Featured Book
Curious Encounters of the Human Kind – Myanmar (Burma)
This is the first book in a five-book series of unusual (and true) personal travel tales. Within the first three days of the book’s publication it has become an Amazon best-seller in its category.
What do jumping cats have to do with Buddhism’s Middle Path? Did Orwell really hate everyone in Burma? How did Myanmar’s ruling junta use white elephants to consolidate their power? Will a synagogue caretaker’s improbable dream ever come true? What arrogance drives western travelers to seek the “unknown” in Myanmar’s Nagaland? And why should you never disrespect the nat spirits who guard a sacred forest?
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Featured Articles
Into the Frying Pan
Vietnam’s street kids learn the restaurant business HANOI, Vietnam “Postcards, mister?” I explained to the teen-aged boy outside a luxury hotel in Hanoi that I didn’t need any more postcards. “Please mister.” So I bought a few more postcards, hoping my dollar would buy the young man a meal or two. Officially there are some […]
News & Events
10 November — Opening of COP 30 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Ah, yet another international gathering to discuss progress in addressing the problem of climate change. This year it will be held in Belém, Brazil, and the participants will also focus on nature conservation in the country, including the vast Amazon region. I’ve been following Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace for some 50 years, including a […]
Intro to a speculative biography of Ali
My speculative biography of Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace’s assistant, was honored as the Best Historical Book of 2024 by the United States Peace Corps Writers. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction. Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird Intro to a speculative biography of Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace’s assistant in the Malay Archipelago […]
Alfred Russel Wallace and Things That Go Bump in the Night
Alfred Russel Wallace is best known for his scientific achievements — collecting and documenting hundreds of new species of “natural productions,” major insights into biogeography, island endemism, and cultural anthropology, and notably, his development of a theory of evolution by natural selection independently of and prior to that of Charles Darwin. But Wallace was also […]