Plane Answers: Water vapor in a jet’s A/C, flashing landing lights and a fuel question.

by Kent Wien on

Welcome to Gadling’s feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!

Zach asks,

Hi Kent,

My family and I recently flew from Cancun to Philadelphia. On the ground in Cancun, I noticed some sort of condensation coming out of the air conditioning ducts. To tell you the truth, it looked more like smoke than water vapor. The flight attendants didn’t seem to mind, and once we took off, the condensation dissipated. I’m a student pilot and a fairly frequent flyer, but I have never seen anything like it before. What was happening?

You’re on the right track, Zach. We often see condensation from the air conditioning ‘packs’ on airliners in hot cities with high humidity. On the 757 we often get so much moisture that we’ll see frozen ice pellets coming from the air vents. Enough ice can build up in the packs that the airflow drops off to almost nothing until we run the temperature to a warm setting for 30 seconds or so to melt this ice.

In flight, it doesn’t seem to be an issue at all, probably due to the drier air.

Irwin asks:

Recently, while waiting for a flight to arrive at West Palm Beach, FL, I watched another flight from a distance of several miles while they were on approach. As it got closer to the airport, I noticed his headlights were turning on & off, constantly, equal time on & off. There were no clouds and no obstructions of any kind. What was the pilot doing or signaling?
You more than likely saw a Southwest jet. They’ve equipped many, if not all their 737s with flashing landing lights that are supposed to make the aircraft easier to see inflight. Some corporate aircraft have had this feature for years and it may be coming to more airlines in the future.

Louise asks:

Where is jet fuel carried on passenger jets? …in the wings, the belly, below the luggage compartment? …or somewhere else? (We are trying to figure out what made that US Air plane FLOAT, even though the passenger compartment flooded… then we got curious… where IS the fuel stored/carried?!)

Thank you!

Most airliners store the fuel exclusively in the wings. Occasionally companies have offered long range tanks that take a small portion of the fuselage near the forward part of the wings for extra fuel at the expense of baggage area, but this is rather rare today.

The US Airways flight likely had only half of the maximum capacity of fuel on board. We’ve been told that an airliner is capable of several minutes of flotation and US Airways 1549 demonstrated that even with a torn lower fuselage, there was enough time to evacuate the aircraft.

The entire industry learned a great deal from that ditching.

Do you have a question about something related to the pointy end of an airplane? Ask Kent and maybe he’ll use it for next Monday’s Plane Answers. Check out his other blog, Cockpit Chronicles and travel along with him at work.

Ten reasons why you should visit New Zealand NOW

by Grant Martin on


With more and more people losing jobs and the economy shrinking, many people think that now is a terrible time to travel overseas. Fearing tremors in their jobs or their 401Ks, workers may often choose to stay at home this year, or maybe even work right through their time off.

But in one place, the timing is perfect for holiday travel. The combination of a favorable exchange rate, excellent plane tickets and lower demand has created the perfect storm of a budget traveler’s paradise, guarantying endless thrills, beautiful landscapes and wonderful food at a fraction of the cost.

That place? New Zealand. So why should you go in these troubled times? Here are ten great reasons:1. The Dollar: The thin silver lining around the recession is that the dollar is gaining ground against many foreign currencies. New Zealand is an excellent example, with the exchange rate at about 1.8:1 (at writing). That means that everything is half off. Skydiving, whitewater rafting, sailing, bungee jumping, tours of Hobbiton and even dinner is half off.

2. Delicious, cheap wine: Both New Zealand islands have recently been enjoying a boom in wine production. Helped partially by the drop in output from Australia (due to the recent brush fires,) Kiwi wine is widespread, inexpensive and quite delicious to boot.

You can take wine tours from Auckland (try the Mudbrick) or venture south into the Marlborough region to mix in some beautiful landscape as well.

