Great Freedom Adventures Announces New 2014 Bike Tours for Music Lovers

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Sherborn, MA (PRWEB) January 07, 2014

Bike tour operator, Great Freedom Adventures announces two new 2014 US bike tours that will include music festival revelry in the itinerary. Guests on the July 27 departure of a new four-day Rhode Island tour will attend the famed Newport Folk Festival, while guests on a new summer departure of the six-day Hudson Valley New York tour will experience the Hudson Music Fest on August 8th and 9th.

The new four-day Rhode Island By Land and By Sea Bike Tour offers two departures in 2014, June 29 and July 27, the latter including an evening at the Newport Folk Festival. Founded in 1959, the event, an annual American folk-oriented music festival, is one of the major folk festivals in the United States. The festival is known for introducing performers, such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, who went on to become major stars. The festival features performances by folk, blues, country, bluegrass and folk rock musicians as well as related contemporary genres such as alternative country, indie folk and folk punk.

Guests on Great Freedom Adventures By Land and By Sea Rhode Island Bike Tour will spend the late afternoon and early evening of the first day at Newport's Fort Adams, enjoying the music and the setting. The outdoor festival is set on a scenic peninsula stretching into Newport Harbor. Fort walls rise from grass lawns in a prime music venue encircled by hundreds of boats rocking in the blue waters with the silver Newport bridge beyond.

In addition to the festival, participants on the Rhode Island tour will spend a day biking on Block Island, a place the Nature Conservancy termed "one of the last great places," with stops at Mohegan Bluffs, Great Salt Pond and the islands two lighthouses. Another day is spent on tranquil Conanicut Island with routes offering views of impressive "summer cottages", salt-water farms and one of the countrys oldest lighthouses. On Aquidneck Island, guests will view Newport's Gilded Age mansions, walk the oceanside Cliff Walk and bike renowned Ocean Ave.

The tour is priced at $1,650 per person double occupancy and includes lodging at a fine historic inn in the heart of Newport's Old Quarter, most meals, two round-trip ferry passages, a lantern-light walking tour of Newport, admission to the Breakers mansion (June 29 departure), admission to the Newport Folk Festival (July 27 departure), lighthouse tours, guided biking and walking on nature trails and Cliff Walk, bike rental, guides, maps and cue sheets, van support, daily snacks and cold drinks and snacks, and transport to and from the Providence airport or train station.

The By Land and By Sea tour cycling distances range from 8-29 miles per day with options for longer routes for those who wish. The tour is appropriate for all abilities with van support and the ability to ride at your own pace.

A second Great Freedom Adventure for music lovers is the new August 8, 2014 departure of the six-day Hudson Valley National Heritage Area Bike Tour. A fall foliage departure of the Hudson Valley tour is scheduled for October 5th.

Guests on the August 8th departure will experience two days of the fourth annual Hudson Music Fest, a three-day celebration of music during which musicians of all genres play day and night throughout the town - in the parks, at the riverfront, on the sidewalks, in the restaurants, galleries, bars and nightclubs. With over 100 acts performing at more than a dozen venues, we are New York States largest three-day music festival, said Chad Weckler, co-organizer of the festival. Hudson, a hip and vibrant town known for visual and performing arts, antiques, architecture and world-class restaurants, is now also being touted as the next music mecca.

In addition to the Hudson Music Fest, guests on Great Freedom Adventures' Hudson Valley NY bike tour will experience cycling on quiet country roads through landscapes of fertile farmland, productive vineyards, manicured horse farms, and shaded riverside routes. Stops are made at several mansions such as Livingston's estate and FDR's home, wineries for wine tasting, an artisanal cheese making sheep farm, Omi outdoor sculpture park, riverfront Poet's Walk, Frank Gehry's performing arts center, Frederick Church's Olana and more.

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Great Freedom Adventures Announces New 2014 Bike Tours for Music Lovers

New Book by ‘Tiger Mom’ Dabbles in Cultural Eugenics or Something

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Are you ready to have your mind boggled so hard that you might vomit? Great. Author Amy Chua, also known as Tiger Mom, Dubious Yale Law Professor, and Psycho Lady Author Who Ties Her Children to Benches as Discipline, has widened her scope of racial superiority trolling with a new, utterly confusing book that claims that only eight cultural groups have what it takes to succeed in America. The not-so-hidden subtext of her book is that everyone else can suck it it being my wildly successful, Ivy-League attending, culturally superior ladyboner.

