Tagged With "electric ships"
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Re: November 5, 2016: Hatiheu, Nuku Hive, Iles Marquises
Great post! I love this photo - it really transports me to another place. And the idea of traveling through this area on a cargo ship sounds fascinating. Trip of a life time, indeed.
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Re: 'Flying Dutchman' ends 15-week cruise
UPDATE: Home at last... Costa Deliziosa finally docked in Genoa, Italy around noon today, New York time after being at sea since January 5th. It was the last major cruise line ship still at sea, and has no known Covid-19 cases on board. Debarcation of the remaining 1519 passengers and 898 crew will take several days as Costa and Italian authorities work on how to get them home without exposure to infection.
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Re: Lawrence and the Pirates
Great piece and great photos!That way of travel appeals to me a lot more than a luxury cruise ship. Thanks for taking us along the adventure.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 18 2013: Milan's Bronze Typist
I enjoy the photo and the story, PHeymont, but am drawn to the typewriter. In a few more generations, children will be wondering, "what's that strange thing the man is holding on his lap?" I still remember owning and using a typewriter, but few under the age of 30 do. I recall reading a SciFi short story collection written in the 1950s not long ago that featured a story about a journalist traveling on a space ship. He needed to keep his typewriter anchored so that it didn't float away in...
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Re: The "Eiffel Tour" Only Starts with the Tour Eiffel
Brunel has fascinated me since reading a book on the Great Eastern, an unlucky ship he designed. Perhaps someday I can find time to post about his work...unless I hear a volunteer? Thanks!
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Re: Please Don't Squeeze the Passengers: Airbus
Airbus has taken a major step in passenger comfort with the introduction of the new Airbus 380, their new double-deck airliner. Just as a large cruise ship will sail choppy seas in much greater comfort due to its size and sophistication, the new 380 is so much more smooth, quiet and comfortable up in the skies. Sure seat sizes and configuration will vary between operators but certainly the overall 'environment experience' is so much nicer
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Re: A Visit to Ireland: Part 1) An overview of the Country and its People
Thanks for your comments, Garry! We actually had very nice weather during our visit, GarryRF. It was windy and rainy at times, but being from Canada that was no great hardship. Still, good for people to be forewarned and prepared. Always pack in layers and let one layer be a rain shell. It was one of your fellow countryman who said, "There's no bad weather, just bad clothing" or something to that affect, but I can't remember who that was. Didn't try the "moonshine" (no one offered!), but my...
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Re: The Valley Island of Maui: 2) Haleakala National Park
Yes, we will go through U.S.Immigration at Trudeau Airport in Montreal. At one time, the U.S. Immigration hall there had a huge banner across it emblazoned with the words "WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" It isn't there anymore. Someone must have figured out this was still, after all, Canada. Yes, 17 days is a long time on a ship. I am travelling with a friend who needs this type of getaway just now.
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Re: Do you Like these Hotel Tipping Tips ?
I'm well aware that there may be many contributing factors to the problem of poor service. But I'm not there to consider the state of the world nor am I there to balance justice among the poor. I just want a decent meal at a decent price. Just as in any job - my own included - people just want me to do my job. Do it well. No excuses. And they show there gratitude occasionally, with a tip. Its the same with me. Good food and good service gets you well rewarded. Shape up or Ship out !
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Re: Do you Like these Hotel Tipping Tips ?
Garry, I think you missed my point. I, too, want a decent meal and good service...and when the owner sets up conditions in which either one is impossible, no matter how willing the staff...well, it's the owner who should shape up or ship out of the business.
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Re: Is it a plane? Is it a Ship? City of St Petersburg, River Tyne.
I was so curious about this ship, I just had to look it up! Turns out to be a custom-built (for Nissan) roll-on/roll-off car carrier, designed to reduce fuel use by its aerodynamic shape. Here's a video about it...
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Re: Asia cruise market grows 24% in 2015
There was a significant Chinese population on our cruise last spring. And Norwegian is stationing it's newest super size cruise ship in Chint next year.
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Re: Madrid's Electric Bike Share Tops 50,000 Sign Ups
Very cool! As I contemplate getting my own bike back on the road, hills are one of the issues (aside from traffic) and I've even thought about one of these...great way to get around a city that's bicycle-friendly... I found a picture...they're like regular bikes, it seems, not like a Vespa, so probably easier to park, too.
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Re: Madrid's Electric Bike Share Tops 50,000 Sign Ups
I saw these electric bikes all over Tokyo and they are growing on me. Also, I've noticed foldable bikes everywhere I'm going. I'm wondering if we will big numbers of people packing those for travel in the near future.
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Re: Madrid's Electric Bike Share Tops 50,000 Sign Ups
Given the weight and size restrictions on luggage, I think it’s more likely that we’ll see these for rent in a lot more places, rather than people taking their own along. Folding sounds nice…you can just take it to your room at night. Electric folding would be even better!
