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The staffewas not helpful at all. There was a party going on in the room next door to me and I called to inform her about this at 10:00 PM. The noise, profane language and violence continued and I called two addtional times. The police should have been called at this point and I informed the attendant of this. I had two young children with me, as a single mom I was very afraid! The attendant didnt even apologize for me having to call in the complaint. Are parties always allowed like this? If so, I wont be staying again and I will let my friends and relatives know as well.
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- AmericInn Lodge & Suites Carlton is located off I-35 and opposite the Black Bear Casino. We are , approximately, 5.5 Miles from the Jay Cooke state park and 20 miles south of Duluth. The area has a lot of bike trails, walking trails, skiing and snowmobiling. ... more less
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- Also Known As:
- Americinn Hotel Carlton


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Can You Have a Period When You Are Pregnant?
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September 2nd, 2012, 08:58 PM
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 2
Last month I never had a period and I was supposed to start the 13th and yesterday 9/1/12 I started spotting and then today the spotting got a little heavy but not as heavy as a normal period and I cramped a little but it wasn't unbareable like normal period cramps. I've had morning and night sickness, and vomited, my breasts are super sensitive and sore, I've had butterflies in my stomach, and I'm exhausted all the time and I get mood swing often, and the area around my nipples are darker and I have bumps on them. Could I be pregnant?
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Staples sold separately.
(based on 9 reviews)
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(3 of 3 customers found this review helpful)
What is not to love?
By Hanky
from SE Kentucky
See all my reviews
Comments about Central Pneumatic 18 Gauge 1/4 in. Crown Air Stapler:
JoeSixPackAmerican's helpful trigger modification comes through here and makes this a very good stapler for an almost giveaway price.I'd buy this gun all day long.
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
Great for the money
By Jake
from Pensacola, FL
Used this to rebuild a chicken coop and repair furniture. Was amazed. Beats a staple gun any day of the week.
(8 of 8 customers found this review helpful)
By carpenter
from delran, nj
I have used the big name guns for years. Tried HF's framer this year when mine died finally. Liked it so much decided to try their stapler. This one worked great. Smooth and like a stapler should work.As a note stay away from their other model as it has a manufacturing error in the chamber.
Missed with the trigger
By G-Man
from Royse City, TX
About Me Avid Do-It-Yourselfer
I bought this for a project needing to staple trim to a patio cover. Found out quickly that this unit will not shoot upside down without a modification as the trigger safety is gravity based and when upside down will not engage. I didn't see JoeSixPacks modification instructions, instead I found an old click pen spring and pinned it in the top through the hole and super glued it to the trigger. A few minutes later it was firing continuously. I did take the advice and purchased quality staples from another big box. If Chicago Electric would add a spring they would have five stars.
(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)
Perfect stapler after one fast modification.
By BenVA
from Richmond, VA
About Me Professional
This stapler is a large improvement over the other model due mainly to the top-loading magazine.The only real drawback is, out of the box, the trigger won't operate when the unit is trying to fire a staple upwards. Unlike every other model of nailer/stapler, this unit is missing a trigger return spring.Another reviewer, JoeSixPackAmerican, modified his to fix this by extending the safety catch on the trigger.A MUCH simpler fix is to add the missing spring. Harbor Freight sells a 200pc spring kit and the 3/8" x 5/8" spring is a perfect fit. Simply pull the trigger hinge pin, slide out the trigger, slip the spring onto the trigger valve, and replace the trigger.This spring should have been a factory item like other nailers.
Good buy
By MattB4
from Bville, AR.
The staple gun lacks a return spring on the trigger which means it will be out of place if stapling verticaly. In order to solve this I simply put a rubber band on it between the nose piece and the triggers end.I bought Porter Cable 1 inch staples for my garden poultry fence project. The gun worked without fail through over 300 staples. If you need a inexpensive but usable staple gun this will handle the job.
Vertical Firing Issues Solved
By JoeSixPackAmerican
from Phoenix, Arizona USA
This is a good hard working tool for the money. It does has a fault that in my case was an easy fix. When the engineers designed this tool, or copied it more likely, they failed to address the trigger assembly correctly. It seems that when used in the vertical position, the trigger tab falls out of contact with the safety shroud plunger and fails to fire. Over coming this problem was an easy fix and made this tool usable again in all positions. Simply remove the trigger pivot pin and remove the trigger assembly. Clean off all oil with solvent like acetone or finger nail polish remover. Cut a 1/2" long by 3/8" wide piece of 1/16" thick flat plastic and two part epoxy this piece to the back of safty stop of the trigger assembly making sure the plastic piece extends 1/8" above the existing safety stop. this will allow the safety shroud plunger to engage with the trigger correctly and allow the nailer to fire in all positions. This fix took me about 15 minutes to figure out. it should take you less time with this proceedure.
you get what you pay for
By capt bluto
from boston ma
if you like stopping every 5 -10 shots to clear a jam this is your tool. No matter staples or brads--- what pressure setting this is a jamming machine soft wood only
Bottom Line No, I would not recommend this to a friend
(1 of 2 customers found this review helpful)
Built well but...
By Badnews
from Weeki Wachee, FL
This stapler all of them I tried are defects, Why...Buy one and load it with staples. It will only shoot staples from the gun in the horizontal position. Try to shoot staples from the vertical position and the gun doesn't work. How do I know?. I tried 4 staplers from 5 different sources, The older 18ga stapler which is still sold will shoot staples in any position! and is the same price. Use this staplers with Porter Cable brand staples and you'll never have a jam!.
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Le clos des delices
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Visit To Strasbourg
This appears to be the centre of Europeanism and cafe culture (remember Tony wanted us all to have that so revised the licensing hours etc?
Anyway, we took the train into the city to "do" it.
Whilst lots of cities are the "same" each has it's own feeling and this place was good.
On arrival at the station, it wasn't the marble of Monaco but clean enough and relatively quiet ...
Obernai, Get Stocked Up Before Germany...
... something was going on and wanted the gossip) We thought about telling him we are Al's parent but would have been unable to keep a straight face for any length of time.
Anyway there were several UK registrations on the way to our pitch as well as lots of CHILDREN (a separate species which we haven't seen for 5 weeks!)
The pitch allotted to us was relatively small in comparison to the acres we've had in most places, what a come down, ...
Strasbourg, France
Stopped by at this city because we couldn't find anywhere to stay that was conveniently situated in between Switzerland and Cologne, hence we decided to stay in another country. The accommodation here was pretty bad, there were only bedding for 4, no wifi & the pillows were more like flat pieces of cotton. Anyways, the city ...
... blocks of gorgeous gardens, fountains and small rivers, with the Casino being in the middle of these gardens, and almost two blocks long. Inside, it is super elegant, marble, bronze statues and gold on the first floor, and filled with games of cards. And, upstairs, up a huge staircase, where we were not allowed to go, was or is an even more exclusive gambling area, but truly for the ...
... is absolutely old time gorgeous with elegant old European buildings everywhere. The ILL goes around the large downtown area thus we saw lots and lots. Then we got out of the boat and walked to the huge, 14 th century church which is an edifice with so much filigree in terms of carvings everywhere.
At boon we returned by bus to the boat, had lunch, then drove to the BLACK FOREST in Germany, about 45 km from Strasbourg. This ...


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Matthews eager for Wales chance
Adam Matthews admits he swapped Celtic for Sunderland to try and get back into the Wales side, writes Sky Sports News HQ's north-east correspondent Keith Downie.SkySports.com » 12h
Adam Matthews admits he swapped Celtic for Sunderland to try and get back into the Wales side, writes Sky Sports News HQ's north-east correspondent Keith Downie.SkySports.com » 12h
HIBS boss Alan Stubbs has turned his attention to Spanish goalkeeper Antonio Reguero as he seeks to provide stiff competition for the gloves for No 1 Mark Oxley.Scotsman.com » 1d
A third place finish meant Mark Sampson's side went further in the competition than any other English side since 1966 winnersTelegraph » 1d
Eng women 1 Ger women 0 (aet): England hadn't beaten Germans in 20 previous attempts but Fara Williams's spot kick with 12 minutes to play seals the bronze medal in EdmontonTelegraph » 2d
Carlisle manager Keith Curle has signed former QPR winger Angelo Balanta on a short-term deal.SkySports.com » 6d
FINDING a way to keep hold of Scott Allan should be a priority for Hibs according to former striker Keith Wright.Scotsman.com » 20d
Montrose preserve their Scottish League Two status with two late goals and deny Brora Rangers a place in the senior ranks.BBC Sport » 51d
Brora Rangers manager Davie Kirkwood says their performances have dispelled rumours about not wanting promotion.BBC Sport » 52d
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After I installed and set up this add it didn't work, and also didn't spit out any errors. So I enabled logging by adding this to wp-config.php:
ini_set('log_errors', 'On');
ini_set('error_log', '/usr/share/wordpress/php-errors.log');
The log file does not have to be in wordpress folder but does have to writable by wordpress.(To refresh the mail feed request
Then had to install php5-imap:
Then disable GERRYWORKS spam filter by commenting out these lines in plugins/gerryworks-post-by-mail/gwpostbymail.php
/*START>> Verify if the mail is a spam*/
if(!gw_not_spam($header)) {
imap_delete($imb, $i);
Then it worked!!
