OK all you people who apparently have nothing better to do than barrage me with a torrent of email asking why I have not blogged for over a month now. As I have explained many, many times in the past, I usually spent the month of August in strict occultation. Since the month is drawing to a close I have decided to start posting again. So, to catch up a bit . . .

For photos of my July trip to the Baltic Region see Lithuania.

For photos of New Delhi, India, which I visited last Spring, see the Tomb of Humayun and the Qutb Minar and Quwwat-al-Islam Mosque.


One view of Humayun’s Tomb

Also see Onon Hot Springs, a great hot springs complex on the upper Onon River in north-central Mongolia which was often visited by Zanabazar, First Bogd Gegen of Mongolia, and which I have visited twice now. The hot spring are accessible, at least in summer, only by a three-day horse ride.

The main reason I have come out of occultation, however, is to inform everyone that on the 30th of August there will be a Blue Moon, which, as the saying goes, occurs only once in a blue moon, although actually there are an average of 41 a century. Still, don’t miss it!

Doomsday Alert #392: You know the end is near when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been sighted playing Polo in Texas.