China's Dragon - World's Largest Airport Building

Beijing has built the world’s largest airport building, and most advanced airport - just in time for the Olympics.

Officials say the dragon form is welcoming and uplifting, and showcases the traditional colors and symbols of Chinese culture.

It's awesome enough, but it looks more like a guitar than a dragon - just a traveler

Read more - Enter the Dragon: Terminal Is World's Biggest Airport Building

A Woman Should Have

Take note ladies - a poem by Dr. Maya Angelou






A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE
something perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a youth she's content to leave behind....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to retelling it in her old age....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE . . .
one friend who always makes her laugh - and one who lets her cry...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal that will make her guests feel honored...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a feeling of control over her destiny...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to fall in love without losing herself...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to quit a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without ruining the friendship....

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that her childhood may not have been perfect - but it's over...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to live alone, even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to go, be it to her best friend's kitchen table ...
or a charming inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month, or a year...

Black History Month Ends Today

February is Black History Month, so on this last day of the month, I wanted to concentrate on some facts about African Americans that are not usually reported in the media - just a traveler



Businesses

- $88.6 billion in revenues for black-owned businesses in 2002, up 24 percent from 1997. The number of black-owned businesses totaled 1.2 million in 2002, up by 45 percent since 1997. Black-owned firms accounted for 5 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the United States.

- 129,329 - The number of black-owned firms in New York in 2002, which led all states. New York City alone had 98,080 such firms, which led all cities.

- 10,716 - The number of black-owned firms operating in 2002 with receipts of $1 million or more. These firms accounted for 1 percent of the total number of black-owned firms in 2002 and 55 percent of their total receipts, or $49 billion.

- 969 - The number of black-owned firms with 100 or more employees in 2002. Firms of this size accounted for 24 percent of the total revenue for black owned employer firms in 2002, or $16 billion.

Education

- 80% of blacks age 25 and older had at least a high school diploma in 2005. In states such as Colorado, the proportion was even higher - 90 percent. (Source: 2005 American Community Survey)

- 17% of blacks 25 and older had a bachelor's degree or higher in 2005. In many states, the rate was higher. 26% blacks this age in Colorado, for instance, had this level of education. (Source: 2005 American Community Survey)

- 1.1 million blacks age 25 and older had an advanced degree in 2005 (e.g., master's, Ph.D., M.D. or J.D.). Ten years earlier - in 1995 - only 677,000 blacks had this level of education.

- For the 2005 school year, 2.3 million black college students were enrolled. This was an increase of roughly 1 million from 15 years earlier.

Families and Children

- There are 9.1 million black families in the United States. Of these, nearly one-half (47%) are married-couple families.

- 11% of black children live in a household maintained by a grandparent.

- 46% of black householders own their own home, nationally. The rate was higher in certain states, such as Mississippi, where it reached 56%.

Military Service

- There are 2.4 million black military veterans in the United States in 2004.
(Source: American FactFinder)

Jobs

- 26% of blacks age 16 and older work in management, professional and related occupations. (Source: American FactFinder)

- There are 44,000 black physicians and surgeons; 79,400 postsecondary teachers; 45,200 lawyers; and 49,300 chief executives.

(Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007)

Data courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau

Harvard Costs Less than Prison

In 2007, the states spent over $44 billion on the incarcerated. After adjusting for 2007 dollars, that’s a tin cup-rattling 127 percent increase since 1987. Currently, this works out to almost $19,000 per prisoner per year.


For the same period, the adjusted spending on higher education climbed 21 percent. Due to recent overhauls in financial aid, the United States could send their entire criminal population to Harvard for a four-year degree and still spend less money per prisoner per year. For those currently making less than $180,000 a year, the cost of a Harvard education is $18,000 per person per year.

With this in mind, one wonders how the states justify cuts in education that would benefit the free citizen: those who have yet to (or would never) embark on a career of crime. For less money, we could be graduating rocket scientists instead of paroling rocks.

