My SCOLAvangelism today hit the pages of Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools, a website popular with the Wired/Boing Boing crowd. Soon all your colleagues will be discussing the stories from the Kazakhstan nightly news -- can you afford to be left out?

Went diving in Lake Ilopongo today, a huge flooded caldera just east of San Salvador. This is apparently the very worst time of year to dive Ilopongo, with the rainy season (and I'm here to tell you: it's the rainy season) bringing all the runoff into the lake, making visibility very low. But it's also the worst time of the year to dive the reefs, as the currents are treacherous.

We did two dives: one to see... some rocks. And another to Caldera del Diablo, where there are some hot water vents that are the only sign that this volcano isn't quite dead yet. This was kind of interesting, but the effect was mostly that you kept swimming through warm patches that made you think the person ahead of you had just peed. And maybe he had. Also, there were rocks. But I'm generally pretty happy just to get in the water.

The shores of Ilopongo, which like the beach at Cara Sucio, looks a lot nicer when the photo is scaled down so it's hard to see the trash.

Your intrepid correspondent, getting psyched for some rocks.

I've been in El Salvador for a week, filling in for a colleague who's on vacation and reviewing transactions and procedures. Yesterday I made my first venture out of the city, to Sonsonote and Cara Sucia in the west of the country. I accompanied a Salvadoran colleague who was auditing hotel stays to make sure that all the trips which had been claimed really took place.

There are few or no proper hotels in that part of the country, so many staff have been staying in these very depressing "Motor Hotels". These are places that charge by the hour and are really just used for illicit romantic activity. You pull up to a drive-through window to get your key, and then pull your car into a garage directly attached to the room. You can drive in and go to your sleazy trysting room without ever having to get out of the car in public and potentially be identified.

The price list on the wall of one room we looked at said:

Hamburguesas: $1.25
Hot dogs: $.75
Peliculas de XXX: Gratis!*

I'm recommending we find somewhere else for people to stay.

It's pretty interesting, though, that there were three of these places just outside Cara Sucia, a town that apparently doesn't rate a real hotel. I don't think we're in Egypt anymore, Toto.

¡Vamos a jugar por la playa! On the beach near Cara Sucio, on the Guatemalan border.

*(Let's see what that does to the search engine query logs.)

Julie reports that the following exchange took place today:

Isabel (climbing on top of Bobby): "I'm going to give you a hug... I love you. I love you. I love you, Bobby."

Bobby: "An-geh."

Isabel: "He said, 'An-geh.' That means he loves me."

As long-time readers are aware, one of the things I can determine from the server logs is what search engine queries led people to the site. This is always a fascinating and often deeply disturbing exercise; there are some sick people out there.

And some of them employ highly questionable search methodologies. The second most popular query leading visitors here so far this month is “inappropriate”. I have to think these people are searching a long time for what they are looking for. (The most popular query: “Herbie Husker”. Go figure.)

Also from someone unclear on the search concept: "good middle name for ryan".

Variations on “toilet signs” are always a big draw. “Chief J. Strongbow”, I’m proud to say, makes an appearance this month. The award for most inscrutable query goes to “defunct post office silva”.

And in the “good luck, pal” category:

• “guyanese bride”
• “kabul attractions things to do”
• “the doctor will see you when he's good and ready.”
• “xray trucks how far can they see”
• “i swallowed a tooth”
• "bright yellow spit-up"

As has been noted, I recently came back from a visit to Omaha with Julie and the kids. One great thing about Omaha is that its cable system carries a channel called SCOLA.

SCOLA is a non-profit based out of neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa that rebroadcasts television – mostly news – from around the world in the original languages. You want to wake up with the previous night’s newscast from Rangoon? I’ll take it over Diane Sawyer any day of the week. Music videos in Sorani Kurdish? No problem. Headlines in Oromifa? Catch them just before the Colbert Report. It’s awesome.

The idea is that it’s a language learning tool, and it’s great for that. But you don’t need to speak the lingo in order to get something out of SCOLA. Julie and I laughed harder at Serbian commercials and Somali anti-drug messages than we had at anything in a long time. And let’s face it: you’re never going to visit Tajikistan. But maybe you can get just the tiniest whiff of what it’s like from watching SCOLA.

Not convinced? Check out this clip from last week’s Somali broadcast. You'll need Quicktime.



Stay in school, kids.

SCOLA is on some cable systems and on free-to-air satellite (five channels worth!). But the exciting news is that now it’s available online on a subscription basis. The cheapest tier of service is less expensive than satellite radio, and Sirius doesn’t give you the news in Kazakh. I’m dumping Stern in favor of Sorani, and I won't be looking back.

When the FCC sends an enforcement letter out to an alleged malefactor, they publicly post the correspondence. Hams closely follow these enforcement letters so that they can make tutting noises and have something to talk about because, as you may have already surmised, we are really very boring people.

Recently such a letter was posted to a Murfreesboro, TN ham revoking his automatic control privileges. The guy was walking around on July 8 with automatic control privileges and then WHAM! They're gone. The unfortunate automatic control privilegeless ham's callsign? WR3S.

Given that my own callsign is WR2S, this is a little too close for my comfort. The confusion is sure to cause some awkward moments at parties. I'll always wonder if the snickering guests in the corner are saying "What's WR2S doing here? Shouldn't he be present at the control point?" I worry that parents may shield their children from me, saying, "Isn't that the guy whose rebroadcast of commercial programming, improper identification and lack of identification by end users, and own transmissions over his repeater can be reasonably interpreted as threats to complainants, and indicate his inability or unwillingness to control his own repeater stations?" The syntax alone is too painful to contemplate.

I will say this: you better behave, William J. Gallant of Dorchester, MA. I'm vicious when I'm surrounded.

Julie and the kids just got back from five weeks in sunny Omaha, Nebraska, one week of which I joined them for. Here are some of the highlights of their trip:

Isabel draws with sidewalk chalk and Grandma advises on color combinations.

Isabel doesn't trust Uncle Jim to blow out his birthday candles himself.

Panicking her father, Isabel tries out her first bikini top with pals Maya and Rosa.

Bobby hangs with cousins Danny and Big Bobby.

Bobby hangs with Grandma.

Bobby just hangs.

Isabel shows off her new bathing suit, thankfully a tasteful one-piece.

Isabel enjoyed the novelty of life with a back yard, here trying out the watering can.

Isabel rides the train at the zoo with cousins Danny and Big Bobby.

"Riding the bunny" is a rite of passage for Omaha kids. At least, that's what I like to think.

At the zoo. Many mammals carry their young on their backs.

At the supermarket in San Salvador.