Month: December 2016

The Aurora Borealis tops most travelers’ bucket lists, but this gem of the north is actually much easier to access than one may think. With direct flights to a variety of major Northern Lights hubs, it’s relatively quick—and in some cases even affordable—to see this glowing phenomenon.

1. REYKJAVIK, ICELAND

With its cheap flights and dramatic, remote landscapes, Iceland attracts Aurora chasers from all over the world. On a clear, perfect night, travelers can see the lights in capital city Reykjavik. But, with a quick drive or tour outside the city—and maybe a stay in Iceland’s Bubble Hotel—the odds for an Aurora sighting are even greater.

How to get there: Direct flights from New York City (JFK), New Jersey (EWR), and Boston (BOS) are quick—just five to six hours—and can be found for as low as $300 to $400.

2. ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

Alaska is one of the best places to see the Northern Lights, particularly in the less illuminated areas outside of town. Spots like Alyeska Resort, Sheep Mountain Lodge, and Izaak Walton State Park are popular for Northern Lights hunters, but drive anywhere outside the city on a clear and active Aurora night, and the sky will put on quite the show.

How to get there: Direct flights from Los Angeles (LAX) to Anchorage can drop below $500, and while flights from New York City (LGA) may be time consuming—between 10 and 16 hours—they can be found for $500 – $600.

3. ISLE OF SKYE, SCOTLAND

The UK isn’t known for clear skies—a necessity for Northern Lights viewing—but in those rare moments the clouds do part, Northern Scotland sure puts on a stunning Aurora display. The Isle of Skye, which has seven hours of daylight during winter, leaves adequate time for daytime explorations, followed by extra hours to catch those lights.

How to get there: Fly direct from New York City (JFK) to Inverness for $700 (and 14 hours of travel), then make an 80-mile, potentially snowy drive up to the Isle of Skye. For those not renting a car, the Isle of Skye is accessible from Inverness via train and bus connection.

4. EDMONTON, CANADA

While Edmonton, Alberta is best known for its enormous West Edmonton Mall, the largest shopping mall in North America, it’s also an incredible—and easily accessible—place to view those Northern Lights. For those who prefer to plan their Aurora viewing to perfection, the popular AuroraWatch platform monitors geomagnetic activity around Edmonton, and will even send alerts and email notifications when the skies are set to glow.

How to get there: Flights from New York City (JFK) to Edmonton are available for under $500 and take about eight hours. From Los Angeles, flight prices drop to an impressive $300 to $400, and can take as little as three hours direct.

5. HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, CANADA

From November through March, the skies of Happy Valley-Goose Bay in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador illuminate with vibrant hues from the Aurora Borealis. While Happy Valley-Goose Bay is Labrador’s largest community, it remains a quiet, charming town with little-to-no light pollution and, consequentially, some impressive Aurora viewing opportunities. In fact, the Northern Lights are so prevalent here, the community’s stores and even a dog sled company are named after this natural phenomenon.

How to get there: From Chicago or New York City, flights start around $400 or $650, respectively, but take caution—these low prices come with a lengthy time commitment of two stops and a total of nine to 12 hours.

When playing Santa for a long-distance loved one, the only thing more important than selecting the perfect gift is ensuring it arrives on time for Christmas Day festivities. Remember these US Postal Service shipping deadlines to guarantee a timely delivery:

If you finished your shopping nice and early, you can ship your presents with USPS Retail Ground Service (formerly Standard Post) by December 15 and have them arrive before the 25th. Rates start at $6.75, and your parcel should arrive in two to eight business days. (This is a good option for larger packages, as you’re permitted to send shipments up to 70 pounds and 130 inches in combined length and girth.)

Sending small gifts (weighing up to 13 ounces) or Christmas cards? Opt for First-Class Mail, and ship them out by December 20. They should arrive in one to three business days. Rates start at 47 cents (for a First-Class Mail Forever Stamp).

For last-minute gifts, use Priority Mail (deadline: December 21) or Priority Mail Express (December 23). Priority Mail delivers your gift in one to three days, based on where your package starts and where it’s going. Rates start at $6.45. Choose Priority Mail Express and your package should arrive overnight. Rates start at $22.95.

