Elle a écrit sur rien. Un petit bonhomme qu’on ne voit pas, que l’on n’entend pas. Il est là en transparence comme un animal sous marin. Elle rêvait d’un manoir où des scientifiques évolueraient comme les fantômes ; il y aurait des étoiles dans le ciel assombris, des êtres gluants à examiner…

L’après midi, même le matin, elle pouvait s’allonger sur le tapis de la salle de séjour : jamais personne ne passait par là pour déranger ses songes. Si une femme de chambre venait à déambuler dans les parages, c’était en aveugle et transparence, toujours. Les scientifiques se réunissaient parfois en silence au salon, à des heures avancées de la nuit. Certains prenaient la parole pour discourir calmement avec des mots qu’on ne comprenait pas. Et on écoutait. Personnes ne se coupaient la parole et jamais le ton ne montait. Les scientifiques partageaient leurs découvertes sans possessivité ni suffisance ; il semblerait que l’on s’était oublié. Leurs visages grisâtres attisaient l’indifférence et des sillons de vieillesses trahissaient les soucis d’hommes âgés ; pourtant elle ne pouvait croire que ces professeurs puissent respirer un autre air que celui du chloroforme. Elle aurait aimé les voir atteint par la stratosphère, les sentir atteint par quelque chose d’impalpable comme le silence.

En réalité, il se pourrait bien qu’il ait de la joie en ce lieu. Un bonheur tout simple et reposant, sur lequel on saurait s’endormir.

Beaucoup de temps passa, et le manoir ne bougeait pas. Les impressions demeuraient identiques à toujours, les scientifiques ne paraissaient plus vieillir.
Il y avait de calmes discutions au coin du feu, des tapis sur lesquels on pouvait rêver, les laboratoires où il n’était pas bon de laisser trainer les doigts ; un balcon et du brouillard pour dissiper nos souvenirs.
On n’y était pas malheureux.

Un soir ils reconnurent que les étoiles étaient belles ; les scientifiques, comme elle.

Acalculie.

There is no need to really explain this picture.  I will simply identify the individuals involved:  Richard Redd and his sister Angela.

…some people’s children…really.  They did this last night in honor of my birthday.  Uh huh.  Really, they shouldn’t have.

Richard and Angela - Celebrating their Youth?

When the AUTOBOTS need to be delivered to the front lines fast, they rely on STRATOSPHERE. His cargo bay has enough room for an entire AUTOBOT strike team, and his engines have enough power to get them all the way to the other side of the world in only a couple of hours.

High altitude weapons allow him to deliver a punishing barrage against DECEPTICON targets on the ground as his comrades move in for the finish.

More>> Transformer Toys

HER DEEP SPACE MINE

My first spoken word video. Hear my work at http://www.myspace.com/poetic7poetry

All day every day? I don’t know what else to say….”

Next time you Urban Moguls go to Vegas, check out the Insanity Ride at the Stratosphere. It is a ride that dangles you over 900 feet above the streets of Las Vegas.  If you choose to partake please be sure and take a picture while you are riding and send it to us! Some Moguls are afraid of such contraptions.

Back in the early ‘60s, engineers and scientists were besides themselves to heed President Kennedy’s call to “send a man to the moon and bring him back safely before the end of the decade.”

They  designed spacecrafts and rockets and telemetry and all the other things that made that period giddily exciting for the curious, inventive, innovative people who were willing to work for next-to-nothing to see this man-made miracle happen. (Later, of course, these brilliant people would be dubbed propeller heads, geeks and nerds. But that’s another story.)

A few years later NASA lost that spirit in manned space flight and it was costs, not spacecraft, that started going through the stratosphere. Engineers were replaced by contractors, administrators and BNIs (Busy ‘n Important) people who couldn’t/wouldn’t listen. Contract vehicles were more important than space vehicles.  Today, Jet Propulsion Laboratory remains the lone star that builds unmanned mission with the same excitement and cutting-edge ideas that teach us about the solar system and beyond, sneaking through comet tails and all the other things that the now-aging propeller heads long to still do.

