Get Carter and The IPCRESS File provide a great score.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 2:33 AM on January 15, 2008

Remember to factor in costs of staying where you are going. I've often found a cheap flight to somewhere with European costs is more expensive in total than a higher fare to somewhere very cheap to stay.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 1:15 AM on December 24, 2007

get in touch with this guy!
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 2:33 AM on November 11, 2007

We use drupal and host at Servage who have one click installs for drupal wordpress and many other systems. you also get an enormous amount of webspace.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 2:29 AM on November 11, 2007

Thank you. Please keep adding your views.

I've been looking around for any research that has been done. It seems obvious, but I would like something to throw at the publisher and possibly, a lawyer as it does appear that we have a breach of contract.

The publisher has a good reputation as a cutting edge and innovative outfit, but they didn't even notice the spine until I informed them. They blamed the printer, then said they would reprint... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 11:35 AM on October 30, 2007

I don't want a mention of the title in public, but it is a very eye catching one. Metamail me for the amazon link.

It's humorous, mainly aimed at women and I do think that many people would see the title and pick it up.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 11:53 AM on October 30, 2007

mkultra, I am asking here to get people's objective opinions and advice before deciding how to deal with the situation. I hoped to do so without naming the book.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 12:20 PM on October 30, 2007

lampoil, bad font, small font, missing word, background colour spoils legibility and no word is legible from 3 feet away.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 12:43 AM on October 31, 2007

Thank you all for your replies, they've given us a good view of the issues and practicalities around this situation. we'll think carefully before deciding what to do.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 7:48 AM on October 31, 2007

I worked for a British NGO and shared a house with PCV's. They're a great bunch of people but I would agree with bluenausea and Forktime's comments.

There are other problems many of them had, including not having much to do. I remember one day we got a PCV turn up at our house in a terrible condition - we put him on suicide watch and spent three days trying to calm him down and figure out what happened to him. Essentially he was in a very remote location with one other... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 10:16 AM on July 11, 2007

I think I should apologise for the last post. It is something that affected me deeply, but it wasn't as helpful as it could have been. It was very frightening to sit with someone who had completely lost it for three days. He did seem to improve a lot and we helped him understand what had happened to him, but I also saw him regress whilst the Director screamed at him over the radio.

lilithim, many people with depression can manage it to a large extent and are aware of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 5:15 AM on July 12, 2007

Thanks for those excellent points. We hope to concentrate on political accountability, electoral reform and using ICT to get more people involved in the political process.

We have a mailing list of sympathisers and there are people willing to offer small donations.

I've some experience in dealing with academics, NGO's and think tanks as have others who write for us and some sympathetic people in journalism/ marketing..

We... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 12:08 PM on January 30, 2007

Thank you for your excellent and thoughtful comments. You are raising issues that we are considering. We've reached a level of recognition and visibility that we never thought about when we started and, as you pointed out, we've not looked at our structure or platform until now.

I think, at the moment, that we would be better at networking and joining in dialogue and discussion rather than advocating a particular policy. for example we're all convinced of the importance... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 4:10 AM on February 1, 2007

Hi there, I visited Doha earlier this year. I recommend evening walks along the corniche, having a shisha at a small fishermans cafe near the port. Hanging around the centre of town eating in the small restraunts full of sri lankans and other asians.

There are some great desert trips. There is an english language paper and some interesting events (I saw Cat Stevens singing surahs from the koran and heard the impressive sheik hamza yusuf speak).... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 11:38 AM on January 30, 2007

Apologies, but a friend runs this site that might be useful: Qatar Living
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 11:40 AM on January 30, 2007

it's probably best to stay near beirut, but don't go south as it is becoming a war zone. the least likely place to be bombed is in the maronite area of becharre.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 10:21 PM on July 13, 2006

Thanks guys, I use drupal for one of my sites: blairwatch
and it is excellent and, with a bit of practice is emminently tweakable.

however I'm not a php programmer and this is for my day job. Basically the director is trying to oursource it to a web consultant - I read the consultant's report and it is just bollocks.

now, because of the small scale (maybe 300 academics) I could do it in simple html, but I was hoping to find some CMS... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 12:26 PM on April 25, 2006

Do you like Kipling?

