What We’re Reading: When the Oxygen Masks Come Down

A traveler blogger tells the story of his unbelievable flight from hell. Get the scoop in this week’s roundup of travel news.

When Your Plane Drops 20,000 Feet and the Oxygen Masks Come Down

Nomadic Matt of the eponymous travel blog describes my personal travel nightmare: the sudden drop of a plane followed by the release of the oxygen masks. First, “my ear drums begin to sound like popcorn in a microwave,” reports Matt. Then, the oxygen masks came down. “In front of me, I could hear a woman telling her kids ‘Mommy loves you, mommy loves you’ over and over again,” he writes. Finally, something terrifying happens—the plane suddenly plunges toward the ground.

Read Nomadic Matt’s disturbing tale, and find out why his plane took a terrifying dive toward the earth.

New App Is Like Instagram, But for Videos

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Budget Travel brings us Eight Tips for Documenting Your Travels with Vine, a free app that allows users to post professional-looking videos made up of seamlessly edited bite-size six-second video clips. According to Budget Travel, the app is the “Instagram of amateur videomaking,” and it can spruce up your footage with its user-friendly, idiot-proof editing capabilities. See examples of mini-movies made on Vine here.

More Restaurants Ban Food Photography

Restaurants are cracking down on plate paparazzis who routinely snap pictures of their food, according to a new report from The New York Times. Many high-end dining establishments do not allow flash-photography or photography in general anymore. The reason? Free advertizing aside, chefs and restaurant owners feel it wrecks the ambiance. Moe Issa, the owner of Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, told The Times, “It’s a disaster in terms of momentum, settling into the meal, the great conversation that develops. It’s hard to build a memorable evening when flashes are flying every six minutes.”

Do you take pictures of your food at restaurants? Have you ever been asked to put the camera away?