Travel Blogs

I haven’t perused the travel blogosphere in a while. I’ve been scampering around, doing other things, like Entrecards, gardening, and starting up a few new little blogs. I’m glad I took the time to look around today. There are some notable goodies.

Adirondack Base Camp, that scintillating blend of DMO, New York State tourism, sharp wit, and lumberjackery (haha!), has a great post Bow Down to the New King of Travel: Google. Can I just add a great big double DITTO to that post? Especially

Kinda freaking scary? Uh, yeah. When the giant decides to do something, its lumbering actions often leaves swaths of destruction. You either anticipate or face a crushing change of your environment.

Google is way too big for its britches. They control far too much, and have a lust for power unprecedented in history, IMHO. Their thirst for medical health records was the icing on the cake. What’s next, Google-branded term life insurance?!

In other news…

Here’s an interesting travel-politico article, Why It’s Useless to Boycott the Beijing Olympics.

All of this [protests] is designed to “shame” China on their human rights record and thereby cause enough embarrassment that China will be forced to change their ways in order to seem credible on the world stage. Will this be successful? Should we politicize this sporting event? Will we really push China in a new direction? The answer, I believe, is a resounding NO.

While China certainly needs to improve its human rights, boycotting the Olympics will not get them to do so. Those that believe it have a lack of understanding about Chinese psychology and history.

I’m no expert on Chinese psychology, but I have to give a big double NON-DITTO to this article, as thoughtful as it is. I thought the global protests were based more on principle than “shaming” China. The nations should not support China because it is a matter of principle. But I also think these actions can shame China at the same time. Of greater import, I think, is the athletes who are refusing to attend the Olympics.

Family Travel writes Why Would a Magazine Have YOU Write Their Articles? It’s a good read. FT also says the magazine writers did a terrific job! Of course they did. I love amateur writers. I wonder if this is going to be a trend. The latest edition of This Old House had the same thing– it was entirely written by homeowners. They named this month’s edition “Your Old House.” I wonder if the amateur writers are getting anything besides their names in the byline. I tend to believe that they are not. Could this be magazines’ new trend, due to hard economic times for the publishing industry?