Around The World

He flies through the air with the greatest of ease

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:07:01 -0700

He flies through the air with the greatest of ease

Cold night, warm moon.

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:39:00 -0700

Cold night, warm moon.

Ships not passing, in the night. (From my most recent trip to...

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:30:25 -0700

Ships not passing, in the night.

(From my most recent trip to Canada)

Deadmau5 - Some Chords BIG HOUSE BEATS!

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:25:39 -0700

Deadmau5 - Some Chords

BIG HOUSE BEATS!

I just bought this awesome statue this afternoon, at an awesome...

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:48:59 -0700

I just bought this awesome statue this afternoon, at an awesome little boutique/gallery in Chelsea called Mantiques Modern. I want to go back and buy basically everything in the shop.

The Steve Jobs Corollary: Why Apple Will Announce AT&T-Shattering News at WWDC

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:31:39 -0700

This is pure speculation. I’m willing to stipulate that up front. But I think it’s pretty well-founded speculation, because it’s based on two nearly undeniable facts:

1: Steve Jobs is a very shrewd businessman. 2: Steve Jobs is ruthless.

There’s also an important corollary to these two facts:

Steve Jobs Corollary: You don’t F-ck Stevie, Stevie F-cks You. That is, nobody gets the drop on him, least of all AT&T.

So, why do I think Stevie will drop a serious bomb on AT&T at WWDC? Perhaps you heard the fantastic announcement by AT&T’s CEO that they are “making the mobile Internet more affordable for more people” by axing the all-you-can-eat data plans for new iPhone users and all iPad users? Well as much as they want to sugar coat it, this is a serious blow they’re dealing to Apple. The muffled scream you just heard? Tt was the first and last gasp of the 3G iPad after AT&T just executed a partial-birth abortion. Who the hell is going to pay several hundred extra dollars for a 3G iPad when you basically need to use wifi for all your audio/video streaming unless you want to fork over a bunch of extra money to AT&T? Nobody! No one in their right mind will pay for that.

That’s not the only way this fucks Apple. We also know that they’re building a billion-dollar data center in North Carolina to do… something. And that they bought Lala not to long ago, so it’s likely thy they’re a out to make a serious move into streaming their customers media from the cloud, most likely with the help of that shiny new data center. Will anyone with a 3G iPad or a new iPhone want to stream their media from Apple’s cloud if they have 2GB per month? Not likely.

So this one announcement amounts to a massive broadside attack on Apple. But we know from the Steve Jobs corollary that you don’t f-ck Stevie, he f-cks you. Which means that Steve probably precipitated this move himself, most likely with a forthcomig announcement at WWDC (the date the new data plan policies go into effect).

What could he be set to announce that would push AT&T to make such a blatantly harmful move against their most-important partner of the last few years? Probably something to the effect of “Why don’t we see other people?” i.e. It’s been fun while it lasted, but we aren’t exclusive anymore, bitch. Could this mean the long-rumored Verizon iPhone? Maybe! Could it mean a Sprint/Clear 4G iPhone/Pad? Maybe! There are a lot of excitig posibilities, but the bottom line is that I suspect Steve is fed up with AT&Ts network problems and is about to make them 2nd or 3rd banana to Verizon/Sprint/Clear. If Steve let’s this pass and doesn’t drop some sort of serious bomb at WWDC, then i’d say it means he’s lost his (ruthless, shrewd) touch, in which case I’m unloadig my AAPL shares (or at least a good portion of them) pronto. But for now I have more faith in Steve than that.

A portrait of which Dali would have approved, no doubt. In the...

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:09:13 -0700

A portrait of which Dali would have approved, no doubt. In the center of Figueres, his hometown and location of the Dali Museum.

It’s a long climb into and out of the pyramid at Dahshur.

Sat, 29 May 2010 07:36:07 -0700

It’s a long climb into and out of the pyramid at Dahshur.

The Sphinx, with the tallest pyramid at Giza in the background.

Sat, 29 May 2010 07:16:07 -0700

The Sphinx, with the tallest pyramid at Giza in the background.

The main hall of the Egypt Museum. Tourists aren’t...

Fri, 28 May 2010 07:49:59 -0700

The main hall of the Egypt Museum. Tourists aren’t supposed to bring in cameras… But they let me bring in my iPhone. This was one of 3 must-do activities for my brief stay in Cairo. It was cool, with an abundance of interesting antiquities, but it was kind of disappointing. Unlike the main hall, most spaces were dark and dingy. Many of the pieces were poorly labled, if they had any labels or signage at all. In some places, pieces were simply piled on each other in a dark corner. Worst of all, the museum admission was 60 Egyptian Pounds, but then they were charging another 100 to go to the royal mummies section. Lame.

Distractions From The Perfect Lunch I’ve finally found...

Wed, 26 May 2010 10:29:43 -0700

Distractions From The Perfect Lunch

I’ve finally found it, the holy Grail of midday bourgeois gastronomy, the star-crossed pursuit of many a bygone gourmond, the perfect lunch. The secret? Location, location, location. I’ve had better food, but the subtle comination of wind rustling through palm trees, distant surf crashing over a barrier reef, sunshine glinting off the bright blue waters of the nearby pool and green waters of the flats stretching out nearly to the horizon, together these factors take a burger that is merely good—albeit long-awaited—and elevate it to the level of the sublime.

The brightness and brilliance of this, my moment of perfection in consumption and leisure, is enough even to distract me from the sad, searching gazes of the beach boys (the impoverished locals who will try desperately, aggressively to sell you anything and everything from a joint or a nigt with an “African Mama” to a woodcarving or a snorkeling expedition) standing just on the other side of the fence that separates this outpost of luxury and affluence from their threadbare, impoverished existence. It’s only after the meal is over, the last bite savored, that the spell is broken and I am once again aware of the sad reminder of the vast gulf that separates my fortunes from those of the locals.

