Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Poker proved in court to be a game of skill

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation are clearly bored. Very bored. However, some good has come of the work their idle hands have done. After a "sting" operation (or maybe more of a flick than a sting) they arrested some guys for playing poker in a bar. Pulse quickening stuff. The Poker Players Association got behind the defendants and forked out for an expert witness to state that poker is skill, not luck. Full article below. And maybe now Party Poker shares can stop scraping the floor.

9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | Definition clears man of gambling charges

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Doing something absurd? Map it!

Motion X is an application for the I-Phone that allows you to map your routes, be it shopping, going to the ballet or climbing the third highest peak in North America.

Motion X and Orizaba

We would have used it in Belize but battery power and tree cover thwarted that idea. Still, the summit pic made it to the above website. Good work Dan!

Monday, July 20, 2009

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

Sunday, July 19, 2009

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

Wednesday, July 15, 2009