June 16, 2008
Phone mining
"...Vagabond Jan Chipchase spends most of the year traveling around remote parts of the globe figuring out how people actually use technology -- particularly phones. He has noticed a new behavior among his native hosts. If they are young, they want to borrow his phone and mine if for goodies they can copy. Here is Jan's first experience in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
Wandering around UB and chance up disciples [monks] playing football in a temple complex. They invite me into the warmth for a reason - to mine the memory of my phone of all its value. Half a dozen files transferred from my device - particularly interested in obtaining photos of women from Japan..."
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Before the advent of the airplane, acoustic location was applied to determining the presence and position of ships in fog.
Acoustic Location was used from mid-WW1 to the early years of WW2 for the passive detection of aircraft by picking up the noise of the engines. It was rendered obsolete before and during WW2 by the introduction of radar, which was far more effective. Horns give both acoustic gain and directionality; the increased inter-horn spacing compared with human ears increases the observer's ability to localize the direction of a sound. (From Hanuman)
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10 Acts of Heroism in the Sichuan Earthquake
Also, Tortilla-Board,a New Breadboard Technique ,by Jesus tortilla
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May 18, 2008
On the road again
Power Tables in Washington DC and Who Dines Where?
Also, lots of Tango sheet music
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May 06, 2008
The Borat Map
A map showing the (rough) locations where Borat - the 7th most famous person in Kazakhstan - is alleged to have made some of his rather unusual remarks about his home country
Mini Moscow. And another
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Ithaa, which means pearl in Dhivehi, is an undersea restaurant, secured five meters below sea level, at the Hilton Maldives Hotel. The five-by-nine meter restaurant has a capacity of 14 people and is encased in R-Cast acrylic, offering 270° panoramic view to its customers. The restaurant was designed and constructed by M.J. Murphy Ltd. - a design consultancy based in New Zealand - and was opened on April 15, 2005. Meals range in cost from $120 (lunch) to $250 (dinner)
Ithaa's entrance is a spiral staircase in a thatched pavilion at the end of a jetty. The 2004 tsunami topped just below the staircase entrance, and caused no damage to the restaurant
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"Half a mile down to Morgan Creek, Leaning heavy on the end of the week, Hercules (the family dog) and a hog-nosed snake, Down on Copperline, We were down on Copperline." The James Taylor Bridge in Chapel Hill . Also, James Taylor's drumming machine
WOW! TV DX Photos by Channel seen from Macomb, IL Since 1983
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April 27, 2008
El camino del Rey
Originally built in 1901, this walkway now serves as an aproach to makinodromo, the famous climbing sector of El Chorro
(From Nag on the Lake)
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The Blur Building was built for the Swiss Expo 2002 on Lake Neuchatel. It is an architecture of atmosphere. The lightweight tensegrity structure measures 300 feet wide by 200 feet deep by 75 feet high. The primary building material is indigenous to the site, water. Water is pumped from the lake, filtered, and shot as a fine mist through 31,500 high-pressure mist nozzles. It was designed by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio
Mouth-to-mouth wild hyena feeding in Harar, Ethiopia
The toilets of King's College, Aberdeen are 1992 Loo of the year award winners
All New – Featuring the personal websites of Grow-a-brain’s readers! Today, Charlierb3’s plain looking link-blog Interesting Pile. Submit yours for consideration.