Read full article at Blogcritics Magazine

Global Web Trends in Music

The rise of the internet has opened up an endless spectrum of new opportunities for both lesser-known artists and bigger bands from around the world.

Here are a few sites— for neophytes and experienced web-surfers alike—that are helpful sources for learning about, downloading, watching or otherwise consuming great music and music videos.

YOUTUBE www.youtube.com
YouTube single-handedly created the online video craze when it launched in 2005. The site still boasts more videos than all of its competitors combined—over 100 million videos are streaming there daily. All videos on YouTube are free and anyone can upload to it. The only downside is that audio quality can be suspect, and some videos may contain text-overlay advertisements now that the site has begun to draw up licensing deals with content providers (like Universal, Sony and Warner) to avoid infringement lawsuits.

iTunes MUSIC STORE - www.apple.com/itunes
Although it’s geared mostly toward major label releases, iTunes does have a decent amount of new and reissued world music recordings. It truly can be a pain if you want to move your music to more than one computer or if you use a non-iPod mp3 player, and it has limitations on how often you can burn music to a CD.

MYSPACE www.myspace.com
MySpace has more or less eliminated the need for artists to build stand-alone websites. Just about every artist on the market, new and old, hip or square, living or dead (no joke) has a MySpace page. A typical page usually includes a few embeddable videos of live performances or a music video, and anywhere from one streaming track to an entire album. The problem is the actual website. It’s badly constructed and often overwhelmed by net traffic, not to mention that user profiles tend to have less-than-tasteful background images. Since you don’t need to be a part of MySpace to see public profiles, and an artist’s profile is usually on the first page of a Google search, you can check those tour dates and listen to some new music.

DAILYMOTION www.dailymotion.com/us
DailyMotion is one of the most-used video sharing sites in France. It hasn’t taken off yet in the U.S., so don’t worry if you haven’t heard of it. The site’s interface is a little more chaotic than Youtube’s, but it allows for higher audio and video quality. DailyMotion is available in over 17 different countries, and features some pretty interesting videos from all over the world. The artists tend to be from French-speaking countries, but the videos don’t have the overlay advertisements like Youtube.

SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS - www.folkways.si.edu/index.html
This website is a portal into the Smithsonian Institute’s tremendous archive of music and resources. The site has dedicated educational tools including an extensive set of free audio and video podcasts, complete with lesson plans in PDF format. You can access and subscribe to the Smithsonian’s podcasts directly at the iTunes music store. Also make sure to check out the Smithsonian Global Sound (www.smithsonianglobalsound.org), which gives you ample access to the Smithsonian’s archives in the form of several (randomized) streaming radio stations. You can purchase music by the album or by the track through direct download, and for those who are worried about losing out on the “hard copy” musical experience, album liner notes are available before you even make a purchase. Be forewarned, though: the archives are exhaustively sorted by country, language, cultural group, language, and even by instrument! Surfing through the full contents of the SGS can turn into a time-consuming, albeit highly addictive, process.

MUSIC BLOGS - These short-form web diaries have touched just about every corner of the earth. There are blogs about cooking, horror movies, political dissidents in China, and a virtually limitless library of both new and out-of-print music. A significant thread in the indie music blogosphere is devoted to a small group of NYC-based bands these blogs tend to link back to each other to increase their traffic (and ad revenues), but the beauty of the web is that there’s still plenty of room for blogs devoted to such arcane topics as vintage Turkish psychedelia (and more, at www.rarefrequency.com) and old-school soul (www.soul-sides.com).

Perhaps the greatest— and potentially most controversial— thing about music blogs is that they tend to post mp3s for a limited time, with a disclaimer along the lines of “This is only here temporarily please support the artists and buy their records.” And they get away with it! For some great blogs out there with thorough coverage of the world music scene, check out Tofu Hut (tofuhut.blogspot.com), Sound Roots (soundroots.org) and occasionally, Brooklyn Vegan (brooklynvegan.com).

