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Still when it comes to luring employees, countries are competing. So not whether it is reasonable in China but how well it competes against other employment centres. So for China, logically relocating tech companies seeking to bring in foreign employees to Hainan https://www.lonelyplanet.com/c... makes sense. Employment conditions and wages will not drive recruitment, lifestyle when not at work will. At the end of the day, sticking to this list makes the most sense for employers and employees http://www.economist.com/blogs..., word of mouth and reasonable work conditions and wages will drive successfully long lasting recruitment, although admittedly if you attempt to transfer staff from those locations once they have settled, chances are really high they will quit and seek local employment along with permanent immigration. I know quite a few foreign staff who left companies rather than leave Adelaide Australia, especially cold climate foreigners, one year and it often becomes permanent.

Unless you can get in that top 10 to 20 you will always struggle against other locations, that are in the top 10. Keep in mind it has an economic advantage because you can pay less and still more readily retain staff, especially if employment conditions beyond your own company for their skill sets are pretty slim.

Denmark has one of the highest rates of mental illness and suicide anywhere. It's very far from being "the happiest place on earth".

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/t...

Iran? If they start work at 8:00.

Iran 46 Saturday-Thursday 8 and 6hours Thursdays

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Well well well!

Israel: Sunday-Thursday, 8.5h
Russia: Monday-Friday, 8h
United Arab Emirates: Sunday-Thursday, 8h
Saudi Arabia: Sunday-Thursday, 10h

China: Monday-Friday, hours unlisted.

So the short-list got shorter. Here I was thinking everybody worked the same days.

Usual business hours in Russia:

Banks 8am or 9am-5pm or 6pm Mon-Fri

Offices 8am or 9am-5pm or 6pm Mon-Fri

- http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ru...

Russia has no shortage of enemies who might false-flag them, but the short-list is still manageable. Dragonfly probably won't be able to move much without being attributed.

Threat-level: minimal. Political gun which can not actually be used.

Great examples, I will add more ...

- The Eruv system, where on the Sabbath it is forbidden to carry stuff from one place to another unless it is an enclosed farm or something. So a wire is set up on utility posts to encircle the whole city, and therefore observant Jews can move stuff from one place to the other. This is implemented in several major cities in the USA.

- The seventh year farmland must be fallow rule (Shmita). Land owned by Jews in Israel is sold on paper to Palestinians using an intermediary lawyer, so it can be farmed and harvested that year, then at the end of the year, the ownership is transferred back to the original Jew.

- Jewish restaurants in Budapest serve patrons on Saturday, but you have to come a day earlier and pay in advance.

Yes, similar "juristic tricks" are in other religions. For example, some were developed centuries ago in Islam (called just that Hiyal: tricks, loopholes) to circumvent certain laws, and several authors have written against them condemning the practice.

Lonely Planet has this even more entertaining article on N. Korea, describing a visit as a "bizarre" experience.

The algorithm that picks the place names shown in Google Maps uses population as an input. So the prominent places in Rio de Janeiro are all the slums - Favela Moreira Pinto, Favela Pedra Lisa, Favela Rato ("Rat Town")... Compare this tourist-oriented map, which emphasizes the beaches, parks, and museums. There's been some whining about this from the Rio tourism authorities, but Google didn't change anything.

What an obnoxious back formation. The word you are looking for is "surveyed".

The verb form of surveillance is kinda weird given that it is a foreign word used in English. A quick google found What verb goes with surveillance ? which suggests that the back-formation you are complaining about goes back to the 1960's, that the form is in both the OED and M-W dictionaries and that the BBC even uses it. One poster also disputes your suggestion of "survey" saying that:
 
'Survey' comes from the Latin for 'to see' - videre.
 
'Surveillance' comes from the Latin for 'to watch' - vigilare.

It's only pleasant if time really isn't a factor. It's great if you just want to treat the journey as part of the trip, rather than just the destination. One of the downsides is freight traffic seems to get some sort of priority. On one trip, excessive freight traffic added 4 hours to the journey. I was fine with it since I was in the observation car with 3G and a power outlet, but I can see how other people could find that frustrating.

Yeah, I guess it is whether you consider a modified bleach process as cross processing. Some do, some don't. I can definitely see why someone would consider it something else altogether. As for your trip to Africa, I've found that often Lonely Planet guides/books have quite useful information on things even down to where you can get various types of film processing; even in third world countries. You might want to pick up a guide at your local travel/book store for whatever country(s) it is you're going. Unless maybe you are going to be filming the war in Congo or some other place where the modern world will be .... errrr.... less modern. Of course depending what you find out when you get your feet on the ground, it might be better to just hold on to the film until you get home. :) From my experience, it is also a good idea that if you do elect to get someone to process film while you are there, to give them only a roll or two on a couple of occasions before giving them all your stuff.

