Sunday, June 20, 2010

Plastic Bottles, Moonlight Cruises and Indiana Jones

It's almost been a month since I've returned from my trip to Borneo and I still am thinking about what an adventure my sister and I had. In addition to the adventure we also learned a great deal about how many dedicated people there are throughtout the world who devote their lives to the conservation of animals and the flora and fauna. For example, one of the scientists working along the Kinabatangan River noticed that the local shrimpers were cutting bark off of trees to hook their shrimp traps to so they could locate them. Well, that meant that the tree would eventually die and there would be more deforestation. This scientist got together with some the local influential shrimpers and suggested that instead of using the bark, why not use "used" plastic water bottles. Read more...

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

A Review: Innocent by Scott Turow

It’s been 23 years since we've seen Rusty and Barbara Sabich, the husband and wife in the wildly popular novel, Presumed Innocent, written by Scott Turow. Presumed Innocent was also a wildly popular movie starring Harrison Ford (playing Rusty Sabich, chief deputy prosecutor) and Greta Scacchi (playing Carolyn Polhemus, a sex pot assistant). I expressly remember the first time “they did it”. Whew, was that some scene. Yes, that’s right. Rusty was being a bad boy and began having an affair with Carolyn. That is until she is raped and murdered. Rusty is accused of the deed and stands trial, only to be exonerated. Or, was he?

Presumed Innocent was really the first of the courtroom drama genre novels. Unlike many of the other authors who write these types of dramas, Turow still has his hand in the legal business as a defense attorney representing white collar defendants. He has written 11 other books since Presumed Innocent. An author knows how much blood, sweat and tears he/she has put into a book and may wonder whether they will be able to replicate that success in a sequel. Innocent doesn’t have the same level was suspense that Presumed Innocent does but it is one hell of a read. It’s a great courtroom drama for adults. Read more... 

Friday, June 4, 2010

Desperate Housewives, Big Love and President Obama: Borneo Part Two

So, with my wodka, all was right with the world again. As I stated in my May 31st blog, most of our time was spent doing water safaris.
But on two occasions we went trekking looking for a group doing research for Hutan, an orang-utan conservation project. They have a study area and watch the orang-utans throughtout the day. These folks have got to be dedicated to hang out all day writing down mother turned left, ate leaf, baby clung to mama, mama turned right etc etc... Why? Simple answer. The better they understand their behavior, the better they can help them survive. They provide much needed info to the government of Malaysia, who can then implement programs to help the big apes survive. Alright. On with the story. Read more...