First and foremost because we know youre so anxious about whether youre a culturally-predestined loser or not what are the best cultures? Chuas book The Triple Package singles out the following:

The group least likely to succeed in America: Poor white people, because, as Chua says with utter seriousness, its far more socially acceptable today to insult and look down on white trash than the poor of any other racial group. We should take her word for it. Chua is Chinese and her co-author/husband, Jed Rubenfeld, is Jewish. By this virtue alone, they can see things from their lofty racial perch that we mongrels, ignorantly wallowing in ignorant ignorance down here, do not.

(Sidenote: to our Chinese-American and Jewish readers, we dont blame you for Amy Chua and/or Jed Rubenfeld, and absolve you of all responsibility for anything these raving narcissists bellow. XOXO, Mediaite.)

And why these groups? Whats wrong with, say, the Irish? A baffled New York Post review attempted to summarize Chuas argument: these groups possess, in the authors estimation, three qualities that theyve identified as guarantors of wealth and power: superiority, insecurity and impulse control. These qualities, collectively known as the Triple Package, are only abundant in those eight cultural groups because theyre all immigrant cultures. Except for the Jews and Mormons but theyre like immigrants, see, because according to the book, they all:

The Posts final word: this book is terrible, and that Amy Chua sucks at both basic research (collecting data, making coherent arguments, and not-pandering) and being a rabble-rouser. [The book is] a series of shock-arguments wrapped in self-help tropes, they rule, and its meant to do what racist arguments do: scare people.

That, and give us concussions. Let us all go lie down in dark rooms and take some ibuprofen.

(Sidenote 1: We love how, unlike her last book Battle Cry of the Tiger Mom, Chua singles out Chinese people as The Best Asians in America, ignoring all the other Asian immigrant groups in the US, despite the fact that they also possess the Triple Package. Sorry, Vietnamese people; screw you, Koreans; and go eff yourself, Thai folk apparently were all inferior to Amy Chua and her Chinese Master Race.)

[NYP]

Image via AmyChua.com

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New Book by ‘Tiger Mom’ Dabbles in Cultural Eugenics or Something

Christina Perri Morphs Into The Bionic Woman In Her Stunning New ‘Human’ Video

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Posted 01/06/2014 11:34:21 am by Jenna Hally Rubenstein in Music, Videos.

Watch as Christina Perri trades her flesh for circuitry in this new clip.

If you were our next-door neighbor, youd know that the second Christina Perris Human dropped, it was on perma-repeat at our place. Now that theres a stunning video to match the Head Or Heart track, weve reached completely uncharted levels of obsesh.

As in, recording our own four-part harmonies on GarageBand while the gorg Elliott Sellers-directed clip loops on all three televisions in our tiny abode. (We see you judging from your glass house.)

Anyway, at the top of the video, we see Christina standing on a pedestal of sorts, illuminated by fluorescent lights shining down from above. As the moving ballad plays on, parts of her body light up, revealing their bionic foundation.

Likely inspired by the lyric I can turn it on, be a good machine, both the song and the video perfectly portray how intense the social pressures placed upon women can be.

This message is driven home toward the end of the clip, when Christina steps off the cold platform. A myriad of tattoos begin to cover her body, which we interpret to mean that we should embrace our flaws and accept them as part of what makes us unique. So, in other words, PUH-REACH!

In sum, Human is a beautiful song with an equally moving clip truly one of Christinas finest efforts to date! Now, if youll excuse us, weve gotta go throw out that wildly expensive skin toning, cellulite reducing cream because #FREEDOM!

+ Watch Christina Perris Human video.

Photo credit: Atlantic Records

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Christina Perri Morphs Into The Bionic Woman In Her Stunning New ‘Human’ Video

Ireland Said to Hire Banks for First Bond Sale Since Bailout Exit

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The Sandpearl in Clearwater Beach. Photograph via Conde Nast Traveler

The Sandpearl in Clearwater Beach. Photograph via Conde Nast Traveler Close

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The Sandpearl in Clearwater Beach. Photograph via Conde Nast Traveler

Dear Wendy,

Where is the best place to go in the U.S. for true white sand beaches? If there's an all-inclusive resort there, even better. Thanks,

Linda G.

The beaches of Floridas Gulf Coastparticularly the Panhandle (such as Pensacola Beach and Panama City Beach) and the southwest coast (such as Sanibel Island and the Florida Keys)have the whitest sand in the U.S. Thats because theres only one mineral in the sand there: pure white quartz crystal. The prettiest of these white-sand beaches, according to Stephen Leatherman (Dr. Beach), is Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota. There arent too many first-rate all-inclusives on these beaches, though; those tend to be in the Caribbean.

