A night out in Pyongyang

Believe it or not, there is a nightlife in Pyongyang according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal’s travel section. Just be sure to have a flashlight ready and remember, what happens in Pyongyang, stays in Pyongyang….

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart roasts Obama’s teleprompter use…

… in front of a sixth-grade class.

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The incident also made the news:

Chinglish lesson of the day: Beware of slippy. Maintain hygine. Ensure enviornment

Man hides in Air India lavatory in order to return home

The AirlineReporter blog has recently noted a Times of India story about an Indian working in a job providing airlines services in Saudi Arabia who decided to go home – by locking himself in an airplane lavatory. Apparently he eventually came out and took an empty seat where he remained undetected for 45 minutes. However, the fact that he was the only passenger on the flight wearing overalls is what gave him away…

Chinglish lesson of the day: Noodles-making perform

Did you know?

Lots of fun facts and trivia. Did you know that:

• China will soon be the number one English speaking country in the world…
• India has more honors kids than America has kids…
• The #1 country for broadband penetration is Bermuda…
• There are 540,000 words in the English language – 5x more than in Shakespeare’s time…
• A week’s worth of information in the New York Times contains more information than a person in the 18th century would likely come across in a life time...

The new love (and hate) of the Chinese: Electric bikes

Apparently electric bikes, once seen as an environmental plus, have taken off in China and are now becoming a deadly traffic menace. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (“E-Yikes! Electric Bikes Terrorize the Streets of China”), there are now at least 120 million e-bikes on China's roads and in 2007, there were 2,469 deaths from electric-bicycle accidents nationwide - roughly 3% of China's annual 90,000 traffic accident deaths. Moreover, they may not be the most environmentally friendly means of transportation as their batteries contain LEAD. The Wall Street Journal article also includes an interesting interactive graphic depicting how the bicycle kingdom is increasingly moving from pedal power to electric power.

 

Drunk locks himself in an airplane bathroom, shaves while shirtless… And gets a flight diverted

A Virginia resident named Muhammed Abu Tahir was apparently on Air Tran flight 39 from Atlanta to San Francisco when he decided to get drunk, become unruly, and then lock himself in the lavatory to shave shirtless - after taking off his shoes and socks and placing them outside the door. The pilot made an emergency landing at Colorado Springs under escort by F-16’s and you can read more about the bizarre incident on AirlineReporter.

An important message from Transport Canada: A division of the US Department of Homeland Security

New rules are in effect should you be flying to the USA soon…

Weird travel gadgets: Pocket shower

If you out on a wilderness adventure and its not yet the rainy season, the Pocket Shower is made of a heat resistant waterproof fabric that will soak up the sun and naturally heat the water. The device has a capacity of 10 liters and is available from Summit Hut for US$26.95.

Caravans: At home on the road in Australia

Photographer Martina Gemmola has put together an interesting photography series entitled "Caravanna" about people who live in caravans which attempts to illustrate that “some people just prefer to have the road at their doorstep—and to be able to take that doorstep with them wherever they go.”

Weird travel gadgets: Foldable solar panel battery charger

Perfect for a technology geek or perhaps an environmentalist or outdoorsman, the Brunton New SOLARIS i6 Foldable iPod® Solar Charger will charge the batteries of your mobile phone, radio or lap top while traveling and its available from Amazon.com for US$102.71.

Chinglish lesson of the day: When you are getting off with your lover…

Pay attention to your bag!

We're the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and you can count on us to…

Overreact to tiny threats and ignore big ones….

Weird airline related websites: Laviators

The Winged Victory Women in Aviation webzine has recently noted an odd site called Laviators where airline passengers post photos of themselves taken in the lavatories of commercial airlines. There is no explanation as to what the point of the website is but we will assume that these are passengers on long cross country or transoceanic flights who have to much time on their hands - both in the air and on the ground...

Cool new iPhone application: Bookzee

If you live in New York City and are a book lover, Bookzee is a location-based library book search application. Users simply go to bookzee.net on their desktop or mobile browser, enter a book title or author and then Bookzee will find a library nearest to you that has it. The app can be downloaded from Apple iTunes and a short demo video about the app is available on the Bookzee official website.

Chinglish lesson of the day: Subway station. Thereout entry

The odds of an airline terrorist attack

The Fear of Landing blog has recently noted this interesting and reassuring piece of trivia (the image is courtesy of Gizmodo):

China’s electronic book reader market

Electronic book readers like Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are growing in popularity globally but according to the Wall Street Journal (Outlook for electronic books in China appears bright— once big hurdles are cleared), they face some hurdles in China where piracy is, ummmm, RAMPANT. Nevertheless, the article quoted a recent report by DisplaySearch which forecasted that e-reader sales in China will jump from 800,000 in 2009 to three million in 2010 and account for up to 20% of the global market. However, I wonder if these figures count all of the pirated e-Book readers that will not doubt soon be floating around out there….

Where a fish will sell for as much as a house

A giant bluefin tuna has fetched 16.3 million yen ($177,000) at a Japanese fish auction – making the 513-pound (233-kilogram) fish the priciest since 2001 when a 440-pound (200 kilogram) tuna was sold for a record 20.2 million yen ($220,000). What does a US$100,000+ fish taste like? Delicious according to a January 2009 article in the Wall Street Journal – which is probably why the species will be extinct in a few decades.

Man visits every country on earth and takes really lousy pictures…

The Neatorama blog has recently noted that 55-year-old Indian citizen Kashi Samaddar has spent nearly seven years and £350,000 to visit all 194 countries in the world to set a new world record. Apparently though, this was the best picture he could take of London:



And don’t even ask to see the other pictures... However, the purpose of his trip was to prove that an Indian (obviously one with plenty of money and time on his hands) with an Indian passport could see the entire world and the full story about his adventures can be read in the Daily Mail.