Since I was unable to post about my trip while it was happening I will do a small and late recap of the trip. The following images have a short description of each included so just click on one and it should explain its self.
Jesse and I spent Monday traveling around with my Dad’s students visiting agricultural sites, listening to lectures and watching PowerPoints, and eating a lot of samosas for some reason. That night we went to the Carnivore – a famous restaurant in Nairobi that serves grilled meats in Brazilian style. They used to serve game meats like zebra, hartebeast, gazelle, etc but news laws only permit the selling and eating of farm-raised animals like crocodile and ostrich.
Tuesday Jesse and I spent the day visiting old friends, our old school ISK and we met with a professor at the University of Nairobi to talk about my future research. That night we went to the Village Market, a popular mall owned by the parents of one of my friends, to have dinner with my friend and one of Jesse’s friends. We were also joined by some other guests who were in Kenya for the Maxi Dash competition that is rock climbing / car race across Kenya (the people in the linked video were the other guests that night).
Wednesday we started our drive across Kenya with my dad and his grad students. Our first stop was Nakuru to visit my dad’s old colleagues, a research sites and to do a little safari in the Nakuru National Park. Nakuru is in the Great Rift Valley which is a very unique geologic region created from the separation of two tectonic plates. Check out the photos above for some great animal shots while in the park.
Thursday was spent driving to Kisumu to visit another research site. Kisumu is a large city located on the shore of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa. The road to Kisumu was under construction so we were forced to take a crappy rocky bumpy side road that added hours to our journey. That evening we visited the research facility, took some photos of Lake Victory and slept.
Friday morning we visited some test plots and a local lady’s farm. We then drove back to Nairobi so my dad and his students could catch their flight back to the US. Jesse and I spent the night with out friends Prince and Linda.
Saturday was Jesse’s last day and so we had to get all the souvenir shopping and visits to friends before he left. We visited with our old guard that used to work for us when we lived in Kenya. It was great to see him and hear how his family was doing. He also took me to some jua kali work sites and into the bowels of the municipal market to buy Kate some African fabric. That evening we went to dinner at a friend’s house and then Jesse was dropped at the airport.
Sunday I went to church and visited with a few peeps and then spent the rest of the day hanging out with Prince and Linda. Linda is a designer and made Kate a dress out of African fabric (as seen below). And then I visited another family before catching my plane home.
The trip was amazing. It was so great to go back and see how much things have changed. I really hope that I am able to go to Kenya for my PhD research and take Kate to see all the amazing places in Kenya and meet my wonderful friends.
So a few days ago when Kate was at class I decided to take a little walk to the San Diego River park by our house to see what I could see. On the way, before I could make it very far, I came across all these wonderful creatures. In fact when I finally made it to the San Diego River park the only thing I found was a littered bag Carol’s Jr. bag being eaten by ants. Anyway enjoy the pictures.
And the shot of the day was this humming bird that was feeding in the bushes as I took pictures of the Black and Yellow Garden spider.
Kate and I just moved from our apartment in Salt Lake to her parent’s house in Provo for a few weeks before we make the big move to San Diego. Every time we move I’m sadly reminded of how much junk we’ve accumulated and how much time we waste dealing with it. Cleaning out our closets and drawers revealed mounds of vaguely familiar items reminiscent of bygone years. Packing our belongings has become an archaeological excavation (except none of our discoveries are worth anything). This morning Kate and I had to move a pile of our cloths off the floor and onto the bed so we could put a dresser in the room and by the time we finished, the top of the cloths mountain was above the tree line and 15 degrees colder than at its base.
All I’m trying to say is that if we’re not careful (if I’m not careful) we will end up devoting our entire lives to the acquisition, storage, and disposal of stuff. And when we look back on our monstrously materialistic lives we will be sadned because we were to busy taking care of our things to really enjoy our family and friends, our senses, nature and learning.
Photos from the Orem City Dump.
One of the biggest problems affecting our planet is over-consumption. Especially prevalent in more affluent countries is the idea that everyone can have everything they can buy even if it is harmful, wasteful, or unnecessary. We have also been taught that progress can only be measured by GDP and that they only way to increase GDP is to consume. It is fair to say that America’s identity is tied to its economy and mass consumption and the identity of nearly all Americans is tied to what they consume. Now I am not going to say let’s stop all purchasing of all goods, because that is unrealistic and never going to happen. What I do think we can do though, starting this Earth Day, is to stop buying stuff that is going to end up tossed into a landfill 6 months from the time it was bought. Did you know that 99% of everything purchased and produced by Americans will end up in a landfill (or on the ground, in the ocean, in our mountains, or in the case of dangerous chemicals in our food system) within 6 months of purchase.