WHY is there no way to configure the spam filter???


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Monday, 22 June 2015
American Airlines claims it doesn't have to give you a ticket or tell you the fare for your trip
Closely related to airlines' efforts to escape their obligations as common carriers and to replace ticket pricing based on a published tariff with personalized pricing are their moves to escape their legal duty to provide each ticket purchaser with a "ticket".
In the days of paper tickets, there was no ambiguity as to whether the airline had given you a ticket when it confirmed your reservations. Airlines' own individual tariffs as well as IATA standards for interline ticketing specified the format of the ticket, with a separate "coupon" for each flight, and the information required to be included on it. Blank ticket stock ("accountable documents") was individually numbered and controlled, and contained physical security features like those on banknotes (paper money). Without the original ticket, you couldn't fly.
Despite the transition from paper tickets to electronic tickets, airlines continue to generate an essentially identical "virtual coupon record" (VCR) within the airline's reservation system for each ticket purchase, containing exactly the same information as used to be included on the paper ticket. All major airlines' tariffs define the VCR as being the "ticket" for all legal purposes.
American Airlines' International General Rules, for example, define "ticket" as follows (all caps as in the original, which is copied from the Sabre CRS in which the character set includes only capital letters):
The problem is that while the airline has this record of the details of the ticket, the ticket purchaser no longer does. US Federal regulations (14 CFR 399.83) continue to require airlines to provide each ticket purchaser with a ticket, but that requirement has come to be almost universally ignored. Typical e-ticket confirmation notices contain only a small fraction of the information contained in the ticket.
Why does this matter? The airline can, and will, enforce the rules of the fare (as specified in the ticket) against the traveller. But without a ticket, and the information contained on it, a traveller has no way of knowing which provisions of the tariff apply, and thus cannot enforce those terms against the airline. And the airline, of course, has no reason to tell the traveller about information on the ticket that might benefit the traveller in a dispute with the airline.
As I said in comments I filed with the US Department of Transportation in 2010,
In the case of electronic tickets, industry standards and airlines' conditions of carriage define the "ticket" to consist of the "Virtual Coupon Record" (VCR), which contains all of the information previously included on paper tickets. But while a few airlines routinely provide purchasers with complete VCR images, and some others do so on request, many do not. [Fewer do in 2015 than did so when I filed these comments in 2010. - EH]
A complete ticket (or the VCR which constitutes the complete e-ticket) includes a variety of information which is important to purchasers but often omitted from e-mail confirmations:
- The validating carrier, which may be the transporting carrier, a codeshare partner, or an entirely different airline in the case of interline or offline ticketing, and which may be vital to know in the case of changes, refund claims, airline bankruptcy, etc.;
- The date and place of issue, which may determine when a ticket must be presented for refund or exchange, or the jurisdiction of claims related to the ticket;
- The indication (in industry standards, by an "X" or "O" for each segment), of which transfer points are allowable stopovers and which are only connection points;
- The fare calculation, including the fare basis for each segment, which are essential to determining the refund value of a partially used ticket, or the allowable routings and other governing provisions of the applicable tariff in case of cancellations or changes;
- The breakdown of taxes and fees, which is essential to determining which of the "taxes and fees" are imposed by and passed on to governments, and from which agencies of which governments to seek refunds of what amounts in the case of user fees that may be refundable if tickets aren't used, and which fees are imposed by and retained by the airline, and should properly be considered part of the fare;
- The "not valid before" and "not valid after" dates for each segment;
- The free baggage allowance for each segment (note that this is already part of each industry-standard ticket, and allows specifying different allowances for each segment).
Where this information is held by the airline, and specifies the details of the contract between the airline and the ticket purchaser, there are good reasons to require the airline to furnish a copy of this information to each ticket purchaser. 14 CFR 399.83 should be retained and should be enforced.
I have been unable to find any record of enforcement action by the DOT against any of the airlines that have been violating DOT regulations by failing to provide complete tickets.
The issue is now before the DOT, however, as a result of a formal complaint against American Airlines (AA) by frequent flyer Mike Borsetti. Mr. Borsetti was overcharged by AA for several tickets, including charges for alleged "taxes" that exceeded the taxes actually imposed by governments. Aside form the overcharging and the misrepresentation of taxes, Mr. Borsetti's complaint explicitly raises the issue of AA's violation of 14 CFR 399.83. Without the fare calculation and tax breakdown contained in the tickets, Mr. Borsetti is still unable to tell exactly how much he was overcharged, or how much of a refund he is due.
In its answer to this complaint, AA makes no attempt to argue that it ever provided Mr. Borsetti with a ticket, as required by the applicable Federal regulations. Instead, it essentially argues that the rule requiring the airline to provide a ticket is obsolete and should be ignored by the DOT -- even though the transition from paper tickets held by the passenger to e-tickets held by airlines within their computer systems has made it more, not less, important, to enforce the requirement that each ticket purchaser receive a complete copy of their ticket.
I've filed comments with the DOT in support of Mr. Borsetti, explaining why it's important for the DOT to enforce this provision of its regulations and impose sanctions on AA. Any member of the public (that's you!) can file comments by clicking here. You can type a message in the form, or attach a text, word processor, or PDF file, and can give your name or comment anonymously.
You can read all of the comments others have submitted here.
Most regulatory proceedings like this draw no public comment at all, so even brief comments will be an important show of support. Tell the DOT that if the airline creates a ticket for you within its computer system (specifying in detail the terms of the contract by which you are bound, and by which the airline should also be bound), you are entitled to have a copy of it.
Sunday, 21 June 2015
FCC finally takes note of robocall/SMS terms of service -- 6 years late
Six years ago, American Express changed its terms of service to require cardholders to give AmEx permission to robocall or text-message them "at any telephone number … you provide to us or from which you place a call to us, or any telephone number at which we reasonably believe we may reach you."
When I declined to agree to these proposed new terms, AmEx cancelled my card and closed the account I had held with them for twenty years. Despite some publicity including a story in the New York Times prompted by my initial article, the story failed to get traction, and the new AmEx terms of service went into effect.
Other companies adopted similar terms of service, including almost all of the largest credit-card issuers. I reported on similar terms of service for eBay and PayPal (then part of the same company) in 2012.
Fast forward a few years to the present, and eBay's impending spinoff of Paypal as (once again) a separate company has drawn renewed scrutiny to PayPal's terms of service.
A story earlier this month by Bob Sullivan on Credit.com, citing my earlier reports, finally got the attention first of more consumer advocates and then of the FCC. In response, the head of the FCC's enforcement bureau has sent a letter to PayPal stating that:
FCC requirements directly prohibit requiring a consumer to consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing or advertising calls as a condition of purchasing any property, good, or service, and the company must give consumers notice of their right to refuse to give such consent. PayPal's amended User Agreement does not give consumers notice of their right to refuse consent to calls that require consumer consent from PayPal, its affiliates, and its service providers. If PayPal fails to include this required notice and/or fails to allow its users to refuse such consent, we are concerned that consent is in fact a condition of purchase of PayPal's service and thus violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and could subject PayPal, its affiliates, and its service providers to penalties of up to $16,000 per call or text message.
Second, we direct your attention to the requirement that the written agreement must identify the specific telephone number(s) to which the consenting consumer gives his or her consent to be called or texted. A blanket User Agreement that purports to apply to 'any telephone number that [consumers] have provided us or that we have otherwise obtained' does not meet the level of specificity required by law. Many consumers have more than one telephone line. Consumers have the right to choose on which line(s) they wish to receive telemarketing or advertising calls, if they elect to receive such calls at all.
