(NASA image) Location of the recently discovered underground complex in the Grand Canyon

The National Reporter
A group of hikers who had been exploring a virtually untouched area of the Grand Canyon happened upon an opening in the side of the canyon wall last July.
Peter Marlington and his friends had discovered the entrance to an underground complex that has been estimated to be over four hundred years old and built-in the late 1500’s.
“It was hot as hell out and we were hiking up the side of the cliff to get into a wooded area for the shade.” Peter Marlington explained. “When we reached the shrub line we felt a cool breeze coming from the high weeds that were growing on the side of the cliff.  It seemed very odd that a cool breeze would be coming from nowhere like that,  so we poked around to see why.
When we pushed our way past the shrubbery we came to the entrance of a large brick lined tunnel. We could tell right away that it was very old, but we had no idea that it would turn out to be as old as they say it is.”

The entrance to the complex has been cleared of the shrubbery that kept it hidden for 400 years.

“We were a little hesitant at first to go inside because we didn’t know what it was.  We thought it might be a flood tunnel and we could be drowned if a sudden storm came up.   And it was really kind of creepy too.   I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’ll tell you when you are staring into an old dark musty smelling tunnel like that, it will give anyone the creeps.  After a few minutes of debating whether or not we should go inside,  the spirit of exploration over ruled our fears, out came our flashlights and into the tunnel we went.
It went for quite a distance all on very level ground.
We knew that if it was a flood tunnel that it would be slopped upward, we were relieved when we realised that we weren’t going to be flushed out in a sudden deluge.  After a few hundred feet the tunnel stopped, it was boarded up.”
The National Reporter - Did you turn back?
“Oh, hell no.   We broke through.  We had to.  If we quit just because of some old rotten wood blocking our way and turned around,  we would have spent the rest of our lives going crazy wondering what was on the other side of that door.”
The National Reporter - I can understand that.  As a staff member of   The National Reporter  I would have continued on as well to satisfy my curiosity and to bring yet another award-winning news story to my readers.  So, What was on the other side of the wooden barricade?
“Another tunnel.  It was a lot smaller than the one we were in, it was more like a doorway in the wall.   It was pitch black inside and it smelled kind of funny, like something that has been dead for a real long time, you know, like dried up and dusty smelling.   We made our way inside and soon came to another tunnel that went off to the right and another one about twenty feet ahead that went to the left.
We didn’t go down either of them, we just kept going straight.”

The first tunnel was covered with a wooden barricade. Inside were more tunnels that went off to the right and the left.

 ”We continued down the pitch black tunnel until we came to a huge chamber.  Our flashlights were barely bright enough to light the entire area up because of its emense size.   Down below the brick floor looked like it had collapsed and tThere appeared to be some sort of tunnel system that had been exposed.  We had no idea what the tunnels were for, but they were definitely big enough for large groups of people to move through.”
The National Reporter Did you go down to see what was inside of them?
“We did after a while.   The other guys were getting kind of scared, I have to admit it was getting kind of creepy.   Graveyard creepy,..you know what I mean?”
The National Reporter - I know exactly what you mean.
“I went down by myself, the other guys were to scared.   It took a few minutes to get down to the collapsed floor where the tunnels were.  It was pretty dangerous because the morter was all crumbled and powdery and the bricks were loose.    I figured that was why the floor had collpased.   I entered the tunnel on the far left and walked for about fifty feet,  then it stopped at a bricked up wall.  There was a loose brick in it, so I pushed on it and jiggled it around until it fell into the room on the other side.”

The floor of the emense chamber appeared to be collapsed revealing several passageways underneath.

