Tagged With "Caste system"
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Re: Replacing iPhone Abroad
NO cooperation between Apple stores in different countries. We made FOUR visits to Apple stores—Cologne, London, and twice to the Paris Louvre store—before my husband was finally able to exchange his water-damaged iPhone 5 with a replacement. He bought his replacement for 249 euros, only 1 1/2 days before he finished his three-week Europe vacation. The Louvre Apple store (which is underground in the Carousel shopping mall) was packed with confused and anxious Apple product users. Some...
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Re: Airbnb: 1 Night Free for New Users, Andorra new top choice
Given the way the system works, I don't believe it concerns the hosts at all who will be paid for all nights. The promotion is, I have to believe, at the expense of the company and not the individuals with listings. Since there's a promotion code, it should all take place at the website level when booking.
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Re: Airbnb: 1 Night Free for New Users, Andorra new top choice
I'm lost folks. Is the confusion resulting from the brief comment with the news clip? If so, I apologize, although it seems to me to be a pretty good replication of this quote from the original document, which they copied from an Airbnb press release, by the way. " First-time Airbnb guests who book a trip between January 13-17 for travel by March 31 , for stays of at least two days, will receive a one night discount (up to $300 ) on their trip." I don't see why "over one night" is clearer...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, November 22, 2014: Orvieto
I was fascinated enough by this brief taste to do a little more reading—and found that Orvieto not only has a funicular, it has an underground. No, not like London, but an extensive system of tunnels cut through the soft rock. Some may have been used for mining or for supplies, but it appears that most of them were created to allow escape from sieges!
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Memphis, Tennessee 2) The King's chariots
Elvis loved cars and mechanical toys of all types, including motorcycles and airplanes. He had the money to indulge his passions, and you can see many of his favorites right across the street from Graceland . The Elvis...
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Update: Loyalty Programs and Credit Cards
For some of us, credit cards are more than a convenient way to pay—they are the lifeline to free travel through loyalty programs. Between points for purchases and bonuses for opening or upgrading credit card accounts, it's possible to get quite...
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Charleston's Grand Mansions: Aiken-Rhett House
On a recent visit to Charleston, South Carolina, I bought a 2-day pass, called the Charleston Heritage Passport , at the North Charleston Visitor Center near the airport, and planned to include as many of the sites it offered of...
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Those darn computers! Outage snarls London
Computer outages in Britain's air traffic control system are fouling up flights in and out of London, as controllers limit the number of flights to what they can handle without the misbehaving machines. DETAILS (and updates) from USA Today.
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Erasmus Hall, Brooklyn, NY: Where Gumbo Was (#81)
As my fellow New Yorker Jonathan L recognized right away, Gumbo was at Erasmus Hall High School, the oldest public school in New York, and certainly one of the most beautiful. The exterior seen in the puzzle picture, in "Collegiate...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, February 8, 2015: Toledo and Madrid
My first solo trip was to Madrid and Toledo in Spain. I had been travelling for years, but always in a group. This time I was on my own, and a little petrified. I shouldn't have been as Madrid is easy to get around and the...
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Colorado National Monument
While many of the units of the US National Park system are frequently visited and very busy, there are also a few less crowded places. Colorado National Monument (known to locals as " The Monument" ) falls into the latter category....
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Travel to Where "Your Shadow Always Has Company"
Well, you can't actually visit the planet Kepler 16b; it's not even in our solar system. But graphic artists at the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA) have made up dream travel posters for several "exoplanets" (planets that orbit other...
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New plans "Motivate" Alta Bike Share
Alta, the biggest US player in the bicycle sharing market (with contracts in New York, Chicago, Columbus and other cities) is under new management—and a new name. The company's moving from Portland to NYC, has hired Jay Walder, an experienced...
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El Yunque: A visit to the rain forest
When we began planning a trip to Puerto Rico, and planning to include our 14-year-old granddaughter, we sent her some of the material we were gathering and asked her what her priorities were. She, and we, both had El Yunque right near the top of the...