Finally, the Commission has ruled that should any question about the consent arise, the seller will bear the burden of demonstrating that a clear and conspicuous disclosure was provided and that unambiguous consent was obtained. We direct your attention to this statement because it underscores the importance of complying with federal law when structuring your agreements to collect the prior express written consent of consumers.
All well and good, if a few years too late. The real question will be whether the FCC follows up with similar letters to the other companies, including all of the major credit card issuers, with similar terms of service, and what enforcement action the FCC takes against those companies that have been enforcing such terms of service, placing robocalls, and sending text messages on the basis of these terms for years.
I'm working on a series of requests to "opt out" of any consent to robocalling or text messaging that may have been deemed to have been implied by my use of credit cards or other services such as eBay and PayPal with terms of service like this. It may take a few months, but I'll let you know how it goes.
[Update: Bob Sullivan reports that PayPal has responded to the FCC by changing its terms of service and adding an "opt-out" link for robocalls and SMS spam. That still leaves unanswered what, if any, action will be taken by the FCC against other companies with similar terms.]
Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Senators and travel companies question airlines' pricing practices
It seems odd to me that the movement for "net neutrality" has led to demands for the US government to protect consumers against discriminatory and/or predatory practices by requiring Internet service providers (ISPs) to operate as common carriers of data packets, at the same time that traditional common carriers of people and goods, starting with airlines, are trying to get the government to release them from their longstanding obligations to act as common carriers -- and are taking action to repudiate or ignore those obligations, without waiting for changes in the law.
As discussed below, members of Congress have begun to take an interest in some aspects of this issue, and airlines' plans are running into opposition from competing sectors of the travel industry. But a larger consumer movement is needed to get the US government to maintain and enforce the longstanding and still necessary consumer-protection rules that require airlines licensed as such by the US government to continue to act as common carriers.
What does this mean, why does it matter to travellers, and what is being, or can be, done about it?Continue reading "Senators and travel companies question airlines' pricing practices"
Thursday, 21 May 2015
Snapshots from my visit to Palmyra in 2008
The month I spent in Syria was one of the highlights of my most recent trip around the world in 2007-2008.
[We spent an entire day exploring the Roman city of Palmyra, most of the time without a single other person in sight.]
There were bureaucratic hassles, but these were caused more by the US than the Syrian government. US financial sanctions against the Syrian government, which made travel to Syria difficult for US citizens, predated the current civil war in Syria. Our bank went even further than was required by the US government (and probably further than was legal) to retaliate against us for having legally travelled to, and legally spent money in, Syria.
But the measure of pleasure in my visit to Syria wasn't how I was treated by border guards, visa officers, or banks. As was also the case in Yemen, the attitude I met on the street, in shops, in the hammams (bathhouses) and in other places in Syria was, "We hate the people who rule us. You probably hate the people who rule you. Why should we care if Assad hates Bush, and vice versa? You are our guests. We love Americans. Please be our friends!"
Communications are difficult (and, with the secret police watching, potentially dangerous) through the great firewall of Syria, and I neither speak nor read any Arabic. People spoke more-or-less freely with me, but usually without giving their names. I haven't kept in touch with any of the people I met in Syria, and I don't know how many of them are dead or alive, homeless or displaced.
As for the places we visited in Syria, I know that many of them are no more, or are only remnants of what they were just a few years ago.
All five of the World Heritage Sites we visited in Syria have been substantially damaged by the fighting. None of the factions or foreign intervenors in the Syrian civil war (including the USA and its proxies) have spared these places any more than they have spared human life: the covered souks and grand mosques and minarets of Damascus and Aleppo, the Roman amphitheater at Basra, the Krak des Chevaliers (originally a Crusader castle, where I celebrated my birthday while snow fell on the cedars of Lebanon, and which has been used again in the current war as a fortified hilltop gun emplacement), and last but not least, the Roman provincial capital city of Palmyra in the inland desert of central Syria.
[The Roman structure on the butte-like hill in the background has been conspicuously visible as a fortified high point and source and target of shelling in recent news images of the fighting in Palmyra.]
I've seen the depressing toll that war takes on cultural treasures before: in Amritsar five years after Indira Gandhi ordered a tank assault on the Golden Temple, and in Hue, where the central palaces and temples of Vietnam's Forbidden City and historic capital were destroyed by US and allied forces during the reconquest of the city after the Tet offensive in 1968.
Palmyra is a remarkable place -- one of those where the sometimes-arbitrary designation, "world heritage site", actually seems appropriate. It's unique and irreplaceable.
But human lives, it should go without saying, are also unique and irreplaceable.
I find it disturbing when people seem more concerned about what is going to happen to the stone column of ancient Palmyra than about what is going to happen to its present-day inhabitants. The headline about the fighting in Palmyra in today's Los Angeles Times, for examples, mentions the "Fabled ruins, artifacts of Palmyra, Syria" but says nothing about people. The first four paragraphs discuss threats to museums, artifacts, ruins, and statues. The human death toll isn't mentioned until paragraph five.
[This man arrived at the long-distance bus depot in Palmyra while we were waiting for our bus to Homs. The sheep -- legs trussed but alive and shitting -- was loaded into the luggage compartment of another bus as unaccompanied cargo.]
As in any foreign war, it's easier to say I care about the people I met in Palmyra, or about people I've never met in places I've never visited, than to figure out how to translate my concern into action.
[We met these boys at the top of the hill overlooking the Roman city. They were just playing. Unlike urchins we've encountered at tourist attractions in some other countries, they didn't ask for handouts, they didn't try to sell us anything, and they didn't try to pick our pockets. Today, if they've survived, they are old enough to have enlisted or been conscripted into fighting for one or another faction in the civil war.]
The US government, acting in my name, is neither improving the lives of the people on the ground in Syria nor increasing its understanding of their grievances by sending in more small arms and inflicting more death from above. And the US government needs to be prepared to recognize facts on the ground: an organization that controls territory, wields power, and carries out some level of administration is a government, whether we like it or not. Establishment and maintenance of diplomatic relationships are typically more important with enemies, with whom there may be few if any other channels of communication or opportunities for "citizen diplomacy" through tourism and business, than they are with friends.
US refusal to recognize governments because the US disagrees with their policies has had long-term negative repercussions with Cuba, with Iran, with Vietnam, and elsewhere. The US was wrong not to recognize that the Taliban was, at one time, the (evil) government of Afghanistan, and may be equally wrong in selectively failing to recognize other governments it doesn't like, such as in Somaliland and the Western Sahara (SADR). It's not as though moral or political legitimacy is a criterion of US diplomatic recognition, as is evident from the US recognition of absolutist family monarchies and practitioners of apartheid, where the Emir's word is law and his son will become the next emir, democracy be damned, in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait (where the US fought a war to reinstate the monarchy), Oman, Bahrain, and the U.A.E.
But at the end of a day with news like today's, it's hard to know what to do except mourn for Palmyra, and its people.
Friday, 15 May 2015
The Amazing Race 26, Episode 11
Trujillo (Peru) - DFW Airport, TX (USA) - Arlington, TX (USA) - Dallas, TX (USA)
One of the unrealities of The Amazing Race as a "reality" television show is that members of the cast have been forbidden to have cameras, phones, or most other electronic devices. I'm old enough to have made my first trip around the world with a film camera (okay, it had battery-powered zoom and autofocus) and nothing else electrical in my luggage beyond a flashlight and a cheap digital watch. But today, travellers take smartphones and other electronic travel gadgets for granted (although, given international roaming fees, they probably shouldn't).
This season, each of the participants in The Amazing Race 26 was provided with a device that looked like a smartphone, although it appeared to have been crippled to function only as a camera and to have neither phone, GPS, nor Internet capabilities.
Throughout this season of the race around the world, the teams were shown taking selfies. It wasn't clear whether they were merely taking the opportunity to document their own journeys (in spite of each pair of racers being accompanied by a professional videographer and sound technician) or whether the selfies were being taken on the orders of the TV producers, perhaps to be used as product-placement advertisements for one of the sponsors of the show.
Viewers didn't find out what was up until this last episode of the season. The decisive final challenge for the remaining teams in the race was to arrange each of their selfies from the month-long trip around the world in the order in which they had taken them.
At least the racers were only given cameras, and told to take handheld selfies, rather than also being provided with selfie sticks. Whatever one thinks of handheld selfies, they are by nature self-directed and have limited effect on other people nearby. Selfie sticks are much more problematic. Selfie sticks are increasingly being banned in museums and at concerts, where they interfere with other people's views. In crowds, they can be quite dangerous.
My current peeve is the people who try to ride a rented bicycle one-handed across the Golden Gate Bridge while using their other hand to wave a camera around on the end of a selfie stick.
