SNOWBALL MUSIC FESTIVAL
The SnowBall Music Festival is scheduled to take place in Colorado’s legendary Vail Valley March 2-4. Vail Valley is a skiing and snowboarding paradise, but during SnowBall much of the action will be off the slopes as an eclectic line-up of mostly indie acts takes to multiple stages sprawled throughout the area. Headliners include Snoop Dogg, Rusko, Bassnectar, Big Boi, the Kooks, TV on the Radio and Major Lazer. Others set to appear include Deer Tick, Mimosa, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Gardens & Villa, Ghostland Observatory, Pictureplane, Dada Life, Dallas K and Trampled by Turtles. Three-day passes are available for $159.50 at snowballmusicfestival.com.

BECOME A HIPPO CENSUS TAKER
If you avail yourself of this opportunity you will quite possibly have the weirdest ever entry for your resume. Visitors to Uganda’s Mweya Safari Lodge are being invited by the Uganda Wildlife Authority to join them on the lakes and waterways of the Queen Elizabeth National Park for the purpose of counting hippos. Seats are available at a cost of $100 per day, and are available on dates spread out between February 10 and March 3. The price includes breakfast, lunch and bottled water, but not the cost of your stay at Mweya Safari Lodge or transportation to/from Uganda. For information, send an inquiry to reservations@marasa.net.

WALK INTO PREHISTORY
If you’re planning on visiting the United Kingdom or Ireland anytime soon, you might want to invest in a copy of the new book Walk into History: Discovering Over Forty of the Greatest Ancient Sites of Britain and Ireland. As the title indicates, the book is about walking, and author Bill Bevan advises for each site how far you will have to walk, how long it will take you, and the difficulty level of each hike. Some of the walks go well beyond what the average tourist would indulge in, such as the 5 ½-mile route that Bevan suggests at the ever-popular Stonehenge in southern England. The walk is easy, but Bevan suggests you set aside three hours to complete the loop. Each chapter includes a map, color pictures, an overview of what the site is about and tips about staying off of private property. The book is vailable now at franceslincoln.com.

QATAR: SAND, SEA AND SKY
Qatar has quietly eclipsed Dubai as the financial powerhouse of the Middle East, and that translates to the possibility of landing a high-paying job for graduates who are open to working overseas. Now potential residents and others can familiarize themselves with the State of Qatar through the new coffee table book, Qatar: Sand, Sea and Sky, written by Diana Untermeyer, the wife of a former U.S. ambassador to the country. Untermeyer writes about Qatar’s history, and explains how Doha, the country’s capital, transformed from a tiny oasis to an important city with a skyline of high-rise buildings. Untermeyer also explains how Islam and western ways comingle, and vividly describes people and places throughout the nation, something that also comes to life through a stunning color pictorial from photographer Henry Dallal. The book is available now at brightskypress.com.

PROJECTS ABROAD CELEBRATES 20 YEARS
The international volunteer organization Projects Abroad is celebrating 20 years of global service in 2012. Over eight thousand people have volunteered their time on Project Abroad’s service projects in 27 developing countries around the world, where they’ve helped care for disadvantaged children, taught in public schools, interned in hospitals, helped protect fragile ecosystems, built homes, assisted small businesses and much more. Students interested in short-term volunteering opportunities overseas can find details at projects-abroad.org.

SERENGETI: THE ETERNAL BEGINNING
There are lots of reasons to visit Africa, but those who dream of visiting the still wild continent often have one thing at the top of their list: animals. And there is no better place to take a game safari than in Tanzania’s Serengeti, the massive game reserve where wildebeest mingle with gazelles, and where rhinos have to be protected from poachers by AK-47-toting game wardens. Boyd Norton’s new book, Serengeti: The Eternal Beginning, is primarily a photographic essay, but his accompanying words are filled with knowledge accumulated through 26 years of visiting the Serengeti. Five percent of the book’s proceeds go to Serengeti Watch, a non-profit working to protect the Serengeti. The book is available at fulcrumbooks.com.