Power plugs.
Metric System.
Driving Orientation.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
subway systems of the world, presented on the same scale
Great perspective. I'm also thrilled that the designer saw fit to include the entire PATH system along with the NYC subway. In fact, he went so far as to include the light rail into Jersey City.
I've ridden on the following subway systems:
London
Paris
Stockholm
Washington, DC
San Francisco
Los Angeles (apparently nobody else does)
Montreal (actually, that's a lie. my friends and I tried to find this elusive subway but it was like a phantom. nobody wanted to talk about it.)
Boston
Brussels
I've ridden on the following subway systems:
London
Paris
Stockholm
Washington, DC
San Francisco
Los Angeles (apparently nobody else does)
Montreal (actually, that's a lie. my friends and I tried to find this elusive subway but it was like a phantom. nobody wanted to talk about it.)
Boston
Brussels
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Blogging at 30,000
I'm currently enjoying my third flight this month aboard Virgin America, but this is the first time my plane has been equipped with WiFi - it's pretty cool. It costs $12.95 to connect, which isn't terrible considering it's a six hour flight. There hasn't been a single hiccup in the connection so far and the speed is good enough to stream videos on Hulu. I also ordered a delightful fruit and cheese platter and an Italian sandwich on focaccia bread. As a bonus, the flight is less than half full so I have an empty seat next to me. Throw in the leather seats, mood lighting and pleasant crew, and this has to be the best flight I've ever been on. The only negative so far is that half of the satelite television channels do not work, so I'm not able to watch ESPN's draft coverage.
Bravo Virgin America. Bravo.
Bravo Virgin America. Bravo.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Freedom of Movement
Now that you know the minimum drinking ages around the world, how easy would it be to hop on a plane and head to another country to grab a pint?
International Visa Restrictions by Country is more interesting than it sounds. Take a look at the list and try to figure out what it says about the countries that appear in the top, middle and bottom tiers.
From what I can tell, the countries at the top (150+) are either "polite" (Denmark, Portugal) or powerful (US, UK). The counties at the bottom are either war-ravaged (Bosnia and Herzegowina, Iraq, Afghanistan) or non-democratic (China, North Korea).
One shouldn't read too much into these rankings, but it provides a somewhat useful view of each country's relative clout in the world. Also, protectionism usually rises during tough economic times, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a very different list in 2009 and 2010. I expect the number of visa-less destinations per country to decrease by 10% over the next 3 years.
[via Marginal Revolution]
International Visa Restrictions by Country is more interesting than it sounds. Take a look at the list and try to figure out what it says about the countries that appear in the top, middle and bottom tiers.
From what I can tell, the countries at the top (150+) are either "polite" (Denmark, Portugal) or powerful (US, UK). The counties at the bottom are either war-ravaged (Bosnia and Herzegowina, Iraq, Afghanistan) or non-democratic (China, North Korea).
One shouldn't read too much into these rankings, but it provides a somewhat useful view of each country's relative clout in the world. Also, protectionism usually rises during tough economic times, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a very different list in 2009 and 2010. I expect the number of visa-less destinations per country to decrease by 10% over the next 3 years.
[via Marginal Revolution]
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Paris pictures
For anybody who is interested in seeing my pictures from my trip to Paris with my sister Sara, here you go. Someday soon I'll go through and geotag and label most of these. Alright, that's a lie.
All you really need to know is that these were taken in Paris during the week of Thanksgiving, except for the last 50 or so, which are from one day spent in Brussels.
All you really need to know is that these were taken in Paris during the week of Thanksgiving, except for the last 50 or so, which are from one day spent in Brussels.
 |
| Paris |
Friday, May 4, 2007
Testify
When I was a freshmen in high school, my English teacher assigned a reading from a book called A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Specifically, we were supposed to read the chapter entitled "A People's War?" and use the information to gain some perspective for our primary assignment - Hiroshima by John Hersey.
Hiroshima is a pretty standard high school text, and I would imagine that it's fairly common to engage in a classroom debate similar to the one that we had: was the nuclear attack on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a justifiable act? Was it necessary? And were there ulterior motives involved?
While many people today question "the bomb", the overall military engagement known as World War II has received little, if any scrutiny along similar lines.