The National Reporter – What was inside of the room?
“I don’t know, I couldn’t see.  “The hole wasn’t big enough to stick the flashlight in and look in at the same time, so I just put the camera into the hole and snapped a few pictures.  I had the weirdest feeling while I was doing it, like there was something on the other side of the wall watching me the whole time. I’ll tell you this much, it spooked the hell out of me and I ran out of there with the hair standing up on my neck.”
The National Reporter - What did you do then?
“We left.” He said. “When I told my buddy’s that it felt like something was watching me from the other side of that wall, that was it.  We ran out of that place so fast nothing could have stopped us.”
The National Reporter – What did you do when you exited the complex, Did you report finding it right away?
“Yeah, pretty much.   We went to the park rangers office and told them what we found.  Naturally they didnt know what we were talking about.  They checked their map and there was no tunnels or underground facility’s in that area.  They thought we were making the whole thing up.”
The National Reporter – What did you do then?
“We took them out to the tunnel so they could see it for themselves.  They didn’t want to go at first because they still thought we were on something.  I guess I would have thought the same thing if I was in their position.  The whole thing sounds so made up.”
The National Reporter – I can understand that, most people would think that you made this story up.  It’s a good thing you have photographs to prove it’s all true.  Your photographs coupled with the integrity and reputation of  The National Reporter  as being one of the most reliable new sources in the nation is guaranteed to make believers out of any sceptics.
“I know, that’s why I contacted The National Reporter and not one of those silly tabloids who make up ridiculous storys.”
The National Reporter - What did you think when you found out that the underground complex that you and your friends discovered was 400 years old?
“It blew our minds.   I mean,..who the hell built it?   The Indians sure as hell didn’t have the know how to build something like that and there were no European settlers that far west at the time and even if there was, they sure as hell didn’t have the equipment to dig out an underground complex of that size and manufacture the millions of bricks it took to build it.”
The National Reporter - The complex was to be opened to the general public after your discovery, but those plans were quickly cancelled when a government agency closed it down suddenly for some unknown reason. Do you have any idea’s on why they did that?
“I have my suspicions.   Remember when I told you about how I stuck my camera into the hole in the wall and snapped a few photo’s and it felt as though something was watching me?”
The National Reporter - Yes, was there something in the photographs?
“Take a look for yourself.” He said, handing it to me. “If this is 400 years old, then something really weird was going on back then that people don’t know about and they sure as hell aren’t going to find out what is was from reading their history books, I’ll tell you that.”

I took the photograph from him and to tell you the truth, I was speechless by what I saw.
I could understand what Peter Marlington meant when he said something wierd was going on back then.
I won’t say anymore, I will just present you readers with the image Mr. Marlington captured on film and leave you to ponder on it.

Is this 400 year old technology?

© The National Reporter, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to The National Reporter with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.

- Annie Besant

I didn’t know what to expect on my recent cruise to the Caribbean. Those who know me, and my travel style, know that lounging on a humongous ship with thousands of cruisers for a week isn’t my preferred mode of travel. I love traveling solo or incognito on weekend trips. I love exploring a city on foot, taking photographs, visiting urban gardens, getting lost in large bookstores, and drinking in a dim, lounge-y bar as tech-house, atmospheric drum and bass, or downtempo filters through the speakers. I enjoy booking budget-chic hotel rooms, or staying in a quirky hostel’s sole private room. I like traveling with a companion as well—a person who understands my need for silence and space—yet I also long for much-deserved trips with a group of old, close friends. I am relatively low-maintenance, and for the most part self-sufficient and resourceful. That’s Cheri, the nomad, in a nutshell.

Cruise passengers are a distinct breed of traveler: the majority go on a cruise seeking luxury, convenience, and activities and entertainment at their fingertips. On a cruise, access to a place itself is limited: you explore a port for just several hours, getting a quick taste of the local culture (and sometimes you don’t get that, especially if you’ve booked a cruise-organized tour in which you don’t experience local transportation, interaction with residents, or spots off the tourist path).

As I told friends and family before I flew to Florida, I was going to travel with an open mind. While I was invited on the cruise by Princess Cruises, and was to experience a completely hosted trip, I planned to tweet and write about my experiences as I saw appropriate: I am generally a hard person to please, and as a traveler, I’m even harder to please. I planned to make honest observations about the islands we visited and the activities we did—to be wry and make note of juxtaposition as I saw fit.

As always, juxtaposition fuels my travels. It’s what I look for anywhere I go, be it visual, cultural, or personal. Oftentimes, I felt displaced on the behemoth Crown Princess, which felt impersonal, and I even felt silly in my sleek, black cocktail dress during one of our formal dinner nights. At times, elegance, and the flow of the trip itself, felt forced. (Being on someone else’s itinerary is difficult for some!) Strangely, this displacement made the trip all the more exciting; when I place myself in unfamiliar situations, particularly while traveling, I end up meeting intriguing people and gathering stories I can later write (and laugh) about.

