“PASS/PORT” is a five book set about different issues surrounding international travel. Each book is designed to resemble a passport. The set was created by Lebanese designer Marwan Kaabour.

PASS/PORT is a set of 5 books in the form of passports that critically investigate the different parts of the travel process. The project attempts to represent the ways the travel document embodies the very essence of restriction rather than allows passage. Our political borders are as closed as ever at a time when our notion of the world is that of a global village or an open city.

via BLDGWLF

Places I Haven’t Been (North America) by Evan Drolet Cook

via Hipmunk, Double Takes, Junk Culture & Eyeteeth

photo by Cameron Wittig

Sightsmap is an interactive heatmap that shows the most photographed sightseeing spots in the world. It is powered by data from Panoramio, a location-based photo sharing site. Sightsmap is by Estonian computer science professor Tanel Tammet.

via PetaPixel

San Francisco-based photographer Kien Lam quit his day job, packed his bags and spent a year traveling and documenting the world. Time is Nothing is the beautiful time-lapse film he made from his epic around-the-globe journey to 17 countries in 343 days. His brother William Lam created Places and Faces, the lovely score for the film.

via Neatorama

Delta Air Lines sent a hardcase with six outward-facing video cameras as checked baggage aboard a flight from Atlanta to New York City to show the behind-the-scenes journey of checked baggage.

via Hipmunk

Prompted by the unfortunate experience Lori Dorn had with TSA along with many other similar experiences, TSA has announced the launch of their new TSA Cares Helpline to assist passengers with disabilities and medical conditions prior to their flights. According to TSA they “established this new helpline because we are committed to treating each passenger the way they deserve to be treated – with dignity and respect.”

Starting today, travelers can call the toll free helpline number for TSA Cares before traveling if they have questions about screening policies, procedures or what to expect when they arrive at the airport security checkpoint. This line is available not only to passengers with disabilities and medical conditions, but also to their family members and travel companions who can speak to a knowledgeable representative from the TSA Cares helpline to answer questions about airport security prior to travel.

Air travelers can call TSA Cares toll-free at 1-855-787-2227, Monday through Friday, 9am-9pm EST.

“Mars in a Minute: How Do You Get to Mars?” by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a brief animation that explains three key issues to consider before planning your next Mars mission.

via Coudal Partners

Tom Jenkins of film and production company, The Theory, created Address is Approximate as a personal stop-motion animation project. This beautifully made film short uses images from Google Maps with Street View to follow the automobile adventures of a toy figure with a bad case of wanderlust.

A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.

via Doobybrain.com

Brian DeFrees took a 12,225 mile road trip across the United States, filmed the entire adventure and later compressed all the footage into the five-minute long film, Drivelapse USA. He’s also got a bunch of still images from the trip.

When I was traveling in my car I was shooting photos from my Canon 60D every 5 seconds with an intervalometer. When I was parked for the night or exploring an area on foot I was constantly timelapsing.

via Viral Viral Videos

photo by Brian DeFrees

TimeMaps by Dutch designer Vincent Meertens is an elegant interactive travel planner map that displays trip duration as a graphic overlay (demo video). The map currently only exists as a web app that covers the Netherlands, though smartphone apps and a map of New York City are in the works.

Due to the good public transportation in the Netherlands distance has become irrelevant. We can reach almost any destination by train easily and relatively quick. In our busy lives we now think in time rather than distance. Therefore the current maps, as we know them today, are obsolete.

via Fast Company Co. Design

TomTom has announced that the voices of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street are now available to customize their in-car GPS navigational devices. In this humorous behind-the-scenes video, take a look at the iconic duo recording the directions for TomTom. You might remember when Darth Vader recorded his voice for their devices in 2010.

Grab your rubber duckie and let Bert and Ernie show you the way to Sesame Street or any place you want to go!

via Gizmodo and Pocket-lint

>

Pleated-Jeans presents this extremely accurate Airplane Seating Chart.

Spaceport America in New Mexico, the world’s first private commercial spaceport, officially opened on October 18, 2011. The spaceport features a massive 120,000 square foot, partially underground combined terminal/hanger structure and a 10,000 foot runway. Once fully operational (a second construction phase is currently underway) Spaceport America will be the home of Virgin Galactic and will support up to two WhiteKnightTwo and five SpaceShipTwo vehicles. GigaPica has posted a photo gallery of the spaceport and opening ceremony.

via Doobybrain.com

photos via Spaceport America

Trippy is a new social travel web service and iPhone app that lets users call on their friends for travel planning advice and recommendations. The app works with social networks like Facebook to determine which friends may have been to the travel destination already, and those friends can then make recommendations for where to go and what to do. Adam Lisagor (Lonely Sandwich) created a wonderful launch video for the app. Trippy was founded by J. R. Johnson and launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in September.

Trippy ties into social sites like Facebook to find your friends who know about where you’re traveling to (those who have checked in, live, work, or go to school there) and who already know your personal details (like if you’re vegan, have toddlers, or a penchant for pinot). Makes good sense, eh? Tapping into the travel experiences of your friends is a whole lot more valuable than getting questionable info from random strangers.

via TechCrunch

“Live the Language” is a video series directed by Gustav Johnansson that promotes studying abroad with short, beautifully shot films about various international destinations (see Vancouver, Barcelona, and Beijing). The series is for Education First, an international education company.

