This summer I had the pleasure of visiting Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, Haida Gwaii is an archipelago of islands off the northern coast of British Columbia and south of the Alaskan Panhandle. Haida Gwaii means “islands of the people” in the native Haida language. The premier attraction in …
I spent most of today walking the streets of Alexandria. There is no better way to get to know a city than to walk around for a day and get lost in the process. In some ways, I find Alexandria really depressing. This is a city where almost every building is 100 years old and …
Glacier Bay National Park is a beautiful U.S. National Park located near Juneau, Alaska. With about 547,000 visitors per year (as of 2017), it’s the second most visited national park in Alaska, slightly behind Denali. The vast majority of visitors to the park arrive on cruise ships, which sail up the Inside Passage of the …
I like to travel and I like to read. These two things shouldn’t be in conflict. In fact, they usually complement each other quite nicely. However, I discovered just a few months into my travels back in 2007 that I had a big problem….several problems Books are heavy. If you have ever had to move …
Transcript One of the simplest mathematical statements possible is 2+2=4. While the concept is very easy to understand, when you write it down you have to use mathematical symbols which are, historically speaking, a relatively recent invention. At one point, mathematicians were doing reasonably complicated work without the benefit of symbols at all. Something which …
Podcast Transcript In 1940, much of the world was at war, but the United States wasn’t. A strong isolationist sentiment kept the US on the sidelines while Germany and Japan ran roughshod over their neighbors. While the US wasn’t in the war, many people in the US military knew that it was only a matter …
From the World Heritage inscription for Tongariro National Park: In 1993 Tongariro became the first property to be inscribed on the World Heritage List under the revised criteria describing cultural landscapes. The mountains at the heart of the park have cultural and religious significance for the Maori people and symbolize the spiritual links between this …
From the World Heritage inscription for Te Wahipounamu: The landscape in this park, situated in southwest New Zealand, has been shaped by successive glaciations into fjords, rocky coasts, towering cliffs, lakes, and waterfalls. Two-thirds of the park is covered with southern beech and podocarps, some of which are over 800 years old. The kea, the …
From the East Rennell World Heritage inscription: East Rennell makes up the southern third of Rennell Island, the southernmost island in the Solomon Island group in the western Pacific. Rennell, 86 km long x 15 km wide, is the largest raised coral atoll in the world. The site includes approximately 37,000 ha and a marine …