For a dose of some great African music that has largely languished in obscurity, try World Passport (ethnomusic.podomatic.com)

CALABASH MUSIC http://calabashmusic.com
Calabash is a self-described “fair trade” music company, exclusively distributing the digital music of artists across the globe who are unsigned or on smaller labels. Artists get a 50% share of any sales and customers get the satisfaction of knowing that they’re not just giving their money to greedy labels. Calabash also works with Link TV (www.linktv.org), which is another great resource, on the National Geographic World Music site, which features videos on just about every genre of music you can think of. (Full disclosure: Global Rhythm also collaborates with the National Geographic site.)

LABELS
Record label websites are still an overlooked source of new music. The smaller ones have started to figure out that they can give away a song or two and still sell records. The folks at Luaka Bop have set up streaming online radio with different channels (labeled “African mix,” “Brazilian mix” and so on) from their catalog, and have a forum so fans can discuss their favorite artists and upcoming tours.

Source: Global Rhythm - the destination for world music

U.S. Purchases Florida - This Day in History

February 22, 1819 - The United States Purchases Florida

Spain was losing its grip on its New World territories. Years of war and tension with England and France had left the Spanish empire without the means to firmly control its colonies.

General Andrew Jackson, while fighting the First Seminole Wars against Native Americans in Georgia had on occasion attacked and captured Spanish forts in Florida without provocation.

When Spain was unable to retaliate, President John Monroe and his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams saw an opportunity.

Forcing Spain to the negotiating table, Adams demanded the purchase of Florida.

Residents there had grievances against Spain amounting to slightly more than $5,000,000. In exchange for agreeing to pay those claims, the United States was granted all of Spanish Florida in the treaty known as the Adams-Onis Treaty.

Florida's Black Spanish History

In the photo above are two Black soldiers in the Black Militia during the Spanish Colonial period. As early as 1689, African slaves fled from British America to Spanish Florida seeking freedom.

After 1693 they received liberty in exchange for defending the Spanish settlers at St. Augustine.

The Spanish organized the blacks into a militia, and in 1738 they founded a settlement at Fort Mose outside St. Augustine, the first legally sanctioned free black town in North America.

Teenage Girls Cyberpioneers

Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are teenage girls - the cyberpioneers of the moment.

Teenage bloggers nearly doubled from 2004 to 2006, almost all the growth was because of “the increased activity of girls,” according to the Pew report.

A study published in December by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that among Web users ages 12 to 17, significantly more girls than boys blog (35% of girls compared with 20% of boys) and create or work on their own Web pages (32% of girls compared with 22% of boys).

Girls also eclipse boys when it comes to building or working on Web sites for other people and creating profiles on social networking sites (70% of girls 15 to 17 have one, versus 57% of boys 15 to 17).

Video posting was the sole area in which the boys gained an edge - boys are almost twice as likely as girls to post video files.

But even though girls surpass boys as Web content creators, the imbalance among adults in the computer industry remains. Women only hold about 27% of jobs in computer and mathematical occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Poverty Is Poison

In August 2007 new poverty estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's show that 12% of Americans live in poverty.

That percentage may seem low to some, but when you consider that 12% equals 36.5 million real people, it takes on a much different perspective.

And the article today in the NY Times spells out that poverty is really poison to the lives of over 36 million fellow Americans.

In real terms that means that in the wealthiest nation of the world far too many people go to bed hungry, wake up hungry, and literally give up on hope - just a traveler
______________________________________________

“Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain.” That was the opening of an article in Saturday’s Financial Times, summarizing research presented last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

As the article explained, neuroscientists have found that “many children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development.” The effect is to impair language development and memory — and hence the ability to escape poverty — for the rest of the child’s life.

So now we have another, even more compelling reason to be ashamed about America’s record of failing to fight poverty.

L. B. J. declared his “War on Poverty” 44 years ago. Contrary to cynical legend, there actually was a large reduction in poverty over the next few years, especially among children, who saw their poverty rate fall from 23% in 1963 to 14% in 1969.

