Category: Travel

  • 10 Unfriendliest Cities In The World That People Love To Visit

    Berlin: Tourist fatigue and high rent prices contribute to its reputation for being unwelcoming, but it does offer many free attractions. Philadelphia: Despite its nickname, the City of Brotherly Love, locals are often reluctant to welcome outsiders and engage in conversations with tourists. Budapest: Old social attitudes and economic crises have led to wariness among locals towards foreigners, impacting the way they interact with visitors.In the shadowy corners of global travel, certain cities emerge not for their warm embrace but rather for their chilly reception. When traveling, tourists often seek the warmth of welcoming destinations, where smiles and open arms await. Yet, a peculiar allure exists for those drawn to cities that wear the badge of unfriendliness. From narrowed glances to guarded gestures, these urban landscapes present a stark contrast to the stereotypical open arms of wanderlust destinations.Explore the paradoxical realms of the unfriendliest cities in the world that people can’t help but love to visit, each one offering a complex blend of mystery, culture, and unexpected fascination. Some of these urban sprawls are areas with cultural differences that tourists may find challenging to walk amidst, while others are simply places ruined by overtourism (as in, too many tourists, and the locals have had enough!). Whatever the problem, it’s a voyage into the unexpected, where unfriendliness becomes a quirky companion to the undeniable allure of exploration.There are many allegedly unfriendly cities across the world; from the United States and Europe to Africa and Asia, it’s time to peel back the layers to reveal the concealed charm within these seemingly unwelcoming destinations, some of which have even been named among the rudest cities in the world.

    Source: 10 Unfriendliest Cities In The World That People Love To Visit

  • Clarence Thomas Repeatedly Went To Koch Fundraisers—And Mingled With Donors—As Network Brings Supreme Court Cases, Report Says

    The Koch network and its attorneys are behind a number of Supreme Court cases—including one coming up this term.

    KEY FACTS

    Thomas has attended donor summits in 2018 and 2008 for the Koch network, ProPublica reports, referring to the overlapping nonprofits founded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch that have exerted broad influence over Republican politics (the network is also known as Stand Together).

    Thomas attended a private dinner at a 2018 summit for high-level donors, which ProPublica reports was part of a fundraising strategy by the organization to court donors using access to high-profile guests like the justice—which could flout ethics guidelines that discourage justices from taking part in fundraising activities.

    The justice did not disclose his attendance on his financial disclosure form, and also did not note private jet flights he took to and from the summit—which the Koch network denied paying for, and ProPublica notes it is unclear who financed those flights.

    Thomas’ 2008 attendance has been previously reported, with a court spokesperson saying in 2011 that he made a “brief drop-by” at the summit but did not participate, and gave a speech at a Federalist Society dinner sponsored by Charles Koch that was separate from the donor event.

    In addition to his donor summit appearances, Thomas also cultivated a personal relationship with the Koch brothers through repeated trips to a private summer retreat known as the Bohemian Grove, ProPublica reports, citing unnamed attendees at the retreat, where he and the Kochs have been part of the same small camp—with Thomas’ attendance arranged through his friend real estate magnate Harlan Crow.

    Source: Clarence Thomas Repeatedly Went To Koch Fundraisers—And Mingled With Donors—As Network Brings Supreme Court Cases, Report Says

  • The 20 Best Restaurants in New York City

    Rest assured that your taste buds will be spoilt for choice in the Big Apple. These are the best restaurants in New York.

    Source: The 20 Best Restaurants in New York City

  • Alberta’s moratorium on renewable energy, explained | The Narwhal

    In recent years, renewable energy development has been surging in Alberta, a place where the electricity grid until very recently was dominated by coal — a fossil fuel with notoriously high emissions that is on track to be completely phased out this year. Even as natural gas fills that gap and now fuels more than 60 per cent of the grid, renewables have climbed from a relative footnote to generating almost 20 per cent of Alberta’s electricity.

    But that nation-leading momentum came to a sudden halt this summer when the United Conservative Party government announced a surprise and immediate seven-month pause on approving new renewable energy projects.

    The government directed the Alberta Utilities Commission, which regulates electricity, gas and water utilities, to hold an inquiry and prepare recommendations for new regulations in those seven months.

