• Broccoli ate all of his candy from his candy Christmas tree…  and is very full.
• Jack Z. and Leela say, “Merry Christmas.”
• Mrs. McGuinness is leaving. 
• Christmas Eve is tomorrow!
• We finished our gumdrop trees.
• We had a half-day. And a half-week.
• We finished the math test.
• We had our social studies test.
• Robin came!!
• We finished “The Life and Times of the Peanut.”
• We wrote the Week in Review.
• Merry Christmas!
• Feliz Navidad!
• Joy!
• Earwax protects your ears.
• Holm and Anjay moonwalked.
• Peace!

(ExplorersWeb.com) In previous years, ExplorersWeb have published one big Year in Review on January 1st.

This year we are cutting it up in sections, to be posted every day until the awards, with the compiled report to go up early 2010.

Part 1 : –  ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

Part 2 : -   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Polar adventures.

Part 3 : -   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Significant climbs.

Part 4 : -   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: The Oceans.

Part 5 : -   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Mount Everest.

Today: controversies.

Unethical climbing

Within only a couple of years, three of Dodo Kopold’s climbing mates have been left to descend alone, without adequate gear, close to 8000+ meters. Two of them died. Following extensive investigations, the Slovak Mountaineering Association deemed Dodo’s G1 and BP summit evidence “inaccurate and misleading” and his description of events related to Vlado Plulik’s fate on Broad Peak in 2008 “a grave violation of the ethical and sport performance principles of the mountaineering association.”

Only months later, Black Diamond athlete Dodo Kopold was included in the jury of the revamped Piolet d’Or reportedly intending to award, “transparency in reports, respect for team-mates and crew, and the example set for the future generations.”

Vlado Plulik update: a family’s search for truth about the Baltoro Express

Cut rope and indifference

Veteran climber Joao Garcia alleged that the rope (which he had fixed) had been cut on Nanga Parbat where Miss Go fell. Denis Urubko had a similar experience on Nanga in 2003 when he found that a mint, high-quality rope he had fixed at the rock section above Camp 2 had been removed while he was gone. Similar to Miss Go Denis fell on descent but was fast enough to push off the slope and prevent to go head over heels.

On the Gasherbrums, Portuguese Daniela Teixeira (teaming up with Paulo Roxo) sounded off on friend Luis Maria Barbero, a member in Soria’s team who was killed on GII’s normal route, “we found it strange that until we asked, nobody said a word about his disappearance,” Daniela wrote.

Summit claims shakedown

Several large commercial teams’ summit reports didn’t add up to other climbers’ climbing notes on Manaslu in 2008, cutting numbers of success down to barely half.

The problems continued this spring. Several Manaslu summits were disputed and the peak is becoming the most problematic 8000er to compile these days in terms of who went to the real summit and who stopped halfway. Also Dhaulagiri was affected, to a lesser degree.

The summit shakedown continued in Karakoram this summer. Jorge Egocheaga, the only reported K2 summiteer this season, made clear he had stopped 12 meters from target due to unsafe conditions.

Five Iranian members of the Tehran and Sarab expeditions were reported to have reached GII’s summit in high winds. The statement was however pushed back by climbers in BC, who reported that the mountaineers said they had turned around 50 meters shy from the real top, a statement later confirmed also by the Iranians.

Two Swiss, one German, and Cleo Weidlich reportedly summited Broad Peak on July 20th. This statement was strongly disputed by Dutch expedition leader Eelco Jansen and ExplorersWeb have not obtained evidence contradicting Jansen’s protest.

In all, the Karakoram season ended with no summits on K2, no summits on BP, and very few confirmed summits on G1, G2 and NP.

False summit claims culminated on Shisha Pangma this fall when a Swedish climbing veteran, aided by local and international mountaineers, unveiled false statements backed by stolen and manipulated pictures.

- Himalaya Fall 2009: Shisha Pangma special report final: false summit claims – and the winner is…

Media

They broke the story that the horse snow-shoes Scott and his mates left behind at Antarctica could possibly have saved the expedition – and their ponies. This time, The Long Riders’ Guild alerted about a horse-race in Mongolia where they alleged undersized horses were ridden by inexperienced foreigners in an endurance race promoted by a Brit specialized in junk car races, a celebrity jockey-rider, a charity, and a reality show host with a tarnished reputation when it comes to animals.

With his Everest summit this year, Ranulph Fiennes (UK) was touted by media as the oldest person to complete the Three Poles. However the polar community requires that no motorized vehicles are used; Fiennes used snow mobile with undisclosed number of resupplies for the North Pole.

After only two weeks enroute to the North Pole in a big budget expedition; British Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley were featured in mainstream media as “global warming researchers” suffering frostbite and starvation due to a delayed resupply. The expedition was eventually aborted. Meanwhile two other teams covered the full distance, one without assistance.

UK Telegraph claimed that people who pushed “themselves to their limits and beyond during the past 10 years” were mostly British.