And then, just last week, excitement returned when a small team from MIT sent an instrument into near space at the edge of the stratosphere and got the pictures back – all for the enormous investment of $150. Yes, this was space travel that cost less than an iPhone. They did with a simple weather balloon, a cell phone, a compact camera, a Styrofoam beer cooler, and some hacking and duct tape. We have turned the full circle – we are back to simple common sense and doing incredible things for a reasonable cost.

Software – particularly enterprise software – runs in parallel with the space story. It was relatively inexpensive and useful in the 60s; it went through the roof all the time that Moore’s law was clearly applicable in chips and hardware. And yet businesses got none of the value that they had expected and they kept paying more and more until the only way to save some money was first to outsource it and finally to off-shore it. But technology failed to help this sorry industry. As Nicholas Carr asked “Does IT Matter?”

The $150 space project should remind us that what goes around can come around – and what goes up (costs) must come down.

We believe that, and we’ve decided that it’s time to take the $150 enterprise software model to the market.

From the “How Cool Is This?!” Department:

A couple of MIT students took digital pictures from the stratosphere…with a Canon point-and-shoot camera, a styrofoam beer cooler, and a weather balloon. Entitled Project Icarus, the cost of this photo shoot was a whopping $150!

Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh fashioned this amazing project with mostly everyday items, including a GPS-enabled cellphone, AA-battery cell phone charger, and some instant handwarmers to keep the camera (a simple Canon A470 with an 8GB flash card) and cellphone from freezing.

So what did $150 of cheap electronics and priceless ingenuity get Lee and Yeh? Just some incredible images like this one:

Lee and Yeh also have a time-lapse video on YouTube on the balloon’s flight 18 miles up. You can read the whole story here.

Via The Big Picture, via Wired.

Stratosphere Las Vegas Sunset Photo Tee Shirt by urbanphotos
Create personalized t shirts at Zazzle

I’ve been lucky enough to visit the vibrant city of Las Vegas, Nevada four times, three of which were before I turned 21 and I still had a fantastic time. So whether you are a gambler, are there to sample the talent in a live performance, taste some delicious cuisine, appreciate the architecture of the city or people watch, you can see sites from out of this world absolutely free. Yup, I said it, FREE!

Outside? Nope, inside The Wynn.

Pretty much everything I mentioned above you can do without being 21 (minus the bars), for free or at a very low cost. If you do have some extra time I would definitely take a tour of The Grand Canyon and The Hoover Dam, they are magnificent and are not too far from the strip. If you have the resources, or are lucky enough to gain some resources while you are in Sin City (woo-hoo!) I would look into taking a helicopter ride over The Grand Canyon, it is truly breathtaking.

Suited up and waiting for The Blue Man Group to start! Very interactive.

(Really my computer crashed and I had a hard time back-tracking to find all of my photos sorry, I guess you will have to take my tips and run to Vegas yourself!)

Most of the ozone in the atmosphere forms the Ozone layer in the stratosphere at altitudes between 10 and 40 km (100 to 0.1 mb pressure altitude) depending on latitude, just above the tropopause. This layer is crucial for life because only ozone absorbs UV-B radiation between 280-320 nm. UV-A rays between 320 and 400 nm are not affected by ozone while UV-C rays between 200 and 280 nm are absorbed by other atmospheric constituents also beside ozone.

Stratospheric ozone distributions are strongly dependent on stratospheric circulation patterns, varying according to latitude, seasons, short-term meteorological changes and the photochemical processes of formation and destruction. Major driving forces are availability of sunlight and thus of UV radiation and in upper stratosphere (above pressure altitude of 5 mb) the latitudinal temperature gradient which assists ozone transport. The ozone content of stratosphere is highly dynamic and variable. Its concentrations peak around the altitude of 30 km in tropics and around 15 to 20 km in polar regions.

Though hundreds of reactions are known to be involved in the ozone chemistry of stratosphere, only a few can be described properly. The ozone chemistry basically involves two types of reactions: those involved with ozone formation and those involved with ozone destruction. These two types of reactions are important because relationship between stratospheric ozone and climate has been studied particularly in association with ozone depletion and ultra-violet radiation. Another important feature is that above tropopause, liquid water does not play significant role and stratospheric ozone chemistry here is dominated by photochemical reactions.

