This is really cool. After a few mishaps which made me really mad Im starting to enjoy the city. today just visited reina sofia museum and had a tapas tour with a few people last night. all ive been doing here is pretty much eat and drink shitload of food and beer. oh yeah sangria too. plaza mayor is really a nice site to see. the people here however just dont have a sense of space. they dont
Yearly Archives: 2009
Peru Puira Beach 14 hour Bus Ride
Dec 21 Peru Puira Beach Life Well its official we have now been to possible one of the most remote beaches I have ever been to. The girls were itching to see the sun so we embarked on an adventure to make it from Puira on a local bus to Puerta which is kinda a shanty town dodgesad and then in a combino taxi to the beach 20min drive. Not speaking very much spanish we made it. The
Merry Christmas
What am I supposed to do being so far from my family and friends on this wonderful holiday I am in a country that doesn't really acknowledge the day yet alone celebrate it. Well there's only one option...give them an experience of a Western Christmas PArty. DONEInvitations went out last week stating it's Western Christmas Party bring ur local favorite dish to share and to RSVP. It's
Almost time
Well it's almost time to leave weather permitting. A few more days and I'll be off. Christmas comes first though and I can't wait to see everyone. It's strange because I feel that I cannot really get excited about my trip as I still have so much to do for the festive season. Blog out
Manila day 1
Landed in Manila earlier this afternoon. Everything positive I had to say about taxis in Singapore I now take back. Saying they drive poorly here is an understatement. Traffic rules don't seem to apply neither do they have traffic lights or seat belts. Terrifying. The situation in this city is harder to grasp than Singapore the poverty here shows everywhere even just outside the hotel. After c
Peru Lima Looking Around
Dec 22 Peru Lima Looking Around So we took the Bus from Puira in Northern Peru for 14 hours horas to Lima what a trip really fun not. The bus was pretty awesome though we took a buscoma which is bus bed which are much nicer as you can recline etc and they give you some food. Best way to do the big trips though is overnight trips sleeping kills the time. We made it to Lima arou
Tubing Friends and a Beautiful bike ride around Vientiane
So life has been going great internet has been slow and expensive so I have a bit of catch up to do. After another crazy journey back down through the mountians with a driver who seemed to think it was okay to drive in the middle of the road even around blind corners we left the mysterious plain of jars and headed down to the backpacker haven that is Vang Vieng. It has gotten to the point I do
Good story
So I have a funny story that you all will probably appreciate although at the time it was not so funny to me.At work today I was fixing up someones table with cutlery when I hit over a ladies glass of wine with my elbow. Red wine everywhere Evvvvvveeeeerrryyyywhherreee And yes that does suck a lot but.... oh wait..... it spilt all over the lady. Who was wearing WHITE PANTS Of course this is
Almost time to go
Well Its almost time to go. A couple of hours work tomorrow then open road time. Only a few weeks ago I thought I wouldn't have any time to travel for a while I have lots of work going on and I have to study. But hang on laptops can be brought along books aren't that heavy and most places I am going will have power though maybe not enough reception to get online everywhere but that's cool. So
Ohio college student regrets vote for Obama: Calls on fellow youth to turn libertarian Republican
"We have a historic opportunity to participate, to push for a libertarian Republican Party with a live and let live agenda consistent with our generation’s principles..."
by Nate Nelson
The Democratic Party is waging an intergenerational war. Their primary targets? Those of us who are 35 years old and younger. The question is: Are we going to fight or are we going to surrender?
Socialists, by definition, are the enemies of youth. The Marxist imperative — “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” — exhorts socialists to enslave the young, requiring our hard work and then taking what we earn from our work and giving it to older generations.
Who will pay for insolvent entitlements for the elderly like Social Security and Medicare? We will. Those well over the age of 35 initiated the government takeover of health care, but we will benefit the least from it while paying the most for it (h/t The Two Malcontents). Those over the age of 35 are engaging in massive deficit spending primarily for their own benefit, but we will bear the responsibility of paying that debt back. Congressmen and senators who are far older than 35 are planning to implement the largest tax increase in American history in the dubious pursuit of curbing carbon emissions, but citizens under 35 will pay those taxes and suffer through the job loss created by such stifling taxation.
Democrats at the state and local levels won’t balance their budgets by cutting spending. So what do they do instead? They tax your college tuition to pay pensions, insisting that providing income for the retired is more important than your education. You can bet that a similar tax is coming to a college town near you. Meanwhile, in California, college tuition is going up 32% because of the ineptitude of liberal Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic legislature. Here in Ohio, at my own Ohio University, I’m looking forward to a 3.5% tuition increase next year because of fiscal irresponsibility on the part of Gov. Ted Strickland and OU administrators.
