Here is a list of my favorite hikes or walks.

trekking in Northern Thailand
Kevin, my nephew Levi and I spent a couple of days hiking in the hill tribe area. Lots of culture, nice people and good food.

Nagarkot to Changunarayan in Nepal
All downhill easy walk, 12 year old kid as a guide. Meet a lot of people in the villages.

Jungle hike to see the Harpy Eagle in Darian Panama
Real jungle adventure, hours in the pouring rain through thick jungle.

Hike to see the Mountain Gorilla in Uganda
Guides have to hack through the Bamboo forest, hard but feels like far away.

trekking in Dogan Country Mali
A few days hiking from village to village. Meet lots of interesting people and great scenery.

Day hike to see the big nose monkeys in Bako National Park Malaysia
Different, would like to have more time. See all the different ecosystems in one day.

Diablo canyon in Baja Mexico
Out of the pure desert into a beautiful canyon with a river that disappears into the sand.

Rincon de la Vieja national park in Costa Rica
Jungle, waterfalls and nobody but us.

Isle De Sol Bolivia
Boat drops you off at one end of the island and picks you up at the other end. Great day.

I do not have a picture posted so I have say up front that I am white. Despite this fact I spend a fair amout of time thinking about racism in America. America is still a fairly racist place and it continues to be a difficult place to be black or brown. I also believe that it is less racist than it used to be but that does not mean a lot to the people affected by today's version of racial discrimination. I base my belief on several observations. It seems to me that Black and Latin people are under represented in business, higher education, media, law and politics. And much of the representation there is comes from a racial constituency. Black politicians represent black voters, black CEOs run companies that sell to or serve black customers. In television there are black shows that appeal to largely black viewers and in mainstream television black actors have a lower proportion of the lead roles. I could go on but I think my point is clear. This is also true for Latinos in America. Then there is also the data around birth weight, education, incarceration, and income. Of course this is a generalization but I do believe it is still the truth.

You either agree or disagree with this view, if you agree then the question is what can and should be done about it. As a libertarian I am unable to see a solution that comes from the government with maybe one possible exception. That is in the area of funding for education. Our dependence on funding education from property taxes in many areas of the country means that poor people are always going to get a lower standard of education and therefore stay poor. I firmly believe that if all kids receive equal education there will be no difference in achievement by race, percentage wise. I do not know the best solution but I do think that the current situation is flawed and there should be more discussion around this area.

Let's talk about books. I have been bad about keeping up the book section on my web site and am hoping to do better here.

The best book I have read lately is Freakonomics by Steven Levitt. This is a great read and really shows what can be learned by good analysis of data. Even though the book covers some difficult subjects it is always very readable.

Another good book was recommended by my good friend Kevin Edwards. It is called The Secret Knowledge of Water by Craig Childs. If you love the desert or have spent any time wandering around the American West this is a must read.

I also read a fairly technical business buss called Deals From Hell by Robert F. Bruner. This is a study of M&A deals and, contrary to the title, covers deals that went well along with those that went very very wrong. I think it is a good book but will only be interesting for people that have a real interest in the subject matter.

A book that I have been disappointed in is called Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald. This is the story of Enron and the subject is interesting. The problem I have is with the writing style - short chapters, written for people with a short attention span. For me the writing just kills what is a fascinating story.

On the fiction side the only book I have read that I can say anything good about is Zero Over Berlin by Ioh Sasaki. An odd story about trying to get to Japanese Planes from Japan to Germany during WW II.

Anybody have recommendations along these lines?

Here is an interesting thought - you know how we hear about this place or that place deciding not to teach evolution in school or to give equal weight to the creation theory? I, for one, am glad about this. Not because I don't believe in evolution - I think it is one of the most important concepts to understand. No, I am glad because we will need more and more people to work in WalMart and fast food places in the future and these kids that come out of these schools are going to be the ones to fill those jobs. Plus it will mean less competition for my son when it comes to getting in to good schools.

It is not so much that these kids grow up not believing in evolution that means that they will end up in low paying jobs but that they will miss an understanding of the scientific method. If you believe that the theory of creation and the theory of evolution are on par then how will you ever be able analyze complex problems and make well informed decisions.

This is why I cheer on those school districts that discuss doing away with the teaching of evolution. Lets hope more schools embrace this idea.

Second post is about travel, I thought I would list some of the places that I have been that I am really glad I have been able to see so far in my life. Not in any paticular order:

The Alhambra in Spain
Machu Picchu in Peru
Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples in Cambodia
The mud Mosque in Dejenne Mali
The Taj Mahal in Agar India
The cave paintings in Sigiriya Sri Lanka
Mountain gorillas in Mgahinga Uganda
The Grand Canyon
The northern lights
Samburu national park in Kenya
Borobudur temple in Indonesia
Tikal Guatemala
The big Buddha at Nara Japan


I guess there is a theme here, I love temples or old places that were very hard to build at the time. There are a lot of other places I am really glad to have visited but these are sights that have really stuck with me. Still a lot to see though.

I did some analysis of the top rated music in my Itunes. I have had an Ipod for a little over a year now and have added about 5800 songs to it. Most are from CD, only about a hundred purchased from I tunes. I absolutely love my Ipod, I play it in the car (no more radio for me), I have a Bose player in my office and I listen to it on all my airplane trips. I think it is a great product. Anyway, back to the analysis. These are how my top rated looks by Genre:

Genre Number of Songs Hours
Jazz 331 38.5
World 150 15.4
Rock 141 13.4
Blues 77 6.6
Country 41 2.7
R&B 10 0.6
Reggae 2 0.2
Total 752 77.4

Jazz is understated as a lot of the Latin jazz shows up in world music. Country includes folk.

Here are the top 15 artists (by song count):

Artist Number of Songs Hours
Miles Davis 33 4.8
John Coltrane 26 2.7
Neil Young 23 2.1
Stan Getz 22 2.3
Roy Hargrove 18 1.9
Charlie Parker 15 1.2
Pink Floyd 13 2.2
Cal Tjader 12 0.9
Oscar Peterson 12 1.9
Sonny Rollins 12 1.3
Art Blakey 10 1.2
Bob Dylan 10 0.8
Poncho Sanchez 10 1
Tito Puente 10 1.1

What stuns me is how little of the music that I loved so much when I was younger makes to the top rated list. I suppose this is true for everyone. 20 years ago I could not have named a jazz musician and had no clue what was going on in world music. Only Neil Young, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan still come out on top. Some of the other bands from that time that are further down the list are Ten Years After, Canned Heat, Paul Butterfield and Boz Skaggs.

Canned Heat is interesting in that I was never a big fan growing up but have come to like them a lot in the last couple of years. I bought a blues compilation album that had a song of theirs called Bullfrog blues that is great. I then bought a 2 disk CD called Boogie House tapes that is also great.

I will have more to say about music later.

Hello

Interesting stuff will come later, for now just getting started. Some of the items I will publish soon relate to music, favorite places to visit, some politics and some business related items.