One of the quintessential photo ops for Americans traveling abroad is, as far as I'm concerned, a traffic jam caused by some kind of livestock. Sheep, cows, horses, whatever: surely you've either taken or seen a photo taken through a windshield, the car's ceiling and sides framing a shot of a herd of animals moseying across a country road. While it's not entirely obvious whether or not these giants are holding up traffic, they're clearly on a road. Flickr user t3mujin captured this scene in Portugal.

Have any crazy traffic jam photos? Upload them to Gadling's Flickr pool, and we just might select one for our Photo of the Day feature.

Earlier this week, JFK Airport in New York plugged in their first batch of full body imaging machines. The director of the Department of Homeland Security had many good things to say about them, but when the time came to actually show them off to the media, she handed the floor to some brave volunteers. In a real case of "do as I say, not as I do", Janet Napolitano really only wanted to talk about them, not actually use them.

The new scanners will be used for all passengers selected for secondary screening, but those passengers can decline and be subjected to an enhanced pat-down. Ever since the first scanners were implemented, passengers have been told over and over again that the images will never be misused, and that images won't be stored. With those rules in place, I'm not entirely sure why the head of the department that installed them wouldn't want to show them off herself.

Of course, it could have something to do with the real fear that the radiation is considered unsafe, or that her colleagues working the monitors may see a side of her she doesn't really feel comfortable sharing. She wouldn't be the first government employee to be mocked for something shown on the revealing images.

Now they are showing up at more and more airports, you may have been asked to go through a virtual strip show -were you comfortable with that?



[Photo credit: Getty Images]

Any time I fly an African carrier my friends get worried. While some have good safety records like the ten safest airlines in Africa, others show an abysmal lack of basic care. Such was the case of the ill-fated Filair flight on August 25 that crashed into a house as it approached Bandundu city airport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Twenty people were killed. Authorities claimed the airplane ran out of fuel, but the company said it was a technical problem.

The lone survivor of the crash tells a different tale, Juene Afrique reports. The unnamed survivor says a crocodile slipped out of a sports bag someone had brought as a carry on. The passengers panicked and rushed to the front of the plane, causing a weight imbalance that put the aircraft into a nosedive. The crocodile reportedly survived the crash only to be killed by a machete-wielding local when it emerged from the wreckage.

Whether this is true are not is hard to say. Juene Afrique is a respected news source, but eyewitness testimony can be unreliable, especially when it's anonymous. The plane was a Soviet-era Let-410 like the one shown here. It only seats 19 passengers so it's small enough that if everyone ran to one end it would have weight balance issues. Plus the pilot reportedly complained it was in bad condition. Congolese company Filair is one of many airlines banned from flying into the European Union thanks to its poor track record.

Yet if the crocodile tale is true it wouldn't be one of a kind. An eerily similar incident of a crocodile in a plane happened on an EgyptAir flight last year. Luckily nobody was hurt that time.

[Image courtesy Mottld via Wikimedia Commons. Note that this is not a Filair plane but a Russian carrier]

While many of us were eagerly awaiting that availability of Gogo Inflight on our flights, our friends up in Alaska were waiting to get any kind of inflight access. Thankfully for them, Gogo Inflight just flipped the switch on the first of their towers covering the route between Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Passengers on this 55 minute Alaska Airlines flight can now enjoy their online content on their laptop or other Wi-Fi enabled mobile device. Best of all, the service is being offered complimentary to passengers until the remainder of the network goes live later this year. Once complete, passengers will be able to get online for the first hour of their flight over Alaska, then get back online once their plane reaches the lower 48.

Gogo Inflight Internet is available on 1028 aircraft from 9 airlines - access prices start at just $4.95, and are currently on sale until the end of the month - which means you can get an unlimited subscription for just $19.95. For an overview of their various pricing plans, head on over to Gogoinflight.com.

Here are the hottest gear deals for today, Saturday October 23, 2010. Remember, these deals are often valid for just one day, so act fast before they are gone.

Today's first deal is for the impressive Jawbone Icon Thinker Bluetooth headset. This good looking headset uses the Jawbone technology to create one of the best sounding headsets on the market. On sale at 1saleaday for $39.99. Click here for this deal.

Next up is a Nextar gadget case - this case will hold your GPS unit, phone or other items. Product is free, and shipping is just $2. Click here for this deal.

Today's third deal is for a hands-free Bluetooth carkit. At just over $25, this device could save you $100 tickets if you are caught holding your phone in one of the many hands-free law cities. Click here for this deal.

And finally in today's lineup is a great bargain on the second generation Amazon Kindle. This is the U.S. Wireless version, so it'll get free delivery of books as long as you don't head abroad. At just $109.99, you do get a refurbished version, but most reviews show that it looks brand new. Click here for this deal.

