Articles by Lena Vazifdar
London Olympics 2012: Travel to Olympics for Australia and Japan Unveils Possible Gender Bias
Australia's governing body has been slammed for flying its men's basketball team in business class, while flying their women's team in economy. This is the second team where gender bias has caused a media storm of outrage, the first being Japan's more succesfu l woman's soccer team flying economy to London, while their lower-ranked men's soccer team flying business.
Gogobot: Startup Harnessing the Power of The Social Web to Revolutionize Travel
Travis Katz and Ori Zaltzman started the website gogobot, which is harnessing the power of social web to revolutionize travel. The website is growing rapidly with an added 1 million users in the past two months, bringing the total to 2 million. The site, unlike Yelp or TripAdvisor uses reccomendations from your friends in your own social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Emmy Nominations 2012: List of Nominees Includes "Girls" and "Mad Men"
"Mad Men," "Girls," and "Downtown Abbey" are three of the TV shows nominated in the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards. On Thursday Jimmy Kimmel, who will host the Emmys on September 23, and Kerry Washington announced the nominees for The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
JFK Airport Thefts: Man Could Face up to Six Years
New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) airport is one of the most well-known airports in the world and handles more international traffic than any other airport in North America, which makes it an easy target for theft. A recent series of thefts at the airport has ended with Frederick McDonald of Far Rockaway, N.Y pleading guilty to grand larceny in connection to six thefts. The 46 year old faces three to six years in prison.
Sofia Vergara: TV's Highest Paid Actress
From Diet Pepsi campaigns to Burger King Commercials, the Columbian-born actress of the popular sitcom Modern Family, Sofia Vergara, has been named by Forbes magazine, the top earning actress on American TV.
Water Parks: The Coolest in The Nation
Embracing summertime fully, especially in steaming-concrete, muggy concrete jungles like New York, means grabbing your bikini and jumping down a waterslide. Waterparks are a great way to spend a sunny summer day and Forbes has created a list of the coolest waterparks in the nation for summer fun.
Unlimited Vacation Days: More Companies Embrace Flexibility
Getting burnt out because of too much work and not enough down time, or not being able to take off to Bali for that one month surfing excursion can sometimes be a bit of a downer for employees. With this in mind, some companies such as Netflix and Coupa are starting to provide employees with unlimited vacation days.
Top 5 Pet Friendly Travel Spots in the U.S.
For a true dog lover, ditching your fluffy cuddle buddy to soak up the sun in The Bahamas seems, just sad. Scout sure would love to run on that beach and lay in the sand with you. Mr. Wiggles would kill to be laying in that king sized hotel bed nuzzled under the blanket watching Reality TV shows in your lap. For those who want to take their pooch on vacation, Animal Planet has compiled a top five pet friendly cities, list of American destinations that welcomes your furry friend.
London Olympics 2012: Visitors Should Prepare for Cash Hassle
With The Olympics approaching, London is overflowing with tourists. With these hoards of visitors, getting British pounds may become a huge hassle.
London Olympics 2012: TSA Agents Fly Across the Pond to Help out at Heathrow
With the 2012 Summer Olympics approaching at full-speed, London's Heathrow aiport has been besieged with passengers. Local politicians have claimed that the airport is not prepared for this type of traffic and British official have called upon The TSA to come over and help out during the Olympics.
No Fly List: American's Banned from Flying can Attend U.S. Flight School
A new Government Accountability Office report has found a number of loopholes, in which it states individuals on the U.S. government's no-fly list could learn to fly in U.S. flight school. The U.S government's no fly list contains U.S. citizens who are banned from flying because they are considered terror threats.
America's Best Cities for Singles 2012
The singles scene in every city is constantly evolving. In one city the hip downtown martini bar is the best place to mingle while in others, the park is basically a mating ground for dates. Travel + Leisure has put out there Favorite Cities Survey, where readers from 35 cities evaluate everything from coffee shops, boutique hotels to how bar scenes are good for the singles scene in their respective city.
Nelson Mandela Turns 94 and South Africa Rejoices
Across South Africa, people are celebrating the birthday of South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, who turns 94.
United Airlines: Website Issues Cause Cheap Ticket to Hong Kong Mistake
Last Sunday, United Airlines' website offered up award flights to or from Hong Kong for the ridiculously low rate of 4 points per ticket. When the airline realized its blunder, after many eager fliers already purchased their nearly free tickets, they announced that the mistake they made would not be honored.
Coachella 2012 Goes Cruising: The S.S Coachella Sets Sail in December
The music festival, Coachella has recently announced they will be bringing the desert to sea this december with the S.S Coachella. Capitalizing on the current trend of music-cruises, the festival has teamed up with Celebrity Cruises for this unprecedented event.
Titanic II: New Ship Details Announced
An Australian billionare, Clive Palmer, who announced last month that he is building a replica of the Titanic to set sail in 2016, has recently released new details of the ship. He said that the vessel will have a new safety deck featuring proper lifeboats and safety slides and chutes.
TSA Agents Harass Disabled Passengers: Cause for Concern
TSA has made a number of blunders lately when it comes to passengers with disabilities. Last week, a few new incidents occured including a young deaf passenger who alleges TSA agents belittling him and stealing his candy.
Themed Cruises 2012: From KISS to Celebrity Chef
Cruises are known for gluttonous buffets, old people, and relaxing on sun-drenched decks, pina colada in hand. But a number of cruise ship operators are switching up the cruise M.O. with themed ships.
Shark Attack: The Death Toll Rises in Australia in Alarming Numbers
The recent insurgence of shark attacks in Western Australia has caused the government to take a number of precautions.
2012 World's Best Airline Announced
The 2012 SKYTRAX World Airline Awards were announced last week at the Farnborough International Airshow. The Awards, rank everything from "best low cost airline" to "top carrier" and "best catering."
Olympic Security Failure is in "Humiliating Shambles"
The Olympic Games, which is just weeks away, has reached a standstill without enough guards for its July 27th start date. British lawmakers were forced to tear into chief executive Nick Buckles of G4S, the security contractor for the games.
Take a 50 Shades of Grey Holiday with these Steamy Hotel Packages
It's no secret that the sexy novel 50 Shades of Grey has been getting a lot of praise lately, especially within the female crowd, and steaming up bedrooms around the nation. For couples who would like to relive any part of the saucy story line, hotels are starting to capitalize in on the trend with erotic packages.
From Food Trucks to Book Trucks: Mexico City's Mobile Library
Food trucks have been garnering popularity for quite some time now, and now, Mexico City is following its lead in the form of a mobile library.
Purchase the Unreleased iPhone 5 now ... In China
Desperate to be one of the unreleased Apple iPhone 5's first owners? Well, with the help of Chinese website, Taobao, a subsidiary of the Alibaba group, you can preorder one now.
Economy Class gets the VIP treatment: IKEA's Pop-up Lounge at Charles de Gaulle Airport
Ikea has designed and created a temporary pop-up lounge in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. A Swedish visitor has arrived in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport in the form of a pop-up-lounge.
Safety Concerns Raised Over Forecasted Pilot Shortages
The next 20 years will be an unprecedented time for the airline industry with a Boeing forecast stating that about half a million new airline pilots will be needed worldwide.