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Re: Lunenberg, Nova Scotia (Where Gumbo Was #244)
The Ship "Picton Castle" was constructed for a company in Swansea - Wales. It was the first Ship to arrive in Norway near the end of WW2 and was known as the "Liberator of Norway"
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? (#261)
Here are the Saturday clues...a little off the beaten path. Offshore from our vantage point, a ship approaches port, and outside the area we're visiting, a windmill shows that all is not in vane. Sorry, couldn't resist!
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? #62
So, pretty far south...or pretty far north. Somewhere in Scandinavia perhaps? Are the windows perhaps on a cruise ship?
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? #62
PHeymont -- seems you're fishing for a clue (fishing those waters would also be a good idea!). So I'll add one more. This is not a cruise ship. It is a photo taken from a building.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, June 26, 2014: Dritvik - Djupalonssandur, Iceland
Hard to believe that those small pieces of rusty metal are all that remain of a ship! But it looks like a cool place to explore.
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Re: Doors of Charleston
The very last act of the American civil war - Captain Waddell of the CCS Shenandoah (built in the UK), walking up the steps of Liverpool Town Hall surrendering his vessel to the Lord Mayor, after sailing 'home' from Alaska to surrender. The shipping offices in Rumford Place Liverpool were the Embassy of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. The CCS Shenandoah was the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the world.
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Re: How a super-ship manages 12-hour turnaround
Sometimes when I'm in Vancouver I head to Canada Place to watch the cruise ships coming and going. You actually get to see the belly of the ship being loaded. The dozens of palates of food that go on is amazing. Would you have thought a cruise ship would consume 3 massive containers of potatoes in a week? 2 of onions? Might even have been more, that's all I saw. It is truly a model of efficiency.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Oct. 19, 2015: Giant ship, little town
It looks like the giant ship is there to feed on the small town, although I suppose in reality it's the other way around.
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Re: Tight squ-e-e-e-z-e though Greek canal
At least you wouldn't have to worry about capsizing if the ship went down.
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Re: Tight squ-e-e-e-z-e though Greek canal
No capsizing, but a new worry -- rock landslides!
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Re: Air and cruise lines: Out of parking space?
The side-by-side porting on river cruises can be interesting. Last spring on our Viking Rhine cruise we were at one point moored side-by-side with another Viking (identical) ship, walking through the other to reach ours. One couple from ours got confused and had lunch on the other before they realized they didn’t recognize any of the other passengers…
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Re: Valaparaíso, Chile - City of Hills
Great post! I really liked the shipyard/container ship photos. I love port cities
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Re: Museum find: GE's 'missing' electric car
A great piece! Amazing to me how some of the best products of their day were not built commercially . Even when they were, sometimes they were not successful. Cars like the GE-100 are great examples of that. A true find and thanks for teaching us more!
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Re: Museum find: GE's 'missing' electric car
Love it! Exactly the type of finding that makes a trip memorable. Something proponents of electric cars seem to forget or choose to ignore -- where does the electricity come from? Currently mostly from coal and oil fired plants, so the practical side of having them for most doesn't currently make that much sense (might as well burn the oil product in the car engine, right). But I am hopeful that was energy technology improves, as it surely will, we'll develop better ways of charging these...
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Re: Museum find: GE's 'missing' electric car
The argument, and I'm not informed enough to judge it, is that the amount of fossil fuel needed to generate electricity for a plug-in is far less than that required to run a gasoline engine. The same sort of argument that points out that a gallon of fuel moves far more freight on a diesel train than a diesel truck. On the other hand, that's about plug-in cars. For hybrids, it's a different story because the batteries charge while the car is running on gas. So less gas is used than using gas...
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Re: Museum find: GE's 'missing' electric car
As I understand it, with hybrids the batteries charge when the car brakes are applied (transferring the energy of moving to the battery), so they're especially well adapted to city driving in places with lots of stop signs and traffic lights. Less useful for driving on open road because you don't brake often. So living in Brooklyn, I think the hybrid would be a reasonable choice for you. I don't think battery technology is anywhere near "ripe" yet, but as with the Mercury and Gemini...
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Re: Museum find: GE's 'missing' electric car
Much further to go, of course, but even in a highway driving situation (and a city/highway mix), hybrids are generally cheaper to run than their gas-only counterparts. That's Camry vs Camry hybrid, for example, not Corolla vs Prius.
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Re: Museum find: GE's 'missing' electric car
A little further research confirms what I thought: at least in the Toyota and Ford hybrids, the gasoline engine powers a generator/charger while in use. That's in addition to the power captured from braking.
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Re: Museum find: GE's 'missing' electric car
I have some friends with a Prius, and their greatest fuel efficiency comes when driving in the city, not on the highway. Paradoxical, but it shows how good the braking is at building up a charge. Good to know there is a backup generator. While the hybrids save on fuel, they also cost thousands of dollars more than their non hybrid counterparts. For an average consumer, it takes many years to recapture that extra cost for the hybrid on fuel savings, if they ever will. And there's the issue of...
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Re: Campaigners ask: Can the QE2 be saved?