Don't get me wrong: Riding over the bridge to Sausalito, and returning by ferry, is a great excursion. I'm glad that thousands of people a day have discovered this and are making it part of their visits to San Francisco. Those wielding selfie sticks probably mean no harm, and don't realize the hazard they pose to themselves and others.
The bridge sidepaths are narrow for heavy two-way traffic, and even skilled riders need to keep both hands on the handlebars (and the brakes, in traffic) and pay full attention to holding their line. The crosswinds are often strong and gusty. As the sidewalks round the bases of the towers, eddies of wind turbulence coincide with sharp blind turns. I've been riding over the bridge regularly for 30 years, and know what to expect, but the only places I've ever been blown off any of my bikes by wind gusts are on the Golden Gate Bridge and its approaches. An out-of-control selfie stick with a camera on the end makes a dangerous flail. When I encounter fools like this weaving around on the bridge sidepath while waving selfie sticks, I'm tempted to snatch their sticks away and throw them and their cameras over the railing into the bay.
The next step is the flying photographic drone. These aren't yet quite small, light, and cheap enough to have become an expected part of any traveller's equipage the way a camera is. But drones are making aerial photography (even in places like over the Golden Gate Bridge where a drone crash could precipitate a serious car crash) accessible and affordable to a rapidly growing spectrum of amateur photographers. Flying camera drones are already no larger, heavier, or more costly than the first video camcorders carried by amateur travellers in the early 1980s. The first commercial use of flying drones has been in wedding photography, but I expect that professional travel bloggers won't be far behind in packing drones in their luggage. How long will it be before flying drones are no longer an object of curiosity, or before vacation photos are expected to include aerial video selfies?
The racers' task of sorting their selfies in order by where they were taken wasn't easy. The focus of a selfie is, by definition, on one's self, leaving only peripheral clues as to its context. How much does your appearance really vary depending on where you are?
It's tempting to dismiss selfies as inherently narcissistic, and/or as exemplifying the trophy-hunting style of travel: "Been there, done that, got the selfie to prove it. Time to move on."
There's another way to look at selfies, however, as exemplifying a focus on the internal journey that is often the most important aspect of travel. Travel is often a personal growth experience, and self-transformation is often the most important part of our journey. Not every traveler intends or is conscious of how travel is changing them. Many a traveller realizes that they have become a different person only after they return home, as part of "reverse culture shock" or "reentry shock".
From this perspective, the selfie is the visual counterpart of the travel diary or journal: an attempt to document and preserve a record of the internal journey of the traveller. This makes sense: When you show someone your travel photographs, do you tell them about what you saw, or do you try to explain how it made you feel?
But that still leaves the same question as is posed by any travel photography: Do our photographs enhance our ability to remember, or does what we photograph displace or overshadow our other memories?
Will we come to rely on our personal archive of selfies (and will we preserve it?) to remember which trips to which places we enjoyed, and which we didn't?
And are selfies and self-image a substitute for, or a supplement to, introspection and self-awareness?
Friday, 8 May 2015
The Amazing Race 26, Episode 10
Otuzco (Peru) - Trujillo (Peru) - Huanchaco (Peru)
The highlight of this episode of The Amazing Race 26 was a visit to the site of Chan Chan (near Trujillo on the coast of northern Peru), once the largest city in the Americas and largest adobe (mud-brick) city in the world.
Despite its scale and significance, Chan Chan is less well known and visited by fewer foreign tourists than several other pre-Hispanic American sites including Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes (perhaps the single most iconic "bucket-list" tourist destination in the world not yet visited by The Amazing Race), Teotihuacan near Mexico City (visited by The Amazing Race in season 3), and the Mayan sites of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, including Chichen Itza (The Amazing Race 3 went to nearby Tulum).
One reason for lower visitorship to Chan Chan is that while vast, it is low and sprawling without pyramids, towers, or other iconic tall monuments. Another is that the adobe which is its most characteristic and significant feature is constantly weathering away.
That highlights a common dilemma for archaeologists and for governments trying to balance economic development and funding for historical preservation through tourism with the negative effects of both tourist visits and the the reconstruction that creates or preserves visual attractions for tourists.
Although it wasn't mentioned in the voiceover narration or any of the racers' comments on the reality-TV show, that dilemma was reflected in the racers' task: working with "archaeologists" to make and transport mud bricks to be used in reconstruction and "maintenance" of deteriorating and/or reconstructed portions of Chan Chan.
It may be that when Chan Chan was inhabited, there was an ongoing and continuous process of rebuilding of deteriorating adobe walls through the incorporation of new mud bricks. But the "reconstruction" of historical artifacts is not archeology, and "maintenance" is only sometimes considered an appropriate part of "conservation".
The work the racers were involved in would more accurately be described as part of an ongoing process of replacing or covering over architectural and archaeological artifacts with new replicas constructed to allow tourists to experience the site as some interpreter thinks it might have looked at some particular past time.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with the construction of replicas, whether they are merely made to look like the originals (or what someone thinks the originals once looked like) or whether they are replicas built with what are thought to be historically authentic although new materials and techniques. Experimental archaeologists make replicas of large and small artifacts in order to test theories of how and from what materials they were made, and to determine empirically what sorts of fabrication marks or traces those techniques would leave on artifacts after aging.
But from the point of view of conservation, preservation, or archeology, it makes more sense to build these new replicas anywhere other than on top of, displacing, or commingled with the materials found on archeologically significant sites. Even when the best efforts are made to ensure that reconstruction and repair is nondestructive and reversible, it almost inevitably entails at least some loss or damage of the historical record. It can be particularly unfortunate if reconstruction work today interferes -- in ways that may be impossible to anticipate -- with attempts to employ imaging, sensing, or other research techniques developed in the future.
From the point of view of historical interpretation, there are difficult choices to be made as to whether to "restore" sites or artifacts to the way someone thinks they looked at some point (and if so, which one) during the time when they were inhabited or in use, or at the time when they were "discovered" or encountered by Europeans or other foreigners, or simply to "stabilize" them against further deterioration.
That last task is particularly difficult at Chan Chan, where the adobe is inherently vulnerable to erosion whenever it rains. It rains rarely in the coastal and Andean deserts of western South America. Years often pass with no rain at all. But when it rains it pours, as it did in places in the Atacama Desert a little further south earlier this year. Both falling rain and flash floods of groundwater can rapidly wear down or wash out large sections of exposed structures made of material with no water resistance.
Tourism can be a problem even at unreconstructed archaeological sites. Visitors can trample and compress the ground (obscuring traces of what is or was below) and damage structures even if they are trying to be careful and not deliberately looting or picking up fragments as souvenirs. Creating access for tourists may be difficult without alteration to sites and structures. Visitors' breathing can increase the humidity in confined spaces where dryness has been a preservative, and lighting can fade murals and accelerate the deterioration of textiles.
If cost is no object, the best preservation or conservation strategy may sometimes be to leave ancient artifacts in the ground, and to keep tourists away. But making artifacts visible, doing so in situ, and creating on-site replicas or replacements that enable visitors to imagine that they are seeing history as it once was, are often the most effective strategies for generating revenue to support both local people and conservation work.
I'm not an archaeologist, I haven't visited Can Chan, and I pass no judgement on its curators. Many governments and many local tourism entrepreneurs recognize that archaeological artifacts are a perishable and nonrenewable national resource, but nevertheless regard their economic exploitation through tourism as essential to national economic development, and in some cases to survival. Who are we to fault them, if we are unwilling to contribute as much to fund the protection of ancient artifacts that have been left in the ground as we are willing to spend to visit those things and places that we can see and experience for ourselves?
Without a time machine, we can visit neither the past nor the future. In reality, we travel in the present, even if our fantasies may take us elsewhere or to other times. Whether we travel to learn about the past or (as is my personal priority in travel) about the future, no Herculean labor of historical "reconstruction" or World's Fair "futurism" can take us there, other than in our imagination.
Friday, 1 May 2015
The Amazing Race 26, Episode 9
Amsterdam (Netherlands) - Trujillo (Peru) - Otuzco (Peru)
One of the benefits of travelling to many different places is gaining enough perspective to tell which activities, ways of doing things, foods, etc. are really characteristic of the specific place where you first encounter them, and which are actually common around the world even if you never see them in your home country.
A case in point this week on The Amazing Race: fresh squeezed sugar cane juice.
