ใครที่หลงรักในการชื่นชมทะเลหมอกยามเช้า แต่ไม่มีเวลาที่จะเดินทางไกลไปเที่ยวถึงภาคเหนือ วันนี้ เดลินิวส์ออนไลน์ จะพาทุกคนไปตะลุยเส้นทางสุดหฤโหด กับการเดินทางขึ้นพิชิต ยอดเขากระโจม ที่อำเภอสวนผึ้ง จังหวัดราชบุรี จุดชมวิวพระอาทิตย์ขึ้นเคล้าสายหมอกแสนสวยงาม ที่อยู่ใกล้กรุงเทพฯเพียงไม่ถึงสองร้อยกิโลเมตร

เขากระโจม ตั้งอยู่ในอำเภอสวนผึ้ง มีความสูง 1,045 เมตรจากระดับน้ำทะเล ทำให้ที่นี่กลายเป็นจุดชมวิวทะเลหมอกที่กำลังได้รับความนิยมเป็นอย่างมากจากนักท่องเที่ยว เพราะนอกจากจะมีทะเลหมอกสวยงามให้ได้เห็นแล้ว อากาศในช่วงฤดูหนาวก็เย็นสบายไม่แพ้ภาคเหนือ
การเดินทางขึ้นมายังจุดชมวิวเขากระโจมจำเป็นต้องใช้รถโฟล์วิวที่ผ่านการดัดแปลงสำหรับการขึ้นภูเขามาโดยเฉพาะเป็นพาหนะ เพราะตลอดระยะทางประมาณ 10 กิโลเมตรจากตีนเขาถึงยอดเขา มีความโหดของเส้นทางรออยู่มากมายจนหลายคนอาจนั่งไม่ติดตลอดการเดินทางก็ว่าได้

ส่วนใหญ่นักท่องเที่ยวที่เดินทางขึ้นเขากระโจม จะเลือกใช้บริการรถโฟล์วิวรับจ้างของกลุ่ม “รักษ์เขากระโจม” ที่ชำนาญพื้นที่ เป็นผู้พาฝ่าเส้นทางสุดโหดขึ้นไป โดยรถแต่ละคันสามารถรองรับได้ประมาณ 8 -10 คน ซึ่งส่วนใหญ่คนที่จะเดินทางขึ้นไปดูทะเลหมอกยามเช้าที่ยอดเขากระโจมจะนัดกันตั้งแต่ประมาณตี 4 ครึ่ง เพื่อให้รถมารับยังรีสอร์ที่ค้างแรม ก่อนจะตะลุยเส้นทางหฤโหดไปพร้อมกันโดยฝากชีวิตไว้กับคนขับรถผู้ชำนาญเส้นทาง

การเดินทางขึ้นเขากระโจมของผมในครั้งนี้ถึงจะไม่ใช่ครั้งแรกแต่ก็ต้องขอขอบคุณ ททท.สำนักงานเพชรบุรี ที่จัดทริปดีๆอย่างนี้ขึ้น พร้อมดูแลชาวคณะทุกคนตลอดการเดินทาง สำหรับคนที่ไม่เคยมาพิชิตยอดเขาแห่งนี้ ถ้าเห็นเส้นทางช่วง 2 - 3 กิโลเมตรแรกอาจรู้สึกว่าไม่มีความน่าตื่นเต้น แต่อย่าเพิ่งเบื่อไปเสียก่อน เพราะหลังจากเส้นทางที่ถนนขาดไปแล้ว ความระทึกใจก็จะค่อยๆเพิ่มทวีคูณขึ้น ผมเชื่อว่าบางคนอาจถึงขั้นคิดว่าอยากกลับที่พักตั้งแต่ยังไม่ถึงครึ่งทาง