If juxtaposition is the theme of my travels, then the biggest paradox of the cruise was the ship itself. I’ve always been fascinated by cruise ships. They sail across the sea as if invincible, in seemingly lawless waters, as you often cannot see land in any direction. The passengers on these ships wine and dine as if nothing else matters—life on land ceases to exist. Yet once the ship reaches a port, and thousands of cruisers disembark and disperse into a modest-sized island town for the day, the entire concept of cruising feels (and looks) odd. The presence of this massive ship, juxtaposed against the coast of a small island, is a fascinating sight. Every time I gazed at our ship while I was on shore, whether I was on Princess Cays, Roatan, Grand Cayman, or Cozumel, I had an interesting thought: that ship, over there in the distance, was my temporary home. And—whether I liked it or not—it successfully fed me, sheltered me, and kept me safe. Honestly, I disliked admitting that to myself. That’s what happens when you travel in a way that’s different from how you normally travel. Ultimately, it was a welcomed change of pace.)

One day, I was able to see the inner workings of our ship. On November 9, the first day our cruise ship was at sea, I went on Princess Cruises’ Ultimate Ship Tour aboard the Crown Princess, a vessel that holds up to about 3,600 passengers. The Ultimate Ship Tour is an exclusive tour of about 3 to 4 hours—our tour started at 1 p.m. and the sun had set by the time we were finished. You learn about various sections and departments of the ship from the very people who keep the ship moving and functioning, from the cruise director, the environmental officer, the executive chef, other chief officers, and the captain himself.

(In fact, we were lucky enough to meet the captain of captains—the commodore of the Princess Cruises fleet, Giuseppe Romano—who was navigating the Crown Princess that week. He explained the features of the navigation bridge at the end of the tour, and it was neat to see our ship on its route around Cuba on the screen.)

During the tour, we went backstage at the Princess Theatre, where shows are performed, and then headed deep down into the ship where we explored storage areas of alcohol, dry food (spices, flour, rice, beans, etc.), and a cold dairy room (think 1,600 kilos of cheese for a seven-day cruise). We also paid a visit to the print shop, checking out huge printers that churn out six to eight thousand sheets of paper per hour. I must admit, the amount of paper waste of one passenger on the cruise was alarming; each day, I received brochures, announcements, invitations, and other pieces of paper in my stateroom mailbox, and it always felt wrong to throw these piles of paper in the trash can, as there was no recycling bin in our suite. (We learned on the tour, however, that paper is separated from garbage in the ship’s recycling center. Peter Smith, the environmental officer, said they offload and recycle paper at each port when possible—otherwise, paper left on board is burned via incinerator because keeping it is a fire hazard.)

From the printer room, we stopped next door at the photo processing center. Thousands and thousands of photos are printed each day on a cruise. The photo representative, Keiran, said there is no processing of film, hence no use of developing chemicals. Between five to six thousand digital images are printed on any given formal night, for instance, and roughly 30 percent of those prints are bought. The rest, then, are recycled.

Many of us on the tour questioned this process: Can’t the cruise line invest in monitors in staterooms to display photos from the previous night? What about emailing digital photos to passengers or burning images onto CDs? These are possibilities, but we had to keep in mind the cruise demographic may not be willing (or technologically savvy enough) to participate in such processes.

On that note, while the cruise industry is continually under scrutiny for its environmental impact—fellow press cruise guest Nancy Brown posted a quick summary of the issue before our trip—it was interesting to see the ship’s recycling process with our own eyes. As crewmembers looked through trash in the recycling center, we saw items that passengers tossed into the garbage: cups from the buffet restaurant that were perfectly reusable, for example. The environmental officer stressed it was crucial for cruise passengers to do their part in treating the ship—and the sea—with care.

(A noteworthy detail about the recycling process is the cruise line creates biofuel from cooking oil. This oil goes to the island of Eleuthera, home of their private resort, Princess Cays, for driving, generators, and other mechanized equipment.)