The North Face filed a federal lawsuit against The South Butt, selling a parody apparel product line under the motto “Never Stop Relaxing.” Founder Jimmy Winkelmann, 18, said in a press release, “The South Butt has previously made it clear to the North Face that the consuming public is insightful enough to know the difference between a face and a butt.”

Trash

When complaining didn’t help; Altitude Junkies retrieved and unloaded dumped garbage by offenders’ BC tent. In place to study the subject, a French climber/researcher.

Arian Lemal: waste management +8000 m style

Arian’s report made waves among climbers and short of making citizen’s arrests; the community is now self-sanitizing by turning in photo evidence.

Fighting back

Over the years Italian Simone Moro has suffered a hard time from parts of the climbing community but when also his Beka Brakai Chhok expedition was questioned, he finally sounded off:

“After 29 years of attempts, I honestly thought that now was the time to speak about my historic first winter Makalu summit with Denis Urubko and not to have the surprise to know that someone is accusing me of ‘lying’,” he wrote, presenting Beka Brakai Chhok documentation and asking for some respect. “After 40 expeditions all over the world in all seasons and in all styles, I think that it is quite clear who I am, how I climb and what I have climbed,” Simone said.

2009 cheating bonanza finale

The year’s 15-minutes-of-fame bonanza was rounded off by a Colorado father who claimed his son had floated off on an experimental air-craft. “We did it for the show,” the 6-year-old later confessed on camera. The father pleaded guilty and sentencing is scheduled for December 23.

* Previous story :

–  ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

-   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Polar adventures.

-   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Significant climbs.

-   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: The Oceans.

-   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Mount Everest.

-   Tragedy in the Himalaya, 2009 climbing season.

Exweb Week-In-Review is sponsored by HumanEdgeTech the world’s premier supplier of expedition technology. Our team helps you find ultra light expedition tech that works globally.

e-mail or call +1 212 966 1928

* Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

Over the past week, I did a bit of background reading for my project.  I was delayed for a few days because I was waiting for two books on Connecticut history to arrive in the mail.  One turned out to be very brief, and it was a bit of a disappointment.  The other one is longer, so I’m working through that now.  My goal is to learn more about Connecticut’s constitutional convention in 1818, and it’s looking like I have gathered basically all of the secondary resources that exist on it.  Once I received them mid-week, I worked on reading these books.  I made it through the short one, and now I’m concentrating on the longer one.  Who knew that Connecticut does not have a recent history of the state?

I also spent time on my seasonal project, best described as “Christmas.”  I was able to get cards to friends and family written, addressed, and mailed this week.  On the 19th, I took stock of all that my husband and I had purchased as gifts and wrapped them up.  It’s one of those things that I don’t mind working on, mostly because I only have to do this once a year!  I am proud to say that my Christmas shopping has been finished for over a week, and we did pretty well budget-wise.  I’m looking forward to spreading Christmas cheer in a few days!

Now that I am heading in to Christmas week, I will be out of town after Wednesday.  I plan to suspend posting and the “week-in-review” until after I am settled back in Connecticut.  Happy holidays, and looking forward to exciting new things in 2010!

(ExplorersWeb.com) In previous years, ExplorersWeb have published one big Year in Review on January 1st.

This year we are cutting it up in sections, to be posted every day until the awards, with the compiled report to go up early 2010.

Part 1 : –  ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

Part 2 : -   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Polar adventures.

Part 3 : -   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Significant climbs.

Part 4 : -   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: The Oceans.

Today: Everest.

Mount Everest

Passing the 4.500 mark Everest had 406 ascents this spring season, and no ascents in fall. A reality show was shot on the mountain, this time on the south side normal route which was bolted on the Yellow Band. In fall, a meeting was held in the national park to highlight climate change. The Everest meet was shot against Kalapatar (“Black Mountain”).

Several climbers, including Ed Viesturs in his 7th Everest summit, announced their intention to climb without bottled oxygen but only three succeeded, with hairy consequences. Jarle Traa (NOR) and Mike Farris (USA) both mobilized rescue operations while Frank Ziebarth (GER) perished.

The biggest spring climb was Mr Park Young-Seok’s new line on the SW Face.

Records

First astronaut – Scott Edward Parazynski (USA)
First Argentinean lady – Mercedes Sahores
First Bulgarian lady – Petya Stanimirova Kolcheva
First Climber with multiple sclerosis (MS) – Lori Schneider (USA)
First Croatian lady – Darija Bostjancic and Iris Bostjancic (sisters)
First Hungarian lady – Anita Ugyan
First Moldavian – Andrey Carpenco
First Panamanian – Michael Morales
First Singaporean lady – Lee Li-Hui, Esther Tan and Jane Lee
First Taiwanese Aboriginal Climber – Wu Yu-Lung

A few years ago Nils Antezana, Bolivian born, but USA citizen, summited Everest at 69 years old but perished on descent. His “oldest American” title was disputed this year by younger seniors claiming “oldest American to summit and come back alive” or “oldest American-born.” However, Nils Antezana remains the oldest American to summit Everest.