ถ้าจะให้บรรยายภาพเส้นทางขึ้นเขากระโจมช่วงที่เหลือกว่า 7 กิโลเมตร อยากให้ทุกคนนึกถึง ทางดินที่เป็นหลุมลึกลากยาวสั้นสลับกันไป เหมือนใครเอาอะไรมาขีดเป็นเส้นไว้ตลอดเส้นทางหลายเส้น ผมพยายามชะเง้อมองอยู่หลายครั้งจากหลังรถ ขอบอกเลยว่าถ้าไม่ชินเส้นทางไม่สามารถหาทางวิ่งไปจนถึงยอดเขาได้แน่นอน โดยต้องผ่านเนินที่ชาวบ้านเขาเรียก เนิน700 ไล่ไปจนถึงยอดเรียกว่าเนิน1,000 ตามลำดับความสูงจากระดับน้ำทะเล

ถึงการเดินทางจะสมบุกสมบันเพียงใด แต่การได้มาสัมผัสความงามของผืนป่าอันอุดมสมบูรณ์บนภูเขาลูกนี้ด้วยตาตนเอง คลอเคล้าบรรยากาศที่ลมหนาวพัดมาเยือน แม้จะต้องแรกกับการตื่นเช้าและฝ่าฟันเส้นทางเลวร้ายแค่ไหนก็ถือว่าคุ้มค่า โดยถ้าใครจะเดินทางมาในช่วงฤดูหนาวแนะนำว่าอย่าลืมพกเสื้อกันหนาวติดตัวมาด้วย เพราะลมจะพัดแรงตลอดเส้นทาง รวมถึงหมอกจะลงหนามากทำให้อาจไม่สบายได้

หลังจากฝ่าฟันอุปสรรคมากมายมาจนถึงยอดเขา ก็จะเห็นจุดตั้งฐานปฏิบัติการตำรวจตระเวนชายแดน และจุดชมวิวที่สามารถชมความงามของทะเลหมอกได้ทั้งฝั่งไทย และฝั่งเพื่อนบ้านอย่างพม่า ขึ้นอยู่กับดวงของแต่ละคนว่าจะขึ้นมาเห็นทิวทัศน์ในสภาพอากาศแบบไหน ผมเชื่อว่าคงไม่มีใครที่ขึ้นมาเพียงครั้งเดียวแล้วเห็นความงามของยอดเขากระโจมได้อย่างสมบูรณ์แบบ แต่ถ้าเดินทางมาบ่อยๆสักวันธรรมชาติจะต้องเข้าข้างความพายามของเรา

การท่องเที่ยวเพื่อชมความงามของธรรมชาติที่ซ่อนอยู่ทั่วเมืองไทย เป็นเสน่ห์การท่องเที่ยวที่ทำให้นักท่องเที่ยวทั้งชาวไทยและต่างชาติหลงรักประเทศของเรา เพราะฉะนั้น การท่องเที่ยวควบคู่ไปกับการอนุรักษ์จึงเป็นแนวทางที่ทุกคนควรปฏิบัติ เพื่อให้ความงามตามธรรมชาติเหล่านั้นคงอยู่อย่างยั่งยืนสืบต่อไป

ใครที่สนใจอยากทราบข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับการเดินทางท่องเที่ยวผจญภัยสู่ยอดเขากระโจม สอบถามรายละเอียดเพิ่มเติมได้ที่ ททท.สำนักงานเพชรบุรี โทร 0 3247 1005-6 หรือที่ TAT Call Center โทร 1672

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The dingo is legendary as Australia's wild dog, though it also occurs in Southeast Asia. The Australian animals may be descendents of Asian dingoes that were introduced to the continent some 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.

These golden or reddish-colored canids may live alone (especially young males) or in packs of up to ten animals. They roam great distances and communicate with wolf-like howls.
Dingo hunting is opportunistic. Animals hunt alone or in cooperative packs. They pursue small game such as rabbits, rodents, birds, and lizards. These dogs will eat fruits and plants as well. They also scavenge from humans, particularly in their Asian range.

Dingoes breed only once a year. Females typically give birth to about five pups, which are not independent until six to eight months of age. In packs, a dominant breeding female will kill the offspring of other females.
Australia is home to so many of these animals that they are generally considered pests. A famous "dingo fence" has been erected to protect grazing lands for the continent's herds of sheep. It is likely that more dingoes live in Australia today than when Europeans first arrived.

