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The Details on Tomorrow's Ticker Tape Parade for the NY Giants' Super Bowl Victory

February 6, 2012 at 8:07 AM | by | Comments (0)

In between all the commercials and snacking there was a pretty good football game last night, and when the final whistle was blown it was the New York Giants on top. They’re the Super Bowl champs—for the second time in four years—and now New York is ready to welcome their team home for a little bit of a party and parade. Mayor Bloomberg is putting the final touches on this and that, but we do know that the celebration is taking place on Tuesday.

Late last night New York City officials released the plans for the ticker tape parade, so if you’re going to call out sick tomorrow, start planting some subtle cues this afternoon at the office. All the fun will take place in Lower Manhattan, as the parade is scheduled to do its thing beginning at Battery Place and Washington Street around 11am. After that Eli Manning, Victor Cruz, and Jason Pierre-Paul will continue north up through the Canyon of Heroes towards Worth Street as they greet throngs of well wishers.

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The Week We Updated Our Travel Apps

February 3, 2012 at 5:45 PM | by | Comments (0)

FAME:
American Airlines does something right: Instagram
Bathing, Budapest-style
4 iPhone apps to make your travel images AWESOME
Montreal has a $95 all-you-can-drink & eat beer fest

Also: Mesmerizing: watch a ship pass through a Panama Canal lock
LAME:
Flights down under get even more expensive, dangit.
Why would someone want to bury a perfectly good Boeing?
Emergency landing! Everyone out...via forklift?!

Also: In-flight prayer cards are on more than just Alaska Air

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Kaya Toast of Singapore

February 3, 2012 at 5:07 PM | by | Comments (0)

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

It can be tempting while traveling, especially for more than a week or two, to revert back to ordering the comfort foods with which you grew up. This maybe means eggs and bacon for breakfast or something similarly boring. Of course we urge you to overcome the temptation and, instead, take even more to the local menus. In Singapore, this means Kaya Toast for breakfast.

Kaya jam, which can be bought in jars in the grocery store, is a mix of eggs, sugar, coconut milk and pandan leaf. It's spread between two thin, toasted piece of bread and cut to neat rectangles. Adding butter is optional, depending on how decadent you feel.

Yes, it's green, but once you get over that and just bite in, you'll immediately forget the color for the flavor.

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'Big Miracle' Beefs Up Big Interest in Alaska Whale-Watching

February 3, 2012 at 3:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

Today, Big Miracle opens in theaters across the country and the timing couldn't be better with Alaska's whale-watching season right around the corner.

The film, starring Drew Barrymore, is based on the real-life rescue of several gray whales near Barrow, Alaska in 1988. Barrymore plays a Greenpeace volunteer who, along with her reporter ex-boyfriend (John Krasinski), convinces rival world superpowers to come together and help save the whales.

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For Those Who Don't Bose, There's Always the Duty Free Headphones

February 3, 2012 at 2:17 PM | by | Comments (0)

Whatever class you're in, however spiffy you look, airline headphones suck. But if, like us, you're one of those people who class Bose as too expensive/ostentatious, we have a solution for you.

Recently, flying London-Heathrow to Vegas on British Airways, we were handed standard terrible economy headphones. We were trying to lipread Bridesmaids. It was bad. Then, after a couple of drinks and some flicking through the Duty Free catalogue, we saw these: Jivo rosewood noise reducing headphones, for £28. We were tipsy, liked the sound of rosewood, and bought them, still assuming they'd be pretty rubbish, what with them costing a fraction of Bose prices.

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Spirit Airlines Throws Temper Tantrum, Hikes Fees

February 3, 2012 at 1:17 PM | by | Comments (0)

It seems like only Monday when we were saying that it might be a bad idea to force airlines—some of whom barely have a pulse, as exemplified by the American Airlines bankruptcy—to give up on all the ways they've invented to make money. No one denies that some airline fees are insanely grating, and we complain about them as much as anyone, but with the airline industry recovering from the worst decade ever, maybe this isn't the perfect time for heavy-handed government brainstorming. No one wants a repeat of the tarmac delays debacle, after all.

Naturally the Department of Transportation has chosen now to pass a series of new regulations, including a ban on ticket-change fees for changes made within 24 hours of booking. And we could be doing a post about whether those are bad ideas in theory or in practice or in both. But instead we're going to write about the reaction of Spirit Airlines to the DOT's decision. Because if theRyanair of North America has a specialty, it's in taking something mildly obnoxious and completely owning it.

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Finally! JetBlue Releases Its First iPhone App: The Full Review

February 3, 2012 at 11:11 AM | by | Comments (0)

Alright. What's the one thing you've been waiting forever for from JetBlue? Duh, in-flight WiFi...besides that. Yes, a freaking iPhone app!