But progress stalled thereafter: American politics shifted to the right, attention shifted from the suffering of the poor to the alleged abuses of welfare queens driving Cadillacs, and the fight against poverty was largely abandoned.

In 2006, 17.4% of children in America lived below the poverty line, substantially more than in 1969. And even this measure probably understates the true depth of many children’s misery.

Living in or near poverty has always been a form of exile, of being cut off from the larger society. But the distance between the poor and the rest of us is much greater than it was 40 years ago, because most American incomes have risen in real terms while the official poverty line has not.

To be poor in America today, even more than in the past, is to be an outcast in your own country. And that, the neuroscientists tell us, is what poisons a child’s brain.

America’s failure to make progress in reducing poverty, especially among children, should provoke a lot of soul-searching. Unfortunately, what it often seems to provoke instead is great creativity in making excuses.

Some of these excuses take the form of assertions that America’s poor really aren’t all that poor — a claim that always has me wondering whether those making it watched any TV during Hurricane Katrina, or for that matter have ever looked around them while visiting a major American city.

Mainly, however, excuses for poverty involve the assertion that the United States is a land of opportunity, a place where people can start out poor, work hard and become rich.

But the fact of the matter is that Horatio Alger stories are rare, and stories of people trapped by their parents’ poverty are all too common. According to one recent estimate, American children born to parents in the bottom fourth of the income distribution have almost a 50 percent chance of staying there — and almost a two-thirds chance of remaining stuck if they’re black.

That’s not surprising. Growing up in poverty puts you at a disadvantage at every step.

I’d bracket those new studies on brain development in early childhood with a study from the National Center for Education Statistics, which tracked a group of students who were in eighth grade in 1988. The study found, roughly speaking, that in modern America parental status trumps ability: students who did very well on a standardized test but came from low-status families were slightly less likely to get through college than students who tested poorly but had well-off parents.

Source: The NY Times - By Paul Krugman 2/18/2008

Bizarre World of Japanese Pickup Schools

LMAO - this is the most sought after dating coach for geeks in Japan - just a traveler


Satoshi Fujita's Pickup School for Men Who Can't Get Any promises to turn any awkward geek into a womanizing pro.

"Men who can't pick up girls all have some sort of trauma in their past," Fujita says. "My course work teaches them to overcome their trauma, gain confidence, and find sex and happiness with a beautiful female."

Now Satoshi Fujita is not a good-looking man. He has oily skin, beady eyes, short legs and a boy-band wig to cover his balding head. But that hasn't stopped him from becoming Japan's most sought-after dating coach for geeks.

The school is just one of many bizarre after-work coaching institutes in Japan. There are schools that specialize in everything from simple math problems to memory improvement. There are even schools for successful dating-by-text-message.

Nanpa, or the act of picking up women, is one of the newer but more popular categories of cram schools in the country. There are at least half a dozen nanpa schools in the Tokyo area alone.

Finish reading the article at "Wired", and check out his students!

Stuff White People Like

That is the name of the blog I just visited - It's all about stuff White people like, and the Mos Def post caught my eye - just a traveler

The posting says:
In the olden days of white culture, people used to look up to Kings and Princes. These were the people that they adored, and every night they wished and hoped that somehow they could wake up and be just like them. But with Royal Families crumbling, that role has been filled by one man: Mos Def.

He is everything that white people dream about: authentic (”he’s from Brooklyn!”), funny (”he was on Chapelle show!”), artistic (have you heard “Black on Both Sides?”), an actor (”he’s in the new Gondry film!”) and not white (”I don’t see race”).

He has done an amazing job of being in big budget movies (The Italian Job) and having one of his songs become a white person wedding staple (Ms. Fat Booty) but still retaining authenticity and credibility.

If you find yourself in a social situation where you are asked to list your favorite actor or artist, you should always say Mos Def. This way you can name someone that everyone has heard of and you don’t look like you are trying to one up anybody. The only possible negative consequence is some white people might think “I wish I had said that first.”

