Few weeks ago we went to Sangklaburi, a small city near the border with Myanmar on western Thailand, about 240 kilometers from Kanchanaburi. A perfect place for photography with friendly inhabitants, great landscape and a superb wooden bride.

More photos on my Flickr dedicated set.

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Tags: 24, bridge, Flickr, ia, kanchanaburi, lan, mini gallery, myanmar, photo, Photography, sangklaburi, sun, Thailand, www

On Sunday at Kathmandu International airport, Nepal Airways sacrificed two goats in front of one of their flagship Boeing 757 aircrafts to appease Akash Bhairav, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems that force the company to suspend flights in the recent weeks.

"The goats were sacrificed in accordance with Hindu traditions, and the snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights" according a senior airline official.

We all feel safer now, isn't it?

It is certainly more as efficient as most rules that passengers must obey during air travels (no matches; no liquid; no electronics as well as windows shade up and seat back up right during take-off/landing etc..). Who knows!

Tags: 2007, air, air travel, aircraft, airport, Akash Bhairav, blog, Boeing, flight, Hinduism, ia, im, International, kathmandu, lan, landing, light, Nepal, nomadcom.net, passengers, problems, resume, sacrifice, safe, safety, space, sun, Travel, windows, wp

At least one third of the population in developing countries has no access to safe drinking water. The lack of adequate water supply and sanitation facilities causes a serious health hazard and exposes many to the risk of water-borne diseases, This situation led to about 4 billion cases of diarrhoea each year, out of which 2.5 million cases end in death. Every day about 6000 children die of dehydration due to diarrhoea.

INDEX 2007 Award winner Solar Bottle created by italian designers Alberto Medo and Francisco Gomez Paz uses the SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection ) process, developed by the Department of Water and Sanitation at the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Research. SODIS principle works with the sun to allow UV-A radiation and increased temperature to destroy pathogenic microorganisms in drinking water.The Solar Bottle is made of slim PET, contains 4 liters of water and can be arranged back-to-back for carry. The handle allows balanced transport and is used as stand to provide optimal solar incidence.

Indeed, a less fashionable version of SODIS process using simple ordinary plastic bottles works well too but they are more difficult to carry and the surface exposed to sun radiations is lots smaller.

More about the Solar Bottle on InHabitat
More about SODIS on Eawag.

Sources: Inhabitat & Index

Tags: 2007, access, arc, art, award, awards, blog, ces, design, disinfection, drinking water, health, ia, im, ITU, King, lan, LED, nomadcom.net, pet, population, risk, safe, science, sco, search, simple, sms, sodis, solar bottle, space, sun, supply, swiss, water, wp, www, XP