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I was quite impressed by the site here and wondered how in the world they are managing to keep it so up to date. I suppose they wait until they get to a place with a decent connection and then write like mad and upload. Whatever the process, you have to salute these two intrepid young adventurers, especially given the gnarly heat wave headed this way (or is it here already?) this week.
My travel agent is doing his best to convince to me to stay and play in Istanbul on my way into Dushanbe, but I’m on a mission. I have to get in and out of Tajikistan in a reasonable amount of time. Yet, this Nat Geo guide to spending 48 hrs in the city is making it much more tempting than I thought. My layover will permit me to feast on Turkish fare onto of a roof or soak in a Turkish bath, but the Grand Bazaar I will have to miss. Fooey! Next time around I suppose.
Those of you with a lot more hours to kill than myself should look into Nat Geo’s selection of Istanbul blogs, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, maps, movies, and books that will all help you in creating the most whirling fun-filled Turkish time. Afterwards we can compare notes – your 48 hrs to my 10 or so.
For years and years it was thought that the Japanese were far ahead of us in terms of technology and even aspects of culture (couldn’t we use a dose of Japanese politeness?). I never placed much credibility in that that until I came across this video that convinced me that the Japanese are, in fact a superior culture.
The game show in this video features contestants, males exclusively, who compete in a game of knowledge. The questions are hard…well, I actually have no idea if they are hard or not, but for the sake of argument let’s say they are. All fine and dandy, and no different than the myriad trivia shows we all know and love. What’s so lovely and different is that when a contestant gets a question wrong, he is summarily kicked in the balls. Brilliant, eh? It got me thinking about all sorts of fine ways to improve everything from Jeopardy to American Idol to the Presidential Debates.
OK, after a few small technical difficulties I just posted Part 2 of my Newfoundland Audio Slide Show. This one takes us to the little town of Cape Broyle where I did a day trip sea kayaking with Stan Cook Adventures, an outfitter in the area, and a fine one at that. I chose some better music this time, or at least, it’s relevant, since it is actual Newfoundlander music. But again, I kept it short and simple, and I hope you enjoy it.
The Web is an amazing place. I know, that’s a rather absurd statement of the obvious, if not a completely useless platitude. But that is exactly what came to mine when I saw this site called Medinalia on a random click-stroll around media sites. I’ve seen similar sites to this before (I can’t remember where, though), but the thing I lie about this one is that it seems to be very well organized and nicely designed. Essentially what Medinalia does is allow you to watch television channels from countries and cities all over the world. They are listed alphabetically from (yes, Neil) Albania to Yugoslavia (what, no Zimbabwe channels available?!), and the various programs can be viewed by not just country, but also by type (i.e. Christian, Adult) and language (anyone out there eager to catch a little Papiamentu TV?)
I imagine one could spent a fair amount of time checking this stuff out. The only problem on my end seemed to be buffering. Maybe my connection today is slow, but it took a good long time to get some of these channels to play, and even then the experience was often frustratingly bad quality. But it is still a rather amazing grouping of lots of visual media from around the world and, well, the Web IS an amazing place.