Gadling

A few days ago, $1000, a sweater, an ID card and a pilot's license -- both with Steve Fossett's name on them -- were found in a bush west of Mammoth lakes, in eastern California's Inyo national forest. Authorities are investigating the items as well as the entire area in a 10-mile radius.

Millionaire adventurer and world-record breaker Steve Fossett disappeared on the 3rd of September 2007. On this date, he took off in a single-engine plane from Nevada to head to California, but has not been seen, or heard from ever since. On his disappearance, a 20,000 mile area was searched in aim to find Fossett -- probably one of the most intensive hunts in US history. Although his body has not been found, nor has any plane wreckage, in February of 2008, his wife had him declared dead. I don't know how the law works here, but surely there must be a minimum time before which you cannot declare someone dead if missing, no? In this case, he wasn't even given 6 months.

So what if he's alive? Well, that hasn't been ruled out. Fossett's story resulted in the concoction of many conspiracy theories saying that he might have faked his own death. News reports concluded that Fossett was leading a double life before he vanished and rumors were that he had a few mistresses and that he had made some horrendous investment decisions -- enough to keep the theories alive. Oh how boring life would be without juicy rumors and conspiracy theories!

Other than some snippets of negative publicity, Fossett's adventurous feats have been an inspiration to many; we at Gadling have often covered his challenges. He was the first person to fly around the world solo in a balloon, and the first person to fly around the world in a plane without refueling it. He has a total of 115 records in aviation, gliding, ballooning, sailing, boating, mountaineering, skiing, triathlon, and even dog-sledding.

Perhaps this new evidence will help get some closure to this case. Or perhaps it will stir up an entire new trail of investigation.

I recently had the opportunity of meeting the co-founder of a new language-learning website called "Busuu". Busuu is a language on the verge of extinction; apparently today it's spoken by only 8 people in Cameroon. Other than that cool snippet of information, I didn't pay much attention to the website until I got an email saying that it will teach you how to do the whistle "Gomero", i.e. the Silbo Gomero.

The Silbo Gomero is a whistle that is (was?) used to communicate in Gomero, in the Canary Islands. People who know this language can communicate full sentences through this whistle, and since it can be heard up to a distance of 8 kilometers, it used to be an extremely useful way of communicating across the deep alleys and mountains of the island.(Voice can only travel 200 meters). It used to be a recognised language, but now since there are few people who can whistle this way and it's not an easy whistle to learn, this "language" faces the threat of extinction.

Busuu aims to help preserve such languages that are under threat of disappearing, and their proactiveness towards trying to help users understand and learn this whistle is commendable. The fact that you are far from learning the whistle after looking at their material is a different point, but if they are planning to expand on such efforts, this is a great start. Here you can check out a great video they did that explores the hows and whats of this Silbo Gomero.

Having the battery of an electronic item you take on board a flight, short-circuit and then burst into flames, doesn't even come to your mind when you think about plane accidents.

Earlier this month, a wheelchair stored in the hold of a Boeing 727-200 First Choice flight carrying 229 passengers, let out blue sparks while being offloaded from the plane. The minute it was placed on a vehicle to be transported at Manchester Airport, it caught fire and exploded. Luckily, no one was injured. Thank goodness it didn't happen on the plane. A similar incident happened in February last year, where a fire started aboard a plane because a camera battery short-circuited while in the overhead compartment.

The articles about this incident talk about passengers needing to be more vigilant when taking items on board. True, but I also think it's the ground staff's responsibility to fiercely spread awareness of things like this, and make their check-in and boarding procedures more stringent. Although the exact cause of the accident has not yet been found, assuming it was a short-circuit, it could have been avoided by making sure the battery was fixed properly and that there was no way for it to switch on automatically while in storage.

I love the haunting and historic air of this picture. Shot by user Styggiti, it is a photo of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France. It looks like something out of a story book and also reminds me of the Bavarian castle in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It's magical yet very real; makes me want to go!

Want your shot considered for Photo of the Day? Submit your photos here.

Other than my occasional rant here at Gadling, we almost always talk about Dubai's mind-blowing developments. As much as I think that Dubai's growth, development, and all-round vision is extraordinary, I can't help but wonder: how, in this extended planning phase, authorities forgot to include the development of public transport.

