Lanin tato krasna hora je v nasem planu od sameho pocatku. Kvuli ni se 4 tydny vlacime s mackami cepiny a vysilackami. Puvodni variantu pujcit si je z pujcovny jsme nakonec odpiskali protoze bychom museli jet 100km do velkeho mesta a ukecat nekterou z komercnich cestovek aby nam je za rozumnou cenu pujcila. Coz by asi byl problem. Tato oblast to je totiz nejvetsi outdoorova komerce kterou js
Salta
Before coming to Argentina we had never heard of Salta or Salta province before. However many people we met while travelling recommended that we check out the chill atmosphere and the cacti. It was on our way North to Peru anyway so we figured wersquod spend a couple of days there. Unfortunately when we arrived it was pouring rain so we did not get the best first impression. We spent our
Enjoying the Outdoors
Off we go. Rita and I depart Santiago tonight for our grand trip south east and north. We are really looking forward to the adventures ahead but there has been so much to do this week to prepare. I will be sad to leave my new friends in Santiago. It is a city I have come to love and enjoy. There are so many areas of the city to discover and explore and my only hope is that I can come back later
Manta Ecuador
Manta EcuadorOur tour in Ecuador took us to Monte Cristi a small town near the port. We learned that Panama hats are not made in Panama but in Monte Cristi and some other towns in Ecuador. It is here that agave is used for hats sacks and other woven items not tequila. The plant is stripped of the outer covering dried and processed into fine threads for weaving. We entered a rather sma
22 Hura do Bolivie trochu uzit deste
Prestoze je v Bolivii leto je to ta nejhorsi mozna doba na jeji navstevu. Je totiz obdobi destu stejne jako v Peru nebo v Brazilii. Proto jsme navstevu Peru odpiskali hned na zacatku. A dobre jsme udelali nebot bychom se zrovna ted nachazeli v oblasti Cuzca ktere je suzovano privalovymi desti povodnemi a sesuvy pudy. Brazilie je na tom podobne. Bolivie zatim zaplavam unika ale v den kdy dosl
24 Tam kde nekteri neznaji pojem hygiena
V Chile a Argentine jsme si obcas pripadali spinave ted vsak sedime v nocnim buse z La Paz do Sucre a smradek ktery tu je me nuti napsat tento text o Bolivijcich a hygiene. Jako v kazde zemi jsou zde lide cistotni a cunata. Lisi se jen jejich pomer. Stredni a vyssi trida tu zije jako v Evrope zbytek ma asi jeste rezervy... Pokud budete mit pocit ze moc kritizujeme tak verte ze uz jsme byli
25 Nejjednoduseji dostupna sestitisicovka sveta
Nedaleko La Paz se take nachazi pry nejlepe dostupna sestitisicovka sveta Huayna Potosi 6088 m.n.m s vrcholovym ledovcem. Dve hodiny jizdy z La Paz a dostanete se do sedla s horskou chatou ve vysce 4700 m.n.m.. Odtud se aklimatizovani borci mohou pokusit o dosazeni hory za jeden den. Ostatni musi stravit v oblasti nekolik dni pro aklimatizaci. Nas se tato hora bohuzel netyka protoze 'invierno B
26 Horska nemoc aneb zaciname s aklimatizaci
Jelikoz hlavnim cilem druhe pulky nasi cesty je vystup na druhou nejvyssi horu Jizni Ameriky a nejvyssi vulkan sveta Ojos del Salado 6893 zaciname s aklimatizaci. Doposud jsme ani jeden z nas problem s nadmorskou vyskou nemeli prestoze jsme nekolikrat byli v Alpach vys nez 4000m. Jenze figl je asi v tom ze jsme v tech 4000 a vic nikdy nespali. A 4 tisice nebo skoro 7 tisic to je sakra ro
27 Arica posledni mesto na severu Chile
Mesto a pristav v pousti kde nikdy neprsi ale velke vedro tam nikdy neni. Celorocni teploty jsou mezi 1826 stupni. Jedno z mala mist v Chile kde se da koupat bez neoprenu. Arica je zrejme mistem dovolene pro chudsi zatimco Iquique 200 km jizne je se svymi hotely luxusnejsim primorskym letoviskem.Na jeden den se jdeme placnout na plaz pujcime si surfove prkno a obema se nam podari nekolik 50t
28 Chuti Chile Argentiny a Bolivie
Ani jedna z techto zemi nema slavnou kuchyni. Kdyz tedy nepocitam argentinsky steak a chilske vino. Zatimco v Chile a Argentine jsme meli vesmes chutna jidla Bolivie bohuzel zklamala. Na severu Chile Argentiny a v Bolivii je na trhu spousta cerstveho ovoce takze kurdejemi rozhodne trpet nebudeme. Zatim si nejvic pochutnavame na zralem mangu.Na ulicich se v Bolivii prodava spousta jidla. Na pohl
29 Coca koka Bolivijsky narodni symbol a mozna i prokleti
Bolivie je hlavnim producentem koky na svete. Z prirodni relativne neskodne drogy asi jako alkohol se pak chemickym procesem ziskava kokain. USA financuji v Bolivii program proti zneuzivani koky pro vyrobu kokainu ale pestitele koky naopak pribyvaji. Zrovna vcera bylo v televizi ze zatkli dva male farmare ale to nejspis jen proto aby ukazali ze se teda snazi. Podeziram dnesniho prezidenta
Lay stress on the quality of the dresses
We feel very difficult for me to choose a fit dress .you know there are many custom made online shop for us to pick up. So even I have try to do this to find the discount wedding dresses for my wedding. Who ever helps me out with this will have much more business from me as my friends have a list of clients that will need me to order them discount wedding dress. The stores always lease contact me
Marlin Stutzman for US Senate – Indiana
Straight Talk from America's Heartland
Marlin Stutzman may now be the likely Republican Challenger to Senator Evan Bayh in the Hoosier State. (Cong. Mike Pence has decided not to seek the seat.)
