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Places to Watch What You Wear

July 3rd 2009 11:33

Thanks to the Daily Telegraph, here is some good advice for anyone heading for a trip abroad. See the full list here.

Dubai

As this conservative Muslim emirate becomes one of the world’s biggest holiday playgrounds, cultural strains are showing. Last year’s "sex on the beach" case involving a British couple was merely the tip of the iceberg. Under new behaviour guidelines announced recently (though yet to become law), miniskirts and skimpy shorts would be banned outside hotels and other private areas, and bikinis restricted to the fenced-off sands of luxury resorts.

Morocco

Like Egypt, this is a flourishing destination with a fundamentally conservative Islamic culture. Women in particular are expected to dress modestly and may attract (unwelcome) attention otherwise. Local women cover their hair, and many travellers follow suit.

Thailand

Although Western standards dominate tourist islands, Thais are generally conservative and dress neatly. Off the beach, both sexes should wear a shirt, and if you dress up a bit (a collared shirt rather than a T, for example), you will earn more respect. Note too that your clothes can be political – Thailand’s two warring political factions are identified by the colour of their T-shirts – red and yellow.

Egypt

With British visitors surging by 38 per cent last year, Egypt is fast becoming an extension of Europe in the minds of holidaymakers. Yet despite its easy-going Red Sea resorts, Egypt’s culture is conservative and Muslim.
Anywhere off the beach, including the temples along the Nile, souks (markets) and mosques, you should dress modestly.

Catholic Europe

Religious sensitivities are not limited to the Muslim world. Many European churches and cathedrals, including Notre Dame in Paris and St Peter’s Rome, have dress codes, and – as ever – away from the beach in southern Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal, values are more conservative.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: places

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Motels of America

July 1st 2009 10:49

From Thomas Hawk's collection on Flickr, here are some of the sights you will find when road tripping over the USA. See the remainder of the collection here.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Natural Resources

June 29th 2009 10:23

What are the most precious natural resources that a country may possess today? Can a country’s worth be measured by these resources? At any rate it is important to consider the economic potential that each country can gain. The map below shows the important resources of today and the countries that produce the most or in the case of oil and gas have the most reserves. Some of these resources and renewable while others are not. How would this map look if done again 20 or 100 years from now?

Enlarge the map above by clicking on it

*Map sourced from mint.com.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: politics

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Mysterious Tree People of Papua

June 26th 2009 12:46

The Kombai are a Melanesian tribal people from the Indonesian province of Papua in Western New Guinea. The Kombai have become prominent to the outside world primarily because of their traditional tree house dwellings, which often reach heights of over 20 meters. They live adjacent to the Korowai people, who also live in tree houses, and have some similar cultural practices. The two ethnic groups do interact, although as they speak different languages, mutual intelligibility is sometimes problematic. Pigs are equivalent to currency to the Kombai, for example, if the wife of a Kombai man were to die, the family of the woman may demand pigs as compensation. For Kombai men to marry, they first have to buy the woman from her family with necklaces made from dogs teeth.

Kombai also host parties (although very rarely), in which they invite people of other tribes, often to repay the other tribes for parties they held, or to clear their names after a "Suangi" attack on another family or tribe. In these parties the Kombai would feed their guest sago, and grubs from the sago tree, which are a delicacy to the Kombai. The leader of the family will hang brush from the ceiling of where the party was housed, and if the party was a success, the other tribesmen burn the brush.

The subsistence patterns of the Kombai people are somewhat related to those of the Asmat people on the southwest coast of Papua, although the Kombai are linguistically very distinct.

Occasionally, the Kombai may sacrifice a pig - a most sacred animal, only usually used to settle disputes between tribes and family. The sacrifice begins by tying the pig's legs together and taking it to a river side. It is then shot with arrows - taking care to ensure a quick death - before mentioning the three elements; Fire, Water and Air. The animal is then skinned and has the fat scraped off and offered to their god, Refafu. No women are allowed to watch this procedure; otherwise it will render the sacrifice ineffective. After the sacrifice, no one is allowed to bathe in the river for the next two days, as Refafu will be drinking the spilt blood of the pig - it is believed he absorbs the passion it produces. The Kombai also believe in evil spirits called Suangi. Suangis are said to eat the blood and/or internal organs of their victims and then stuff the bodies with leaves and grass. They are also believed to devour the person's soul. After being attacked, the victim is then said to return home where they seem to have fallen mysteriously ill. If a victim is able to name the Suangi that has attacked him, they are often killed and eaten by the victim's family in the belief that it will free the person's spirit.