I read some years ago of extensive ship-breaking on the Bangladesh coast, where labor is cheap and regulations scanty...an immense amount of dangerous work, but because the labor is cheap, the scrap profits are high, or higher than they would be if the cost of recovery were high. Which leads me to wonder: what would be the economic value of that long tow to Brownsville as opposed to scrapping the ship on the West Coast? Ideas, anyone?
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Re: Campaigners ask: Can the QE2 be saved?
There must certainly be profit to the company, International Shipbreaking, that was paid 1 penny US by the Navy to tow Ranger to Texas where they do the work and, presumably, don't do in WA. I toured Ranger but, even so, it's hard to comprehend the size of a ship where 6,000 men (and a few women) work and live, plus 2 decks for airplanes. Lots of steel there, lots of razor blades. I saw an amazing piece, probably on 60 Minutes, about the place in Bangladesh where the work you mention is done...
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Re: How do you buy your travel?
There's been no mention, that I noticed, of consolidators for multi-segment air travel. I've had great success over the years using Airtreks and now, after a number of bookings, have a "relationship" with an agent there. The only job of a consolidator is to find their clients the cheapest fares point to point and string them together to make a unique personalized trip. They use airlines with which they have contracts for the lowest fares so, short of a spectacular sale, will, as far as I can...
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Re: Mega Cruise Ships: "Too Big to Sail?"
I'm not that much of a cruise ship guy, although when you want to just visit and catch up with people, they're very convenient (no cooking, no driving, comfortable room cleaned daily, etc -- just time to talk and visit with friends and family). But it takes forever to get people off with cruise ships that have 1500 or 2000 people on them. Can't imagine how long it takes to get everyone on board into a port when you've so many more. Plus now these safety factor risks. Nope, no megacruise...
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Re: A visit to Normandy: exploring the D-Day beaches
Yes - my Dad and lots of other guys told me their stories! My Dad was in the Royal Navy and was taking landing craft full of soldiers from ship to shore - several times - under heavy fire! A guy I was doing work for had lots of photos and souvenirs on the walls of his house. Medals and maps. Newspaper cuttings and Badges. All in frames. I asked him how much he remembered of D-Day. "Every minute of every hour. Me and my mate had been together since the outbreak of war. Nearly 5 years. We were...
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo ? #4.0 12/4/13
Wasn't that ship sold to be a hotel in Hong Kong? the scene looks kinda right for that. One of the Queens, I think.
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Re: Worlds Cheapest Phone?
Well, okay, it's not new...but it's free. You don't have to buy the other to get it...you just buy airtime and they'll ship the free phone with it.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? #70
I'm wondering now if these are on a ship. Is that a railing in the lower right-hand corner?
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? #70
It looks a little cruise-ship-y. But I'm thinking a building near the water. Let's see - that leaves? With the grayish sky, I'm thinking Pacific NW too.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? #70
Lots of interesting comments. It does indeed remind me of the Denver Airport, and it is specifically designed to make you think of a ship. It is actually part of the roof of Canada Place in beautiful Vancouver Harbor. I'll do a full discussion on it in a post tomorrow. Jonathan L was the first to correctly recognize the structure, and PortMoresby and Still Country Photo also figured out where it was. Excellent work, team! Another puzzle will be posted on Sunday morning.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, July 24, 2014: Floral Clock, Niagara Parkway, Ontario
Outside Pietermaritzburg City Hall, South Africa is a Naval gun from the British Royal Navy Ship HMS Fawn. After the ship ran aground in 1850 the gun was relocated to its current location. It was fired to announce 1 O'clock to the surrounding town. A visiting dignitary asked how the time was kept to ensure its accuracy. "We have a telescope that looks into the local clockmakers shop. He has a 100 year old Belgian clock in the window that is famous for keeping perfect time" So the wealthy...
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Re: Replacing iPhone Abroad
I do expect a tax. If it's terrible, my husband will do without a phone. I remember we had to pay a big tax even when bringing in our own (used) car from the USA to use during the two years we lived in Germany. It was cheaper to ship our own car to Germany than to buy or rent one for two years. But, back to to phone...We will update this post with relevant news.
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Re: Replacing iPhone Abroad
Is there enough cooperation among Apple stores that if the phone arrives in London after you've left that they could express-ship it to Apple at your next stop?
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, April 12, 2014: Mokelumne Hill, California
My gg grandfather was a 49er, headed west with his brother and cousin, then returned by ship, Panama and Cuba, to Missouri where they farmed and eventually supplied the army at Ft. Bridger in Wyoming as well as working as guides on the Oregon Trail. It was the next generation, my grandparents and g.grandparents that settled for good in California. So the stories of The West have always been the lore of our family. More places in the coming weeks.
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New gonzo cruise ship even has sky-diving!
In the race to think up more features to add to cruise ships, Royal Caribbean is looking up...with a top-deck skydiving simulator on its newest ship, Quantum of the Seas, which has just started operating out of the New York area. Would you believe...
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Visiting historic Skagway, Alaska
Skagway, Alaska owes its existence to the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1800s. There were three main routes to the Klondike. One route was across Alaska. A second was the all-Canadian route starting at Edmonton and...