    That decision, seemingly made without consultation, could impact the pace of future development, freeze or cancel projects already lined up for approval and hamper Alberta’s legislated target of having 30 per cent of all electricity generated in the province come from renewables by 2030.

    So what exactly happened and what could it mean for Alberta’s renewable energy sector?

    Source: Alberta’s moratorium on renewable energy, explained | The Narwhal

  • Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

    Green space protection groups are gearing up for even bigger fights ahead after Premier Doug Ford’s stunning reversal and apology over plans to hand over 3,000 hectares of Ontario Greenbelt lands to a small group of politically connected developers.

    Source: Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

  • 11 of the World’s Wildest Pizza Places

    Would you like your slice above an active volcano or under a former hospital?

    Since its 18th-century origins as a grab-and-go meal for the Neapolitan working class, pizza has had a universal appeal. Cheap, delicious, customizable, and easy to eat, it proceeded to make its way into the hearts, minds, and stomachs of people all over the globe. Along the way, some of the places serving this beloved dish have gotten a little weird.

    Diners can enjoy barbecue chicken pies amongst ghosts in the basement of a “haunted” former hospital at O’zone Pizza Pub in Pensacola, Florida. And pizza culture meets daredevil culture at Las Vegas’s Evel Pie, a restaurant decked out with memorabilia of the famed stuntman Evel Knievel and a neon sign that reads, “Live hard, ride fast, eat pizza.”

    As humans have learned to thrive in extreme environments, they have taken pizza with them. In the village of San Vicente Pacaya, Guatemala, those willing to hike up an active volcano are treated to pizzas baked by chef and accountant Mario David García Mansilla over hot lava. Off the coast of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, intrepid eaters swim and boat out to a floating yacht that slings New York-style pies.

    For every slice of life, there’s a slice of pizza. Grab yours at one of these 11 unique shrines to the world’s favorite pie.

    Source: 11 of the World’s Wildest Pizza Places

  • Secretive doors and snugs

    An image of a "ladies entrance" sign over a barPhoto: Jon12 / Stockimo / Alamy Stock PhotoMarch 11th
    Secretive doors and snugs
    By Diana Hubbell
    Associate Editor, PlacesIn the 1970s, Shirley MacLaine strode up to the bar at Farrell’s Bar & Grill in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, and demanded a drink. The other patrons paused to stare—not so much because she was a famous actress, but because she was a woman. From 1933 up until that point, the bar had a strict policy against “unchaperoned ladies.”

    That’s not to say women weren’t allowed in the bar at all. “It used to be that they would serve women, but they had to sit in the back and the men had to order their drinks,” says cocktail historian Amanda Schuster. MacLaine, who was there with journalist Pete Hamill, would have none of it. 

    “Shirley was like, ‘Hey, Pete, what do you want?’” Schuster says. “And everybody was just kind of watching her, slack-jawed. And from then on, they allowed women.”

    Bars may be societal watering holes, but they have rather famously not always been for everyone. Public spaces are often inherently political and, for much of history, there were strict social rules—or even laws—about where women were and were not welcome. 

    Some bars also still carry physical markers of times when women weren’t allowed. In honor of Women’s History Month, Gastro Obscura would like to encourage you to visit the secretive rooms, side entrances, and formerly men-only bars where women can now drink freely.SnugsImage of an old "snug" in a cozy wood-paneled pubA snug in a Galway pub. Photo: agefotostock / Alamy Stock PhotoFor much of the 19th century in the United Kingdom, the local pub was no place for a well-to-do lady. Yet Victorian women, even those in the middle and upper classes still found ways to frequent them. In order to keep women away from prying eyes—particularly if they happened to be somebody’s mistress—pubs installed small, often well-decorated private rooms known as snugs attached to the rest of the bar.

    Snugs weren’t just for women, of course. Plenty of people, from politicians holding clandestine meetings to local vicars, had reasons for wanting to drink a pint without an audience. For women, however, snugs offered a reprieve from social judgment and constraints. And while some female patrons visited a snug with a male suitor, others went just to have a moment of peace with other women.