I'll have to come back and check out this blog again, but for now head on over and check out what else White people like - http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com

Diversity Abroad

Like many college students, Andrew Gordon participated in a study abroad program.

The experience changed his life and led him to create Diversity Abroad.

Diversity Abroad is a non-profit that is aimed at increasing minority, and low income, student participation in Study Abroad.

Andrew believes that in a world that is becoming more global every day, it is imperative for students to have an understanding of different cultures. He works on a daily basis to bring Diversity Abroad programs to schools so that minority and low income students can learn more about going abroad as well as how to finance their trip.

To learn more about Diversity Abroad please read on in this week's Nonprofit Spotlight.

Monopoly World Edition Game

Monopoly is one of the world's most popular board games, and there is voting going on right now for 24 cities that will get included in the Monopoly World Edition of this game.

Vote for your favorite cities

Blogging For A Freer Afghanistan

I was visiting Global Voices today, and ran across this posting on bloggers in Afghanistan. It amazes me that we continue waging a war there, and we virtually know nothing about the country, it's people or what's happening with our U.S. soldiers.

While we have limited knowledge of what's really going on in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan continues on in silence - it's the "forgotten war".

Nasim Fekrat from Kubul, and the other bloggers in Afghanistan want the world to read their blogs . . . just a traveler

Afghan bloggers face severe conditions. We always have power outages. That is normal here. Within 24 hours we have 5 hours electricity, but also periodical outages. We need to write our posts on paper and wait until the power comes back.

Whenever we type and save something to a memory stick, we must walk a distance to access the internet. Probably this will take one hour or less, but we have to deal with this every single day.

Bloggers in Afghanistan are really poor, and I am sure international organizations could help us. I am asking anybody reading these lines, please help us to promote blogs and digital media in Afghanistan. I believe, if we don’t develop modern media, we will not be able to provide information out of Afghanistan. We need international help.

Read more about bloggers in Afghanistan at Global Voices

World's Most Spectacular Volcanos

Karymsky, the most active volcano in the eastern volcanic zone in the Russian Far East.

The river and surrounding central valley are flanked by large volcanic belts, containing around 160 volcanoes, 29 of them still active. The peninsula has the highest density of volcanoes and associated volcanic phenomena in the world, with 19 active volcanoes being included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Source: The Daily Galaxy

STA Travel Searches for World Traveler Intern

Oohhh, a dream come true - Get paid to travel the world! - just a traveler

STA Travel, the world's largest student and youth travel organization, is conducting a nationwide search for the next ultimate summer intern.

The STA Travel World Traveler Internship takes the winning student through 14 countries during the summer of 2008 as they document their adventures and inspire fellow students to travel the world.

The World Traveler Intern will highlight their adventures through blogs, photos and videos along the course of the trip.

This media will then be available for students to follow on several different online channels including STA Travel's Facebook Group and online social community, www.statravelers.com.

This integrated community of student travelers is an engaging space full of multi-media destination information.

Applications are being accepted through March 1 on www.statravelers.com.

Stolen Generation in Australia

Frank Byrne says, "I've been hurt. I've been hurt very deeply. Since they took me away from my mother I have lived only in sorry and anger," he said. "Sorry is a word. It's just a hollow word."

Traumatised by having her son essentially kidnapped by the government, Franks's mother suffered a nervous breakdown, and was committed to a mental asylum in Perth. She died when he was 12.

Stolen Generations - A policy stretching from the late-19th Century to the end of 1960s, under which Australia's Aboriginal children were taken from their parents and placed in institutions, orphanages, missions or white foster families.

Most commonly, it was children of mixed race - "half-castes" in the word description of the day - that the government agencies chose to snatch.

They would descend on Aboriginal communities, separate the light-skinned children from those with a darker complexion, and then take them away.

Histories of the period recall how wire cages were sometimes used with spring doors. Children would be tempted in by a trail of sweets.

Under the twisted logic of the time, the idea was to "civilize" these young Aboriginal children, to indoctrinate them with European values. Another early aim, which stemmed from the doctrine of eugenics, was to "breed out their color".