Dhow After spending the past two afternoons sailing a...

Wed, 26 May 2010 01:09:54 -0700

Dhow

After spending the past two afternoons sailing a conventional catamaran (Dart 18), today I opted for a more traditional Zanzibarian sailing experience, a dhow. Julius, the captain whose boat I chartered, had been after me the past two days; every time I came down to the beach he beseeched me to come out on his “high technology dhow”. After looking at the above picture you might ask exactly what about this dhow is “high technology”? I have no clue. I’m tempted to say it’s just a marketing/branding tacttic, since the most advanced tech on board appears to be the scavenged ropes, but I think it’s pretty generous to assume that Julius knows what “marketing” and “branding” are. Of course, the irony is that if he’s trying to promote his boat to me or most other wazungu by claiming “high-tech” credentials, he’s actually undermining himself since we would want to sail a dhow because it’s old and traditional.

Julius’ dhow, which I christened the RZS (Republic of Zanzibar Sailboat) Dauntless, is more than 5 years old, but with proper care and maintainence he claims it will last more than 20 years. Other than the piece of bamboo supporting the sail and the various scavenged lines, the entire boat—hull, outriggers, tiller, rudder, etc.—is made from the wood of a mango tree. I don’t think there was a single piece of metal involved, everything is either cut to fit together, or lashed together with ropes. Before he went into the mzungu charter business 3 years ago, Julius used the Dauntless as a fishing vessel, doing some deep sea fishing but mostly spearfishing around the reef and in the flats. Unfortunately, the years of diving took a tool on his ears and now he can’t go more than about 2 meters deep without excruciating pain, so now he makes his money taking people like me on short cruises. He’ll also take you out deep sea fishing if the conditions are right (he claims to have caught everyhing from tuna to sailfish to marlin from his dhow), but it’s not the high season for any big game fish and I didn’t want to pay anything more than 40,000Tsh, so I opted for just a 2-hour cruise inside the reef.

Apparently there is more than one type of dhow, some of which can be easily sailed with a single person, but the Dauntless requires a two-man crew, one to skipper and the other to work the sail. When we began, Julius was working the sail and his assistant Barack (I think that 30% of the locals have recently renamed themselves “Barack” for some odd reason, I really can’t imagine why) was skippering. I made myself useful by pestering Julius with a barrage of questions about himself, his boat, and the local attractions. After we sailed a few kilometers north along the beach, Barack jibed—one doesn’t tack in a dhow… maybe it’s technically possible, but it isn’t the done thing—and I took over the tiller as we headed out towardsthe reef. Turning the Dauntless is an intricate manuver, which requires the 2nd crew mber to untie the main sheet as well as another line securing the bamboo boom (though I’m not sure “boom” is the right term since it’s on top of the sail, like on a Sunfish) to the mast and then pulling the sail and main sheet all the way around the front of the boom and retting the main sheet and the supporting line. Julius had the supporting line smartly rigged up so that he could keep a bowline tied on the end and basically cleat the line to either side without undoing the knot, but even so it was a lengthy and cumbersome process—hence the need for a 2nd crew member.

I skippered the Dauntless for another hour or so, out to the reef and then back south along the reef before returning to the resort. It was fun, and it’s cool to be able to say that I’ve sailed a dhow on the Indian Ocean, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t take a Dart, or a Hobie, or most any other modern sailboat over the Dauntless any day of the week. I’m glad to have had such a uniquely Zanzibarian experience, but weather permitting I’ll be back on the Dart 18 tomorrow.

Leopard. From my safari on the Serengeti.

Tue, 25 May 2010 09:09:05 -0700

Leopard. From my safari on the Serengeti.

Palm Trees in the Zanzibar Moonlight

Tue, 25 May 2010 07:06:41 -0700

Palm Trees in the Zanzibar Moonlight

Late Afternoon Sky Over Zanzibar, through Palm Trees

Tue, 25 May 2010 07:04:05 -0700

Late Afternoon Sky Over Zanzibar, through Palm Trees

Dinner, poolside. The food here is disturbingly good and...

Mon, 24 May 2010 12:45:26 -0700

Dinner, poolside. The food here is disturbingly good and all-you-can-eat—an unfortunate combination. Fresh veggies and seafood galore. I had some kind of grilled shellfish with dinner that was like a jumbo shrimp, crossed with a fish, in a lobster shell. It was tasty. Pretty sure i ate too much. At least I skipped desert?

Beautiful Zanzibarian sunset.

Mon, 24 May 2010 09:39:27 -0700

Beautiful Zanzibarian sunset.

Dalla-Dalla This is a Dalla-Dalla, the preferred form of public...

Sun, 23 May 2010 08:54:54 -0700

Dalla-Dalla

This is a Dalla-Dalla, the preferred form of public transport among the urban and rural poor of Tanzania. To my American eyes it looks like something that might comfortably seat 10 or maybe sqeeze in 15, so I was shocked when I first saw one with people packed into literally every cubic inch of space behind the driver and even a few hanging off the side. They can and will put 25+ people into one of these things, so don’t plan on taking the Dalla-Dalla unless you’ve overcome your need for personal space.

Sailing! Spent the late afternoon sailing a small catamaran off...

Sun, 23 May 2010 08:45:16 -0700

Sailing!

Spent the late afternoon sailing a small catamaran off this beach, in the Indian Ocean.

The view from one of the bars here at the Ocean Paradise resort....

Sun, 23 May 2010 06:04:35 -0700

The view from one of the bars here at the Ocean Paradise resort. Just got back from a tour of Stone Town. Loving Zanzibar.