Born 29.03.1992, at 17 years old John Collison became the youngest American Everest summiteer, beating Samantha Larson´s previous record.

Two Croatian sisters – Darija & Iris Bostjancic – summited Everest together on May 19. It was announced they were the first sisters to summit together, however, Lakpa Sherpani and her younger sister Mingkipa Sherpani summited together in 2003.

Climbing legend Nikolay Cherny (RUS) summited Everest at age 70, the oldest Russian to top out.

Fatalities

Four climbers perished on Everest and one in BC. Lhakpa Nuru Sherpa, 32, died in an avalanche in the icefall. Chinese climber Wu Weng-Hong, 40, died of HAPE, Czech Veslav Chzaszcz, 47, fell, and Frank Ziebarth, 29, suffered AMS.

Kaji Sherpa, 45, died in BC of methanol, part of a stock of illegal brew made in Kathmandu and delivered throughout the Khumbu in spring.

Mallory

Investigating all clues, American historian Tom Holzel pin-pointed Irvine’s possible location in a 3-part series at ExWeb. “The mystery is about to be solved,” he told ExplorersWeb. “And perhaps this coming spring.”
After years of researching Mallory and Irvine’s 1924 final climb on Everest – mounting the first search expedition in 1986, checking hi-res mapping images, interviewing Everest summiteers, comparing testimonies and theories, and weighing all possible scenarios – Tom has managed to reconstruct, minute-by-minute, Mallory and Irvine’s final hours. And there is a major new clue: a different eye-witness account of the sighting of Irvine’s body.

* see : – ExWeb series special: the search for Andrew Irvine, by Tom Holzel

* Previous story :

–  ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

-   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Polar adventures.

-   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Significant climbs.

-   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: The Oceans.

-   Tragedy in the Himalaya, 2009 climbing season.

Exweb Week-In-Review is sponsored by HumanEdgeTech the world’s premier supplier of expedition technology. Our team helps you find ultra light expedition tech that works globally.

e-mail or call +1 212 966 1928

* Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

The Week in Review for December 14 – 18, 2009

After a very good PPV, WWE reward us with one of the worst episodes of Monday Night RAW I’ve ever watched. At least after that everything else was a great improvement, including one of the best TV matches I’ve ever seen. So let’s get to the top and bottom of the week.

Top 5 Matches of the Week

1. Christopher Daniels v. Desmond Wolfe from Impact 4.75/5
2. Rey Mysterio v. Batista from Smackdown 4/5
3. Hart Dynasty v. Jimmy Wang Yang & Slam Master J from Smackdown 4/5
4. MVP v. Jack Swagger from Superstars 4/5
5. Roxxi v. ODB from Impact 4/5

Worst Matches of the Week

1. John Cena v. CM Punk from RAW DUD
2. Randy Orton v. Undertaker from RAW DUD
3. Jerishow v. D-X from RAW DUD
4. Team Mickie v. Team Michelle DUD

Overall I think Impact was a very solid show, and my pick for best show of the week. With one of the best TV match ever, a great Knockout match, and a very solid rest of the show, great buildup for this weekend’s PPV. The worst of the week is obviously RAW, enough has been said about the poorest RAW ever, so I’ll stop there.

Overall Ranking

Monday Night RAW averaged a 1.5 for eight matches in three hours. This was less matches then on a two hour show. There was too much crap, and four matches were duds. This RAW was an embarrassment to wrestling and TV in general. I have no idea who the guest host is next week, some baseball player, but I don’t care. Let’s just have a few good matches, please.

ECW averaged a 2.5 for four matches in an hour. There was just too much this week, the opposite of RAW. If we had one less match and remove the AW show, make the three matches longer, would’ve been a better show.

Superstars averaged a 3.5/5 for three matches in an hour. A very solid episode of Superstars, with a great main event and a new tag team I hope stays together. Not a bad show, but the Archer/Dreamer match was not as good as their previous match.

Impact averaged a 3.5/5 for six matches in two hours. Almost all the matches were really good, but the main event kind of killed the show. The Desmond/Daniels match blew away anything else in the last little while and was amazing. The only complaint about TNA I have is too much in two hours, they need to cut back on the number of segments, as it’s too fast moving and just feels rushed. Less backstage stuff and longer matches would work wonders for TNA.

Smackdown averaged a 3/5 for six matches in two hours. A great episode of Smackdown, but could’ve been better without the Escobar/Kane match. The main event impressed me as I was not expecting anything, as I said, and it was solid. It was a very impressive show.

Overall this was a rising week for TV as we went from a horrible show, to an ok show, to three very good shows. Let’s hope Christmas week is good for us wrestling fans, and I hope Hart Dynasty win the tag titles on Smackdown, which airs on my birthday!!!