1. Ozone formation: This itself is a photochemical process involving UV radiation of wavelength less than 242 nm. Though photodissociation of oxygen by UV radiation at less than 175 nm may yield an oxygen atom in excited state i.e. O(¹D), such photodissociation is important only in the upper stratosphere because such short wavelength can not penetrate lower into stratosphere.

Thus in upper stratosphere reaction may be:

O₂ + hv (<175 nm) ——> O(³P) + O(¹D)

Oxygen atom in excited state on collision with some diatomic molecule (M2) yields oxygen atom in ground state i.e. O(³P):

Collisional

O(¹D) + M₂ —————–> O(³P) + M₂

deactivation

while in lower stratosphere reaction is:

O₂ + hv (175-242 nm) ———> O(³P) + O(³P)

The oxygen atoms in ground state react with diatomic oxygen molecules to form ozone:

O(³P) + O₂ ———> O₃

2. Ozone destruction: This involves those reactions which balance the photochemical formation of ozone in stratosphere:

O₃ + hv ——> O₂ + O(¹D)

O₃ + O ——-> 2O₂

Another additional reaction for removal for oxygen atoms is:

O + O + M ——–> O₂ + M

Many analogous reactions involving H, N and Cl radicals also occur in stratosphere:

OH + O₃ ———> O₂ + HO₂

HO₂ + O ———> OH + O₂

NO + O₃ ——–> O₂ + NO₂

NO₂ + O ——–> NO + O₂

O₃ + Cl ——> O₂ + ClO

ClO + O ——> O₂ + Cl

All the above pairs of reactions are summed as:

O₃ + O —–> 2O₂

i.e. each pair of reactions involves destruction of ozone and atomic oxygen while restoring the OH, NO or Cl radical.

N₂O which is relatively stable in the troposphere, usually moves into stratosphere and undergoes following photochemical reactions:

N₂O + hv (<260 nm) ————–> N₂ + O(¹D)

N₂O + O(¹D) ———-> N₂ + O₂

N₂O + O(¹D) ———-> 2NO

NO or NO₂ which may also move from troposhpere into stratosphere or are produced in the stratosphere, undergo following reactions there:

NO + O + M ——> NO₂ + M

NO₂ + OH + M —–> HNO3 + M

HNO3 + hv (<330 nm) ——> OH + NO₂

 Ozone layer in stratosphere absorbs sufficient amount of UV radiation so that at tropopause HNO₃ has photochemical lifetime of about 10 days. This time is long enough for much of it to cross the tropopause and come down with rainfall thus being removed from stratosphere.

Chief natural source of chlorine in atmosphere is probably methyl chloride from marine algae but it accounts for only 25% of the chlorine currently being transported across tropopause into the stratosphere. Other natural sources adding minor amounts are HCl acid from volcanoes and chlorine from sea sprays. In the past few decades, chlorofluorocarbons (mostly CFCl₃ i.e. Feron-11) and CF₂Cl₂ i.e. Feron-12) added to the atmosphere by human activities have become chief source of stratospheric chlorine. Ammonium perchlorate-aluminium solid rocket propellents are another anthropogenic source of atmospheric chlorine. These compounds absorb UV radiation in the range of 190 to 220 nm resulting in their photodissociation:

CH₃Cl + hv —–> CH₃ + Cl

CFCl₃ + hv ——> CFCl₂ + Cl

CF₂Cl₂ + hv —–> CF₂Cl + Cl

Free Cl atoms in stratosphere may undergo various reaction cycles:

1. Reaction with ozone: Free chlorine atoms in stratosphere react with ozone in catalytic manner and cause depletion of ozone:

Cl + O₃ —–> ClO + O₂

ClO produced may react with nitrogen compounds:

ClO + NO —–> Cl + NO₂

ClO + NO₂ + M ——–> ClNO₃ + M

ClNO₃ may be decomposed by UV radiation or by reaction with atomic oxygen:

ClNO₃ + hv —–> ClO + NO₂

ClNO3 + O —-> O₂ + ClO + NO

Reactions of ClO with NO or NO₂ are important because they effectively remove N- and Cl- species involved in ozone destroying cycles.

