• Podcasting 
• Movie of the week
• A Facebook group 

Remember that JPUG is your resource. Use the message board to ask any question
about
JPUG. This is your chance to network with other Jungle Photos users. It's a
great place to get
help with projects, homework, lesson plans and travel information.

Was I lost in the Amazon rainforest? No! Maybe eaten by a lion in Africa? Again
no! How about
shipwrecked in the Galapagos? Wrong again! The fact is that I have been soooo
busy with
other projects, Jungle Photos has taken second stage. Arrrgh! How could that be?
Just one of
those things, I suppose. Jungle Photos doesn't pay the bills, yet. ;) So I have
been busy doing
other things, like working my real job. That's a good thing of course, since it
means I can pay
for Jungle Photos web hosting and so on. But onward. Welcome new JPUG members.
Please
feel free to contribute. Of course, it has to be relevant to the website, but if
you have
questions, suggestions, ideas or anything interesting to say, I'd love to
include it in thiese
pages!

Lots more new stuff has come online since the holidays! Check out the
<http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amconservation/endangeredspecies.shtml>Endan\
gered Species Definitions</a> which offers a guide to the confusing terminology
and categories used to define endangered species.

We added some more natural history info, this time on <a
href="http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amanimals/ammammals/peccarynathist.shtm\
l">the peccary</a>Up next is the tapir.

What else? We've updated the news, something that is an ongoing project and
we're trying to do on a regular basis. But it's a lot of work! (Any volunteers?)

Finally, now the holiday season is over (finally!) we have changed the gift
ideas page, keeping it a regular feature. But as always our focus will be to
carry on providing users the best tropical wilderness photos and information.

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
jphotosusers group:

Jungle Photos provides lots of resources to learn and teach about the Amazon
rainforest, Africa and the Galapagos Islands. Each photo has additional
information and there are interactive activities such as quizzes and puzzles.
What is the main reason that you visit Jungle Photos?

   o Get ideas and material for teaching
   o Look at photos for classwork/homework
   o Learn about tropical wilderness areas
   o Get additional material such as natural history information, maps, satellite
images and artwork.
   o Look at photos for fun
   o Shop for cool books and other stuff
   o Play games and practice the quizzes


To vote, please visit the following web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jphotosusers/surveys?id=1410901

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

The home page redesign is done! The logo is a bit smaller and rectangular, and
now matches what is on the news page (which is what got the logo redesigned!).
To introdcuce users, we have a animated welcome message (very short so as not to
bore people with slow connections) and three mock slide photos that link to each
of the main sub-domains. Check it out! I also tweaked the ads because they are
just too annoying. But I gotta make a go of this folks! Oh well. Another cool
feature is that I set it up so the animation does not replay every time you
visit the home page (from within the site). Instead I have the slides recycle to
present three new images each time the page is visited.

We've added three new photos exclusively for JPUG users! Click on "Photos" in
the menu to
the left and then click on the folder titled "Amazon" in the next page. You'll
see some new
photos that are not available on the website. Check out the sunset! These photos
will
eventually be posted to the website once we have got most of the written content
done (such
as the natural history sections!) and the navigation up to speed. The best is
yet to come!

Yes!

After much slogging, we are proud (relieved) to announce the latest new content!
(Hey, aside from the daily news updates, don't forget those!)

The sloth natural history is now online:
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amanimals/ammammals/slothnathist.shtml

You saw it here first! Let us know what you think. We really, really need to
know how we're doing... Seriously, please let us know how you liked the website
(or didn't) by emailing Jungle Photos or taking the survey.

http://www.junglephotos.com/contact/contact.shtml

http://www.junglephotos.com/survey/survey.shtml

As promised! The upgraded Jungle Photos News delivery system is here. We've
worked really
hard to bring you a great feature that will add to your Jungle Photos
experience. Be sure to let
us know what you think!

Click here to check it out:

http://www.junglephotos.com/cms/

Your patience will soon be rewarded! Jungle Photos new news page will soon be
unveiled. We
think it's really cool. It provides lots of neat features such as syndication
(RSS), polls and links
to newsfeeds and news websites. Watch this space for the official launch
announcement
coming soon!

Welcome new JPUG members! Our community is growing! As a member of JPUG you can
post
messages to this forum. There are loads of fun features. You can ask questions,
raise issues,
make suggestions for Jungle Photos, post your own photos or create a poll. All
messages will
be moderated to ensure they are appropriate for the forum.

Check out the Jungle Journal <http://junglejournal.blogspot.com> for the
latest blog! The Journal is a good way to keep up on website developments as
well as get an
inside look into goings-on at Jungle Photos.

Hi faithful friends! Thank you for being so patient and hanging in there! I am
working on a
new news delivery system. The aim is to greatly increase the efficiency of news
delivery on
topics related to Jungle Photos. So, our new news (!) system will have many more
features
such as RSS feeds, polls and so on. We expect to have a beta version online
within a few
days! Keep watching this space for news about the new news!