Though dingoes are numerous, their pure genetic strain is gradually being compromised. They can and do interbreed with domestic dogs to produce hybrid animals. Studies suggest that more than a third of southeastern Australia's dingoes are hybrids.

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Sometimes the tabloid route is best: Obama got Osama. President Barack Hussein Obama approved the attack that killed his near namesake Osama bin Laden the very same week that Obama revealed his long-form birth certificate, addressing a silly dispute that was really about something heinous and serious: the suspicion of far too many Americans that the President was not who he said he was, that he was a secret Muslim and maybe not even playing for our team. All such doubts are resolved now, by document and deed, although the various birthers and truthers and mouthers will continue to play their vile games. But the facts are there for posterity and for the voters who will have to make a judgment in 2012: this profoundly American President ran an exquisite operation to find and kill one of the great villains of history. In the process, U.S. presidential politics and the so-called war on terror were transformed dramatically; suddenly, both foreign policy experts and Republican candidates for President had vast new landscapes to consider. And so much for No Drama, by the way. there is no measure of competence the public takes more seriously than a President's performance as Commander in Chief. On the most basic level, the bin Laden raid was a vivid demonstration of how this Commander in Chief operates. He is discreet, precise, patient and willing to be lethal. He did not take the easy route, which would have been a stealth-bomber strike on bin Laden's compound. He ordered the Navy SEAL operation, even though there were myriad ways it could have failed — or turned out to be an embarrassment if bin Laden hadn't been there, or a disaster if the SEALs had been slaughtered, or if a helicopter had been damaged (as several aircraft were when Jimmy Carter tried to rescue the hostages from Iran). In at least nine National Security Council meetings, Obama insisted on reviewing every crucial detail of the operation. He made sure, after a decade of witless Islam-related goofs by U.S. leaders, that bin Laden's body would be handled and consigned to the lower depths in a way that would not offend Muslims; that in the early hours, at least, there wouldn't be gory photos or films or any evidence of barbaric gloating; that the operation would be surgical and stealthy enough that bin Laden's document hoard would be preserved and dispositive DNA evidence would be gathered. These are the sort of nuances — a word his predecessor mocked — that have marked many of Obama's foreign policy decisions, made in a deliberative style that his critics, and even some supporters, have seen as evidence of dithering or indecision

George W. Bush certainly deserves some of the credit for this raid. It would not have been possible without his decision to amp up human-intelligence assets and special-operations forces after decades of neglect. But you have to wonder whether Bush would have had the patience or subtlety to conduct this operation with the same thoroughness Obama did. Bush certainly lacked the strategic focus to understand that the war against al-Qaeda had to be primarily a slow-moving special-forces affair; he was diverted into bold gestures, like the disastrous war in Iraq. He never studied the intelligence rigorously enough; he bought the sources that backed his predispositions. He understood too late the style and substance of Islam, how words like crusade resonated through the region. His was a bumper-sticker foreign policy. His speeches were full of God and Freedom and Evildoers. His troops rushed into Baghdad in three weeks, and he celebrated their victory with another bumper sticker: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. He was able to use these simplicities to win re-election in 2004, although he lost a lot of lives unnecessarily and damaged America's esteem in the eyes of the world.

Obama's national-security practices, if not his actual policies, have been almost the exact opposite, almost to a fault. There have been no three-week victories; there have been three-month deliberations about what to do in Afghanistan. There were precious few victories at all before the bin Laden operation. There was a lot of multilateralism and deference to foreign leaders. Critics said Obama bowed too deeply to the Emperor of Japan. There were few dramatic pronouncements and zero foreign policy bumper stickers; there were more than a few embarrassments. He was dissed by the Chinese. He was dissed by the Iranians. He was defied by corrupt nonentities like Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai; he was double-dealt by the Pakistanis. And in recent weeks, there was a growing chorus that his handling of the Arab Spring revolutions had been incoherent and his indulgence in a humanitarian intervention in Libya had been muscled through by a coterie of female policy advisers who were tougher than he was.

