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- Super cars and avatars: Seoul's mind-blowing future technology museum
- Shrapnel earrings: Hot new travel-inspired jewelry
- World's 20 cutest wild creatures -- and where to find them
- Comical, creepy or kind of cool? A night in the countryside at 7 wacko Korean pensions
- US$54 for a sandwich -- Paris is the world's priciest city
- Island spat: China suspends Philippines travel
| Super cars and avatars: Seoul's mind-blowing future technology museum Posted: 11 May 2012 03:03 AM PDT by Frances Cha This week, as part of a mentor fellowship program, I had the opportunity to visit T.um, the technology museum run by SK Telecom in Jung-gu in Seoul. It may have been because "Back to the Future" was my favorite movie growing up and I've always loved science fiction (to the horror of my lit professors in college), but I was so taken with the tour, I went back the next day and asked if I could have a longer one. And then even that felt too short. As Korea is the most wired country in the world, and SK Telecom (with 26.6 million subscribers) is in charge of a significant part of that wiring, the company is understandably aggressive about developing technologies across various platforms. They launched T.um to showcase their latest efforts. The museum far exceeded my expectations -- especially as I'd thought I was going on a boring corporate tour -- and provided a fascinating look at life and technology in the future. read more     |
| Shrapnel earrings: Hot new travel-inspired jewelry Posted: 10 May 2012 09:19 PM PDT
It's become a social enterprise cliché: vacation in Southeast Asia, fall in love with local craftsmanship, feel despair in the face of local poverty, put one and one together, try to start community jewelry/ clothing/ furniture business. But Hong Kong's latest tourism-to-entrepreneurship project, Edge of Ember, stands out because the designs are so darn funky. The Willow necklace from the latest collection is a navel-grazing length of gold chain weighted down by geometric pendants and a brass spike. It's a little bit House of Harlow and a total contrast from the usual nicey-nicey designs of earnest social enterprises. Trendy as it may be, Edge of Ember does not lack in bleeding-heart backstory.The raw materials for the necklace are bombshell fragments rescued by Cambodian artisans from organized de-mining efforts by HALO Trust and Cambodian Mine Action Centre. Fishermen also find bombshells from the Mekong River. The artisans clean and melt the fragments to reuse the brass. read more    |
| World's 20 cutest wild creatures -- and where to find them Posted: 10 May 2012 09:01 AM PDT by Violet Kim People travel for awe-inspiring landscapes, for decaying castles, for comic book conventions, for concerts and sometimes just because everyone else is going there too. So why not travel in search of the cute? According to a New York Times report from 2006 on several studies of cuteness, "cute images stimulate the same pleasure centers of the brain aroused by sex, a good meal or psychoactive drugs like cocaine." We think cute is a lot better for you than cocaine. We haven't included cute kittens, dopey dogs or anything else domesticated. The animals listed below live in glacial subzero temperatures, in torrid jungles, in deserts, in trees to high for us to climb, in breathtaking (literally, because of the high altitude) mountains and under the sea. read more    |
| Comical, creepy or kind of cool? A night in the countryside at 7 wacko Korean pensions Posted: 10 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT by Violet Kim In English the word "pension" refers to the fixed stipend given to retirees. It's not the most exciting word out there. The Korean "pension," however, has nothing to do with retirement plans. They are essentially rented cottages or bungalows -- with fully equipped kitchens, no boozy neighbor streaking down the hall (this can happen in the best of hotels) and a woodsy or watery vacation location. Oh, and they come with a lighter price tag, too. These crucial differences give pensions plenty of leeway to become as fanciful, self-indulgent or crazy as they please. And some pensions are crazier than others. read more    |
| US$54 for a sandwich -- Paris is the world's priciest city Posted: 10 May 2012 01:50 AM PDT by Hiufu Wong Paris has the world's most expensive club sandwiches. Research from Hotels.com has found that club sandwiches in Paris cost on average US$33, higher than in Geneva (US$32.40), Oslo (US$30.30) and Tokyo (US$27.50). One five-star hotel in Paris offers a club sandwich for a whopping US$54. The newly invented Club Sandwich Index (CSI) surveyed 750 hotels with three stars or above in 26 cities worldwide. With ingredients like egg, chicken, bacon, egg, lettuce and mayo, the club sandwich can be used as a standard to measure the affordability of a city. Also on CNNGo: World's 15 most expensive hotel suites read more    |
| Island spat: China suspends Philippines travel Posted: 10 May 2012 01:10 AM PDT by CNNGo staff The China National Tourism Organization (CNTO) has announced the suspension of all travel to the Philippines in the wake of an ongoing sovereignty wrangle between Beijing and Manila over an island in the South China Sea. Many mainland Chinese travel agents -- including top agencies Ctrip, Caissa International Travel Service and Shanghai International Tour Service Company -- had already halted tours to the Philippines, according to Xinhua News Agency. On CNN: Tensions over disputed island The CNTO announcement, made late Thursday, forces all agents to suspend travel.Travelers who have already booked trips to the Philippines were advised to cancel or postpone their plans. Some agencies, such as Ctrip, agreed to give full refunds to travelers. Most Chinese media did not directly link the initial travel suspension to the ongoing China-Philippines dispute over the sovereignty of the Scarborough Shoal. read more    |
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