Hand-painted ceramics, lanterns, intricately patterned carpets, copperware, gold Byzantine-style jewelry and other goods are on display within the Grand Bazaar's vaulted walkways in Istanbul.
By Kate Appleton, Lyndsey Matthews & April Orcutt, Travel + Leisure
Woody Allen, like so many Americans, finally succumbed to Europe?s charms, directing tributes to London, Barcelona, Paris and now, "To Rome with Love."
But maybe Allen should have looked elsewhere ? Europe?s most-visited attraction won?t be found among those storied cities. It?s in Istanbul, where 15 million people swarm the Grand Bazaar annually.
?The bazaar is an adventure and an experience, not only with the products but with the people ? shopkeepers interact with you, and that?s exciting,? says Ceylan Zere, director of?Context Travel?s Istanbul office. ?It?s a place where you can still see bits and pieces of historic Istanbul.?
Slideshow: See Europe's most-visited attractions
More travelers than ever are seeking out Turkey?s East-meets-West history, making it the seventh-ranked country for international arrivals, with 27 million in 2010 and more than 30 million in 2011, according to the World Tourism Organization. (Six of the 10 most-visited countries are European.) It helps that the dollar has strengthened against the Turkish lira ? and against the euro ? and that an increase in flights to Istanbul has brought down airfares and made it an easy stopover on the way to Africa or Asia.
The most-visited attractions are naturally concentrated in major European hubs, yet a few sights were compelling enough to lure travelers beyond those capital-city limits, notably Cologne Cathedral in Germany and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, tied with 6 million visitors each. ?
France and Italy claim the largest number of attractions among the top 25, and they reflect the spectrum of travelers? interests. While Disneyland Park, not far from Paris, certainly wasn?t on a stop on the traditional Grand Tour, 13.6 million annual visitors now make a vacation out of it.
Blockbuster events are also an influence, and London has been working overtime to prepare for a surge in 2012 around the Olympics and Queen?s Jubilee. Tate Modern, already Europe?s most popular modern art museum, is unveiling its first phase of expansion, one of many?cool new London attractions?altering the skyline.
That?s part of the allure of these much-loved European destinations ? that while their essential character may be comfortingly the same, there?s room for change and new discoveries, too. As Zere put it about the Grand Bazaar: ?I always give my clients directions, but I also like them to get lost because that?s the fun part of it.?
Consider this list of Europe?s most-visited tourist attractions your starting point, and let the fun begin.
The methodology We defined tourist attractions as cultural, historical, and sacred sights, natural landmarks, and officially designated public spaces. We gathered the most recent data supplied by the attractions themselves or from government agencies, industry reports, and reputable media outlets. Venues that don?t sell tickets gave us estimates as best they could, and there was typically no distinction made between domestic and international tourists.
FARNBOROUGH, England (Reuters) - Airbus has won a potential $4.2 billion order for its A350 passenger jet, its first major deal at a subdued Farnborough Airshow, where a faltering global economy is casting clouds as dark as the skies over southern Britain.
The deal announced on Tuesday with Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific is a major boost for the European planemaker, which has been struggling to sell its A350-1000 "mini-jumbo" and make a dent in Boeing's hold on the lucrative corner of the passenger jet market, just below 400 seats.
Boeing itself announced a provisional deal to sell 100 next-generation narrowbody 737 airliners to leasing firm GECAS. They are worth around $9.3 billion at list prices.
That was the U.S. group's second big deal for the revamped plane in as many days, bolstering its fightback against Airbus's A320neo in the top-selling short-haul segment of the market.
Both deals, however, were well flagged in advance of the show, where there have so far been no major surprises.
The event "really has been pretty quiet," said Scott Donnelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Textron Inc, the U.S. manufacturer of Bell and Cessna aircraft. He told Reuters: "It's certainly one of the quieter Farnboroughs."
Boeing and Airbus, which battle for the bulk of a jet market estimated at $100 billion a year, played down expectations ahead of the aerospace industry's showcase gathering, arguing their order books were already bulging.
Despite stuttering economies, they say demand remains strong as airlines modernize fleets to survive high fuel costs and the balance of growth shifts towards Asia, with Boeing raising its long-term industry forecasts last week.
Airbus sales chief John Leahy was in typically combative and upbeat form: "The party's over?. Why, it's only the second day of the show, for heavens' sake," he said of suggestions orders were drying up. "We'll have some important announcements.
"The order rate has to slow down at some point," he told Reuters Insider TV. "We're looking at six to seven years worth of production running flat out if we don't sell anything for the next six or seven years."