    Pubs across the U.K. and Ireland may be very much co-ed affairs these days, but many of the historic ones have kept their old snugs. Today, it’s still possible to enjoy an ale in a space that once offered social refuge. Ladies’ EntrancesAcross the pond in the U.S., patrons in bars from Madison, Wisconsin, to Philadelphia may notice the occasional “Ladies’ Entrance” signs hanging over side doors leading to backrooms. These were once the only ways for women to slide in with less public observation. 

    Plenty of American men of the mid-1800s to early 1900s saw the local bar or saloon as the place to get away from their spouses. Leading up to Prohibition, “there was a proliferation of these gentlemen-only clubs,” Schuster says. Many of these establishments would be associated with a particular type of activity, be it cards or cigars. 

    In other words, where, and with whom a woman could drink became more tightly controlled. It didn’t help that across much of the United States around the turn of the 20th century, moral panic still reigned. Unaccompanied women were liable to be seen as loose, and bars, where genders fraternized freely, became associated with a kind of societal decay.

    In some cases, women who broke the rules faced more than just social stigma. As Sascha Cohen writes in JSTOR Daily, police departments in Los Angeles, Portland, and Atlanta, among other cities, targeted, surveilled, and criminalized women who appeared in drinking establishments without a chaperone around the turn of the 20th century. In short, they prosecuted those who refused to play by the rules—to enter through the back door or sit where they were told to.Surprisingly Recent HistoryDaniel O’Connell-Kirwan denying women entrance to McSorley’s Old Ale House in 1970. Photo: Stringer/GettySo how did all this change?

    Prohibition shook up a lot of things in American drinking culture, including some of the gender segregation. After all, if bootleggers and their customers were already breaking the law, there wasn’t much point in worrying about respectability. 

    But after World War II, a number of American bars stubbornly remained boys’ clubs. “In New York, you had these places that very famously did not let women in. They were well known for it,” Schuster says. 

    In 1969, Betty Friedan stormed into a men-only lunch service at the Oak Room in New York’s Plaza Hotel, flanked by more than a dozen angry feminists. “This is the only kind of discrimination that’s considered moral—or, if you will, a joke,” she told Time magazine, which declared that the action “shook the very foundations of the fortress.”

    In 1970, a New York City ordinance forced bars to cease this form of gender-based discrimination. Barbara Shaum, a resident of the East Village, became the first woman to walk into McSorley’s Old Ale House, which had been strictly male-only since it opened in 1854. 

    Even as late as 1982, a British bar called El Vino prohibited women from standing at the bar, supposedly as a form of “chivalry.” When two women journalists violated the rules, the owners barred them for life. It took a court case to overturn the decision.

    Being allowed to order a drink might seem like a small thing, but visibility matters, as does the right to move unimpeded through a space. It’s worth remembering the women who spoke up to make that happen.

  • Canada’s Newest Conservative MP is Stephen Harper’s Right-Hand Man


    Canada’s Newest Conservative MP is Stephen Harper’s Right-Hand Man and an International Neocon Operative

    Who is Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar?

    by Stephen Magusiak,Reporter

    August 13, 2023

    If Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives manage to form government after the next election, who would Poilievre likely choose to serve as foreign minister?

    It’s hard to imagine Poilievre choosing anyone other than Shuvaloy “Shuv” Majumdar – Poilievre’s old college friend and Stephen Harper’s right-hand man.

    After traveling the world working for an American neoconservative NGO and his close relationship with the Chair of the International Democratic Union, a global organization of right-wing political parties, Majumdar has experience inside the world of international right-wing think tanks, consultancies and NGOs.

    In a recent campaign video, Poilievre described Majumdar as a “longtime friend,” noting the two first met at the University of Calgary where both MPs were active with the university’s controversial Reform Party campus club.

    Shuvaloy Majumdar and Pierre Poilievre

    Shuvaloy Majumdar and Pierre Poilievre (Facebook); Shuvaloy Majumdar and Preston Manning (Facebook); Pierre Poilievre (CBC News)

    Majumdar has also worked in high-level positions inside Harper’s government as a top foreign policy adviser, serving as Director of Policy to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird between 2011 and 2015.