Building a battery isn’t terribly complicated: All you need is a cathode, an anode, and an electrolyte that transmits ions between them. In a quest to develop a sustainable alternative to lithium, a team of scientists from South Korea is looking to the sea for some of those components, inhabitat reports.

In their study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, the nine researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) illustrate the science behind their seawater battery. Here the saltwater serves as a catholyte, which acts as both the electron-collecting cathode and the ion-transporting electrolyte simultaneously. Their invention (technically a sodium-air battery) depends on sodium-ion-rich saltwater to function, and with access to the ocean, it’s able to provide a constant charge.

The sustainable nature of seawater makes it the perfect contrast to lithium, which is used in the batteries that power our iPhones and electric cars. Lithium needs to be mined from the earth, which can have damaging effects on entire landscapes. Seawater, on the other hand, is something we have in excess.

The seawater battery still needs some fine-tuning before it’s ready to compete with lithium on the commercial market (UNIST’s battery produces an average of 2.7 volts compared to the average 3.6 to four volts discharged by a lithium-ion battery). But the potential for a day when ocean-powered batteries become mainstream is there.

[h/t inhabitat]

In the famously bike-friendly city of Portland, Oregon, UPS is jumping on the cycling bandwagon. The delivery service debuted a pilot program to ferry packages to recipients via electric bikes, according to The Oregonian. A similar UPS program has already been tested in Germany, but this is UPS’s first version in the U.S.

UPS already sends its couriers out on regular bikes during the crush of holiday deliveries. Using bicycles saves money on fuel and vehicle upkeep—at the inception of the holiday bike program in 2008, UPS spokesperson Jeff Grant told Bike Portland that every three bicycle messengers would save the company an estimated $38,000 in truck upkeep costs.

The electric bikes will allow couriers to carry more packages over a larger area than they could on regular bikes, and saves time that truck drivers would otherwise spend trying to find parking. The company plans to use them year-round.

[h/t The Oregonian]

All images courtesy UPS

With the gift-giving season round the corner, you might be tempted to get all your shopping done online—but that would be a shame because nothing beats the magic of a real toy store this time of year. Whether you are looking for traditional wooden toys, obscure manga characters, beautifully crafted bears, or just a giant box of LEGO, the following toy shops around the world will cater to your every toy-related need.

1. HAMLEYS, LONDON

Hamleys in Regent Street, London is one of the world’s most iconic toy shops, and 5 million people a year still flock to this paradise of playthings to get their fix of the latest toys. Founded in 1760 by William Hamley, who initially named his High Holborn store “Noah’s Ark,” the store did so well that another (this time eponymously-named) branch was opened in Regent Street in 1881. Over the years, Hamleys has had many up and downs—closing for a time during the economic depression of the 1930s, remaining open despite getting bombed five times during World War II, and putting on a grand display of toys at the 1951 Festival of Britain—but it has always remained a London institution. Today, Hamleys has seven floors full of toys, games, puzzles, and dress up, and a visit to the shop is always enlivened by their famous in-store toy demonstrations.

2. LARK TOYS, MINNESOTA

Lark Toys in Kellogg, Minnesota is more than just a huge family-run toy store—they also have a working carousel with beautifully carved and painted animals, an 18-hole outdoor mini-golf course, a kids’ bookstore, and a fudge and candy store. Lark stocks a huge variety of traditional toys from puppet theaters, with plenty of interactive areas for the kids to get involved. There is also a charming display of antique toys in their “memory lane” section, which serves as a mini-museum.

3. KID’S CAVERN, MACAU

The super-stylish Kid’s Cavern toy store in Sands Coati Central in Macau opened in 2012 and boasts an interior designed to amaze. The 35,000-square-foot shop has giant superheroes, bright LED light displays, and an actual flying toy plane. The shop stocks children’s clothes and accessories as well as plenty of toys from all the biggest brands, but the element sure to brighten every kid’s day is the magical candy store containing every color and variety of sweet thing imaginable.