However, some analysts say the euro zone debt crisis and slowing economic growth in China could see existing orders delayed or cancelled, and that some recent deals suggest Airbus and Boeing are heading into a price war.
"We can't see how it could be a very successful airshow this year," Cheuvreux analysts said in a research note, predicting the Farnborough week will produce a combined 300-400 orders for Airbus and Boeing, less than half the number at the equivalent annual show at Paris last year.
ATTACK, THE BEST FORM OF DEFENCE
Defense firms are braced for even tougher times as governments on both sides of the Atlantic rein in spending to reduce their debts, although they expect demand from Asia and the Middle East to ease the pain.
"We're anticipating that the defense budget downturn in both the United States and Europe is a longer-term downturn, so we expect that to be a relatively flat market for us over the next decade," Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive of Boeing's defense division, told Reuters Insider TV.
Marillyn Hewson, who will take over as president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Corp, agreed the outlook was challenging at home, but saw opportunities in areas like unmanned systems and cybersecurity.
"It's an unpredictable world that we're in. We don't know what's going to happen with global security," she told Reuters.
ALL SHAPES AND SIZES
Airbus, owned by European aerospace giant EADS, said Cathay Pacific planned to buy 10 new A350-1000 aircraft, worth around $3.2 billion at list prices. It also converted an existing order for 16 A350-900 jets to the larger model, adding a further $1 billion to the possible new income from the say's signing.
The carbon-composite A350 spans two of the accepted categories of airliner, aiming to challenge the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as well as the U.S. company's most profitable plane, the 777 mini-jumbo.
Boeing, meanwhile, said GECAS had committed to buy 75 of its 737 MAX 8 planes as well as 25 of its next-generation 737-800.
That deal leaves Boeing well ahead of Airbus in terms of orders at the rain-soaked airshow.
The GECAS deal was widely anticipated. The leasing firm's parent company General Electric has a joint venture with France's Safran to produce the LEAP engines that will power the 737 MAX.
Earlier in the day, Boeing unveiled long-awaited details on the payload and range of the 737 MAX, arguing it would fly farther and offer more revenue potential than both its predecessor and its main competitor.
"We did come a little bit late to the party, but the acceptance of this product is overwhelming. Customers really like what they see," Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes told Reuters Insider TV.
Like Airbus's Leahy, he was optimistic demand would hold up.
"There's no question here in Europe, the airlines have been suffering. At the same time, we do see markets that are successful," he said. "But the goods news is: traffic is growing and airlines as a whole this year should be profitable."
(Additional reporting by Karen Jacobs, Paul Ingrassia and Rhys Jones; Writing by Mark Potter; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
For a decade, scientists largely ignored a fossil of a juvenile, late-Jurassic flying reptile that?s just 14 centimeters long. It appeared to be just another of some 120 specimens of the genus Rhamphorhynchus excavated at Germany?s famed Solnhofen limestone beds.
Closer inspection now shows it?s something new, David Hone of the University of Bristol in England and his colleagues report July 5 in PLoS ONE. They?re creating a genus dubbed Bellubrunnus, or Brunn beauty, to honor the German quarry where it was unearthed.
The tiny flyer has fewer teeth and a more flexible tail than other Rhamphorhynchus-like pterosaurs. And the outermost bone of each wing curves outward, distinguishing it from any known flying vertebrate alive or extinct. This would have made flying somewhat harder, Hone explains, but afforded somewhat improved maneuverability to this animal, which had a perhaps meter-wide wingspan at maturity.
Some women like reading men?s health and fitness magazines. They?re drawn to the funny, self-deprecating tone, the functional workout tips and the emphasis on sweat, competition and strength training.
Yes, women?s magazines have these elements but on a vastly diminished scale. They?re fluffier, in part because beauty products and clothes are considered health-related, but also because women are still plagued by the irrational fear of ?bulking up.? We won?t get huge without added testosterone, but some magazines still perpetuate the notion that men should build insanely huge muscles and women need to lose fat.
A recent Muscle & Fitness magazine cover, for example, promised ?75 of the Best Muscle Building Exercises.? By contrast, Muscle & Fitness Hers, the female counterpart to the bodybuilder mag, featured thinspiration, including ?The Skinny on Fat Loss? and ?The Best Natural Appetite Suppressants.? The majority of advertisements touted fat-burning supplements, stimulants and weight loss products.
Men?s Health and Women?s Health magazines have plenty of overlapping content. Both recognize that both genders compete in marathons and triathlons, want great abs in 15 minutes and need nutritional guidance. But the editors use considerably different voices to reach their male and female readers.