Other than a poor bus system, the 2.2 million residents of Dubai depend on their cars and taxis to get from one point to another. The result? Dreadful and excruciating traffic jams at peak hours.

Dubai has already begun constructing a fully-automated under-and-above ground metro system (which at the moment has worsened the traffic situation because of the dug-up roads), but until then, their solution to the horrendous traffic problem is the addition of automatic toll gates (called Salik) on main roads across the city, that charge $1.10 (Dhs.4) every time you drive through them. This system started last year, and this month, phase two of the Salik system has begun. The hope is that this will reduce the traffic on certain roads at certain times, but this picture shows what is happening instead.*New addition: Seems like this is actually Moscow, not Dubai, as pointed out by nzm in the comments. Oops. However, this could totally be Dubai, as also pointed out by nzm.)


Yes, yikes.

Along with the increased cost of living in Dubai, Salik will certainly be pinching many pockets, however, the long term plan makes sense. The way the system works, you can be charged up to $6.5 (Dhs.24) a day passing through these gates. This way, the Dubai RTA plans to generate about $11 billion over a 3 year period, with which 500km of roads will be constructed, and traffic will flow freely again. I really, really hope so, especially because I might be moving back there soon.

[Thanks to BuJassem at UAE Community blog for the picture]

These smiles put the biggest smile on my face, I love happy children photos! They are native children of the Malaysian Mabul Islands, who look like they are loving being photographed by a stranger. Taken by Flickr user LadyExpat, their expression captures purity, innocence, and simple delight. I just want to jump into the photo and give them a big hug!

Want your picture featured on Gadling? Submit your best shots here.

Spain rocks when it comes to tapas, flamenco, and fiesta, but a peek into some serious issues and you'll find that much is messed up and inconsistent.

On one hand Spain welcomes illegal immigrants seeking refuge, and on the other hand it's now making it harder for legal immigrants to make a living in the country.

Spain has always been generous with amnesty. Since 2000, it has granted legal status to more than 1 million people who have lived there illegally for 3 years and could prove they were employed.

Now suddenly things are changing. Paperwork is getting harder and harder, and as the unemployment rate in the country soars to 11% (2.5 million people) -- the highest in Europe -- Spain's latest plan is to decrease this rate by creating more jobs for nationals, paying immigrant laborers on temporary contracts to go back to their countries, and making the visa process for new immigrants difficult.

Two fungus-in-aircraft stories are worth note and worry: An Indian Airlines flight served a passenger snacks with ketchup that had fungus on it. The passenger noted the contaminated packet and made a complaint, the airline dutifully apologized.

Fungus can be hazardous to health and can cause allergies, asthma, and even cardiac arrest. There would probably have been a grand issue should the fungus-ketchup have been consumed by a child or an elderly person. The airline said that they will investigate the situation and the suppliers from which they receive products.

That's all fine but I don't understand how the cabin crew member who served the fungus laden ketchup, didn't notice it. And, if the fungus is on the pouch of the ketchup, it's probably because it's old and/or expired, which has nothing to do with the supplier. This was an easily avoidable situation.

Another fungus situation was in Ryanair: A flight from Hungary to Ireland had to divert because fungus laden ice started to drip onto a passenger from an overhead locker, triggering an allergic reaction in the passenger who started coughing. It was discovered that the fungus had contaminated the aircraft's air conditioning system.

Thanks to jackhynes for the flickr photo.

Yesterday was a normal day; one of those summer-ending-autumn-starting type days. Although a little gloomy, it was still warm, I walked around in shorts and flip-flops. Then at night, to everyone's shock and scare, rocks of hail hammered the city. Yes, ROCKS. The picture here is from my balcony. I'm not exaggerating when I say that a lot of the hail falling was larger than walnuts. Imagine 10 people targeting your window at the same time with rocks, that's exactly how it felt. If anyone was walking on the road at the time, they would have been seriously injured.

Snow is not normal in Madrid. It does hailstorm occasionally, but the normal rice-like hail. Accompanied by severe thunder and lightning, this was like nothing I've seen before. Ever. And it's September for goodness sake! You can see some more photos here.