It's not your imagination. There really is a tighter squeeze on many planes these days. The big U.S. airlines are taking out old, bulky seats in favor of so-called slimline models that take up less space from front to back, allowing for five or six more seats on each plane. The changes, covering some of the most common planes flown on domestic and international routes, give the airlines two of their favorite things: More paying passengers, and a smaller fuel...

An artist rendering showing the bow of the Freedom Ship, a 4,500-foot-long, 750-foot wide ship that would be a 'Community at Sea,' complete with airplanes, office spaces, restaurants and apartments. (Courtesy of Freedom Ship International) At more than a mile long, 25 stories high, and three city blocks wide, the Freedom Ship would be the largest vessel in the world, the size of a small island. Like populated islands around the world, the ship would have its own social and...

Wild vicuna move around inside a temporary corral inside the Apolobamba protected nature reserve near Ucha Ucha, Bolivia on Oct. 8, 2013. Every two years, about a hundred men and women from Ucha Ucha come together for the biennial vicuna shearing, which lasts four days. (AP Photo/Juan Karita) UCHA UCHA, Bolivia — The roar of about 70 motorcycles shatters the quiet of the wind-swept Andean plain as Aymara villagers conduct a frenetic chase to round up wild vicunas for shearing....

While spending more than three months on a ship, photographer Luke Casey captured images of life at sea from behind the circular window of his cabin. (Photo: Luke Casey) A trip on a cruise ship orcan be one of the most extravagant and luxurious travel experiences. But there's a less glamorous side to life at sea, which could mean months of isolation, cramped conditions and facing the daily dangers of sea and weather. In his series titled "Porthole," Hong Kong-based...

Carnival rides at the Osteria ai pioppi in Nervesa della Battaglia, Italy. (Oriol Ferrer Mesia) Amusement park rides without electricity? That’s what the owner of a restaurant in northeastern Italy created to attract more customers. Tucked away in a wooded area near the restaurant, Osteria ai pioppi, are several carnival rides that function only on kinetic energy. Rollercosters, slides, seesaws and tilt-a-whirls use only the energy provided by the people on the rides. (MORE: Vintage Thrills: Amusement Parks Through the...

Roy's, an abandoned motel on Route 66 in Amboy, Calif. (Noel Kerns) Dallas-based photographer Noel Kernstraveled across America photographing several abandoned gas stations, motels and ghost towns in the eerie dead of night. In order to capture his subjects at nighttime, Kerns uses long exposures that range between one to three minutes in length with some supplemental light. And since Kerns works with very limited light, weather conditions are very vital to his work. (MORE: ) “Weather has a major...

Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. (Wayne Simpson) Photographer Wayne Simpson has taken photos in some of the harshest weather conditions in Canada, but according to the Ontario-based photographer, it is those treacherous environments that produce some of his best photos. “In some of these photos the weather was really miserable,” Simpson told Weather.com. “I often find that the more uncomfortable I am, the more original the image, because no one else is crazy enough to be out...

In this June 29, 2013 photo, tourists look at the Forbidden City on a hazy day in Beijing, China. China’s latest tourism slogan 'Beautiful China' has been derided as particularly inept at a time when smog has drawn attention to the environmental costs of China’s industrialization. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan) BEIJING — Forget all the headlines about eye-watering pollution in Beijing and Shanghai — the Middle Kingdom's latest tourism slogan invites visitors to "Beautiful China." Adorning buses and trains in...

Technicians walk the Acqua Vergine aqueduct, one of 11 Roman aqueducts that supply the fountains of Rome, including the Trevi Fountain. Speleologists are completing the first-ever mapping of the aqueducts that supplied ancient Rome and still run underground and along viaducts. (ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images) Rome is dotted with thousands of fountains, many known for its historical and artistic significance. While tourists flock to these magnificent structures, including the famous Trevi Fountain, less is known about the vast network of hidden...

Snakes in a spa? TheBali Heritage Reflexology and Spa in Jakarta, Indonesia is offering a unique massage treatment which involves placing pythons on a client's body. The "snake massage" is said to alleviate stress. The spa claims that the movement of the snakes and the adrenaline triggered by fear have a , according to CBS News. (MORE:) Some are skeptical about the spa's claims. When faced with a stressful situation, such as being covered in snakes, the , among other...

(Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images) Airline passengers soon will be able to use devices such as tablets and e-readers throughout flights, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday. The agency will be loosening , allowing the use of tablets, e-readers, DVD players and video game consoles during these critical phases of flight, according to NBC News. Connecting to the Internet remains prohibited when the plane is less than 10,000 feet in the air. during the entire flight, under a Federal Communications Commission rule,...

Only one-third of the Caves of Nerja in Andalusia, Spain can be visited, but the Plymouth Caving Club went on an expedition to enter previously unexplored passages in the cavern and captured some unbelievable photos. “We had to take a grueling two-and-a-half hour hike with a lot of gear to reach a new cave called Chupadora in which I pushed some new previously unexplored passage,” caver Josh Bratchley from Gunnislake, England told Caters News Agency. (MORE: 10 Spectacular Caves of...

A 'coven of witches' line up for a Halloween portrait dressed in festive witch's hats and improvised costumes circa 1910. (Tanscendental Graphics/Getty Images) The crisp autumn air means it's time to pick out a pumpkin, don a costume and get ready to trick or treat. And it's been that way for a long time. The history of Halloween goes back a long way - about 2000 years - with its roots as deep as the pre-Christian, pagan past of Europe,...