In the end, I knew more about the ship than I thought I could know. Parts and processes of the vessel were demystified, and it made me look at the Crown Princess in a different way. Granted, the ship was still enormous in my eyes, but learning about what went on, deep inside of it, made it feel less impersonal.

Welcome back from the Thanksgiving break. We now have three solid weeks before the next break, stay well we have a lot to do. Today we began a review of the earliest days and earliest occupants of the Pacific Northwest with a look at “Tribal Perspectives”. We will continue with this and then look closely at the Fur Trade era from both the Native American point of view and the United States point of view.

Good morning, dear readers, but this post is not for you.

Blogging has been an amazing journey for me. It will continue to be. After a few flings with everything social as social can be, I returned to blogging. In my heart, i.e., as you may have noticed, not so much in fact – given the frequency of my posts.

As you read this post – I am elsewhere. Far from the madding crowd, as one would say. Really far. Where I am, what I am doing, how I am however, is something that I cannot tell you. The keyword is cannot, not won’t.

In these few years of blogging, I have met you (if you are still reading this post after the opening statement) a million times because I have thought of you in every post. Yes, there is that paradigm that every writer is supposed to follow — about writing for one’s own self.

But, indulge me.

What is a writer without a reader?

I have chosen conversation over everything else: with you. And in that selfish conversation I have discovered myself. Over and over again. Because of you.

But this post – this one post – is not for you. This one post is for me. Today, the world that we live in is a fascinating one. It allows a person to be in two places at the same time. Even as you read this post (which, as you would recall, is for me) I am somewhere else — living in a different world.

I write this post, for myself.

Because it fulfils my long dream of being at two places at the same time. Whenever I had imagined it, I always considered it impossible because I imagined physical representation of my self in two places — aware of my existence in both the locations.

Today, I am aware and oblivious, at the same time, that I can be aware and oblivious at the same place. It seems I have struggled for very wrong things in my life.

I am a sucker for miracles — not because I believe in magic, but because I believe in people. Only people cause magic and miracles. Oftentimes, I have seen no miracles. I could easily say that people have let me down. But, I resist. It is not that people have ceased to cause miracles; it is that I have ceased to see right.

I am, finally, the Wandering Monk. What a moment of glee!

It will be a while, till my meandering brings me back to where I was.

Monday morning is the time to review your mining investments.  The question I will consider this week is: Should I invest in Rio Tinto because they are members of the United States Climate Action Partnership?  Here are some of my background thoughts on this investment decision.  

First I am intrigued by the thought that I might almost have titled this post “Mining and investing for golfers in the porn of cat-scat global warming.”   I resisted the temptation—but only just. 

    The reasons for the alternative title that I resisted are that I am told that the most popular key words for Google searches include—you guessed it, cats, golf, investing, and porn–in that order.   If I could but tap into that rich vein of human curiosity, think how I could impress the folk who host this blog with rising access statistics. 

   Instead I stick with the simple, almost bland title: mining investment in global warming.  I was reminded that I had written a provocative piece on the topic when I ran across this link.  It is an obscure blog entitled PublicLandWars.  The authors of the blog give no hint of who they are.  But you can guess their instinct by two postings.  The first on Peruvians against destructive mining includes this gory paragraph, that almost reaches the level of snuff-stuff:

An estimated 20 armed persons with their rifles and Molotov cocktails bombard this encampment where 14 employees peacefully sleep. With the precise aim of their rifles, the assailants easily bring down two young guards, Joel Martin Severino Zapata and Luis Guillermo Gomez Vilchez, as well as the administrator of the encampment, Eduardo Ramirez Montero. They die terrible deaths and one of them is carbonized by the fires set by these anonymous attackers.  Able to escape the flames that consumed 80 percent of the mining encampment, the other employees flee and hide out in the steepest and wildest mountains until they can finally escape and advise authorities.

The second posting that gives insight attacks something I wrote in an EduMine Course called An Introduction to Mining Investment – Understanding the Risks.   The course includes nearly fifty simple rules I call Investment Rules.  The one that gets all the attention in the anti-mining blog, tells you not to worry about global warming when making a decision to invest in mining.  I conclude in the rule that the consequences are not so dire that reasonable engineering cannot deal with them.  Watch out; the course requires registration to access it; I am not sure whether to be flattered or annoyed that somebody believes it is worth pinching something by me in an access-only-by-pay site.  Sorry, I forgot, you can read the entire investment rule at the blog that is too lazy or too un-inventive or intelligent enough to write their own original prose.  Who would bother to go back to a site that merely pinches pieces from blocked sites?  It is almost as bad as seeking to gain by using spurious key words to garner readers.