For four thousand years it was the cornerstone of Egyptian religion. It started as a few prayers said in prehistoric times before a body was laid to rest in the desert next to the Nile. As the civilization in Egypt grew the prayers and spells became more elaborate, as did other rites for the dead. They were written inside pyramids and other tombs. Eventually the various rituals and spells were gathered together to create what we call the Book of the Dead. It's made up of numerous chapters in no set order. Individual chapters or groups of chapters were written on tombs, sarcophagi, and rolls of papyrus. The book survived, with various changes and variations that Egyptologists are still puzzling out, until the Christian era.

One of the foremost institutions for collecting and studying the Book of the Dead is the British Museum in London. Now the museum is opening up its archives for an exhibition of its amazing collection of this esoteric masterpiece. Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead features items rarely if ever seen by the public, including the Greenfield Papyrus, the longest scroll of the Book of the Dead at 37 meters. Other items like sarcophagi and tomb figurines will give a complete view of the ancient Egyptian cult of the dead.

The papyri are elaborately illustrated with scenes of the gods and the toils a spirit must go through in the afterlife. In the above scene Anubis leads Hunefer, a dead scribe, to a scale, where his heart will be weighed against the feather of truth. A wicked heart will be heavier than the feather and the monster Ammut, crouching below the scale, will eat it. This image is from the Hunefer Papyrus and will also be on display at the exhibition.

For a taste of what you'll see, check out the online scan of the complete Papyrus of Ani.

Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead runs from 4 November 2010 to 6 March 2011.

[Photo courtesy Jon Bodsworth via Wikimedia Commons]

When it comes to epic road trips, it's tough to beat the one that Mac Mackenney, Chris Rawlings and Steve Mackenney set out on last weekend. The adventurous trio of Brits hit the road in their trusty Range Rover Discovery in hopes of breaking the speed record for driving from London to Cape Town, South Africa. In order to accomplish that feat, they'll need to reach their destination in less than 13 days, 8 hours, and 48 minutes.

The journey will take the men through three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa) and into 21 countries, covering more than 10,000 miles in the process. If they hope to set a new record however, they'll have little time for sightseeing. The three men will take turns driving, and will barely stop at all along their route.

While they are undertaking their Max Adventure for the challenge of it, they're also looking to do some good as well. Mac, Steve, and Chris are hoping to raise funds for the Help For Heroes organization, a charity foundation dedicated to offering practical assistance to British soldiers that have been injured in the line of duty. The trio hopes to raise as much as £10,000 (Roughly $15,500) during their trip.

You can follow the progress of the expedition on the team's website, which includes two clocks, one showing the elapsed time of their drive and another showing how much time they have left to beat the old record. After a week of driving, the boys are in Africa and speeding south, but they still have a long way to go before they reach Cape Town.

This seems like the ultimate road trip to me. Lets grab some drinks and munchies and load up in the Land Rover!

It's possible, of course, that Gadling Flickr pool contributor Favio@Flickr staged this photo, but it looks to me like a random slice of Roman life: a young woman eats gelato demurely, while behind her a wheatpasted poster on a wall creates a political context. The result is a fragment of a fragment of urban life, compelling in its pleasing simplicity and strongly evocative of the city and country where it was shot.

Got a suggestive image in your personal photo archive that captures a mere wisp of a city's essence? Upload it to Gadling's Flickr pool and we might just feature it as our Photo of the Day.

What better to celebrate the anniversary of one of the most luxury resorts Hawaii than with a luxurious anniversary package.

In celebration of the St. Regis Princeville Resort's one-year anniversary, the Kaua'i, Hawaii, resort is offering The Quintessential Anniversary Experience - an indulgent offer that celebrates the hotel in one of the world's most remarkable island retreats.

The Quintessential Anniversary Experience (available until March 31, 2011) offers everything from luxury accommodations to chilled champagne and truffles. The package includes:

• Five nights in premium ocean view accommodations
• Daily breakfast at Makana Terrace
• Around the clock access to the legendary St. Regis Butler Service
• Private ocean side dinner for two
• Romantic couple's massage at the Halele'a Spa

The cost to celebrate the one-year of anniversary of the St. Regis Princeville? $5,500.00. But, can you really put a price on true love?

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

Something's rotten in New Zealand ... at least, that's what three Spanish tourists believe. They were stuck picking up human waste for three hours in the South Island. What did they do to deserve this fate?

Well, they created some of their own in public.

Instead of appearing in court, the three tourists elected for community service that was rather appropriate to the infraction. When they got busted, they denied it at first but ultimately confessed. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, "They provided no other explanation for their behaviour, other than having arrived after dark."

What's pretty wild is that there was three hours' worth of work for them to do. Does that mean this is a common problem in New Zealand?

[photo by Port of San Diego via Flickr]