This period in time in countries history has been labelled by the historian Robert Manne as "the most shameful act of 20th Century Australia".

An inquiry in the late 1990's called "Bringing Them Home" published the details of the policy towards the Aboriginal's, many white Australians claimed they were oblivious to what had been going on all those years. According to the "Bringing Them Home" report, at least 100,000 children were removed from their parents.

After the release of the report, formal apologies came from all of Australia's state parliaments. Prime Minister John Howard gave his motion of "deep and sincere regret", but refused to issue a formal apology. He argued that a formal apology would reinforce a sense of victimhood in Aboriginal communities, and that modern-day Australians were not the authors of the policy, so therefore had nothing for which to apologize.

However Howard's successor, the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, plans to make his campaign promise good of delivering an apology.

Source: BBC - UK
Anguish of the Stolen Generations


Related Articles
Australia Apologizes to Aborigines

Bringing Them Home

Australia's stolen generation

Customs Agents Seize Laptops

As more and more people travel with laptops, BlackBerrys and cellphones, the government's laptop-equals-suitcase position is raising red flags.

The U.S. government has argued in a pending court case that its authority to protect the country's border extends to looking at information stored in electronic devices such as laptops without any suspicion of a crime. In border searches, it regards a laptop the same as a suitcase.

- A U.S. citizen flew in from from Jordan last December, was detained at customs and her cellphone was taken from her purse. Her daughter, waiting outside San Francisco International Airport, tried repeatedly to call her during the hour and a half she was questioned. But after her phone was returned, Mango saw that records of her daughter's calls had been erased.

- A tech engineer returning from a business trip to London objected when a federal agent asked him to type his password into his laptop computer. "This laptop doesn't belong to me," he remembers protesting. "It belongs to my company." Eventually, he agreed to log on and stood by as the officer copied the Web sites he had visited.

- A marketing exec with a global travel management firm in Bethesda, said her company laptop was seized by a federal agent at Dulles International Airport because the agent stated she has a "security concern" with her. The exec is a British citizen, and was basically given the option of handing over her laptop or not getting on that flight. The agent copied her log-on and password and asked to see her email. A year later she has still not received her laptop, nor has she been given any explanation.

The reason for a search is not always made clear. The Association of Corporate Travel Executives, which represents 2,500 business executives in the United States and abroad, said it has tracked complaints from several members. ACTE last year filed a Freedom of Information Act request to press the government for information on what happens to data seized from laptops and other electronic devices.

At least two major global corporations, one American and one Dutch, have told their executives not to carry confidential business material on laptops on overseas trips.

In Canada, one law firm has instructed its lawyers to travel to the United States with "blank laptops" whose hard drives contain no data.

Clarity Sought on Electronics

US Agents Seize Laptop/Camera/Ipod Contents at Borders

Traveling Outside the United States? Leave the Laptop at Home!

JBS News Feed

The Secret to You - A Gift From The Secret Scrolls

"The Secret to You", can be downloaded for free. "The Secret to You" has been especially created to harness all the power of The Secret to transform your life into happiness, prosperity, health, love and joy. From all at The Secret, we celebrate you, we give thanks for you and we wish you a life beyond your wildest dreams.

To experience "The Secret to You" visualization tool - http://thesecret.tv/secret-to-you

Jordan: Snowmen, Women and Babes

Well we just got rid of about 8 inches of snow here in Northern Indiana, but the bloggers in Jordan are having great fun with a contest to see who can come up with the best snowman - or snow woman for that matter - just a traveler

The contest is heating up among Jordanian bloggers who are vying for the top place - and one of the entries is a snow babe - and a snow man to keep her company.

Read more about snow fun in Jordan at Global Voices

Bill of Rights for Airline Passengers - Where do Candidates Stand?

The Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights has issued a challenge to each of the presidential candidates to make public their positions on the rights of airline passengers to not be subjected to more than three hours on airport tarmacs and to be provided a minimum amount of food, water, medical attention and other basic human essential needs during lengthy tarmac delays.