To return to the issue of text plagarism.  In reality it makes no difference.  Once you have written something, it is like kids: they go off into the world and do their own thing—and blame you for it. 

    I wrote that piece on the irrelevance of global warming to mining investors some time ago, so I decided to take a fresh look at the topic.  I found that Rio Tinto is a member of the United States Climate Action Partnership.  Does that make Rio Tinto a good mining investment for those concerned about climate change?   Looking at the list of other members of the Climate Action Partnership, I notice Ford, Chrysler, and GM.   Now they are not good investments if you are neurotic about global warming.  You decide what is good for your purse and the climate on that one.   But first take a look at this site that tells of the guy who probably advised Rio Tinto to go green.  Might make you think twice.  

   Before you finally decide on your mining investment strategy as potentially affected by global warming, take a look at Ben Muse who quotes this from a for-pay-only site:

Soaring commodity prices and the effects of global warming are pushing mining companies to seek out new ore deposits in one of the world’s most hostile environments: Greenland.

Greenland, a giant island in the north Atlantic governed by Denmark, is seeing a revival of mineral exploration as the glaciers that cover 80% of its territory recede. As the ice melts, mining companies can now explore in areas that were previously inaccessible, and also work in the area for longer each year than was previously possible, executives say.

…smaller mining companies are also being drawn to previously operating mines, where higher global prices and the retreat of the ice cap has opened up new opportunities….

“Global warming has extended the working and exploring development season by a few weeks, as higher temperatures mean the frozen ice is leaving a couple of weeks earlier,” he says. “With the rapid melting of the snow early in June, surface exploration is proceeding a month earlier than would have been possible one or two decades ago.”

According to a recent study by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the area of permanent ice cover in the Arctic — sea ice that survives the summer and remains year round — is contracting at a rate of roughly 9% per decade.

Melting Arctic ice could also open a more direct passage for shipping from Greenland to metal-hungry Asian countries such as China, says Mr. Zemek, Angus & Ross’s CEO, allowing “shorter routes for longer periods.”

To end by quoting PublicLandWars:  “So there we have it. Not too worry about global warming as it won’t effect their short-term profits. Wow.”

Shuttle Mission STS-129 came to a completion with Space Shuttle Atlantis landing in Florida on Friday. Atlantis launched on November, 16 and flew nearly 4,500,000 miles.

As the remaining missions for the shuttle fleet wind down, NASA used STS-129 to deliver a slew of replacement parts, and backup devices to the International Space Station, and completed 3 spacewalks.

Space shuttle Atlantis lands on runway 33 at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility concluding the STS-129 mission.
Photo credit: NASA Jack Pfaller

The landing also saw the return of astronaut Nicole Stott. After 91 days in space after serving as Expedition 20/21 flight engineer, her return marks the last time an I.S.S. crew member will be transferred to or from the space station.

The STS-129 crew in front of Atlantis, dressed in their launch-and-entry suits prior to launch. From left are Mission Specialists Leland Melvin and Randy Bresnik; Pilot Barry E. Wilmore; Commander Charles O. Hobaugh; and Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Robert L. Satcher Jr.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

This is the final shuttle flight of 2009 with the next launch to be STS-130 as Space Shuttle Endeavour heads to I.S.S. in February.

Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts ended an 11-day journey of nearly 4.5 million miles with a 9:44 a.m. EST landing Friday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

I love tattoos. I got my first tattoo long before they became fashionable. back when it was rare for women to have them and they were still the marking of a bad ass punk. I wore it proudly.

A lover from long ago had multiple tattoos and I always loved running my fingertips over them, tracing their lines, asking their stories, seeing how their colors changed when wet.

Tonight I saw something that BLEW MY MIND. (hat tip @keyholesessions)

Electronic tattoos, right out of the future, under development by megacorp Philips at the University of Pennsylvania. These are silicon and silk implantable devices that sit under the skin and are already being tested on mice. Eventually the silk dissolves away into the body leaving only the electronics in place. Picture a tattoo that is made of LEDs the size of a grain of rice.

