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David Rowell
Redmond, WA USA
David Rowell - publisher of The Travel Insider since 2001
Recent Activity
Weekly Roundup Friday 30 September 2011
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Good morning Please read on to enjoy, in this issue : More on our Annual Fundraising (of course) Enhancements to blog and newsletter A Mysterious Cockpit Button The Glamorous Days of Flying Wine on Planes Amazing Emirates 787 now delivered, but at what cost to Boeing Fewer choices to Australia... Continue reading
Posted Sep 30, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Why Some People Support The Travel Insider - And Why You Should, Too
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Our annual fundraising appeals, modeled on the PBS style of voluntary support in return for unlimited high quality and free content, always present a fascinating insight into human nature. Here are some thoughts, grouped under three headings, about this year. Why Some People Support The Travel Insider One of the... Continue reading
Posted Sep 29, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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All About Amazon's New Kindle and Fire eBook Readers
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Phew. After a solid slog of research and writing, I've now published a three page extensive review and analysis of the four new Amazon eBook readers announced earlier today, together with critical comparisons between them and other potential competing products in the marketplace. So, what should you do? Treat yourself... Continue reading
Posted Sep 28, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Amazon Releases Four New eBook Readers : Should You Buy Any of Them?
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After much speculation and many leaks for at least the last year, the open secret that was Amazon's new Android-based color eBook reader/tablet has been confirmed at a press release in New York this morning. The release of the Fire - for that is its name, an obvious derivative of... Continue reading
Posted Sep 28, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Ridiculous Hyperbole - Plane Lighting Offers a 'Sky Like Experience'
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It can sometimes be difficult to make a sow's ear into a silk purse, or - in our world - to make a nearly identical airplane seem revolutionarily better than the one before it. So we should perhaps be a bit sympathetic and appreciate the challenges this article faced, when... Continue reading
Posted Sep 27, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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United Airlines Breaks its Promise
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United Airlines has broken its promise - indeed, what some believe to be not just a promise but a contractual commitment. Now some of you are probably wondering what is news about this - it is far from the first time that an airline has reneged on its earlier promises/commitments... Continue reading
Posted Sep 27, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Bookends : The Appalling Double Standard of British 'Justice'
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Here are two situations. See if you can guess the outcome of each case. 1. Three men who already had, between them, a total of 78 previous convictions, were convicted again for theft, domestic violence and vehicle-crime. Two of these men admitted to over a dozen other offences at the... Continue reading
Posted Sep 23, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Weekly Roundup Friday 23 September 2011
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Good morning Thank you very much indeed to the 103 generous Travel Insiders who responded in the first week of our annual fundraising drive. This is appreciably up on the first week last year, but still down on the 138 who responded in the first week of the 2009 campaign.... Continue reading
Posted Sep 23, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Tipping And The Travel Insider
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As part of our annual fundraising drive, last week I compared The Travel Insider to a cup of coffee, as a way of establishing its value or worth. I asked if your weekly Travel Insider experience is worth as much to you as what you might pay for a cup... Continue reading
Posted Sep 22, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Bookends : The Oldest and the Newest In Flight Entertainment Systems
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Did you know it is 90 years this year since the first ever in flight entertainment was offered on a passenger flight. We'll do the math - yes, that dates all the way back to 1921. The first 'system' was on a converted navy flying boat operated by Aeromarine West... Continue reading
Posted Sep 21, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Weekly Roundup Friday 16 September 2011
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Good morning It has been a busy week and there's now a wealth of things for you to enjoy reading. But I now find myself asking, in turn, for your help in two different areas. The first involves hopefully reaching into your back pocket, the second simply asks you to... Continue reading
Posted Sep 15, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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An Open Letter to Hilary Clinton, US Secretary of State (please pass on)
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Dear Madame Secretary The State Department that you head is the responsible body for issuing visitor visas to people who wish to travel to our great country as tourists, and so I am writing to you to share the frustration of myself and most other Americans at your persistent and... Continue reading
Posted Sep 15, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Warning - Cellphone data usage internationally can cost you thousands of dollars
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From time to time one reads of someone who returns home from international travels to find a multi-thousand dollar cell phone bill awaiting them (the largest I've found mention of was for C$85,000). These charges are due to the exorbitant cost of using internet/data services out of one's home country,... Continue reading