Personally, I like The Sandpearl in Clearwater Beacha strand so white and soft that youd swear youre walking on baby powder. (It's one of my favorite family-friendly resorts.) Its not all-inclusive, but the total youll spend, including airfare, is likely no more than what youd spend for a Caribbean all-inclusive vacation anyway.

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Ireland Said to Hire Banks for First Bond Sale Since Bailout Exit

Beaches | New Jersey Travel and Vacation Information, Official …

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New Jersey's crown jewel remains its 130 miles of coastline, spanning from Sandy Hook to Cape May. Our unmatched beaches boast beautiful barrier islands and bays dotted with majestic lighthouses, fishing villages and scenic views.

"Down the Shore" means there's something for everyone. Among New Jersey's most treasured prizes are the white-sand beaches that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors and families each year to enjoy the surf, sand, sun, fun and excitement of the famous Jersey Shore.

The New Jersey coastline invites everyone to swim, body surf, boogie board, sail, surf, scuba dive, fish or sun bathe.

Many towns like Wildwood, Ocean City, Point Pleasant Beach and Seaside Heights feature bustling boardwalks with rides, amusements and nonstop excitement that are part of New Jerseys Unique Boardwalk Culture.

For a quieter beach experience visit Spring Lake or Ocean Grove.

In addition to the beach and boardwalks, all along the coast visitors will find historic lighthouses, preserved natural areas including Island Beach State Park, inlets, bays, great food and plenty of shopping.

A visit to the Jersey Shore is a visitors guarantee of a spectacular surfside trip.

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How a New Type of Astronomy Investigates the Most Mysterious Objects in the Universe

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In 2007, astronomer Duncan Lorimer was searching for pulsars in nine-year-old data when he found something he didnt expect and couldnt explain: a burst of radio waves appearing to come from outside our galaxy, lasting just 5 milliseconds but possessing as much energy as the sun releases in 30 days.

Pulsars, Lorimers original objects of affection, are strange enough. Theyre as big as cities and as dense as an atoms nucleus, and each time they spin around (which can be hundreds of times per second), they send a lighthouse-like beam of radio waves in our direction. But the single burst that Lorimer found was even weirder, and for years astronomers couldnt even decide whether they thought it was real.

The burst belongs to a class of phenomena known as fast radio transients objects and events that emit radio waves on ultra-short timescales. They could include stars flares, collisions between black holes, lightning on other planets, and RRATs Rotating RAdio Transients, pulsars that only fire up when they feel like it. More speculatively, some scientists believe extraterrestrial civilizations could be flashing fast radio beacons into space.

Astronomers interest in fast radio transients is just beginning, as computers chop data into ever tinier pockets of time. Scientists call this kind of analysis time domain astronomy. Rather than focusing just on what wavelengths of light an object emits or how bright it is, time domain astronomy investigates how those properties change as the seconds, or milliseconds, tick by.

In non-time-domain astronomy, astronomers essentially leave the telescopes shutter open for a while, as you would if you were using a camera at night. With such a long exposure, even if a radio burst is strong, it could easily disappear into the background. But with quick sampling in essence, snapping picture after picture, like a space stop-motion film its easier to see things that flash on and then disappear.

The awareness of these short signals has long existed, said Andrew Siemion, who searches the time domain for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. But its only the past decade or so that weve had the computational capacity to look for them.

Siemion believes the fields rapid growth will revolutionize astronomy as a whole, not just his own search for ET. History has shown us that any time we sort of look into parameter space in astronomy any time we develop a capability to look in a new way we find something, he said. I think that our exploration of the time domain is just getting started. Were going to find things we never expected.

Lorimers discovery, which took his name, is one such unexpected find. The search for its mysterious origin initially energized the field. Everyone was really jazzed, said his research partner Maura McLaughlin, who first discovered RRATs. We thought the Lorimer burst could be a new kind of source. Some theorists suggest that it was a primordial black hole evaporating or a spark from a superconducting cosmic string.

Exotic possibilities, to be sure. But some scientists didnt think it was real. For a long time, Lorimer was the only one whod found a seemingly extragalactic burst, and doubts crept in. All we had were a few milliseconds of data from the late 1990s, said McLaughlin. I was even at a conference where somebody stood up and said, How many people here believe the Lorimer burst? Raise your hands. But Dunc always believed in his bursts.