So why don’t we break this destructive cycle by BUYING THE LAST. What I mean by that is next time your Wal-Mart can-opener breaks, instead of heading back to get a second one that will also just break in 6 months why not find a can-opener that will last you a lifetime? New shoes? Get ones that can be resoled. New jacket? Get one that will last 50 years instead of 50 days. New computer? Upgrade your old one. Need a new house? Repaint! Next time you have to buy anything, make your purchase one that will last you forever.
You see, if we can start curbing our consumption of those little things that we all seem to need but which always seem to break, we can cut our total consumption greatly. We can stop spending so much time shopping, and we can start saving our planet from becoming one giant, lifeless, garbage dump. This Earth Day make a commitment to reduce your consumption and eliminate disposable products from your life. And watch The Story of Stuff!
- My submission to present at the Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research was accepted and so now I get to present my senior thesis research the 29th of February at UVSC. I am very excited.
- The Rocky Mountain Institute is a great organization started by Amory B. Lovins (I am sure you have never heard of him). Anyway this organization is a giant think tank that focuses on solving environmental problems through advising car manufacturers, businesses, and the government organizations into adopting ultra efficient methods that save them money and the world pollution.
- The passing of the new energy bill by congress that requires car manufacturers to maintain a fleet wide MPG average of 35 MPG (the first increase in national fuel economy in 32 years), make the 100 watt incandescent light bulb illegal, and increases the efficiency of household appliances.
- Perceptive Pixel is an awesome new technology that allows full touch interaction with a computer. Very cool product and as you will see in #5 is already being used in consume products this winter.
- Today Kate and I ate free Red Iguana leftovers from the Youth Link’s lunch-in (a NGO housed in the same building as Kate’s NGO, the ESLCenter.
- Although I dislike Microsoft because they are a monopoly, their new product, Surface, is awesome awesome awesome. It will revolutionize computer use and is finally a product that can even turn Apple’s eye.
- I found my lost cellphone today. By lost, I mean it fell out of my pocket into my boss’s car when I got a ride with her to a meeting on Tuesday and she found it this morning when someone from the office tried to call me. At least I have it back and can now participate in conference calls with my brother and his finance (which did happen today).
- Fab@Home is a 3D printer; that’s right, a 3D printer. So just like a regular printer you plug it into your computer, prepare your document, and then click print. Except this time the Fab@Home is going to print your 3D object out of the hundreds of materials it is able to use. You will be able to print circuit boards, cellphone covers, even batteries and eventually, they say, you will be able to design your very own cellphone and then print the entire product out in your own home. Amazing!
- The Humdinger Windbelt is a new, inexpensive, very customizable wind mill that may make wind energy even more affordable and viable. You better just look at the site for an explanation how it works, I’m not going to do it justice.
- Some MIT students have created an amazing solar system out of regular old car parts that will create electricity, heat water or air, and refrigerate. What this means is that one simple inexpensive easily repaired setup can create and manage all the utility needs of a small dwelling or home, carbon free and off the grid. This article is really great, I recommend it.
- After a week without toiletpaper, Kate and I have finally purchased some.
- In passing my boss said something about a Christmas present of bonus. I’m not keeping my hopes up, but here’s to dreaming.
- NASA’s Chandra x-ray telescope captured the most interesting of celestial phenomenon. Recent data collected by said telescope shows cosmic radiation being shot from a black hole into a neighboring galaxy.
- Kate and I had Ethiopian food with Jesse, my brother, and his finance, Laura. Man I love Ethiopian food…and the African Restaurant and Mini Mart.
- A new giant rat was discovered in Indonesia.
- Most exciting Firefox is testing a new 3.0 release. I want to take my hat off to Firefox to really implementing some great tools that have made internet browsing fun, creative, and easy. You can download the beta version here.
- Wal-Mart, via Sam’s Club, is selling an all electric versions of the Mini Cooper converted by the company, Hybrid Technologies.
- Kate and I were given traditional Karen (a Burmese ethnic group) shirts from three of my refugee clients today. They are awesome and we will post a picture soon.