Marlin Stutzman is a State Senator (Michiana area), and owner of the long-established Stutzman Farms, as well as Stutzman Trucking.
Among Stutzman's top issues: Spending cuts first, support for rights of home schoolers, 2nd Amendment, protecting our borders by cracking down on illegal immigration, and energy independence.
In current anti-Obama environment even "moderates" like Evan Bayh of Indiana are not safe
By Clifford F. Thies
In post 1-19 America, (Scott Brown Massachusetts Miracle), anything seems possible, including - in particular - a Republican winning a Senate race in Indiana. Well ... not according to CQ. CQ continues to say Bayh's Senate seat is safe. And, overall, CQ is pointing to a net GOP pick-up of only two Senate seats.
A just-released Rasmussen Poll in the Indiana Senate race puts Congressman Pence ahead of Senator Bayh by 3 points, and puts former Congressman Hostettler behind Bayh by 3 points. This looks more like a toss-up state than a safe one.
So, how does the GOP get to a net pick-up of nine? Let's start with the two seats even the braniacs at CQ concede Republicans look to pick-up, viz., Delaware and North Dakota. CQ's thinking is that the retirement of Senator Dorgan and the declining of Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (as in, the son of VP Biden) to jump into the race are the reason the Republicans are favored. Wrong! CQ is confusing the effect with the cause. Dorgan and Biden recognized they would be swimming upstream and that's why they removed themselves from these two contests.
Now, let's look at the four Democrat seats that CQ is calling "toss-up." In Arkansas, Colorado and Nevada, Senators Reid, Bennett and Blanched-Lincoln have been repeatedly shown to be behind Republican challengers by up to double-digits. Oh, I forget, the election is months away and anything can happen. Such as ... these races could become competitive. But, unless and until such a thing happens, these seats are ours, baby. As for Illinois, CQ is calling it a toss-up because of the wide-open contest within the Democratic Party. Certainly, a primary adds an element of uncertainty to a race. But, as for right now, you've got to think the Republicans with the strong candidate that they have must be looking to the general election with some anticipation.
We now look at the one Democrat seat that CQ says merely "leans" Democrat. Pennsylvania features a cross-over Democrat, Arlen Specter, who faces a potentially fratricidal primary, and a solid Republican opponent. Toss-up would seem more appropriate.
There are two Democrat seats that CQ tabs as "likely" Democrat. In California, Senator Boxer has been consistently 3 points or more ahead of Carly Fiorina and Tom Campbell. This seems more like "leans" than "likely." In Connecticut, Senator Dodd has been persuaded to quit while he was behind in the polls, and his apparent successor state Attorney General Blumenthal enjoys a Martha Coaxley-type 30-point lead.
We now look at two other Democrat seats that CQ rates as "safe." New York, it was thought, might be competitive if Rudy Giuliani challenged Senator Gillibrand. And, Rudy bested her in a number of hypothetical match-ups. But, Hizzoner said he wasn't going to run for the seat. But, wait, former Governor Pataki is now looking strong in the polls. So, maybe all is not lost. Washington state may be another state thought to be safe seat where the Republicans have a chance.
So, as I see it, in terms of pick-up opportunities, Republicans look good in five states (ND, DE, NV, AR, CO), are even-steven in three (IL, IN and PA), and have a good chance albeit are the underdogs in three (CA, NY and WA). Of course, we need to hold onto each of our seats, including, in particular, MO, OH, and NH (which I rate as toss-up, toss-up and leans Republican).
The thing is, these Senate races are not "independent events." They will tend to break one way or the other. Candidate recruitment, fundraising and other such "inside stuff" will impact certain races. More importantly, continued double-digit unemployment rates and the start of what might turn into a hyperinflation will continue to shift the numbers strongly toward the Republicans.
