As part of the Affiliate Program, I now attend Wednesday Evening Seminars which are two hour programs which include a presentation, discussion, and Q&A. The Seminars include all the Fellows, Affliliates, and are also open to the public as well. Tonight’s speaker was a scholar who spoke on sustainability in the Pacific Islands. He told stories from his native island of Tonga and addressed issues of moral responsibility in sustainability. He also introduced models for sustainability with markets, governments, and local communities as the actors.
Since June, I have been on the prowl for a new cell phone. After much research, including a lot of pdadb.net comparisons, I found the HTC Kaiser had everything I wanted, a 3MP digicam, Windows Mobile 6, 3G capability, and GPS to boot. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be coming out in the US til September. In Taiwan, it was already discontinued as last year’s model so I had no luck there.
The Kaiser eventually came out in October via AT&T as the Tilt, minus the front facing camera. Honolulu got 3G in November and Amazon had a great deal going on for it in December. When I checked last week, it was $149.99 with a new 2-year contract. The Tilt blows the pants off the iPhone, which is $399 and doesn’t carry half the capabilities of the Tilt. The iPhone does have a sexy UI, but UI in this case, that’s just not compelling enough.
I have to wait a week for it due to the holidays, but I am really looking forward to being connected again with the best mobile technology can offer.
From Lhasa to Guangzhou
56 hours
via Golmud, Xining, Xi’an, etc.
Departs at 10 AM on Day 1 and arrives at 6:15 PM on Day 3
Soft sleeper price: about 1500 RMB
From Lhasa to Xining
24 hours
via Golmud
Departs at 10 AM on Day 1 and arriving at 10 AM on Day 2
From Lhasa to Chengdu
46 hours