Photo of the Day 4.20.09

by Karen Walrond on

You know, I’ve been to England tons of times. I used to live in England. I’m even *married* to an Englishman. So I’ve taken the exact same shot you see above dozens of times. And yet?

And yet, I’ve never been able to capture the detail and the colours captured by skinnymalinki1 above, and shared in our Flickr pool. Really lovely work — skinnymalinki1, you should be proud!

If you’ve got some great travel shots you’d love to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day.

Tourism in Silicon Valley – Disneyland for Geeks?

by Scott Carmichael on

Interesting article in the New York Times this morning – at least if you are a geek.

The article describes the draw Silicon Valley has on tourists, and the various things you can do when visiting “the valley”.

Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, and unfortunately for those (foreign) tourists heading there expecting a small valley with all the big industry players huddled together, the interesting companies are spread out over a massive area.

Worst yet, when you drive around expecting to drop in and visit these companies, most of them are not interested in fans, and very few offer tours or other ways for geeks to show their love.
That said, there are still several fun things to do in the area for visitors and the article lists most of the ways visitors can spend a day at the Computer History Museum, or the Tech Museum of Innovation.

One destination not mentioned in the article is Fry’s Electronics. Sunnyvale is where Fry’s opened their first store, and while that one is long gone, they still have a large store across the road from their original location.

Check out the entire region with this map:

Photo of the day (4-16-09)

by Kent Wien on

Sometimes a photo makes it into Gadling’s Photo of the Day because of what’s missing in the picture. JRodmanJr’s picture of the San Francisco international terminal void of any people is a great example. Let’s hope this shot, taken in the middle of the day, isn’t a harbinger for the future of the airline industry.

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!

AlterNet condoning pirates in Somalia?

by Annie Scott on

AlterNet.org, a human rights advocacy site, has a new article posted: “Why We Don’t Condemn Our Pirates in Somalia.”

First of all, I want to know who gave them the pirates in Somalia. Well, turns out the article is from a Somali perspective, and that “Karma” is the reason they feel they are “biting a perpetrator in the butt.”

Everyone knows that piracy in Somalia is serious business. And like most serious businesses, it’s complicated. Consider our Aaron Hotfelder’s article “Somali pirate talks: ‘We consider ourselves heroes running away from poverty,’” in which pirate Asad Abdulahi told his story, saying “we will not stop until we have a central government that can control our sea.”

AlterNet goes even further. In the words of K’naan, AlterNet’s Somali-Canadian poet, rapper, and musician:

“It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice. As is apparent these days, one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard.”

Read more here before you judge. Thanks, Michael S., for the tip.

Galapagos’s La Cumbre erupts = Don’t go there now, but go there soon!

by Brenda Yun on

This weekend exploded with travel alerts — namely from the hot destination of Thailand. Certainly the recent riots and political upheaval in Bangkok has cooled the tourist trail for a little while. But something else was erupting on the other side of the globe — off the coast of Ecuador in the Galapagos Islands, to be exact: La Cumbre volcano.

The volcano on the uninhabited island of Fernandina Island has been inactive for nearly five years, but this Saturday activity arose in the form of lava, smoke, and toxic gases. While there is no threat to humans, this island chain has long been home to rare animal and plant life, and La Cumbre’s recent activity could very likely affect the marine life and fauna on and around Fernandina.

What this means for travelers? Once the activity dies down, you should as soon as possible get your butt over to the Galapagos before it’s too late.

[via the Associated Press]