The Radar
Each week, Intelligent Travel offers up a host of interesting travel tidbits, but even we admit that our cup runneth over when it comes to fascinating facts. So we've compiled a weekly compendium of the things we've found on the web, and share them with you.
North America
-A Travelzoo.com poll reports that 82% of Americans are planning to stay home for the July 4th weekend due to increased energy costs. However, according to another poll by Reuters/Zogby, only 39% were considering changing vacation plans, which probably means most were staying home anyway. [Global news & trivia]
-Meanwhile, Canadians are considering giving up exotic fruit and meats to cope with increased energy costs. [Global news & trivia]
-Florida to buy missing Everglades link. [History & world heritage]
-Pack your bidding paddle: An unused life jacket from the Titanic will be sold at auction in New York this month. [Global news & trivia]
-For the first time in human history, there will be no ice in the North Pole. [Environment & wildlife]
-A Reuters reporter spent four days in Los Angeles, California, test-driving a fuel-cell car. [Global news & trivia]
-Foreign Policy lists five good reasons to love 4-dollar gas. [Web & blog news]
South America
-Brazil confiscated 3,100 head of cattle, illegally raised in an ecological reserve in Pará state. They hope this warns rogue ranchers against illegal livestock grazing throughout the Amazon region. [Environment & wildlife]
Europe
-The European Union has decided to put a cap on airline pollution emissions—for all aircraft transiting through EU airports. [Global news & trivia]
-Tourists around the world are responding to the credit crunch by travelling locally. The United Kingdom, then, is praying for sun. [Global news & trivia]
-Cultural attractions in Vienna, Austria, are suffering as a result of hosting the Euro '08 soccer tournament. (Reminder: the final game, between Spain and Germany is this Sunday). [Global news & trivia]
-Riga, Latvia, is the art nouveau capital of the Baltic. [History & world heritage]
-London's Battersea Power Station could have a chance at a newer, greener second life. [History & world heritage]
-After offering Americans a 20% discount to compensate for a weak dollar back in April, Harry's Bar, the famed restaurant in Venice, Italy, has now cut all its prices by 10%. [Global news & trivia]
-A design student has unveiled the "ultimate green machine", aka a cardboard bike, in Manchester, England.
-Germany's Bonn, the former "haupdorf" (capital village), is booming. [Global news & trivia]
Asia
-The IHT features an interesting article on Naypyidaw, Burma's new, but secretive, capital city. Check out the photo gallery in the multimedia box. [Global news & trivia]
-Spain is doing well in Hong Kong. [Global news & trivia]
-Beijing's expected tourism boom for the summer season leading up to the Olympics hasn't quite happened. Visa restrictions are to blame, some say. [Global news & trivia]
-A strike in Darjeeling, India, is disrupting tourism in the state of Sikkim, the "Land of Mystic Splendour". [Global news & trivia]
-Public pool bathers in Shanghai, China, will be subject to security inspections during the Olympics. [Global news & trivia]
-Rebels have burned down a hotel in Pakistan's only ski resort, in the Swat valley. [Global news & trivia]
-Reuters reports on the top ten weirdest attractions around the world, as compiled by IgoUgo, the travel website. Highlights include the Modern Toilet restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan, where food is served in replica toilet bowls. [Global news & trivia]
Africa
-Philantropic chocoholics: The makers of Snickers and M&Ms are sponsoring a scientific study to map the cocoa fruit's genome, which would aim to safeguard the global chocolate industry. African cocoa farmers, who account for 70 percent of world production, would benefit from the findings. [Environment & wildlife]
-St. Louis, Senegal, is the city in Africa most threatened by rising sea levels, a UN official says. [Environment & wildlife]
-Madagascar is selling carbon offsets to help protect the Makira Forest, home to about half the island nation's unique biodiversity (ie. 22 species of lemur, hundreds of varieties of birds, and thousands of plants). [Environment & wildlife]
Oceania
-Australians would win a medal if there were a "fat Olympics." The country is believed to have surpassed the US in obesity rates, a new study suggests. But the gold would still go to Nauru, which, according to the World Health Organization, lists almost 95% of that island nation as being overweight. [Global news & trivia]
-New Zealand will transfer ownership of 435,000 acres of plantation forest and forest rents to its native Maori tribes, in the country's largest-ever land settlement. [Global news & trends]
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