- I am done with this blog entry and can now go to bed.
I just finished reading a most interesting book, “The World Without Us,” by Alan Weisman and now I wonder if taking the moral high ground will mean not having offspring. Since the onset of modern medicine, industrial revolution, and the Protestant work ethic the natural world has increasingly deteriorated because of human demands for foods, mineral and metals, natural resources, and a place to put all our trash. While I strongly believe humanity does not intend to destroy nature, we still do so because most of the damage we do is not in our town or backyard and is taking place in another state, another ocean, or another forest. Humans, like all other species, put survival ahead of everything and everyone else, making it very difficult to choose between a healthy environment and sufficient food, water, and shelter for survival (personally, I think we can have both). Additionally, since our life span is short in time we only see our habitat as past generations have left it and do not know what is would look like without us. “The World Without Us,” is a great thought experiment that explores this very question, and while a little boring at times, it will leave you wondering what will become of the world and us and if there is a way humanity and a healthy environment can coexist.
I just started reading the dreadfully interesting painfully detailed book, “The World Without Us,” by Alan Wiesman. The book is fairly straight forward…it’s about what would happen to the world if humans all disappeared today and nature had her chance to reclaim. As I delved deeper into the mysteries of the post rapture earth I found myself first wishing there was a way humans could coexist with a healthy environment, then hoping technology would save nature, and now thinking the only solution to the environmental problem is for all of us humans to pack up our bags and head to another planet. Seriously from what I’ve read we have tortured nature beyond the point of no return. Now every ecosystem on our poor little planet is so stressed they’re starting to act like an I.R.C. refugee case manager. Maybe I have exaggerated a little. Nature is one hell of a fighter and will take back what ever she can get…and I mean whatever; streets, towns, garbage dumps, Las Vegas, Lake Chad, Geneva Steel, even a Wal Mart if you give her some time.
The book is filled with anecdotal examples of abandoned human hot spots reclaimed by nature. Apparently the border between North and South Korea is one of the most biodiverse areas in the region because it is official no-mans-land and since the truce in 1960 no one has touched the place, leaving nature to do her thing. This got me thinking. Humans are stressing nearly every ecosystem on the planet through agriculture, housing development, mining, pollutants, and general wear and tear. So without killing off 90% of the world’s population (a real solution to the problem) what can be done to stop human impact on the earth. Here is my solution.
Lets move every single person on the planet to one giant city located in North/South Dakota and Minnesota. According to my calculations if we turned just these three states into one giant city every human on the planet plus some could live with a population density a little less than New York’s currently population density. Just imagine with only .4% of the earths land surface occupied by humans, the planet with the other 99.4% of her land mass to regenerate herself back to health. Now I know we have to think about land for food cultivation, the mega relocation process, and the cleanup of our former populations centers…but that will all come, let’s not shy away from the only viable solution to date (except drastically reducing our consumption…but is that ever going to happen??). We could recycle all the old cities into our new mega city- St. Fargopollis. The worldwide effort would unify us all into a new age of peace and tolerance.
It has just been brought to my attention Hurricane Dean is progressing through the Caribbean and in all likelihood will hit Cancun the day before the Kelly family and Kate and I arrive.
The following outcomes were predicted by NASA’s super computer, Columbia:
- Kelly family’s flight is delayed in Texas for a day or two before it is safe to land in Cancun. When they land they find Cancun a desolated rumble heap with the entire population of tourists absent because they have illegally immigrated to Chiapas, Mexico. Kate and Neil have to steal a scooter and scoot their way through the eye of the hurricane at 35 miles an hour until they get to Cancun and meet the rest of the family. They all have a wonderful family vacation living in the remains of 5 star hotels and eating deep sea creatures washed up from the tsunami that follows.
- The Kelly family is able to fly to Cancun on schedule however they must fly around the hurricane adding 130 hours of flight time. By the time they land in Cancun they have just enough time to run through the airport and catch their flight home. In the mean time Kate and Neil start a NGO to help displaced tourists find foster families. While Kate remains a charitable saint Neil embezzles most of the hundreds of millions of aids dollars sent to the NGO. He eventually buys the state of Oaxaca from the Mexican government in what becomes known as the Oaxacan purchase, declares himself Mayan king, and rules the region with blood and terror the remained of his short days until he is violently dethroned by a CIA backed Mayan Liberation Army (MLA). The MLA eventually take over and rule with even more blood and terror. The MLA begins training terrorist who make an attack on American soil affecting mostly farm land. The US retaliates and starts a “short war” that turns out to be a quagmire costing the US thousands of soldier lives and billions of dollars only to withdraw in defeat.
