Researchers studying customs seizures at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris have discovered that smuggling of illegal meat is a huge problem.

Up to 270 tons of illegal meat may be coming into Europe from Africa every year. The study made its estimate based on customs searches over a 17 day period involving 134 passengers from 14 African countries. Nine people were caught with bushmeat weighing a total of 188 kilos (414 lbs). The defendants had a variety of dead animals in their bags, including primates, crocodiles, and rodents. Some were protected species.

Bushmeat, the common term for animals hunted in the African countryside for food, makes up to 80% of protein and fat in the diet of rural Africans. Much of the hunting is for rodents and deer that aren't endangered, but this practice has also led to some species being pushed onto the endangered species list or becoming locally extinct. Importing bushmeat is illegal in Europe, but the taste for exotic foods, or nostalgia for good home cooking, has led to a major trade in wild animals.

While it's not a headline grabber like discovering a shipment of human heads, officials say bushmeat smuggling poses a health risk and contributes to wildlife extinction.

Photo courtesy Amcaja via Wikimedia Commons.

The Tour Divide mountain bike race got underway last week in Banff, Alberta, Canada, where nearly 50 hardcore fat tire enthusiasts set off on the longest off road biking trail in the world. They'll now ride the entire length of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a distance of 2745 miles, before reaching the finish line along the U.S.-Mexico border, in Antelope Wells, New Mexico.

The trail ranges from practically non-existent all the way up to jeep trails, with just about everything in between. The entire route is unmarked, so the riders have to navigate their way along the GDMBR on their own. They'll also have to go completely unsupported, carrying all of their gear and supplies with them along the way. Aside from that, there isn't much in the way of rules. The race clock runs non-stop, there are no checkpoints, and it is up to the rider to decide how far they'll ride each day, and when they'll stop to take breaks.

The full route winds it's way through Alberta and British Columbia, before crossing the border into the U.S. and continuing south through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and finally New Mexico. The riders will gain more than 200,000 feet of altitude along the way, as they ride through some of the most stunning scenery that the U.S. and Canada has to offer. The mountain passes will challenge their legs and leave them breathless for sure.

To give you an idea of what kind of athletes ride in the Tour Divide, last year's winner, Matthew Lee, finished the ride in just 18 days, which works out to more than 152 miles per day across some very unforgiving terrain.

[Photo credit: Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race]

Curaçao is holding on to its reputation as an overlooked jewel, despite a slow tide of increased travel media attention. Among other draws, the most populous island in the Netherlands Antilles has its quaint capital Willemstad, good diving, and some lovely restaurants on offer.

The 350-room Hyatt Regency Curaçao Golf Resort, Spa and Marina (quite a mouthful, yes) opened with a high profile in March in Porta Blancu in the southeastern corner of the island. To encourage prospective guests, the resort is currently offering a "Three for Free" package, which offers a free night, a complimentary breakfast for up to two adults and two children, and a room upgrade. Any booking for four days or longer is eligible for the package.

The resort is swank and brand-new. Among its more impressive features are an 18-hole golf course, a farm-to-table dining program, and the in-house Atabei Spa, which incorporates Curaçao's indigenous plants, herbs and sea salts into its treatments.

Most notably, the "Three for Free" package is available through December 22, which means that it will be available long after the slow summer season has drawn to a close, and in fact right up to the start of winter high season in the Caribbean.

(Image: Flickr/Jessica Bee)

Don't you just hate it when you realize your favorite Chloe bag is at home, and you're 35,000 feet in the air? Good news fashionistas: the savvy shoppers at Virgin America have found a way to ensure you aren't without your favorite luxe items.

Virgin America and Gilt Groupe, the invitation-only online shopping site featuring hundreds of luxe-designers, have partnered to provide travelers with bonus Elevate points for shopping in style.

Here's how it works: Make a purchase on Gilt Groupe using your Elevate number and receive 500 bonus points towards your Elevate Frequent Flier program with Virgin America. After 30 days from your purchase, members will get 500 bonus points. Thereafter, you'll get 250 Elevate bonus points per $250 purchase.

Gilt Groupe offers Men's, Women's and Children's favorite fashion and luxury brands at up to 70 percent off retail prices. Membership is free, so it won't cost you to join. Gilt publishes new sales and designers on a daily basis and you have 36 hours to buy from that sale. You can check out the designers and upcoming sales during the preview period (usually a few days before the sale opens) and start picking your items.

Word to the wise from this Gilt Groupe shopper: Get online early and grab your item! It's a first-come, first-served site so when the item is gone, it's gone for good.

Want more? Get your dose of Daily Pampering right here.

Right now, at the hotel a few blocks from where you live or work, there's a good chance that something exciting is happening. It isn't a dropped tray in the restaurant or a housekeeper walking in on a tryst. It's far greater: the future is being planned, defined. Two partners are putting the finishing touches on a presentation to venture capitalists. A person who has spent years developing a product is pitching it to the person who might be his first customer.

