Gadling

As I've pointed out before (see here and here), I love weird maps. The one above was created by a designer named Ben Fry, and shows all the streets in the lower 48 states (click image to enlarge). That's right-- according to Ben's website, this map features 26 million individual road segments. Ben also notes that "[n]o other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population."

Head on over to his site to see interesting close-ups of the Appalachian Mountains, the Great Lakes, and the San Francisco Bay area.

"Rush Hour in Belize" is the title of this flickr photo from jonrawlinson. Indeed, life has a slower pace in this small Central American nation, famous for its great diving, snorkeling, and fishing.

In this photo, I love the eclectic cast of characters lounging on the wall along the ocean, and the way the dark reef shows through the crystal-clear ocean. Can't wait to visit in a couple weeks and see it for myself!

Want your photos considered for Gadling's Photo of the Day? Submit your best shots here.

Jetpacks, along with flying cars and dinner pills, have often been thought of as belonging permanently to the future. I know I wasn't the only one asking, when the year 2000 finally rolled in, "Hey, where's my jetpack?"

Well, perhaps the future we all envisioned decades ago is finally here.

On Monday, a daredevil named Eric Scott used a jetpack to fly across Colorado's massive Royal Gorge, which is almost a quarter-mile deep and about 1,500 feet wide. (Incidentally, I walked across the bridge over the Royal Gorge when I was about 7 during a family vacation, and I realize now that I should have reported my parents for child abuse. That thing is scaaaarrrry.)

Anyway, the jetpack can be used for up to 33 seconds and can propel a person over 70 miles per hour. The pack was developed for promotions and stunts by Scott's Denver company, Jet P.I.

Go here for some amazing video of the event.

Having recently returned from a fantastic trip to Chile, I feel compelled to spread the good news about this long, thin pencil of a country. I've already sung the praises of its Torres del Paine National Park-- now here are five more reasons to make Chile your next travel destination.

1. The Atacama Desert, the driest spot in the world. There are some spots in this desert where precipitation has literally never been recorded. But despite its stark, lunar landscapes (see photo), northern Chile's Atacama Desert is actually one of the most-visited tourist destinations in the country.

San Pedro de Atacama, its largest and most popular city, is surrounded by gorgeous mountains, active volcanoes, and a massive salt flat. Also within a short drive are crystal-clear lakes, ancient fortresses, a geyser, and the archaelogical site of Tulor. Many restaurants have only outdoor seating-- no need to worry about the rain-- and your meals will often be eaten near a campfire-- hey, the desert can get chilly at nights.

2. Penguins! Who said penguins only live in Antarctica or at the zoo? These well-dressed birds can be found in southern Chile's Seno Otway Penguin Colony, where visitors will see them lounging on the beach and commuting to and from their nearby nests. The surrounding view would make it worth the price of admission by itself.

If it's Tuesday, it's time for your weekly dose of travel trivia. Check out these ten brain-busting questions and leave your answers in the Comments. Come back next week for the answers.

In other news, congrats to last week's winners, Craig, Kev, and Woody!

Want to see your name here next week? Answer the following questions:

1. What New York Times travel writer pens the "Frugal Traveler" column?
2. What portable tent-like structure, popular with nomads in Mongolia, is made from a wooden frame and covered with wool felt?
3. What is the most widely spoken language in Hungary?
4. The Galápagos Islands are a province of which South American country?
5. With roughly 7,000,000 people, Baghdad is by far Iraq's most populous city. Which Iraqi city is second?
6. Lake Turkana is almost entirely within the borders of which East African country?
7. What's the name of Hawaii's largest island?
8. When participating in international sporting events like the Olympics and the Asian Games, Taiwan usually goes by what name?
9. Pirates from which African country have recently made news by demanding $25 million dollars for the return of a Saudi oil tanker.
10. Everyone knows that Buenos Aires is Argentina's capital and largest city. Name one other city in Argentina.

Widely heralded as South America's most beautiful national park, Torres del Paine in Southern Chile offers outdoor-lovers everything they could want: rugged landscapes, snow-capped peaks, massive glaciers, and abundant wildlife.

Named for the towering granite columns (torres) that dominate the park's gorgeous skyline, the park also contains dozens of crystal-blue lakes, including Lago Pehoe, Lago Nordenskjold, and Lago Grey, the latter of which contains scores of breathtaking blue glaciers. (see the accompanying slideshow, complete with hilarious captions).

Located at the southern tip of South America-- the region popularly known as Patagonia-- Torres del Paine is not just one of the southernmost parks in the world, it is also one of the windiest, with steady winds averaging 50 to 75 miles per hour. In fact, this park probably wins the award for worst place in the world to have a comb-over.

