New Florence. New Renaissance.

The disappearing hotel shower curtain

While hotel bathroom showers used to have curtains, sliding glass doors, or doors that swing outwards, what guests often find now is a shower with a half curve of glass only, or a shower head and drain that are completely open to the rest of the room. Tom Parker, director of boutique hospitality design firm Fettle, says the designs he sees the most often are crittal doors—big panes of clear glass with black frames, which can be used to either fully enclose or partially enclose a space—or "small openings with no door."

Smaller doors give the illusion of a larger room. “The ones that I've worked on, they just make the bathroom feel a bit brighter and a little bit more spacious,” says Strauss.

A physical barrier, no matter how small, also eliminates the need for shower curtains, which can get pretty icky. “Shower curtains, especially cloth curtains, are more likely to trap bacteria than shower glass,” says DeBoer “Frameless shower doors offer less chance of mold build-up [and] are easier to clean.”

CN Traveler

Here are some design ideas from Fontana

 

Airplanes and global warming

But when Stettler and his team analyzed flight data they obtained of Japan airspace, they found that most contrail warming was caused by just 2 percent of flights. And most of those flights originated in the late afternoon—because as the sun goes down, cooling can no longer offset the warming.

“And the warming effect persists throughout the evening, into the night.”

But what if the contrails that contribute the most to warming could be eliminated? Such a change could be achieved if aircraft avoided flying in the thin layers of humidity where contrails form.

“By changing the altitude only by a couple of thousand feet, either up or down, it would no longer form a contrail. And so what we found in this study was that by changing the altitude of less than 2 percent of flights, we could actually get rid of just under 60 percent of the warming effect due to contrails.”

Scientific American

Image credit

 

Bell rethinks the helicopter tail rotor

Sinusas said his team chose the four-fan array because a single larger electric rotor would be heavier and less responsive, with more sluggish changes in speed. Smaller electric fans are also quieter, which was the primary motivation for developing the system. “Noise has always been there, but it really hasn’t been a priority to reduce it until recently,” he added. “We’re at the point where locations are banning helicopter flights because of the noise levels, and that prompted us to ask how we can solve this.”

Converting the tail rotor to an all-electric system solves other problems. It improves stability because the rotors don’t need to be constantly in motion, unlike a conventional tail rotor. The pilot can actually turn the fans off in forward flight, as the vertical fin they’re embedded within stabilizes the aircraft. (Conventional tail rotors are only needed for hovering and low-speed flight, but they run constantly because of the link to the main engine.) Also, because the system is fly-by-wire, meaning controlled electrically rather than through mechanical linkages, the computer can control the fans. This can potentially eliminate the need for the pilot to have to use the pedals at all. An automated version of the EDAT would thus be a form of autopilot.

Finally, the system will help with the current rush toward the electrification of aircraft, particularly air taxis being developed by Bell and dozens of other companies. “It’s certainly a stepping stone toward electrification, and easier than doing it with a full aircraft with a completely new powertrain,” Sinusas noted. It also should be easier to certify than a fresh helicopter design—less than a year versus several years—because only the anti-torque system is changing and being electrified.

Wired

Bunk beds in the sky

Dubbed the “Economy Skynest,” the new cabin section is the culmination of input from hundreds of passengers and three years of research and development at Air New Zealand’s Auckland Hangar 22 innovation center.

The Economy Skynest will consist of a mini sleeper cabin with three bunks on each side of a narrow aisle plus a stepladder to access the two top beds on either side. Details are still scant, but it should be located somewhere in the coach cabin and each bed should be over 58 cm wide (22.8 inches) and 200 cm long (78.7 inches) long. Passengers who book a bed can expect a full-size pillow, sheets, a blanket, ear plugs and privacy curtains as well as lighting options designed to help travelers sleep. The airline is still exploring options like putting in reading lights, air nozzles and personal USB outlets. Passengers would still fly in normal economy seats, but be able to use the Skynest to sleep during some portion of the flight.

Forbes

 

Air Taxis evolve

One scenario presented by German manufacturers Volocopter is air taxi ports build around the city. Air taxis would arrive on landing platforms built on VoloPorts, where travellers can get checked in quickly and board their ride.