Some of these meetings will amount to nothing, a lifetime's effort yielding nothing but a story. Others, however, will produce everything from satisfaction to incredible amounts of wealth. From the crowd of startup jockeys occupying space in hotel lobbies, jobs will be created, and countless lives will be changed.

If you want to see the future from conception, it's happening now – and it's happening in a hotel lobby.

While there have been a lot of angry comments here on Gadling about Egypt's smoking ban and the even stricter smoking ban in Finland, neither country has tried to pretend people didn't smoke in the past. Now someone at the Winston Churchill's Britain at War Experience, a London museum, seems to have decided dead people could get lung cancer and airbrushed out a cigar from a photo of Winston Churchill.

A visitor to the museum noticed that a famous photo of Churchill hanging above the entrance had been doctored to remove a cigar from his mouth. The altered photo and the original can be seen here. The museum denies all responsibility and says it's investigating, but being a museum they shouldn't have to wait for a member of the public to correct their history, especially about the very person the museum is named after.

Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War Two and was famous for lighting up a stogy faster than you can say "Dresden bombing." He also drank regularly, but his lungs and liver were apparently none the worse for wear since he died of a stroke at age ninety.

Photo courtesy Deutsches Bundesarchiv.

Sunset, the Menlo Park, California-based lifestyle magazine, is an outstanding regional magazine with excellent tips for travel and dining in the Western and Pacific states. The magazine remains fresh issue after issue, and strikes that essential editorial balance between helping and inspiring readers.

Toward the former end, it offers directed tips; toward the latter, it inspires imaginative thinking on the part of its readers about travel, gardening, cooking, and home renovation. Sunset's brief includes the Western US states from Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico on west, and extends to Alaska, Hawaii, and western Canada and Mexico.

The June issue is loaded with good travel stories. Two highlights are Peter Fish's examination of Carmel on high and low budgets and Rachel Levin's take on the Idaho Sawtooths, introduced as the "hidden Rockies." The Sawtooths article concludes with a list of four more "hidden ranges" that don't get much attention. This pairing is vintage Sunset: one well-known, highly visited spot alongside one much less well-known.

The May 2010 issue, all archived online, is devoted largely to travel. Star features included an insider's guide to offbeat Maui, a long weekend stay in the San Juan Islands, and a 24-hour trip to Yosemite.

Sunset's Travel Update blog touts good hotel deals across the Western states. Latest posts include tips on hotels in Ventura, Zion National Park, Healdsburg, San Luis Obispo county, and Palo Alto.

Although Sunset is by no means exclusively a travel magazine, its archive may just provide the best Western states travel guide around. It takes perennially popular destinations as seriously as it takes quirky places on the landscape that get little attention, and it is indispensable in its coverage of both.

(Image: Flickr/stephenhanafin)

Look - I won't open by pretending everyone could benefit from a Satellite phone, but if you regularly find yourself in the great outdoors, well away from any kind of cellular coverage, the investment could easily be justified. And no - by "no cellular coverage", I don't mean iPhone users in Manhattan.

Satellite phones operate exactly as their name implies - they use satellites to make their calls. This means you'll have coverage almost anywhere in the world, thanks to three satellites that will get a signal on top of Mount Everest, or in the middle of the ocean.

Satworx just announced a pretty revolutionary new satellite phone - not only because of its size, but because it brings the price of satellite telephony down to the point where it becomes an affordable luxury.

Their IsatPhone Pro retails for $495 - and airtime is just 75 cents/minute with a monthly service fee of $19.95. A $49.95 plan adds 60 minutes of talk time. And when you think back to how much you were paying for cellular service just ten years ago, you'll realize why this is indeed a great bargain.

The phone itself is features Bluetooth and a MicroUSB charging port. In addition to satellite signals, it will also work on most GSM networks. The package comes with the phone itself, AC, car and PC chargers and a support CD.

You'll find the order page, along with more information on the Inmarsat satellite telephony and data services at Satworx.com.

[Image credit: Satworx]

Here are the hottest gear deals for today, Friday June 18, 2010. Remember, these deals are often valid for just one day, so act fast before they are gone.

Today's first deal comes from Woot, where you'll find a 150 watt car AC power inverter. Feed this thing DC power from your car outlet, and it'll give you regular 110V, with enough capacity to charge your laptop or other low power device. On sale for $7.99. Click here for this deal.

If you regularly travel with your laptop, consider making life a little easier with this Kensington USB docking station. The product takes one plug from your laptop, and lets you plug your network, speakers and other USB devices into it. On sale for $45.34 - but after a $40 mail in rebate, the final price is just $5.34. Click here for this deal.

Our third deal for today is a really cheap Bluetooth headset - the "Bumblebee B3" is on sale over at ABT.com for $9.99. Click here for this deal.

And finally in today's lineup is a Philips three outlet travel strip. Since most hotels still firmly believe that everyone should be happy with just one open outlet, a travel strip could be a real lifesaver. On sale for $5.99 with free shipping.