In the days before the bin Laden raid, Obama's national-security staff was increasingly frustrated with how his foreign policy was being portrayed. He was not indecisive, they argued, just careful. They made a transcript of a crucial Feb. 1 phone call between Obama and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak available to me. It was classic Obama. "I have no interest in embarrassing you," the President said. "I want to help you secure your legacy by ushering in a new era." He worked this track patiently, twice, three times. "I respect my elders," Obama said, "but because things worked one way in the past, that doesn't mean they're going to work the same way in the future. You need to seize this historic moment and leave a positive legacy." Mubarak said he'd think about it and would talk again in a week. Obama said he wanted to talk again the next day. Mubarak said maybe over the weekend; Obama said no: "We'll talk in 24 hours." No threats, but no give, either.

"You have to see this in the context of history," a senior Administration official told me. "That's a pretty tough decision to make, involving a longtime U.S. ally. But he was very firm with Mubarak. If you look at Reagan, he agonized far longer over whether to abandon governments we had supported in Indonesia and the Philippines than the President did about Egypt." Last Aug. 12, four months before the Tunisian rebellion began, the President issued a national-security directive ordering his staff to develop a new policy that assumed the governments in the Middle East were rickety and might soon topple. A copy of this memo was provided to me as well.

Too much has been made of what some are calling Obama's taste for humanitarian intervention. Officials at the National Security Council and the State Department insist that the roles of NSC staffer Samantha Power, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and former State Department director of policy planning Anne-Marie Slaughter have been exaggerated. Power is a well-known human-rights activist, but she attended only one meeting with the President on Middle East policy in the past six months; Slaughter is a prominent academic, but she never met with the President on these issues. Indeed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was leaning against taking military action in Libya until the last moment, when members of the Arab League convinced her that a massacre would take place in Benghazi if nothing were done. The President opposed a no-fly zone because it wouldn't effectively stop a Gaddafi massacre. "He expanded the U.N. resolution to include attacks on Libyan equipment and forces about to move into the city," an Administration official said. "He drove the policy. No one talked him into anything."

But there was something incoherent, or perhaps insufficiently explained, about Obama's foreign policy performance. The Libya intervention opened the door to a series of logical questions: Why choose this humanitarian intervention and not others? Why not get involved in Syria, a far more crucial country, where the government was brutally suppressing its citizens and perhaps even conducting massacres? Whom were we actually supporting in Libya? What if the conflict slipped into a tribal stalemate? How were we going to deal with the economic catastrophe looming in Egypt, which Administration officials say is the most pressing problem in the region? Weren't the President's priorities all screwed up? "Libya was tough," the official told me. "The President decided to make a front-end decision to save Benghazi and let our allies carry the burden after that." This policy became the subject of ridicule after an anonymous Administration official called it "leading from the rear."
The splendid success of the bin Laden operation should clarify the precise way that this President goes about his work. It also provides an insight into the reasons for Obama's ill-concealed frustration with his critics: the metabolism of policy runs much more slowly than the metabolism of the media. Policy, especially foreign policy, does not lend itself to spiffy one-size-fits-all doctrines. The same President can decide to take a risky shot at killing Osama bin Laden and choose not to take out Muammar Gaddafi; he can decide to make a discreet humanitarian intervention in Benghazi, at the behest of all the countries in the region, while allowing blood to flow in Syria. Not all of these decisions will prove correct over time — every President makes mistakes — but the overall pattern of judgments can be assessed only with sufficient hindsight. It is difficult for a President and his team to keep things in perspective when the media pulse has reached tuning-fork speed and now includes not just CNN and Fox News but also al-Jazeera, Facebook and Twitter. It is particularly difficult for a President whose every decision is questioned by an opposition whose most prominent spokespeople are willing to toy with despicable rumors about his nationality and religious background.

"My fellow Americans," the President opened at the White House correspondents' dinner on the night before bin Laden was killed, and the audience roared with laughter. His decimation of Donald Trump, who sat in the audience, was particularly brutal. He marveled at Trump's decision to "fire" Gary Busey instead of Meat Loaf on his Celebrity Apprentice show. "These are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir." The audience didn't know it at the time, but two nights earlier Obama had been kept up trying to decide whether to launch the SEAL team against bin Laden or take the stealth-bomber route. A President lives at the intersection of historic decisions like that one and a media environment in which Donald Trump can make outlandish claims about the President's birthplace — and shoot to the top of Republican presidential polls. The distance between those two worlds is mind-bending.

