100 Open Lectures All About Africa

When I have some time, I plan to go through this fabulous list of open lectures about Africa.

"As the world become an increasingly interconnected and truly global marketplace, it becomes ever more important to learn and understand the history, culture and economic roles of nations around the world. Africa is no exception, and this collection of lectures, many from renowned scholars, researchers and innovators, will help you better understand the many varied regions of Africa and the continents changing role in the world marketplace."

Canadian Place Name Trivia

Some interesting Canadian place-name trivia. In all, we have a lot of pleasant places, but we’re not all that creative when it comes to lake names! (“hey – that lake looks pretty long, let’s call it Long Lake!”)

Source: http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/info/trivia_e.php

Most Common Place Names in Canada

Rank	Place name	#
1.	Mount Pleasant	16
2.	Centreville	15
2.	Lakeview	15
3.	Pleasant Valley	14
4.	Fairview	13
5.	Rosedale	11
6.	Salem	10
6.	Bellevue	10
6.	Springfield	10
6.	Glenwood	10
6.	Richmond	10
6.	Riverside	10
6.	Westmount	9
7.	Maple Grove	9
7.	Greenfield	9
7.	Victoria	9
7.	Sunset Beach	9
7.	Sunnyside	9
7.	Little Harbour	9

Most Common Feature Names in Canada

Rank	Place name	#
1.	Long Lake	203
2.	Mud Lake	182
3.	Long, Lac	164
4.	Long Pond	152
5.	Rond, Lac	145
6.	Green Island	132
7.	Long Point	125
8.	Big Island	120
9.	Narrows, The	118
10.	Truite, Lac à la	113
11.	Round Lake	109
12.	Otter Lake	108
13.	Black Rock	103
14.	Long Island	101
14.	Perdu, Lac	101
14.	Moose Lake	101
15.	Little Lake	100

Luggage Handling

You always expect for your luggage to be treated badly when putting it onto an airplane, but check-out this picture and video of a luggage container stuck in the engine of a Japan Airlines flight out of LAX. Crazy.

Source: BBC

One Night in Bangkok Music Video

I love this one-hit wonder song by Murray Head, but hadn't seen the music video until today.

Google Earth for the IPhone

I know that we don't need yet another reason to get an iPhone, but Google has just added a great reason - Google Earth is now available for the iPhone.

New Truck

Our old '91 Pathfinder needed too much work on it, so we decided to upgrade to a 2002 Nissan Xterra. This truck is definitely a serious off-road vehicle, and one week was long enough keeping it in the city. Here's our new truck outside of Squamish.

Lao and Malaysia Pictures

Pictures of my April trip to Lao and Malaysia are now online at www.suwala.com. Indonesia pictures still to come.

	April 2008 - Malaysia Trip (145 pictures)
	April2008-LuangPrabang (65 pictures)

new photos on suwala.com

I have put some photos (back to August) onto www.suwala.com:

	November - Beckham, Abbotsford, Canning (18 pictures)
	Rainbow Madley Trail Hike (24 pictures)
	August trip to Campbell River (12 pictures)
	Jasons 30th Birthday (10 pictures)

BC Forest Service Information

For backroad adventures, I have found some great online resources to refer to:

• BC Forest Service Campground Alerts
• A listing of all BC Forest Service Sites (pdf)
• Online Map of BC Recreation Sites
• Squamish Forest Service Road Status
• Chilliwack Region Forest Service Road Status
• Chilliwack Region Forest Service Road Closures
  

Google Earth as a flight simulator

Google Earth 4.2 can now be used as a flight simulator!

• Google's official announcement
• Google Earth Blog flying tips
  

Vientiane, Lao PDR

I have been in Laos for only a couple of days, and so far it is an absolutely wonderful place.

After all the confusion, noise and pollution of Bangkok (which I was in for just one night), Vientiane is a lovely change. The people are much less well off than others in the region, but that also makes for a much nicer experience for visitors.

For a sample of the first part of my trip (from packing to the first days in Vientiane), my pictures are now online.

We're off to the northern part of Laos on Sunday (a team of 12 people are travelling on this project), which is gearing up to be wonderful.

I'm going to Laos!

As of yesterday, I was scheduled to go to Laos sometime in September for around 2 weeks. For that trip I was only going to go to Vientiane.

That all changed today; now I'm leaving on May the 6th for a month-long trip that includes traveling into some of the remote areas of Laos to gather field samples and do some training in the regions.

I've been to Thailand before (on my way out of Bhutan), but never to Laos. From what I've heard about the country, it's supposed to be amazing.

I'm totally excited!