Blogspot Unreachable

*This post was originally an email sent on the 6th July

Hey all

 

It seems that as part of the ongoing animosity between Google and the People's Republic, I'm not able to access my blog to update it.

 

I've added to this list the people I suspect might actually be reading my blog, and I'll send out an email on occassion to keep you informed.

 

Basically, I get back from the jungle on Monday, having spent my last day there doing a 20km jungle trek to a remote lodge. Getting out of the jungle to the lodge required crossing a flooded river during a torrential rainstorm, all thunder and lightning, in tiny dugout canoes that could only take us two at a time (I was with four others). It was amazing. I didn't get to see any tigers that day, but I did see fresh(ish) tiger prints, and snuck up on a bathing rhinoceros. Also, the river was full of crocs. Good times, I wish you had been there.

 

I got back to Kathmandu, shaved off my 2-week throatscratcher, and started to set about packing to leave the next morning when I ran into a group I'd met by the jungle, and so we went out for dinner and drinks. Luckily Kathmandu has a military-enforced curfew, otherwise I would have been packing at 3 in the morning.

 

Because of the Tibet closure my trip schedule is all messed up. I flew to Kunming, a fairly uneventful city in SW china, yesterday. It's an absolute pleasure being here. It's a lot like being back in Korea, except quieter(?!), as all the scooters are electric, and hence silent. The cars seem quieter too. And there's all manner of fast food and modern conveniences. I did not buy anything from Starbucks. Food here is super cheap, too. I had a massive meal of noodles and meat broth for 6Y (<1$). At midnight I'm catching an overnight sleeper bus to a more historical town just up the road, a mere 7 hours away.

 

Anyhey, I've always been opposed to people who send out mass emails to everyone they've ever met, keeping them informed of the details of their life. It seem very conceited. But if you're on the list it's because you've shown interest - thanks, you're the people who make it worth while getting home at the end.

 

Anthony

 

p.s I've attached some pics, but the Internet here is so dreadfully slow I don't have time to wait for more than 4 to upload. They're all from Chitwan and Sauraha, the town I stayed in on the borders of Chitwan National Park.

Book Reviews IV

Being a review of books read while travelling, rather than a review of travel books, in less than more than around 100 150 words.


The Game-Players of Titan - Philip K. Dick


Dick's penchant for the mind-fuck is on full display throughout this novel, as the plot twists and turns, never really allowing you to see the main players, determine the goal or central conflict, or even identify what the staked of the game are. Not at least, until the very end, and even then only if you have been playing very close attention.

At turns a murder mystery, social satire, hard SF, and straight super-powered fantasy, Dick's sparse prose and dry wit move the story along at an exciting pace, and never leave you starved for action of humour.

Book Reviews III

Being a review of books read while travelling, rather than a review of travel books, in less than more than around 100 150 words.


Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut


One of Vonnegut's earlier novels (published 1952), Player Piano may be as close as he came to the true dystopic tales of Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury, though his prophetic warning certainly contained less mileage. It is perhaps one of the earlier science fictions to deal with the idea of a world in which the human workforce is replaced by machines, and is possibly unique in that it doesn't involve itself with the trite possibility of a robot uprising against human masters, but deals instead with the existential damage dealt to the now redundant workforce.

While we may have sidestepped Vonnegut's warning of a human revolution against automatisation, the essential question of how people assign value to the lives remains highly charged.

In typical Vonnegut style the story revolves around a depressed individual struggling (and failing) to make his own choices and being forced to react to pressures greater than himself. Player Piano may miss some of Vonnegut's later skill with irony, but is still a story convincingly, and humanly, told.

Book Reviews II

Being a review of books read while travelling, rather than a review of travel books, in less than more than around 100 150 words.


Hitch-22 - Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens has led a fascinating life. Perhaps best known as the author of god Is Not Great, he has also been witness, as a journalist, to almost every major conflict of the last 30 years. Despite bemoaning his own lack of skill at poetry and fiction, he is surely one of the most literate persons alive, and his autobiography is as laden with allusion and literary reference as it is with his signature cutting wit. The list of notables he counts among his friends are as remarkable as those he recounts duelling with, and the stories of friendship and combat are filled with pathos and intimacy, as well as well-delivered humour. The anecdote wherein he is paddled by the Iron Lady, future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is a hilarious, hardly-to-be-believed example.

The book also includes a brutal, honest account of both gulf wars, that will leave you sobbing tears of joy and despair. All told, Hitchens tells his own story with honesty and clarity, and if he occasionally comes across as pompous and proud, well he does so with inimitable style, and I for one cannot fault him.

Travel book reviews I

Being a review of books read while travelling, rather than a review of travel books, in less than more than around 100 150 words.


Bad Science - Ben Goldacre


As the man behind BadScience.net, British GP Ben Goldacre has spent years calling foul on inaccurate science reporting and medical claims in the public sphere. In this book he draws on that experience to give the reader insight into all the tricks of misinformation, incompetence hidden, and outright deceit practised, not just just by the "soft" targets of alternative medicine and homeopathy, but also by the pharmaceutical giants and the mass media. Along the way the reader receives a basic education in medical trial procedure and statistical analysis.

Perhaps lacking some of his trademark wit and energy in this longer form, Goldacre nevertheless conveys his enthusiasm for the subject, making for a fascinating and informative read.