WISE Spots its First Asteroid
WISE spots its first asteroid, shown here as a red dot. Click for a slightly larger image. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Ok, the picture might not look like much at first glance however it does represent something quite extraordinary: the WISE spacecraft has spotted its first asteroid and it is named 2010 AB78. The red dot in the center of the image is the asteroid.
No, the asteroid is not going to hit the Earth or anything, to me it’s a proof of concept of a sort, WISE made numerous observations over a day and the software picked out the moving asteroid and the University of Hawaii followed up on the sighting with its 2.2 meter telescope atop Mauna Kea.
I should mention the asteroid is about a kilometer (a bit over a half mile) in diameter and it was spotted at a distance of 98 million miles or 150 million km! This is the first of many such findings from this remarkable spacecraft.
Oh and if you are wondering, 2010 AB78 won’t come close to Earth at least for a few centuries.
Below is the caption from NASA and the WISE mission page:
The red dot at the center of this image is the first near-Earth asteroid discovered by NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE — an all-sky mapping infrared mission designed to see all sorts of cosmic objects.
Near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets with orbits that come close to Earth’s path around the sun. This particular asteroid, called 2010 AB78, is roughly one kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter, and is currently about 158 million kilometers (98 million miles) away from Earth. Its elliptical-shaped orbit takes it out beyond Mars and back in about as close to the sun as Earth. Because the asteroid’s orbit is tilted relative to the plane of our solar system, astronomers do not think it poses a hazard to our planet. As with all near-Earth objects, 2010 AB78 will continue to be monitored.
The image shows three infrared wavelengths, with red representing the longest wavelength of 12 microns, and green and blue showing 4.6- and 3.4-micron light, respectively. The asteroid appears redder than the rest of the background stars because it is cooler and emits most of its light at longer infrared wavelengths. In visible light, this space rock is very faint and difficult to see.
WISE, which began its all-sky survey on Jan. 14, 2010, is expected to find about one hundred thousand previously undiscovered asteroids in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and hundreds of new near-Earth asteroids. It will also spot millions of new stars and galaxies.
Going In Circles Again: America Will Abandon Human Lunar Exploration – And Much More
Report: Obama Budget to Scrub Moon Mission, CBS News
"Instead of blasting off to the moon, NASA's hopes for a manned mission there have been blasted to pieces, sources in the White House, Congress and NASA tell the Orlando Sentinel."
White House won't fund NASA moon program, Orlando Sentinel via LA Times
"When the White House releases its budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was to return humans to the moon by 2020. The Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to return to the moon. There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases. "We certainly don't need to go back to the moon," one administration official said."
NASA to Review Human Spaceflight, NY Times
"Michael D. Griffin, the former NASA administrator who oversaw the creation of Constellation and remains a staunch defender, said that would be a mistake. "I can't imagine the situation where the United States doesn't want to have end-to-end capability to reach the lunar surface," Dr. Griffin said."
Flat budget, limited goals may be in NASA's future, Houston Chronicle
"Far from getting the $3 billion more each year that experts suggest NASA needs for meaningful human spaceflight, President Barack Obama is expected to offer little new money to the space agency when his budget is released Monday. Although there's no official word from the White House or NASA, space policy analysts and legislators say it's likely the space agency's budget will remain "flat" for the coming year, potentially leaving humans stuck in near-Earth orbit for the foreseeable future."
Keith's note: NASA has just spent more than half a decade telling Americans that we are all going back to the Moon - and why. In the process, billions of dollars have been spent. Children have grown up being told this again and again - just like my generation heard in the 1960s. Now this is being taken away from them. I can only imagine how my generation would have reacted. It is one thing to alter a plan, change rockets, etc. But it is quite another to abandon the plan altogether.
The ISS has great potential - much of it yet to be realized. But much of that untapped potential was preparing humans to go out into the solar system. Now those destinations have evaporated and have been replaced with the elusive and ill-defined "Flexible Path".
How is NASA going to explain this about face? Answer - they won't - because they can't. They are incapable of admitting mistakes or even stating the obvious. What I really want to see is how NASA attempts to explain this bait and switch to all of the students it has sought to inspire since the VSE was announced. A "Summer of Innovation" centered around a stale and contracting space program seems somewhat contradictory to me.
How will NASA - and the White House - explain the use of vast sums of taxpayer money to bail out the decisions of incompetent financial institutions on Wall Street and yet not be able to find a paltry fraction of that amount to bail out the future of space exploration that future Americans will benefit from - and participate in.
I just spent a few days wandering around Yosemite looking up at vast expanses of rock such as El Capitan - things that humans have surmounted - and yet still inspire later generations to attempt. Now I have to fly home and witness the slow motion dismemberment of NASA's human exploration program. You will pardon me if I fell like I have been whip lashed.
