This is Not a Holiday

[Short of time? Read the Haiku review instead] Julbo Dolgan - a pair of clunky words that appear to owe no affiliation to any language set. They don't sound Germanic, are too rounded to be Austro-Asiatic, and they certainly aren't Romantic. Mind you, I could imagine a husky Slavic tongue whispering that in my ear on a starlit night: "Julbo Dolgan, darling". And what of their meaning? Could it be a formal Martian greeting? An inedible root found only on the Siberian steppe? An

[Short of time? Read the Haiku review instead] If you venture to enough interesting destinations (and even some boring ones) you'll eventually have to worry about mosquito-borne diseases, but long-term travel can prohibit the use of prophylactics. In Africa I took the notorious Lariam (mefloquine) and was treated to weeks of troubled dreams. A particularly memorable one involved being pursued by a robotic, Terminator-style nurse figure that I repeatedly stabbed in the face un

[Short of time? Read the Haiku review instead] Where once portable speaker technology meant a boom box balanced on each shoulder like an aurally-challenged roller-disco enthusiast, now we can enjoy fantastic sound anywhere courtesy of the egg-sized X-mini speaker set. Mp3 players are cool an' all, but have you ever sat around a pair of earphones, their tinny sounds pathetically magnified by an impromptu cone of newspaper, trying to enjoy the complex instrumental noodlings of