A television series on The Discovery Channel entitled "Living with the Kombai" in the US, and on both the National Geographic Channel and The Discovery Channel, called "World's Lost Tribes" in the UK, was shown in January 2007. In the series, two men travelled to Papua and spent several months living with an extended Kombai family. Their adventures included hunting for a large lizard and wild pig (not a captive pig, see religion section) and fishing by constructing a rudimentary dam on a stream. They also helped chop down large trees with a stone axe, made sago from the Sago Palm tree, and used its fibres to build a treehouse nearly 80 feet off the ground.
The Kombai were also featured in the 2007 season of the series Mark & Olly: Living with the Tribes.

*These images sourced from Environmental Graffiti.

**This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article for Kombai people.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: people

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20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests

June 24th 2009 11:43

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 which culminated in the Tiananmen Square massacre, lasted seven weeks, from 15 April until tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on 4 June. Today we look back at pictures from the protests in and around Tiananmen Square from 1989. These image and information sourced from Boston.com. Much more information available here.

This file photo taken twenty years ago on June 2, 1989 shows some of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese gathering around a 10-meter replica of the Statue of Liberty (center), called the Goddess of Democracy, in Tiananmen Square demanding democracy despite martial law in Beijing. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of protesters were killed by China's military on June 3 and 4, 1989, as communist leaders ordered an end to six weeks of unprecedented democracy protests in the heart of the Chinese capital.

A file photograph from June 3, 1989 shows a dissident student (left) shouting to soldiers, asking them to go back home as crowds flood into central Beijing ahead of the army's crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

This file photo taken on June 4, 1989 shows an armoured personnel carrier in flames as students set it on fire near Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

In this photo taken on June 5, 1989 and made available for the first time by the AP on Thursday June 4, 2009, three unidentified men flee the scene, as another man (background left) stands alone to block a line of approaching tanks (background right) in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. This previously unseen photograph was taken by then-AP reporter Terril Jones and came to light after online discussions of the incident on The New York Times' Lens Blog on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

A single man blocks an approaching column of PLA tanks on Changan Avenue east of Tiananmen Square in Beijing June 5, 1989.

In this June 5, 1989 file photo, a Chinese protestor blocks a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Blvd. June 5, 1989 in front of the Beijing Hotel. The man was shortly pulled away and the tanks continued on their way.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: history

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Weird Animal Babies

June 22nd 2009 08:06

When they are born some baby animals look exactly like their adult counterparts, however others do not. Today we are looking at some animals which appear rather unique at birth. These pictures and information were taken from Environmental Graffiti. See more information here.

[ Click here to read more ]

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Posted By: Ian - Category: animals

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Visions of Earth

June 19th 2009 03:12

Each month, National Geographic magazine features breathtaking photographs in Visions of Earth. Browse through visions of the world as seen through a photographer's eye. Here are some of this months best pictures. See more here.

Zambia—A lone bull elephant breakfasts at first light near the precipice of Victoria Falls. With the Zambezi River near its seasonal ebb, once submerged walkways—and fresh foraging possibilities—present themselves.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: landscape

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Apollo Missions

June 17th 2009 04:04

Forty years after the Apollo missions took Neil Armstrong to the moon, we hear from the astronauts who took the iconic images which changed our world and America's national mythology.

Thanks to The Guardian for these images and information

[ Click here to read more ]

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Posted By: Ian - Category: satellite & space

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Cappadocia

June 15th 2009 02:22

Cappadocia, (or Capadocia, Turkish Kapadokya), was an extensive inland district of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The name continued to be used in western sources and in the Christian tradition throughout history and is still widely used as an international tourism concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique historical and cultural heritage. The term, as used in tourism, roughly corresponds to present-day Nevsehir Province of Turkey.