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April 07, 2008
Crybaby Bridges in Ohio
Aalsmeer flower auction (flickr). Aalsmeer is the home of the giant Dutch flower market. The complex covers some 250 acres; the auction building alone takes up some 160 acres (one-quarter of a square mile). Each day approximately 14 million flowers and 1 million potted plants are auctioned. That means 3 billion flowers and 400 million plants annually from some 8,000 nurseries. The complex includes five auction halls where 13 auction clocks operate simultaneously in a process of a Dutch auction
There are many bridges in the United States known as Crybaby Bridge. Most are named this because the sound of a baby can be, or has been, heard from the bridge. Most are accompanied by an urban legend of a baby or young child/children being killed nearby, or thrown from the bridge into the river or creek below
The Tschuggen Grand Hotel, located in Arosa, Switzerland
Calle Sueca Street of lights
Scott and Shackleton's abandoned huts in Antarctica
(I remember) La Marianne de Mai '68
Typo Hunt Across America. From an article, “Man Drives Cross-Country, Correcting Typos” that also includes the more famous blog, The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
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March 16, 2008
Seaside Fun in Blackpool
Few films have captured the kiss-me-quick pleasures of Blackpool more colorfully, energetically and convincingly than 'Holiday' (1957). Made by British Transport Films, it chronicles a day in the life of this most British of seaside resorts as it's invaded by people hell-bent on getting the most fun possible from their precious holidays
Also, Delhi (1938) and much more at the BFI YouTube channel
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March 08, 2008
The Thames Estuary Army Forts
The Thames Estuary Army Forts were constructed in 1942 to a design by Guy Maunsell, following the successful construction and deployment of the Naval Sea Forts. Their purpose was to provide anti-aircraft fire within the Thames Estuary area. Each fort consisted of a group of seven towers with a walkway connecting them all to the central control tower
They are off the North Kent coast. During the 1950's the forts were left unmanned and taken over by pirate Radio Station in the 1960's
A brief history of the sea forts
Stephen Turner's Seafort project
Reminds you of Myst? It should. Here is some Myst architecture in the real world
Previously-posted: Urban Exploration in the UK
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March 03, 2008
Nogales
In 1972, Chinatown in Amsterdam was photographed by Ab Koers... (From All Night Surfing)
A photographic comparison of the U.S.-Mexico border in the town of Nogales, 1898 and 2008. (From Incoming Signals)
A mechanical cow that breaks wind on the hour has become Edinburgh's latest tourist attraction. The new farting cow clock of Edinburgh
Re-post: A long day's journey out of Iowa listening only to ABBA’s Dancing Queen
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February 23, 2008
Will Travel For Money
Things That David Horvitz Will do for Money. (From Cynical-C)
The Deadly Huashan Hiking Trail, one of the most dangerous Tourist Hiking Trail in the world.
The Cave of Swallows in Mexico
The Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden
Do Australians count as whites? Correspondence with the Ku Klux Klan. Many more Meaningless Hoaxes, if you scroll down
Helping China learn to read: Zhou Youguang is the inventor of Pinyin, a Romanization of the Chinese lexicon used by millions to learn the language
Minnesotans for global warming
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February 17, 2008
Trains of Zurich
Trains of Zurich in real time
The forgotten women of Slyozi, a small village in western Russia - one of 34,000 across the country that have fewer than 10 residents, mostly old women
Swimming at the edge of Victoria Falls
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February 02, 2008
A Dutch Yellow Brick Road
Lost World - Satoru Toma’s photos from a theme park gone to seed. (From your monkey called)
A yellow street in the city of Schiedam
The Commissioners’ Plan of 1811 was a proposal by the New York State Legislature adopted in 1811 for the orderly development and sale of the land of Manhattan between 14th Street and Washington Heights. The plan is arguably the most famous use of the grid plan and is considered by most historians to have been far-reaching and visionary
"Panda kindergarten" at the Pandas of Wolong
An angry letter to Gordon Brown from Mr. BaliHai
Where else can you find images like these? Only in Russia
Windows of the world - a miniature world amusement park in Shenzhen, China
A Day At The Beach In South Korea
(Graphic above from Tess Contest)
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January 04, 2008
Go before it's too late
International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators
Antarctica - Go before it's too late. (From Kilroy Travel)
Icelandic Faces by Stuck in customs
Cumil the construction worker peeking out of a manhole in Bratislava. (Another one in Stockholm. Thank you, Marilyn)
1 more Reason to love New York (Watch it happen)
What's on your travel itinerary in the new year? NYT list of 53 Places To Go In 2008
"I don't even know what street Canada is on", (Al Capone) and other Quotes About Canada
(Click on pix above to biggify)
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December 06, 2007
Château de Versailles from the air
Château de Versailles from the air
The annual Christmas Fair in Piazza Navona
What are some "little known" countries that are worth visiting?
Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet interviewed by Rick Steves, comparing notes on their early seventies travels along the hippie trail
Re-post: Painted traffic signal boxes in Brisbane, Australia and utility boxes in Israel
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November 09, 2007
City of Broken Dreams
Murals of Belfast. Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, has been home to some of the worst violence Ireland has endured. The Troubles, between the late 1960’s and 1998, divided the nation, mainly between Nationalist Catholics and Unionist Protestants. The Agreement on Good Friday (April 10th, 1998) brought an end to 30 years of suffering and bitter feuding between these communities. Throughout The Troubles both sides painted large murals on buildings, particularly in residential areas on houses at the end of terraced rows
Kadykchan. The City of Broken Dreams. This city has become useless after the collapse of the USSR, like many other Soviet industrial settlements
Panoramic view from The World Trade Center Twin Towers
Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg – the longest place name in the US
A very Simplified map of London
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October 27, 2007
Mountain Life
The Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanatorium occupies a hilly spread of land in Booneville, Arkansas, a town of barely more than 4,000. It admitted its first patient in 1910 and discharged its last in 1973. (Thank you, Traci)
Where you wish the streets have no names
Riding home-made wooden bikes. The Cordilleras of northern Philippine preserve their rich culture and traditions amid strong influences from the “outside” world. (From Flutterby)
A Spa at the Pfister Hotel Milwaukee
Mountain cave hotel Beckham Creek Cave Haven near Eureka Springs, Arkansas
In the mid-19th century, one Mrs Favell Mortimer set forth to write a definitive travel guide to the world. There was just one problem: she had never set foot outside her native Shropshire. The rudest travel book ever written
Generate a custom packing list for any journey with the Universal Packing List
Not related: Illusions on Worth1000
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October 24, 2007
Galapagos, Galapagos, Galapagos….
My cousin Sammy, had been sailing his boat for the last 3-4 years and is now somewhere around equador. I am very jealous of him. Here is a letter I received from him -
There’s certainly more than meets the eye there and after one week on a diving cruise there, I can only say that I have barely seen its magic. Some take a three week cruise and they too don’t get to see all of beauty and glory of these enchanted islands.
In fact there is no one good time to visit. The islands’ weather is influenced sea currents. The cold season July through September is dominated but southern current bringing lots of plankton and thus abundant sea life. But it is also a dry season, so the islands are arid and the land animals are have a harder time surviving and there are fewer of them. And of course, it’s cold diving and the visibility is poor because of all the plankton. A particular cold year, La Nina, would even be better for under water life.
On the other hand, the warm season, December through February, is also the raining season. During these months it can rain cats and dogs all day and so the islands turn green. The land animals flourish. The warm water is lacking plankton, the migrating creatures are gone, and the local die out in numbers. So for land tours, one must deal with the rain and the over cast skies (not great for photography.) El Nino phenomenon would bring particularly more rain and thus more abundant life on land.
The islands are much bigger and farther apart (120 nautical miles) than what imagined. In some places, those that you probably never see on nature documentaries, they are plain ugly. There are four larger urban towns. They are really ugly and poor. Typical unfinished buildings scared visibly with the grey of unpainted building blocks. Streets lined up with stores selling the same T-Shirt and chatchkes fare to tourists. A population of about 30,000 survives on tourism and fishing.
Fishing is good but greed is depleting the fish stock. The Japanese and Chinese fleets skirt the reserve’s boundary and the lack of enforcement for lack of funds; violate these boundaries on a regular basis. Corruption and bribes are certainly not helping. The enforcing officers apparently earn few hundred dollars a months. So for such a little extra, they will willingly turn a blind eye.
Recently a ex-pat, turned Ecuadorian, by marriage, mistaken for a foreigner, was put in jail because he documented and reported this. The new and so loved president of Ecuador just approved a new law allowing the ‘accidental’ taking of sharks. The belief is that now that reporting is required, there will be more control. But in fact, it will just increase the number of sharks taken accidentally. The Chinese with their new found riches are driving up the price of shark fin soup. And so the population of shark is expected to dwindle to critical level in a few short decades.