The Amazing Race has occasionally returned to a place that it visited in an earlier season, for a "reprise" of a challenge that was especially popular with viewers. Real travellers do the same thing, returning to places we have visited before to try to recreate peak experiences. The attempt is rarely entirely successful, although it can be interesting to learn about both how places have changed and how we as observers have changed since our previous visits.
In this episode, the racers had to perform a very similar task to one that was assigned to the cast of The Amazing Race 17 five years ago: cutting and crushing raw sugar cane and drinking a cup of the cane juice. But that was in Bangladesh, and this time was in Peru, almost exactly on the opposite side of the globe. The antipode of Trujillo is actually closer to Kuala Lumpur than to Dhaka, but on a global scale that's about as far apart as major cities get. The antipode of anywhere in the lower 48 mainland US states, by contrast, is somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
I first tasted fresh cane juice in Pakistan, but it's common, with minor local variations in additives (lime, salt, ginger, etc.) , in many countries in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Oceania. So why is it rare to the point of being almost unknown in the USA (except in Hawaii), even in places where sugar cane is grown?
Sugar cane is uneconomical to ship long distances. Most of the weight and bulk is the fiber, not the juice. That's why sugar cane is invariably pressed ("milled") and often further processed close to where it is grown, regardless of whether will be used for refined sugar, rum or other cane-based alcoholic drinks, or ethanol fuel.
Raw sugar cane juice goes bad if it isn't drunk, refined, or fermented almost immediately. Rum is fermented from molasses, which is why it was possible to ship refined molasses from the Caribbean to centralized and sometimes faraway distilleries in Boston and elsewhere. Cachaça, which The Amazing Race encountered in Brazil several seasons ago, is fermented from raw cane juice, of necessity in smaller "artisanal" production facilities close to the cane fields.
Small quantities of fresh sugar cane show up from time to time in farmers' markets and some stores in San Francisco, but the one juice bar in our neighborhood that used to have a cane press wasn't able to find a sufficient and reliable supply of fresh local cane.
A cane press is a sizable, specialized investment. Typically, a cane juice vendor, having invested in a press and secured a constant supply of cane, sells nothing else. You can't readily extract the juice from sugar cane using a food processor or a standard juicer of the sort that you would use for most fruits or vegetables. The cane fibers are strong and stiff, and have to be squeezed hard between heavy, firmly mounted metal rollers. Extracting as much juice as possible requires as many as half a dozen passes through the press, with the crushed stalks being folded over on each other again after each pass. Power is supplied either by a gasoline or electric motor or by a person pulling heavy metal crank arms two or three feet long.
I doubt that anyone is manufacturing cane presses in the USA, so if you wanted one you'd have to source and import one from abroad. You might run into problems with workplace safety regulations, since it's necessary to shove the stalks firmly into the moving rollers, which could easily grab and pull in your fingers. I'm not sure it would be possible to fit effective safety guards on a hand fed cane press, and a mechanical feeder, even if such exists, would add another whole level level of complexity and expense.
Finally, both cutting sugar cane to harvest it -- as the racers had to do in this episode -- and pressing it for juice, one or two stalks at a time, are slow and unavoidably labor-intensive, even with a motorized cane press. That's why commercial sugar cane cultivation is concentrated in the lowest wage countries, and uneconomical in high wage countries even where growing conditions for cane are good.
If you haven't tried fresh sugar cane juice, you don't know what you are missing. It's not too sweet (no sweeter than many other processed and packaged drinks) and with a far more complex flavor than you would expect from "sugar water". It's cloudy, somewhat viscous, and has a fresh green taste that reminds you that sugar cane is a sort of grass. The most deeply flavored processed derivatives of sugar cane, blackstrap molasses and dark punch rum, can't come close to the subtlety of flavors in a glass of fresh-squeezed cane juice -- regardless of whether it makes you think of Peru, Bangladesh, or wherever else in your travels you first encountered it.
Sunday, 26 April 2015
Privacy Commissioner finds my complaint against Air Canada "well-founded"
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has found that my complaint that Air Canada violated the Canadian "Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act" (PIPEDA) by failing to respond fully, properly, and in a timely manner to my request for what information Air Canada had about me, and what third parties that information had been disclosed to, was "well-founded".
Unfortunately, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner's Report of Findings (file PIPEDA-031664) upholds my complaint only with respect to the least significant of Air Canada's violations of PIPEDA: Air Canada failed to provide any response to my request within the time limit established by PIPEDA.
The Privacy Commissioner's report finds that other than being too late, Air Canada's responses to my request "satisfy Air Canada's obligations under PIPEDA".
That erroneous finding by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is based on an improper narrowing of the scope of my request and my complaint, on misunderstandings and misstatements of the facts (probably based in part on technical ignorance and in part on overly credulous reliance on false claims by Air Canada), on a fundamental mistake of law regarding the difference between an "agent" and an "independent contractor" or "service provider", and on failure to apply the plain language of PIPEDA as it relates to accounting for disclosures of personal information to third parties.
The result was that the Privacy Commissioner found no violation of PIPEDA in Air Canada's failure to provide me with any accounting of any of the data about me collected and held on Air Canada's behalf through its agents, or in Air Canada having provided only a few examples of third parties who might have accessed my data (not including entire categories of such third parties), rather than the comprehensive list of such third parties required by PIPEDA.
If I didn't already know better, both Air Canada's response to my request and the Privacy Commissioner's "findings" would have left me completely unaware that multiple copies of my reservations had been stored in a global cloud of computerized reservations systems, and that those PNRs can be retrieved, viewed, printed, or passed on to other third parties by any office anywhere in the world of the travel agency that made my reservations for Air Canada, Air Canada itself or an unknown number of other airlines, or those CRS/GDS companies (including through unsecured and publicly-accessible itinerary-viewing Web sites), without any geographic or purpose limitations or access logging.
The details are necessarily technical -- you've been warned! -- but here's what the Office of the Privacy Commissioner got wrong:Continue reading "Privacy Commissioner finds my complaint against Air Canada "well-founded""
Friday, 24 April 2015
The Amazing Race 26, Episode 8
[The line of people waiting to audition for The Amazing Race extended around the corner for two blocks.]
Goanikontes (Namibia) - Windhoek (Namibia) - Johannesburg (South Africa) - Amsterdam (Netherlands)
As soon as the contestants on The Amazing Race 26 got into taxis at Schiphol Airport (a waste of money if you aren't in a race, since there is a mainline train station directly under the airline terminal at Schiphol with rail service to Amsterdam's city center and many other domestic and international destinations) Mike's eyeglasses fogged up, and Rochelle criticized him for choosing glasses over contact lens.
I've sometimes worn contacts. I like their wider field of view and clearer vision in rain, snow, or fog. But for The Amazing Race or your own trip around the world, bring your glasses.
Here's the advice about this I give in the latest edition of The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World:
I recommend strongly against contact lenses for travel outside the First World, particularly in dry, smoky, polluted, or dusty areas. Contact lens supplies are heavy and bulky to carry and hard to find or expensive in many areas. Sterile conditions are hard to obtain, and eye infections are a serious risk. If you insist on wearing contact lenses, it's essential to carry medication for eye infections and to know how to use it. Eye infections can cause permanent vision damage unless treated immediately.
Travellers who have worn contact lenses for years, grown accustomed to them, and prefer them to eyeglasses may be tempted to disregard this advice. Lots of world travellers set out with contact lenses. Most of them soon switch to glasses, as I do whenever I leave the First World.
The racers had to ride bicycles, with their luggage, for about 10 km (6 miles) into downtown Amsterdam. Most of that distance was on a cycletrack (bike path) along the Amstelveen river.
Ten kilometers may not seem like far, but it was probably at least an hour's ride. Dutch bikes are heavy, and on crowded cycleways, just as in heavy automobile traffic on a two-lane roadway, passing is difficult and dangerous (and frowned upon). Everyone goes single file at the speed of the slowest vehicle in the line of traffic. Typically, that's a bakfiets ("box bike" or cargo bike) carrying two or three small children and/or a load of groceries.
One of the places where bike paths separated from the traffic of larger motorized vehicles can be most useful, even when they are shared with pedestrians and in some places (including the Netherlands) shared with small motorcycles, is as routes in and out of the centers of big cities. Traffic, road design, and navigation typically make getting in and out of big cities the bane of long-distance bicycle travel.
But as I've discussed previously, the existence of designated cycling routes doesn't necessarily translate into bicycle-friendliness or ease of route-finding for cyclists. The racers had difficulty finding their way along the bike route into Amsterdam, and it wasn't their fault. The Dutch wayfinding and signage system for bicycle routes is sufficiently problematic that English-speaking local passers-by had trouble giving any directions -- much less directions on the fastest or most direct route -- that they were confident the racers would be able to follow.