    After Harper’s government was defeated in 2015, Majumdar joined the former prime minister in the private sector, becoming the “Global Director” of Harper and Associates – Harper’s private consulting firm.

    Office of the Prime Minister of Canada

    Alongside his work with Harper, Majumdar also held a high-level role with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a right-wing, business-friendly think tank partnered with the Atlas Network, a global network of right-wing think tanks funded by conservative mega-donors, including billionaires Charles and David Koch.

    Majumdar ran the right-wing think tank’s “Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad” and was a key architect of the think tank’s “Indo-Pacific strategy,” which advocates closer ties between Canada and Narenda Modi’s far-right nationalist government in India.

    “The fact that Narendra Modi has expanded his BJP presence in the Lok Sabha is really quite remarkable. He’s easily becoming the most consequential leader of India since independence,” Majumdar said in one media appearance, adding that Modi’s India offers a “profoundly important message for the world” and has “so much symmetry in terms of values” with Canada.

    Shuvaloy Majumdar (Macdonald-Laurier Institute)

    In 2020, Majumdar helped produce a controversial report by former CBC reporter Terry Milewski alleging Pakistan secretly created a Sikh separatist movement. The report was amplified by official Indian government accounts and triggered a backlash in the Sikh diaspora community.

    Majumdar also led MLI’s partnership with the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank set-up with funds from Indian oil giant Reliance Industries.

    In 2019, the Saskatchewan government paid Harper & Associates a quarter-of-a-million dollars for help by “setting up key meetings” with “senior government ministers and officials”as part of a trade mission to India – Saskatchewan later opened a trade office in New Delhi, highlighting India as a potential export destination for “agricultural products, potash, oil and uranium.”

    Macdonald-Laurier Institute (YouTube

    Majumdar’s career has seen him spend a considerable amount of time working in foreign capitals in behind-the scenes roles during tense moments.

    Before his time inside the Harper government, Majumdar spent years stationed in Baghdad (2006-2007) and Kabul (2007-2009) as an operative of the International Republican Institute, an international non-governmental organization affiliated with the US Republican Party that seeks to promote neoconservative foreign policy objectives around the world.

    IRI was founded under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and is a “core institute” of the US Congress-funded National Endowment for Democracy, active in over 70 countries. The IRI’s Board of Directors consists of top Republican Senators, former GOP-appointed ambassadors and national security officials, and previously chaired by John McCain.

    In a 2011 interview with Sun TV, Majumdar described his work with the IRI as providing “technical assistance” to political and civil society groups in countries in the midst of war, occupation and regime change.

    “It speaks to a demand around the world for this kind technical assistance in terms of how to organize political movements, how to mobilize elements of civil society, support independent media, and broadly empower the democratic aspirations of people around the world.”

    Shuvaloy Majumdar (Sun TV)

    Though it describes its work as helping to “foster the infrastructure of democracy in countries that were lacking any semblance of democratic development,” the IRI has also been accused of interfering in the internal politics of countries in favour of US foreign policy interests.

    In 2004, Mother Jones described how the IRI has subverted the democratic process in countries like Haiti, Venezuela and Cambodia, including helping topple elected leaders:

    “The group, the International Republican Institute (IRI), is supposed to focus on nonpartisan, grassroots democratization efforts overseas. But in Haiti and other countries, such as Venezuela and Cambodia, the institute — which, though not formally affiliated with the GOP, is run by prominent Republicans and staffed by party insiders — has increasingly sided with groups seeking the overthrow of elected but flawed leaders who are disliked in Washington.”

    The Council on Hemispheric Affairs has also described the IRI’s mission as a soft power approach to advancing business interests and the “unscrupulous promotion of an ultraconservative Republican foreign policy agenda”:

    “The IRI prioritizes the maintenance of what is frequently deemed a ‘friendly business environment’, often to the detriment of an array of desperately needed social policies. These overt attempts by the IRI to manipulate the domestic political firmament of other nations in the image of the conservative values of the late President Reagan, are strongly reminiscent of (albeit less bloody than) many of the excesses of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) when it toppled Latin American governments that had failed to share so-called ‘American values’. Not surprisingly, many analysts have characterized the IRI as well as its partner and primary funder, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), as the ideological heirs of the CIA, in which it is strenuously attempting to remake its image while transferring some of the funding responsibility for its ‘softer’ programs to that classic Cold War institution, the NED.”

