When I arrived in Dublin a couple of days ago, I was greeted by hundreds of signs plastered around the town, urging readers to vote Yes or No.

“YES - Put Ireland at the heart of Europe.”

“NO - Ireland can do better”

I quickly realized that this was more than just a minor election; Ireland was voting on whether to accept the Lisbon Treaty - the new version of the European Union (EU) constitution. The first day of our women’s Ireland tour was the day the results were announced, and we discovered that Ireland said NO to Europe.

From what we’ve heard here, the No votes were largely a result of
… a) fears (fueled by the No backers), that a Yes could lead to anything from EU taxes to abortion to conscription into an EU army, and
… b) general protest vote of unhappiness with gas prices, food prices, immigration, and any other problems.

The treaty had to be ratified by all 27 member nations. Other countries approved it by government action without a referendum, but Ireland’s constitution required voter approval. Their No vote is effectively a veto.

So what’s the world’s reaction? And what happens next?

• EU government leaders are shaking their heads in frustration, but many citizens of other countries are happy. They say they would have voted No too, but their governments didn’t give them a chance to vote.
  Associated Press: Would-be voters support Irish veto of EU treaty
• Many of the treaty measures are likely to be passed “by stealth”, via existing EU powers, bypassing the veto.
  Telegraph: EU Treaty likely to be imposed by stealth
• Some countries are considering splitting the EU into tiers: Those that want closer integration could form their own “club of the few”, while countries like Ireland would be delegated to a lower tier of involvement.
  International Herald Tribune: Split emerges in EU after Irish rejection of Lisbon Treaty

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I’m in Ireland right now for our Ireland tour for women. We’re having a great time, and all the political doings are adding a little extra excitement. I know we’ll all be watching this more closely once we get home!

Gee, a crooked politician. Who could believe it?

The former Costa Rican president, Miguel Angel Rodriguez (1998-2002) is being investigated on corruption charges. Now his bank accounts, 4 properties and 2 cars have been embargoed by the courts, and there’s a lien on his salary.

Rodriguez appears to be a shady character. He was involved in a questionable deal that granted cell phone contracts to French company Alcatel. Now he’s also suspected of involvement with a Panamanian company, which supposedly paid out $2.1M to Rodriguez and other officials.

Costa Rica Blogs: Ex-president’s Holdings Embargoed by Courts

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Seems I just wrote about a corrupt leader in Ireland, and now it’s Costa Rica! But that won’t stop our women’s travel to Costa Rica. We go there every year, and people love it!

Bertie Ahern, Ireland’s prime minister (also called the Taoiseach, pronounced tee-shock), is resigning due to allegations of corruption. He’s being investigated about receiving secret payments in the 1990s. Though the country did well during his tenure, the investigations finally (finally!) brought him down.

For over 10 years the Mahon Tribunal has been investigating allegations of corruption involving Mr Ahern, who has always denied any wrong-doing. In recent months the tribunal has looked into the apparently bizarre nature of Mr Ahern’s finances in the 1990s when he served as Ireland’s Finance Minister. …

In the 1990s, Mr Ahern, a trained accountant, did not hold a personal bank account preferring to cash his salary cheques in his local north Dublin pub.

It does seem fishy for the Finance Minister to not even have a bank account, doesn’t it?

Read the whole story at
Telegraph: Bertie Ahern resigns as Ireland’s Prime Minister

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We’ll be visiting the Emerald Isle soon for our women’s tour of Ireland. I’m sure there will be some interesting political developments before then!

A controversial new study thinks that the Grand Canyon may have been formed millions of years earlier than thought. The findings fly in the face of long-standing theory (and not just compared to the religious view)!

The traditional scientific view is that the Arizona canyon is 6 million years old, and the Colorado River is responsible for carving it. This new study proposes that the western reaches began forming 17 million years ago (before the river even existed), while the eastern portion formed in just the past 4 million years.

The scientists (Victor Polyak and University of New Mexico colleagues), base their research on clues from caves in the canyon walls. They argue that the traditional timelines based on geologic events are reliable only to about a million years ago. Instead, they’re using a new technique — looking at deposits in the caves. They reason that as the canyon cut deeper, it dropped the surrounding water tables. Specific mineral deposits in the caves then indicate different ages for different parts of the canyon.

Not all scientists agree. Ivo Lucchitta, an Arizona geologist, said he is “outraged”.

Find the whole story at
National Geographic: Grand Canyon Millions of Years Older Than Thought?

Of course, such debates about 6 million vs. 17 million years seem minor compared to the religious argument that the canyon is just a few thousand years old, based on biblical interpretations. Very interesting how people can look at the exact same canyon walls and see such different things!

