Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Time to reflect and be thankful for the things we have, a day to spend with friends and family. For some of us that means travel. In fact, today is the busiest travel day of the year. Depending on where your Thanksgiving plans are, you may be using air travel to get where you’re going. For most people, while traveling via airplane you avoid the bathroom as if it contains an incurable strain of bubonic plague. Not this time though! A cleaning crew was cleaning the bathroom on a plane coming from India and found $1.1 million in gold bars hidden in the airplane’s toilet! They haven’t found the suspected gold smugglers, and no arrests have been made yet. So, what does this mean for you? Most likely nothing, but if you’re on an airplane today or tomorrow, you may want to check the bathroom. You could be the king or queen of Black Friday shopping if you happen to stumble upon the right airline toilet. Not to mention you’d have 1.1 million more things to be thankful for this year.
Russia is hosting the upcoming Olympic games and they are taking things seriously! It seems that having their Olympic athletes in shape is not enough; they want their everyday subway commuters to jump on the fitness train rather than just their subway car. Moscow has outfitted their subway terminals with machines that provide a new way to get yourself a subway card. Should you forget your wallet, find you are short on cash, or just plain don’t want to pay for your subway ride, you can opt to do thirty squats in exchange for a subway ticket. Now, if you’ve ever played a fitness game on Nintendo Wii, I’m sure you’re thinking there has to be a way to cheat this and get the card without doing the squats. Doesn’t seem to be the case. The ticket machines are built with cameras that track your movement so they know if you are phoning in those squats or not. If you suck it up and do thirty actual squats, congratulations, you ride for free! I personally think this is a great idea. It promotes fitness and gives people a way to make mass transit even cheaper than it already is. I suppose the only potential downside is that you may have trains filled with sweaty, out of breath individuals…well, that is until they “pay” for enough subway tickets that they are all in shape. Sounds win/win to me, it would be nice to see something like this in our major cities.
This past Monday we celebrated Veterans Day. It is a day to remember and be thankful for all the veterans who have served their country selflessly and bravely, both past and present. A sad fact of life for all people, not just vets, is that our lives eventually come to an end. When that time comes you hope that your loved ones and family are around to "see you off." When WWII airman Harold Percival passed away at the age of ninety-nine, he had no family left except for the staff of the retirement home he lived in to celebrate his life and attend his funeral. Because of Harold's service to his county, the employees at the home wanted more for him on his Veterans Day funeral. They took to their local paper and placed an ad asking for local veterans to come and attend his funeral. The ad caught some people's attention and it quickly spread through the social media outlets. The outpouring of compassion and respect that came forth for this WWII vet was enough to bring a tear to your eye. Harold Percival, a man with no one to attend his funeral ended up with several hundred veterans and civilians coming out to be with him as he was deployed on his final orders.
All veterans deserve our respect for their selfless service to their country, that is hopefully no new concept for people. However, to see this show of respect and compassion from hundreds of total strangers is a heart warming sentiment and not only demonstrates the kind of appreciation we have for our vets, but showcases the good humanity that is still present in the world.
Here at Rideshare we love going green. That’s no big surprise I’m sure. With that in mind, when I hear a story about someone who recycles an old bus, you know it’s going to peak my interest. Then I learn that the bus was recycled by a 76 year old woman who has turned it into a roaming computer lab to benefit poorer communities. That settled it, I had to share the story here because it’s that great.
Just like I started to say, at age 76, Estella Pyfrom recognized that there was a lack of access to computers for some children in lower socio-economic communities. She also recognized the danger of a technological divide. A split between people familiar with using computers and others who are less comfortable with them. So Estella took matters into her own hands and set out to give everyone access to computers and internet.
She spent her life savings. Bought a bus and had it converted into a traveling computer lab. It is fitted with seventeen computers and access to high speed internet via satellite. The bus travels to different communities and gives access to kids and adults, from age three and up. The bus provides training and classes on everything from basic computer and internet usage, to supplemental lessons on reading, math, and science. Adults also have access to things like online banking tutorials, and job search assistance. In short, Estella Pyfrom is making a difference in her community and doing the whole thing in an upcycled bus. Estella Pyfrom, we salute you.
Captain Phillips opened in theaters a couple of weeks ago. The movie starred Tom Hanks and told the true story of Captain Phillips, a shipping captain who’s ship was taken over by Somali pirates. As the movie shows, the pirates are no laughing matter. These are not your peg legged, eyepatch-wearing, parrot-having pirates. These are lethal thieves that will stop at nothing...well there are somethings that will stop them apparently. You may think that it would take some physical intervention to prevent a pirate attack. In some cases it takes less than that, in fact you may just have to “hit me baby one more time” to get Somali pirates to turn around and change course. That’s right, the pop music of Britney Spears is currently being used as an anti-piracy tactic on the open seas. Merchant naval officer Rachel Owens said that a good blast of Britney is all it takes to send the pirates packing. She say’s it’s so effective that the security teams on boats rarely need to resort to firing guns. I guess you could say that her music is “toxic” to pirates...or at least it makes the pirates go “crazy.” So next time you are embarrassed when someone finds your hidden cache of Britney Spears songs on your iPod, just tell them it’s to help you fight off pirates.