?For Women?s Health, it?s a confiding, challenging, sisterly thing ? equal parts encouragement, sympathy and advice. It comes from a place of ?just us girls,?? said David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men?s Health and editorial director of Women?s Health.
?Guys tend to be a bit more bracing with their counsel, with a healthy dose of humor ? plus self-denigration ? thrown into the mix,? Zinczenko added. ?First we laugh at ourselves, then we laugh at you, then we deliver the goods straight up, with an expert chaser.?
Women?s Health also uses a larger typeface than Men?s Health. Though it may be simply a design decision, larger fonts can elicit stronger emotional brain responses, according to a study by German researchers.
Men?s workouts are usually cast as a way to build a stronger body. Women?s exercises are given cute, superficial names, such as ?The Wedding Dress Workout? or ?The Bikini Body Booty routine.? Rather than sending the message that exercise builds muscle, confidence and improves mental health, the emphasis is on looking good. If your workout goal is to fit into a swimsuit, you?re using an unsustainable approach to fitness. But if your goal is to get healthy ? which means incorporating it as a lifestyle ? you?ll have a body that you want to show off.
Still, some women ? and magazines ? are catching on. At Details, where 32 percent of the online readership is female, there?s a growing recognition that ?the gender boundaries in fitness studios and gyms have been blurred,? said Details senior editor Sheila Monaghan, who edits the health, fitness and nutrition section. ?Fitness has become this sort of equalizer between the sexes,? she said. ?Everyone wants the same results.?
||
Some women like reading men?s health and fitness magazines. They?re drawn to the funny, self-deprecating tone, the functional workout tips and the emphasis on sweat, competition and strength training.
Yes, women?s magazines have these elements but on a vastly diminished scale. They?re fluffier, in part because beauty products and clothes are considered health-related, but also because women are still plagued by the irrational fear of ?bulking up.? We won?t get huge without added testosterone, but some magazines still perpetuate the notion that men should build insanely huge muscles and women need to lose fat.
A recent Muscle & Fitness magazine cover, for example, promised ?75 of the Best Muscle Building Exercises.? By contrast, Muscle & Fitness Hers, the female counterpart to the bodybuilder mag, featured thinspiration, including ?The Skinny on Fat Loss? and ?The Best Natural Appetite Suppressants.? The majority of advertisements touted fat-burning supplements, stimulants and weight loss products.
Men?s Health and Women?s Health magazines have plenty of overlapping content. Both recognize that both genders compete in marathons and triathlons, want great abs in 15 minutes and need nutritional guidance. But the editors use considerably different voices to reach their male and female readers.
?For Women?s Health, it?s a confiding, challenging, sisterly thing ? equal parts encouragement, sympathy and advice. It comes from a place of ?just us girls,?? said David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men?s Health and editorial director of Women?s Health.
?Guys tend to be a bit more bracing with their counsel, with a healthy dose of humor ? plus self-denigration ? thrown into the mix,? Zinczenko added. ?First we laugh at ourselves, then we laugh at you, then we deliver the goods straight up, with an expert chaser.?
Women?s Health also uses a larger typeface than Men?s Health. Though it may be simply a design decision, larger fonts can elicit stronger emotional brain responses, according to a study by German researchers.
Men?s workouts are usually cast as a way to build a stronger body. Women?s exercises are given cute, superficial names, such as ?The Wedding Dress Workout? or ?The Bikini Body Booty routine.? Rather than sending the message that exercise builds muscle, confidence and improves mental health, the emphasis is on looking good. If your workout goal is to fit into a swimsuit, you?re using an unsustainable approach to fitness. But if your goal is to get healthy ? which means incorporating it as a lifestyle ? you?ll have a body that you want to show off.
Still, some women ? and magazines ? are catching on. At Details, where 32 percent of the online readership is female, there?s a growing recognition that ?the gender boundaries in fitness studios and gyms have been blurred,? said Details senior editor Sheila Monaghan, who edits the health, fitness and nutrition section. ?Fitness has become this sort of equalizer between the sexes,? she said. ?Everyone wants the same results.?
When you're connected to free Wi-Fi in a dubious Internet caf?, it's probably not the best time to log in to your bank or download documents from work. Sometimes, though, you just don't have access to a connection with better security. If you really need to transmit sensitive communications over an untrusted network, OPSWAT's free Secure Virtual Desktop can help.
Secure Virtual Desktop requires no installation, so you can use it even when logged in with a non-Administrator account. You simply download the app and launch it. After an optional check for active malware, it switches into a secure version of the Windows desktop. Your regular desktop is still present; you can even switch back and forth.
