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Here’s an enlightening TED Talk video: The walk from “no” to “yes.” Speaker William Ury is a professional negotiator who has helped resolve conflicts in hot spots around the world, from Chechnya to the Middle East. If any of you are interested in international diplomacy, foreign affairs and the like, this video is a must-watch.
When Ury talked about a proposed method for dispute resolution, it struck me as a vagabonding-style approach … Read more »
“Tell most people you’re a travel writer and you’ll be greeted with exclamations of envy. Ask them to name a travel book they’ve recently read and, almost inevitably, you’ll be met with silence.” –Thomas Swick, “Are Travel Writers the New Poets?” World Hum, October 24, 2011
As my last Vagabonding contribution for year 2012 – and I am glad to say that it has been a great pleasure and a serious commitment, guys – I decided to comment on an interesting article I found here. The author, classifying himself as one of the “New Rich” theorized by Timothy Ferriss’ famous bestseller, gives the life perspective’s lowdown on his profitable work experience as he travels the … Read more »
Engineers at UCLA are working on converting an iPhone into a small laboratory. Weighting less than 2 ounces, the iTube attaches to your phone and analyzes a food sample in about 20 minutes using a colorimetric assay test. The user grinds up a small sample of food with hot water and places it in the tube along with an extraction solvent. After several other testing liquids are added; the phone then captures an … Read more »
Cost/day: $60/day
What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen lately?
The massive amounts of Soviet-era and communist monuments were the strangest. As an American and son of Polish revolutionary parents who were involved in overthrowing the communist government in Poland, it was very interesting to see such communist icons be idolized and celebrated. Most places don’t exactly have Karl Marx statues these days.
Christmas this year find us on the edge of the jungle in Borneo. Hiking yesterday I found a pocketful of nutmeg and remembered making a Christmas phone call years ago, with my brother who was here in the Spice Islands while I was “at home” changing diapers. He told me about the orang utan he’d encountered deep … Read more »
Travis at the frequent flyer blog Extra Pack of Peanuts assembled a Who’s Who of bloggers in this epic round-up post: What’s your excuse for not traveling? 71 travel experts tell you why it’s bull**t.
A pattern quickly emerges in the responses: the No. 1 issue is money. Over and over again, the bloggers say that the main reason they hear is that people don’t have enough … Read more »
“Could there be something of the sacred left in the tourist’s experience today? As well as the similarities in scale, modern-day mass tourism maintains some of the metaphysical connotations of the pilgrimage. After all one does not actually purchase anything physical when planning a trip, rather its a means by which we can acquire experiences. Thus the sheer intangibility of the modern-day holiday (and one should not forget the religious provenance of this word) hearkens … Read more »
We’ve all been there. Receiving a holiday present that we didn’t really want or need. Something that will inevitably take up space in the closet or on a shelf, destined to collect dust until we throw it out. I’ll bet most of us have also been on the other end of the transaction, buying an object that we think a person might like or want in order to have something to give them. One that … Read more »
Whe
n it is almost time to feel like a dork again in a cold-less, atmosphere-less Malaysian Christmas on the beach, I found some interesting ideas to help other travelers make this day a worthwhile one in terms of gifts. This list gives nine good and fun suggestions to fill up some stockings and make a good impression on … Read more »
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