Bot Fly Madness

Things to do in Belize:

1. Have a car crash on the journey there.
2. Climb the highest Peak in the country.
3. Bring back three passengers - mis hijos.

When I was in Ecuador I gave a talk to the new volunteers about the diseases etc you could get in the jungle. It was called the Tropical Health lecture, but was often referred to as the Tropical Death lecture as most things you could catch usually lead to "severe health risks or even death". One thing that I found particularly interesting was Bot Flies.

The bot fly is a crafty beast and lays its eggs on the proboscis of a mosquitoes. When said mosquito bites you the eggs are implanted under your skin where they hatch into larvae. The larvae then have a merry old time living off you until they are ready to flee their (not so willing) host and become big, grown up bot flies.

As luck would have it I got not one but three whilst climbing Victoria Peak in Belize. These guys have been living in my back since the end of May, a good 7 weeks now. I went to the doc's three times to be told I had abscessed bites and she wouldn't hear any of it when I mentioned the possibility of bot flies. We had an attempted removal last night but it failed (although definitely a positive sighting).

So today my back is covered in duct tape to starve mis hijos of air. This apparently weakens them making them easier to remove. Until tonight here's something for your viewing pleasure. This guy picked his up in Panama:

YouTube - Bot Fly

Sonic Mosquito Repellers

Genius. Anyone coming to Mexico soon from the states? Fancy bringing this with you?

Sonic Mosquito Repellers

Although perhaps they're not that great:

Sonic Mosquito Repellers Do Not Work

Sarah Palin - What a leg end

Oh Sarah. Words escape me.

Sarah Palin: Drill, baby, drill | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

The comments are priceless too. Favourite has to be from necroflange

IUCN says you should volunteer

GVI news

Bottle Water Banned

Not sure how much impact Bundanoon will have. There's only 2500 people living there.

Australian town, state government ban bottled water | World | Reuters

Beastie Boys Driving Game

Beastie Boys Create Google Earth Driving Game | Google Earth Blog

Chrome in the NYT

Go Google.

Google Plans a PC Operating System - NYTimes.com

Revolicktionary Technology

Now this is kind of weird. As I post this, it will update my twitter account with a link to this post. Twitter in turn will up date my Facebook status... with a link to this post. It would seem that all links lead to the Revolicktion. Maybe it's time to start blogging in earnest again? Or perhaps I should stop being such a geek and do something useful with my time. Answers on a postcard... or a comment, which will also go to twitter to facebook aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Too much.

The Victoria Peak Mission

At the end of May, Danny and I conquered Victoria Peak in Belize. It's only 1 and bit kms high but a full on 3 days of trekking through the jungle. Fewer people have climbed to the summit of Vic Peak than have climbed Everest. You can come up with your own reasons as to why. For those of you that missed the Facebook links you can see them by clicking here. Here's a wee taster and proof that we made it (don't worry the clouds cleared... no repeats of Colca Canyon...)

Will this tweet?

Oh the quagmire of net tools

So theoretically, this should pop up on twitter.

Well it's been a while. And Blogger has got a bit fruitier. Time to get with the times I suppose.