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A glimpse of the Mongolia ski expedition that I will be attempting in March, although my motivation is more on the pure adventure of it, rather than a scientific objective.

Nokhoi Zeekh: in search of wolverine.

Five Americans set off on a month-long ski expedition through northern Mongolia in search of one of the world’s least-known carnivores, the wolverine. The journey takes them into a remote mountain ecosystem, where they encounter Mongolian herders and Tuvan reindeer people, gather DNA samples for research, and attempt to bridge the worlds of science, conservation, and outdoor adventure.

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Photos from the Gobi Desert (Andy Parkinson).  A late season family trip (October 2010) to Three Camel Lodge, where we were lucky enough to spend some time with Jalsa and Badral of Nomadic Expeditions. Despite the chilly nights it was a wonderful time to be in the Gobi: clear blue skies and absolutely no other tourists.

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isaluciole:

Hamid Sardar-Afkhami is a professional photographer as well as a scholar of Tibetan and Mongol languages who received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. After moving to Nepal in the late 1980’s and exploring Tibet and the Himalayas for more than a decade, he went to live in Outer Mongolia in 2000 to make a record of people’s customs and manners of life before they became divorced from their natural and spiritual environment.

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Mongolian Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, official destination website of Mongolia.

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via climateadaptation:

Some climate adaptation ideas - build canals - for the great city of Boston.

Boston’s solution to sea level rise

A report scheduled to be released Tuesday about preparing Boston for climate change suggests that building canals through the Back Bay neighborhood would help it withstand water levels that could rise as much as 7 feet by 2100. Some roads and public alleys, such as Clarendon Street, could be turned into narrow waterways, the report suggests, allowing the neighborhood to absorb the rising sea with clever engineering projects that double as public amenities.

Via Boston Globe

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Good work on ecological restoration at Oyu Tolgoi, you can see from the photo that the Saxual seedlings are already trapping sand, now to replicate and scale, Mongolia needs more of this:  Oyu Tolgoi plants 21,000 Saxaul.

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Carbon financing helps Mongolia preserve its grassland resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the country’s livestock population.

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My letter to the editor, published in the UB Post:

I recently read your article on the completion of the first phase of the Selbe River “Restoration” project, a goal of which is to restore the flow of the Selbe River. In my opinion, this project has not restored the river and will make no contribution to increasing water flow; it is merely an expensive, hard landscaping project that has destroyed any remaining natural ecological characteristics of the Selbe River in this location, and which will, in fact, decrease the water quality downstream. 

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OpenDesk.cc standing desk prototype

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Sheep's wool insulation coming to Mongolia soon.

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Adjustable standing desk prototype by Joni Steiner for opendesk.cc

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‘Scarcity problems will emerge in 2015, and intensify from 2020 onwards.’

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One of our favorite places in Mongolia, Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, stay at Nomadic Journeys camp.  Yes you will see Ibex and Argali.

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Lean desk by OpenDesk.cc at Mint Digital

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Two recent studies find that saving electricity through efficiency programs is cheaper than adding any form of new electrical generation.

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UB’s construction expo shows significant demand for affordable housing, and buyers are paying more attention to quality, not just price.  However, prices are rising (presumably due to rising materials costs and inflation caused by weak MNT).

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