I still remember the old-fashioned pull tabs on pop cans that were introduced in March 1963 by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. You put your finger in the ring and pulled the tab off. Unfortunately, these pull tabs were an environmental disaster; pets and wildlife died from digesting the sharp things, as did a few people who dropped them into a can and then accidentally choked on them. The hazardous tabs wound up on beaches, where people cut their feet on them, and littered roadsides and damaged garbage disposals. More »

From 6 to 16 October we visited South Sinai and stayed at Amar Sina Hotel in Sharm El Sheikh. We dived and snorkeled with Colona Divers and visited Ras Mohamed NP, Nabeq NP and St. Catherine’s Monastery.

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Yesterday we visited the sewage plant North East of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt to look for birds. We had a very hard time getting there as our taxi driver didn’t speak English (see the directions below), but the visit was well worth all the trouble. We saw many birds, including thousands of White Storks!

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Our Scubadorable ‘Value T-Shirts’ are on sale with a discount of $6 off the regular price. Value Tees are comfortable 100% Cotton Hanes Heavyweight (or equivalent) shirts. Regularly priced at $16, they are now available at a discount for just $10 for the rest of September.

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Today we had a rare tour of De Meelfabriek (‘The Flour Factory’) in Leiden as part of Open Monumentendag (‘Open Monuments Day’). De Meelfabriek is an old factory near the center of Leiden, not far from our house. You can see it here from a short distance:

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Yesterday we visited the annual Vogelfestival (“Bird Fair”), organised by the Dutch State Forestry, SOVON and Vogelbescherming Nederland, the Dutch partner of BirdLife International. It is a major event for bird and birding enthusiasts and is modelled after the British Birdfair held in Rutland Water. The annual Dutch event has grown to include over 100 exhibitors and is attended by more than 15,000 visitors. The fair is held at the Oostvaardersplassen, an important nature reserve (see also our visit there in March 2007).

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Yesterday we saw our first Common Kingfisher (‘IJsvogel’) in the Netherlands. Also known as the European Kingfisher, it is the only Kingfisher in the Netherlands and most of Europe. We had just visited the Vogelfestival (“Bird Festival”) in nearby Oostvaardersplassen, an important nature reserve (see also our visit there in March 2007). We had already seen the Common Kingfisher in India (on 26 April 2006) and 9 different species in other countries, but for a long time I wanted to see one in Holland. Finally seeing these two at such close proximity was an exceptionally nice end to a great birding day that was also my birthday.

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Check out this July 1980 ad from Byte magazine featuring a great deal on a 10 Megabyte Hard Disk for $3,495 ! At that price my current 250 GB external drive would cost $8,737,500. Computers and storage capacity have come a long way in the last 27 years.

10,000 hungry vultures are causing panic in the Pyrenees and Basque Country. They have been attacking live animals and have also been aggressive towards humans. The vultures are starving due to a new EU directive which prohibits farmers from leaving cattle carcasses on their land to rot. The dead animals must now be burned or disposed of in another way. The initiative is to prevent disease spread among cattle but the results have been devastating for the vultures. More »

We finally had a chance to see Ratatouille yesterday. All the excellent reviews I read in anticipation while waiting for the Dutch release of this film were true; it was another Pixar masterpiece! Rotten Tomatoes has 156 favorable reviews, against just 6 rotten, making it one of the best films of the year. I hope Ratatouille will, like Beauty and the Best, receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. I think it deserves it.