International Polar Year

by Erik Olsen on

Remember that song by Donald Fagan IGY? Probably only a few of you do. The older ones, like me. OK, I’m not THAT old, but I’m old enough to remember Steely Dan before anything they’d done was remixed. Anyway, I bring up IGY, which stands for International Geophysical Year, because this year we are embarking on something similar. The IGY was a year for scientists to study and make known advances in geophysics. That is, the earth. The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations (precision mapping), meteorology, oceanography, seismology and solar activity.

Well, we are now well into the International Polar Year, which seeks to take measure and create awareness for the shrinking ice caps, eroding coastlines, dying cultures and species. This spring the International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization have teamed up to study the poles and to find out if global warming is really truly honestly going to be a problem. So keep you eyes peeled for more hews to this effect.

The Extreme List

by Erik Olsen on

Sure, there are the 1000 Places to Go Before You Die. That’s a fine list and one that can help the average traveler see the best places in the world before drawing your terminal breath. But is there such a thing as Extreme Things to Do Before You Die. I mean, there seems to be Extreme everything else. Extreme cooking even.

Here is a site dedicated to Extreme places. The highest place on earth – Mount Everest (or maybe not), the lowest place on earth the Dead Sea, the largest natural feature on the Earth – the Great Barrier Reef, the oldest piece of earth on, um, Earth – in Australia. And my favorite: Mount Thor, Canada: the Greatest Vertical Drop on the Earth with a 4100 foot shear cliff that must fill the dreams of many a BASE jumper.

The list goes on, and to be honest, it is quite an enjoyable read. What’s even better is that nice photo accompany most entries. Now this would be a great goal, to visit and photograph yourself, perhaps even to dance, at every one of these places.

Top 10 Causes of Travel Deaths

by Adrienne Wilson on

To date I’d like to think I’ve been pretty lucky in dodging death on some of my travels abroad and at home. Seeing how I got dumped on by two different birds on two different occasions last year in Tajikistan, for the first time in life and walked away without avian flu I’d count that as a blessing. And yes, I know avian flu is not quite caused by bird droppings landing on your head or Bob Marley sweatshirt, but I still lucked out. You never know. Oh, and then there was just this past Friday while cruising down a snowy I-68 eastbound for work when a snow plow going westbound threw so much slush, ice and salt over on the opposite side of the road that it shattered the windshield (see picture) and left small pieces of glass in my lap, in my boots and in my hair. I got pretty lucky with that one too.

This isn’t about my luck though. It is about those who didn’t see the coconut falling from the palm while snoozing in Antigua or the poor guy who received one too many mosquito bites in Madagascar and then those ambitious wildlife photographers who got mauled by a Grizzly in Canada. Roadjunky runs a piece from a couple weeks back listing the 10 Leading Causes of Travel Deaths (maybe). According to their humorous report where I’m not sure how they acquired the numbers, falling coconuts claim the lives of about 900 travelers each year, STD’s – 360 lives and Civil War – 380 lives. The top three ways to go travelers should beware of are road accidents, murder, and malaria – maybe.

Photo of Every Country

by Erik Olsen on

The Century Club is an organization we’ve blogged about here before. The group is made up of people for whom traveling the world might be called an obsession. Century, or 100, is the operative term, as the group restricts membership to you if you have NOT been to at least 100 countries. But most of the members have been to far more than that.

Well, this video is not likely to gain you entry into that esteemed club, but it can at least help expose you to all the countries in the world right from your desk. The video purports to show a photograph from EVERY country on the planet. A nice little musical accompaniment helps carry along the satisfying, if a bit long video. Worth a look, I think if just to gain appreciation for the number of countries there actually are.

Strange Statues

by Erik Olsen on

There is a statue in Central Park from Alice and Wonderland that is delightfully odd. It features the well-known assortment of characters from the Lewis Carroll book, but the face on the Mad Hatter is, well, mad. I sometimes walk by a find myself looking into his bronze eyes and a creepy feeling crawls up my spine. But the Mad Hatter statue is nothing compared to the pictures that this site features of delightfully odd pictures of statues from around the world. The page just goes on and on and on, but I can pretty much guarantee you will keep on scrolling because each page down offers new silliness. The one I posted here is one of my favorites.