New York Times: Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon

National Park employees say that the Bush administration has forced them to ignore geological evidence, and sell religious books instead.

In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’”

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER): How old is the Grand Canyon? Park Service won’t say

Personally, I’ve never understood this literal interpretation of the Bible in dating the earth. Why assume that a “God-day” is the same as a “person-day”? I guess that’s my scientific skepticism showing.

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Arizona is the Grand Canyon state, and there’s a lot more here, too! From saguaro forests in the desert, to pine forests in the mountains, it’s an amazing place. We do Sedona tours here a few times a year, and it’s simply spectacular.

There were 13 of them, out on a little open boat for 10 days. This is where it all went down. Where their dreams were ended? delayed? I’ll probably never know the ending…

An otherwise lazy afternoon at Ambergris Caye was interrupted by the arrival of a boat full of Cuban refugees. It was a small open fishing boat, with improvised outriggers made of long branches sticking out to the sides with tires on the ends. 13 Cuban refugees had been out on the open sea of the Caribbean in this for 10 days.

They landed on the beach near my hotel. Some couldn’t walk after that long scrunched up in the boat, and were helped to shore. They were all so happy to be on dry land in Belize — some of them were hugging the trees, others kissing the ground. After their ordeal, they were finally free! But it was not to be…

The Belizean police showed up and took them all away. Everyone was in tears now, including many in the crowd who had gathered to watch the scene.

According to crowd knowledge, if they had landed in Mexico, the law would have let them stay in Mexico once they were on solid ground. If intercepted in Mexican waters, they would have been sent straight back to Cuba. However, the law in Belize is a bit different. Even though they hit solid ground, they’re not allowed to stay there. Instead, they’ll be patched up a bit, then put back on their boat & sent on their way again.

We’re all hoping the authorities provide them with medical attention, food, water, fuel, and instructions on how to get to Honduras, before they tow that little boat back out through the reef and set them afloat. I hope they make it.

A partially submerged “lost” harbor town, built by the ancient Mycenaeans nearly 3,500 years ago, has been discovered along a rocky stretch of Greek coast. Florida State professor Daniel Pullen and his students are unlocking its secrets.

This is really a remarkable find. It is rare indeed to locate an entire town built during the Late Bronze Age that shows this level of preservation. … Because of soil erosion and tectonic subsidence, much of the soil had already been stripped from the site,so the architectural remains of about 20 acres of closely built structures were plainly visible.”

Clues indicate that the city (known as Korphos Kalamianos) was built between 1200 and 1400 BC. It was likely a military outpost or fortress, possibly to protect the harbor. Directly across the gulf, the ancient city of Kolonna on the island of Aigina was a rival of Mycenae.

EurekAlert: Professor exploring a ‘lost’ city of the Mycenaeans

We visit Mycenae on our Greece tour for women, and it’s a very cool place. This is where King Agamemnon reigned, the leader of the Greek forces in the Trojan war. It’s remarkable to stand here and realize how advanced they were 3500 years ago.

An ancient Roman wood and ivory throne has been unearthed at a dig in Herculaneum, an ancient city near Pompeii. Like Pompeii, Herculaneum was destroyed in 79 AD, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The throne was found during an excavation in the Villa of the Papyri, the private house formerly belonging to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, built on the slope of Mount Vesuvius. The name of the villa derives from the impressive library containing thousands of scrolls of papyrus discovered buried under meters (yards) of volcanic ash after the Vesuvius eruption.”

Other wooden objects have been excavated in nearby Pompeii, but experts have never before found such a significant ceremonial piece. Such thrones have previously only been seen in paintings or sculptures.

Reuters: Rare ancient wooden throne found in Herculaneum

There’s also a very cool page on Pompeii and its violent volcanic end at

Pompeii, Italy - The lost city.

Costa Rica is a relatively small country, a bit smaller than West Virginia. Now imagine putting 250 volcanoes in West Virginia!

The 250th volcano in Costa Rica was just confirmed by scientists. It’s over 7500 ft high, and has a crater about 650 ft in diameter. How did something this large escape detection until now?

It’s been hidden in the virgin forest of one of Costa Rica’s national parks. In 2006, a NASA airplane took infrared photos of the mountain, which looked like there was a hole or crater at the top. Scientists decided to investigate in person, and sure enough, this March they confirmed it is indeed another volcano.

250 of them - wow! I wonder how many more are still undiscovered…

Costa Rica pages: Existence of Costa Rica’s 250th Volcano Confirmed

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We do women’s adventures to Costa Rica every year, and this year the group got quite a treat, with Arenal (the most active volcano in the country) putting on a show for them during a lunar eclipse. It may be quite some time before a spectacle like this is repeated, but it’s always a fascinating country, and a delight to visit.