Images from Jimmy Chin and other National Geographic photographers documenting the extreme climbing culture evolving in Yosemite National Park.IN YOSEMITE, a new generation of superclimbers are scaling routes ropeless, tightrope walking thousands of feet above waterfalls, living in “portaledges” 1,500 feet above the valley, and BASE jumping back down once they’re done.

This Friday Fun is about an ad from South African airline Kulula that managed to rouse the ire of FIFA — despite not mentioning it or the World Cup by name.THE AD, WHICH ran in mid-March, was part of a marketing campaign by Kulula that poked fun at both recent airline price-fixing scandals and FIFA’s strict control over the use of the World Cup name.

What can the Buddha teach you about saving for your dream trip? Follow these steps to reach financial nirvana.EVERYDAY WE SEE more and more people who dare to leave it all for a few years of backpacking throughout the earth’s vast terrain.We hear about the adventures, the misfortunes, the soul-searching, the friends found, the friends lost, the breathtaking sights, the new sensations.

Morgan deBoer has gained a lot of knowledge, except for when the gas bill’s coming.I RESEARCHED JAPAN before we came. I have eleven books about living and traveling here, some of which I have read. But nothing prepared me for the absolute language barrier or $25 watermelons or typhoons that shake everything in my house, including me.

Carlo Alcos debunks a travel myth.THERE’S A GENERALLY ACCEPTED NOTION — amongst travelers, at least — that if you travel you will become wise, more knowledgeable, more compassionate, that your mind will open like a lotus flower. From this flows the idea that to travel is to reach for an ideal, a heightened sense of humanness, of becoming more “one” with the world.

What do Madison, WI, Tucson, AZ, New Orleans, LA, Dearborn and Detroit, MI, and Oakland, CA have in common?Aside from populations that have been dicked around by the system in a big way, they are all destinations for the Laughter Against the Machine comedy tour. It’s precisely because of the political issues in these cities that comedians W.