    According to the IRI’s website, Majumdar was still actively involved with the organization as recently as 2019.

    Majumdar’s interest in democracy goes back as far as his college years with Pierre Poilievre when he served as the Chief Return Officer for the University of Calgary’s student elections.

    In 2003, Majumdar publicly accused fellow student Mickey Amery of election fraud, claiming Amery “hijacked democracy” by stealing voting IDs and casting fake votes, deriding Amery for having “poor moral character” and making “the wrong moral choices.”

    Amery was named Alberta’s Minister of Justice by Premier Danielle Smith in June.

    Last month, Amery was spotted out on the campaign trail displaying support for the same man who previously accused him of hijacking democracy and having “poor moral character.”

    Mickey Amery campaigning with Shuvaloy Majumdar in July 2023 (Facebook)

    Majumdar was later fired as the University of Calgary’s CRO after problems with ballots that he produced resulted in the 2004 student election to be overturned. According to a May 2004 report by The Gauntlet, Majumdar was “out of country and could not be reached for comment.”

    In 2019, Majumdar found himself at the centre of another scandal, this time relating to Jason Kenney’s 2017 UCP leadership campaign.

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    Leaked emails surfaced in 2019 showed Majumdar had some unclear role in the so-called “kamikaze” campaign of Jeff Callaway, who ran for the UCP leadership for the main purpose of attacking Kenney’s main rival, Brian Jean.

    The emails show top members of Callaway’s campaign team were directed by top Kenney staffer Matt Wolf to make sure Majumdar was “looped in” on campaign plans so he could offer “additional feedback.” Other emails showed Majumdar helped “cue up” media appearances for Callaway’s surrogates to attack Kenney’s rival.

    Email sent from “Kamikaze” campaign to Shuvaloy Majumdar

    The kamikaze campaign resulted in over $200,000 in fines after PressProgress was first to report on tens of thousands of dollars of donations illegally funnelled to Callaway’s campaign by donors who received the money from other people.

    Majumdar’s name has also come up in connection to the RCMP investigation looking into bombshell allegations that Kenney’s UCP leadership team committed “identity fraud” as part of a scheme to cast fake votes using “fraudulent e-mail addresses.”

    In 2019, one Kenney leadership campaign worker told PressProgress that RCMP investigators mentioned Majumdar’s name when they were questioned about UCP memberships. The campaign worker identified Majumdar as one of the “big bosses” to whom they submitted membership forms and processed data.

    The RCMP investigation into Kenney’s leadership campaign is ongoing and no criminal charges have been laid in connection to any allegations. Last summer, the Toronto Star reported the investigation had been potentially compromised after RCMP investigators left thir audio recorders at the home of UCP operative Alan Hallman.

    Despite questions about the 2017 UCP leadership race which may never be resolved, Majumdar won the Calgary-Heritage byelection with 65% of the vote last month.

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    Majumdar, who lists Ottawa and Washington as his current homes, could have a long future in Calgary-Heritage — the riding, previously held by Stephen Harper, is widely considered one of the safest federal Conservative seats in Canada.

    If Majumdar’s past is any indication, his focus and energy will be going well beyond the quiet suburban Calgary riding he now represents.

  • Best Destination for Fall Foliage (2023) – USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards

    Discover the beauty of nature’s palette at these 10 spectacular fall foliage spots.

    It’s that time of year when Mother Nature is gearing up for her annual spectacle of fall colour. And what better way to enjoy it than leaf peeping These 10 destinations — voted by our readers as the top spots in the U.S. — are ideal for viewing the entire spectrum of fall foliage. Source: Best Destination for Fall Foliage (2023) – USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards

  • Lock Down Putin and save a Ukrainian Beauty

    Sanctions! Let’s try Lock Down and put Russia and Belarus on the North Korea shit list for a decade! $50 billion fine for this Humanitarian and Environmental catastrophe to rejoin the world economy…….just saying!