As for my trip, 7 nights on a trimaran with two days near Darwin and Wolf islands. These are the northern and most remote islands with the best diving. Trimarans like catamarans are not the most cruise friendly vessel while making way. Yes they don’t heel and they have large living spaces. But the waves ‘bump’ into their suspended bellies. I am not sure one can really get used to all this banging and shaking. We were blessed with relatively calm seas, so it wasn’t much of a problem. The crew real efficient and friendly provided a very pleasant stay. The food was tasty too and the chef, the most important person on board, certainly earned his wage. Too bad the outdoor buffet style serving was the reason we often ate our meal cold. I was the only American aboard. Out of 16 divers, 7 were French, 2 Russians, 1 (other) Israeli, 2 Brits, 1 Spaniard, 1 Ecuadorian and 1 Pole.
The beauty of the underwater world was slow uncovering but we were very lucky. Once we reached Darwin, the dive master had us do a back roll practically on top of a whale shark. We swam with it for most of our dive. The next 2 dives we kept bumping into it, even seeing two crossing paths feet from each other. This was the highlight of the diving. We did see plenty of Galapagos sharks, hammerheads, turtles and eels. And even on lucky beautiful orange frog fish. Our last dive was a short and shallow where we had a chance to dance with sea lions. It did not take long for them to twist and turn around us, to tug at our fins and bump against our cameras. Fortunately, underwater, one can not smell them, as they truly stink on land. On land we saw them again basking in the sun, sea and land iguanas, giant turtles and lonesome George. We saw a variety of birds but too few species out of the many variety inhabiting these islands. Fourteen species of finches have evolved on the island. We saw only 2 of them.
During land trips we saw the sad abundance of introduces land species. Cows and donkeys dot the farm land. Yes, they have farms and banana plantations. Introduced timber and grass, ugly looking, grass, are spreading and endangering the native plants.
Overall it was a one of a kind magical trip. But I also discovered the sad side of the islands. During the trip I read Darwin for dummies and selected chapters of his Origin of the species. Nature dictates that isolated species will die out. Either because some ´fast´´ drastic change in the environment causes them to no longer fit or inbreeding makes them susceptible to diseases. Lonesome George, the last of his species will not mate with another species of giant turtle. On each island a different species of giant turtle evolved. Two other have been extinct no thanks to man. The flightless Cormorant is also endangered because of inbreeding. His inability to ´move on´ will doom it with the declining population of fish.
See the attached photos for some of the beauty of these islands.
Sam
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October 07, 2007
Images of Atlantis
Vision of Atlantis
From the 1940s through the 1960s, every tourist trap had a rack of postcards. Every postcard rack displayed views of the local attractions and a selection of comic cards. Some of those comic cards seem to have come from another world. Comic Postcard Pages. (From Tom Mcmahon)
Dear Sir:
Is there a way to fold a large map that enables the user to view a conveniently small section of it, but also to view adjacent sections of the map with minor manipulations? The Miura map fold, invented by Professor Koryo Miura, can be opened and closed easily merely by separating two opposite corners
Rich B.’s 100-day cross country Great America Roadtrip on Neatorama
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September 09, 2007
Matt Harding Outtakes
Here's some clips that didn't make it into the last video of Where the Hell is Matt? (YT)
QT panoramic of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles by Laurent Thion. (From Coudal)
Satellite view of the Colosseum
The lions of St. Petersburg. Similar street art projects, previously mentioned
People need more maps, especially in South Africa and The Iraq
10 Signs you've spent all summer in Amsterdam
Tianducheng, a residential area on the outskirts of Hangzhou - Little Paris in China
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August 16, 2007
Naked in China
Naked in China by Olen Sanders
Welcome to Caracas, Venezuela - can you spot the divide?