Anyone who signs up for the cast of The Amazing Race ought to be prepared for bicycling challenges. Cycling should be part of pre-race training for anyone who's picked for the cast. Host and co-producer Phil Keoghan is a serious cyclist, and bicycling has figured in almost every season of the race.
I spent a couple of hours last Saturday talking with would-be racers at a public casting call for future seasons of "The Amazing Race" in San Francisco. I was surprised that, while one couple showed up in riding kit with their tandem bicycle, they were unaware of Phil's interest in cycling or the edge that being cyclists might give them, either in being picked for the cast or in winning the race.
More than 500 people lined up for the chance to have their application videos for The Amazing Race filmed by a crew from the local CBS affiliate TV station. Some people camped on the sidewalk overnight to make sure they were among those who made it in front of the camera before filming of audition videos closed for the day. One would-be racer had flown in for the weekend from Kentucky to have her audition video filmed in San Francisco.
There was no chance for applicants to meet or be interviewed by any of the casting team. If anyone from "World Race Productions" was present, they were incognito. Each individual applicant or couple who showed up early enough got one take of less than a minute in front of the camera.
Why did so many people choose to wait in line for the chance to be filmed for the race in this setting, rather than sending in a video they had filmed themselves or had a friend film?
Some people said they lacked the technical skill to film their own video. Some had already tried sending in their own video, but hadn't been called back for a further audition. Others said they just wanted to meet other fans of The Amazing Race.
Most people at the casting call were applying as couples, but there were also a few individuals were hoping to be matched up for a month-long on-camera "blind date" trip around the world .
Some people showed up in costumes, with props, and with well-rehearsed 30-second pitches to deliver on camera. One couple in matching attire had brought a foot-tall Travelocity gnome statue to show their willingness to promote the reality-TV show's commercial sponsors.
Other applicants seemed to have given little thought to the differences between, (1) why they want to be on "The Amazing Race", (2) why they think they could win "The Amazing Race", and (3) why they think the casting team (led by co-producer Elise Doganieri) should pick them over any of the other people in the audition line, or who send in self-filmed videos, or who are recruited by the TV producers.
My advice to anyone selected for the cast is to read my archive of columns about The Amazing Race, which has lots of advice about what travel skills are needed and how to prepare for the race.
But getting onto the cast for a game show or "reality-TV" show is a different task, requiring different skills, from winning the on-camera competition.
The producers of The Amazing Race are casting a commercial, for-profit TV show. They don't care what you hope to get out of the race, whether you will win, or whether viewers will love you or hate you (as long as they want to watch you). The casting team cares about only one thing: Whether more (and secondarily, wealthier and more attractive to advertisers) viewers will watch the race if they cast you than if they cast any of the other applicants or anyone else they might be able to recruit. That's all you need to communicate in your application video: Why people will want to watch you more than any other potential racers.
I worked my way along the sidewalk (the line stretched around the corner for two blocks) asking people why they wanted to be in the cast of The Amazing Race. Some of the people waiting in line to audition said they wanted to win the million-dollar prize, or to get a chance to take a trip they didn't think they could afford or think they would find too difficult to organize on their own.
Most of the would-be racers I talked to, however, were more realistic. Many of them knew that there were other ways to travel. Surprisingly many had already travelled around the world, and/or lived abroad, on their own. In earlier seasons, the TV producers avoided casting anyone with international travel experience, presumably because they wanted a cast of "ordinary Americans" that viewers without international experience could identify with. But that bias seems to have faded. There are racers each season who have never been out of the USA before, but people who have travelled widely and/or lived abroad have come to be a routine part of the cast.
More of the people I talked to at the casting call were motivated to apply for The Amazing Race by the desire to test themselves against the challenges created by the TV producers than by desire to win the race, get rich, or travel around the world. They were all travel exhibitionists, of course. But most of them saw the race as a very personal individual or partnership challenge, like finishing (not winning) a marathon.
Take a lesson from these people trying out for The Amazing Race: You can take a trip around the world without having to be rich (at least not in US terms) and without having to take your long-shot chances on being picked for the cast of a reality-TV show. Just do it!
Friday, 17 April 2015
The Amazing Race 26, Episode 7
Cap Ferrat (France) - Nice (France) - Windhoek (Namibia) - Erindi (Namibia) - Spitzkoppe (Namibia) - Swakopmund (Namibia) - Dorob National Park (Namibia) - Goanikontes (Namibia)
Namibia, as host Phil Keoghan pointed out near the start of this week's episode of The Amazing Race 26, is the least densely populated (by people, that is) country in Africa. That makes it one of the best places for "big game" viewing safaris. Humans compete with other animals for land, food, and water, which is one of the reasons that reserving large tracts of land for wild animals and tourists isn't always popular with local people. Few African countries have both large and/or dense human populations and dense populations of other animals. In general, one can tell whether visitors are interested in cultural tourism or wildlife tourism by which African country or countries they have chosen as their destinations.
There's a corollary, of course, to the fact that the best wildlife viewing is in places with few people: uncrowded places with few people tend to be slow and expensive to reach. This should go without saying, but it's surprising how often people are surprised to find that a place they've read about as "off the beaten path" really is exactly that.
There are so few flights to Namibia that the producers of The Amazing Race made reservations in advance for all of the cast members (and the accompanying film crews). That's something they have rarely done, and only in cases where people without reservations might have to wait days to find space on a flight.
If you're planning to fly to Namibia, especially if your schedule is constrained by the dates of a pre-booked safari or other activities, make reservations well in advance. The same goes for most other countries in Africa, including more populous ones. Airline routes and flight frequencies follow the money and the trade routes, and the value of trade with and within Africa, other than in oil and minerals, is small. There's less airline passenger capacity per capita to, from, and within Africa than in any other inhabited continent.
Southern Africa is as far away from the USA as any other part of a continental landmass. Only some Indian Ocean islands are closer to the antipode of anywhere in the USA. Getting to southern Africa, don't expect direct flights, frequent service, quick and convenient connections, or cheap tickets. The racers were booked on the only direct flight route to Namibia from Europe, but most travellers to Namibia have to make connections through South Africa. Botswana, Namibia's almost equally sparsely populated neighbor country, has no long-haul flights at all.
The TV producers had booked connecting flights for the racers originating from the airport in Nice (airport code NCE). In this case, that made sense. But it's worth noting that while Nice is the best-known airport serving the French Riviera, it's far from the largest city or only airport on the French Mediterranean coast. Marseille is a much larger city than Nice, and it's only about three hours by train or two hours by car (barring traffic) from Nice to Marseille. There are no direct flights between the Marseille airport (MRS) and southern Africa, but there are direct flights as well as trans-Mediterranean ferries between Marseille and several cities in North Africa. It's hard to predict in which cases prices, schedules, or availability will be better to or from Marseille or Nice, so it's generally worth comparing both options.
I happen to like Marseille, and would recommend that you take the chance to explore at least a little if you are passing through. That isn't necessary, though, if you just want to use Marseille as gateway to the region. Marseille is a major rail hub and TGV (high-speed train) terminus with direct TGV service to cities as far away as Brussels, and much better rail service in almost every direction than Nice. There's a mainline rail station at MRS airport, so you may not need to go to the downtown Marseille station (Gare St. Charles) or change trains at all. And there's frequent shuttle bus service as well as direct rail connections from the Gare St. Charles to MRS.
A complication for tourists arriving by air in Namibia is that most international flights arrive in the capital and largest town, Windhoek. (The only exceptions are a handful of direct flights between South African cities and the formerly South African-controlled enclave of Walvis Bay, Namibia.) Most tourists, however, are trying to get away from the city to wildlife reserves in less populated parts of the country. Domestic flights, including both scheduled domestic flights on Air Namibia and the small private planes (like the ones the racers took) that serve private game reserves, use a completely separate airport, ERS, which is 43 km (27 miles) from the international airport, WDH. That makes Windhoek the smallest city in the world, so far as I can tell, with separate domestic and international airports.
The racers were flown in single-engine Cessnas to the dirt landing strip at Erindi, one of the ranches that has been converted from agricultural to a private "game" reserve and stocked with the zebras, elephants, giraffes, and other animals that tourists want to see. From then on, the racers had to drive themselves to and between their clues and challenges.