In one concept being explored, the electronics will take their energy from touch and the patterns navigated by desire. When you draw your hands over a body, the tattooed image appears on the skin trailing after your touch. The pattern moves and shifts and intensifies as skin responds to touch.

To see a video demonstrating the concept, check out this post. (Try to ignore the rather disturbing imposed sound effect of crackling and sizzling as the tattoo surfaces.)

Imagine how it would encourage erotic touch. You would see a play of design surfacing after your fingertips, revealing itself an inch at a time, like a secret message being decoded, revealing the mystery of your partner’s skin.

What patterns would you display? Would they be placed to lead your lover’s touch to your most sensitive areas, like a treasure map? Would they tell a story of love, lust or betrayal?

On one hand I find the concept quite frightening, in a dystopian Blade Runner kind of way. On the other, I would love to run my hands over my lover’s body to have it reveal its code to me as our lust increased. That would be incredibly sexy.

What do you think?

Off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the island of Cozumel was our final port stop on our Princess cruise to the Caribbean. While I had vacationed in Cancun and visited Playa del Carmen and Tulum in the fall of 2005, I didn’t have time to explore Cozumel when I was in the area.

Cozumel was the most commercial and developed of the ports on our itinerary, which was no surprise. Although, I didn’t realize how big the island was. Since our dolphin excursion had been cancelled when we were in Honduras, we re-booked our tour for the day and decided to do a swim with dolphins. (We had reserved a scoot coupe for the day, but I’m glad we changed our excursion—exploring the island in one of those tiny cars would have been anti-climactic).

The waves were a bit rough from the passing storm, but even still, the waters of the Caribbean were warm. At Dolphin Discovery in Chankanaab Park, you’re given a succinct orientation of how to interact with the dolphins: how to hug and kiss them, how to give a handshake, and how to swim with one as you ride atop a boogie board or its belly (as it’s upside down). Then, you put on a life vest over your swimsuit, remove any jewelry or anything that may harm or scratch the dolphin while you’re in the water, and you’re good to go. (Putting on sunblock just before you get into the water is prohibited, too.)

Our group of about 10 got in the water and balanced on an underwater platform—if you didn’t hold onto the bar on the platform, the waves pushed you off easily. For about an hour, we took turns interacting, playing, and swimming with Tatich, a seven-year-old dolphin, under the guidance of a patient, outgoing trainer. I was amazed at how powerful Tatich was, especially when he propelled me across the ocean simply by pushing one of my big toes with his nose.

After our swim with Tatich, we wandered the old colonial streets of San Miguel de Cozumel—I loved the crumbling storefronts and empty benches at every corner: I felt compelled to whip out my book and sit at each bench I passed by, to read leisurely and sip coffee and chat with anyone who strolled on the sidewalk. We also rented bicycles again—as we had done in Grand Cayman—explored the streets, and took photos of colorful murals and graffiti in Spanish. Many of the locals get around via motorbikes and scooters, so dodging them while crossing intersections on a bicycle was an amusing task, for me at least.

Along the main thoroughfare next to the sea, you’ll also stumble upon Mayan statues and structures—like Xchel, the striking fertility goddess with serpent strands—which provide bits of history of the island and its culture.

This is our final presentation of the line. We Finally did it! =]

On the one hand tedious and repetitive yet on the other they are a fascinating aspect of our world. What is natural that doesn’t partake in a cycle of some kind? They are responsible for the constants of nature. The constant pi, for example, is practically the most important constant, occuring across the physical sciences.

The TIME website is known for its TOP 10 or TOP 100 rankings on many subjects. My attention was drawn to the list of Mankinds Greatest Explorations and Adventures. The top 10 Most Groundbreaking Adventures starts for me obviously with the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon (and bringing them back alive!). Here is their list with direct links to the relevant TIME website page.

