Common Sense and Whiskey

Which Way to Brazil?

Everybody gathered in the Conservation Center for a short talk shortly before dusk, and we all walked out to the end of the road and waited while Conservation Serivce people went out onto the beach with flashlights to find nesting turtles. It didn't take long.

We were on Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean. From here, incredibly, these green turtles found their way all the way over to Brazil, and then came back to lay eggs on this little tiny speck of land in the middle of the ocean. How did they do that?

Here's a really fascinating article on the lastest thinking.

See this photo and others in the Ascension Island Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

China: The Weekly Crackdown

To emulate the Middle East uprisings, the U.S.-based Chinese website boxun has called for protests every Sunday at 2 p.m. That's overnight Saturday in the U.S.

While we slept last night,

"... thousands of Chinese police deployed in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities to clamp down on public gatherings after a second week of overseas Internet-based calls for protests across the country."

That's coverage from the McClatchy newspapers blog China Rises, which has had consistent coverage.

More:

"While a small band of protestors came together in Shanghai on Sunday, they were quickly dispersed by police. Authorities in Beijing went to extraordinary lengths to make sure that not only did no crowds form, but that journalists stayed away from the non-event.

There were more police present in uniform and undercover, some with canine units, than are called to handle bomb scares in many countries. Foreigners at the Wangfujing Street shopping area in central Beijing, the announced meeting site, were stopped at every turn and asked for their passports. Police or their surrogates took several western journalists away for questioning, turned back TV camera crews and reportedly shoved or assaulted at least three photographers.

In addition, water trucks rode up and down Wangfujing, spraying the road and sidewalk to keep people moving. Even street sweepers had evidently been told to discourage groups from forming; they hit bystanders’ feet with brooms and said “move” repeatedly."

Here's the whole post.

(Photo from EarthPhotos.com. See more in the China Gallery there.)

Friday Photo Quiz #104

 

What is that thing in the photo!? If you can figure that out, you stand a pretty good chance of figuring out where it lives.

Can you name the extraordinarily scenic area in the picture? The country? The answer is after the jump. A good weekend to all from Common Sense and Whiskey & EarthPhotos.com.

(Photo from EarthPhotos.com.)

Don't Go There

We only passed through Alice Springs, gateway to Uluru and the Red Center, in the morning on a half day stop. What did we know? A substantial article in the Australian called Destroyed in Alice paints a mighty grim picture, mate.

Photo from the Australia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

Books: How to Lose $279.00

"Written by an old captain who was tired of running over fools in their pleasure boats, and wanted to educate those same fools in a futile effort to save their lives."

Get How to Avoid Huge Ships.

Wednesday HDR from Vilnius, Lithuania

These streets would be thronging with tourists later in the day, but at sunrise on a Saturday morning in August, the tourists must have still been at their breakfast buffets.

See more photos from Vilnius in the Lithuania Gallery, and 320 more HDR photos from all over in the HDR Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

Moving Things across the Earth

860 million bananas.

Extreme Travel: Iraq, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, More

"If something happens to them, I'm very sorry—I do my best to make sure it doesn't. But if it does, then that's what happened. Anyone who says they didn't know is an idiot. It's on television every day." - Geoff Hann

Hinterland Travel organizes trips to the places on its web site masthead, above, and some more. Sample prices: Afghanistan, 24 days from £2560, Iraq, nine day tour £1780. There's a long article here in Outside Magazine about a Hinterland trip through Afghanistan.

Eventful Africa

Revolution along the north coast, pirates on the east and a new country in the middle. Africa won't sit still.

But in the west, not much seems to have happened in the week since we wrote about the revolt against the son of the strongman in Gabon. When we last left our story, the Gabonnaise opposition had pulled an Ivory Coast and set up a parallel government. Last thing I can find is that eight days ago students protested at Libreville University, and it was reported that "the unrest appears to be developing into a wider social conflict."

There's a small  section on Global Voices that aims to aggregate coverage.

Meanwhile the standoff continues in Ivory Coast, and the Gbagbo government has seized some banks, which have nevertheless remained closed.

Farther north in Guinea, on the other hand, they're upbeat about the future with their new leader Alpha Conde, a 72-year-old Sorbonne university professor who has spent most of his adult life in France.

And south down the coast, according to the Economist,

"Last year Angola’s capital was the most expensive city in the world, according to Mercer, a New York-based consultancy. A bog-standard hotel room costs $400, a non-alcoholic drink in the lobby $10 (though a mere $2 in a supermarket). An underwhelming hotel buffet is $75 and a pizza on the street $25.

It may be expensive, Luanda, but now we can get there direct, three times a week, from our home airport, ATL.

One last thing: While looking up and down Africa's west coast, I found what looks like a fun place to stay in between all these places. Next time you're in Gambia (where all that's happened is that the authorities have banned a radio station and separately, lawyers are on strike), check out the Mandina Lodges, eight river and jungle lodges in the Makasutu Forest.

Big Boys Behaving Badly

You don't have to be King of the World do do anything you want. Just the King of France. Or Russia.