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How a New Type of Astronomy Investigates the Most Mysterious Objects in the Universe

Astronomy Online

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Welcome to Astronomy Online A legally blind photographer/astronomer on disability so I use this site to contribute to society.

Last Updated: October 24, 2012 added graphics for the 88 constellations under Observation/The Night Sky.

This site is a testament that even though I have a physical disability - legally blind - I can still do things that helps other people. I even have a new project: Astro-Drummer, a site dedicated to my other hobby.

I also have a new image gallery. I call it Second Site Image Gallery.

This is an educational website. It's never too late to learn astronomy, even for those who have not completed their primary (High School) education. A GED can get you in the door to college level courses and a good place to start is a website like Kokopeli High School Academy - free evaluation and a 75% success rate.

InboxAstronomy:Hubble Sees Cloudy Super-Worlds with Chance for More Clouds Weather forecasters on a pair of exoplanets would have an easy job. Today's forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: overcast. Extended outlook: more clouds. Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have characterized the atmospheres of two of the most common type of planets in the Milky Way galaxy and found both may be blanketed with clouds. The best guess is that the clouds are not like anything found on Earth. Their scorching atmospheres are predicted to be hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit too hot for a rainy day.

APOD:Titan's Land of Lakes Image Credit: Cassini Radar Mapper, JPL, USGS, ESA, NASA

How the Website is Organized:

Advertising within text will be in italics with a link to the ad source.

Observation - This section includes information on coordinate systems, constellations, objects visible in the night sky, and some images of the night sky of the northern and southern hemispheres.

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Astronomy Online

Astrophyicist Carla Fröhlich recognized as rising star

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Financial Times Magazine named Physics Assistant Professor Carla Frhlich as a rising physics star late last year.

The recognition comes from her 2007 discovery of the neutrino p-process and her receipt of the 2013 Early Career Research Award given by the Department of Energy, according to the magazine. This award provides Frhlich with $750,000 over the course of five years to continue her research in nuclear astrophysics, Frhlich said.

The neutrino p-process that Frhlich discovered explains how supernovae, or exploding stars, synthesize heavier elements on the periodic table, she said. The discovery resulted from her Ph.d. project at the University of Basel in Switzerland, where she graduated in 2007.

Elements heavier than iron have a lot of open questions in regards to how and where they are synthesized, Frhlich said. Researchers like Frhlich study chemical elements formed in stars and their explosions in order to better understand where these heavier elements originate.

Because supernovae are dying, massive stars, they produce a lot of fundamental subatomic particles known as neutrinos, Frhlich said. Though neutrinos have no charge, they can engage in nuclear reactions to form heavier elements in combination with the stars abundance of protons. This is catalyzed by the stars high temperatures and densities.

During an explosion, these elements blast into space and can be used to form new stars and galaxies, Frhlich said.

Before Frhlichs research it was believed neutrons outnumbered the protons in supernovae, according to Frhlich.

Frhlich said that in her research grant application she wrote about her desire to learn more about the details of the neutrino p-process as well as how other elements are made. She also wants to study stars in other phases of their life.

Ultimately she aims to solve the remaining questions of where and how elements form through a collaborative approach between the areas of nuclear physics, observational astronomy and astrophysics, which uses computer simulations, Frhlich said.

My approach combines accomplishments in all of these fields to answer where and how the chemical elements were made, Frhlich said.

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Astrophyicist Carla Fröhlich recognized as rising star

An Exotic Millisecond Pulsar Trio

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06.01.2014 - (idw) Max-Planck-Institut fr Radioastronomie

Previous studies of millisecond pulsars have explained their origin via mass transfer in binary systems. The discovery of a millisecond pulsar in a triple system challenges current consensus. Thomas Tauris (Bonn) and Ed van den Heuvel (Amsterdam) have developed a semi-analytical model, which can resolve the puzzling formation of this exotic triple system. Through theoretical calculations on the base of stellar evolution, they have demonstrated a plausible model which brings new insight to our knowledge of stellar interactions in multiple star systems. Their study can also help explain an increasing number of observed binary millisecond pulsars which seem to require a triple system origin. Pulsars are among the most extreme celestial bodies known. They have radii of only 10 kilometres, but at the same time a mass exceeding that of our Sun. Pulsars are formed as the remnants of violent supernova explosions of massive stars. The fastest rotating neutron stars are known as millisecond pulsars. They are thought to be strongly magnetized, old neutron stars which have been spun up to high rotational frequencies by accumulation of mass and angular momentum from a companion star in a binary system. Today we know of about 200 such pulsars with spin periods between 1.4 and 10 milliseconds. These are located in both the Galactic Disk and in Globular Clusters.