3. Fare Wars: Ever since V Australia entered the transpacific market, fares between the United States and Australia/New Zealand have been outstanding. Several Gadling bloggers reached Sydney from Los Angeles for under $500 earlier this year, and even now, tickets are hovering around the $800 range. At about this time last year, these prices were around $2,000.

4. It’s an outdoor activity playground: New Zealand’s varied landscape includes lush, bucolic plains, rolling hills, sweeping glaciers and magnificent mountains, all within a span smaller than the state of Texas. You can bungee jump, swim through glowworm caves and white water raft all in the same day, and if that’s not enough, mountain biking, skydiving and sailing are a hop, skip and a jump away.

5. Because the economy needs us: With all of this belt tightening going around, the global economy is starting to stutter and contract. The only solution? Take some of that money out from under your bed and enjoy a healthy holiday. Just don’t put it on your credit card.

6. You’re going to sleep magnificently: At 5-8 hours behind the United States, You’re going to be struggling pretty hard to stay up until 10PM every day. And irrespective of whether you’re sleeping on a five star pillow top mattress or under the bar pool table, you’re going to collapse exhausted, sleep like a baby and wake up refreshed at 7AM the next day, with a full night’s sleep and ready to take on the Kiwi.

Furthermore, you don’t have to deal with any truncated redeye flights like those to the EU. With some fifteen hours to kill on your outbound journey, you’re bound to get your first night’s sleep in.

7. Because you’re leaving your job anyway: If you haven’t already been laid off, you’re terrified that you might get the ax any day now. Why not take a fraction of your savings and ride out the recession overseas?

8. They already speak English: No need to worry about asking for directions, negotiating prices or buying produce in another language, Kiwis are the friendliest people on the planet and are always willing to chat. As a bonus, some youngsters even find the American accent attractive.

9. Excellent Food: Its fertile soil and supple fishing waters make New Zealand a prime location for fresh produce, seafood, cattle and lamb. These strengths are reflected both in the grocery store, with plentiful, healthy selections and at restaurants, where chefs create exotic, delicious plates at very reasonable prices.

Coffee culture is outstanding as well, with a cafe on nearly every corner of the country, each with extremely high quality beans, standards and practices.

10. Because you may never get the same opportunity: This crazy combination of cheap tickets and a strong dollar may not come back for a while — perhaps in your lifetime. Don’t regret saving a few dollars now when the missed opportunity of a lifetime could haunt you for years.

Through the Gadling Lens: adding some oomph to your landscape shots

by Karen Walrond on

I was recently talking to a friend of mine, and he was lamenting the fact that his landscape photographs seemed a bit “boring.” “I look at all these other landscapes in the Gadling flickr pool,” he said, “and they’re so much more exciting than mine. What can I do to make my shots more compelling?”

To be honest, of all my photography, I struggle with making my landscapes interesting more than any other — shooting people is easy, I think. It’s really good scenery that’s difficult. And so I thought I’d go through some of the amazing landscape photographs in our Flickr pool, and point out some of their aspects that make them compelling. With some luck, some of the observations will help catapult us all into become the Ansel Adams-quality photographers we all can be.
1. Shoot with a relatively wide angle lens.

First things first: make sure that you’re using the right lens. As you probably remember, we discussed the various types of lens for various types of photography before — and the upshot is that if you’re shooting a landscape, you need a lens with a smaller focal length, rather than one with a larger focal length. For most landscape photography, I would choose a lens of, say 50mm or less. If you choose one much larger — say 100 mm — you’ll likely be disappointed how much of the scenery the lens crops out of the resulting image (although that type of lens is fabulous for portrait photography).

2. Consider focusing on the foreground.

Like many of you, I’m sure, when I’m taking a photograph of a landscape, I tend to focus on the horizon, figuring that it makes the most sense: “looking out there,” after all, tends to be what we do when we take in beautiful scenery.

However.

In looking through the Gadling photo pool, I’ve noticed that there are some photographers who, when taking their amazing shots, focus instead on the foreground, rather than the horizon. And as I think about it, this seems completely logical: after all, when we look out at a vista, our eyes naturally see all of the details closer to us, and what’s farther away isn’t as detailed. Why didn’t I think of this?

