Rise of the One-Day Biz Trip

Gas, airfare up 20% from a year ago

(NEWSER) - Tens of millions of Americans are now on the move for Thanksgiving, but the soaring cost of travel is keeping many others at home. Some 42.5 million Americans are expected to drive, fly, or ride trains over the holiday, and gas prices are up almost 20% from last year, according to AAA, as is the cost of a round-trip plane ticket on the top 40 US routes. Most Amtrak fares are also up from a year ago, but only by 2% to 5%. More»

Applicant pool for 2010 temp jobs is unusually qualified

(NEWSER) - For the Census Bureau, the recession is good news: With unemployment near 10%, professionals with advanced degrees are applying for temporary census jobs in droves. The bureau will hire at least 700,000 people in the spring and summer to make house calls on census laggards and perform organizational tasks. The applicant pool is strikingly different than the one in 2000, when record-low unemployment meant workers ended up being mostly retirees. More»

From the smug first-class traveler to loud babies

(NEWSER) - There are lots of reasons to dislike getting on an airplane; herewith, Guyism points out the most annoying types of people you’ll run into as you fly the friendly skies:

• The first-class flier: Sorry, Jeff Wysaski writes to “this smug assembly of businessmen, trust fund kids and trophy wives … a little extra legroom and a warm chocolate chip cookie does not make you more important than me.”

Airlines ramp up discounts in promotional offers

(NEWSER) - The latest airfare deals aren't online or at travel agencies—they're targeted promotional fares, being emailed and tweeted to customers who sign up to receive them or who enroll in frequent-flier programs. These under-the-radar offers, an inexpensive form of advertising increasingly popular with recession-battered airlines, range from 10% discounts to buy-one-get-one-free ticket deals, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Spend much less, get slightly less, but hey, it's a recession

(NEWSER) - A bunch of older gadgets—read: last year's models—"work fantastically well yet have been largely forgotten," Farhad Manjoo writes on Slate . What's more, they're relatively cheap, and perfect for the penny-pinching holiday shopper. A sampling:

• Kindle 1: The design is a bit "off-putting," and the device holds 200 titles compared with 1,500 for the latest version, but hey, it works. And it's less than $160, not $259.