However, our assigned reading from Zinn's book made the outlandish argument that perhaps the United State's involvement WWII was not the black and white battle between good and evil that we learned about in history class. Everybody questions Vietnam, nobody knows anything about Korea and WWI is ancient history - but World War II is typically considered to be beyond reproach. Zinn changed all that, and made endless series of compelling arguments that shattered my preconceived notions about nearly every major event in American history.
Anyway, I bring this up because my introduction to Zinn's book led to a fascination with leftist history and politics that lasted all through high school (it has since been tempered by time and realism). Throughout the nineties, there was one band that was talking about the same things that I was reading about, and making incendiary yet sophisticated statements about class, history, race and international affairs. Not only was the content of their lyrics brilliant, but their music was absolutely incredible and inventive.
Rage Against the Machine.
Unfortunately, I never got to see Rage in high school, and before I knew it, they had broken up. I always regretted not seeing them perform, so when I heard that they were reuniting for the Coachella music festival, my friends and I decided that we had to be there.
I'll write more about my trip to San Diego, but I want to describe the atmosphere at Coachella while it's still fresh in my mind.
We arrived on the third and final day of the festival at around 5pm. We walked around for a bit, grabbed some food, and then headed over to the main stage where Rage would be performing at 10:40. Although there were 60 other bands, all we cared about was being in good position when RATM took the stage.
From 7:30 to 8:30 we watched Crowded House, an Australian rock band that achieved a string of hits in the 1980's. This was pretty cool because I was recently introduced to their music, and also, they were reuniting this night as well. They sounded good but their sedate melodies were not what this crowd came to see, and midway through their signature song, lead singer Neil Finn was struck by a water bottle. Poor Neil.
From 9:00 to 10:00 we saw a band called Manu Chao, who I knew nothing about, but later learned that he's a French/Spanish musician who plays a fusion of jazz, rock, reggae, hip hop and other styles. He also had a revolutionary tilt that was more in line with that of Rage - so that got the crowed pretty fired up. Much of the lyrics were in Spanish, but his lone English diatribe summed up his show nicely: "You cannot fight terrorism with terrorism. You cannot fight terrorism with terrorism. You must fight terrorism with schools and education." A simple chant, and true to be sure, uttered by a man who looked the part of a revolutionary.
Once Manu Chao left the stage, the mad rush towards the front was on. For the next hour I fought tooth and nail to gain every inch I could; by the time the headliners were set to come on, I had situated myself within 20 feet of the center of the stage.
The conditions in the crowd were pretty tough to handle. The air was thick and hot. Nearly everyone was soaking wet from a combination of sweat and water. Some people passed out. One guy threw up. And many people cried and begged to be lifted out. With every ebb and flow of the audience, you had to fight to make absolutely sure that you didn't fall to the ground.
At 10:45, Zach, Tom, Tim and Brad took the stage - "Good evening, we are Rage Against the Machine from Los Angeles, California." Then the band broke into the song "Testify" and with the last chord of the intro, all 60,000 fans were going absolutely nuts (watch this clip to the end). Everyone was jumping to the beat and people were packed so tightly, that your feet lifted off the ground whether you wanted them to or not.
Overall, the set looked like this:
'Testify'
'Bulls On Parade'
'People Of The Sun'
'Bombtrack'
'Bullet In The Head'
'Down Rodeo'
'Guerrilla Radio'
'Renegades Of Funk'
'Calm Like A Bomb'
'Sleep Now In The Fire'
'Wake Up'
-ENCORE-
'Freedom'
'Killing In The Name'
One of the highlights, and the part of the show that has actually received some significant press coverage, was Zach's speech towards the end of "Wake Up".
"If the same laws were applied to U.S. Presidents as those were applied to the Nazi's during WWII, then every single one of 'em, every last rich white one of 'em, from Truman on would have been hung to death, and shot. And this current administration is no exception. They should be hung, and tried, and shot. As any war criminal should be. And the challenges that we face, they go way beyond administrations. Way beyond elections. Way Beyond every four years of pulling levers. Way beyond that, because this whole rotten system has become so vicious and cruel, that in order to sustain itself, it needs to destroy entire countries, and profit from their reconstruction, in order to survive, and that's not a system that changes every four years, it's a system that we have to break down generation after generation after generation after generation after generation. Wake up."
At the conclusion of this rant, 60,000 fans pumped their fists and recited the final line of "Wake Up" - "How long, not long. Cause what your reap, is what you sow."
Strong words. I didn't expect anything less.
