There is something romantic and exotic about train travel. Most trains today may be on the verge of speeding bullets, but as a culture we manage to keep a romanticized image of them that includes lackadaisical hours spent staring out the window and fine dinners consumed at a leisurely pace in luxurious dining cars.
It's 110 degrees and humid as hell. You've got the air conditioning on, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. You've turned on every fan and are sitting on an ice pack. Sounds like you need an air-conditioned shirt. Yeah really.
Pasta on the go? Check out this beautifully simple design for a spaghetti dozer by Serge Atallah. Whether you're staying a fabulous rental or camping under the stars, you'll be able to figure out exactly how much spaghetti you need to prepare.
There's something so inspiring about this picture. OK, it's a cargo ship. Not very glamorous. But it's being pulled along by a sail, more specifically a SkySail. The implications for travel in general are fantastic, especially for those of us who worry about our carbon footprints.
Most of us regard fences as utilitarian, industrialized objects designed to separate: that space is yours, this space is mine. Keep out! But what if it wasn't so? What if the fences that separate us, emphasized beauty instead of utility? Is it possible to turn something so inherently functional into an object of art?
When I was young I used to collect things on my travels. I once sat on a plane and contemplated starting an air sickness bag collection but I got distracted and never did. Steven J Silberberg, however, followed his whim - and the Air Sickness Bag Virtual Museum was born.
Even when you're cramped into economy on a long-haul flight, you should never, ever compromise on your personal style. When you reach up into that overhead storage compartment, make sure the bag you pull out will turn heads. For the right reasons. Here are a few carry-ons that won't be on any no-fly lists...
Disasters suck (think Katrina) and accidents happen (watch Alive!). While there is very little we humans can do to prevent such cataclysmic events from happening, at the very least we can prepare a little bit for the absolute worst. And as survivors of the above crises might attest, in the most extreme of situations, and in the face of dire peril, a little goes a very long way. With this in mind we present the Survival Kit in a Sardine Can.
One day you'll be able to make movies using a camera attached to your fingertip, but until then we'll have to make do the unfeasibly nifty Sony HDR-TG1 Handycam. It's a camcorder that shoots in high def and slips into your pocket.
A few years ago, there was a TV commercial that featured people striding round a city with bizarre bouncy stilts on. The idea was that with innovation and vision, the future could take any shape. At the time, I didn't think they were real. Then I recently discovered Powerizers or Powerbocks - you can not only bounce in them, but you can practically fly. Apparently, these pneumatic walkers are the latest in extreme sport.
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We have a telescope that's never been used. As far as I'm concerned, it's too fiddly, and setting it up just so I can see microscopic dots that are supposed to be planets doesn't seem all that worth it. Let's face it, in this age of satellites and CGI, we're spoilt. That's why Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope sounds really cool.
This is just what we've been waiting for. An underwater mask that doubles as a camera. Just what we needed to catch camera-shy fish unawares. And this isn't your average disposable snapper. The Liquid Image Underwater Digital Camera Mask is a five-megapixel digital camera with six megabytes of flash memory.