Policy request letters were faxed, e-mailed, and hand-delivered to each of the candidate's campaigns. The only candidate with a known track record on this subject is Senator John McCain, who led a campaign for passengers' rights in 1999, but then he dropped the issue in favor of the airline's self-imposed service improvements.

The Coalition said history has shown that the trust placed in the industry was misplaced. The other candidates do not appear to have a track record or public position on these issues. In related news, the U.S. Senate is reportedly considering an extension to the FAA Modernization Act that will effectively kill passengers' rights legislation this year, despite the fact that tarmac strandings continue to occur.

The group says their members are outraged. Every day that passengers' rights languish on the tarmac, is another day someone may suffer from diabetic shock or develop a blood clot.

The extension also affects desperately needed upgrades to the air traffic control system. Passenger enplanements are expected to increase to over one billion in the next ten years, further taxing an already over-stressed system.


For more information, visit www.flyersrights.org

Spring Break

I booked my Spring Break vacation to the Bahamas far in advance, and with the cost of fuel having gone up so high, I'm glad I made that decision long ago.

However many of my fellow students and friends are still looking for an affordable Spring Break Vacation, so if you are still looking I would suggest going to Student Travel Services - STS.

Whatever you decide, please be safe and have a great time! just a traveler

STS - Student Travel Services

Politics Are Stifling $100 Laptops

affordable laptops for children around the globe to connect on the internet. great idea! and how about some affordable laptops for poor american children too? just a traveler

A lack of "big thinking" by politicians has stifled a scheme to distribute laptops to children in the developing world, a spokesman has said.

Walter Bender of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) said politicians were unwilling to commit because "change equals risk".

BBC News Video


View full article at BBC News

American Students Compared with Students in China and India

Two Million Minutes is the estimated time that students spend in high school.

It is also the title of a new documentary film that suggests American students squander too much of that time.

While their peers in China and India study longer hours to sharpen their math and science skills, top students from one of the best high schools in the U.S. are playing video games and watching Grey's Anatomy during a group study session, at least in clips seen in the documentary.

Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination follows six students through their senior year of high school in the United States, India, and China.

Watch the Trailer . . .


Source: US News & World Report - Read full article

The 53 Places to Go in 2008

if i were to use the new york times list, i have 33 more places to visit. unfortunately i don't have the time, or the money this year - but cambodia is on the list - and the relics at Angor is one spot i hope to see in this lifetime - just a traveler


The 53 Places to Go in 2008

Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai

wow! that's just about all i can say - just a traveler

US Americans Don't Have Maps

most of us remember part of miss teen usa south carolina's infamous speech - “i personally believe that US americans don’t have maps” - well take a look at lily - she's not quite two years old, and this little girl knows her world map - just a traveler

The Greenback Losing Global Appeal

THE dollar used to be the universal tourist currency, accepted almost anywhere, from the streets of Hanoi to the plains of Africa.

But the continued slide of the dollar against other currencies has led the greenback to be shunned in unexpected places, creating new problems for American travelers and pushing prices higher.

The Taj Mahal has stopped accepting dollars for the entrance fee, under a new edict from the Indian Ministry of Culture.

Some tour operators say they have encountered newfound resistance to dollars in parts of Vietnam and Peru, especially in villages that are off the beaten path.

Even in New York, some shops are encouraging payment in foreign currency. A recent article in The Villager, a Manhattan neighborhood newspaper, noted that East Village Wines, a liquor store at 138 First Avenue, accepts payments in euros as well as dollars.

Source: NY Times

Holocaust Float Banned From Rio Carnival Parade

the carnival in rio is a time for celebration, dance and all out fun. this year some festival organizers went over the top. yes - just because you have the freedom to do something, does not mean you should, or that it is appropriate - just a traveler

A Brazilian judge has ruled that a float depicting Holocaust victims cannot be featured in the Rio carnival.

Video - Rio Holocaust Float Banned