People from our generation turned out in record numbers to elect Barack Obama last year and give Democrats huge majorities in both chambers of Congress. Maybe you were one of them. I was, and I’m smart enough to regret it today because I see them using their power to subjugate my future to the insatiable hunger of the state. How many UC students helped elect the legislators responsible for their 32% tuition increase? How many OU students hit the ballot box for Ted Strickland?
If you were duped like I was duped, it’s a forgivable offense. The genius of socialism is that it exploits youthful inexperience and idealism to its own advantage. Socialists make utopian promises of hope and change, of slowing the rise of the oceans and healing the planet, but they never explain to the young people they’re busy mesmerizing that these promises come at a cost. The cost is your freedom and prosperity, yours specifically.
If you were duped, you’re forgiven. But the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. I began this post asking a very simple question: Will we fight or will we surrender? If we turn our heads and ignore the political process next year and in 2012, we surrender. If we get all wrapped up in fads and third parties that aren’t electorally viable, if we declare ourselves Anarchists or Greens or Libertarians, we surrender. If we go back to the ballot box and cast votes for the same Democrats who are waging intergenerational war against us, we surrender.
I, for one, am going to fight. If you want to fight, if you’re not willing to give up your freedom and prosperity in exchange for empty utopian promises, then you should join me. The alternative, the only alternative, is the only existing political opposition — and that is the Republican Party. It’s at a crossroads right now, a time of soul-searching and getting back to basics. Those of us who are under 35 have a historic opportunity to participate, to push for a libertarian Republican Party with a live and let live agenda consistent with our generation’s principles. We can either participate or we can withraw. But remember, withdrawal is surrender and your future, yours, is at stake.
Don’t surrender. Fight. Join the Republican resistance and demand freedom and prosperity for Generations Y and Z. This is your wake-up call.
Editor's Note - Nate Nelson, is a twenty-something OU Poli Sci Student and now active College Republican. He describes his views as "Neo-Libertarian." His favorite politicians: Jim DeMint, Sarah Palin, Aaron Schock and Benjamin Netanyahu. His blog is From the Rust Belt
Mass Dem for Senate Martha Coakley, says Reagan was bad for America
Republican Scott Brown defends Reagan's record
Republican nominee Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley squared off in a live debate on radio station WBZ Boston last night. Both are vying for the Ted Kennedy seat. The special election is Jan. 19.
The two candidates disagreed sharply over a number of issues. But Coakley may have stumbled towards the end, making what many would regard as an insulting comment to a former President.
From Boston.com:
They disagreed, however, over Ronald Reagan’s effectiveness in the second half of the century.
“While everybody thought he was fun to have a beer with . . . I think that he did a great disservice to this country,’’ Coakley said.
“I have to respond to that,’’ Brown said. “He brought great pride to our country at a time when we needed it and helped to bring down the Soviet Union, Iron Curtain. Just to [say] go out and have a beer with him, that’s, I think, inappropriate.’’
Libertarian candidate Joe Kennedy (real name), also participated, but was mainly relegated to the background.
Pro-Defense Libertarian GOPer Rep. Tom McClintock warns of Iran’s Nuclear ambitions
Stands in Strong Support of Israel
Known more so for his staunch fiscal conservatism rather than foreign policy views, California Congressman Tom McClintock (R) rose on the House floor to deliver the following remarks.
House floor remarks via the Auburn Journal on-line, Dec. 16:
Iran’s regime has consistently lied to the world over its nuclear ambitions. Yesterday’s revelation that Iran has been working on nuclear bomb detonators, should convince the most naïve voices in our nation of Iran’s ultimate intention.
I do not believe that petroleum sanctions alone will dissuade the Iranian regime from its obvious intention to acquire nuclear weapons; nor from its stated goal of “wiping Israel off the map,” nor from its unremitting hostility toward our country.
But I do believe it will send a vital message of growing Western resolve at a critical moment in world history. Iran should interpret the House’s action today as an overwhelming expression of American commitment that spans the wide spectrum of political views within our nation.
Ohio’s Ted Strickland blasts Kasich’s plan to Abolish the State Income Tax
Republican for Governor, fmr. Congressman John Kasich, has been campaigning on a platform of abolishing the state income tax. Kasich believes the move would help spur Ohio's weak double-digit unemployment plagued economy. The incumbent Democrat Governor disagrees.