2. Reaction with methane and hydrogen: Free Cl may also react with CH₄ or H₂:

Cl + CH₄ —–> HCl + CH₃

Cl + H₂ ——> HCl + H

Some of the HCl may react with OH radical in stratosphere:

OH + HCl —–> H₂O + Cl

However, most of the HCl moves down to tropopause and is removed with rainfall as HCl acid.

I tried to roll on the strip but the strip rolled me
Trapped in a br on a b c d E
Security came to take me away little did they know I was
Already there
After 5 beers and All day in the stratosphere
Now I’m shaking waiting for Soup n J
They exit blue man group and head my way
We make it to a cab
Couldn’t be more glad
Hopped in the back and what did i hear?
Cabbie playing Pink Floyd, couldn’t believe my ears
Said he went to Live 8, solo put him to tears
We gave him a big tip dipped and said cheers
Up to the room Soup ordered some soup
Extra cracker request threw room service for a loop
Took off our socks under covers in our bed
Air and Sigur Ros floating thru our heads

De attractie is voorzien voor maar 24 mensen. Met zijn zwart-witte kleurstelling in een moderne vormgeving is een ritje in een aantrekkelijke ervaring. Zeker in het oog springend zijn de eveneens moderne entree en de op de mast aangebrachte verlichting.

Uniek is verder het gegeven dat het de 60 meter hoge toren zelf is die tijdens de rit zal ronddraaien om zo haar passagiers een unieke vlucht te bezorgen.

Zeker een bezoekje waard: de Stratosphere van Sky Attractions bvba

The topless vampire show “Bite” is still going strong, celebrating its fifth year at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas.   More than a half-million fans have attended 1,500 performances of the offbeat rock ‘n’ roll musical, produced and written by Tim Molyneux. 

“Vampires allow us to do the things that provide the ingredients for a great Las Vegas show:  fun music, high-energy, acrobatics in the air and on the stage, magic, martial arts, gymnastics, contortion, comedy, drama, great dancing, live singing and sexy girls.  The show tells a compelling story through the lyrics of the sons and the classic vampire lore of lost love,” says Molyneux.

Wow, what a mouthful- and what a vampire feast!  The show is at 10:30 p.m. Fridays though Wednesdays, dark Thursdays; $49.45; 702-380-7711.

New York New York
3790 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas
NV 89109
Tel +1 (702) 740 6969
New York New York Las Vegas

Location Right on the money, sitting on the corner of the Strip with Tropicana Avenue, the busiest road intersection in the USA. There are foot bridges connecting New York New York with the MGM Grand and Excalibur.

Theme Well what can I say; it’s the Big Apple. All of the buildings outside are 1/3 scale copies of those in Manhattan including the Empire State, Chrysler and CBS buildings. There is also a Statue of liberty and a Brooklyn Bridge with a ” Coney Island” roller coaster screeching round the whole lot. The theme does not stop outside, as you enter the casino you will see manhole covers with smoke rising out of them, trees in Central Park and hotdog vendors. It is dubbed as the greatest little city in Vegas something, we think, is well earned.

Rooms NYNY used to be a cheap resort I am not sure why but now it’s generally more expensive than MGM Grandand Monte Carlo. The rooms are a little on the small side but they are nice, be warned though if you have a room facing the strip you will hear the rollercoaster. It’s quite cool that your room is in a particular New York Skyscraper like Empire State or Chrysler tower.

Attractions The Manhattan Express rollercoaster, supposedly the best in Vegas, runs round the outside of the structure speeding up to 67mph for $7 per ride. Sadly The Coney Island Emporium amusement arcade has been closed down. There are Ice shows outside, around Ellis Island, in the winter and tugboats spray water at each other in the summer.

Pool Surprisingly for a resort that has spent so much attention to detail the pool is very small and drab; this is not a place to stay if the pool is very important to you.

Shows and Entertainment Zumanity is the Cirque De Soleil offering here it’s the sensual side of Cirque, that means nudity and sexiness all held together by a drag queen compere. We loved this show it was great fun but you have to be opened minded to enjoy it and you also need to sit facing the center of the stage we were at the side and feel that we missed something for this. Coyote Ugly whilst not a show in the true sense is an interactive bar where the bar tenders dance on the bar and pour drinks directly into patrons mouths.