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Las Vegas Celebrates the Chinese New Year!
Happy New Year!! Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, the dawn of the Year of the Goat (or Sheep or Ram). The date varies from year-to-year, but Chinese New Year falls on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese...
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A summer trip to Valencia, Spain
Last Summer, in 2014, I went on an internship program in Valencia, Spain. My internship took place in a nice hotel near the center of the town and lasted 3 months. While I was there I could visit and enjoy many touristic points while also...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, April 25, 2015: Форт-Росс (Fort Ross)
It had been raining off and on as I drove down California Highway 1 along the Mendocino and Sonoma County coast, when I arrived at the closed gate to Fort Ross State Historic park, a real blow. I hadn’t visited this beautiful and...
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Holy Space Rays, Batman! Boeing patents "force field"
Boeing has taken a leaf from science fiction and turned it into a patent for a force field that could protect airplanes (and other objects) from damaging explosions. The title of the patent is "method and system for shockwave attenuation via...
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Road Trip, Day 4: Fort Mason, San Francisco
March 12, 2015 I drove south through Sonoma and Marin Counties, past the houseboats on the bay at Sausalito, across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, and arrived earlier than the hostel’s official 3:00 check-in...
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Look What's Coming To Airports in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates soon will deploy biometric e-gates at all entry points The system will use eye scans, facial recognition, fingerprinting, and be able to detect forged Passports. Read More on Tnooz:...
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A striking moment for travel in France
Not the best day for travelers in France, as air traffic controllers continue to strike, grounding hundreds of flights. Long-haul international flights continue, but domestic cancellations and shorter international flights are affected. The...
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Song at 35,000 feet
Southwest airlines posted a fun clip of a band (the Black Cadillacs) performing a song they wrote in Memphis, in a 737 flying to Memphis. The plane's public address system provides far from a perfect sound environment, but the passengers seem to...
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Florida warned: take action against future flooding
17th c. Castillo de San Marcos, guarding America's oldest city, may be endangered by rising waters. With all the jokes about earthquakes in California creating ocean-front lots in Nevada, it's easy to forget that things are changing in numbers...
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AA, USAir: Next step, combining reservations
USAir, AA planes at Washington on the morning of their 2013 merger. That was the easy part... Now that American/USAir is past the legal hurdles, tidied up labor contracts, and merged the loyalty programs, they're ready for the big one: merging...
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"Poo-Powered" buses debut in Bristol, Oslo
Yes, the headline's real...buses powered by human waste are on the road, one in Bristol, and more than 100 in Oslo. They're diesel buses, powered by methane, the same as the natural gas-powered buses elsewhere...except that the methane in this case is...
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Pu`uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park (The Place of Refuge), Big Island of Hawaii (Where Gumbo was #113)
Perhaps the best place on the Big Island to enjoy a sunset (from many great possibilities), Pu’uhonua o Honaunau (the Place of Refuge) is a remarkable destination. This is a National Historic site which should be...
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American completes "re-banking" its hubs
American Airlines has completed a series of schedule changes at its Miami, Chicago and Dallas hubs to create shorter layovers, and so far it appears to be working. That's the report from a respected airline blog, Cranky Flier . A few...
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Spirit grows its route system
Spirit, the penny-pinching fee-hiking airline everyone loves to say they hate, must be doing something right, because they're able to launch nine new non-stop routes from Atlanta and 3 from Los Angeles in the next few months. The routes will be...
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NY to DC in 40 minutes by train? Maybe!
A US rail promoter is trying to get funds and approval to build a maglev (magnetic levitation) train line between NYC and DC. TNEM, the company, has already applied for permits to build on an old right-of-way between DC and Baltimore. Magnetic...
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Airline scheduling: Hurry up and wait, or run like crazy?
Have you ever stopped to wonder, while planning a trip, how your airline’s schedule was planned? Especially when it seems you’re about to be condemned to a headlong half-marathon across the airport to a flight that leaves all-too-soon, or...
