Smithsonian Archives unveils new website

by Sean McLachlan on


The Smithsonian Institution Archives records the development of America’s greatest museum. With a staggering amount of artifacts, recordings, books, and other records, it now has a new website designed to help people explore this matchless museum from home.

The archives got their first website back in the dial-up days of 1995. This newer website takes readers deeper into the Institution to see thousands of documents and photos, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the Institution at work and researching in the field. The Smithsonian Institution has 19 museums, nine research centers, and a Zoo. The records for all of these are kept at the archives. The site has pages on the history of each museum and research center, a timeline, and even a scan of James Smithson’s will, which left all his fortune to found the Institution.

The site has plenty of what everyone is looking for on the Internet: porn free downloads! You can get photos and documents for noncommercial use, everything from an old postcard showing lions shot on Teddy Roosevelt’s expedition to Africa to a cool photo of Soviet engineers assembling the Soyuz module to the Apollo module at the National Air and Space Museum. Detailed descriptions tell you more about each image or record.

On the forums you can even talk with Smithsonian staff and get tips on how to protect and preserve your family heirlooms. Also be sure to check out their blog, The Bigger Picture, and their amazing flickr photo stream, which.

[Photo courtesy cliff1066 via flickr]

New web tool helps you “find the best” adventures

by Kraig Becker on

A new web tool from Find The Best, a website designed to help consumers quickly compare a wide variety of products and services, may help you decide on your next exotic destination. The site, which joins a growing number of adventure travel aggregators on the Internet, looks to make the process of finding tour operators fast and simple.

The Adventure Travel & Tours search tool lists more than 1000 tours worldwide and can be sorted by region, country, cost, and duration. The rather basic interface allows you to apply a variety of filters quickly and easily, so you can find the perfect adventure in no time at all. For instance, you can look for trips in Africa, then narrow the search further by selecting specific countries, trip lengths, and a price range. You can even search by desired activities, level of difficulty, and the months that the trip is available. That last option is especially nice for those who can only get away during certain times of the year.

Once you have your search results, you’ll be able to click on links to get further information about the trip, the company that provides it, and how it can be booked. There is even a place for travelers to post reviews of the various tours, although I didn’t come across any in my searches. This is most likely a result of Find The Best still being in Beta and not having a large community yet.

If you’re looking for new ideas for your next trip, you may want to give this tool a shot – or at the very least, bookmark it for future use. It’ll definitely come in handy when seeking out new destinations for upcoming adventures.

Flags of the World: the ultimate online resource for flags

by Sean McLachlan on

I’ve always loved flags. They say so much about a place, and every little province and town seems to have one.

Take this one, for example. It’s the flag of Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland. This town is at the chilly latitude of 69°14′50″ N on an island of the same name off the west coast of Greenland. Given its location, it’s natural that it has a whale and northern lights on its emblem. Qeqertarsuaq’s population is barely more than 900, yet it has a flag!

Where did this arcane information come from? A cool website called Flags of the World. This online haven for vexillology (the study of flags) has been around since the early 1990s and has almost 80,000 images of flags from everywhere you can imagine. All the flags added to the site run the gauntlet of FOTW’s discussion group, a hard core of a thousand or so vexillologists who do some serious fact checking. If they aren’t sure it’s 100% correct, they say so, as with the Qeqertarsuaq flag. If only the researchers over at Wikipedia were so honest!

On the front page is a clickable world map. Click on a continent and you see all the countries. Click on the countries and you get states and provinces, along with lists of counties, cities, historic flags, and military flags. When my kid was three he got obsessed with this and we had lots of fun flying around in our imaginary plane exploring the world. There’s even a free printable flag coloring book. My kid preferred doing the flags freehand, and presented his teachers (who are from Kenya and Uganda) with their national flags.

The site has historic flags as well, and the latest news on new flags, or even old/new flags such as pre-1969 flag of Libya, which has become the standard for the anti-Qaddafi rebels. The website is always expanding, so if one of your local flags is missing, drop them a line.

Check out the gallery for more rare and unusual flags from Flags of the World!