Dining This is the only Strip resort that has no buffet. America – 24 hour coffee shop is very good though the wait for the food can be longer than you feel it should. Il Fornai is a lovely Italian next to a stream that offers “outside” dining this is one of the best places for breakfast in Vegas. Gallaghers Steak house is pricey but very good you can see all the meat maturing in glass fridges. Nine Fine Irishman is an Irish pub offering good food and ambience. There are also several Delis and hotdog stalls as well as the village eatery. This has a variety of, eat in/take away fastish food.

Gaming 81,000 sq ft of well themed gaming fun containing nearly 2500 state of the art slot and video machines, along with about 50 tables and 7 roulette wheels. NYNY contains one of the best selections of slots on the Strip with a very large selection of my favorites; the good old low roller nickel machines. They have all the usual wheel of fortune, Adams Family, Winning Bid etc. plus Swing which we did not see elsewhere. The gaming area is a little dark and in certain parts slightly cramped but didn’t appear as noisy as some. Live acts performing at the huge bar at the front makes a nice diversion to the hundred dollars you have just lost. I don’t know if we were just lucky but we seemed to have a better hit rate on the NYNY slots than at any other Strip casino. The tables used to be covered in Central Park type tress sadly this has been removed and replaced with somthing that looks like lit up sweet wrappers.

Drinks service Like all casinos the service you receive whilst playing on the lowly nickel machines is never as good as when you are playing on the dollar ones, but the service here, even for us low rollers, was quite good. One thing – steer clear of the coffee.

Overall We love it, it’s exciting and you leave the real world for the time that you are in there. The theme works very well, with a very good variety of slot machines and friendly staff. It is our favorite casino, although it may have helped that we hit a jackpot there.

Good points The whole theme thing as you enter from the upper level is New York; it works well and is great fun.

Bad points I don’t think that there is anything that I dislike about NYNY apart from that at busy times we had to wait for machine attendants but this could have been the same anywhere.

Top Tip If you ride the rollercoaster and love it you can by re-ride tickets for about half price or if you really love it you can buy an unlimited daily ride pass.

To find out how to ensure that you get the cheapest possible rate read the post here

marcelina is represented by ICM models, london.
shot by clarence k. for the september issue of surface magazine. 
art direction by christopher mozsary.
styling by anna levak.

imagesource | bwgrayscale

A final update from California and the Canyons.

The Westcoast Blogger

As our trip song “I’m gonna ride through … ’cause I’m free, free-falling,” played we watched the beach in San Diego fast approach. Our group trudged through the glimmering sand, our towels draped over our necks and ‘claimed territory’ to set up lunch. After filling ourselves with delicious cheeses, deli meats and the always popular veggie dip, we headed to our surf instructors, learning the ‘pop-up’ maneuver and conquering the rippling waves. Matt recalls, “Surfing was a lot of fun… I didn’t think I could do it, but I was able to paddle and do it all by myself.” Rita added, “It was a new experience, each time I got up, I was like, “I can’t believe it, I’m surfing.” Alli R. remembered, “It feels like you’re standing on waves, like riding the ocean.”

Rachel C. laughs, “I didn’t think about it, but then I got up, and I was surfing.”

The next day we visited our furry friends at the famous San Diego Zoo; from the rambunctious monkeys to the outback’s kangaroos and koalas, and finally ending at the serene and majestic pandas, we took advantage of all the zoo had to offer. That night our trip friends became our foes as our competitive spirits filled the laser tag arena; shrieks of victory bounced off the walls of the playing field. Cristina mentioned, as she pulled off her laser tag suit “I never played before and I like trying new things, it was awesome!”

