Make a list of 43 things I know very little about, & then learn at least 3 things about each of them

Dendrochronology (Reading tree rings).

I was finally able to find out more about the majestic Capybara after realizing I’ve been spelling it incorrectly for years.

Pop-up & movable books – a longtime passion.

Chocolate sushi.

:D Yum. I found out where to get some in town too.
I wonder if I should call them and ask if it’s fair trade chocolate sushi.

Sacred geometry & Phi: The Golden Number

The Fair Trade cocoa campaign

Drive-by poetry and poetry stands
(thanks to spammysammy for the suggestion!)

There was a great Doc Zone documentary on the Chinese Sexual Revolution the other night.

CHINA’S SEXUAL REVOLUTION is the world’s first glimpse – often using secret cameras – into this forbidden new China. It’s a surprising portrait of the Chinese today: the new free love generation that’s left their parents in shock; the booming sex industry that’s creating an HIV crisis; the new generation of career women and feminists that suddenly wants it all – while millions of men feel left out.

This long untold story goes back to the days of Chairman Mao, who made sexuality a great taboo. He ordered everyone to wear unisexual Mao suits, and forbid women from wearing sexy clothing, getting stylish haircuts, or even wearing make-up. Men and women were expected to be comrades – not lovers – though Mao himself enjoyed an emperor’s sex life, seeking virgins to retain his “youth”.

China’s sexual libido was bottled up for 50 years, but now it’s bursting loose, with dramatic effects on marriage, personal freedom and the government itself.

I just watched another great Nature of Things on game conservation in Kenya.

Game Over: Conservation in Kenya looks at the changing face of conservation in Kenya and explores the impact of both colonial and contemporary initiatives, as well as how they affect the peoples who have traditionally lived off the land.

In particular, we follow the shifting fortunes of the semi-traditional pastoral group the Masai, one of several tribes in Africa. Prominent conservationists like Dr. Richard Leakey discuss key events in Kenya’s conservation history, and what it is going to take for conservation to succeed today.

With a rapidly increasing population and escalating poverty, more and more Masai are moving into areas where wildlife once roamed freely. More and more people are competing with wildlife for the same natural resources – in this case, water and pasture.

But it is also a conflict between traditional ways of life and modern ones. For example, the ceremonial killing of a lion, a traditional right of passage for young Masai boys, is hardly sustainable with the ever-increasing number of people, as well as the shrinking lion population. Not to mention the hit that the tourism industry takes whenever a wildlife watcher comes across a headless lion in the bush.

It is a conflict between old and new, human versus wildlife. Fortunately for humans and non-humans alike, there are some Africans who have devoted much of their lives to efforts to resolve these fundamental conflicts.

Because I’m now getting it for my neck, I thought I’d read up on how Laser Therapy works and what else it can do (which led to a very interesting conversation with my physiotherapist).

Pretty amazing stuff.

• The Nature of Things: The Bear Man of Kamchatka.

• Global Currents: A death in the forest, on the logging industry in BC.

• The Amish, particularly their capacity for forgiveness.

Leonard Nimoy’s photography, specifically his Full Body Project. Beautiful.

My plan was to learn new things about each of the countries I’ve made Kiva loans in lately, starting with Cambodia.

I started there, but followed all sorts of interesting links. Some were directly related (history, language, politics, geography, native animals, culture, etc.) some less so.

A few I got caught up in:

• Angkor Wat (an ancient temple depicted on the Cambodian flag).

• The Mekong Blues. “Virginia Madsen goes in search of Cambodia’s great musical traditions and find them against all the odds surviving on the streets and in the slums of Phnom Penh.”

• Scientific classification. (I thought I’d brush up on this after many years, and it came up when I was reading about the different animals of Cambodia)

• Elephants. I really enjoyed learning some new things about elephants. Especially some of their behavior regarding sexuality, child-rearing, communication, and self awareness. Really interesting stuff. I like elephants. As long as they’re not in a musth state.

I backtracked to Cambodia and ended up lost in a number of Cambodian blogs, such as Details are Sketchy (the 07/17/06 entry had links to additional blogs, which I followed randomly). I love falling headfirst into other people’s lives.

I learned all sorts of unexpected things…

The Codex Seraphinianus