Gadling

By the time I had been in Russia two days, I was thoroughly unimpressed with the Communism that I had seen. I had expected to see dilapidated buildings, sad old junker cars, an unhappy, slow people and general drudgery around me. To the contrary, St. Petersburg is a cosmopolitan city replete with parks, clean city streets, beautiful architecture and fascinating people.

One of the things that did set me on edge though was the taxi system. Namely that there really isn't one. Yes, there are a few yellow cabs that roam the streets, but for the most part people rely on gypsy cabs. I had read about gypsy cabs in doing my inadequate research on wikitravel before I left -- but had immediately ruled them out.

See, years back during the Communist regime many people used to pick up riders going in the same direction for a few extra chunks of pocket change. Most drivers supplemented their meager annual salaries this way and it became fairly commonplace. Now, well into the federation years of Russia, the tradition still stands.

To flag a gypsy cab, stick your arm out at about waist height, wave it around and wait for some car (any car) to pull up and roll down its window. Negotiate your price (or, if you don't speak Russian, show them a picture of your destination or address), jump in and off you go.

Sound safe? I didn't think so either. In fact, the idea never even occurred to me until I had about a liter of Russian vodka in me and needed to get home at 4am. Solution? I stuck out my arm and within five cars passing a new Volkswagen Golf stopped by, I showed him a picture of our address and we were home for two dollars.

Now, in the US I can't think of one person in one city who would be willing to do this in the middle of the day, but in the Motherland it appears to be a pretty common way to get around. I wish we trusted each other enough at home to do the same thing.

OK, arguably not the best engagement line, but one that many a man would welcome (at least secretly).

Check this out. A man from Wisconsin was digging at an Arkansas Diamond Park yesterday and found a 3.92-carat diamond, but the rock will go into his collection because his fiancee already has a ring and a setting. He also found another, 1.49-carat stone on Monday, AP reports. They provide his name, too, which is very convenient for all the thieves out there.

Apparently, more than 700 diamonds have been found at the park in 2007 alone. The Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world's only diamond-producing site open to the public and visitors can keep the stones they find.

Now, here is a truly brilliant way to motivate Americans to actually turn off their TVs and go explore the outdoors. Bling, bling.

When things calm down in California, let's hope you'll still be able to consider this unique walking tour in Santa Barbara. The Conference and Visitors Bureau has created a Red Tile Walking Tour of the city's original pueblo district, and are promoting it with a brand new video podcast. Before embarking on a trip to the American Riviera, travelers can first watch Beyond the Rooftops to get a preview of the historic adobes and distinct architectural style that characterizes Santa Barbara.

The 16-minute video gives an overview of the actual self-guided 12-block tour and is narrated by none other than John O'Hurley, best known for his role as J. Peterman on Seinfeld. The historic Santa Barbara County Courthouse serves as starting point for the tour, which includes 17 stops and 22 homes dating from the late 1700s through the 1800s. Other historic landmarks along the way include the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Lobero Theater.

For someone who is a sacrilegious beef-eating Hindu carnivore, I have many 'official' reasons to quit eating meat, but I love my steak and chicken-wings, so that's not going to happen. (In my caste, we cannot even eat egg).

Which is why I was thrilled to read that eating chicken can help combat global warming drastically!

A recent story on Salon explains in a nutshell: the amount of energy and resources we invest in breeding animals for food, alongside naturally toxic excretions of those animals, is more responsible for global-warming than burning fossil fuels. However, poultry are the least polluting. (Gore, did you know this?).

The story throws in some shocking statistics:

• "livestock accounts for 18 percent of global warming emissions worldwide, more than the entire transportation sector" -- why is this not in Al Gore's film!?
• "cattle, bison, sheep and goats burp out a lot of methane that traps 23 times more heat per ton than carbon dioxide" -- and we've been fretting about spraying deodorant!?
• "the difference between a vegan diet and one that includes cheeseburgers is less than 2 tons of greenhouse gases a year -- that's about the equivalent of switching from a Camry to a Prius'' -- I wonder what Toyota would have to say about that.

With that in mind, eating beef is the worst; then comes cattle, sheep and goat; and then pork and dairy products are relatively less harming. Pork and dairy hold the same place in the environment!?

Conclusion: if you want to change your diet to combat global-warming -- eating chicken is the best thing you can do. Chickens don't "burp" methane and they produce only one-tenth the methane of cattle waste.