Sarkozy spends £250,000 of French EU budget on shower he did not use

The president's new yacht

 

Friday Photo Quiz #103

All right, let's go exotic for today's photo quiz. This central square shares a famous valley with the capital city in this Asian land. Why, you could be in another century! If you ignore the satellite dish.

Can you name the country? The city? The answer is after the jump. A good weekend to all from Common Sense and Whiskey & EarthPhotos.com.

(Photo from EarthPhotos.com.)

And South Sudan It Is.

Not the Nile Republic. Not Cush.

The ruling party announced the name today. It will require parliamentary approval.

There will be a new currency, called the pound.

Wednesday HDR from Rarotonga

Still waiting for the first signs of the warmth of spring? This photo can't hurt. It's a man climbing for coconuts on the main island of Rarotonga, Cook Islands, South Pacific Ocean.

Rarotonga and the island of Aitutaki, also in the Cook Islands, are two beautiful corners of the planet. See more photos in the Cook Islands Gallery. And check out the HDR Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

Let's All Go to South Sudan

Nationsonline.org lists 249 countries in the world. Wikipedia lists 203 soverign states.

On 9 July, add one. It's time to plan your trip to welcome South Sudan to the community of nations.

First you'll need to get there, then you'll need a place to stay.

There are flights on Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, EgyptAir and the new (2007) national airline of Uganda, Air Uganda from Entebbe.

Among hotels, the Logali House is best rated. There's the Oasis Camp down by the Nile. Virtual Tourist reviews Juba hotels, and Juba Travel Guide has a few more.

There are a few travel resources on the web. There are Juba travel guides from Wikitravel and VirtualTourist, and a lovingly locally produced guide by T.G. Wang'ombe called JubaTravelGuide.

Juba is the only city most anybody can name in South Sudan, and yet it may not remain the capital. The International Business Times reports that:

"South Sudanese leaders said on Sunday they were considering building a new capital after their expected independence as the current hub Juba lacked infrastructure and space for new business."

Just after the collapse of Yugoslavia the provincial capitals of Ljubljana and Podgorica, in particular, seemed unlikely national capitals (of Slovenia and Montenegro, respectively), and so, surely, does Juba right now. Newser unkindly calls it "the mud-hut town of Juba" in an article about some of the things Juba will need:

"Juba is oil-rich but lacks the embassies and skyscrapers of other world capitals. There was only a mile or two of pavement here just a year ago, and the local archives are stored in a tent."

There are other towns in South Sudan. You just can't name any. But the Financial Times can. They've been outside Juba:

"The Grand Hotel Bentiu, in the capital city of Unity state about 900km north of Juba, is a case in point. The hotel might have bucket showers and curtains tethered with cut-off plastic bottles, but it counts as five stars in the dusty town of rickshaws and thatch."

More articles:

Q&A-Is south Sudan ready for independence?

SCENARIOS - Sudan to split - but what happens next?

South Sudan: A Country Is Born

 

Cockpit Seats Must Be More Comfy than in Coach

And speaking of Sweden (day before yesterday), "The captain of an SAS plane flying between Copenhagen and Stockholm fell asleep last week, as the first officer was using the lavatory." The captain "claims to have only gotten four hours of sleep the night before, and it was his fourth flight of the day."

But still, come on, flights only take an hour and ten minutes.

Friday Photo Quiz #102

A prominent landmark in this pretty clearly Catholic country's capital city. This country had only one King during its royal period, and his name was King Mindaugas. Can you name the country? The city?

A good weekend to all from Common Sense and Whiskey & EarthPhotos.com.

(Photo from EarthPhotos.com.)

One More on Gabon

Further to the previous post, a day later, on 29 January, Reuters Africa reported Police use tear gas to break up Gabon protest.

Tunis, Cairo ... Libreville?

An article by Penelope Chester on UN Dispatch caught me entirely unaware. In brief, from the article,

"When autocratic, kleptomaniac Omar Bongo ... died in the summer of 2009, elections were promptly held. About 15 candidates from various political parties were in the running for the August 30 vote, Gabon’s first ever “true” democratic election.

"Omar Bongo’s son – Ali Bongo – was declared to have won shortly after the election, both by the national election commission and the country’s highest court. Ali Bongo’s victory was met with a burst of violence from opposition supporters....

"A few weeks ago, on the same day that Egyptian protesters started taking to the streets en masse, opposition candidate Andre Mba Obame ... (declared) himself president and (appointed) his own cabinet.... Obame holed up in UNDP’s headquarters, encouraged his supporters to imitate their brethren in Tunisia and take to the streets. These protests were violently suppressed by the government, and opposition leaders have allegedly been kidnapped."

Search Google News and the most recent story about the situation is from 28 January. It's titled Gabon copycat revolution fails. 28 January was two weeks ago. What else has happened!?

Don't Like Your Name? Change it.

It seems Swedes are.

"... an immigrant family requested permission to be called Mohammedsson. 'Permission was granted'.

For more photos like the one above, from Stockholm, see the Sweden Gallery at Earthphotos.com.

Fit for a Pharaoh?

It's the Max Grundig Klinik Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe. Excellent clinic, great oncology department. "Former Ukrainian President Vickor Yushchenko and former Russian Economics Minister German Gref have been treated there."

And it's a possible exile in Germany for Hosni Mubarak.