It’s been a quite a few years since I did any long backpacking trips around Europe, but I paid my dues with some three and four month journeys. Each episode is a learning experience on choosing the right gear and deciding what to pack. This helpful infographic from Cheapflights is packed with valuable planning suggestions. Personally, I always go with the internal frame packs; it’s just more practical for public transit and flying.
Chicago-based artist and web developer Nicholas Rougeux’s project “Between the Words” strips all of the letters, numbers and spaces from complete texts of iconic novels leaving just the punctuation. The remaining symbols are arranged in a continuous spiral. You can see more of Rougeux’s work and purchase poster versions on his website.
In 2013, we followed artist and filmmaker Doug Aiken’s transcontinental traveling light/art/music show as it made its way from New York City to San Francisco. Aiken’s train-based, 24 day nomadic art show included participation by artists as diverse as Ed Ruscha, Beck, Mavis Staples and Olafur Eliasson.
Now there’s a film documenting the mobile pop-up exhibitions. The movie is composed of 62 one-minute segments celebrating the art project. Here are a few free slices of the feature length film. You can find the entire “Station to Station” documentary on iTunes.
You may have heard about New York’s plan to create a city-wide free public wifi network based on freestanding kiosks. Well, yesterday the roll-out of the project began . The initial four units—on 3rd Avenue between 15th and 19th streets—from LinkNYC are the test units for the planned 7,500 kiosk system. By mid-summer, the city hopes to have at least 500 hubs functioning.
All you will need to sign-in to the free system is a valid email address. Each kiosk will include a touch screen tablet, two USB charging ports, two 55-inch ad screens (to subsidize the project), a phone system for 911 calls and free nationwide phone calling via Vonage, and of course free gigabit wifi with a 150 foot range.
Brooklyn-based artist Juan Fontanive creates extraordinary automated flipbooks, which illuminate the flight of brightly colored birds and butterflies. The steel framed “books” contain gorgeous screen printed images on paper.
I don’t know about you, but I always find myself getting annoyed whenever I try and log-on to airport wifi networks. For mysterious reasons, these networks seem to turn the process of accessing wifi into a torturous process. Now, there’s a handy app that promises to reduce the airport wifi frustration. FLIO app claims that it will automatically connect to official public wifi networks at more than 350 airports around the world. The app takes care of all the tedious form-filling and box checking.
FLIO also offers discounts at airport restaurants, bars, and duty-free shops. It also aggregates information on airport services and security wait times.
The New York City-based collective ArtCodeData has created a marvelous mash-up map covering 214 international metro/subway systems. The fanciful map represents 791 real lines, 11,924 stations, 214 urban centers, on 5 continents all connected in a single map. The project is a current Kickstarter which will offer various versions of the completed map. A non-profit group called Open Accessibility is selling the maps to finance projects facilitating travel for people living with disabilities.
Since 1933, Canada and Denmark have been waging a quiet cold war over a desolate island in the far Arctic—really. The grim, barren 1.2 square kilometer rock has no apparent resources or value. But Hans Island is situated smack in the middle of the narrow Kennedy Channel, which separates Canada from Greenland, which is still a territory of Denmark.
Based on international law, nations have the right to claim any land within 12 miles of their coast. Since Hans Island lies within territorial waters of both countries each seems to have a legitimate claim. In 1933 the League of Nations awarded the island to Denmark, but no one paid much attention. The issue of sovereignty reemerged in 1984 when the Danish government minister for Greenland visited Hans Island and left a Danish flag along with a note saying “welcome to Denmark” and a bottle of brandy.
In response to the Danish provocation the Canadian Navy has taken to making periodic visits. Each time they stop by a bottle of Canadian Club whiskey and a sign stating “welcome to Canada” is left.
Now there’s some hope that the Whiskey War is almost over. Danish and Canadian academics have proposed joint ownership, with actual control of Hans island turned over to local Inuit groups.
Sometimes Paris can seem like one enormous movie set. Apparences is a beautiful, if somewhat surreal, video experiment directed by French duo Clarice et Maxine,who morphed iconic attractions and street scenes into a massive Potemkin Village.
Last month, VICE released the inaugural episode in its new series of Vice City Guides videos. The first episode focuses on Brooklyn, New York (of course), with shows to follow soon on Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Austin and Atlanta.
The video series takes the idiosyncratic approach of focusing on just one street in each city. For Brooklyn they chose Bedford Avenue, which is the borough’s longest street.
Vice also publishes on online series of text-based urban travel guides that blend old-school guidebook information, local expertise, and interactive mapping.
Travel Between The Pages 