David Swanson

The #euro climbed to an almost 5-year high against the U.S. dollar in January; it’s up more than 13 percent over this time last year. What’s a value-seeking #traveler to do? Spoiler alert: cruises are priced in dollars. travelandleisure.com/europe-vacatio…

@Breaking911 @BernieSanders @TMZ And how do you know he paid for first class? A frequent flier like Sanders is very likely upgraded every few flights.

HYPOCRISY ON FULL DISPLAY: Millionaire socialist @BernieSanders caught living large in Delta First Class, jetting out of DC like royalty — while TSA workers he helped screw over go without paychecks amid the Democrat-fueled DHS shutdown. 📸 @TMZ

I am devastated to share the news that one of my heroes — and a woman who has had an enormous impact on wildlife conservation — Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas has died. She was 79. I feel so grateful that I had the honor of spending time with her. Over the years, I have connected with so many of you over my love of orangutans (and elephants and mountain gorillas, of course); Dr. Biruté gets all the credit. Orangutans would likely be extinct were it not for Dr. Biruté’s pioneering and exhaustive work over the last six decades. Dr. Biruté was one of three women handpicked and mentored by legendary paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey to transform our understanding of the great apes. Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees, Dian Fossey studied gorillas, and Dr. Biruté dedicated her life to orangutans, and together they revolutionized primatology and the case for great ape intelligence, emotional depth, and conservation. While Jane Goodall proved that chimpanzees use tools, form complex social bonds, and possess a capacity for empathy once thought uniquely human, Dr. Biruté proved that orangutans are slow-breeding, highly intelligent, and extremely vulnerable. Dr. Biruté built the conservation model to try to save orangutans and dedicated her life to protecting them. Dr. Biruté is credited with conducting the longest-running longitudinal study by one principal investigator of any wild mammal in the world. She was the first to document the long orangutan birth interval, which averaged 7.7 years, and recorded over 400 types of food consumed by orangutans. Dr. Biruté’s research that fundamentally reshaped how scientists understood orangutans. Before her field studies, the orangutan was the least understood of the great apes. The orangutan population as it exists today, as fragile as it is, would not exist without her. Many conservationists go as far as saying the orangutan, our cousin, would likely be extinct or close to extinct were it not for Dr. Biruté’s discoveries and her sacrifice. Dr. Biruté took on palm oil conglomerates, illegal loggers, poachers, and gold miners. She did so often at great personal risk, including death threats and kidnapping, She remained in Borneo for over 40 years as an outspoken advocate for orangutans and the preservation of their rainforest habitat. In 1986, she founded Orangutan Foundation International, with sister organizations established in Australia, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. We owe so much to Dr. Biruté and her incredible legacy.

This is truly insane, and it should be front page news across America.  Denmark secretly deployed soldiers to Greenland prepared to blow up airport runways to stop a U.S. invasion. They brought blood supplies to treat the wounded. France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden quietly coordinated against us. This was not a drill. This was our closest allies preparing to fight Americans. Let that sink in. NATO allies. Countries whose soldiers have fought and died alongside ours for decades. They looked at this president and decided they had to prepare for the worst. Fewer allies does not make America great. It makes us more isolated, more vulnerable, and it hands Russia and China exactly what they have always wanted: an America abandoned by its friends. The American people deserve to know how badly this president has damaged our standing in the world.  bbc.com/news/articles/…

@MerriamWebster Now, please explain how, when I write, it is called content.

When movies were shot on physical film, the film was measured in feet. This is why any recorded thing is now called ‘footage.'

@chinafutureclub @gun3ro Been to both, multiple times over last 25 years. Interesting to see Shenzhen’s swift rise from factory town to tech worker hub — a good day trip from Hong Kong. But the sweeping history and culture of Xi’an puts it in China’s top 5 for me.

@gun3ro You think Xian wows travellers more than Shenzhen?

Top 10 travel cities in China! 🇨🇳 1. Shanghai - Endless, social, special. 2. Sanya - Tropical. Beach vibes. Pure air. 3. Chengdu - Cool energy. Food. Booming. 4. Beijing - Powerful. Historical. Unique. 5. Changsha - Youthful culture. Nightlife. 6. Shenzhen - Tech hub. Great weather. 7. Guangzhou - Canton vibes. Nightlife. 8. Hangzhou - Modern liveability. Youth. 9. Dalian - Mild summer. Coastal lifestyle. 10. Chongqing - Cyberpunk. Unique.