According to Examiner.com, from a recent town hall for Ohio Youth:
The still young-looking Kasich... said lowering overhead and modernizing and shrinking government would entice companies to again do business in the Buckeye State.
He again said the state's income tax is a "strangle" to small business...
From Cleveland.com, Dec. 21:
Asked about his challenger, the governor criticized Kasich's plan to phase out the state's income tax. Kasich has offered little detail on how he would replace that money in the state's general revenue fund.
"If the citizens of Ohio think times are tough now, if you were to eliminate nearly 40 percent of our state's general revenue you would see. . . our state fall backwards quickly," Strickland said. "And that's what he seems to be advocating with the elimination of the state income tax."
Currently 9 States do not have an Income Tax, including Texas, Florida, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Alaska.
Sitting on the Tarmac
The federal government will impose big fines starting this spring on airlines that keep passengers waiting on the tarmac too long without feeding them or letting them off the plane.
Airlines that let a plane sit on the tarmac for more than two hours without giving passengers food or water, or more than three hours without offering them the option of getting off, will face fines of $27,500 a passenger, the secretary of transportation announced on Monday.
Does this rule make sense? At first blush it might sound reasonable, but let's think it through.
Without the rule, some planes that have been sitting for three hours leave soon after the three-hour point, while some sit on the tarmac for an extended, additional period.
The planes in the first category arrive at their destinations even later, becuase it takes time to get passengers off and back on the plance, and because the plane ends up at the back of the line for takeoffs. Worse, some of these flights get cancelled.
So, sometimes the rule benefits passengers, sometimes it makes them worse off.
Does the Department of Transportation have any evidence that the welfare of passengers is higher, on average, under the rule?
No. It has just pandered to customer annoyance and the press coverage of a few extreme incidents. It has responded to what is seen (the long delays that occur without the rule) and ignored what is unseen (the canceled flights and delays that will result from the rule).
Bastiat is spinning in his grave.
Pishing With Pete at the Space Coast Birding Festival
Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com
Birds are not always easy to observe. Lots of them are in the habit of flitting about high in the tree tops, appearing only as a silouhette against the sky. Others squeak and chirp from deep within a thick bramble of underbrush, making only brief appearances to taunt. These behaviors [...]
Kazakh Prez Brags That His Capital Is So Cold That It’s Germ-Free | Discoblog
Come to Kazakhstan—specifically the ice-cold capital of Astana—said Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev in an annual speech yesterday. Here is part of his pitch to diplomats and government officials, via Reuters:
“Well today it’s only -30 C (-22 F). It only strengthens our spirit,” Nazarbayev, in power for 20 years, told diplomats at his lavish marble-and-turquoise presidential palace.
“This city is so sterile. Even germs can’t survive in this weather. So we can enjoy living long lives here. Well, maybe not as long as those of mammoths, but still quite long.”
Great success! Nazarbayev thinks Astana is so extreme that he moved Kazakhstan’s capital there in 1997, which makes Astana the second-coldest capital city in the world. Watch your back, Ulaanbaatar!
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Expedition 22 Crew Launches
Astronauts Test Glenn Exercise Harnesses
For astronauts living in space, like those who reside on the International Space Station, getting a good workout is equally -- and in some ways even more important -- than for earthbound people.