If you are going to rent a self-car in a place like this, after 24 hours or more in transit, do yourself a favor and get a good night's sleep before you start out. It's easy to underestimate the distances and difficulty of driving in a different country.
Namibia is only a small part of Africa, but Africa is a big continent. Being sparsely populated means that traffic is very light, but also means that few roads, even between the largest towns, are paved. It can be a long way between places with water, food, or fuel. Driving on dirt and gravel is much more tiring than on paved highways.
I've driven rental cars in South Africa, despite the hazards of sharing the road with poorly maintained, overcrowded, and recklessly driven vehicles. Conditions in South Africa are very different from those in Namibia or any neighboring countries, however. Highways in South Africa are generally paved, and it's rarely too far to a populated place where services would be available, at least in an emergency.
The racers had trouble positioning their SUVs properly within the width of narrow, unpaved, lightly traveled Namibian roads. Steve and Aly, who were eliminated when they finished last in this leg of the race, were arguing about whether or not they were too close to the left edge of the road just before they punctured a tire on something alongside the graded dirt strip.
Positioning within a lane, or within the width of the road or track without a center line or lame markings, is one of the more difficult aspects of driving on the "wrong" (less familiar) side of the road. Both the driver and the passenger are used to having most of the width of the vehicle extend to the opposite side. It takes time and effort to develop a new sense of how far the vehicle extends to each side, and when it is actually centered in the lane despite the fact that you are viewing the road from an off-center seating position on the opposite side from what you are used to.
This is more difficult on a road with light traffic, where you aren't in a stream of other properly behaving vehicles with which you can align yours. It's most difficult when it's combined with the challenge of driving on what is essentially a one-lane (or one and a half lane) road, where the norm is to drive in the center of the road. When you've been driving down the middle of the track for an hour without seeing another vehicle, it's hard to remember that you need to pull over to the left when an oncoming vehicle approaches.
At one point the racers were sent to a German-language bookstore in Swakopmund, a small town (although one of the larger ones in Namibia) which is mostly known, for better or worse, as the bastion of Namibia's German colonial cultural heritage.
The racers' task was to find the directions to their next stop, which had been published – in German, of course – as an advertisement in the local German-language newspaper.
None of the members of the remaining teams of racers spoke German. So once they found the right ad, they had to find someone to translate it for them.
Several of the teams ran right past a Black man who was standing right outside the entrance to the bookstore reading a copy of that very newspaper. These racers went across the street, and asked the white desk clerk of a hotel to translate the ad, which she did. I can only guess that these racers assumed that a Black man must not be German. That was a mistake, even if not intentionally racist.
There are Black people in Germany, albeit not as large a percentage as in the USA, including both immigrants and native-born Germans of African, African-American, and other African diasporic ancestry. More importantly for travellers, many of the languages most useful for world travel are more widely spoken as second or third languages than by native speakers. This isn't true only of English. The majority of speakers of French today, for example, are Africans who speak French as a second or third language.
In most places where German is the most common native language, many people speak English. German is widely spoken as a second or third language, and useful for travellers, in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Turkey, where there are few native speakers of German.
You could get around most of Africa in English, French, Arabic, or Swahili. But there are also African former colonies of Germany, Portugal, and Italy where the respective former colonial languages continue to be spoken by significant numbers of people. There are hardly any Italians in Eritrea (although I did meet some), and hardly any other Eritreans who speak Italian as their first language. But I've been told by Italian friends that they found -- to their surprise and pleasure -- that it was possible to get around Eritrea in Italian.


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VIEWS: 1,448 PAGES: 4 POSTED ON: 12/5/2011 Public Domain
State of Minnesota District Court County of Hennepin Fourth Judicial District CCT LIST CHARGE STATUTE ONLY MOC GOC CTY ATTY CONTROLLING 1 609.352 Z1101 A FILE NO. AGENCY CONTROL NO 10-5747 MN0272100 10003850 COURT CASE NO. DATE FILED Amended Tab Charge Previously Filed if more than 6 counts (see attached) if Domestic Assault as defined by MS 518B01, sub2a,b SERIOUS FELONY SUMMONS State of Minnesota, FELONY WARRANT PLAINTIFF, GROSS MISDM DWI ORDER OF DETENTION VS. GROSS MISDM EXTRADITION NAME: first, middle, last IAN SCOT LAURIE Date of Birth MNCIS #: 27-CR- 6/5/68 LE#: 10-20579 DEFENDANT, SILS ID: 438360 13230 94TH AVE N TRACK ID: 2426583 MAPLE GROVE, MN 55369 COMPLAINT The Complainant, being duly sworn, makes complaint to the above-named Court and states that there is probable cause to believe that the Defendant committed the following offense(s). The complainant states that the following facts establish PROBABLE CAUSE: Complainant, Officer Bryan Kruelle of the St Louis Park Police Department, has investigated the facts and circumstances of this offense and believes the following establishes probable cause: On July 15, 2010, officers from the St. Louis Park Police Department spoke to a confidential informant who informed them that he had been contacted numerous times by an individual identified as IAN SCOT LAURIE, Defendant herein, who was seeking to have sex for money with a juvenile female. The Defendant had located the confidential informant through a website where he runs an escort service. Over the past few months, the Defendant has repeatedly contacted the CI asking him to find a juvenile female for him to have sex with. The CI initially told the Defendant that he was not interested in pursuing this with him, but after repeated contact from the Defendant the CI agreed to "play along." At one point the CI offered to set the Defendant up with an 18-year-old female, but the Defendant declined and told the CI that it should be a juvenile under 16-years-old. On July 15th, 2010, the CI contacted the Defendant and told him that he had located a 15-year-old female for him to have sex with and that the fee would be $185.00 for full sex service, but no anal penetration. The CI had not actually located a 15-year-old female and immediately called the St. Louis Park Police Department after talking to the Defendant. On July 16, 2010, the Defendant contacted the CI to make arrangements to meet the juvenile female. During that conversation, the Defendant indicated that the price of $185.00 might be a problem and the CI agreed to a price of $100.00 solely for the Defendant to "do" the juvenile female. Prior to the arranged time, an undercover, plain clothes officer arrived at the meeting location in order to pose as the 15-year-old female the Defendant had arranged to have sex with for money. At approximately 4:15 p.m. on July 16 th, 2010, the Defendant arrived at the meeting location and initially left because he wanted to wait for the CI to arrive. When the Defendant came back a second time, the CI asked him if he was backing out of the arrangement because FORM-J REV. 12/95 Page 2 she wasn't cute enough. The Defendant replied "no sweetie, you're perfect." Defendant LAURIE then asked the undercover officer if she was 15 and she replied that she was. The Defendant then left again and said he would return in 10 minutes to see if the CI had arrived yet. Prior to the Defendant returning, officers located him at his nearby office and placed him under arrest. The Defendant is in custody. Page 3 COMPLAINT SUPPLEMENT CCT SECTION/Subdivision M.O.C. GOC OFFENSE COUNT 1: ATTEMPTED SOLICITATION OF A CHILD TO ENGAGE IN SEXUAL CONDUCT (FELONY) MINN. STAT. § 609.352, Subd. 2, Subd. 4; § 609.17 PENALTY: 0-1 ½ YEARS AND/OR $2,500 That on or about July 15, 2010 to July 16, 2010, in St. Louis Park, Hennepin County, Minnesota, IAN SCOT LAURIE, who was 18 years of age or older, attempted to solicit a known juvenile, 15 years of age or younger, to engage in sexual conduct with intent to engage in sexual conduct. NOTICE: You must appear for every court hearing on this charge. A failure to appear for court on this charge is a criminal offense and may be punished as provided in Minn. Stat. § 609.49. THEREFORE, Complainant requests that said Defendant, subject to bail or conditions of release be: (1) arrested or that other lawful steps be taken to obtain defendant's appearance in court; or (2) detained, if already in custody, pending further proceedings; and that said Defendant otherwise be dealt with according to law. COMPLAINANT'S NAME: COMPLAINANT'S SIGNATURE: Officer Bryan Kruelle Being duly authorized to prosecute the offense(s) charged, I hereby approve this Complaint. DATE: PROSECUTING ATTORNEY'S SIGNATURE: July 19, 2010 red PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: NAME/TITLE: ADDRESS/TELEPHONE: KRISTA L. BETTINGER (29066x) C2100 Government Center, Minneapolis, MN 55487 Assistant County Attorney Telephone: 612-348-8488 FORM I-2 Rev. 3/94 Page 4 Court Case # ________________________ This COMPLAINT was subscribed and sworn to before the undersigned this ____ day of __________________, 20___. NAME: SIGNATURE: TITLE: FINDING OF PROBABLE CAUSE From the above sworn facts, and any supporting affidavits or supplemental sworn testimony, I, the Issuing Officer, have determined that probable cause exists to support, subject to bail or conditions of release where applicable, Defendant(s) arrest or other lawful steps be taken to obtain Defendant(s) appearance in Court, or his detention, if already in custody, pending further proceedings. The Defendant(s) is/are thereof charged with the above-stated offense. SUMMONS THEREFORE YOU, THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANT(S), ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear on the _______ day of ____________________, 20_____ at _______ AM/PM before the above-named court at _______________________________________ _________________________________________________ to answer this complaint. IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR in response to this SUMMONS, a WARRANT FOR YOUR ARREST shall be issued. WARRANT EXECUTE IN MINNESOTA ONLY To the sheriff of the above-named county; or other person authorized to execute this WARRANT; I hereby order, in the name of the State of Minnesota, that the above-named Defendant(s) be apprehended and arrested without delay and brought promptly before the above- named Court (if in session, and if not, before a Judge or Judicial Officer of such Court without unnecessary delay, and in any event not later than 36 hours after the arrest or as soon thereafter as such Judge or Judicial Officer is available) to be dealt with according to law. ORDER OF DETENTION Since the above-named Defendant(s) is already in custody; I hereby order, subject to bail or conditions of release, that the above- named Defendant(s) continue to be detained pending further proceedings. Bail: $75,000 + CR Conditions of Release: This COMPLAINT- ORDER OF DETENTION duly subscribed and sworn to, is issued by the undersigned Judicial Officer this ____ day of _____________________________, 20____. NAME: SIGNATURE TITLE: JUDGE OF DISTRICT COURT Sworn testimony has been given before the Judicial Officer by the following witnesses: STATE OF MINNESOTA COUNTY OF HENNEPIN Clerk's Signature or File Stamp: STATE OF MINNESOTA RETURN OF SERVICE Plaintiff I hereby Certify and Return that I have served a copy of this COMPLAINT – SUMMONS, WARRANT, ORDER OF vs. DETENTION upon Defendant(s) herein-named. Signature of Authorized Service Agent: IAN SCOT LAURIE Defendant.