Here’s the Daniels/Wolfe match I’ve been raving about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNm1s-qUQwQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElIyvR_Kbyw

It’s in two parts, due to the length. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Top Posts for the past week

1.  WEBSPIRATION – MIND MAPPING TOOL

2.  I USED MY ISSUED MAC ALMOST ALL WEEKEND

3.  IEPs – WHAT A WASTE OF TIME

4.  DON’T ROCK THE STUDENT’S BOAT

5.  FRIENDING ONLINE – DO IT CONSERVATIVELY?

This week was the completion of the first month of this blog, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have taken the time to at least stop by for a visit and hopefully read a post or two.

I want to say thank you to everyone who did take the time to read my bog.

The Friending Online post was very timely, I had two students who requested to friend me on Facebook.  I was able to tell them how honored I felt by their request, but that I couldn’t and was able to explain why and know why, because I had already thought about it beforehand in that post.

Harold

(ExplorersWeb.com) In previous years, ExplorersWeb have published one big Year in Review on January 1st.

This year we are cutting it up in sections, to be posted every day until the awards, with the compiled report to go up early 2010.

Part 1 : –  ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

Part 2 : -   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Polar adventures.

Today part 3: significant climbs.

New routes and significant ascents – 8000ers

The wall cost him three very good friends over the years and for them exactly, South Korean Mr Park summited Everest via a new route on the immense and difficult technical SW Face – 27 years since it last was climbed.

This year the last Himalaya giant was summited in winter: Makalu, by Italian Simone Moro breaking the Polish spell for a second time and with old friend Kazakh Denis Urubko by his side. Up until today, 9 out of all 14 eight-thousanders have been winter climbed. The remaining are in Pakistan, where all five 8000er summits are yet untouched by man in winter.

Only months later, Denis scored again. Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko climbed Cho Oyu’s SE face in alpine style on May 11th – a remarkable finish of the 14×8000ers project for Urubko. This was the first alpine climb of the face; the Urubko/Dedeshko line goes straight up, eventually joining the winter Polish route.

Success arrived after years of tenacious planning and the pictures said it all: a frightening couloir, a vertical ice wall – the small group of friends survived and triumphed a partial new line 11th July on Nanga Parbat in a season when even summits on the normal routes were scarce. “More than 2000m of complete new ground,” reported Gerfried Goschl, leading fellow Austrians Sepp Bachmair, Hans Goger, and Canadian Louis Rousseau.

New routes and significant ascents – lower peaks

Chang Himal’s 1,500m north wall was sent by Andy Houseman and fellow Brit Nick Bullock.

Skipping their original plan on Manaslu; Yannick Graziani and new Piolet d’Or chief Christian Trommsdorff instead climbed Nemjung’s 2,400 meters-long south face in alpine style.

Simon Anthamatten, 26, shot up from nowhere as climbing partner to Ueli Steck in relation to Ochoa’s rescue attempt on Annapurna last year. This fall Simon, his brother Samuel and friend Michael Lerjen – all in their twenties – bagged a summit near Nangpa-la, in one of the year’s coolest 7000er climbs: a first ascent in pure alpine style on the 2,200 m south face of Jasemba.

Piolet d’Or winner Marko Prezelj with fellow Slovenians Rok Blagus and Luka Lindic opened three new big wall routes on Garhwal Himalaya’s Bhagirati massif.

Ines Papert and her photographer Cory bagged Kwande Lho in an all-or-nothing 4 day winter ascent of the peak’s frigid north face.

Wuelian Feng 6627 m. The north facing buttress was graded M6 WI5 5.7 R and is 2650 meters. Bruce Normand, Jed Brown, Kyle Dempster and Jared Vihauer did it in a 5 day alpine style push.

Russians Sokolov and Gorelic forged a new route on the highly demanding Pobeda peak.

Jannu north face 2002 summiteers Alexander Ruchkin and Mikhail Mikhailov made the first ascent of Peak 6206 in Sichuan, part of the Minya Konka massif, via a 1000 meter Big Wall.

Americans Joe Puryear and David Gottlieb bagged the virgin summit of Lunag Ri/Jobo Rinjang (6778m), a beautiful peak near Tarnga, which they climbed by the south face (Direct Route).

Chinese climbers Yan Dongdong and Zhou Peng completed the first all-Chinese ascent of Siguniang’s central south face. The new 1000 meters-long route includes difficulties up to M4/AI3+/VI and follows a direct line to the 6,250m main summit in Sichuan’s Siguniang mountain massif.

British Robert Jarvis, Paul Guest, Martin Moran and Leon Winchester made the first ascent of Changuch (6322m) in India.

Pat Deavoll (NZ) made a spectacular climb on June 21st. Unable to find sponsors and partners for her original target Kampire Dior; Pat instead made the first absolute ascent of Karim Sar (6,180m). Teaming up with Paul Hersey (N-Z), Pat scaled the last 1000 meters completely solo.