But air taxis are being developed for a future where such ports are obsolete, being able to pick passengers with ease from carparks and other spaces.

For that to happen, technology will have to catch up, greatly shrinking the wingspan of many of these vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft to fit safely into these urban spaces.

Slash Gear

Innovating Expedition Travel

Late this year, the Australia-based Aurora Expeditions unveiled its new flagship vessel, the Greg Mortimer, which features a number of technical developments that will make stormy seas more manageable. While a standard bow on a cruise ship has a flat top with a deck that passengers can walk around (think Jack and Rose in Titanic), this one is inverted. Called an X-Bow, it looks like a sort of parrot’s beak, and allows the ship to pierce through waves, as opposed to riding them up and slamming down on the other side.

The trade-off is that an X-Bow doesn’t allow for an accessible exterior deck, so you won’t be able to “king of the world” off its bow. Yet the Greg Mortimer makes up for that with efficiency. The X-Bow ensures more consistent speeds, a smoother ride, 80 percent fewer fuel emissions—that’s right, 80—as well as a crossing of the Drake Passage that can be about half a day quicker than traditional Antarctic cruise vessels. Less time cruising the Drake Passage means more time exploring Antarctica.

CN Traveler

Exponentially growing hotel chain

No, not Marriott. Bloomberg on Oyo Rooms

"Less than a year ago, we were mainly in India and starting to make a mark in China. We were the fourth- or fifth-largest hotel operator in the world. Almost every day we add 70 to 80 hotels. We will open close to 100,000 rooms in the next 30 days. At the end of June, we had 50 properties in 35 U.S. cities. Now we are close to 200 properties.

We were building the business in India, but we were creating a product that we could transport. We redo interiors much faster and more intelligently than other companies. We operate more efficiently through measures like a housekeeping app that incentivizes cleaning a room quickly and getting a high customer rating. We change our prices worldwide about 60 million times daily, maximizing revenue per room based on demand. Three years back we were growing at 60%. This year it will be 300% or more."

"Digital teleportation"

Proponents of the technology, which some call “live delivery,” believe that in the coming years, a mix of virtual reality, fast wireless networks and machines like drones and rovers will allow people to immerse themselves in actual, far-flung environments—in real time. “Live delivery is a new type of tool that will reinvent the way we experience the world, that will allow us to be on the spot when things are happening,” said Marc Carrel-Billiard, senior managing director at Accenture Labs, who advises businesses on VR and augmented reality.

While VR shows prerecorded scenes, live VR, which is starting to show up in classrooms and operating rooms, allows users to experience what is happening in situ. Companies are already starting to pair simplified versions of live VR with drones to give users a sense of being in another place.

WSJ

 

 

Tech to help with Chunyun - the world's largest annual human migration

From CNN Travel

Considered the largest human migration on the planet, Chunyun -- the 40-day period when Chinese people head home to celebrate the Lunar New Year Spring Festival with their families -- officially began on January 10 and will end on February 18. Some 3 billion trips are expected to be made during the 2020 Chunyun period, a slight increase from last year's figure (2.99 billion trips).

New tech will play a part in easing congestion at train stations, highways and airports. More than 1,000 train stations in the country have been installed with e-ticket check-in system to speed up ticketing procedures. Last year also saw the opening of the long-awaited Beijing Daxing International Airport. The Civil Aviation Administration of China estimated that the new airport in the capital city will ferry 190 million passengers during the Lunar New Year period, with 15% more flights than usual. In addition to featuring technology to help flying in low visibility, to reduce the chances of flight delays during adverse weather conditions, Daxing International Airport has also adopted facial recognition and automated technologies to increase efficiency.

Airports around China have scheduled at least 17,000 flights every day, 13.3% higher than last year, to deal with the traffic. Wang Yang, chief engineer of the Ministry of Transport, said that about 790,000 buses and 19,000 boats will be utilized to ferry home-comers. Some 330,000 kilometers of highway has also been built and expanded. Shortly before the Spring Festival rush, the country implemented an electronic collection system at all the toll booths at provincial borders.

a video from last year's travel

 

 

 

 

2020: National Geo's recommended trips

National Geographic's international editors came up with 25 destinations based on 4 categories - culture, city life, nature, and adventure.

Here are some in the Adventure category