Since the first binary pulsar was detected in 1974, theoretical astrophysicists have investigated mass transfer between stars and other binary interactions in order to explain their origin. A surprising new discovery has now revealed a millisecond pulsar in a triple system with two white dwarf companions, posing a unique challenge to stellar physicists to explain its formation.

"This is a truly amazing system with three degenerate objects. It has survived three phases of mass transfer and a supernova explosion, and yet it remained dynamically stable", says Thomas Tauris, theoretical astrophysicist and first author of the present study. "Pulsars have previously been found with planets and in recent years my observational colleagues have discovered a number of peculiar binary pulsars which seem to require a triple system origin. But this new millisecond pulsar is the first to be detected with two white dwarfs".

The new triple millisecond pulsar J0337+1715 was discovered recently by a joint American-European collaboration led by Scott Ransom from National Radio Astronomy Observatory (USA). The system is located in the constellation of Taurus at a distance of about 4000 light-years. It is in the Galactic disk, and not inside a globular cluster. Therefore, its existence cannot be explained simply as a result of dynamical encounter events in a dense stellar environment. During the last 6 months, Thomas Tauris and Ed van den Heuvel have developed a semi-analytical model to explain its existence. One of the key results obtained from their investigation is that the observed parameters reflect that both white dwarfs were indeed produced in the present system.

Triple systems often become dynamically unstable during their evolution leading to expulsion of one of the three stars. A major challenge was to find a solution that remained dynamically stable throughout the entire evolution, including the stage of the supernova explosion. "An interesting result of our new investigation is that the system evolved through a common envelope stage where both white dwarf progenitor stars were dragged into the envelope of the massive star due to frictional forces, causing their orbits to shrink by a large factor, thereby enabling survival of its subsequent explosion", says Ed van den Heuvel.

--------------------

This work has profited from a recent effort to bridge the Fundamental Physics in Radio Astronomy group at the Max-Planck-Institut fr Radioastronomie (MPIfR), led by Michael Kramer, with the Stellar Physics group at the Argelander-Institut fr Astronomie (AIfA) at University of Bonn, led by Norbert Langer. Michael Kramer and his colleagues are using the 100-m Effelsberg Radio Telescope to participate in several ongoing searches and discoveries of millisecond pulsars, while the stellar physicists at AIfA are modelling their formation and evolution.

Thomas Tauris has been working at the AIfA and MPIfR as a visiting research professor since 2010. Some of his recent work on the recycling of millisecond pulsars has been published jointly with Norbert Langer, Michael Kramer and other colleagues in Bonn. Together they host twice per year an international one-day workshop in Bonn, called Formation and Evolution of Neutron stars.

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An Exotic Millisecond Pulsar Trio

So, you want to be an astrophysicist? Part 1 redux. [Dynamics of Cats]

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You are at university. Do you like stars, and stuff?

We revisit old ruminations on career paths cause it is topical

Another rehashed blast from the past.

Should you do astronomy as an undergrad? (the following is in part shamelessly cribbed from a colleagues previous freshman seminar for our majors):

Do you like stars and stuff?

If not, you probably should look for an alternative to astronomy, on the general principle that at this stage of life you should at least try to do things you actually like. If you do, good for you. Now, do you have the aptitude?

Professional astrophysics/astronomy is not about looking at stars per se (except at occasional star parties, for outreach or as a sideline hobby although a fair fraction but by no means all astronomers are enthusiastic amateur astronomers). Nor will you need to learn about constellations, or speculate about the meaning of it all, or the origin of the universe, or other sophomoric philosophical issues (except over occasional beer sessions except for the constellations bit).

What you will need to do, is at least 75-80% of a physics major (and preferably all of it, physics double majors are a common path, as is just doing an all physics or math/physics path, and adding astro later). Thats four years of 2 classes per semester, calculus based physics. You will also need at least 3 years of university level calculus (by which I mean calculus/differential equations etc), and if you find yourself taking as little math as possible, then your career options will rapidly shut down and you might want to rethink. Some computer science or electronic engineering wouldnt hurt, though most of the practical computing you need you will be expected to pick up through self-study. So, you would need, for example, to be able to look at HTML sample code, or a how to web page, or in a pinch a book, and figure out in few hours or days how to do adequate HTML coding, as a minimum. Most astrophysics types are expected to know one major compiled language (C++ most common, but Fortran is clearly the superior choice), several macro/mark-up/interpreted languages (like TeX/LaTeX, IDL, Perl or Python (tres trendy)) and higher level languages as needed.

