Web-O-Rama: week 6
#TGIF, I don't know for you but for us it's been a heavy week since we are off to Tel Aviv on Tuesday and needed to get content ready for the coming weeks.
Anyways, it's time to start slowing down towards the weekend and stop working. There's a lot going in the world currently so we've prepared a small selection of article that you might have missed this week.
We'll start with a smart and funny rant against the omnipresent top 10 posts in the travel blogs. Then some live update for the situation in Egypt and how the US Army has developped tools to possibly bring back Internet connectivity in this kind of situation. And let's not forget that this week was also the 183rd anniversary of Jules Verne, a man who invented a century in advance stuff that we use today.
Enjoy!
Why Top 10 posts make my head explode
by Dave, whatsdavedoing.com
This is simply the most brilliant post I've read recently on a travel blog. As I've said before in this very column, we can't stand the top 10 posts and have swear to avoid them on Hejorama. I don't say it's not ok to write articles that are formatted as lists but it's silly when it's just a bunch of sunset Flickr pics or a list of people/places/gear with no explanation whatsoever.
Dave is way better than me to explain that and his article is filled with hilarious examples and brilliant observations. You should really read it and if you are a travel blogger, you might learn a thing or two to improve the quality of your blog by avoiding the ease of top 10 posts. This should be the manifesto of travel community!
by Sandmonkey, Rantings of a Sandmonkey
This article was posted this morning after the public appearance of Mubarak last night. I was following live the events last night because of the persistent rumor that began in the afternoon that Mubarak might actually resign or at least step aside. Unfortunately he didn't and I can't really add anything to the very good analysis that this article provides. Read it if you want to understand what happened last night and the consequences on the future of the revolt. Alas this might turn really ugly. Our thoughts go out to the Egyptian people and we hope things will get better.
8 Jules Verne Inventions That Came True
by Emory Kristof and Alvin Chandler, National Geographic
Tuesday would have been the 183rd birthday of the French science fiction writer Jules Verne. Due to a heavy load of work we weren't able to post a briefing to celebrate that. So we choose this article to celebrate one of our favorite writer of all time.
When it comes to travel, I don't think any author has wrote so many amazing adventures that Jules Verne. We still regularly re-read Around the World in Eighty Days and dream of Iceland to follow in Otto Lidenbrock’s footsteps. And do I need to remind you that the guy actually invented the submarine and space travel? Discover more of his prophesized invention in the article.
PS: The interactive Nautilus doodle on Google's homepage was awesome!
U.S. Has Secret Tools to Force Internet on Dictators
by Spencer Ackerman, Wired
This one is for the travel computers nerds (like me, check my profile pic). I just found it fascinating to see all the means that the army has to bring Internet anywhere in the world. For diplomatic reasons, I'm not sure how this can be used in a situation like Egypt as that would be seen by the regime as a major foreign act of interference. Still it's good to know that if you get stuck in the middle of the civil war, the US army might restore your access to Facebook, Spotify and porn so you can wait till the end of the conflict.
---
That's it for this week! See you next Friday for more news from the interwebs.
Alex
