A passenger uses his mobile phone before a check-in counter of Italian airline Alitalia at Narita International Airport, in suburban Tokyo on April 19, 2010. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images) WASHINGTON -- Just because it's safe to use cellphones on a plane, it doesn't mean that passengers should call just to say hello. That argument played out across Washington Thursday as one government agency moved a step closer to removing its prohibition of in-flight calls while another considered a new ban of...

This photo captures a breathtaking waterfall falling through crystal clear ice caves at the edge of Vatnajokulll National park in South-East Iceland, Oct. 31, 2013. (Alex Bradbury/Caters News Agency) When photographer Alex Bradbury walked over a glacier to reach a remote location in Southern Iceland he didn’t expect to discover a rarely-seen natural phenomenon hidden 30 feet under solid ice — crystal-clear caverns with a waterfall crashing through them. “The trek to reach the cave was very tiring and the...

GeoGuessr A geographer employed by the Farquhar company at Philadelphia at work on a four dimensional world, circa 1955. (Three Lions/Getty Images) With the world changing at a faster rate than ever, threatened by everything from climate change to political revolutions and terrorist attacks, understanding geography is critical to our future. Harm de Blij, a geographer and former editor of National Geographic, says geography is a distressingly underrepresented field of study and in misunderstanding it, we're prone to errors of...

This bathroom has been dubbed the most extreme toilet in the world perched on a cliff 8,530 feet above sea level in Siberia. (Alex Bradbury/Caters News Agency) Eight thousand five hundred and thirty feet above sea level in Siberia, perched on a cliff in the Altai Mountains, is a bathroom that has been dubbed the world’s most extreme toilet. So who exactly needs to use this toilet located in the middle of nowhere? The remote bathroom serves a team of...

Ground crew personnel service Delta planes at the Salt Lake City international Airport on November 27, 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (George Frey/Getty Images) MINNEAPOLIS -- Delta Air Lines won't allow passengers to make voice calls from its planes. Right now, federal rules prohibit voice calls on planes. But the government is indicating that it might loosen those rules. If that happens, it could be up to airlines to set their own policies. On Wednesday, Delta went ahead and...

La Fete de Creppisage - the annual festival of the replastering of the central mosque in Djenne, Mali. Winner of the Cutty Sark Award for Travel Photographer of the Year 2013. (Timothy Allen/www.tpoty.com) From a group of young skateboarders in India to a mud mosque festival in Mali, the winning photos from the 2013 Travel Photographer of the Year competition capture the vast and awe-inspiring range of experiences on planet Earth. With entrants coming from nearly 100 countries to compete...

King Arthur Pendragon, a senior Druid, poses for a photograph as he begins a protest march from the old Stonehenge visitor center to the new one in protest at English Heritage display of ancient human remains on Dec. 18, 2013 in Wiltshire, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) The mysterious monument of Stonehenge has stood without assistance for more than a millennium. It finally received a modern renovation — and the druids aren't happy about it. The £27 million ($44 million) renovations...

Elf houses near Strandakirkja in south Iceland. (Christian Bickel ) REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- In this land of fire and ice, where the fog-shrouded lava fields offer a spooky landscape in which anything might lurk, stories abound of the "hidden folk" - thousands of elves, making their homes in Iceland's wilderness. So perhaps it was only a matter of time before 21st-century elves got political representation. Elf advocates have joined forces with environmentalists to urge the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission...

Some Delta fliers caught a lucky break Thursday. (Getty Images) NEW YORK – Some lucky fliers capitalized on a computer glitch Thursday and scored some really cheap flights on Delta Air Lines. From about 10 a.m. to noon ET, certain Delta fares on the airline's own website and other airfare booking sites were showing up incorrectly, offering some savvy bargain hunters incredible deals. A roundtrip flight between Cincinnati and Minneapolis for February was being sold for just $25.05 and a...

Camels parade in the Liwa desert, west of Abu Dhabi, during the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival on December 22, 2013. The festival, which attracts participants from around the Gulf region, includes a camel beauty contest and other activities aimed at promoting the country's folklore. (KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images) The dusty, rolling sand dunes of the desert in the United Arab Emirates, where temperatures can soar above 104 degrees Fahrenheit, may be one of the most unusual places to hold a beauty...

A reveler takes part in the battle of 'Enfarinats,' a flour fight in celebration of the Els Enfarinats festival on December 28, 2013 in Ibi, Spain. Citizens of Ibi annually celebrate the festival with a battle using flour, eggs and firecrackers. (David Ramos/Getty Images) The area outside the town hall in Ibi, Spain, may look like a snow-covered winter wonderland, but the white powder is actually from a fierce flour fight held to celebrate the 'Els Enfarinats' Festival. Citizens of...

Perched high above the teeming metropolis of Hong Kong, some of the city's poorest residents live in shanties that offer million-dollar views. Known as "sky slums," the shanty towns have spread across the city, built on the roofs of previously existing apartments and tenements. Although they may have light and fresh air, the shacks have plenty of disadvantages. Residents must climb many stories of stairs to reach their homes and they contend with everything from bugs to flooding, said a...

This Dec. 30, 2013 picture shows a general view of the ice lanterns and carvings at the 2014 Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, in northeast China. This year's 'Ice and Snow World' will officially open on January 5, 2014. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) Lit up in spectacular colors, the shimmering palaces and sculptures of the Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival are primed for their 30th appearance in Harbin, China. The festival is one of the largest in the world,...