Every August, the children of a small island off the south coast of Iceland stay up past midnight to save baby birds. The island is called Heimaey, part of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago. It is home to the largest puffin colony on earth. More than a million adult puffins nest in burrows along the island's grassy cliffs each summer, and when late August arrives, their chicks are ready to leave for the ocean for the first time. The problem is the lights. Baby puffins, called pysjas in Icelandic, navigate by moonlight. When they take their first flight in the dark, the streetlights and harbour lights of the town confuse them. Instead of heading out to sea, they veer toward land, landing in car parks, wandering down streets, huddling under vehicles, and exhausting themselves among the houses of a town that has no idea what to do with them. Every year, the kids of Vestmannaeyjar form what they call the Pysja Patrol. They go out after dark with cardboard boxes, chase down the disoriented chicks by hand, and bring them home. In 2024 alone, the children of an island with 4,500 inhabitants rescued more than 4,200 pufflings. Roughly one bird for every person who lives there. The next morning they take the boxes to the cliff edge, reach in, and throw each bird gently into the wind toward the sea. The tradition has been running for generations. Since 2003 every rescued puffling is first taken to the local natural history museum to be weighed, measured, and tagged before release. The data collected by children with cardboard boxes has contributed to decades of scientific research on one of the world's most important seabird populations. Iceland is home to sixty percent of all the world's puffins.

@thealepalombo Worth noting: Arles is a fairly major river cruise stop (2-3/day in summer) and bus tour destination, all visiting in search of Van Gogh mystique. It's lovely, but I've been twice and both times the daytrip crowd was real, and yes, the Mistral wind is not your average bluster.

Arles truth: The Mistral wind is BRUTAL. Cold, dry, 100+ km/h gusts that can blow for days. Van Gogh mentioned it in almost every letter. Summer: 35-40°C. 50,000 people means limited nightlife, limited English. You need French and a car. LUMA has brought cultural cachet but also tension. Property prices are rising. Some locals feel priced out. If you need efficiency, a big-city nightlife, or hate wind, Arles is not your city. If you care about Provence light that made Van Gogh paint 300 canvases in 15 months, a Frank Gehry museum, and UNESCO architecture at €2,250/sqm, Arles is criminally underpriced. Best for: culture-obsessed retirees. Artists and creatives drawn by the light. Remote workers who want Provence without Aix prices (€5,500/sqm).

I'm Italian. After my thread on Italy's hidden cities blew up, a close French friend called me. "You did Italy. Now do France. But don't embarrass yourself, let me 'elp." We spent a weekend going back and forth. He'd suggest a city, I'd research it. I'd push back, he'd prove me wrong. By Sunday night, we had a list. 7 hidden cities in France that most people, including most French, will never think to visit, let alone move to. No crowds. No tourist markup. Insane quality of life. 🧵

@united But how much? 3x the coach price means it's close to business class fares, and this ain't business class.

The entire row is alllllll yours. Welcome to United Relax Row, three adjacent United Economy seats with adjustable leg rests that can each be raised or lowered to create a cozy lie-flat space for stretching out... You'll also get a mattress pad, blanket and two pillows. If you’re traveling with kids, a plushie too! United Relax Row will be available starting next year on more than 200 of our 787s and 777s, each with up to 12 of these brand-new rows. united.com/Elevated

@ChrisMurphyCT We’re counting on you to track it down.

$1.5 BILLION. Let me say it again - a $1.5 BILLION BET. Bigger than any futures purchases made at the time. 5 minutes before Trump's post. Who was it? Trump? A family member? A White House staffer? This is corruption. Mind blowing corruption.

5 minutes before Trump’s announcement: * $1.5B notional worth of S&P500 (ES) futures are bought in a single clip. * $192M notional of oil futures (CL) sold. More than 4x-6x any other trade size during the market close. Insiders profited from his lies in broad daylight!

@amyforsandiego @TSA @ICEgov mediaite.com/media/news/tru…

RIGHT NOW: San Diego International Airport is “organized chaos” this morning. @TSA line stretched out with a 70 minute wait just to reach screening. DHS canines on site. @ICEgov expected to arrive today. And this Friday marks the 6th missed paycheck for federal TSA workers.

@AmyKremer @ossoff mediaite.com/media/news/tru…

Thank you Senator @ossoff for making these children miss their mission trip. I hope you are proud of yourself. Shame! Shame! Shame!

@AmyKremer @ossoff Republicans control the White House, the Senate and House. Republicans have repeatedly voted down proposals to fund TSA. You do the math.

@anyotherleader1 Straws? I remember straws, but I stopped using them around age 11 or 12.

We have to use soggy paper straws whilst the rich are covering their shoes in single use plastic to visit their underground car parks

Aged exactly as expected

Some jackfish exhibit a fascinating way of seeking protection by utilizing the Club Hydromedusa jellyfish as a temporary shelter, taking refuge under its translucent body

A family of wild Pallas's cats living in the grasslands of Qinghai Province, China

"LGA closed. Aircraft incident. Might be a Air Canada flight Fire truck vs aircraft. You can hear the ELT going off in the ATC recordings for the Tower. Could be a major accident." "looks like a FireTruck crossed runway 04 at LGA and collided with a Jazz CRJ-900"

View from the San Diego airport at 6:30 this morning. It doesn’t have to be like this. I have a bill to pay TSA workers, Coast Guard and emergency management without adding more to ICE and Border Patrol. Easy, right? But Trump won’t allow it. As the DHS shutdown drags into nearly 40 days, federal workers and travelers shouldn’t have to suffer from Republican inaction.