Category Archives: Travel

You Shall Not Pass: Making the Most of Your Passport

A British biometric passport.
A British biometric passport.

The idea of a document that extends protections over subjects as they travel is old — as in, Old Testament old. But the standardized booklet that we now use for establishing identity and citizenship when crossing international borders has only been with us for about a century. More to the point, in the post-9/11 world, it’s become a lot more important.

In this article, I cover the ins and outs of how to get one, when you’ll need one, and what to do if you lose one.  Along the way, I’ll pass along some travel tips, discuss passport alternatives and help you protect your children from  abduction across national borders.

How Passports Work 

Not-so-Final Destination: Landing at the Wrong Airport

Airplane landing at sunset.“Uh, ladies and gentlemen, this is the flight deck. Thank you for choosing Airborne Airways, where your destination is always up in the air. If you’ll look out your window, you’ll see…well, we’re hoping you can tell us. Anything look familiar?”

Yes, it’s preposterous, embarrassing and more than a little dangerous, but flight crews touch down at the wrong airfield or runway more often than you might think. Which raises the question: If GPS navigation can direct any idiot with a car to his or her destination, how can a trained flight crew with state-of-the-art navigation screw up so badly? In other words…

How Can a Plane Land at the Wrong Airport?

Like a Bridge Under Troubled Waters

A partially disassembled tunnel boring machine (TBM)
A partially disassembled tunnel boring machine (TBM). Photo by Mike.

Between the years of 1825 and 1843 , through floods and financial failures, Marc Isambard Brunel and his son dug a tunnel under London’s Thames River. Our ambitions have grown since then, but the technology we use still bears a striking resemblance to Brunel’s shipworm-inspired device.

In this article, I look at some of the worlds most breathtaking underwater tunnels and delve into how they were constructed.

How do you build an underwater tunnel?

Going the Extra Mile (on the Same Tank of Gas)

Photo of a gas price sign.
Photo by Ildar Sagdejev

Call it ecodriving, hypermiling or plain old frugality, people today are trying every trick they can think of to wring a few extra miles from a drop of gas. Unfortunately, most fuel-saving tips range from the dubious to the downright dimwitted. Even the ones that work — such as making only right turns — veer into the ridiculous. In this Top 5 list, I’ve separated the classics from the clunkers and saved you the trouble of doing your own Mythbusters episode. Read on to discover….

Everyday Driving Tips to Save Fuel

Hypersonic: Don’t believe the hype

Falcon program’s Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle
The DARPA Falcon Project’s Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle

Imagine a Mach-20 aircraft capable of flying coast to coast in less time than it takes a passenger to clear security; now imagine the jet lag to follow. If the idea still sounds appealing, bear in mind that the most recent attempt at such a plane flew right out of its own skin before ditching into the Pacific.

Welcome to the world of hypersonic flight.

Of course, that was a military weapons platform; contrary to what some aircraft manufacturers’ flacks would have us believe, passenger planes are likely to remain subsonic or supersonic for the foreseeable future – and for good reason.

Could You Commute From New York to Los Angeles in 12 Minutes?