Sydney's seemingly useless monorail

I've always wondered about this monorail, everytime I visit Sydney. What is the purpose of it? The distance it travels can be easily walked. Even the old trolleys in San Francisco have legitimate usage to avoid walking up Nob Hill. It just baffles me.

The monorail in question:


One of the stations, at Darling Harbour:


Looks like some people have trouble finding the door?

Emirates Airbus A380 Dubai to London

Recently I flew Emirates from Dubai to London. One of the highlights of the flight was the inflight video. Compared to other in-seat video I've seen, it is more widescreen, and sharper.

Here is the view from the tail camera before take-off at DXB:




Here is the video showing the location of the plane:



Here is the same tail camera, in the air:


Here's the plane location map, in Arabic (of course it is also presented in English, but Arabic makes for a better screenshot):

Here is the flight information screen:

And finally, here is the landing in London:




All in all, this provided some diversion on a long long flight. I also watched a bunch of films on the flight, and revisited Emirates excellent "Every top 10 on the UK charts for the last 30-odd years" archive.

When in Detroit...

Thanks to Enterprise for upgrading me on a recent trip to Detroit. This Chrysler was a really good car and it looks like they really are making world class cars now. Good to see an American car that is unashamably American too.

Verizon removes their unlimited global data option

I called Verizon yesterday and I can confirm it's true. They have removed the $69.99 a month global data option, which I recently used on a trip to Europe. This was one of my reasons for moving to Verizon (that and a new Droid Global for $40 on Amazon Wireless).

More discussion here:
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-2-global/116365-vzw-unlimited-global-data-going-away.html

Airports with art: Add Amsterdam to that list

CNN has a list of "airports with art worth seeing". They only list US airports though. I would add Amsterdam Airport to that list, for the outpost of the Rijksmuseum there:

Ireland tops the Conde Nast Traveler resorts poll

Headed by Ashford Castle in Mayo, there are a striking amount of Irish resorts on the list of best European resorts voted by Conde Nast Traveler readers. I wonder what it is about Irish resorts? I've been to the top-placed resort, Ashford Castle, but it scored lower for me when I realized it is not actually an old castle, just a recreation of one...

Scenic traveling with Google Maps

How about this for a nice view of Kerry, Ireland, from Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?ftr=sv.seven:loc=eu:page=2&hl=en&hl=en&layer=c&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk-svn&utm_term=7

French language announcements at Little Rock Airport

Interesting to note that the PA announcements at Little Rock Airport in Arkansas are in French and English, rather than Spanish and English which you expect elsewhere in the US. Possibly due to the Cajun / French history in that part of the US?

Atlantic City at night from the Sheraton Atlantic City

Not the best Sheraton I've stayed at (coffee machine in the room didn't work, no bill under the door when I was to check out) but nice view at night:

Atlantic City in a photo