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- How Google Glass wants to change the world for travelers
- Why do people take their food so seriously?
- Video: Hotel room of future full of tricks
- Rapper-pilot’s viral video trashing Air India backfires
- Zamami Village: The perfect Okinawa escape
| How Google Glass wants to change the world for travelers Posted: 21 Feb 2013 06:02 AM PST "OK Glass, make a video." Not as crazy as it sounds. Google has finally released details of its much-anticipated futuristic Google Glass, including new video and photos detailing the actual real world uses beyond the goofy glasses that we've seen Sergey Brin use in the wild. And you can now order it if you're a hardcore fan, using some complicated Google+ and Twitter hashtag maneuvers, making shorts video, posting pictures and if selected, then having US$1500 change for the chance to buy it.
"The UI shown in the video is radically more subdued than in the original concept video. Gone are the little circles and VH1 Pop-Up Video-ish notifications. Instead, users interact with Google Glass through a single pane in the top right. Everything from Google searches to notifications to hangouts seemingly happen in this one space -- rather than dancing around the field of vision like in earlier Google Glass videos." Some uses, most of them applicable in travel, in the complete video above. Story from Rafat Ali, at Skift. Would you use Google Glass? How and why? Tell us below.      |
| Why do people take their food so seriously? Posted: 21 Feb 2013 02:01 AM PST
They called me names that I can't repeat in polite company, insulted my wife, my parents, threatened to come down to the office and kick my teeth in when I made a crack about sneaking a plastic bag full of grilled chicken into the vegetarian restaurant in order to make the limp, soggy vegan burritos fit for human consumption. Granted, I was a restaurant critic and everyone wants to kill the restaurant critic now and then. But there were nights when I was taking my life in my hands choosing between the momo and the iskender; in the obvious and wise decision to eat the mustard-spiked Carolina barbecue rather than the Texas brisket. When I said something nasty about the chicken rice at the rattletrap strip mall joint with the buzzing, dust-fuzzed neon sign and the powerful smell of industrial cleaning products, I wasn't just taking a shot at the food, but at Singapore in general, everyone who had ever lived there and the spirits of a million dead ancestors. The coolest heads explained to me (as though I needed it explained) that chicken rice was the national dish of Singapore and that anyone with any taste at all must love it unreservedly, in any mutant form it took, because to do otherwise was to insult a billion years of Hainanese and Malaysian culinary history.
Those less restrained simply said that it'd be smart of me to never walk alone in that restaurant's neighborhood again. Because if I did, they would find me. Cuisine as patriotismWhat is it about food that brings out the rabid nationalism in people? How is it that CNNGo was tabled in a Taiwan parliamentary committee hearing and received a protest visit after the site used Catholicism's seven deadly sins to describe the seven best Asian cities for indulgence, with Taipei named as the best city for gluttony? Also on CNNGo: Asia's most sinful cities The fury over that rose high enough that government ministers were quoted in newspapers saying that the CNN staff needed to be "educated" about Taiwanese cuisine and culture, when, from my perspective, they seemed to already have it down pat. I mean, we're talking about a city with 18 streets dedicated to nothing but food, where you can't chuck a rock without hitting some sidewalk genius cooking up pork belly buns, night market sausages or deep-fried stinky tofu for the mobs of hungry people passing by. Taipei is a city renowned for good food. In fact, its tourism and marketing campaigns belabor the point. It's not just a glutton's city, but a glutton's Nirvana. Anyone who says different has obviously never witnessed the kind of human traffic jam that can be caused just by the smell of sheng jian bao in the pan. But saying so -- just by talking about somebody else's cuisine in anything but the most careful and undeniably gracious terms -- inspired a Taiwanese Information Office Minister to claim publicly that by using the word "gluttonous," CNN had damaged Taipei's image in the global sphere. (Sidenote: nowhere in the original article was the word "gluttonous" used.) More pronounced and vitriolic was the netizen reaction and wave of protest when, in a CNNGo iReport, a Texas resident said that he did not like century egg. CNNGo was so moved by the wave of Chinese anger over this dislike of a dish that it issued an apology letter. Also on CNNGo: iReport: The most 'revolting' food I've had is ... Also on CNNGo: The great century egg debate Burn my flag, fine, but don't you dare criticize my mother's wu gai soupSo what is it about food that does this? Why can a dumpling or a meat pie -- more than a flag, more than an anthem -- cause otherwise rational and well adjusted people to go into paroxysms of rage and patriotism if someone dares to say anything against it?