Close to 70 years old, Spanish Carlos Soria bagged the first ascent of Dome Kang (7264m) with Vicente “Tente” Lagunilla and three Sherpas.

Awards

A wider choice for election turned the revamped golden ice axe into plural “Piolets d’Or”, multiplying the number of prizes. Three teams – two of them Japanese – were unanimously awarded (Kamet’s SE face, Kalanka’s North face, Tengkampoche’s North face). A ‘life-time-award’ went to Walter Bonatti, 79. A “Spirit of Mountaineering”, award went to the group of voluntary rescuers who attempted to rescue Iñaki Ochoa on Annapurna’s South face.

Kazakh Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko won the 4th Piolet d’Or Asia for their climb of Cho Oyu’s SE face in Alpine style. Japanese climber Yuji Hirayama got the ‘Golden Climbing Shoes’ award, while further honors went to Young-Seung Park and Oh Eun-Sun for their contribution in mountaineering.

CAI (Italian Alpine Club) awarded Simone Moro and Hervè Barmasse for the first alpine style ascent of Pakistan’s Beka Brai Chhok. The prize, currently in its third edition, was established by the CAI as a tribute to Marco and Sergio Dalla Longa, perished in 2005 and 2007.

The prestigious Eiger award went this year to Italian Simone Moro and Kazakh Denis Urubko for their first winter Makalu ascent.

* Previous story :

–  ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

-   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Polar adventures.

-   Tragedy in the Himalaya, 2009 climbing season.

Exweb Week-In-Review is sponsored by HumanEdgeTech the world’s premier supplier of expedition technology. Our team helps you find ultra light expedition tech that works globally.

e-mail or call +1 212 966 1928

* Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

Quote of the week

“Time magazine picked Ben Bernanke as its person of the year. … In a year that saw a president use a $787 billion stimulus to turn a projected 9% unemployment rate into a 10% actual unemployment rate, who (besides Tim Geithner) better represents the breath-taking economic incompetence of today’s leadership in Washington?” – Don Surber

Obama Hostage to Wall Street, Americans Hostage to Consumerism

by James Howard Kunstler

“Okay, so President Obama didn’t run for office to help out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street – or so he said on CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ show Sunday night. But maybe it didn’t seem like such a bad idea once the election was over. Anyway, the net effect of his administration’s actions since then – all nicely documented in the latest Rolling Stone dispatch from the choleric Matt Taibbi – was an immense helping out of fat cat bankers on Wall Street at the expense of a lot of American citizens who work elsewhere, if they are lucky enough to have income-producing work.” more…

Snarky Disinformation About Gold and the Nature of Money

by Dan Denning

“How can any objective observer take a look at fiscal and monetary policy of the last three years and assume that central banking and fiat money are not a giant con job on the general public? Fiat money allows the government to create money backed by nothing. Not only does that decrease purchasing power — especially hurting savers and those on fixed income — it accelerates the misuse of real resources.

“When it comes down to it, it’s a kind of theft. The government prints money and gets the benefit of using it first before purchasing power is diminished. It trades paper money for real goods and services — things which take labor and raw materials to produce. The systematic inflation inherent in fiat currencies IS theft of real labor and resources.” more…

Copenhagen’s Lesson in Limits

by The Wall St. Journal

“The previous 12 days of frantic sound and pointless fury showed that there isn’t anything approaching an international consensus on carbon control. What Copenhagen offered instead was a lesson in limits for a White House partial to symbolic gestures and routinely disappointed by reality.

…

“We can’t wait to hear Mr. Obama tell Americans that he wants them to pay higher taxes so the U.S. can pay China to become more energy efficient and thus more economically competitive.” more…

The Vision of the Founders: Dead and Gone

by Kevin R.C. Gutzman

“The Bill of Rights should be mourned, not celebrated. It is defunct. Intended as the bulwark of the right of decentralized self-government, it now serves mainly as an excuse for the opposite: a roving judicial veto of state policies that federal judges dislike.” more…

10 Surprising Facts about American Health Care

by Scott Atlas

“Medical care in the United States is derided as miserable compared to health care systems in the rest of the developed world. Economists, government officials, insurers and academics alike are beating the drum for a far larger government rôle in health care. Much of the public assumes their arguments are sound because the calls for change are so ubiquitous and the topic so complex. However, before turning to government as the solution, some unheralded facts about America’s health care system should be considered.” more… [Of course as Mark Twain once said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."]

Regulars

• Comics
• Bill Bonner’s Weekly: Depression on Wheels
• Financial Sense Editorials: Beware of Zombies Wearing Lipstick
• As of today there have been 140 failed banks this year. For those keeping track that’s seven on the week.