Posted Sep 15, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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The Travel Insider 2011 Annual Fundraising Drive - Please Help
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It is that special time of year again - the time when you are asked to please help us continue in our mission to advise and inform you on helpful matters about travel and travel related technology, and to hold accountable the people and corporations seeking to foist mistruths and... Continue reading
Posted Sep 14, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Guilt by Association (Actually Non-Association with other Non-Guilty Passengers)
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So there you are, sitting quietly in your seat on a flight, doing nothing wrong - indeed, doing nothing at all except counting down the hours and minutes until your flight from Denver arrives in Detroit. You are an attractive mother of twins and live a middle class life with... Continue reading
Posted Sep 14, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Weekly Roundup Friday 9 September 2011
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Good morning Welcome back from wherever you may have traveled to over the long weekend. Oh - you're probably wondering what this squalid picture depicts. Sorry, you'll have to read all the way down to the bottom before reaching the explanation. I wrote disparagingly about Hewlett Packard a couple of... Continue reading
Posted Sep 9, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Sequencing Your Stops in Australia
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Now that you've decided which places you'd like to visit in Australia, the next issue becomes in what order to travel to these different places. This is something that is seldom much of an issue when traveling in smaller countries, because there is more clearly a best order to visit... Continue reading
Posted Sep 8, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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California's High Speed Rail Conundrum
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Our country's faltering attempts at creating any type of high speed rail service continue to go nowhere. The initial poster child of President Obama's January 2010 high speed rail program was to be a line between Tampa and Orlando. This would have been almost fully paid for by the Federal... Continue reading
Posted Sep 8, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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More Places to See in Australia - And a Couple to Miss
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The fourth part of my series on places to see in Australia is now available. There is a paradox in this latest article. On the one hand, it purports to list destinations that occupy a fifth ranking in terms of the priorities you should assign to where to go and... Continue reading
Posted Sep 8, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Weekly Roundup Friday 2 September 2011
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Good morning Very quickly to start, I've a final extension on the special lifetime memberships that make our upcoming Front Sight defensive handgun course so affordable. You'll need to contact me prior to the close of business today (Friday) if this is of interest to you (14 people have taken... Continue reading
Posted Sep 2, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Where to Visit in Australia
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Australia is a huge country, and with a similarly huge variety of places to go and things to see when visiting as a tourist (pictured left is the wonderful Skyrail attraction in the Cairns area). Unless you're unusually blessed with both lots of spare time and lots of spare money,... Continue reading
Posted Sep 1, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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The US Continues to Refuse to Accept Money and Tourism Business from Wealthy Foreigners
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It is true that the average Chinese citizen still earns a very low (but steadily increasing) wage (about $250/month). But the average Chinese tourist is not the same as the average Chinese citizen. Chinese tourists are members of China's rapidly growing middle and wealthy classes, people who might earn $2,500... Continue reading
Posted Sep 1, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Budget Crisis? What Budget Crisis? DHS to spend more than $2.1 billion in Preparedness Grants
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If you've ever wondered how it is that our government is staggering under a multi-trillion dollar shortfall as between what it brings in and what it spends, look no further than today's announcement, triumphantly boasting of another $2.1 billion to be given away by the Department of Homeland Security in... Continue reading
Posted Aug 30, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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Weekly Roundup Friday 26 August 2011
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Good morning I was catching up with some articles on Frommers.com and came across one on the subject of tipping hotel chambermaids. Arthur Frommer says 'A tip of $20 seems to me a minimum for a two-night stay'. He believes it is our obligation to ensure that hotel chambermaids earn... Continue reading
Posted Aug 25, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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How to Plan a Trip to Australia
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I wrote - and occasionally add to - a series about planning a trip to New Zealand a while ago. I'm now embarked upon the process of a matching set of pages of information about traveling to Australia. In case you're wondering about my selection of a picture showing dry... Continue reading
Posted Aug 25, 2011 at The Travel Insider
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