Nice article about shipwright north of here at Noyo Harbor.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100517/ARTICLES/100519533

On my list of places to visit:

http://www.hmswarrior.org/

This article hits on so many aspects of why the 1905-06 Galapagos expedition was undertaken and why the extensive collections brought back to San Francisco remain significant today:

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_awe_of_natural_history_collections/

HMS Beagle was launched 190 years ago today, May 11, 1820. Curious tale of suicide, kidnapping, and pedophilia that lead to Charles Darwin sailing on the second of three Beagle voyages (1826, 1831, 1837), all were surveying and hydrographic voyages.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Beagle

And for the back-story on Darwin, the Beagle, and Captain Robert Fitzroy, see:

http://tinyurl.com/28j66lz

Ship model photo from:

http://tinyurl.com/2e2rlth

Cast a vote for restoration efforts of the schooner Adventuress.

http://www.soundexp.org/index.php?page=vote4boat

Watch out for Frommers photo contests

http://www.bobkrist.com/blog/frommers-now-fing-freelancers-and-photo-enthusiasts/

Kyrgyzstan - I have plausible deniability

Not unexpectedly, the call came in today requesting I leave immediately to put down the revolution in Kyrgyzstan. I told them (again) that I was much more comfortable toppling unstable regimes than suppressing revolutions. And I reminded them that I really need to mow the lawn and that, yes, I have been their go-to guy numerous times in the past, but I felt someone else would be more appropriate. Oh, and I repeated the thing about the lawn and that seemed to work. So now my lawn is neat and clean, and Kyrgyzstan is a mess. Coincidence? I think not.