Here at Gadling we'll be highlight some of our favorite sounds from the road and giving you a sample of each -- maybe you'll find the same inspiration that we did, but at the very least, hopefully you'll think that they're good songs.

Got a favorite of your own? Leave it in the Comments and we'll post it at the end of the series.

"Read About It" by Midnight Oil


Midnight Oil's "Read About It" is not a road song, really, not in the sense that the Eagles' "Take It Easy" is a road song or Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway" is a road song or the Chili Pepper's "Higher Ground" is a road song.

In other words, you wouldn't necessarily go to this cut first having just pulled on the highway and wound down the windows.

But for me the song, and more importantly the band, is very much rooted in a travel experience, which I guess makes it another kind of road song.

I spent half of 1998 living in Australia. That seems like a long time ago as I write this, but I can easily close my eyes and recall the details of that time, how the country's light looked, how the country smelled, the vibes of its city streets, and how in not a few parts the sheer distances and openness you confront could make you feel very, very small indeed.

I went everywhere, from the central outback to the Kimberly to the shores of the Thursday Islands to the dense inland trails of Tasmania. I talked to people.

If that time had a soundtrack, I suppose it would have been composed of Midnight Oil songs.

London fertility clinics are reporting that up to one-third of their sperm donors are from foreign countries. Many of these donors are Australian backpackers on extended tours of the UK and Europe. They have found fertility clinics to be a decent source of income. Though the money is not great, repeat donors (always welcomed by the clinics because they only have to be screened once) can make more than $1200 over the course of several months.

A British law, passed in 2005, might be helping increase the demand for Australian donors. The law says that children conceived by donated sperm have the right to contact their genetic father at the age of 18. Living on the other side of the globe affords these backpackers from Down Under a bit more anonymity than local London residents.

What do British people think of the trend? Clinics welcome it. After the passage of the 2005 notification law, the number of local donors shrunk considerably. So sperm banks have no choice but to look to foreigners to fill the void.

Economic woes got you down? Here's a solution: party nude with the Aussies. A holiday resort in tropical Queensland has planned a month-long bacchinalian for guests to get their naked grooves on.

The White Cockatoo Resort, which is located near the town of Mossman, apparently operates on three levels of functionality: nudist, clothing optional and fully clothed for family fun. These occur at different times of year so that the kiddies don't get confused from the nudies.

Next March, they are going for a full-scale, adults only party month as a so-called 'hedonism resort'. I did a little digging and it turns out that the White Cockatoo is just one of dozens of places around the world to take a hedonist vacation.

Essentially, this sounds to me like the type of place where Joe Office would go to fulfill his wildest fantasies: eating food that's bad for you, walking around naked, drinking in the morning and going all-night clubbing. Like Spring Break for grown-ups.

A study by the Australian Strategic Planning Institute has found that the expensive air marshal are not the most cost effective way to thwart would-be hijackers. Australia currently has 130 air marshals working on domestic and international flights. That means that they are only on 10% of all flights in or originating in the country. According to the study, reinforcing the cockpit doors with bulletproof material on all aircraft would be a better value.

The study, to be published by the Australian Strategic Planning Institute next week, also takes into account the fact that in light of the September 11th attacks, passengers would be more likely to fight back against hijackers.

The air marshal program costs about $55 million per year. The price tag for reinforcing cockpit doors would run only about $2.5 million. The study's head researcher, Mark Stewart, claims that he will not recommend completely scrapping that air marshal program. But he does conclude that Australia needs to take a good look at the effectiveness of its counter-terrorism strategies: "Spend money where you will get the biggest benefit. This is essentially how we allocate resources for risk mitigation of other hazards, so a similar type of rigour should be applied to terrorism."

[Via The Australian]

Today Gadling welcomed our newest blogger, Brenda Yun. Yun, who is tapped into the thrill of world travel without guidebooks, has looked for surf in a remote spot in Vanuatu and has traveled to where many haven't tread.

Keeping with a theme of thrills in mind, here's Gadling's Take FIVE for this week:

• Meg's post on Devil's Pool at the top of Victoria Falls is one way to test your fear of heights mettle
• Head to Dubai's mall at the base of Dubai Burj, and you may be a witness to a shark eat shark world. Literally. Josh described what happened when the mall opened, showcasing its 10 million-liter aquarium. Let's just say, several sharks didn't make it until closing time.
• Josh, possibly on a thrill seeker kick, also posted on swimming with crocodiles in Australia.
• Jeffrey recommends reading Britain's Peter Biddlecombe's writing, particularly his accounts of business travel in Iraq. A corkscrew landing does have a certain thrill sounding ring to the name.
• For thrill on Thanksgiving and Christmas, Mike's post about Universal Studio's plan to be open on the holidays offers an option. Although, you won't find Mike there. He's less than thrilled with the idea of the crowds.

