Travel Trivia
Is The Great Wall Of China Really Visible From Space?
Travelers are especially fond of soaking up arcane facts about the world we live in, like which country has the most lakes (Finland), or what year the Coliseum was completed (80 A.D.), and then subsequently arguing over whether that statement is actually right or not (are we talking about freshwater lakes or just regular lakes, […]
Flights Are Slower Today Because Airliners Are Cheap(er)
Just like your male pattern baldness and the distance you’re feeling with your significant other, that nagging feeling you have that airliners are slower today than they used to be is actually true and not just in your head. Slate’s Explainer recently took a look at the issue and found that planes are in fact […]
The Top 10 Most Visited Countries In The World [Infographic]
According to the most recent statistics from the World Tourism Organization, the top 10 most visited countries in the world was unchanged in order from 2008, with France leading the way, welcoming 74.2 million international travelers in 2009, a decrease of 6.3% from the previous year. As can be seen in the graphic above, the […]
These Are The Most Photographed Places On Earth
Budget Travel recently put in a request to Cornell University (are esteemed academic institutions usually at the beck and call of travel magazines?) to analzye Flickr’s more than 35 million photographs to figure out where the most photographed places on Earth are, and this was their results, ranked by city and most photographed landmark: 1) […]
It’s Time For Americans To Get More Vacation Days
In honor of the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, I thought we’d take a look at a sad problem here in the U.S. Everyone knows that Americans have some of the shortest vacation days available in the world. A quick look at this list showing the number of vacation days workers get around the world depressingly […]
What Ever Happened To Biosphere 2?
For anyone who attended 6th-grade science class between the years 1990 and 1994, they know what I’m referring to. Remember Biosphere 2, the self-contained space-colony-in-the-Arizona-desert experiment that seemed to be part of the requisite science class curriculum alongside rainforest degradation, saving sperm whales, and making model rockets? For those of you not old enough to […]
Sexual Frustration And Why It Snows In June In Moscow
Come late spring in Moscow, just after the snow has subsided for the winter, another form of white, powdery substance blankets the capital of Russia, and it’s not what you think. The white stuff in question is called pukh, and it’s actually the pollen of the poplar tree. And when the powdery stuff is released into […]
Fat Tuesday 2011: Mardi Gras By The Numbers
In celebration of Fat Tuesday 2011 and the end of Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras is the last Tuesday before the beginning of the Lent season that kicks off with tomorrow’s Ash Wednesday), I though we’d take a look at Mardi Gras by the numbers as it effects New Orleans. According to this infographic by Fast […]
What Day Are Airline Tickets Cheapest?
Surely predicting when airline tickets are the cheapest isn’t an exact science, is it? One couldn’t possibly say, with any level of particularity — given the Jurassic Park-esque chaos theory level of variables that must play into the setting of such prices — when exactly fares are the cheapest without finding themselves suddenly confronted with […]
Do You Really Need To Turn Off Your Electronic Device Before Takeoff And Landing?
What peanuts were to the airline industry in the ’70s and ’80s, the “Please turn off all electronic devices, including cell phones, PDAs and computers prior to takeoff” announcement is now for the ’00s and, well, whatever these are (the teens?). Is there anything as irksome as having to sit there, like a scorned schoolchild, […]