Now who would have thought!

[Via Salon]

Another recent entry in the popular mega trip-list travel book category is National Geographic's Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips. Compiled from the favorite trips of National Geographic writers, this 400-page collection of glossy color photos and descriptions is another daydream machine for wanderlust readers. In addition to the featured journeys, there are also secondary lists for things like the top 10 elevator rides, ancient highways and bridges to walk across.

So, can every travel experience be listed? It seems that way these days. But, as Frank Bures eloquently argued in a recent World Hum travel book column, the checklist approach to travel misses the point. Super-sized itineraries are not practical, and in most cases, just not possible. And that is a good thing. However, this book, and similar titles, are still fun to flip through. They're kind of like destination menus for travelers to pick-and-choose from -- for ideas, inspiration or discussion with others. But over-ordering should be avoided.

The Museum of Forensic Medicine, as evident by its very name, may not be everyone's cup of tea. But, if you are traveling through Bangkok and tired of all the temples and Buddhas, you might want to consider popping in to Siriraj Hospital to check out one of the most bizarre museums on this planet.

Journalist Will Storr recently spiced up his Thailand holiday by doing just that. He left behind the wondrous glories of Bangkok and slipped into the horrific world of elephantiasis testicles, severed heads, Cyclops babies, murder weapons, blood-stained clothing, hanged corpses, and dozens of other nightmare-inducing bits of flesh and tissue. Ugh.

Me? I think I'll stick to the white sand beaches and crystal clear waters of southern Thailand where the dreams that come at night are far more pleasant.

I suppose as a blogger, I'm just as guilty as the next person. You know what I'm talking about. A writer discovers some off-the-beaten-path slice of nirvana and then promptly publishes a story for the whole world to learn about. In almost no time, that once-idyllic spot is overrun with tourists and souvenir stands and is now completely ruined. Damn!

Brad Melekian, an editor for Outside Magazine recently wrote about this phenomenon and the irresistible siren of journalism pressuring a writer to spill the beans. Melekian muses mostly about the impact such public exposure has upon the surfing world where great swells can go undiscovered for years but once they are written about, adios to owning your own wave there. The fine surf at Half Moon Bay in California is one such example which Melekian bemoans.

Balancing that sense of journalist obligation with a desire to protect the very places you've unearthed is the source of much cognitive dissonance amongst writers. We want to share them with our readers, but we also want to keep them to ourselves. Hmmm... what to do?

I don't know about you, but I often have a heck of a time trying to carve a pumpkin. Even the best-laid design is at the mercy of how well you can make a precise incision in the shell of that orange, goopy mess. So I can't imagine how difficult it would be to do what these people are doing -- carving pumpkins underwater.

Ok, so the lubrication of water might make cutting the pumpkin slightly easier, but consider this: Pumpkins float. And I'm not a diver but I suspect if I tried something like this, I might be too focused on, oh I don't know, breathing than forming perfectly shaped eyebrows. But that's just me -- and I'm the farthest thing from a qualified Scuba diver.

Intrigued? Here are some instructions. And here are some great photos too!

(via Intelligent Traveler)

Here's a fall color shot that reminds me of a Monet painting. This shot was taken this past Monday by redow in the Missouri Ozarks along the spring branch of Alley Spring. It looks like the part of the country where my mom is from in Southeastern Kentucky.

**If you'd like for your photo to be chosen as a Photo of the Day, post it on Gadling's Photo Pool on Flickr.**

Bluefin tuna are amazing creatures.

First of all, they're freakin' huge - a prize-catch can weigh nearly a ton, and stretch to nearly 10 feet.

Like human beings, they're also warm-blooded, which allows them to live everywhere from the tropics to the poles.

They can also accelerate as fast as a sports car.

As any Japanese person can tell you, they're also the centerpiece of the Japanese diet. Whether you're partial to maguro (まぐろ; tuna) or toro (とろ; fatty tuna belly), one thing is for certain - tuna are delicious.

Of course, this why bluefin tuna will most likely be extinct sometime in the next fifty years.

It's hard to imagine a fish like tuna becoming extinct, especially since they've been so abundant in the world for most of recorded history. However, numbers are falling dramatically, and it's very unlikely that the population can sustain itself for much longer.