Hi everyone,

Sorry progess has been so slow. I was working on another site for a while. It is
a science
education site, SciEdge. http://www.sciedge.com It is for educators to
communicate with
one another, share resources, ideas and talk about important issues. Anyway, I
wrote a
short blog entry to keep people in touch, and I am now back to Jungle Photos
stuff. I'll
soon be done with the agouti natural history section, so be sure to check that
out soon.
Agoutis are smelly, but they sure are interesting. On another note, I am working
to revamp
the way the site works, basically converting it to more interactive format
(using PHP and
MySQL). Watch this space!

Okay, so I have been neglectful! Over a month since I last posted... But things
have been
busy, and I've made some progress on additional JP projects. Check out my
"Jungleman"
blog for details. http://junglejournal.blogspot.com/

Other projects in the pipeline include revamping the Africa news pages to do
just science
and nature. We'll still be doing all news for Amazon and Galapagos but it's just
too much
work to do all the news for three Africa countries and Africa generally. Any
thoughts on
this? Good idea? Bad idea?

Yes, what is going on? Where have I been? Well, work IS continuing
apace—honest! I have
been keeping up with news updates, except for Africa items,which is
very neglectful
considering what has been happening with the G8 and Live8, Bob
Geldof, etc. Well, maybe
I'll catch up with those soon, but the Amazon and Galapagos news is
more or less up-to-
date. And I added a couple of pages, such as the terms of usage,
since a lot of people
write me to ask about using photos. (Yes, they ARE copyright!)
Anyway, the main drag has
been me delving into learning PHP and MySQL (what are those!?). These
are coding
languages for database development, such as used to run blogs and
user groups like this
one! The idea is to develop a database of Galapagos Islands
information. You can read
more about it in the Jungle Journal on my personal blog (and please
feel free to comment,
as I am getting insecure about the possibility that no-one is reading
my blog... sniff!) http:
//junglejournal.blogspot.com/

We've been working hard to bring you the best in tropical
wilderness-related content. Recently added documents include:

Terms of Use: to help people understand how the material on Jungle
Photos can be used
http://www.junglephotos.com/faqs/useterms.shtml

Support Jungle Photos: this makes it easier for visitors to help
support Jungle Photos. Besides two options to donate, the page
explains in detail the effort that goes into the website and how funds
are used.
http://www.junglephotos.com/faqs/support.shtml

Other material is building on the content in the Amazon section:

For kids we've added a jigsaw: these help make learning more fun
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/students/games/jigsaw2.shtml

Also for kids, there is a page packed with Amazon fast facts, the most
comprehensive yet concise summary of Amazon information on the web:
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/students/homework/amazonfacts.shtml

Jaguar, ocelet and small monkey natural history sections: the added
information pages linked to each photo page are the main focus for
content development over the coming months. Check the home page
regularly for announcements of when new pages are completed.
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amanimals/ammam
mals/jaguarnathist.shtml
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amanimals/ammam
mals/ocelotnathist.shtml
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amanimals/ammam
mals/smlmonkeysnathist.shtml

If JPUG people have ideas for other content or features, please
contact Jungle Photos, either through the message board here, or from
the website:
http://www.junglephotos.com/contact/contact.shtml

A report released yesterday by the Brazilian government showed that the Amazon
lost
about 10,000 square miles of rainforest in 2004. We've collected a bunch of
on-line
reports for Jungle Photos users:

http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amlinks/amnews/newslinks05.shtml

Please tell people who might be interested and get involved in saving the
rainforest!

Be sure to check out recent updates on the site <http://www.junglephotos.com>
with
thoughts and comments posted on the blog. <http://junglejournal.blogspot.com/>
Just
added: a quiz and a jigsaw! Post your ideas and comments here in the JPUG forum.

Well, it was a photo finish ('scuse the pun!). The upgrade finally went on-line
today. Jungle
Photos is proud of this quantum leap in the website's appearance and
performance, and
we hope our users like it too. Just go to the home page to see the difference.
http://
www.junglephotos.com/ You can read about the improvements on the page describing
the
upgrade. http://www.junglephotos.com/faqs/upgrade.shtml We expect to continue
seeing
the website improve and grow even more in the coming months. Thank you JPUG for
your
support! We're looking forward to having your company on this exciting
adventure!

Want to see what I do in real life? Here are a couple of pieces I wrote
recently:

A review of "The Lost Amazon" by Wade Davis, a book about the life of
ethnobotanist
Richard Evans Schultes:
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/39231

Analysis of counting systems among Amazon Indians and the implications for how
people
construct thoughts:
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/40801

Hey, things are bit quiet in here as we lead up to the launch of the new
upgraded Jungle
Photos. Progress IS being made (promise!) so we are looking at mid-May for the
official
launch. In the meantime, you can check out my blog, Jungle Journal (click
below), for up to
the minute (well, up to the day) progress reports of how things are going. The
idea is to
make this the official blog for Jungle Photos, but for now, it's mainly to help
keep track of
things!

http://junglejournal.blogspot.com/