4. LEGO STORE, LONDON

Newly opened in November 2016, the LEGO Store in Leicester Square, London is the largest in the world at 9800 square feet. The store is furnished with many huge LEGO models, including a life-sized display of a London Underground train (created from an astonishing 637,903 bricks) and a 20-foot high model of Big Ben (which took 2280 hours to build) complete with a working clock face that is illuminated at night. There are also numerous nods to the store’s London location, with LEGO William Shakespeare, a bowler-hat wearing mascot, and a LEGO version of the iconic London tube map. Of course alongside all these marvelous giant LEGO models, shoppers can also buy just about any LEGO set they can think of.

5. STEIFF MUSEUM AND SHOP, GERMANY

The most famous teddy bear manufacturer in the world is Steiff, which was established in 1880 in Germany by the remarkable Margarete Steiff, who created the now world-famous brand despite a serious disability due to childhood polio. The iconic Steiff teddy bear was designed in 1902 and came to international prominence at the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1903, when Hermann Berg, a toy-buyer for an American company, saw the potential and put in an order for 3000. Marketed as “teddy” bears in America, after President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the bears proved a massive and enduring success. Today children can visit the town where it all began and take a tour of the Steiff Museum and Factory, with a huge display of the many animals produced over the years. Alongside the museum is a large shop selling the complete range of Steiff animals, from a classic teddy bear to a giant giraffe. For bear lovers keen on a bargain there is also a factory outlet just outside the museum which sells discounted Steiff toys.

6. SI TU VEUX, PARIS

Located in one of the most beautiful covered arcades in Paris, Si Tu Veux, in the City of Light’s 2nd arrondissement, is a proper old-fashioned magical toy store. The quaint shop stocks traditional European wooden toys, games, dress-up costumes, and puzzles, and is sure to enchant even the most jaded child away from their iPhone.

7. KIDDYLAND, TOKYO

Located in the famous Harajuku district of Tokyo, Kiddyland’s flagship store is perhaps the coolest toy store in the world. Kiddyland is famous for stocking original Japanese toys, many of which are only available in Japan. A paradise for character fans, there are four floors of Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma, chicaboos, Snoopy, tamagotchis, and numerous other cute Japanese brands.

8. THE LITTLE DOLLHOUSE COMPANY, TORONTO

The Little Dollhouse Company in Toronto is one of only a few dedicated dollhouse stores in North America. The store includes 85 built dollhouses to explore, each fitted out with miniature furniture. The store also includes a workshop where visitors can watch craftspeople create everything from tiny bowls of cereal to elaborate miniature chandeliers. The shop caters to everyone from those looking for their toddler’s first playhouse to avid collectors salivating over the $50,000 mansion.

9. CHARLES RO SUPPLY COMPANY, MASSACHUSETTS

Charles Ro Supply Company, in Malden, Massachusetts may be America’s largest toy train shop, with 30,000 square feet of the largest inventory of model trains in the country. Every Saturday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. they run their whole electric train on six different tracks across three separate floors. The track runs G-gauge and O-gauge trains through varied scenery that includes waterfalls, a mountain pass, a town, and an old-time depot, all ensured to delight children and adult collectors alike.

10. FORBIDDEN PLANET, LONDON

Forbidden Planet is the world’s largest chain of comic book stores, and the London megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue is its spiritual home, packed full of merchandise connected to comics, manga, sci-fi, and cult TV shows. Expect shelves heaving with Dr Who, Star Wars, Adventure Time, Marvel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer merchandise.

Guinness’s Book of Records was originally conceived as a way to settle arguments in pubs.

In Ulysses, the Irish writer James Joyce calls Guinness the “wine of the country.” His favorite beverage, however, was a white wine from Switzerland.

In the 19th century, Guinness’s St. James’s Gate brewery was referred to as a “city within a city.” It had its own ambulance service, fire brigade, railway network, and fleet of ships.

By the 1880s, Guinness’s St. James’s Gate brewery was the largest employer in Ireland. It offered workers competitive wages, free medical care, housing, and a pension plan.

Famed Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson brought bottles of Guinness stout with him on his expeditions in the early 20th century.