News and Stuff

• Boeing’s 787 finally takes to the sky. [Link includes video of takeoff.]
• A factual piece about Ron Paul’s growing influence.
• Analysis of David Kokesh’s campaign for the 3rd New Mexico Congressional District.
• House passsed defense appropriations act, extended the PATRIOT Act, raised the debt limit, and passed a “jobs” bill. That’s about $1.9 trillion worth of spending in 24 hours.
• Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson launches the Our America Initiative.
• Obama’s approval is 44%. A whopping 40% strongly disapprove.
• US District judge grants injunction against defunding of ACORN. Bill’s of attainder are prohibited by the Constitution.

Technology

• For $60,000 you can have your very own 10,000 X zoom desktop electron microscope.

Videos

• Ron Paul and Barney Frank on Larry King.
• How the government “competes”. This is an excellent video. The 40 seconds it takes to watch it is time well spent.

And now the numbers…

DOW Jones Industrials – 10,328.89 (-142.61/-1.36%)
S&P 500 – 3,391.735 (+2,285.325/206.55%)
VIX – 21.68 (+0.09/0.42%)
CSI 300 (China) – 3,391.735 (-183.285/-5.13%)
BSE 500 (India) – 6,577.03 (-137.63/-2.05%)
MICEX (Russia) – 1,368.43 (+67.10/5.16%)
BOVESPA (Brazil) – 66,794.211 (-2,473.258/-3.57%)
RICI – 3,160.80 (+46.80/1.50%)
Gold/oz – 1,111.50 (-8.40/-0.75%)
Silver/oz – 17.32 (+0.23/1.35%)
Copper/lb – 313.85 (+0.55/0.18%)
Oil/bbl (Brent) – 73.75 (+1.87/2.60%)
Wheat/bu (CBT) – 528.00 (-9.50/-1.77%)
Corn/bu – 397.75 (-6.75/-1.67%)
EUR-USD – 1.4338 (-0.0277/-1.90%)
USD-JPY – 90.495 (+1.392/1.56%)
USD-BRL – 1.7802 (+0.0217/1.23%)
3 Month Treasury – 0.04 (+0.02/100.00%)
2 Year Treasury – 0.79 (-0.01/-1.25%)
10 Year Treasury – 3.54 (-0.01/-0.28%)
30 Year Treasury – 4.46 (-0.04/-0.89%)
U.S. Public Debt (official) – 12,097,698,782,543.90 (+5,025,882,141.60/0.04%)
Baltic Dry Index (BDIY:IND) – 3,258.00 (-321.00/-8.97%)

I don’t have too much time tonight. Too busy finishing up this semester. On the upside I’ll be finished after I take four more classes!

Okay, I’ll say one thing. I think this week’s newsletter rocks! And read Bonner’s column if you get a chance.

Breakfast in Ann Arbor at the Classic Cup Cafe at 8AM tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I found this today quoted in another post. I unfortunately couldn’t find the original, so I’m going to quote it an length here. It’s by Bill Jenkins and I think he hits the nail square on the head.

“The only way out, and I mean the only way, is to cut spending to the bare bone.

“Forget paying for education and the huge bureaucracy that drives it (into the ground). American children learned very well for generations without public schools. Forget subsidizing farmers for not planting their fields. For that matter, forget subsidies of all kinds. Foreign aid. Art. Health care for nonretirees. Sell federally owned lands and quit paying people to manage them. Shut down the IRS and move to a flat-rate taxation. Fund Congress and the Senate on a strictly honorarium basis and only let them work part time at the Capitol… say, 30 days per year. They would do a lot less damage that way…

“Our government no longer promotes freedom, but bondage. No longer liberty, but slavery. Our welfare and education systems have created a bloated citizenry nearly incapable of fending for themselves. Like baby birds in the nest, they sit with their mouths open waiting for some federal bureaucrat to drop something in.

“Until we are willing to provide personal, and not tax-based, charity to those who are truly in need around us; until parents are willing to take their children’s education back from the hands of the educational elite who have proved to us decisively that they know how to teach children not to read and not to count; until we demand that all our troops be brought home to defend our own borders and have no tangling alliances with foreign nations; until those who are determined to sit on the public dole go hungry for a while and decide that getting a job is better than starving; until we cut our porked government budget to live off a flat tax from our own people, and not borrow from nations all around us…

“Until all this happens, there will be no escape. There will be no redemption. There will be no recovery. There will be no hope for our grandchildren.”

     Another Friday has rolled around and it is time for another Week In Review. Also, I hope our Jewish friends round out Hanukkah with a cup overflowing with happiness, and prepare for the onslaught that is Christmas week!

     In case you forgot, here’s how the Week In Review works: the week is evaluated in four categories. If the category was generally lame, it wins no stars; if the category was cool, it gets one star. In the end, the week receives a handy-dandy four star rating, so we can tell exactly how good it was! It’s the most scientific approach yet devised to quantify a week’s greatness; let’s rock.

