Voyager

I’ve been getting into reading a little bit about Carl Sagan recently, just out of coincidence (and reading alot of digg.com). He died in 1996, but today would have been his 75th birthday – and so there’s been a ripple of news stories with his quotes floating around in the last few days.

One of them that I came across touches on musings about what the Voyager satellites were loaded with before they were sent out on their long and perhaps never-ending mission, and it’s quite an amazing thought really… what should we send out to sum up humanity – to sum up Planet Earth…what would you send out if you could launch a time capsule into space?

Check out what we sent:

”Accordingly, as each Voyager left Earth for the planets and the stars, it carried with it a golden phonograph record encased in a golden, mirrored jacket containing, among other things; greetings in 59 human languages and one whale language; a 12-minute sound essay including a kiss, a baby’s cry, and an EEG record of the meditations of a young woman in love; 116 encoded pictures, on our science, our civilization, and ourselves; and 90 minutes of the Earth’s greatest hits-Eastern and Western, classical and folk, including a Navajo night chant, a Japanese shakuhachi piece, a Pygmy girl’s initiation song, a Peruvian wedding song, a 3,000-year-old composition for the ch’in called “Flowing Streams,” Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Stravinsky, Louis Armstrong, Blind Willie Johnson, and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”"

Pretty cool, no? And funny that music is such a big influence in representing who we are…

Read more [here]

Kowloon Walled City

Forgot to post this when it went up last week! It’s been a busy few weeks, but lots more content will be coming soon.

Kowloon Walled City @ Gadling

End of Thailand Series

Two more posts to finish the series on Thailand:

Ko Samui @ Gadling

&

Sounds of Siam @ Gadling

Coupla Posts

Oh yeah, forgot to update that there have been a coupla’ posts on Gadling since I’ve been back too… check ‘em out.

The road (+rail +ferry) to Ko Pha Ngan @ Gadling

Ko Phan Ngan @ Gadling

Full Moon Party @ Gadling

Typhoon Nangka

A week ago, I was on a plane from Beijing to Hong Kong, after having taken the train from Hong Kong to Beijing for the weekend. As I was on that flight, I was making a mental list of all the things I had to do during my last 36 hours in Hong Kong, and then roughly 36 hours later, I was on a plane back to California.

And that is where I write this to you now – after a day at the beach, and a weekend spent with family & friends. It’s hard to think that six months passed while I was in Hong Kong, but I think I’ll always look back on it as a fantastic period of personal growth and introspection. And I owe alot of that to Joe, who not only made it possible, but challenged me and pushed me to become a better person.

– Video after the break –

Bangkok

New post on Gadling about Bangkok – recommendations, observations, and plenty of photos (most of which have appeared here in July).

Article @ Gadling

Diow Jeenpradit

A fun piece about a street musician that can be found on the Khao San most nights of the week. Includes audio (at bottom of article), check it out

Article @ Gadling

The Khao San

My first article on a new series about Thailand went up today. New article every other day for the next few weeks!

As you might be able to tell from the article…I love the Khao San. I’ll never be able to forget some of the great conversations I had with interesting people here. You can literally walk down the road twice and meet people from 10 different countries, any day of the week. If you’re going to Bangkok and are looking suggestions, please let me know.

Article @ Gadling

August

A quick update from the road – I’m in Addis Ababa, enjoying free WiFi again and getting to catch up a little bit with the digital world from the past 3 weeks.

I had an amazing time in Madagascar with ToughStuff – I spent about 6 days in Antananarivo, and another 6 days on a road trip to Toliara (Tulear), Madagascar on the southern coast of the island. Alot of people there have limited access to electricity – and rely on kerosene or candles for light at night. The villagers were really excited for the possibilities of ToughStuff, especially for the entrepreneurs that were able to borrow or afford several lamps to rent out to others that can’t afford to buy them yet.

Antananarivo

Ok, so if anyone out there is actually still reading this, quick update. I’m in Antananarivo, Madagascar – shooting a few videos for a brilliant social enterprise called ToughStuff. Please check out their website to find out more about them.

Antananarivo is a weird mix of things. Take Paris, France – turn the clock back 70 years or so – replace all the picturesque trees with dusty, wilted ones – and imagine that the population is a heart mix of African & Indonesian people, and that’s kind of what Antananarivo feels like.

Nonetheless, I’m loving getting to explore a new place and talk to new people. PS new Gadling article up ( Dim Sum Dialogues: Family Business )