Hiroshima is a pretty standard high school text, and I would imagine that it's fairly common to engage in a classroom debate similar to the one that we had: was the nuclear attack on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a justifiable act? Was it necessary? And were there ulterior motives involved?
While many people today question "the bomb", the overall military engagement known as World War II has received little, if any scrutiny along similar lines.
However, our assigned reading from Zinn's book made the outlandish argument that perhaps the United State's involvement WWII was not the black and white battle between good and evil that we learned about in history class. Everybody questions Vietnam, nobody knows anything about Korea and WWI is ancient history - but World War II is typically considered to be beyond reproach. Zinn changed all that, and made endless series of compelling arguments that shattered my preconceived notions about nearly every major event in American history.
Anyway, I bring this up because my introduction to Zinn's book led to a fascination with leftist history and politics that lasted all through high school (it has since been tempered by time and realism). Throughout the nineties, there was one band that was talking about the same things that I was reading about, and making incendiary yet sophisticated statements about class, history, race and international affairs. Not only was the content of their lyrics brilliant, but their music was absolutely incredible and inventive.
Rage Against the Machine.
Unfortunately, I never got to see Rage in high school, and before I knew it, they had broken up. I always regretted not seeing them perform, so when I heard that they were reuniting for the Coachella music festival, my friends and I decided that we had to be there.
I'll write more about my trip to San Diego, but I want to describe the atmosphere at Coachella while it's still fresh in my mind.
We arrived on the third and final day of the festival at around 5pm. We walked around for a bit, grabbed some food, and then headed over to the main stage where Rage would be performing at 10:40. Although there were 60 other bands, all we cared about was being in good position when RATM took the stage.
From 7:30 to 8:30 we watched Crowded House, an Australian rock band that achieved a string of hits in the 1980's. This was pretty cool because I was recently introduced to their music, and also, they were reuniting this night as well. They sounded good but their sedate melodies were not what this crowd came to see, and midway through their signature song, lead singer Neil Finn was struck by a water bottle. Poor Neil.
From 9:00 to 10:00 we saw a band called Manu Chao, who I knew nothing about, but later learned that he's a French/Spanish musician who plays a fusion of jazz, rock, reggae, hip hop and other styles. He also had a revolutionary tilt that was more in line with that of Rage - so that got the crowed pretty fired up. Much of the lyrics were in Spanish, but his lone English diatribe summed up his show nicely: "You cannot fight terrorism with terrorism. You cannot fight terrorism with terrorism. You must fight terrorism with schools and education." A simple chant, and true to be sure, uttered by a man who looked the part of a revolutionary.
Once Manu Chao left the stage, the mad rush towards the front was on. For the next hour I fought tooth and nail to gain every inch I could; by the time the headliners were set to come on, I had situated myself within 20 feet of the center of the stage.
The conditions in the crowd were pretty tough to handle. The air was thick and hot. Nearly everyone was soaking wet from a combination of sweat and water. Some people passed out. One guy threw up. And many people cried and begged to be lifted out. With every ebb and flow of the audience, you had to fight to make absolutely sure that you didn't fall to the ground.
At 10:45, Zach, Tom, Tim and Brad took the stage - "Good evening, we are Rage Against the Machine from Los Angeles, California." Then the band broke into the song "Testify" and with the last chord of the intro, all 60,000 fans were going absolutely nuts (watch this clip to the end). Everyone was jumping to the beat and people were packed so tightly, that your feet lifted off the ground whether you wanted them to or not.
Overall, the set looked like this:
'Testify'
'Bulls On Parade'
'People Of The Sun'
'Bombtrack'
'Bullet In The Head'
'Down Rodeo'
'Guerrilla Radio'
'Renegades Of Funk'
'Calm Like A Bomb'
'Sleep Now In The Fire'
'Wake Up'
-ENCORE-
'Freedom'
'Killing In The Name'
One of the highlights, and the part of the show that has actually received some significant press coverage, was Zach's speech towards the end of "Wake Up".
"If the same laws were applied to U.S. Presidents as those were applied to the Nazi's during WWII, then every single one of 'em, every last rich white one of 'em, from Truman on would have been hung to death, and shot. And this current administration is no exception. They should be hung, and tried, and shot. As any war criminal should be. And the challenges that we face, they go way beyond administrations. Way beyond elections. Way Beyond every four years of pulling levers. Way beyond that, because this whole rotten system has become so vicious and cruel, that in order to sustain itself, it needs to destroy entire countries, and profit from their reconstruction, in order to survive, and that's not a system that changes every four years, it's a system that we have to break down generation after generation after generation after generation after generation. Wake up."