I con't know, i've never been kippled
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 4:04 AM on March 30, 2006

a classic africa film is the gods must be crazy and a good fun travel book is malaria dreams
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 12:26 AM on September 19, 2005

DaShiv, that was a truly great answer. thanks also to Nelson and seawallrunner for good tips.

now to get reading...
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 9:22 AM on September 12, 2005

This brief conflict was known as the 'volleyball war' after Sweden's controversial defeat in the 1938 olympic games, due to a disputed line call by a half Swiss judge.

It initially started by rioting in Berne by expat Swedes and swiftly got out of control. A diplomatic crisis was caused by, shall we say, overly patriotic remarks by the Swedish king, which quickly sparked off a trade war with high tarrifs on cheese being introduced.

In retaliation,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 10:13 PM on September 8, 2005

the lake district is incredibly gorgeous (albeit wet) and there are numerous gardens, and other places run by the national trust that would be excellent.

there's also the ferry's on lake windermere and coniston.

especially if you have lunch at one of the world's finest pubs, the old dungeon ghyll
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 4:02 AM on September 8, 2005

* Planter for a tree -- particularly a Christmas-looking tree so you can wheel it in in December - genius

thanks for the freecycle link and the water but suggestion.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 2:13 AM on May 12, 2005

i have travelled extensively through africa, and lived in rural tanzania for three years.

do not take larium, in my experience appx 1 in 4 have side effects so serious they have to stop taking it. interestingly the peace corps were almost all on it, but they were just given the tablets - i showed them the medical notes that came with the package, which clearly said you should not take it for longer than three months..... they were on it for two years. a couple of them... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 9:07 PM on April 7, 2005

the bloggies, but only because my partner won best european weblog this year. it made her happy.

that may not be relavent to the internets, but it's relavent to my peace and well being.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 8:55 PM on April 7, 2005

safetyfork, thanks for that recommendation, it looks great.
TNLNYC, there is a lot of good stuff online, but i find having a book to read and thunb through much better than staring at a screen, but i have bookmarked the php online manual
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 3:08 PM on April 5, 2005

thanks everyone. i like to play with code as i go, but i like to take time away from the screen and read, then put into practice what i've read. a pocket reference sounds essential and php.net is an incredible resource.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 9:27 PM on April 5, 2005

thanks for that, but it is a bit impenetrable. so head first into it i go.....
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2005

tomble's was the scariest
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 10:03 PM on January 10, 2005

thanks for that, but we're not changing hosts, and the hosts won't or can't offer any help. outputting to html would be fine.

i find it odd that the hosts - and this is on a business server - don't provide a thing
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 7:06 AM on January 10, 2005

ap0ologies for not being clear, there is a waterstones, but the selection isn't large, so there aren't many for me to look through, i would have to order 'blind', as it were.

i'm looking for beginner/intermediate. thanks for the oreilly tip, i have the web design in a nutshell and it's a great book.

i'm open to any ideas and appreciate the replies.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 6:59 AM on December 20, 2004

thanks dash, i've updated my email in my profile. i'm interested, but i'm not sure how active i would be, but keep me informed
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 6:20 AM on September 26, 2004

Thank you for the replies. My partner uses Blogger and has no problem with people quoting etc her posts. she used Blogger's atom.xml feed to make it easier for people to read her blog, not to allow people to re-publish her entire blog.

It seems to me that there is a big difference between using a RSS reader - like I do in my browser, and taking the feed and publishing it on the net, which it what LJ appears to be doing.

If, for example, I used... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 3:10 AM on May 5, 2004

thank you all for your comments. i really wasn't sure about this, but i do feel reproducing someone's entire blog without asking permission is out of order.

i do feel that the purpose of syndication is to enable people to READ your feed, not to enable any tom dick or harry to PUBLISH it.

we have taken the feed off as we are happy for people to read the site in RSS format, but we do not want people to reproduce it. since the feed was taken off... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by quarsan at 12:01 PM on May 5, 2004