The Obama presidency has been plagued by complexities: How do you conduct a presidency without bumper stickers? How can you explain counterintuitive policies like the need to spend money to soften the blow of a killer recession, even if it expands the federal deficit? How do you convey the policy tightrope that has to be walked as longtime despotic allies in the Arab world are toppled, or not, by revolutions without leaders? How can you explain the delicate task of managing relations with China, when all the public wants to know is why the U.S. seems to be falling behind economically?

The one slogan Obama has attempted — WINNING THE FUTURE — seems pretty lame and lamer still when he repeats it incessantly. Why isn't he focused on winning the present? There have been times — his speech after the Tucson, Ariz., shootings, his bin Laden announcement — when the President has tapped directly into the heart of American sensibility and sentiment. More often, he seems a stranger, unable to fix on the momentary needs of the public, unwilling to indulge the instantaneous needs of the media. His strategy is to hope that the accumulated wisdom of his decision-making will count for more when 2012 rolls around than the pyrotechnics that pass for political discourse in this jittery, nano-wired age. He will mediate congressional disputes rather than make grand policy proposals that others can shoot down. He will eschew dramatic gestures overseas — unless he has carefully considered every facet, as he did in Abbottabad, Pakistan. He will play the grownup because he is a grownup. It will be interesting to see if that works.

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Digital textbooks open a new chapter

By Gary Eason  ­­­­­­

South Korea's classrooms will be switched to digital textbooks over the next four years

 

South Korea, one of the world's highest-rated education systems, aims to consolidate its position by digitising its entire curriculum.

By 2015, it wants to be able to deliver all its curriculum materials in a digital form through computers. The information that would once have been in paper textbooks will be delivered on screen.
South Korea's Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Ju-Ho Lee, said that his department was preparing a promotion strategy for "Smart Education", focusing on customised learning and teaching.
The project, launched during the summer, will involve wireless networks in all schools to allow students to learn "whenever and wherever", as well as an education information system that can run in a variety of devices including PCs, laptops, tablets and internet-connected TVs.
He said the government would support an open content market containing a variety of learning materials, aimed at keeping up quality while keeping down costs.
"Smart Education will change how we perceive textbooks," said Mr Lee.
"The transfer from the traditional paper textbooks to digital textbooks will allow students to leave behind their heavy backpacks and explore the world beyond the classroom."
Tech-friendly teenagers
The intended benefits include extending the choice of subjects for students in rural areas who previously have lacked specialist teachers and to make it easier for pupils to study from home.
South Korea's teenagers should be particularly receptive to such educational technology.

SOUTH KOREA

• South Korea is second in global rankings for reading, fourth for maths and fifth for science
• Family spending on education is the highest in the world, as a proportion of household income
• It has been among the most improved education systems in the world. In 1945, 78% of the population were illiterate. It now outperforms all European countries and the US at reading
• In the 1980s, South Korea banned private tutoring
• This year it introduced a ban on corporal punishment

An Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development (OECD) international assessment found that 15-year-olds in South Korea were the most competent users of digital technologies in a survey of 16 developed countries.

They were best at evaluating information on the internet, assessing its credibility and navigating web pages.
South Korea's pre-eminence has not come about by chance.
Unesco has documented the way that South Korea has carefully controlled the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education.
The government has understood the importance of having formal standards, so that systems can work with each other and quality can be assured.
The United States, alarmed by its relative international educational decline, is now also increasing the resources it devotes to digital learning.
But its move appears to be an acknowledgement of a lack of joined-up thinking in the past.
President Barack Obama's "Digital Promise", announced last month, involves a new national centre to advance technologies that can supposedly transform teaching and learning.
The remit is "to determine quickly what is working and what is not, and transform today's fragmented learning technology market, paving the way for the widespread use of learning technologies that deliver the best results for students, parents, and teachers".
Teaching gap
"With more than 14,000 school districts, and an outdated procurement system, it's difficult for entrepreneurs to break into the market, and it's also tough to prove that their products can deliver meaningful results," the White House said.

