Science Bars

by Neil Woodburn on

Are you a traveling scientist tired of random bars where the IQ level is about the same as the alcohol content in a Coors Light?

A new trend is sweeping America where bars are setting aside one night for purely scientific pursuit. Okay, perhaps it’s not “sweeping” the nation, but a surprising number of bars are indeed catering to the Mensa/egghead/geek crowd.

Take, for example, the Crown Room at the Schlafly Bottleworks in St. Louis which hosts Science on Tap the last Wednesday of every month. This month’s topic? Robotic Exploration of Mars and Revisiting the Moon.

According to a recent article in Wired Magazine, the trend began in London with Cafe Scientifique where, “for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology.”

Fortunately, this concept has spread around the globe and the UK site offers a search function to find the one nearest to you. I located two in my hometown of Los Angeles and I just might have to pop on in one night and see what the brainiacs are talking about.

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.

Whogoslavia Means Traveling with Kids

by Grant Martin on

How many folks have heard, “Travel now before you have kids?” When I didn’t have kids and I was traveling it was, “It is good you’re traveling now before you have kids” as if once I had kids, I’d park myself in a chair somewhere to do what, I don’t know. I always figured as soon as a kid is born one should hit the road to get him or her used to hitting the road. When we adopted our daughter from Vietnam when she was 3 1/2 years old we were living in Singapore. Two weeks later we moved back to the U.S. and a two-month-long journey that brought us from Hawaii to Ohio through California, New Mexico and New York, some of which was done in a U-Haul.

Writer Ayun Halliday has really hit the road with her husband and kids. They’re on a journey this month to various spots in the Balkans and she’s chronicling the trip on one of her websites, Whogoslavia. Halliday is one of those writers’ writers who discover a never-ending source of fodder in daily life because she gets out there and lives. For those of you who’ve thought about setting up your own travel website, hers is a clever example. For those of you who fancy traveling with kids, this might entice you to jump on in. I know it makes me think that we need to cash in our frequent flier miles soon and go somewhere further than where our car can take us.

[from ParentDish.com]

Tibetan Sand Mandalas: East Meets West

by Jamie Rhein on

With this being the time of year for rebirth and renewal, here is a link to a Tibetan sand mandala ceremony that follows this theme. I’ve watched monks in the process of creating a mandala, but have never seen what happens after it is completed. This video begins once the mandala is finished.

There are some close-up shots of the mandala’s details before the monks sweep it together into a pile of sand and then send it on a journey down a stream. Besides the music and ceremonial details, an interesting part of this ceremony is that it’s taking place in Wittenburg, Ohio. This is a real example of east meeting west. Here is another one. To see how painstaking it is to make a sand mandala, check out this video from an event that celebrated the reopening of the Phoenix Art Museum this past November.

A Canadian In Beijing: Spring in Beijing

by Ember Swift on

Spring has arrived in Beijing. I heard that it was recently snowing in Canada and was even minus 14 degrees Celsius this Easter weekend. I’ve got to say that this Chinese weather is suiting me just fine!

The trees have begun to blossom on campus. I learned the name of this first flower today: “yu lan hua” or “Jade Orchid.” The purple ones (pictured) are called “zi yu lan hua.” (There are other colours too.) They’re stunning. I wanted to crawl inside this one in yesterday’s early evening light.

There’s something about spring blossoms that makes people smile. I have seen countless students posing for photographs in front of these orchids and other blossoming trees around campus. I have seen people with flowers in their hands and grins on their lips.

Spring is emergence, no matter what country you’re in.

Emerging to inhale the fragrant smell of spring – that’s what we’re all doing. Even in Beijing (where the pollution masks most smells), the blossoms are sending greetings to me through my window. It’s a free ride on the crisp April breeze and it’s finding me here,

smiling.