You Can Get Arrested for That!? 2 Englishmen on a crime spree break American laws
Bush Flying in Alaska (by Shaun Lunt)
One of the great things about living in Paris are all the different markets; from food to flowers, or books to stamps, there’s sure to be a market in Paris selling just what you’re looking for. 10 Street Markets in Paris
Re-post from 2003: Heathrow Airport Announcement Pranks
I saw an interesting building while visiting Bratislava last year, and would like to know more about it
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August 10, 2007
Boring postcards
The Catherine Palace in is the summer residence of the Russian tsars, located in Tsarskoye Selo, 25 km south-east of St. Petersburg. (From Szanalmas)
Analyses of the City of Toronto’s coat of arms
Boring postcards. (From Advancing gingerly)
Top 10 Things Not To Do in London
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July 20, 2007
The Inns North Amaulik hotel in Sanikiluaq
New York at night by Arnold Pouteau
Police Cars from Around the World
Images Of Ceylon. (From Dublog)
Driving from Argentina to Alaska to Asia
Our First Amsterdam Sight: A bald man laser-eyeing a sheep
A Time to Eat: A portfolio by Paul County
Experience Arctic hospitality
(Homer graphic above by HappyToast at b3ta. Background here)
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June 24, 2007
Production and consumption
“For every building that rises from the ground, there is a corresponding hole somewhere else where the raw materials have been mined for the construction”. Last week I saw the gripping movie Manufactured Landscapes. It follows Canadian Edward Burtynsky, as he travels to China, Pennsylvania & Bangladesh and documents how nature is being transformed by industry. I highly recommend it. Here is an interview with the director Jennifer Baichwal
44 photos of Chechnya’s rural schools. (From Sargasso)
Betelnut girls are a unique part of Taiwan culture. They sit in brightly-decorated glass booths wearing skimpy outfits, and sell cigarettes, drinks and betelnut to passing drivers
Pint of beer –€4.50. 50 liters of fresh water – €1.50
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June 06, 2007
Sidney 360º
Photo tourism is a system for browsing large collections of photographs in 3D. Our approach takes as input large collections of images from either personal photo collections or Internet photo sharing sites, and automatically computes each photo's viewpoint and a sparse 3D model of the scene. Our photo explorer interface enables the viewer to interactively move about the 3D space by seamlessly transitioning between photographs, based on user control
Sydney Harbour Bridge panoramic
Located in Canada's Northwest Territories, the arctic highway from Tibbitt to Contwoyto is considered one of the most dangerous routes in the world
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April 02, 2007
“Everybody can take a reservation, but not everybody can hold on to it”
A Woody Allen walking tour of New York City
Somebody in St. Petersburg played a joke on the biggest and most famous cathedral of St. Petersburg, the Kazan Cathedral
20 things to keep in mind when visiting Germany. F. ex. No 4: When you want to see people wearing “Lederhosen” - go to Bavaria. Bavaria is the German Texas. People speak in a funny way, wear strange things and the rest of the country makes fun of them. The Bavarian “Lederhosen” are like the Texan cowboy hats
Travel photography by Michael Kenna. (From ZikZak)
(Photo above is of a Grasscutter, a small mammal from Ghana. It's also known as a Cane Rat, but it isn't a rat. Most of them are in the wild and when Ghanaians catch them, they sell them on the side of the road. They are eaten in a variety of ways, including grasscutter soup. Click on pix to biggify. From An American in Africa)
More from Africa: Wooden cell phones in Mozambique
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March 20, 2007
Surfing Amsterdam
British Seaside Holiday Cabins
Bonjour Vietnam. (Thank you, Dafna)
"Discover the ancient city of Nanjing, cosmopolitan Shanghai and much more while saving thousands $$ on dental work performed in ultra-modern clinics using the latest and best technology". Dental Tourism. (From Brand Noise)
Architectural sights of Amsterdam
photographs of Newcastle Upon Tyne
Russian Leprechauns: St. Patrick's Day in Moscow 2007
Team N2i Antarctic Expedition
Re-post (from 2003): New 7 Wonders of the World
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February 15, 2007
Let Hundred Flowers Bloom
Watermelon vendor in Xinjiang. (Taken by Raul Gutierrez)
Cultural Revolution Mango under Glass Dome, and other Mao Worshipping Paraphernalia at “The East Is Red”
I spent the day in Chernobyl. One of my Kiev game dev friends hooked me up with a private tour, so I decided to go for the day to check it out. Every woman in my life told me this was a bad idea. Every man said it sounded awesome. Nuclear Winter in Chernobyl
The Australian National Public Toilet Map
Noise Map of England. Also, NYC Subway Smell Map
On a trip to Rapa Nui in 2004, Wouter Velthuis took this series of absolutely stunning black-and-white photographs. (From Eye of the Goof)
11 Tips On Traveling With Your Parrot
Re-post: The 2007 Official Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Shipwrecks on the coast of Mauritania
A blog dedicated to the music of the Traveling Wilburys
(No time to blog tonight. Sorry)
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January 31, 2007
Skylines