DIGITAL CLASSROOMS

• The Indian state of Tamil Nadu is giving 6.8 million free laptops to school pupils
• Uruguay plans to be the first country where all school pupils are given their own laptop
• Apple says 600 US school districts are switching to digital textbooks on iPads
• Amazon has launched a rental service in the US for digital textbooks for students

Given the way education in the US is so highly devolved there are bound to be continuing questions over how much the initiative can achieve.

Another question is whether technology in the classroom is what really makes a difference.
A study by the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University found that digital technology in the classroom might help to engage pupils in their learning and could save schools money.
But the Achilles' heel - commonplace with educational technology - was the teachers. They felt they needed far greater training in how to integrate the resources into their lesson plans.
"The sad truth is that students can learn just as badly with a class full of computers, interactive whiteboards and mobile technology as they can with wooden desks and a chalkboard," said science and ICT teacher David Weston, founder of the consultancy Informed Education.
There might be enormous potential for software or gadgets to engage and challenge students in new and imaginative ways.
"But unless there is a focus on developing the teaching expertise to support this then you run the risk of wasting time, money and opportunity," he said.
And it may be that technology is seen as a way to achieve cost savings by - to put it crudely - replacing teachers with robots.
Digital tutor
Setting out its Digital Promise ambitions, the White House said: "For years, researchers have been working on developing educational software that is as effective as a personal tutor."

Digital Promise has been launched by US President Obama to keep up with global competitors

Preliminary results from a US military "digital tutor" project suggested the time needed to become an expert in information technology could be reduced from years to months, said the White House.
"Achieving similar results in subjects such as math would transform K-12 [primary] education." It certainly would.
And although children tend to be quicker on the uptake than their teachers where anything with a screen is involved, this cannot be taken for granted.
The OECD's study of the technology-friendliness of 15-year-olds highlighted crucial differences between printed and digital texts, with their non-linear navigation.
"Individuals who develop the skills needed to use these texts efficiently and effectively will be at an increasing advantage in accessing higher education, finding and succeeding in a well-paid job, and participating fully in society."
So policy makers must guard against creating a new "digital divide" between those who could and who could not use these new technologies, it warned.
Big Brother?
But is there a bigger, darker concern about such a centralised digital curriculum? If you put all your educational eggs in one digital basket you might hatch a monster.
An unscrupulous government could relish the fact that everything a child learns is controllable through one, easily manipulated, digital portal.

Do we trust the written word in digital books in the same way as the traditional printed editions?

Such fears have been examined in the novel, The Book, by M Clifford. The US author presents a dystopian civilization in which all information is accessed through an e-reader. The people discover that the digital content has been subtly altered by a corrupt government.
"There is something about paper that commands trust," Mr Clifford said. "And reading is very personal. A bonfire of books used to make us cringe because it represented the destruction of that trustworthy bond."
In an increasingly paperless society, we can trust the technology, but questions need to be raised when governments are involved, he says.
"The scare for me was always the subtlety. The delicate manipulation, one word at a time, to alter someone's perception of the truth.
"Not only is there a fear of changing historical record, but of tailoring someone's perspective on the world. If you think that what you are reading is authentic, then your guard is lowered and you accept it as reality."
He debunks his own dark scenario - but has doubts. "As we've seen, the world is becoming more interconnected on an individual level and so it is unlikely that factual information could be so widely altered. We are probably safe.
"But the fact that it could happen without anyone knowing is the real nail-biter."
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Living in New Orleans.

For all that New Orleans means to her residents, to tourists and to the repeat visitor, from jazz revivals to Greek Revival architecture, it is the city’s uniqueness within the modern United States that make it so exotically appealing. You may not need a passport to get here from the rest of the country, but you certainly can expect a change in latitude — and attitude. Let the good times roll.