If you count Chinese and the like, well, we're all equally buggered

Countries like Finland basically solved this years ago, providing power in e.g. public car parks for engine block heaters. Shouldn't have to take the US 50 years to catch up...

Rather than use policy and statistics refute your egregiously false (and borderline racist) conception of Chinese culture, I'll just point you to some resources so that you can begin to correct your ignorance, if you so desire.

There are probably better places to go on holiday than to Somalia. Somalia has no central government and the country is run by warlords. Google is your friend. You could also try http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2863.htm or http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destination s/africa/somalia

As for why WinMX might want to relocate there from Canada, this link should also shed a little light on the issue...

There is a reason why Greenland is called "Green"land. Because it used to be, well, green.

Are you kidding?

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/europe/gr eenland/history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Greenland# Norse_settlement

With the exception of some extra coastal areas during a brief period of north Atlantic warming, the majority of Greenland has been anything but green. Most consider the name as a bit of artistic license by a murderous exile. Is that ad hominem, I don't know; but if someone lead their whole life in the frozen north and then found a patch of mossy, rocky earth with minor permafrost and a couple months with vegetation he might consider that 'green' -- green like Siberia is green, green like any tundra is green. Florida is hardly any more floral than the rest of the unspoiled tropical wilderness was 1000 years ago... but we're stuck with that name too. I'm saying the names people give their homes/discoveries are hardly unbiased scientific data.

It was reported in the news as the the Metropolitan police force as in this statement. They may recruit from SAS for their fast response teams and their operatives but they are as far as I know not an operative unit under the SAS. SAS is the military special forces in Great Britain.

The Metropolitan police is by far the largest policing force in the Greater London [Map] district and lately incorporated also The Royal Park Constabulary into their forces. But they are not a military branch, they are the civilian police though in certain cases they may definitely make joint operations.

The incident that lead to the unfortunate death of a most likely innocent Brazilian man is now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Service Directorate of Professional Standards which would correspond to Bureau of Internal Affairs in some other countries.

Oh my God! You've just killed Costa Rica! You bastard. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/central_a merica/costa_rica/history.htm

Some history for you.

Lonely Planet and Pimsleur.

Japanese write software like crazy and there are plenty of open source coders out there. Make contact w/ a few of them and try localizing their projects to English (US) for the hell of it.

Sounds like you're on a mission impossible, good luck.

I'll bite: because the glacier is sitting on land?

I'm fairly certain the article said the glacier was floating. Antarctica IS a landmass, yes, but ice extends beyond the land proper along most of the coastline, as seen in this map.

A tidal surge of 6 feet doesn't mean that the entire ocean rose 6 feet all around the island. This surge is essentially a large swell coming from one direction.

It the case of Diego Garcia, it came from the east. Most of the development on DG is on the west side. The tidal surge was essentially deflected/absorbed by the east side of the U shaped land mass (see map [ntlworld.com]) and likely resulted in little more than a slight rise in water height in the central lagoon, and little if any flooding on the west side.

I'll point you to a map of the Maldives.

The Maldives are interesting because there was extensive damage, flooding & loss of life. Yet the islands of the Maldives are exactly what Diego Garcia are: coral atolls perched on the eastern edge of the Chagos plateau with deepwater to the east. In those circumstances my belief is that DG must have suffered extensive flooding (it wasn't just the eastern Maldives that copped the flooding E.g Look at Faafu - 18 boats lost on one atoll).

I might have bought the story that there was only "some damage" but no damage? No loss of life? (Don't the servicemen go down to the beach?)

BTW, my newspaper asserted shortly after the tsunami that Diego Garcia was "forewarned of the approaching tsunami" and hence spared....who told them that and why was it then after dropped?

I'd also point out that the epicentre of the quake was north of east of DG.

They have an online discussion board where you can ask for and get information and even meet other travellers/expats while you're over there. It's a good source for very recent information, unlike the books which can at times be poorly updated.

I know exactly what you mean. Chuck Palahniuk describes it as a town of fugitives and refugees. It's the kind of place where pedestrians and bicyclists have the right of way, regardless of what the street lights might read, and you don't turn into a street until after everyone has crossed (the opposite of Dallas, at least). It's also the kind of place where an office lunch is just as likely to be held in a bar as in the local sandwich shop. Speaking of bars, the area's known for its microbreweries as well. And there's Powell's Books, of course, the largest bookstore in the world, in case you get bored with walking around...