While an anthem may be stirring and a flag might flutter prettily in the breeze, neither tastes very good. Neither gets internalized, both literally and figuratively, the way food does. To say something nasty, or even something perceived to be nasty, about a country's food is to say something nasty about its mothers and grandmothers, about its most dearly held traditions and tenderest moments. We celebrate with food. We mourn with food. We use food to mark both milestone events and plain old ordinary Tuesdays. And to insult a beloved food is to insult all of this at once, not just the thing itself, but the emotional architecture that surrounds it as well. And I understand the sentiment tied up in this. Honestly, I do. There's a counter-service cheeseburger joint five minutes' walk from the house where I grew up that I swear, against all better judgement, serves the second-best burger on the planet and I am perfectly happy to fight anyone who says different. I feel this way because it is my cheeseburger joint, the one I grew up with, the one I miss when I am far away. But the sad, black heart of culinary jingoism is the knuckleheaded idea that none but those who are born to it can possibly appreciate the full, round expression of pelmeni or taco or stinky tofu. That common blood (and, presumably, passport ink) is the only sauce that can truly bring a dish into perfect focus. And that, of course, is total rubbish. A lie clung to by those who honestly believe that latitude is the ultimate arbiter of authenticity and that love of food and love of place are the same thing. But it is precisely this notion of ownership -- my burger joint, their rundown chicken rice palace -- that is so maddening and that exists to hide so much of the good stuff from those easily scared away. I don't care if you were born in Moscow or New York or Singapore. You don't own those dishes that sustained you. Also on CNNGo: World's 10 best cities for foodies
There is no rule which says that just because you grew up eating carne asada every day, wrapped in handmade tortillas with the indents of your abuelita's fingers still plain in the masa, you get to be Lord and Mayor of Taco Town. You want rules? Here are some rules. No great cuisine ever got that way without being able to survive the glare and varied interpretation of international service. No cuisine ever got to grow without being irrevocably altered simply by its passage to some new place. Also on CNNGo: 6 foolproof rules for finding the best restaurants on the road And while this should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever eaten their way beyond the neighborhood Olive Garden, it still bears saying -- no cuisine is pure. Or above criticism. Even criticism by people who are -- gasp -- outsiders. Just because someone doesn't like the stinky tofu, it doesn't mean they're stupid or uncultured or racist. Most of the time it just means they don't like the damn tofu. We're all Iron Chefs Who gets to decide who is the outsider anyway? Setting aside any freakishly insular, super-regional culinary tradition which, somehow, might have skated untouched through all the immigration, emigration, wars, migrations, diasporas and cultural re-jiggings with which we hairless monkeys have amused ourselves for the past thousand years, there is not a single canon out there that hasn't gone through multiple rounds of culinary miscegenation borne of strife, exodus or worse. No matter how wonderful, the Vietnamese food you eat today in Los Angeles is not the same as the Vietnamese food eaten yesterday in Saigon. But then, the Vietnamese food eaten yesterday in Saigon is also not the same as the stuff they ate the day before in Hanoi, or during the French occupation, or while the lords and ladies sat in Hue, or when the Chinese ruled the North. I have spent most of my life eating Vietnamese food. I know it like I know the taste of my own teeth. But never once have I eaten Vietnamese food -- get it? Though only because I do not yet have my own time machine. So be proud of your dumplings, by all means. Love your stinky tofu, your chicken rice, your cheeseburgers, caviar and pie. But remember in the same breath that no one owns homesickness and no one has the market cornered on the comforts of a national cuisine. Every dish served in every restaurant everywhere must, first, stand on its own merits. It must be worthy of being loved absent tradition, absent location, absent cultural fiat, because the greatest power of cuisine in this day and age is its ability to move not just those who were born to it, but those stepping through the door for the first time, too. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jason Sheehan. First published May 2012, updated February 2013.    |
| Video: Hotel room of future full of tricks Posted: 20 Feb 2013 09:59 PM PST Check your flight status through a display in the floor. Touch a transparent screen to open your closet. Flick a finger and modify wall decorations. A new video presentation from SerranoBrothers Design Studio, headquartered in Lleida, Spain, offers an intriguing preview of the hotel room of the future. And the designers say their surreal vision isn't far from being reality. Along with Spain's Instituto Tecnológico Hotelero (ITH), SerranoBrothers presented their futuristic design -- the ITH Room Xperience -- at Spain's International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in January.
The room design emphasizes user interactivity and flexibility of decor and space. Even the floors are interactive. "We opt for a room with the ability to transform itself according to guest needs and their experiential expectations," said Diego Serrano, co-founder of SerranoBrothers Design Studio. "That is also a challenge in itself, that technology should resolve the ability of a space to adapt to different situations, roles, times of day, moods, etc." Among highlights is an adjustable wall that responds to user orders.
The design brings together technologies, gadgets, software and furniture already available on the market. Examples include the Microsoft Surface Table, Roca's avant-garde W+W toilet/sink and a Roca radio mirror.