Morning came and cheers collided throughout the bus as our journey took us into Las Vegas. After a bountiful Italian family-style dinner, we ventured down the strip, engrossed by the erupting fountains at the Bellagio and the exploding volcano at the Mirage. “Seeing people recreate Europe in the Venetian and Paris hotels are very cool” Jake S. commented. The next morning, the breakfast buffet at the Monte Carlo energized us for the day. We started our day by conquering our fears at the Big Shot high atop the Stratosphere and then explored the Forum Shops at Caesar’s. After spending time in the lazy river and the pool at the Monte Carlo, it was off to dinner at the New York, New York Hotel. Our day ended with tons of action as we claimed our game cards and played the night away at Gameworks arcade. “From the hot desert to the exuberant lights and nightlife, Las Vegas really opened my eyes,” Ethan mentioned.

Bryce Canyon was our next stop; we stopped for dinner and Western role-playing at the Chuckwagon cookout in Kanab, Utah. We are now on our way to Phoenix after experiencing the Grand Canyon.

Have an excellent weekend.

Here is the latest from the Adventurer!

The Westcoast Blogger

Hello friends,

It is time for a summary of our adventures in San Diego and Las Vegas… Lots to tell! La Jolla beach on Monday was absolutely stunning. The water was warm and every single one of us went swimming in the waves. We arrived at our campsite in San Diego in the evening and started on a delicious feast. To introduce the meal, Tyler and Brad told a ridiculous story that had all of us intrigued; it had no ending, and made no sense (haha).

The famous San Diego Zoo on Tuesday was very exciting, not only because we got to see exotic animals, but also because it was Zack’s birthday!! We started off our day with a double-decker bus tour of the zoo (we were on the top) and saw some awesome animals, such as elephants, giraffes, monkeys, etc. Following the zoo, we stopped off at a skating rink that was situated in the middle of a huge shopping mall – it wasn’t even in a separate room! Andy and Sammy both told me that they hadn’t skated much before, but they turned out to be quite skilled by the time we left. The Padres vs. the Braves baseball game in the evening was another neat experience. The stadium was huge and the weather was great. It was also pretty cool to see Alanna, Ben E., and Tyler catch some balls! The busy day was finished off with a delicious birthday cake in celebration of our amazing Zack J.

Wednesday’s surfing was (of course) a huge hit for everyone. In fact, not only did virtually every tour member inform me that it was the greatest day of the trip thus far, but each and every one of them managed to stand up and surf!! Daniel M. actually has a cousin that is a professional surfer, and he was also pretty good himself! When we weren’t surfing, we spent our time playing sports on the beach or jumping in the huge waves. We have come to the conclusion that San Diego beaches are the best.

Everyone was super pumped for Vegas on Thursday, and it definitely lived up to our expectations. The city was so colourful at night! As we walked into the Venetian hotel, we thought it was daytime because the roof was so deceiving… Until we remembered that it was dark outside! We also had the opportunity to see a spectacular fountain show outside of the Bellagio hotel and casino, as well as the volcano erupt beside the Mirage hotel.

Our thrill ride up the Big Shot at the Stratosphere was incredible! To give you an idea of the highest thrill ride in the world, It shoots passengers straight up 160 feet at 45 mph (over 4 Gs) from the 105th floor of the building until they are 1,081 feet above the Strip. All of us went on the ride and I would have to say that Gill C. was the most terrified (and hilariously dramatic)! Immediately following this event, we met up with Dylan, his parents, and Andy who surprised us with amazing treats at Serendipity. This place is famous for their “frozen hot chocolate”, which the majority of us ordered… yum! Thank you so much Bo and Marcie!

We spent the afternoon playing at our hotel’s pool area, which had a wave pool, a hot tub, and even a lazy river! Greg and Nicole spent lots of time poolside and definitely took advantage of the beautiful hotel facilities. We visited the New York, New York hotel in the evening, where just about everyone decided to go on the hotel rollercoaster. Daniel W., Tyler, Matt, Sam E., and Zack ate at the ESPN restaurant – we didn’t even know these existed!

Today we are on our way to Bryce Canyon. The scenery on the drive is magnificent and very different from anything else we’ve seen on the trip. There are green, yellow, orange, and red cliffs in all directions! We just stopped for lunch, where Zack, Nolan, Tyler, Michael, and Greg helped out with lunch preparation.

More coming soon!

The Adventurer Team

A great photo update from the Voyageur.

The Westcoast Blogger

So I came across this video today on Jetwhine.  I thought it would be fitting to pass it along.