Motorcycle Trips and Assassin Bugs

Above: Brian Parkinson's speedometer, after he drove his motorcycle across Canada.

You can see a map of Parki's trip and pics on his site -- just click on any point in the map, and you'll see some of the photos he took at that location; what a great way to present pics from a cross-country trip. Some really gorgeous scenery, too! I want to go to Labrador someday, for instance, and the Queen Charlotte Islands.



My favourite place name in his trip: "Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump." :-)

You can read Parki's trip report for the Labrador leg of the journey at Adventure Rider.

Speaking of amazing trips, my friend Craig has posted pics from his two weeks in Italy on Flickr, along with text commentary. It was fascinating for me to revisit (through Craig's photos) some of the places that Jeff and I visited during our trip last year plus pictures of places I have yet to see. And now I'm angsting to go back...

But now for a less pleasant photo:



Jeff picked this bug up from the upstairs hallway, thinking it was lint, and it stung him; Jeff said it felt like a bee sting. As I prepared to call 911 if Jeff suddenly keeled over and/or turned purple, I took a macro shot (with my point and shoot) and e-mailed it to my biologist friend Peter, who identified it as a Masked Bed Bug Hunter (Reduvius personatus) Family -- Assassin Bugs (Reduviidae).

The term "bed bug" freaked me out, of course, but Peter reassures me that it isn't a bed bug; the name is a misnomer and doesn't imply that we have bed bugs. Anyway, it eats insects, not people, and will inflict a painful bite if accidentally handled. According to info I found online, it's usually found outdoors; Jeff theorizes it got in when he was cleaning the window screens on the weekend. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Assassin Bug was sent in by the local squirrels in their ongoing world domination efforts.

Once I got past the freak-out part, I was fascinated to hear from Peter that the bug purposely accumulates fluff etc. on its body as camouflage. Jeff and I have been looking all over but haven't seen any others. However, I'm still looking suspiciously at every piece of lint...

Link O' The Day

Crumpler: bags of all sorts. I came across this entertaining site while looking for a shell for my camera that would allow me to put it in a regular backpack (for when I'm also carrying a laptop). There is also a Crumpler Canada and Crumper Australia, each of which is slightly different (esp. soundtrack/effects).



Livejournal comments

Comments

[Chopard Happy Sport best men watches]

Wow, these necklaces look fantastic on you! Can you just tell us where you get them? I really want to have the same. Normally, I would buy fashion jewelry from(….) and their jewelry collection is amazing. I guess you may also want to visit the site…
-Chopard Happy Sport best men watches