Most people find this to be hard work. You should be ready for hard work.

Do you like to read? Cause youll be doing a lot of it. Books, papers, web pages, class notes; and, whether they admit it or not science fiction (ok, not all astro types are sci fi fans, just most of them: secretly, open Trekkies, whatever). What do I mean by lots? (For an undergrad.) Mean output of a professional astronomer is 3-4 papers per year. Each paper has 30-40 cites to the literature on average. You have to have read those, all of them! Now, if you work in a single sub-field (which is not uncommon) therell be a lot of overlap between cites in successive papers, but youll also have to read 2-3 papers for each one you cite. And, you need to keep up with the literature, there are new papers coming out every day So, were talking 1-200 papers to read per year.

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So, you want to be an astrophysicist? Part 1 redux. [Dynamics of Cats]

Comets start new year with an AHL triumph

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UTICA The Utica Comets moved its record to 4-1-0-1 on their current homestand as they defeated the Lake Erie Monsters, 3-2, at Utica Memorial Auditorium on Wednesday in a contest that kicked off the 2014 portion of the American Hockey Leagues schedule.

Pascal Pelletier, Colin Stuart and Darren Archibald each scored for the Comets, while Joe Cannata made 18 saves to earn his first victory on home ice this season, his third overall. Pelletier, Archibald and teammate Alex Biega all had multiple points on the afternoon.

Pelletier put the Comets ahead 6:10 into the second period with his sixth goal of the season. After serving his minor penalty for roughing, Alex Biega hit the Comets leading scorer with a breakaway pass and the center slotted a wrist shot past Aittokallio on the glove side. Brandon DeFazio also picked up an assist on the play, his eighth helper of the season.

Utica, which has now earned points in six of their past seven games on home ice, moved to 25 points on the season and are eight points out of eighth place in the Western Conference.

The Comets complete their seven-game homestand with a home tilt against the Rochester Americans on Friday starting at 7 p.m.

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Travel agencies complain about lack of tour guides

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(MENAFN - Muscat Daily) Though, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has forecast that Oman's travel and tourism GDP will grow at an annual rate of six to eight per cent between 2013 and 2017, local tour operators say their business is suffering due to lack of registered tour guides in the sultanate.

As of December 2013, there were only 216 registered tour guides with the Ministry of Tourism. Lakshminarayanan, inbound tours manager, Bahwan Travel Agencies, said, ''Our business is suffering due to lack of tourist guides, especially those who can speak languages like German, French, Italian and Russian. We are forced to tell our business partners abroad and potential tourists about the shortage of tour guides. Clients even change the destination when they come to know about this problem. The guides here sometimes demand unreasonable money since they know there is a shortage.

''We also get tour guides from abroad on 21-day business visas, but the procedure to get them is lengthy. Sometimes, it takes more than 21 days to complete the procedure.''

Arun Raj, business development manager, Zahara Tours said the shortage is felt most during the peak season. ''The shortage is felt the most during Christmas, New Year and Easter holidays. Most of the registered guides do other part-time jobs. Some are only available on weekends or holidays and some give up guiding altogether. It's a serious problem for tour companies. We've currently stopped bookings due to this issue. Easing of restrictions on issue of visa by the authorities would help solve this problem.''

An official from another tourism company said it's getting difficult to obtain short-term visas. ''It is very difficult to find tour guides as short-term visas are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. Also, tour guides brought in from other countries have to be given proper training, which is time-consuming.

''I urge the authorities to help motivate young Omanis to work in the industry and share their knowledge about the country with the tourists. Omanis who have studied tourism often end up working in other sectors. I think young Omanis who train in tourism should continue working in the sector.''&nb

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Travel agencies complain about lack of tour guides

Russell Brand on Sex, Drugs, Fame, Money and Spiritual Enlightenment in 10 seconds – Video

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Russell Brand on Sex, Drugs, Fame, Money and Spiritual Enlightenment in 10 seconds
Russell Brand on Sex, Drugs, Fame, Money and Spiritual Enlightenment on Gaiam TV Full interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PYpHFwcITI.

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