Category: uncategorized

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books – Robert Young Pelton

You’ve probably heard of Pelton’s TV show or his books:

The World’s Most Dangerous Places
The Hunter, The Hammer, The Heaven
Come Back Alive
Three Worlds Gone Mad
Licensed to Kill : Hired Guns in the War on Terror

Pelton was the first Western journalist to meet with the Taliban after they set up offices in Peshawar, Pakistan. He simply walked in the front door with his cameras. When told the Taliban do not allow photographs because of the Koran …

I explain very carefully that only cowards do not show their faces and that in my culture a man who does not wish to be seen cannot be trusted. Just to make sure I get my point across I ask, “Must their leader hide as women must hide behind the veil?”

Pelton survived that time.

In fact, his most harrowing tales in the one I just finished are of an upbringing in a broken Canadian home. Good book.

A Life In Dangerous Places

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highway animal overpass

Boing Boing: Animal overpasses enable critters’ “sex across the highway”

animaloverpassinfographic.jpg

We have had the overpasses in the Canadian Rockies for 9 years. Collisions with animals were reduced by 80%. Over 70,000 large mammals have crossed in that time. But is that enough to maintain a healthy gene pool? A genetic research study is planned.

stats from Parks Canada.

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top 10 travellers

1. CAPTAIN JAMES COOK
2. XUANZANG
3. SIR RICHARD BURTON
4. IBN BATTUTA
5. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
6. CHARLES DARWIN
7. FRIDTJOF NANSEN
8. YURI GAGARIN
9. MICHAEL PALIN
10. APHRA BEHN

There is no doubt Cook is the greatest of them all. His 3 voyages of discovery are unmatched.

The rest of the top 10 can be argued.

Certainly Michael had it a little easier than the rest.

The 10 greatest travellers of all time

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weird world maps

In 2003, 665 million international tourist trips were made. … Western Europe is the most popular destination for international tourists: 46% of world tourist trips. At the other extreme 0.1% of world tourist trips are made to Central African territories.

Size shows proportion of world international tourist trips to that territory.

world map

Worldmapper: maps you have never seen before

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wikitravel.org

I am a big fan of wikipedia. There is no better example of what can happen if you simply get out of the way. Let people do what they want.

The much publicized problems with the site? I’ve never had a glitch. The few minor mistakes that irked me, I corrected.

Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

Now I stumbled on to Wikitravel.org
wikitravel logo

Interesting. But why not simply include all this travel content in wikipedia?

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Goliath Expedition

KarlThe longest hike ever?

Karl Bushby is walking around the world. 12 years. 36,000 miles.

He started in Patagonia, Nov. 1st, 1998 with about $800 in his pocket. And started walking north.

HEY, he crossed from Alaska into Siberia over an ice “bridge” on the Chukchi Sea (north of the Bering Straits).

But his expedition is in trouble. The Russians are threatening to throw him out due to problems with his paperwork. (BBC newstory April 6, 2006)

I expect after putting in 7 years on this project, Karl will find a way to finish it. Good luck.

Goliath Expedition – Karl Bushby