The following are some great examples of what I mean:

The two photographs, above, were shared by arex and shot in the San Francisco Bay area (as is likely obvious by the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in the background of the second image). Notice how, in addition to using a wide angle lens, arex focused on the details in the foreground: the foam of the advancing wave in the first picture, and the bubbles of the retreating wave in the second? By focusing in the foreground, arex added a wonderful depth to the image, which conveys how beautifully vast the vista was. If, instead, arex had focused on the horizon, I don’t think the image would’ve been nearly as impactful.

3. Add people to the foreground, to help emphasize scale.

Sometimes, when you take a shot of a beautiful vista, it can be difficult to really communicate how vast the scenery is, or how massive the mountain, or how expansive the ocean. One great way to express the impressive nature of your shot is to place someone in the foreground for the purpose of scale.

Here’s what I mean:

See how the figures in the foregrounds of each of the images shared by jlaceda and Buck Forester, above, show the scale of the scenery behind them? I love how huge the view looks behind the person in the first image, and I really love how the figure in the second image has his back to the camera, and indicates toward the view: this sort of stance helps direct your focus, rather than compete with your attention as it would have had he faced forward. Beautiful work, both.

4. Consider using a novelty lens.

Novelty lenses can be considered more of an extravagance than a necessity; however, they can add wonderful dimension to a landscape shop. I’m a fan of the Lensbaby, a series of lenses designed for SLR cameras that can help you “selectively focus” on certain aspects of your image, leaving the remaining images deliciously out-of-focus. Here’s are a couple of great examples:

Both of the above images were shot and shared by ashcrowe, using a Lensbaby lens. Notice how there is a portion of each image that is in sharp focus (known as the “sweet spot”), while the rest of the surrounding portions of the image increasingly blur? The result is a lovely nostalgic effect, which plays beautifully to the antique subjects of the photographs, and makes for a compelling landscape photograph. Great work.

4. And finally, don’t underestimate the power of Photoshop.

Or, for that matter, any post-camera processing software. I’ve discussed before how I believe that post-camera processing is a tool for conveying exactly what the photographer was experiencing at the time of the shot, and I really believe that this sentiment is never more true as in the realm of landscape photography. In fact, when it comes to landscapes, I’m far more likely to really go to town in using photoshop, because it helps convey exactly the type of mood I was in, or the emotions I was feeling at the time of the shot. And the following are wonderful examples of exactly what I’m talking about:

The really fabulous shot shared by crafterm in Tasmania, Australia is made only more stunning by his processing treatment post-camera. The boat sitting on the still water is quite old, and as crafterm says, “I’m sure it could tell quite a few stories judging its age and use.” He further makes his point by treating the photograph in a sepia tone — as a viewer, the image looks very vintage and classic, as well.

And finally, I really love the image above shared by B
ryn Tassell of the coastline on Vancouver Island. The photoshop treatment makes the entire scene other-worldly, not to mention conveys the absolute stillness of the water at the time of sunset. An absolutely amazing image.

Hopefully you find the handful of tips above useful in keeping at the back of your mind next time you’re out on your intrepid travels, and are capturing images of the stunning scenery. If you have any additional tips or images to share, please do so in the comments below. And as always, if you have any questions, feel free to send them directly to me at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom. I’m always happy to answer them here on Through the Gadling Lens.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more, click here.

Tasmania: Roadkill capital of the world

by Mike Barish on

Several weeks ago I was exploring Tasmania with my best friend, Sarah. We had a loose itinerary consisting of hikes at Cradle Mountain, exploring Freycinet National Park and a look at the prison in Port Arthur. Before we departed Sydney for Hobart, everyone warned us about two things that we’d encounter in Tasmania: dismal weather and more roadkill than we’d ever seen. Now, the weather prognostications didn’t shock me. Tasmania is known to be damp and significantly colder than mainland Australia. But roadkill? That seemed like an odd thing to mention. Little did we know that we would soon learn all too well that Tasmania truly is the roadkill capital of the world.