     World Events: The Copenhagen summit, where delegates from 200 countries gathered to pass a treaty reducing carbon emissions, dominated world events. This could be because the summit marked significant progress in helping the environment, or because all world leaders were out of office partying it up in Denmark. You guys may want to sit down for this, but it looks like no agreement will be reached. I know, I know, we are all shocked that 18,000 delegates weren’t able to arrive at a compromise in one week. What’s worse, the Copenhagen summit will leave the largest carbon footprint of any meeting OF ALL TIME. Reuters reports the summit will generate 46,200 tons of carbon emissions, equal to what 2,300 Americans generate in an entire year. That‘s a pretty expensive PR stunt, and this marks 13 years and 147 days since our government has done ANYTHING useful. A big frustrating groan and no stars for World Events. +0 stars

     Entertainment: Movie news was also dominated by one singular event, namely Avatar. It’s tracking 84% percent on rottentomatoes.com, and will probably remain there. That’s a good thing, and moves this weeks Entertainment category closer to a star. Unfortunately, two of four big music releases include David Archuletta’s Christmas from the Heart and Robin Thicke’s Sex Therapy. It’s like a battle between the boy who won’t grow up and the man who won’t grow down. Also, what exactly is Sex Therapy, anyways? Most women would consider it a punishment to pay by the hour in that department. He’s a woman’s worst nightmare – a sex therapist named “Thicke” with a lead off single called “911”. Luckily new releases from Alicia Keys and the soundtrack for the movie “Nine” earn Entertainment this week’s first star. +1 star

     Daily Life: Horoscopes were right up the middle this week, coming in around 50%. Gemini, Taurus, Scorpio and Capricorn all had a chill week, coincidentally in time for the holidays. The worst week went to Virgo, who had only 28% positive horoscopes. Apparently they had to pick up the slack for all the star signs who were sipping eggnog. Aquarius was on work, family and love life fire, and enjoyed the best week, with 100% positive horoscopes. Everybody else basically ran up the middle. The glass is half full, so I’m dropping in a star of my own. +1 star

      Wild Card: Jon and Kate are divorcing and it’s rumored Tiger is as well, but I’m sick of relationship turmoil tabloids so this week’s wild card is the Colts winning against the Jaguars. It’s been a great NFL season and the Colts are on fire. This is their 23rd consecutive regular season win, making a new NFL record. Manning seems like a cool guy, and the Colts have that “good guy” feel which I go for, so go Colts! Great regular season teams usually peter out in the post season, but here’s hoping for a Saints/Colts Super Bowl (sorry, I just jinxed it). +1 star

     Give me a second to count on my fingers…we have a three star week!

Better than a C, not quite an A-.

     Everybody have a great weekend, and look forward to some cool posts next week. I’ll be doing a retrospective piece, “Death of A Record Store”, a write up on my newest song “Within and Within” (listen to it here), and a real life research piece about carbon emissions! I’m excited already. Have a great weekend and enjoy my mini-posts.

• Instead of Gym we watched “Charlie Brown, It’s Chritsmastime Again” and “Happy New Year, Charlie Brown.”
• Today was Red and Green Day so many of us wore Santa hats.
• Our stuffed Kermit is our own little classroom “Elf on the Shelf”.
• We had a mystery reader today.
• We did compliment cards today.
• We had a math assessment on elapsed time.
• We started the Amusement Park activity in math.
• Miss Conetta started reading aloud holiday books this week.
• In writing we have been working on revising our fiction stories.
• We finished up our research on the geography of the regions of the U.S.
• In reading we started Reading Response Letters.
• We are going to change partners in many subjects starting after the New Year.
• In reading we are talking about writing about reading and pushing our thinking.
• We are finishing up our last partner books this week.

The Week in Review is (hopefully) a weekly feature about all the important things I think you should know.

This past week has once again proven to be fairly uneventful (especially compared to last week). But, as with every week, there are a few things to note:

• Monday I had an event at the Appoquinimink Library (the public library in Middletown). It wasn’t all that great of an event, I talked to 5 people (one of whom was a three or four year old who wanted a sticker). I didn’t get any interest forms from it. I wasn’t expecting it to be an overly fantastic event, but I had hoped I would have a little more interest.
• EMT course – I talked with someone from the state fire school and am taking the EMT practical exam on Sunday. I might also be taking the protocol exam, I’m not yet sure if that will be the case. I don’t know if this means I will still need to take the 24 hour EMT refresher course, or if I’ll be able to bi-pass that step. I will still need to take the National EMT exam (similar to my nursing boards).
• I went to another station to get an orientation on the ambulance so I’d feel a little more comfortable with things when I rode along. I now at least have a working knowledge of how to use the stretcher and stair-chair should I need to.
• I met with my program director and have ideas floating around in my head about what I might want to consider doing following my term of service. This has, of course, stirred up several possibilities for me to consider.
• I have been studying the Delaware state protocols for EMTs and going over scenarios in preparation for my EMT practical exam on Sunday. I am really hoping that I remember all of the protocols (and the differences between nursing assessment and EMT assessment).