Well, late last night while thoughts of Terra Blue Chips and direct flights to Santo Domingo danced through your heads, the airline's very first iPhone app quietly snuck out into the iTunes app store. It's free of course, and blue and orange, but is it any good?

To keep our opinions short and sweet, yes—it's sooooo good. Like, spread-the-word good. Even if you've never flown JetBlue and don't have any upcoming flights booked, we'd say get the thing for its well-designed flight search and booking (wanderlust fodder right there) and cute little extras, like the ability to use your iPhone photos to create funky postcards, shared straight from the app.

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New Planes and New Seats Making Southwest Feel So Fresh, So Clean for 2012

February 3, 2012 at 10:04 AM | by | Comments (0)

We were just talking about Southwest Airlines and their plans to “evolve” their planes with new seats, and now it looks like the carrier is already prepared to go all-in. Southwest is starting to get those fresh birds, and they’re shifting around the schedule here and there to make room for the increased seats and different configurations.

They’re pretty excited about that this evolve-o-lution, but we kind of wonder how our knees will feel about all these changes.

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Virginia is for Lovers and Lomographers: Win a Trip with a Single Photo

February 3, 2012 at 8:41 AM | by | Comments (0)

Raise your hand if you occasionally get a little nostalgic for actual film cameras and the days of tangible prints. See, that's the thing about the internet though, is we can't see you raising your hand or physically join in because while we love us some iPhoneography and DSLR fun, every so often we're still reaching for our throwback Lomography camera. And apparently so is the entire state of Virginia, since their freshest tourism endeavor involves pitting real photos from Lomo cameras against each other for chances to win all-expenses-paid, experiential trips to the state that is famously "for Lovers."

Contest

Here's the deal: the Lomographic Society has turned out a "Virginia is for Lovers" special edition of their newish 35mm La Sardina camera, and to celebrate, anyone with a Lomo camera is welcome to submit a photo to the contests to win a Virginia trip. There'll be a contest every month, starting now through December 2012, and each has a specific theme for your photo. Right now, it's "Love Surrounds: Show us the people that mean the most to you."

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United, WestJet and Copa Airlines Plan New Routes to Here and There

February 3, 2012 at 7:52 AM | by | Comments (0)

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we’ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· WestJet:
If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out what WestJet has to offer, this may change in 2012 as they bring new flights down to the nifty fifty. Of course they already have cheap flights to here, there, and everywhere in and around Canada, but now they're prepping to take on New York-LaGuardia.

Live, in-flight television will be yours to enjoy on seven new nonstop flights between NYC-LaGuardia and Toronto beginning June 4. A couple weeks later they’ll be boosting the flight frequency up to eight flights, so they definitely mean business when it comes to serving the flying public between New York City and Toronto. They even just launched a codeshare deal with Delta, so you can continue on aboard Delta until your final destination.

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Hanging Out at Singapore's Changi Airport: The Outdoor Pool. Yes, a Pool.

Where: Singapore-Changi International, Singapore, Singapore
February 2, 2012 at 5:38 PM | by | Comments (0)

There's a reason Singapore-Changi International Airport consistently wins awards; it's because the place is ah-may-zing. After spending much time at the three main terminals earlier this week, we're sharing with you our favorite, can't-miss bits of this massive travel hub.

Today: The famous pool atop Changi Airport's Terminal 1

Look, you have to believe us when we say that one of the terminals at Changi Airport has a swimming pool. Why? Because, crazily enough, it's true. You'll find the clear blue waters of the outdoor pool above Terminal 1, just follow the "swimming pool" signs and an escalator to reach it.

Technically, this pool (and whirlpool) is part of a hotel in the terminal—the Ambassador Transit Hotel—but it's actually situated across a landing from the hotel reception and, thus, quite easy to check out on your own before paying the $13.91 SGD ($11.15 USD) to actually use the facilities and take a dip.

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When One Airline Loves Another Airline Very Much...

February 2, 2012 at 4:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

Last one to a newsstand to buy this week's issue of Bloomberg Businessweek is a rotten egg!

The cover you see above is not the only highlight of the current edition of the magazine; it precludes a full article exploring the finer details of the United/Continental merger. We especially love that the cover promises "a look at the complexity and the absurdity of making the world's largest airline." Face it—the "absurdity" is what will sell this issue, once you get past the risque airplane coitus front and center.

UPDATE: We just checked the Barnes & Noble newsstand to see that this issue, with the United merger cover and story, is from January 15 and already off the stands of course. BOOOO.

[Photo: BusinessWeek/Twitter/Flickr]