What is it known for?
Beignets, beads and Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, Mississippi mud pie and Creole cuisine, and sadly now Hurricane Katrina. That disaster cut the city’s population in half and displaced a larger proportion of the black population than the white, due to the city’s poorer neighbourhoods taking the brunt of the flooding. However, now the city has returned to three-quarters of its pre-Katrina population. And tourism is flourishing.
The magic of New Orleans is that its pace is tied to Old Man River, the Mississippi that just keeps rolling along. The Creole culture, mixed with Irish and Italian, means spectacular restaurants and inventive cuisine. The jazz tradition, from Preservation Hall to hole-in-the-wall clubs, attracts famous musicians and music lovers from around the world. The New Orleans Museum of Art and the National WWII Museum make the city a cultural hub for the Gulf South. But it is the people of New Orleans that give the place its soul and true joy.

Where do you want to live?
The areas that remain strongly popular are the historic districts, which became known as “the silver on the river” after they did not flood in Katrina. The land they are on is only a few feet above sea level, but it was enough. These districts include Bywater, Garden District and St Charles Avenue, the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and the Irish Channel area. “New Orleans is a city of neighbourhoods,” said Sterling Joe Ory, ex-officio of the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors. “The market is like the weather — it’s rarely raining everywhere.” The historic district market is currently brisk, according to Ory, who said they attract the large influx of young professionals who have moved to the city.
New Orleans has a unique mix of housing characteristics where affordable houses are cheek-by-jowl with wealthier blocks, and 19th-century architecture spans different price ranges. Some people are attracted to fixer-uppers or condo units in converted grand Victorian homes. “Even our slums are Greek Revival, so bargains are out there,” said Ory. But rentals are not. The inventory is very scarce at the moment and there are fewer places for rent than for sale.

Side trips
New Orleans proximity to the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, Alabama and even Florida makes the city a popular weekend and second-home destination, and many New Orleanians own condos along the Gulf. South Louisiana is also popular for hunting and fishing, and some people go camping or own boats.
Airfare from New Orleans to Caribbean destinations is usually reasonable and there are direct flights to Toronto and some summer service to Central American destinations. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was also one of eight approved this year for charter flights to Cuba, but it is unknown when those will begin.

Practical infoNew Orleans bucked the national trend and had fewer foreclosures than many other cities in many other states. “Tourism, the port and the teaching hospitals keep us ‘recession resistant’,” said Ory. “And we’ve experienced a large influx of young professionals with disposable income who appreciate the cultural uniqueness of New Orleans.” But house prices are abetted by low interest rates on long-term mortgages. “With 30-year interest rates hovering at 4%, money is at 1960 prices,” said Ory.
In the city, an 1,800-sq ft house can sell for as low as $240,000 with a monthly payment of under $900, while three-bed rentals can be as high as $2,500 a month. Many people buy to realize the best return on their investment. One quirk of buying in New Orleans, however, is that the city’s legal system operates under the Napoleanic Civil Code, which can mean that some laws governing commercial transactions are different from the rest of the country. Some out-of-state lenders will bail out of the loan process because there are rules and regulations that you do not have elsewhere in the country. It best to work with a local realtor and a local lender who can help you navigate the regional differences.

“We do things differently here,” said Ory. “But that’s why we are a number one destination. The city truly is hitting on all cylinders now.”
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ขอขอบคุณภาพประกอบจาก acidcow.com, roceco.co.uk

           ภาพที่ทุกท่านได้เห็นนี้ ไม่ใช่คนที่ตัวเล็กที่สุดในโลกหรือการตัดต่อภาพใด ๆ ทั้งสิ้น แต่นี่คือภาพของใบไม้ยักษ์ที่เจริญเติบโตตามธรรมชาติ ซึ่งมีขนาดใหญ่ที่ใหญ่ ใหญ่ ใหญ่ แล้วก็ใหญ่มาก ๆ ซึ่งเป็นใบไม้ที่มีขนาดใหญ่เกินกว่า 3 เมตรเลยทีเดียว!!