When you're using the secure desktop, the only browser permitted is Internet Explorer, and it always runs in InPrivate browsing mode. Anything you save locally while using the secure desktop will vanish when the session ends. PrintScreen and printing in general isn't allowed. It also blocks access to network and removable drives. Apps running on the main desktop can't interact with secured apps. It even prevents copy/paste between the secure desktop and the regular desktop.
It's easy to see when you're in secure mode. The desktop background changes, all desktop icons vanish, and a small floating window with a shield icon indicates that you're in secure mode. Clicking a button in that floating window lets you switch back and forth between regular and secure desktops.
While Secure Private Desktop is not itself a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tool, OPSWAT promotes it as enhancing VPN security. During a secure session, your IP address is masked. I found that IP geolocation placed my test system in Georgia when it's really in California. That means Google and other sites that gather information associated with your IP address will be fooled.
Active Malware Check I tried launching Secure Virtual Desktop on the twelve malware-infested test systems that I use for antivirus testing, to test the effectiveness of its pre-launch scan for active malware. It found some, but not all, of the active threats on half the systems, and warned that my secure session might conceivably be compromised. It erroneously reported no malware on three of the test systems, and failed to run properly on the other three. That quick scan for active malware is a nice idea, but it clearly doesn't actually detect all threats.
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ScienceDaily (July 2, 2012) ? A new species of feathered dinosaur discovered in southern Germany is further changing the perception of how predatory dinosaurs looked. The fossil of Sciurumimus albersdoerferi,which lived about 150 million years ago, provides the first evidence of feathered theropod dinosaurs that are not closely related to birds.
The fossil is described in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 2.
"This is a surprising find from the cradle of feathered dinosaur work, the very formation where the first feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx was collected over 150 years ago," said Mark Norell, chair of the Division of Palaeontology at the American Museum of Natural History and an author on the new paper along with researchers from Bayerische Staatssammlung f?r Pal?ontologie und Geologie and the Ludwig Maximilians University.
Theropods are bipedal, mostly carnivorous dinosaurs. In recent years, scientists have discovered that many extinct theropods had feathers. But this feathering has only been found in theropods that are classified as coelurosaurs, a diverse group including animals likeT. rexand birds. Sciurumimus -- identified as a megalosaur, nota coelurosaur -- is the first exception to this rule. The new species also sits deep within the evolutionary tree of theropods, much more so than coelurosaurs, meaning that the species that stem from Sciurumimus are likely to have similar characteristics.
"All of the feathered predatory dinosaurs known so far represent close relatives of birds," said palaeontologist Oliver Rauhut, of the Bayerische Staatssammlung f?r Pal?ontologie und Geologie. "Sciurumimus is much more basal within the dinosaur family tree and thus indicates that all predatory dinosaurs had feathers."
The fossil, which is of a baby Sciurumimus, was found in the limestones of northern Bavaria and preserves remains of a filamentous plumage, indicating that the whole body was covered with feathers. The genus name ofSciurumimus albersdoerferirefers to the scientific name of the tree squirrels,Sciurus, and means "squirrel-mimic"-referring to the especially bushy tail of the animal. The species name honours the private collector who made the specimen available for scientific study.
"Under ultraviolet light, remains of the skin and feathers show up as luminous patches around the skeleton," said co-author Helmut Tischlinger, from the Jura Museum Eichstatt.
Sciurumimusis not only remarkable for its feathers. The skeleton, which represents the most complete predatory dinosaur ever found in Europe, allows a rare glimpse at a young dinosaur. Apart from other known juvenile features, such as large eyes, the new find also confirmed other hypotheses.
"It has been suggested for some time that the lifestyle of predatory dinosaurs changed considerably during their growth," Rauhut said. "Sciurumimus shows a remarkable difference to adult megalosaurs in the dentition, which clearly indicates that it had a different diet."
Adult megalosaurs reached about 20 feet in length and often weighed more than a ton. They were active predators, which probably also hunted other large dinosaurs. The juvenile specimen of Sciurumimus, which was only about 28 inches in length, probably hunted insects and other small prey, as evidenced by the slender, pointed teeth in the tip of the jaws.
"Everything we find these days shows just how deep in the family tree many characteristics of modern birds go, and just how bird-like these animals were," Norell said. "At this point it will surprise no one if feather like structures were present in the ancestors of all dinosaurs.
The study was financed by the Volkswagen Foundation and the American Museum of Natural History.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Museum of Natural History.
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Journal Reference:
Oliver W. M. Rauhut, Christian Foth, Helmut Tischlinger, and Mark A. Norell. Exceptionally preserved juvenile megalosauroid theropod dinosaur with filamentous integument from the Late Jurassic of Germany. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1203238109
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