Serrano says that although he has no doubt the design can become a reality, he recognizes the extremes presented by the prototype room won't be universally practical. "When implementing this project in an actual space, we will most definitely filter some of the technology we've exhibited in order to avoid being excessive and to provide a more manageable experience to the user," said Serrano. "One that isn't so overwhelming." Would you like to stay in the hotel room of the future or find the design overwhelming? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.    |
| Rapper-pilot’s viral video trashing Air India backfires Posted: 20 Feb 2013 08:02 PM PST We've all dreamed of starring in our own viral hip-hop video in which we lambaste our employer, humiliate our co-workers, drop "f" bombs and complain how unappreciated we are, right? Well, maybe not. But one Air India pilot has done just that with a homemade video that's making the rounds and upsetting his bosses. In the video, the uniformed pilot complains about unpaid salary and aging flight attendants and claims that "people at the top" of the company have ruined the airline. According to The Times of India, the 28-year-old pilot has already given a written apology to management. Disciplinary action is pending. "The airline says it will speak to the Dreamliner co-pilot and review his past conduct before taking a final decision on him," says the Times of India report. The pilot has refused to speak with media, but co-workers describe him as an enthusiastic and all-around musician. "The pilot is in the wrong profession," deadpanned an unnamed Air India official quoted by The Times. "Since he is so talented as a musician, he should have been in a rock band." More on CNN: Air India long-running problems    |
| Zamami Village: The perfect Okinawa escape Posted: 20 Feb 2013 07:07 PM PST "It was a mistake to come!" I shout at my boyfriend as I stand thigh-deep in the icy waters of Nishihama Beach on Akajima, the numbing cold stabbing at my limbs. I'd snapped up cheap air tickets to Okinawa with the idea it would be a balmy tropical paradise, even during late fall. Most people come to Okinawa between January and March for whale watching, or from April to early October for the beaches. More on CNN: Whale watching in Okinawa We were here in late October, a vacation no-man's-land, hoping to get lucky. Somewhere out there -- I can even see it, a sprawling midnight blue patch further from shore -- is a magnificent coral reef, teeming with rainbow-colored fish and comet sea stars. I've heard great things about that coral reef. It's supposed be the home of an impressive array of marine life, some 260 fish species and 246 species of corals, luring scores of snorkelers and divers every summer.
My boyfriend is already wading back to the beach in defeat. Soft. I start to panic. I paid hard-earned money just to stand in the sand? Nothing to write home about and -- gasp -- no bragging photos on Facebook? It turns out my fears are unfounded. My luck changes when I return to Nishihama beach on Akajima for a swim the next day, after the mercury rises. Since it's off season the beach is mostly deserted, with fewer than 10 campers and divers sharing a one-kilometer stretch of sand. It almost feels like we have the island to ourselves. Cooler weather, warmer peopleAkajima and Zamami -- half an hour apart by ferry and an hour from Naha, the captial of Okinawa -- feel miles away from the usual tourist activity. The two islands, together with two other (even smaller) islets Geruma and Fukaji, form Zamami Village, which has a combined population of roughly a thousand residents. Many of the locals are inn operators or dive instructors and are eager engage us in friendly chatter. If the weather gods happen to frown on you, here's a list of things to do on Akajima and Zamami that don't involve water. Pig out on Zamami
The sashimi marinated in Korean sauce served with raw egg yolk is a clear winner (located above Heartland Diving Shop, +81 98 987 3358, open 6 p.m.-midnight). Campagna is an Italian restaurant serving dainty portions of thin-crust pizza and pastas. (Next to Joy Joy at 434-2 Aza Zamami, Zamami-son), open from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.-10 p.m., closed Tuesdays.) Facing the water, Zamami Shokudo serves hearty portions of fresh sashimi and sushi. (95 Zamami, Zamami-son, +81 98 987 2671, open 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m., and 6 p.m.-10:30 p.m., closed Sundays.) Zamami bar crawl
La Toquee (see above) has a well-stocked bar that serves cold beers and Awamori sake cocktails. Urizun is a cozy izakaya located across from Shirahama Island Resort. (Open 6 p.m.-1 a.m., closed Sundays.) For ¥1,000 you get all the Awamori (Okinawan sake) you can drink at Shisa Izakaya. (Located next to the river in Zamami, open from dinner till late.) Joy Joy has a yakitori beer garden that's open during the summer. (434-2 Aza Zamami, Zamami-son.) Geruma Island heritage house
If you get on the caretaker's good side, you might be able to convince him to teach you the shamisen, a three-stringed Japanese instrument. Chase deer on Akajima
They're known to swim to uninhabited islands off Akajima. A count of Kerama deer in 1995 put the population at 130. Kerama deer are elusive -- we spotted one on a road and it was gone in a blink-- so photographers may want to keep their zoom lenses at the ready at all times. Where to stayNakayamagwa Guest House has tatami rooms and shared bathrooms. The owner speaks fluent English. Rooms go for ¥3,000 per person a night. (159 Zamami, Zamami-son, +81 90 3254 4434) Joy Joy is a bed and breakfast with a dive shop attached. Rooms start from ¥5,250 per person a night. (434-2 Zamami, Zamami-son, +81 98 987 2445) Getting thereFerry Queen Zamami is a high-speed boat that operates to Akajima and Zamami two to three times a day from the Port of Tomari in Naha. Journey time is around one hour. Call the Zamami Village Office for the daily ferry schedule. (+81 98 868 4567, www.vill.zamami.okinawa.jp)    |
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