INTERESTING NEWS
Best Affordable Cruise: Celebrity "Reflection"
"Having the ability to accommodate thousands of guests per ship allows Royal Caribbean to keep rates low," says the U.S. News and World Report rankings on Best Cruise Lines. "Cruisers won't have trouble finding itineraries costing less than $100 per person per day."
Affordable doesn't mean uncomfortable. The Celebrity "Reflection" is equipped with cool features such as a system that allows guests to change mattress settings with iPhones or iPads.
Character meet and greets, diverse kids' programs and kid-free zones for parents are reasons this Disney ship is named the best for family cruises.
Namibia's Skeleton Coast: The most pristine place in Africa?
The Skeleton Coast is a tough place, but the starkness gives it a unique allure.
This may be Africa but a tour of the Skeleton Coast focuses on small animals, not big game -- lizards, jackals, insects and birds. They're the ones most likely to survive in this arid region.
Animal bones give the Skeleton Coast its name but there are plenty of ships' carcasses, too.
Seals' antics provide light relief. Their smell is also pretty distracting.
The Himba are Namibia's last pastoralists, with a diet consisting solely of meat. The women clean their skins with ocher.
Skeleton Coast animals rely on special techniques to obtain moisture. Jackals lick humidity from stones; beetles channel droplets along their backs and into their mouths.
Air trapped between grains of sand makes the dunes "roar" when you toboggan down them.
12 of the World's Most Spectacular Christmas Trees
The 900 plastic bottles used to make this London tree were meant as a statement on Christmas consumerism. And a good one: 900 bottles sounds like a helluva lot.
Fendi "bag bugs" festoon the fashion house's tree at the Hotel de Russie, Rome. Get up close and you'll hear it going "mwah mwah" and making snotty comments in five languages.
This one reflects the baroque style shared by the host Grand Hôtel de Bordeaux & Spa and Bordeaux's opera house. Also sings in a nice soprano. We assume.
Built with 400,000 Lego blocks. Hey, did kids make this thing?
The world's largest "in-store" Christmas tree was designed by Swatch. Batteries not included. Good luck getting it home.
It's big, it's bright -- and it's not actually a tree but a 25-meter metal frame covered in fir tree branches. At least they're not plastic. But they probably are flammable.