The city itself's only a couple hundred thousand people. You can see a couple mountains from downtown, depending on where you are and how hazy/misty the weather is. There's great scenery just minutes away in every direction. The west stretch of Highway 26 is also called Sunset Highway, for good reason - it runs out to the coast, which has some excellent beaches (look up Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock on Google images for pretty pictures). The weather is generally milder than Dallas; I didn't have air conditioning in my apartment, and only felt I needed it about 3 weeks out of the year, and I kept a kitchen window partly open almost all winter long. As for rain, when I moved up there the average rainfall was 31 inches, and Dallas' was 33 - it's just that Dallas has a few gully-washers yearly, whereas Portland enjoys mist or drizzle a couple times a week much of the year.

I do have to warn you though, it does (or did) have the highest suicide rate in the U.S, probably due in part to the fact that the sky is often overcast, there's less peak light (unless you mean on mountain peaks) at that lattitude, and so forth. However, I actually prefer those conditions to the ones down here, so I was happy during the winter months.

reply 2:

Nice travel-guide-related website: Lonely Planet

events calendar

Powell's history page [comment regarding my relationship with them through my excellent former employer deleted]
If that's not bookish enough, try Reed. "Reedy" is a fitting name for most of the students.

public gardens If you're at all interested in nice gardens to walk through, the International Rose Test Garden is a great place to walk around.
If you have more time, the Japanese Garden is pretty must the only garden outside Japan considered to be "real" (the Mt. Fuji-stand-in doesn't hurt, either)

At some point, if you drink alcohol, or even just eat, you might end up visiting one of these. They've converted a lot of old schools, etc. into pubs along with the usual locations.

You probably won't want to go out there if you don't have much time on your trip, but see if you can recognize this hotel from the picture. [It's this one, Slashdotters]

The Columbia River Highway runs east of Portland, and includes some nice scenery of Multnomah Falls and the Gorge area.

Out west is Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.

Oh, tying almost everything in town is the MAX, the light rail service. Gues

One question though, what do you do about money? Somehow you have to eat, and I kinda doubt you carry 6 months food on your back. Even if you do though, where/how did you get the money to buy it? How did you pay your rent for your junk? Who took care of your wife and kids?

First and foremost: everyone's situation is different. For me, once I decided to go, I essentially stopped spending money on frivolous crap. This enabled saving. Not having credit card debt is very helpful. I rented my house out. I didn't have a wife or kids.

Bills can be setup for auto-pay. Or, if you don't trust computers, find a trustworthy friend / family member to handle such things for you. For how long will you be leaving? If you're leaving for more than 6 months, I'd consider putting your stuff in storage so you either aren't paying rent or can rent out your home. If you're making payments on a car, sell it. Get rid of as many bills as you can. I wouldn't recommend an extended absence from work (and thus income) if you have a lot of debt, particularly high-interest credit card debt.

If you have a family consider taking them with you. If you can't or won't and they can't support / take care of themselves, you're asking the wrong forum for advice.

For food, the AT hikers resupply on average every 5 days or so. It doesn't take much money. I recall hearing about $2 per mile as an average, or, $4300 for the whole thing. Considering thats all expenses for around 6 months, it ain't bad (obviously exclusive of bills at home). It also doesn't take much money to travel overseas. The plane tickets are the most expensive piece. Buy them round-trip in advance. Once you're there stay until your money runs out (note that non-US airlines typically don't charge you an arm and a leg to change flight dates & will sell open-ended round trip tickets). Many younger travellers (i.e. 18-25 yr olds) don't have a pot to piss in when travelling; they'll stop & find a job (often illegal) to save up enough money to keep travelling. When you live out of a backpack, expenses can be kept surprisingly low. More info on overseas travel available here.

Step 1: Decide to go. The rest will follow.

Land-locked?

Tha battle of Stalingrad (formerly, and now, Volgograd) was the turning point of WW2 for Russia. It is nowhere near Leningrad (see map here. Look for Volgograd aka Stalingrad - in the south, and St Petersburg aka Lenigrad in the north!)
The Germans advanced all the way to Stalingrad, with Russians retreating, and maintaining a sort of scorched-earth policy. At the epic battle of Stalingrad, (winter of 1942-43) the tides turned, and Russians started taking back territory, eventually marching all the way to Berlin.

