Travel

Fear of radioactivity cramping your active lifestyle? Over-reacting to reports of overheated reactors? The small, lightweight and portable GC-S1 radiation meter from System TALKS clips onto your belt and tallies up the microsieverts while you go about your daily routine.

As unrest in the Middle East gains traction with sympathizers globally, China tightens its current Internet controls. It appears the government's infamous "Great Firewall" has ramped up its interference capabilities on Gmail, virtual private networks (VPNs) and social networks, where disruptions in service some say is "a new kind of attack by Chinese censors."

Based on the premise that travelers can become a brand's strongest advocates, Flip.to, the social media service for hotels, airlines and restaurants launched its 'confirmation' component to beta customers this past year. Over 50 hotels on five continents have integrated with Flip.to to allow guests who book online to receive incentives for communicating with their followers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This month, the social media platform expands to include incentives for Web site visitors as well.

Got money to burn and deceased ancestors to honor? So do many millions of Chinese – and that's the problem. The 2,500-year-old tradition of burning fake money on Tomb-Sweeping Day is meant to boost the fortunes of the deceased but with a population of well over a billion, it's the living who are paying the price.

The European Space Agency has mapped the Earth's changing gravity better than ever before.

Enjoy the ride and protect your bike with an air-cushioned travel bag.

After several years of delays, production on the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid is finally underway. The very first Karmas began rolling off assembly lines in Finland earlier this month.

A bike luxurious enough to bear the Range Rover name.

A 22-mph, 800-Watt motorized skateboard that rides anywhere you want to go.

This is what it's like when worlds collide. Kinda' yuppie, kinda blue collar, it's a BMW pickup car. And, yeah, it's that awesome.

Fancy some ping-pong with your Hong Kong? A unique hotel designed to look like a ping-pong paddle has been 'tabled' to highlight a sports-oriented Olympic park planned for the city of Huainan in eastern China.

Jeans that are comfortable enough to wear for any of your adventures, or functional sport pants that are stylish enough to wear out to dinner--either way, you win.

The Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department at Qatar University have worked out how to keep their stadia cool for the World Cup: build a cloud.

Tokyo's Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, once a symbol of Japan's robust 'bubble economy', was scheduled to close at the end of March. Touched by the plight of people who barely survived the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, however, the owners of the sumptuous 700-room hotel have offered to extend the closing date in order to house approximately 1,600 disaster evacuees.

GM's new, wireless-charging partnership won't affect the Volt's battery pack, but it will make the drive more convenient.

A unicycle that balances itself and gets you around town.

Indicating a possible turn-around for the Japanese auto industry and global auto market, Nissan and Toyota have announced plans for restarting production of certain models.

Do you regularly chew on the end of your pen?  Instead of trying to break the habit why not just go with it?  Dine Ink Pen Cap Cutlery from Fred and Friends is a set of eating utensils that attach to the ends of ordinary pens.

Adaptive skier Chris Devlin-Young recently went where many skiers have failed to go: into the iconic Corbet's Couloir at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The hippie/surf icon is on its way back. At the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month, Volkswagen debuted a new Microbus concept that it calls the Bulli. Company executives have indicated plans of bringing the bus to production.