- The Kelly family arrives without a hitch. During the few short hours they are in the air the Republican Party is found to be slave trading, illegally trafficking stolen human organs, and funding the largest systematic massacre of bunnies, puppies, and kittens. All of them are forced to resign and flee to Mexico as political refugees. Kate and Neil arrive on time in what turns out to be a pleasant bus ride from Campeche. Refugeed republicans are forced to seek low wage jobs throughout the Yucatan. The Kelly family vacation is wonderful, the sun comes out, the world’s pollution goes away, and during a nice seafood dinner the Kelly family is served by none other than George Walker Bush…and they Kelly’s don’t leave a tip.
I just wanted to show you this video footage I got yesterday of the hummingbird feeding her little babies.
Lets start with an evolutionarily postulate quoted from Wikipedia.org. “Natural selection is a process that causes heritable traits that are helpful for survival and reproduction to become more common and harmful traits to become rarer.” And a definition of ethics which according to Answers.com from the Philosophy Dictionary by Oxford Press is “The study of the concepts involved in practical reasoning: good, right, duty, obligation, virtue, freedom, rationality, choice….” So what does evolution and ethics have to do with our garden? Well, let me tell you.
With that in mind let me tell you about our little conundrum. As you already know we have a humming bird nesting in the NWAF compound. She must have been building her nest long before we arrived in May because shortly there after I noticed her nest and then a few days later a little hummingbird sitting in the nest. Sense that time we have witnessed the laying of two tiny hummingbird eggs, their subsequent hatching into tiny hummingbird chicks, and the constant back and forth feeding frenzy from the crack of dawn till the sun and cloud hallows set on nearby jungle mountains.
I am going to go out on a limb and say our hummingbird (Kate, please don’t make me sleep on the couch) is not the brightest bird in town. She built her nest in the middle of a heavily trafficked archeology compound in a tree that can barely hold its own weight and is poorly protected from the rain. So a few weeks after we first noticed the nest San Cristobal was struck by a large storm. It rained all day long every day for about a week and by the time the rains subsided the poor nest looked as though it was going to melt right off the tree. Fortunately for this small bird the next month was dry and she had time to patch up her nest, dry out, and lay her eggs.
About two weeks ago the little eggs hatched into two strange looking mohawked hummingbird babies. And as is expected about two days later the heavens opened and San Cristobal received another torrential pounding. About two days into the heavy rains the nest, now holding two newborn babies, was soaked through and slipping off the tree. Being the good people we are Kate and I lashed an umbrella to a tall poll and put it over the nest. While our little hummingbird seemed very disturbed by the new black shape looming over head, her nest was no longer getting wet and I would like to think she is grateful. We left the umbrella up just in case another big storm comes through, just until the kiddies are big enough to fly on their own and make the migration to where ever they need to go. The hummingbird habitat has been in place for about a week now and she doesn’t seem bothered by it at all. She is so busy feeding her little chicks that she has little time to notice anything. On a side note those chicks are getting so fat they fill the entire nest with their wrinkly little bodies.
I feel good about building the little hummingbird shelter and in the process am sure Kate and I have saved the lives of the two chicks. But did we do the right thing? If our little hummingbird had chosen a better suited position her little nest would be protected from the rain and if her nest wasn’t so low to the ground she would run the risk of interference from careless humans or hungry cats. Lucky for her she chose a scientific compound where people appreciate her enough not to interfere…at least until Kate and I came along. By setting up the umbrella we have given her offspring an unfair advantage. Do we want a dumb bird to pass on her low intelligence to the next generation of hummingbirds? Have we done more harm than good? What would have been the right thing to do?
I actually believe we did the right thing. But in most cases I would say it is important to leave nature be and let evolution weed out what needs weeding. Yet on the other hand humans do such a good job destroying environments and interfering with animal habitats that I fail to see why it isn’t okay to help animals. The best possible solution would be one that allowed animals to live in their natural habitats unmolested by evil does or those trying to do well. And to do this we all need to be a little more conscious of the world around us and how our actions are affecting all other living things. Do it for the birds.
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