The series includes the wonderful typographic designs of Albin Holmqvist, which we wrote about previously.

via Doobybrain

My wife Lori Dorn, who has breast cancer, tells her story about a TSA agent at JFK on Thursday who required her to submit to a pat down due to her breast implants after she went through a backscatter X-ray scanner. She had an identification card for the implants that is used to prove that the implants are an actual medical device, but the TSA agent would not let Lori show her the card. The TSA agent was extremely rude, humiliating her in front of other travelers and showing zero compassion for her situation.

Here’s Lori’s write-up about the incident and a couple of lively discussion is taking place on Google+ here and here.

Lori has been posting updates on her twitter account: @HRLori

UPDATE 1: TSA has responded to the issue on the TSA Blog and has issued an apology to Lori.

UPDATE 2: Lori has posted an update on her blog.

More Coverage:
- New York Times (interviewed Lori)
- Associated Press
- Daily News
- ABC News
- NBC New York
- Daily Mail
- MSNBC Overhead Bin
- The Globe and Mail
- Boing Boing + follow-up
- Gizmodo
- The Huffington Post
- Daring Fireball
- Jezebel
- The Consumerist
- Techdirt
- Gothamist
- The Lookout – Yahoo! News
- The Hill’s Transportation Report + follow-up
- Drew Olanoff
- Drew Carey
- Reason
- The Stir
- Elliott
- Amy Alkon on MND

Hotel and Igloo Village Kakslauttanen is a resort north of the Arctic Circle in Finland that, in addition to luxury log cabins, offers guests glass-topped igloos during the winter months. The igloos are constructed of a temperature resistant glass that keeps them comfortable in temperatures as low as -22 degrees Fahrenheit. The resort also offers a “Honeymoon Turf Chamber” and old-fashioned snow igloos.

via My Modern Metropolis

photos via Hotel and Igloo Village Kakslauttanen

The TrayVu by Seattle-based SkyCast Solutions is an airline in flight entertainment system integrated into the seatback tray table. TrayVu is powered by a Samsung Galaxy tablet running the Android OS. According to the manufacturer, the system is lighter weight and less expensive than its competitors.

via Übergizmo

Google has just launched their new Flight Search feature that helps you explore air travel options to plan trips.

via Search Engine Land & Geekosystem

ArtCar artist Emily Duffy has started a small fundraising campaign to help cover basic expenses for artcar artists to travel from the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern California as part of ArtCar Fest 2011. There are two free public mobile exhibition events they have been invited to participate in, one at the Santa Ana Art Walk on October 1, 2011 from 6 to 10 PM and the other in Joshua Tree at the Art Queen Gallery on October 6, 2011 from 5 to 9 PM.

Ken Duffy’s PriusTorik at Cabazon Dinosaurs

There are plenty of opportunities to see the artcars as they travel from San Francisco down south, as they will be hitting roadside attractions and unique stops like the Madonna Inn, Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo, the giant rodeo hats in Salinas, the Cabazon Dinosaurs and many more.

photos by Ken Duffy

Nine Hours is an ultra minimalist capsule hotel in Kyoto, Japan (see a video tour of the hotel by Monocle). The hotel seeks to distill the hospitality experience into a simple equation: one hour to shower + seven hours of sleep + one hour of rest = nine hours. The design of the hotel echoes the overall concept with a mostly white interior and simple pictographic signage.

via Sean Bonner

A breakup left Ed Casabian wondering where to go with the rest of his life. In 2010, he had an idea to travel to a different New York City neighborhood every week. Since then he has spent 15 months traveling as The NYC Nomad, documenting and blogging his adventures every step of the way.

I’d like to stay with people of different ages, races, religions, sexual orientations and economic situations. I’d like to hit the five boroughs (Staten Island eludes me but its on the calendar!). I’m trying to do 52 neighborhoods. I’m at around 40 right now depending on how you define them. Ultimately though, I’m looking for different perspectives and ideas. So far, I have stayed with some of my best friends, friends of friends, relatives of friends, former coworkers, complete strangers through some of the recent press I have received. It has been difficult, scary, interesting, and exciting. Most of all, it has been immensely rewarding, which is what I expected when this idea first popped into my head.

Casabian was recently granted a SoundCloud Community Fellowship and each week he will be interviewing the most interesting person, using the SoundCloud iPhone app, in the neighborhood and posting the story in SoundCloud’s City Stories group.

It’s possible to host Ed in his journey through New York City neighborhoods but we hear he’s booked solid through October 2011.

via Neighborhoodr

image via Ed Casabian

Dotan Negrin is traveling across America with an upright piano that he plays at stops along the way. He’s calling the project Piano Across America.

I’m Traveling Across America, Playing my Upright Piano on the Streets of America’s Finest Cities. I hope to Inspire and bring people together through the power of Music.

via Tumblr Staff Blog

A pair of “Notre Denver” Gargoyles are perched inside suitcases Baggage Claim 3 and 16 at the Denver International Airport. The gargoyles were created by Terry Allen and are part of the airport’s unique collection of public art.

photos by Scott Beale

MOVE, EAT, and LEARN are three wonderful short films that celebrate travel. Directed by Rick Mereki and brilliantly edited and shot by Tim White, the films were recorded over the course of 44 days and 38,000 miles of travel.

via Nerdcore & whudat.de