1. Apollo 11 Lands on the Moon
2. Scott and Amundsen Race to Reach the South Pole
3. Edmund Hillary Conquers Mount Everest
4. Charles Darwin’s Voyage Aboard H.M.S. Beagle
5. Charles Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the Atlantic
6. Yuri Gagarin Orbits the Earth
7. Robert Peary Reaches North Pole
8. Voyage of the Kon-Tiki
9. Albert Hofmann Takes the First LSD Trip
10. Captain Matthew Webb Swims the English Channel

I recently discovered the LOTRO Lorebook.  Yeah, it’s not exactly a new thing in the game, but it’s a new-to-me thing!  The Lorebook, which is a wiki (database), with some player-created content and some Official Turbine Stuff, contains all kinds of useful LOTRO information.  It can be accessed two ways:  in-game by selecting the icon on your mini-map, or online at http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Lorebook_home .  I find that it is extremely slow when accessed in-game, and since I always run LOTRO in window mode, I just open the Lorebook website in another window.

When the Lorebook page opens, scroll down to see the Table of Contents.  One of the first things I found in the Lorebook was the list of 133 available emotes (in the Character Attributes section).  I had no idea there were so many!  Emotes like ’scratch’, ‘juggle’, ‘giggle’, and ‘tantrum’ can add a bit of fun to otherwise boring moments when your fellowship is waiting around for something or someone.  Yeah, there’s even an emote for ‘bored’, but one of my favourites is ‘pick’.  Give it a try! 

One of the sections I have found extremely useful is the Deeds section.  Until recently, I never really appreciated the value of completing deeds, but I am now trying to complete as many as I can.  The exploration deeds are especially interesting, because I get to see new places in the game, places that probably would have been missed if I’d only been going through quests.  One of the big attractions of LOTRO for me is its beauty, so I enjoy seeking out new scenery.  What I usually do now, when I go to a new region, is open the Deeds section of the Lorebook, click on the region I’m in, and see which deeds are available.  What do I have to kill?  What places should I explore?  Is there anything interesting I need to find (such as Bilbo’s Buttons in the Misty Mountains)?  If I’m doing some soloing, knowing which deeds to pay attention to can give my usually rambling progress some sense of direction!

I also found this great page about Traits through the Lorebook:  http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Lord_of_the_Rings_Online_Traits_Compendium .   It is exactly what I have been looking for in terms of a comprehensive collection of Trait information.  I was frustrated before, because if I wanted to work on a particular Trait, such as Charity or Justice, I had no way of knowing where to go or what to do to gain more points for that Trait.  This webpage is just perfect and tells me everything I really, REALLY wanted to know (well, about Traits, at least!).

There is a lot to read about in the Lorebook, whether it is finding out information about your favourite (or most hated) mobs, learning where to find that elusive item for a quest, understanding more about Reputation points, gleaning tips for crafting, or finding out the history of your favourite places.  The Lorebook has lots to offer, so have a look through it.

Happy gaming!

Depuis longtemps je pars dans la nature pour m’isoler et  retrouver les sensations de la vie sauvage. Mais comme il n’est pas facile de survivre dans nos forêts, nos montagnes, quelque soit la saison, j’ai décidé de vous faire partager cette passion de l’exploration qui n’était pas abordé comme un sport jusqu’à présent. Dans les prochains articles vous apprendrez à élaborer une expédition sans danger afin de vivre une expérience humaine intense.

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, received an award from Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday.


Astronaut Koichi Wakata (left) receives an award from Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (right) on Wednesday. Wakata is the first Japanese astronaut to serve on an I.S.S. crew and the first Japanese astronaut to stay in space for a prolonged period of time.
Credit: JAXA

Wakata received the award for being the first Japanese astronaut to stay in space for a prolonged period of time. He was on the International Space Station for 4 ½ months before returning to Earth on July, 31.

Wakata’s first journey to space was during the STS-72 mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on January 11, 1996. His work on I.S.S. began in October of 2000 as a Mission Specialist on the STS-92 mission of Space Shuttle Discovery to I.S.S. This assembly work prepared I.S.S. for its first resident crew.


File photo of Wakata from March, 2007.
Credit: NASA

His most recent trip to I.S.S. began as a Flight Engineer on the STS-119 mission of Space Shuttle Discovery in March of 2009. While on I.S.S, Wakata served as Flight Engineer 2 on crews Expedition 18, Expedition 19, and Expedition 20. He became the first Japanese astronaut of an I.S.S. crew. He returned home in July aboard the STS-127 mission of Space Shuttle Endeavor.