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State Senator Gary Dahms of Redwood Falls and Representative Paul Torkelson of Hanska are inviting area residents to join them in a series of Town Hall meetings taking place today (FRI). The hour-long meetings get underway at 10:45 this morning at the Lions Community Building in Morgan. The Springfield Community Center then hosts a 12:30 Town Hall meeting, at 2:15 the two legislators will be at the Sleepy Eye Community Center, and at 4 o'clock they'll be at the Pizza Ranch in New Ulm. Dahms and Torkelson say that the meetings are an opportunity for constituents to receive an update on the recently-completed legislative session and ask the legislators questions. This year's session focused on setting the state's budget for the next biennium.
Local Town Hall Meetings Today


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Dartboards are made out of horse hairs.
A game of pool is referred to as a "frame."
There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
The pitches that Babe Ruth hit for his last-ever homerun and that Joe DiMaggio hit for his first-ever homerun where thrown by the same man.
The two quickest goals scored in the NHL were three seconds apart.
We all need to tell the time – but some watches and clocks have gone down in history as devices or monuments that do that little bit more. From showpiece d...


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40 years of ebooks (infographic)
E-books turn 40 this year and for the past couple of weeks we've been working hard to make something unique to celebrate it – especially that Read an E-book Week is coming.
There is no better opportunity to say to those who still hesitate: e-books are friendly like never before, please open yourself and spend a week to find out why.
This infographic is designed to show that e-books have history and heritage. They are with us, in many cases, for the whole life – and in many cases we didn't even know about it.
Feel free to share the infographic and spread the news. The more people will know it the more will eventually embrace the book in a modern, digital form.
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Go Set a Watchman – Harper Lee
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Yesterday the Swedish MMA Federation announced that it had decided Alexander Gustafson would be unable to compete in Saturday's UFC on Fuel TV 9 main event due to a cut suffered by the lightheavyweight. Gustafson had hit his face in training and suffered a facial laceration requiring three stitches.
It is not uncommon for UFC athletes to go into fights with bumps, bruises, and sometimes cuts, as training camp for fights are very tough. Athletic commissions are supposed to keep the fighter's safety in mind, but at the same time promoters have spent many dollars promoting events and specific fights, and if any injuries are minor, would likely prefer to see their athlete compete.
Usually UFC President Dana White agrees with decisions made by commissions and values the importance of fighter safety, but in the case of Gustafson, White tweeted today his thoughts:
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Small Town
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Small Town
Small Town is a song written by John Cougar Mellencamp and released on his 1985 album Scarecrow. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Wikipedia
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Comment: Re:Wow... (Score 1) 534 534
Comment: Re:Let me be the first one to say it ... (Score 1) 1870 1870
By copying and distributing the work of others you reduce the income they get in reward for their work. Take it to the extreme: if everyone in the world got hold of movies, music or software for free, why would artists and developers continue producing original works if they're receiving no reward for it? A warm fuzzy feeling that people like your creation doesn't put a roof over your head, nor does it put food on the table.
Hmm, let's find out. Maybe people will do it solely for artistic reasons, with no regards to a commercial return. If that doesn't work, then the worst case is we train all those people previously involved in the commercial side to work as something else.


text: hilarious drunked men! Flag By: TheAdiLewiiTV (More by author: Most viewed, Newest, Most Thumbs) previous next random - Fav + Fav Comment Absolutely hilarious videos of people who seem like they just came of the back of 8 vodkas with a touch ton of techila! Tags: hilarious | funny | the | best | drunk | drunked | man | idiot | viral | alchohol | youtube Recommend tagsx +1 Views: 617 Favorited: 0 Submitted: 08/27/2010 Share On Facebook Remove from favorites Add to favorites Unsubscribe from TheAdiLewiiTV Subscribe to TheAdiLewiiTV


text: My DH has a mixture of grey,green and brown eyes in other words Beautiful eye color. He's the only 1 out of 3 brothers and sisters who came out with the light colored eyes. My DS looks exactly like my DH but except he has my brown eyes, however I wanted to know what are the chances of the second child having light eyes? In my family we all have brown eyes and in DH 's family only him and his grandfather have light colored eyes. tnx ladies


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Wednesday, 21 Sep 2011
Sandy Bridge Update Boosts Games Performance By 37%
Intel's latest Sandy Bridge updates claim to boost the performance of its integrated graphics. The biggest gains are seen on their Ultra-Low-Voltage (ULV) processors at about 37%.
Cooler Master Announces GeminII M4 Low Profile CPU Cooler
The GeminII M4 CPU Cooler is perfect for space-constrained setups such as mini-ITX, HTPC, and any small-sized desktop PC.
Cooler Master USNA 120W Universal Laptop Charger Launched
The USNA 120W brings added value through extended features like maintaining an eco-friendly energy efficiency of up to 90% and providing a high 19V output.
Intel: Ivy Bridge's Graphics Processor to Support 4K resolutions
What's beyond 1080p HD videos? It is video outputs with 4K resolutions supported by Intel's Ivy Bridge GPUs. With MFX, multiple 4K video streams are also possible.
QNAP Debuts Its First Ultra-Capacity 12-Drive Rack-Mount Turbo NAS
QNAP announces its first 12-drive 2U rack-mountable Turbo NAS models with up to 36TB storage capacity - the TS-EC1279U-RP and TS-1279U-RP.
Huawei Android Tablet to be Released Soon
Fancy a dose of Android 3.2 Honeycomb? The Huawei MediaPad might be hitting the stores sooner than you think.
New Motorola Tablet Spotted
A photograph of an unannounced Motorola tablet was leaked online. It appears to sport a seven-inch display.
Toshiba Introduces 40TL868 & 46TL868 Active-Shutter 3D LED TVs
Toshiba beefs up its 3D TV suite with the new Regza TL868 model for the UK market. Powered by edge LED backlights, the active-shutter models will be made available in 40 and 46 inch variants.
Tuesday, 20 Sep 2011
Logitech Introduces the MK220 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo
The Logitech Wireless Combo MK220 features a compact keyboard complete with the standard keys and number pad, and a mouse with a 5-month battery life.
ESET Launches 5th Gen of NOD32 Antivirus and Smart Security
ESET today announces the launch of its flagship products, ESET Smart Security 5 and ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5.


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