There are two options open to those who wish to explore the solar system - personally. One is to ignore NASA altogether and promote commercial space. The other is to totally overhaul NASA once and for all. Despite its collection of incredibly skilled and motivated people, NASA is also a bumbling behemoth that cannot get out of its own way. Personally, I think the best approach is to pursue both.
But something needs to change. Clearly the status quo has utterly failed and yet another generation is at risk of missing out on the chance to personally explore space.
It is my understanding that Charlie Bolden worked very, very hard on getting more for NASA. So the blame for these cutbacks should not be laid on his shoulders. He does have a chance, however, to use this opportunity to truly reconfigure the agency in response to this slap from the White House. The last time NASA was in this situation in the mid-1990s, its Administrator simply did not understand that his people were his greatest asset. Charlie Bolden does not have that character flaw.
NASA is simply going to have to do more with less. NASA has little choice at this point than to look for the silver lining in all of this. In so doing, Bolden's people - all of them - contractor, civil servants, and others - need to step up to the task of finding this silver lining - or get out of the way and find something else to do so that others can fix things.
Keith's update: This reader note says it all: "Tomorrow the President and Vice President will be together in Florida to announce they are awarding $2.5 billion (of the $8 billion federal dollars slated for similar projects) to build a high-speed rail system from the Tampa airport to Disney World. It will help people visit entertainment venues at Disney World (Space Mountain), Epcot (Spaceship Earth), Universal Studios (A Day at The Park with Barney)."
To be certain a job is a job - but I wonder how well these new jobs will offset the old jobs being lost in the KSC area. Will workers be able to move from one to another? I doubt it. Also, the fact that the Obama Administration seems to be more interested in moving tourists to see fantasy depictions of space exploration as opposed to doing the real thing speaks volumes. What sort of message is this sending?
Gates Funds Geoengineering So We Can Burn More Coal
What will keep the lights on?
Look into the future — it’s a very sparse and dirty place. It might also be very dark. The few remaining humans will all live at the tops of major mountains, trying to grow things in the rock. Some made it to the Arctic, but it’s hard to live in such extreme latitudes where the sun doesn’t even shine for months out of the year. The remaining humans can’t figure out exactly what happened. So many animals and plants have gone extinct, there is little to eat and no medicine, no electricity and no power. There has been a great culling of humans and animals on planet Earth and along with them went the ability to communicate over distances. There are no governments, and no countries remain. Borders are meaningless. After the final resource wars, countries descended into chaos and humans scattered over the horizon . . . .
This is our potential future unless we get a handle on global warming very soon. That’s not likely without strong national leadership. So, I’m hoping that President Obama will talk about climate change and new energy and green jobs in tonight’s State of the Union speech. We had such high hopes that he would act decisively on global warming, and it’s been a year already!
Alternative energy like wind and solar are making big development strides, but are not being implemented fast enough. The U.S. needs a huge infusion of stimulus money and work into building new transmission lines. The news on wind overall is good though:
Issuing its end-of-year report, the American Wind Energy Association said the industry installed nearly 10,000 megawatts of new capacity during the year, growing at an annual rate of 39%. The U.S. now has a total of 35,000 megawatts of wind energy installed, enough to light and power 9.7 million homes and the equivalent of removing 62 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year and taking 10.5 million cars off the road.
Though the industry avoided a predicted 50% decline in domestic wind turbine manufacturing because of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus and the Obama administration’s commitment to clean energy job creation, AWEA CEO Denise Bode said a stronger federal policy on renewable energy is needed to keep manufacturing robust.
From Climate Progress.
Where does Bill Gates come in?
Science magazine dropped this bombshell today, “Bill Gates Funding Geoengineering Research,” which perhaps illuminates everything Gates has said and done:
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has been supporting a wide array of research on geoengineering since 2007, ScienceInsider has learned. The world’s richest man has provided at least $4.5 million of his own money over 3 years for the study of methods that could alter the stratosphere to reflect solar energy, techniques to filter carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, and brighten ocean clouds. But Gates’s money has not funded any field [...]
Fring iPhone App Allows Skype Calls over 3G [VoIP]
Yesterday a change to the iPhone SDK allowed for VoIP over 3G and we heard about the first app which'll offer the functionality. Today another iPhone app, Fring, has begun allowing video and voice calls using Skype over 3G.
You don't need to update your version of the Fring app as it was simply a matter of Apple lifting some restrictions on its end. You can now freely make Skype calls without being connected through Wi-Fi—assuming you've got decent reception.
Still no word on when we'll get an official app from Skype though. [Fring via Pocket Lint via Engadget]
More Pig Hypocrisy
The pigs were in the 7-11 nearby, feasting from the trough.
Weenie and Sister