Wakata demonstrating a “flying carpet” during his stay on I.S.S.

I have been told by many people before I came to Melbourne that I would love it. With a lot of pressure in that statement I was nervous as I landed into Melbourne (however, that was also due to the extremely turbulant flight). I will admit that I am often a fair weather traveller, and my first impression is extremely altered by weather the sun is shining. It was raining hard when I came into Melbourne. The sun did  come out in fits and starts  mixed in with heavy rain showers all day. Luckily for Melbourne, it was very well timed; as soon as I sat down in a cafe or stepped onto the tram it began to chuck it down.

St Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne in the south that is on the harbour. There is a lovely beach, Luna Park (theme park) and a cute seaside town vibe to the place. I walked along the esplanade looking at the Sunday market stalls and then along the pier. There is a famous kiosk at the end of the pier that is a landmark of St Kilda. It was built in the early 1900s and, when it burnt down in 2003, it was rebuilt in exactly the same way.

The main street runs slightly down the bay and is a crazy road of shops and cafes filled with laughter. There are loads of cake shops and after passing five or six, I succombed and had a marzipan roll covered in chocolate. The place is really vibrant.

Experiencing Grand Cayman via bicycle was pretty awesome, and I’m glad we chose this tour excursion. Some of the other press bloggers rented 4×4s, and while that was cool in its own way, wandering the island on a bike felt perfect. Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands, is a quaint and charming landscape — the people were friendly and laid-back, and all of the residents we spoke with were welcoming, especially our two tour guides.

We took a bus from the port, located in George Town, to a quieter, greener part of the island where the bicycle tour operator was located. We soon got moving, and we biked on a tree-lined road, passing small homes, neighborhood schools, churches, and — at one point — a gorgeous beach of crystal waters. I loved seeing family chickens roaming front yards.

We biked in the West Bay area of the island, stopping at Hell, the island’s noted geological anomaly of jagged limestone, as well as the Cayman Turtle Farm. The turtle farm is quite the tourist attraction — its exterior is a bit Disneylandish — but the operation is relatively organized, and despite the crowds pushed along on quick tours, the opportunity to handle smaller turtles is cool and something my friend and I had never done before.

After, we biked not far to the Tortuga rum spot; sure, it’s a total tourist trap, but it gives out tasty rum cake samples. We took a few shots of rum, chilled out on the shop’s patio, then hopped back on our bikes for the remainder of our ride.

After a few hours of biking, we spent some time on one of the beaches about 15 minutes from the port. When it was time to reboard the ship, I really didn’t want to. In just the several hours I spent on Grand Cayman, I was sucked in. I loved its lazy island vibe and would love to return.

With more than 20 plants across Belgium, this concrete producing group is one of the biggest in the country, producing more than 2,5 million m³ of concrete on a yearly basis. However, as times evolved, some concrete plants had to close, the ‘Nord’ one in a harbour-city close to the sea was one of them.

The first morning on our ship, the Crown Princess, I woke up and made my way outside on our private balcony. The sky was a clear, vibrant shade of blue that complemented the turquoise hue of the sea. In the distance, I saw the coastline of Princess Cays, a resort on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

Princess Cays is a private resort accessible only to passengers on Princess cruise ships. From afar, the resort looked idyllic, with cute little huts with burgundy roofs, and colorful kayaks and boats scattered along the shore. But after stepping foot onto the island, I realized, with the crowded beach and developed grounds, that Princess Cays was merely an extension of the ship itself. (Even the crew—bartenders on the ship, for instance—disembarked so they could serve passengers drinks on the sand. A nice man named Dragan, for example, was an awesome crewmember throughout the week.) For most of the cruisers, Princess Cays was convenient and all-inclusive. I, however, found nothing really noteworthy about it.

Angel and I lounged on recliners for some time, drinking beers and watching people snorkel around the nearby reef. We rented a kayak for half an hour, giving our arms a workout in the ocean, then wandered away from the crowds along a rocky shore in solitude. The colorful cottages along the path above this shore were charming. We ended up hanging out on the rocks among sea snails until we boarded the ship later that afternoon.