And, finally, we don't even have a nuclear power on our southern border sending troops into disputed territories and claiming that parts of our country belongs to them.

Hey Mr. Geography, India's southern border is the Indian Ocean.

As for your other point, both Canada AND Mexico have sent troops into your country due to border disputes: please see the US-Mexico war, the war of Texas Independance and the war of 1812 (or the border dispute of the Alaskan pan-handle).

Are you sure you actually bothered to look? #1 regular result for 'scotland map' is a link to an excellent Scottish map. And anyway, this is what Google Images is for. Search for 'scotland map' then hit the 'Images' tab. Tons of maps at your fingertips. Can't see where your problem was. I found many maps in seconds, and didn't see any ads.

Lonely Planet is a registered trademark of Lonely Planet Publications.

I wonder if we'll be reading about a trademark infringement lawsuit?

Ikea even provides the shoeboxes for those of us who need more shoeboxes than shoes. Search on the Ikea website for Kassett. They are made for video tapes, CDs and DVDs but certainly can be filled with an assortment of geek gear.

I was a fan of Ikea before moving to Holland but now that I live in a studio apt in the middle of the Randstad I couldn't live without Ivar or Kassett from Ikea.

- charboy

1. If you hit a wallabie in normal car (stationwagon) at 80km/hr, you will be stopping, but if you're lucky, it might not have done any serious damage.
   
2. If you hit a full sized red kangaroo at that speed, you've a fair chance the car will be a write-off.
   
3. If you hit an emu at that speed... my suggestion is don't if you'd like to walk away, as the body will crash through the windscreen without slowing.
   

Shouldn't this book have been published by Lonely Planet?

when searching a publisher for a work like this there is one obvious option, but no, nothing to be found there:

lonely planet

even worse: all the books mentioned on the site above provide information about places on earth, the least lonely planet known to mankind!

"The Dry Valleys are from north to south Victoria, Wright and Taylor, and they are unusual in as much as no rain has fallen there for at least two million years. They have no ice or snow either because the air is too dry for any to exist (ice-free spaces in the Antarctic are called oases). They are enormous, desolate places covering around 3000 sq km (1170 sq mi) and were first happened upon by Robert Scott in December 1903. He wrote '...we have seen no living thing, not even a moss or a lichen...it certainly is the valley of the dead; even the great glacier that once pushed through it has withered away'."

From the Lonely Planet guide (for those who want to holiday there).

No because i can still go to downloads.com and get kazaa....

Sharman Networks has an office in Estonia where the guy who designed the encryption inside the kazaa protocal and two other programmers live.

This office is not actually a part of Sharman Networks but a contractor for a company in the Netherlands, this company sold the Kazaa software to, Sharman Networks who are based in a south pacific island called Vanatu

Vanatu famous for being an offshore tax, sex slave trade and gambling haven. The Exectutives of Sharman Networks only work in Australia.

"Weights & measures: Metric"

Bangkok is sinking too.

Population of Melbourne, Florida, from www.melbourneflorida.com:
"Population 71,382"

Population of Melbourne, Australia, from Lonely Planet:
"Population: 3.4 million"

Somehow I doubt there's going to be a significant proportion of /.-reading geeks in Melbourne, Florida who are going to be terribly confused about which continent the meet is happening. In fact I'd be sureprised if there's 35 geeks in Melbourne, Florida in total...

Brisbane Tourism

travel info

Drool sheets

local W3C node

A rather interesting fact ... they recently put on HPCAsia 2001 where they revealed that Brisbane has not one, but THREE Virtual Reality facilities (UQ, QMI, Boeing). According to their blurb, they're involved in the Japanese Whole Earth Simulator (4 Teraflops), something called a Virtual Reef, as well as using it for designing their scramjets. Actually after rummaging around the AUUG website a more interesting workshop to attend would be their security symposium in Nov.

Things they lack, free press , free speech, free beer... Hardly any Linux developers there! Seems to be a few years behind the US, no PHP people, few Perl developers. They are still on the MSCE wagon train and taking VB classes.

I am impressed with Putrajaya though, 10 gigabit fiber to the home and wireless access points all over town ! Too bad there is no place to eat there though.. Too far from KL also, hard to get people to work in the MSC .

I am moving there in a few months & getting married to a girl I met on CU-SeeMe :) Wish me luck.

With the advent of items like the wireless PalmPilot and projects like H2G2, do you forsee a time when Lonely Planet will manufacture a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Planet, or does it seem more likely that the frontier of personal gadgetry will end in a suffusion of yellow?

Some Factoids.
eat them up. yum yum.