Travel Photography

It's been a while.... I figured I should probably get something new up here for you all to enjoy.  :)

For a project I'm working on (more about that in later posts), I found that I really needed to be able to show people a sampling of some of my past photography. So, I recently browsed through several thousand photos and uploaded a sampling of some of my better shots to a Picasa album, if you want to check them out. 

My favorite part of the process, though, was rediscovering some of the photos I'd taken in various international adventures with my little Pentax point-and-shoot. I'm sure they aren't all that spectacular to everybody else, but man, the memories they call to mind! Eva-Lynn and I are having lots of fun traveling around the nearby states, but we're both dying to do some international travel again. Someday...

Anyway, here are some cool shots from around the world. Enjoy your virtual vacation.... and, as always.... same post, bigger pictures at travislundphotography.blogspot.com.  :)

A Hill Tribe woman (Hmong, if I remember right) in northern Thailand

I really like this picture for some reason. It was taken on the steps of a church in Lima, Peru.

Machu Picchu at sunrise, seen from the ancient "Camino Inka" (Inca Trail)

A craftsman in Montecristi, Ecuador -- home of the so-called "Panama hat"

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina (Patagonia).  Those ice spires are hundreds of feet high, and would occasionally come crashing down....

Hopkins, Belize - location of Eva-Lynn and my first international trip together (honeymoon!)

Oink!

"You FOOL!!! You've killed us all...."

Woo-hoo... Three cases of swine flu detected on campus here at CU-Boulder....  [Locks door and scrubs exposed skin with disinfectant hand gel]

In other news... my adviser (Rob Kuchta) is in the news:

"CU professor Robert Kuchta, of the chemistry and biochemistry department, along with former CU-Boulder professor Kathy Rowlen, developed and licensed a commercial technology in 2006 to determine the genetic signature of specific influenza strains within hours. He said the technology could easily be reconfigured to identify and track the swine flu. Kuchta said he'd be willing to let the Centers for Disease Control use the technology, which could prove useful in helping health officials stem potential flu pandemics."

Full story here.... and here's a good article from 2005 about the flu chip our lab developed.

Incidentally, I'm seriously not a fan of calling this the "H1N1 virus"...

• Firstly (and most importantly) -- "H1N1 virus" is not nearly as catchy as "swine flu."  :)
  
• Secondly -- Different strains of the "Influenza A H1N1" virus are what cause the regular "seasonal" flu every year! This is just one of many, many H1N1 strains (it's actually a hybrid of common human, bird, and swine A-H1N1 strains).  So, for crying out loud... calling it the "H1N1 flu" doesn't distinguish it at all from the regular flu! (I think the best name I've heard is the "hybrid" flu....)
  
• Lastly -- without a fun name like swine flu, we wouldn't have been entertained by irrational reactions worldwide, or by using Twitter to watch "uninformed panics unfold live"....

Pass the ham!