The Featured Post Blog

A collection of the featured posts as they appeared on mo'time

by: dpassmore

The dogs give thanksgiving...

As I write this, Penn State's only astronaut-faculty member sits at the next table at Otto's Cafe on the Penn State University Park Campus with his coffee and giant blueberry muffin. Rain falls steadily outside, but there is no rain in space. All is zero gravity sameness. I am sure he did not have to tie a tie and dress in a suit during his time in orbit.

The dogs enjoyed themselves at the kennel on Thanksgiving. When they returned, they romped around the back yard, where Ann, my daughter, took their photos.



That's Cody, the gray-blue greyhound, on the left; Oreo, the newest greyhound, sniffs to the right.
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posted by: howard at 10:53 | link | comments |

by: Lewana

[The featured post is back!]

Travel in West Africa can be quite daunting if not risky at times. It takes tough nerves, guts and planning to explore sub-sahelian Niger beyond its capital Niamey. The moment you are leaving the relative comfort zone of the city for a river tour, you can expect no more doctors, mechanics, pharmacies, and shops - not even potable water.

French-born Jean-Claude Berronet, who has made Niamey his retirement home, is definitely the man to organise a river safari to W National Park.

Indeed, I was very lucky to hear about Jean – Claude's Niger River Tours for he does not no marketing, neither in Niamey nor overseas. Still, bush drums here in Africa work miraculously well in this part of the world. It was partly thanks to a friend’s phone message –– asking me whether I wanted to join a couple of tourists doing a two day pirogue tour along the river towards W National Park. As you would expect, I jumped at the opportunity for I had just read several interesting articles written by Joost Brower, soil scientist and founder of the NiBDaD (Niger Bird Data Base - www.birdlife.org.uk )

Especially Brower’s articles in the Bradt Tourist Guide (the first guide in English printed in 2006 about Niger) about Niger’s rich birdlife had caught my imagination. His inside knowledge about Niger’s biodiversity, agriculture and environmental issues wetted my appetite for an adventure that promised camping in the wilderness, exploring native villages and - most importantly - observe and discover the rich and varied wild–life of the unique wetlands that run along the Niger River.

So – quite unprepared and still a little jet-lagged for such an expedition at 7 o’clock on Friday morning I found myself in a “mangotier”, a shady garden filled with shady mango trees, stepping gingerly on board a large pirogue.
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posted by: howard at 22:49 | link | comments (1) |