"Crew members exercise for a host of important reasons. There's a psychological benefit to exercise, and crew members work out to combat spaceflight deconditioning -- to help fend off the bone loss that they experience in microgravity and to help maintain muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance. All of these things are adversely affected by long-duration space flight," says
Like your local gym, the
space station has a variety of exercise equipment. The exercise complement includes a resistance device, a cycle ergometer and two treadmills.The two different types of treadmills on the space station are the
Treadmill with Vibration Isolation System (TVIS) and the newly-installed Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT), named after comedian Stephen Colbert. They're different in many ways, but both treadmills share the need for an exercise harness. Astronauts must use a harness to attach themselves to the treadmill while running in space due to the lack of gravity. The harness prevents them from floating off the machine, provides friction against the treadmill belt as they run and exerts an external load, or force, on their body to simulate the resistance of gravity that a terrestrial workout would naturally provide.The current
harness, which has been in use for several years, has some drawbacks. It isn't comfortable and has limited adjustability. Some crew members have reported chafing, as well as pain in their hips and shoulders from using the harness. As a result, the astronauts are not loading their bodies to the optimal amount needed to maintain muscle and bone health. The thinking is, the more load applied to an astronaut while running (ideally the equivalent of their full body weight on Earth) the better the workout; it increases the health benefits and decreases health risks."Bone loss occurs at a more rapid rate in space than it does on
Earth," Perusek says. "In space, astronauts don't get nearly the same amount or quality of repetitive loading as we do here on earth, and bone mineral density loss occurs when the skeleton is unloaded."The need for a new treadmill harness that is more comfortable and effective inspired the development of a new harness by
NASA's Glenn Research Center. This effort, undertaken in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic and funded by the Human Research Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, resulted in the creation of a new harness design called the Glenn Harness. The team also developed custom instrumentation to measure the loads on the harness during exercise. Two Glenn Harnesses are currently being tested by space station crew members on orbit, in a study called the Harness Station Development Test Objective, or Harness SDTO. Additional harnesses will soon be tested on the station by different crewmembers.Four years ago, the team from the
NASA Glenn, ZIN Technologies of Middleburg Heights, Ohio and the Cleveland Clinic began work on their re-imagined harness. They realized that the treadmill harness operates much like a backpack, with shoulder straps and a hip belt distributing load. The team travelled to Colorado to consult with backpack companies, such as Osprey and Kelty. Upon their return, the team designed and created prototypes of the new harnesses (initial prototypes were actually crafted from disassembled backpack components) and began testing."At Glenn, we have an
Enhanced Zero-gravity Locomotion Simulator (eZLS) where we can simulate zero-g treadmill exercise with human subjects," Perusek says. "We tested the prototypes with our treadmill and determined that indeed the harness was more comfortable than the current harness in a side-by-side comparison on the eZLS, and was able to distribute loads more evenly."The team also sought extensive input from former
space station crew members regarding the new harness. The idea to use antimicrobial fabric (containing silver ions) for the harness, for example, came from an astronaut who commented on the amount of sweat the harness must endure without a lot of washing.After all of the research, designing and testing, the team worked with Terrazign, Inc. of Portland Oregon, to create the finished flight harnesses. The flight harnesses were shipped to Johnson Space Center in the spring of 2009, and packaged with additional equipment from Johnson to capture the load data. The first harnesses were blasted into
space in September 2009.The crew members participating in the study will use and evaluate the new and existing harnesses, and will complete questionnaires after each session to provide qualitative comfort data. The team also designed special sensors, called buckle transducers, which will measure the amount of tension in the harness straps and external loading each astronaut uses during their workout.
Once the crewmembers have returned to earth, they will share their experiences with Perusek and her team during the crew debriefing process. If the feedback proves favorable, the hope is to incorporate the new harness as part of the standard crew exercise equipment.
The in-flight study is expected to continue through November 2010 on Expedition 24, and encompass the results from up to seven participating crewmembers.
"Working on a project that has the potential to positively affect crew members so directly is very rewarding. A lot of great effort has gone into this, and we're very hopeful that it will be of benefit for the crew,"
Perusek says. "As long as we have a manned presence in space, humans will be exercising in zero gravity or even partial gravity, like on the moon, and we'll need comfortable harnessing systems."View this site car transport
AcrimSat Celebrates 10 Years of Measuring the Sun’s Energy

For more information on AcrimSat, see: http://acrim.jpl.nasa.gov/.
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The Year in Science, 2009 | The Intersection
It wasn’t for nothing that I asked these questions yesterday (and some of the responses were very helpful). Over at the Science Progress blog, I’ve now done a full piece about what happened in science in 2009, which includes observations like these:
It was a year of complete U-turns in science policy. President Barack Obama reversed George W. Bush’s dramatic restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, and the first 13 new stem cell lines were approved for federally funded research since 2001. Meanwhile, the Obama Environmental Protection Agency moved to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, finding that they do indeed endanger the public.
It was also the year of the first-ever passage, by a 219-212 margin in the U.S. House of Representatives, of a cap-and-trade bill that would cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions—but not the year for any parallel action in the U.S. Senate.
It was the year that everyone seemed to own an iPhone and use the word “app” in regular conversation. It was the year Twitter went from being a mere annoyance to the epitome of web-based communication.
It was a year that saw the very first Nobel laureate scientist assume a cabinet position, in the figure of U.S. Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu.
It was the year of….many, many, many other things, some funny, some outrageous, some profound. Read here for the whole list, and leave comments about anything you think may have been left out!