There are vacations and then there are Research-cations

I have always had a great fascination with Africa. It was always that great place with wonderful animals (how can you go wrong with Lions, Elephants, Zebras and Giraffes?), big wide-open spaces and intriguing cultures. Most people want to go to Europe or Australia but for me it was Africa.

Well it's been nearly 2 years since I went for the first time and not a day goes by where I don't dream of going back. I have an alert on airfares from Toronto to Johannesbourg, South Africa every week. It is a part of me that I want to expand upon and plan to visit the great continent many more times in my life.

I clearly remember the moment I got "it" with Africa. It was the morning I was awakened by the sound of an elephant bugling. It wasn't scary or loud. It was warm and quiet. I crept out of bed and walked out to see 2 adults and a youngster drinking at the watering hole about 500 feet away. Sitting there in the pre-dawn light watching a family in the morning was when I got Africa. Better yet, it was the moment when Africa got me forever.

That was a vacation. Pure pleasure and well worth the money I spent on it. In the meantime I have looked at many different places to go visit and where I would love to be next. That list includes Okavango Delta, Lalibella in Ethiopia, The Meroe Pyramids of northern Sudan and Cape Town.

Recently I by happenstance came across a group called The Earthwatch Institute. It intrigued me so I decided to check out their website. www.earthwatch.org

What an incredible idea. Earthwatch isn't about vacations. It's about research vacations (I called it Research-cations). You donate an amount and get to travel and stay in a place helping various researchers with their studies. From counting baby turtles in Costa Rica, to photographing Minke Wales in Scotland it has it all.

My two favourite choices obviously involved Africa. I could go to Robben Island (where they held Apartheid era dissidents including Nelson Mandela) and help with the study of Penguins. The other choice is the help with conservation efforts for the Black Rhino in a sanctuary in central Kenya. You stay in a cottage/house with the research team. You make dinner with the researchers. Best of all, you are actually out of the safety of the car and getting involved. I'd love to be there to watch a young penguin chick and add it to the count. I'd love to be able to tag it so they can follow it's development over time. I cannot think of anything that would be more interesting than actually walking in the plateaus of central Kenya with Mt. Kenya in the background and Cheetahs, Rhinos, Lions and Cape Buffalo all around you. It gets my blood pumping just thinking about it.

So when you're looking to go on an adventurous vacation, skip the pricey resort and look at a true adventure. Help out with a Research Team. It would help to make a difference in the world and be an experience you won't soon forget!

The big boys start whining

One of the more interesting headlines I have seen in the paper occurred a couple of weeks ago. I happen to read the Globe & Mail and there on the bottom of the page was a headline that 5 Universities in Canada were attempting to become "research centres of choice" for Government funding.

Now what does this mean? Why it means they are pining for more of our tax money to go to them and less to the other institutions. So who are the Glorious Five? U of T, McGill, Montreal University, U of Alberta and UBC. It's a who's who list of the big Universities in Canada.

So what is wrong with this you think? Well everything! First off research funding from tax payers should be given to those who are most responsible. If it is these 5 Universities then so be it but I think we'd find that places such as University of Waterloo provide far more bang for the research dollar than U of T does at this time.

I have also read where these same Glorious 5 want to become the Graduate Studies schools and leave the Undergrad degrees to everyone else. Smart thinking on their part. I can pay $6500 a year for tuition at LU or Laurier and get my BA. I can pay $20000 and up at U of T and get my MA. Who wins out in the end in that fee structure? Certainly not the undergraduate focused schools.

So what to do to stop this from happening? More to come...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/five-universities-team-up-to-push-for-the-lions-share-of-research-dollars/article1261964/