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[Thanks to http://flagspot.net for special permission to reproduce these flags. Qeqertarsuaq flag image by António Martins-Tuválkin]

Ode to the expat newspaper

by Meg Nesterov on

One of my favorite things about traveling, in addition to foreign supermarkets, oddball museums, and miniature toiletries, is the local English-language expat newspaper. When I’m home in New York, I tend to get all my news online, either directly from news websites through specific searches or curated from friends’ links on social media (one of the best sources for news from US newspapers is Canadian NY1 anchorman and New Yorker favorite Pat Kiernan‘s site Pat’s Papers). Sorry US newspapers, I know I’m part of the problem. But while I’m traveling, I love to grab the local newspaper over hotel breakfast or in a coffeeshop and learn about local issues, news, and phenomena.Last month in Malaysia while reading the New Straits Times, I learned about how competitive the Chinese are at a kite flying festival and how southeast Asian children have to be taught to detect sour milk. The travel section reviewed a new hotel in Penang with a first impression of “adequate” and the Niexter insert written by Malaysian teenagers taught me all about malapropisms. A couple at our hotel told me they came to Penang after reading an article on the Hotel Penaga’s renovation from the paper in Kuala Lumpur.

It was from Istanbul’s Today’s Zaman that I learned about the excellent expat community and online forum I’ve become a part of in the last year, and I now have friends who have worked at Zaman and their competitor the Hurriyet Daily News. When I first visited Turkey in 2008, I recall reading an interesting editorial in one of the papers about how stealing things from airplanes like safety cards can cause delays, as the plane can’t take off without enough for everyone. The torn out article is long-gone, but I’ve retained the factoid and it keeps me honest on airplanes (though I’ve been tempted to take a souvenir from some eastern European airlines). When the Hurriyet turned 50 this year, writer Jennifer Hattam wrote a great piece on the particular challenges of not only translating the language of news, but the cultural specifics and background as well.

Expat news doesn’t only come in print form. I tweeted about expat news sources and read how writer Lisa Bergren relies on the BBC for news as well as comfort, and CJGuest recommends Al Jazeera from the Arabic world, the German Deutsche Welle, NHK from Japan, and Russia Today from the Russian Federation. Gadling’s own Grant Martin likes the South China Morning Post and the more western Sydney Morning Herald.The local English-language paper doesn’t always have the freshest content, the most stellar writing, or the coolest layout, but it provides an invaluable look into regional and national issues. Expat news can also provide a lens through which to see world news through local perspectives, and help us keep in touch with the sentiments and opinions in our home countries and cultures.

Gadling readers, do you have any favorite news sources abroad? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Photo courtesy Flickr user Ed Yourdon

New website promises travelers much better adventures

by Kraig Becker on

A new website calling itself Much Better Adventures launched recently with a unique approach to providing travelers with a new option for finding opportunities to explore adventure destinations across the globe. The site serves as a guide for travelers looking for first hand recommendations and ratings on local guide services and other businesses that also happen to use ethical practices in their approach to travel.

The website has compiled plenty of information to help you plan your next adventure travel experience, including options for how to get to your destination, whether it be by plane, train, or automobile. There is also helpful notes on how to travel in a more environmentally friendly way, which is especially nice for those concerned with limiting their carbon footprint on their journeys. Much Better Adventures also offers handy guides to destinations based on various activities, and their “Deals” section has money saving offers that everyone can appreciate. Visitors to the site are encouraged to join the growing community there and share their favorite local outfitters, inns, or guide services. The “Grapevine” portion of the site helps to spotlight new additions to the every growing database of user recommendations.

Active travelers will probably most enjoy the site’s option for searching the database to find the perfect adventure based on what it is you specifically want to do. You can select from such options as “Bike,” “Snow,” or “Rock+Ice,” amongst others. From there, you’ll be provided a few activity specific options, which then leads to the destinations best suited for the activity. Once you’ve decided on the activity you’re most interested in, you can then select the continent and country that you would like to explore in that manner. The country of choice is even broken down into sub-regions, which once selected will also provide the tour operators in that area that provide the adventure you’re looking for.

The site is still filling up with information, but there are already some great suggestions for travelers heading to nearly any part of the world. Perhaps you’ll find it to be a useful tool the next time you’re looking for a much better adventure of your own.