This week also marks the end of our series, Catching the Travel Bug. The series offers personal accounts of various parts of the world where the kindness of strangers and newly made friends have resonated over the miles and years.

We live in an era of global brands. McDonald's, Starbucks, H&M, Coca Cola, Australia... Wait, what???

You read correctly, Australia recently won the top spot of the 2008 Country Brand Index. Nation branding, as it's officially referred to, is the theory and practice of measuring and building the reputations of countries; basically applying standard commercial brand management that you'd find with commodities and using it to analyzing everywhere from Austria to Zimbabwe.

The 2008 study conducted by Future Brand, a global brand consulting firm, used rankings from 30 different categories to come up with the final index. Among the categories were History, Standard of Living, Friendly Locals and Environmentalism. It's like a beauty pageant for countries, with the most well-rounded coming out on top. Here are the top ten:

1. Australia
2. Canada
3. USA
4. Italy
5. Switzerland
6. France
7. New Zealand
8. United Kingdom
9. Japan
10. Sweden

When you look at that list, referring to countries as specific brands starts to make a little sense. Don't we all have pretty concrete associations with France for example? Wine, croissants and cheese. And what about Sweden? Meatballs, moose and blondes. Looks like what we once referred to as stereotypes has a new name.

Adventurers needn't head to the Outback to get a taste of what it is like to be eye-to-eye with Australian wildlife. A new attraction at Crocosaurus Cove, in Darwin, Northern Territory, allows divers to come within inches of giant saltwater crocodiles. A mask and swimsuit is all that is required for those who want to enter the "Cage of Death." The transparent "cage" is made from 5-inch-thick acrylic. It moves on runners through 4 croc pens housing animals that 18 feet long and weigh over 1 ton. The "ride" takes about 20 minutes.

Despite their legendary status, crocodiles attacks are rare. Warning signs are displayed on lakes and rivers inhabited by the giant beasts. On average, there are only 1 or two croc-related deaths per year. That probably doesn't lessen the amount of adrenaline that comes from being face-to-face with the toothy creatures, separated by only 5 inches of glass.



[Via Reuters]

This shot, from flickr user colmdc, was taken at the Jacob's Creek Vineyards in South Australia's Barossa Valley. I love just about everything about this photo-- its three distinct layers of perspective, its colors, its otherworldly feel. Makes me pine for a good class of shiraz just looking at it.

Got a great photo you want considered for Gadling's Photo of the Day? Submit your best pics here.

Qantas is eager to put this year behind itself. Several mid-air incidents caused the airlines commitment to safety to come into question. Also, their plan to outsource labor caused a ruckus with local unions. Nonetheless, the Qantas is keeping its head above water. It dominates lucrative routes between the US and Australia and holds its own against stiff competition in Asia.

So when a price-fixing scandal involving the airline's freight division came to public attention, Qantas was only too willing to make amends. Between 2002 and 2006, Qantas was one of over 30 airlines to charge unnecessary fuel surcharges. Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are the two high profile airlines already guilty of price fixing via fuel surcharges. But whereas the two London-based carriers' scandal involved passengers, Qantas was only accused of fixing prices on air freight. Chief exec Geoff Dixon announced that the issue was settled before the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). A fine of AUS$20 million was paid to the ACCC. Last year, Qantas paid US$61 million for a related price-fixing charge in the US.

I suppose if you're flying domestically in the U.S. and had three banana plants in your underwear while going through a security check, particularly if you're female, you'd attract attention. But, after discovering you were packing banana plants and not a pistol, you might be allowed to walk on your merry way.

Although, just how well one could walk is another issue. Seriously, if you had three banana plants in your underwear, could you walk?

In the airport in Sydney, Australia, according to this story published in the Sydney Morning Herald, if you have even one banana plant in your underwear, you'd be in a whole mess of trouble. A whole world of trouble. More trouble than you probably ever imagined.

You'd be in trouble even if the plant was not in your underwear but tucked under your arm like a rolled up newspaper--Or if you were wearing it like a hat.