At the conclusion of this rant, 60,000 fans pumped their fists and recited the final line of "Wake Up" - "How long, not long. Cause what your reap, is what you sow."
Strong words. I didn't expect anything less.
 |
| Coachella |
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Meet the Mets
It's not that I'm not having an awesome time here in New York, it's just that this weather has been so disappointing. Like U.R.I., everything about the city changes when the thermometer climbs above 70 degrees. People are happier, girls look prettier, and life just seems so much more fantastic than it did during the winter months. Thanks to a couple of days last month where the temp peaked around 78 degrees, I have tasted the glory that is New York in summertime and now I want it back.
Today we're in the middle of one of the worst rainstorms in recent years, and I haven't been able to leave the house all day. The roof of my apartment is leaking in two places, there's water seeping into the basement, and from what I've heard, parts of downtown Hoboken are submerged beneath 3 feet of water. This needs to stop.
Anyway, despite the horrible weather today, yesterday was reasonably warm and sunny so we decided to check out a Mets game. We found some guy on craigslist who has season tickets but can't go to Friday night or Saturday games because he's an Orthodox Jew who strictly observes the Sabbath. Basically, because this guy can't handle money or produce a flame from sundown to sundown, we scored season tickets for weekend games - we've already locked up a Mets vs. Yankees game.
Since Fenway has been my only MLB experience, I was under the impression that all stadiums featured uncomfortable seats, impossible to obtain tickets, and outrageous prices. As it turns out, you can get tickets to just about any Mets game, whenever you want for like 5 bucks. After going to Shea, which is not a great stadium by any means, I can now say with conviction that we NEED TO BUILD A NEW FENWAY!!! Going to see your favorite baseball team should not seem like a great privilege, which is how I feel on the rare occasion that I win, scalp or am given Redsox tickets. Going to a game should be fast and simple. I'm going to a Padres game in San Diego in two weeks and I'm sure that seeing that stadium will reinforce my feelings about Fenway.
So anyway, the game was nothing special - the home team lost 6-2 at the hands of the lowly Washington Nationals. And also it was pretty chilly. But Kramer met us at Shea and he did some world class heckling - which is something I greatly respect.
Check out the pictures from my first trip to Shea. I've captured the entire experience, starting with retrieving the tickets from the Upper West Side, and then taking the 7 Train to Flushing.
More posts and pictures when the weather improves. Unless you want to see some shots of my leaky ceiling.
Today we're in the middle of one of the worst rainstorms in recent years, and I haven't been able to leave the house all day. The roof of my apartment is leaking in two places, there's water seeping into the basement, and from what I've heard, parts of downtown Hoboken are submerged beneath 3 feet of water. This needs to stop.
Anyway, despite the horrible weather today, yesterday was reasonably warm and sunny so we decided to check out a Mets game. We found some guy on craigslist who has season tickets but can't go to Friday night or Saturday games because he's an Orthodox Jew who strictly observes the Sabbath. Basically, because this guy can't handle money or produce a flame from sundown to sundown, we scored season tickets for weekend games - we've already locked up a Mets vs. Yankees game.
Since Fenway has been my only MLB experience, I was under the impression that all stadiums featured uncomfortable seats, impossible to obtain tickets, and outrageous prices. As it turns out, you can get tickets to just about any Mets game, whenever you want for like 5 bucks. After going to Shea, which is not a great stadium by any means, I can now say with conviction that we NEED TO BUILD A NEW FENWAY!!! Going to see your favorite baseball team should not seem like a great privilege, which is how I feel on the rare occasion that I win, scalp or am given Redsox tickets. Going to a game should be fast and simple. I'm going to a Padres game in San Diego in two weeks and I'm sure that seeing that stadium will reinforce my feelings about Fenway.
So anyway, the game was nothing special - the home team lost 6-2 at the hands of the lowly Washington Nationals. And also it was pretty chilly. But Kramer met us at Shea and he did some world class heckling - which is something I greatly respect.
Check out the pictures from my first trip to Shea. I've captured the entire experience, starting with retrieving the tickets from the Upper West Side, and then taking the 7 Train to Flushing.
More posts and pictures when the weather improves. Unless you want to see some shots of my leaky ceiling.
 |
| Meet the Mets |
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