           ใบไม้ที่สุดแสนจะใหญ่โตมโหฬารนี้ คือใบไม้ของต้น "Gunnera Manicata" ซึ่งปลูกไว้ที่แอ็บบ็อทส์บิวรี่ การ์เด้นส์ (Abbotsbury Gardens) ในประเทศอังกฤษ โดยนายสตีเฟ่น กริฟฟิธ ซึ่งเป็นหัวหน้าผู้ดูแลสวนแห่งนี้ ได้บอกเล่าถึงเจ้าใบไม้ไซส์บิ๊กบึ้มนี้ว่า Gunnera Manicata เป็นต้นไม้ที่มีถิ่นกำเนิดมาจากประเทศบราซิล และได้นำมาปลูกที่สวนแห่งนี้มานานกว่า 30 ปีแล้ว

           ตามปกติแล้วใบของ Gunnera Manicata จะมีขนาดใหญ่แบบสุด ๆ เพียงแค่ประมาณ 2.1 - 2.2 เมตรเท่านั้น แต่มาในปีนี้ มันดันเจริญเติบโตแบบเกินคาดไปหน่อย ซึ่งจากการสันนิษฐานก็น่าจะมาจากสภาพอากาศที่มีการเปลี่ยงแปลงไปพอสมควร เอื้ออำนวยต่อการเติบโตของมัน เลยทำให้มีใบที่ขนาดใหญ่ถึง 3.3 เมตรอย่างที่เห็น

           ทั้งนี้ กริฟฟิธ เชื่อว่านี่จะเป็นใบไม้ที่ใหญ่ที่สุดในเกาะอังกฤษแล้ว อีกทั้ง นี่ยังถือเป็นโบนัสชิ้นโบว์แดงของสวนแห่งนี้ด้วย เนื่องจากเมื่อช่วงฤดูหนาวของปีที่แล้ว ด้วยสภาพอากาศที่หนาวจัดเลยทำให้ต้นไม้หลาย ๆ ต้นไม่ได้ผลิดอกออกผลให้เห็นมากนัก แต่ ณ ตอนนี้หลาย ๆ ต้นรวมถึงเจ้า Gunnera Manicata ก็ออกดอก ออกใบมามากมาย เรียกได้ว่าเป็นเรื่องที่น่ายินดีสำหรับคนที่รักต้นไม้มาก ๆ

In Cambodia. Flow of flood aid speeds up.

The Australian government will provide up to AUS$2.5 million (US$2.53 million) in aid to Cambodia as part of an AUS$5.25 grant to flood hit countries in the Mekong region and the Philippines, it said yesterday.

THE European Union will likely follow suit next week with two million euros (US$2.7 million) in emergency assistance for Cambodia, an official with its humanitarian aid department, ECHO, told the Post yesterday.

Funding from Australia aims at providing food, water, shelter and support for repairs, a statement from Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said. The aid would be disbursed through the  Red Cross, he said.  

The funding from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department follows an assessment made by an ECHO team last week, ECHO’s disaster risk reduction coordinator for Southeast Asia, Cecile Pichon, said.

Pichon said the funding would provide emergency relief for the next six months and would target the most vulnerable families. She said the assessment found there would be long-term effects on livelihoods due to the prolonged flooding.

“Recognising the magnitude of the disaster the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department is very actively examining the mobilisation of a substantial amount of funding to support emergency response in favour of the most vulnerable populations,” Pichon said

“Any funding made available will include financial support to the efforts of NGOs and international organisations in Cambodia,” she said.

Meanwhile, relief agencies and the governmental bodies remained unable yesterday to determine how many people remained in need of emergency relief.

A spokesperson for UNICEF said: “We are not in a position to answer the question on the scope of the flooding … What we do know is that despite efforts already undertaken by government and partners to assess the situation, the extent and severity of impacts resulting from the flooding are still not clear”.

National Committee for Disaster Management president Keo Vy estimated that more than 200,000 families are still waiting for aid, but he could not provide a break down of the numbers by province.

Water levels in Kampong Thom province, the hardest hit province, continued to rise yesterday, shutting down sections of Highway 5, traffic department officials said. In other areas of the country water levels either fell or remained stable yesterday, according to the Ministry of Water Resources and Meterology.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation said that no outbreaks of infectious diseases had been detected in flood-hit areas. Daily surveillance was occurring in flood-hit provinces through the Ministry of Health’s Rapid Response Team of more than 1,000 health volunteers, the WHO said.

“We haven’t detected any outbreaks yet, and believe me we are looking for them,” WHO public health expert Nima Asgari said.