If it seems that I have been quiet, it’s because I’ve been out picking flowers…… oh, wait, no, I mean I’ve been taking a lot of pictures. You can see them over on Flickr.

This is charming but the last bike in the animation is from 1900, or so. Why are so many of us still riding a shape that was settled-on that early in the progression of bicycle design?

https://vimeo.com/73581450

Today I saw something I never thought I would see: we watched salmon spawning in Vancouver. This has been all over the news and  we went down to Still creek expecting to brave the crowds at 11am on a Saturday and no one was there except us and one guy with his kid! We watched for 3/4 of an hour. At one point, a dozen salmon were in view. I took pictures and a video. It was really cool!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phall715/10771490015/

I’m a bit claustrophobic so you would think that I would want to flee underground trainstations as soon as I arrive  but, actually, I love the idea of huge underground tunnels and stations and compared to our puny stations in Vancouver, it all makes me jealous even if it is mostly likely that they have to spend all this effort because Manhattan is, essentially, already full.

More about bamboo trains from some Australian TV show:

This is a fascinating documentary. It features two caves we went to last summer. Of course, as they conclude in the documentary, it isn’t certain that the Lascaux cave paintings really are depictions of the constellations, but it’s very cool, nonetheless:

This is so incredibly cool. It’s been all over twitter but just in case anyone didn’t see it, look at this:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/06/map-iphone-users-any-city-and-you-know-where-rich-live/5961/

Just a little interlude: home-made train in Cambodia!!

Just like this one: