Cell Phone Use During Flight

You may not use a cell phone on any aircraft during flight. You may use a cell phone while the aircraft is on the ground if permitted by the pilot-in-command.

Airplane or "game" mode, found on some of the newer phones, is designed to prevent incoming or outgoing calls by disconnecting the telephone from the wireless network. You can still access other phone features, such as games.

While airplane mode is designed to prevent possible interference with the aircraft, it is up to the airline to decide if they will allow cell phones to be used in this mode during flight. Passengers should check with crew members before operating cell phones in this mode. Crew members may verify that cell phones are being operated only in a noninterference mode and may still request that they be turned off if interference is suspected.

Tips for Traveling Overseas

Next week, I’ll be in the Eternal City exploring ruins, drinking wine, eating gelato, and of course, shopping. But before I can say Ciao, I need to make sure I’m prepared for my trip overseas.

Thanks to Marybeth’s post on travel docs, I have the 411 on everything from entry requirements to the exchange rate‚a necessity for Woman With Luggagecalculating how much the “must have” Italian shoes and bags will cost me. Speaking of shopping, it’s a good idea to make note of your credit card limit and to find out how to report a loss of your card abroad. And don’t forget to get a number that you can call while overseas since the 800 numbers don’t work. You may also want to ask if your card has a “foreign currency conversion fee,” which can sometimes be up to 3%.

I’ve also learned from other overseas trips to leave my travel itinerary and copies of important documents (passport, will, driver’s license, etc.) with a family member or friend. But what do I do if my passport is lost or stolen in Italy? Or, I unfortunately get sick?

USA.gov’s International Travel section is full of useful links that can answer these questions and many more. You can get customs and health info, tips for long-distance calling, emergency services facts, and much more. There’s also important info on how to stay safe on your trip abroad at Pueblo.gsa.gov.

Feel free to share any stories, tidbits, or helpful websites on traveling overseas. In addition to the resources I’ve linked to, I always have found Budget Travel and NBC’s Travel Editor, Peter Greenberg, to be invaluable.

China Climate

China has a marked continental monsoonal climate characterized by great variety. Northerly winds overcome in winter, while southerly winds reign in summer. The four seasons are rather distinct. The rainy season coincides with the hot season. From September to April the following year, the dry and cold winter monsoons from Siberia and Mongolia in the north regularly become weak as they reach the southern part of the country, resulting in cold and dry winters and huge differences in temperature. The summer monsoons previous from April to September.

The warm and moist summer monsoons from the oceans bring plentiful rainfall and high temperatures, with little difference in temperature among the south and the north. China's complex and varied climate results in a great mixture of temperature belts, and dry and moist zones. In terms of temperature, the nation can be separated from south to north into equatorial, tropical, sub-tropical, warm-temperate, temperate, and cold-temperate zones; in requisites of moisture, it can be divided from southeast to northwest into humid (32 percent of land area), semi-humid (15 percent), semi-arid (22 percent) and arid zones (31 percent).

Historical Museum Guide for The United States

A directory of Historical Museums in the United States, classified by state and county. Along with the wide-ranging list of history museums you will find historic digital photo collections, state history timelines, state symbols, local histories, free travel guides, old historic newspapers, traveler information and other matters of historical significance for each of the states in the United States.

Taking a trip? A visit to these history museums and historical societies will permit you to soak up some local history and culture while you are there. Many of these have implicit tours and photos you can view online.... like visiting without leaving home! Visiting historic places can help you see from side to side the eyes of your ancestors and learn more about how they lived.

Historic Shipwrecks - Our Maritime Heritage of Australia

The Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Program aims to enlarge knowledge, use, appreciation and enjoyment of Australia's historic shipwreck heritage, while also ensuring the continuous conservation, protection and preservation of these wrecks and relics.

More than 6 500 wrecks lie extremely soon beyond Australia's surf-worn shores. Few of us will ever see them, but each has its own single story and forms an important part of our heritage.

Australia has a rich maritime history which can be traced back some 60 000 or more years to the appearance of Aboriginal people. They were followed later by the Macassans, who came to fish Australia's northern waters. In the 17th century, Europeans, including the Dutch, English and French, began arriving on the coast of the southern continent, having braved extraordinary distances in small sailing boats.

The earliest recorded remains is the English vessel Trial, which foundered in 1622 on the North West Coast of Western Australia. Other wrecks followed in the 17th and 18th centuries, which saw a number of Dutch East India Company ships foundering on the gravel coast of Western Australia.

After Captain James Cook's 1770 voyage in the Endeavour, Australia's coastline became the focal point for hundreds of ships from the Northern Hemisphere. But some of these little European sailing ships venturing into Australia's often treacherous waters never returned.

These shipwrecks and associated relics often give us with what may be the only means of documenting and understanding important aspects of our history. Some, like HMS Pandora off the Great Barrier Reef or the Japanese I-124 submarine in the Northern Territory, are internationally essential for their historical associations.