You want animals? The park can do that too. How about flamingos, condors, llama-like guanacos, ostrich-like ñandúes, and, oh yeah, pumas. At the Seno Otway Penguin Colony just a few hours away, animal lovers will be able to get up close and personal with scores of penguins making their way from the Pacific beach to their nearby nests. So, so much better than the zoo.

A program the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began in 2006 that attempts to catch terrorists and other criminals by their suspicious behavior has been wrong over 99% of the time, according to the TSA's own numbers.

The program, which trains TSA screeners to detect suspicious or odd behavior in passengers, has resulted in 160,000 stops of passengers, including pat-downs and in-depth questioning. Yet only 1,266 arrests were made out of those 160,000 stops, mostly for drug possession and carrying fake identification.

Unsurprisingly, many are critical of the "behavior detection" program, including Carnegie Mellon professor Stephen Fienberg, who calls the program "a sham," and says, "We have no evidence it works." Other scientists say that while objective observers may be able to detect nervous behavior, there's no way to tell whether it's because they're planning a terrorist attack or traveling to have an extramarital affair.

TSA spokesperson Ellen Howe puts a more positive spin on the numbers, however. She says the program has been "incredibly effective" at catching criminals.

Indeed. Saying the program is "wrong 99% of the time" sounds so negative. Why not say it has a success rate of almost 1%?

Via Boing Boing [HT: The invaluable Agitator]

This surreal shot from flickr user arunchs was taken at Tsomoriri Lake in Ladakh, India. I love the rich, earthy colors and the sense of otherworldliness this photo brings to mind. Take a look at the Google Images of this lake, and it really looks like it's hard to take a bad photograph there.

Got a pic you want considered for Gadling's Photo of the Day? Submit it here.

Ever go to pick someone up at the airport and realize that their flight has been delayed? Bummer, right? Well, now imagine that the person you're picking up is your 83-year-old, wheelchair-bound mother, and she's been accidentally put on a plane to Puerto Rico. Looks like you'll be waiting at baggage claim for a while.

This is precisely what happened a couple days ago to Vera Kuemmel, who was supposed to be picking up her mother from a Tampa* airport after her mother's trip to New York. But things went a little haywire as Elfriede Kuemmel (a great name for an 83-year-old woman, by the way) was trying to switch planes in Philadelphia.

Elfriede, who was seated in a wheelchair and helped to her (or not her) plane by a US Airways attendant, accidentally ended up on a flight headed for San Juan, Puerto Rico, instead of one arriving in Tampa, Florida.

In San Juan, the woman was (let's hope) profusely apologized to and soon put up at a hotel and provided with food until the next flight to Tampa.

A US Airways spokesperson says she's not sure how the passenger's incorrect boarding pass didn't set off alarm bells, but says "we're looking into what we could have done on our end to prevent that."

I don't know, maybe, check the woman's boarding pass?

On the plus side, Elfriede says she did enjoy the first class flight back to Tampa. Hey, take it when you can get it, right?

More here.

*correction made

Let's face it: there's not much to do on flights. Once you've browsed the absurdities in SkyMall, watched the first ten minutes of the in-flight screening of Norbit, and listened to all your mp3's three times each-- forwards and backwards-- you sooner or later find yourself face-to-face with the chair in front of you. What to do?

Well, if you're an unattached person on the prowl who's smart enough to plan ahead, you chat up the cute girl or guy sitting next to you. Here are five not-so-easy steps for discovering inflight romance.

1. It all starts at the gate. The single most important choice you can make is where to sit in that mass of chairs at the airport gate. The unthinking person will simply plop down in the first available seat, but the would-be casanova knows better than that. Out of the dozens or even hundreds of passengers waiting to board their flight in this area, you can usually count on two or three to stand out from the rest. In order to have a chance, you'll most likely need to sit by them and chat them up at the gate. But how?

2. Choose your seat wisely. If she's the only one in six rows of chairs, walking up and sitting right next to her is just about the creepiest thing you can do. Instead, sit one or two seats down, putting your carry-on items on the seats between you. This keeps anyone from sitting between you two, and also allows her to see just how expensive your luggage is. (Note: Does not work with cheap luggage.)

3. Establish some common ground. Uh-oh, the talking part-- but this doesn't have to be scary. Take out a pack of gum nonchalantly, and offer her a piece. (If I know one thing about women, it's that they love gum.) Then ask, for example, "So, where are you headed?" or if you have an especially dry sense of humor, "Excuse me, do you know if this is a non-smoking flight?" Please say this line with at least a half-smile, or she will think you've been in a coma since 1950. Ask what she's reading. Tell her you liked that book but there weren't enough pictures. Again, say this with a slight smile, or she'll take you for an overgrown nine-year-old.