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Can 'smart' seats make crowding bearable?
That's sort of the idea behind some new design initiatives for airline seating. Panasonic, and some others, are betting that by designing all the elements of a seat together (seat, inflight entertainment screen, power outlets and more) the elements...
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Kudos to Virgin Australia!!
In a dramatic switch from the shrinking benefits one generally experiences if sitting in the back of an aircraft in the 21st century, Virgin Australia is doing tangible things to actually make this a more enjoyable place to travel. Coming to...
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Wearable technology finding a niche for air crews
More and more technology is coming in wearable form: watches from Apple and Samsung, Google Glass, and more to come. And airlines and other aviation companies are starting to see a place for it onboard. Instead of using a wired phone to contact...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, April 23, 2015: The 1903 Wright Flyer, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.
I heard a joke once that said "Y'know the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.? They actually have stuff in there!" Case-in-point, the 1903 Wright Flyer. Many reproductions of the Wright Flyer have been made, but this is...
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Another "not a good day" for travel
After days of stress on the U.S. air transporation system due to weather, a new wave of flight cancellations is hitting Monday travelers for February 23rd. By noon Sunday, nearly a thousand Monday flights had been cancelled, with more expected by...
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Fort Barrancas Has it All: Cannons, Gun Turrets,Tunnels and Great Views
Fort Barrancas is located within the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. You have to show your drivers license, or other ID, to enter the base. It sits on the barranca ,or bluff, overlooking the entrance to Pensacola Bay. This National Historic Landmark...
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Another "ultra low-fare" carrier ups its game
Frontier Airlines, which has been transforming itself into an ultra low-fare carrier like Allegiant and Spirit, is also expanding its route system, and seems to be targeting Delta by opening new routes from Atlanta to cities Delta serves from...
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Underground Puerto Rico: The Camuy River Caverns
If Old San Juan and the El Yunque rain forest and the beaches have been drawing visitors for hundreds of years, that's certainly not true for this hidden attraction: a vast, and still-not-fully-explored system of caves, carved out by the world's...
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Another storm alert: Check with your carrier no matter where!
Thousands of flights, mostly to and from Northeast destinations have been cancelled because of the Sunday, Feb. 15 storm that will heavily affect already-affected airports including Boston, the 3 NYC airports and more. But that's not the end of...
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Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour of Seattle
Seattle's Pioneer Square is only the icing on the cake of Seattle's early history, preserved below. Samantha takes us along on a tour.
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Spain's 'killer lake' to be disarmed
Carbon dioxide trapped in water at an abandoned mine site has the potential to erupt and replace oxygen, killing hundreds. Help is on the way.
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Oct. 13, 2017: Grand Cascade, Alnwick Garden, Northumberland
Ian Cook takes us on a behind the scenes look at what makes this beautiful fountain work.
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Strasbourg: Self-service tour of Alsatian food
PHeymont tries something new: A self-service gourmet food tour, organized by the Strasbourg Office de Tourisme.
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October 12, 2017: Disneyland Monorail System, California
Ottoman has a look at the pioneering transportation system of Disneyland.
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Stockholm gets hybrid electric bikes
Stockholm will upgrade its bike rental system with new electric-option equipment and many more bikes.
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September 14, 2017: Cars Land, Disney California Adventure Park
Inspired by the Disney·Pixar franchise "Cars", Disney brings Radiator Springs to life in "Cars Land" at Disney California Adventure Park.
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Say 'Cheese' and board your flight? Maybe
JetBlue concludes a successful test of facial recognition for boarding, and Delta tries it out at baggage drop.
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Boeing, Airbus tout their good news
Perpetual rivals Boeing and Airbus both have good news for their shareholders and fans.
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TSA signs off on 'no unpacking' scanners
Good news for air travelers: TSA has signed off on new scanners, tested recently, that could speed up scanning and end the 3-1-1 liquid system.