It’s easy to select nothing but new pieces as we try to find the best stuff out there on the Web. But often it’s nice to go back a little bit to find a piece of writing worthy of a half-hour or so of your time. Such is the case here with Jeffrey Tayler’s early piece on the Congo from the Atlantic Online (subscription required, sadly). Tayler is such a fixture in the travel and geopolitical writing scene now, it’s cool to take a look at one of his older pieces.
Rocked: Sum 41 in Congo
Not sure how many of the readers are Sum 41 fans, but I can’t tell you how anxious I am to watch the premiere of the band’s experiences last year in the Congo. When the group departed on their ten-day journey to the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) they had no idea they too would flee for their lives when a sudden violent outbreak between government soldiers and troops loyal to a renegade commander occurred. Their evacuation ended up being much-publicized and gave the guys a first hand experience of life in a war torn country. Having headed out with War Child, a Canadian charity that provides humanitarian assistance to children affected by war, the bands intentions were to show people how harmful war is to civilians and what war is like. Looks like they got V.I.P.
Whether it was plain gutsy or just stupid I applaud the guys for going out there and giving MTV viewers something to think about this coming Wednesday night. Catch it on MTV September 21 at 7PM ET/PT.
Chimps are Smart!
A great little peice for the zoologically-minded about how chimps actually have a whole “tool-set” they use to find food. I think this stuff is fascinating. I suppose if I could go back, I would have majored in primatology. But anyway, read this:
Using infrared, motion-triggered video cameras, researchers have documented how chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle-a region within the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo-use a variety of tools to extract termites from their nests. The “tool kits” are among the most complex ever observed in wild chimp populations.
For subterranean nests the chimps use their feet to force a larger “puncturing stick” into the earth, drilling holes into termite chambers, and then a separate fishing probe to harvest the insects. Often the chimps modified the fishing probe, pulling it through their teeth to fray the end like a paintbrush. The frayed edge was better for collecting the insects.
How is this in any way travel-related? Well, wouldn’t it be cool to travel to Africa some day to watch chimps in the wild? Huh, wouldn’t it?