We arrived in Hobart and rented a car to head north to Cradle Mountain. It wasn’t long before we noticed that the roads were littered with dead rabbits, possums, and perhaps saddest of all, wallabies. Not 50 yards would go by without seeing the corpse of another animal who was just a bit too bold or a step too slow. At first, it didn’t register in our minds just how many dead animals we were seeing. In a few days time, however, we’d understand more clearly than we’d like.
Literally every road, highway and path in Tasmania has the remnants of the indigenous marsupials that are active between dusk and dawn. Their lifestyle is their downfall. These animals are active at night and the roads in Tasmania are curvy, hilly and not well lit. As such, every night becomes a bloodbath in the smallest Australian state. According to Roadkill in Tasmania, approximately 293,000 animals become roadkill in Tasmania annually. The roadkill is so dense that a dead animal on the road can be seen every three kilometers.

We learned this lesson with a close call during our first night on the island. We were leaving our backpackers site to get dinner down the road. The sun was rapidly setting and dusk was upon us. I slowly drove down the gravel road, not because I was wary of animals but because I wasn’t sure that our cheap rental could survive a gravel road. We hadn’t traveled more than 20 yards before the wallabies made themselves known. There were three foraging right alongside of the road. We crawled past them safely and laughed about how amazing it was that we had such a close encounter with a unique animal.

The days flew by in Tasmania as we hiked around Dove Lake and explored Wineglass Bay. All the while we began to become cognizant of the amount of roadkill that we had witnessed. But our personal understanding was still to come.

We left the Tasman Peninsula on our third day on the island and headed back towards the east coast to make our way to Bicheno. Having no agenda, we meandered our way there, stopping to see platypus, echidna and seahorses at various wildlife parks. Eventually, day turned into night and my friend Sarah found herself on one of the curviest stretches of the Tasman Highway. It was time for us to understand Tasmanian roadkill firsthand.

We were the only car in sight around 8:00PM on that early March evening. It was pitch black outside with the exception of our car’s high beams. Seemingly out of nowhere, a rabbit darted into the road in front of us. Remarkably, Sarah was able to avoid the tiny critter without incident. We joked about the near miss and quickly turned our attention back to finding any radio station that would work in this random part of Tasmania. Not two minutes later, it happened. Sarah gasped, there was a blur in front of us and then a thud that echoed both in feel and sound. The possum never had a chance.

To say that it ran into the road a mere foot in front of the car would be an understatement. If the it had been any closer to us, it would have ran into the side of the car. Sarah couldn’t have avoided it. A possum was dead and we had added to the public cemetery of animals on Tasmania. Not surprisingly, Sarah was startled and shaken. She slowed the car down to about 30 km/h and focused all of her attention straight ahead. About three minutes later, no more than ten feet ahead of us, was a wallaby. It was standing in the road. Staring at us. Was it suicidal? Hitchhiking? We didn’t know why it was standing in the most dangerous place possible, but Sarah slowed down even more and safely navigated around it.

We avoided night driving over the next two days. We had one encounter with a pademelon who ran in front of our car on a dirt road but he literally kept running ahead of us while we slowly traversed the uneven surface. Otherwise, we drove cautiously, without incident and by the light of the sun. During the day, the creatures of Tasmania are safely tucked away in trees and burrows.

We returned to Sydney with plenty of stories of Tasmania. The weather, remarkably, had been gorgeous. So, in that respect, our friends’ warnings were incorrect. But the tales of roadkill were all too true. However, there was one thing that no one had warned us about. You can’t exactly describe it as roadkill, but it still involves some of Tasmania’s smallest creatures. You see, there are a lot of bugs in Tasmania. And they, too, are active at night. And they don’t fair well against cars either.