In the upcoming week:

• We’re suppose to get snow on Saturday. The email I got from my program director about a winter storm watch said we could get 10-20 inches of snow!
• I’m heading home on Tuesday! I’ll be flying into Midway (in Chicago) early Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be home until the 27th.

• We had a concert!
• Jack Z. and Leela say hi.
• We studied reaction time.
• Broccoli brought a hundred stuffed animals (actually, real ones).
•  Andrew punched Ryan in the nose by accident.
• We had a math test.
• We had Stranger Danger.
• It’s almost Christmas…
• We revised our poems.
• We learned how to chunk non-fiction texts.
• Wyatt got crushed by Santa.
• We finished Colonial House.
• We started the Geography Bee.
• Anjay and Holm moonwalked.
• We finally had a Friday Fun Day; it’s stuffed animal day.
• We wrote the Week in Review.
• Peace!

This, our final week at OA, has been very busy and very emotional. We have been packing our things and preparing our minds for the big transition, as well as getting campus clean and ready for Semester XXX.

On Monday we started off the week with our math exams. Our exams were difficult but we studied hard for them and we are anxious to see our grades! Later, we did a cool activity with Hannah, making our own beads out of femo clay. After that, we had some time to work on our giving day projects and play in the woods with Christopher. That evening we had a very cool event called the Progressive Dinner. We traveled around to the homes of different faculty members, with each house serving a different course of our dinner. We started off at Christie’s house, with some Wassail, a traditional warm holiday drink containing cider and spices. Then we went over to Hamilton’s Hut, where Danny lives, for some yummy sweet potato fries, chips, and salsa. Danny really brought the Christmas cheer, dressing like Santa Claus and showing us his beautiful Christmas tree. Following our appetizers, we went to Riverside, where Katie, Josh, and Hannah live, for our first course. We had some very yummy sushi, miso soup and some wonderful conversation. Following that, we went over to Tinsley and Michael’s for “Dirty Tacos,” a southern treat. It was fun munching on local beef from Everett Farms, hanging out with baby Noah and congratulating Michael on his recently earned Ph.D. For our final course, we loaded into the vans and headed to Ted and Jane’s for a very yummy chocolate cake. Ted even read us a good night story by the fire!!!

Students enjoy Wassail at Christie's.

Students hang with "Danny Claus."

Om nom nom. Riverside cooked up some really yummy sushi.

Students enjoying Tinsley and Michael's Dirty Tacos.

Ted read students a good night story.

Right after breakfast on Tuesday, we had a big work crew that lasted until lunch, cleaning up campus and beginning to get ready for closing day. After lunch we had one last chunk of project time to work on giving day gifts, followed by a wonderful game of ultimate. Most of the faculty came out to play and we had a great, full-field match chock-full of healthy competitive spirit. After dinner, we headed over to Sikwayi for our final wheel with Helen. We began by exploring the four cardinal directions and then we talked more about the transition. We did a candlelit version of the Virginia Reel and we told each other things that we wished we had said throughout the semester.

Wednesday morning we had our final Morning Watch, trekking up to Copperhead Ridge for the final time. After chores and breakfast like always, we did more cleaning of spaces and did our final packing, followed by yet another work crew. Later, we had a wonderful Art Gallery in Wayah, celebrating the great talent of our OA students. After schmoozing and viewing fabulous art, we went to Cheoah for our final Community Meeting, in which we said goodbye with words, writing messages to everyone in the community.

Today, Thursday, we depart for our Solo. We will spend just under 24 hours on our own out in the wilderness on campus, each of us getting our own solo campsite. Staff will be around and able to help us if we need it, but this is will mostly be a time for us to be in our own space reflecting on our time here and our transition ahead. We will certainly be bundled up for the elements as we spend the winter evening outdoors. The weatherman says we’ll be waking up to a snowy, wintery wonderland.

Tomorrow, we will come back from Solos and have a farewell ceremony before coming back to main campus. After we tie up some loose ends, such as taking our semester photo we will have our Giving Day celebration. That is when we will exchange the secret gifts we have been working on all semester, followed by a slide show and a final ceremony. Then we will sing our final Goodnight Circle song and go to bed anxious for your arrival, but sad to leave this magical place.

We will see you incredibly soon. You can’t imagine how much we appreciate all that you have done so that we could be here!!

-XXIX

Check out lots more picture from our final week on our flickr page

Find out more about the Outdoor Academy at our website.

December 12th: We had signed Little Man up for a SF event.  To see The Princess and the Frog at the movie theater.  Hubby didn’t have anything else going on that day, so I took him and then went to the gym for some treadmilling.  I set the clock for 45 minutes and walked the first 5 minutes for warm-up.  I slowed down several times to drink my water, but I did pause it once for a long drink of water.  Stupidity set in.  Instead of hitting “Quick Start” to resume the workout, I hit “pause/reset” instead.  Sigh…

I did notice that I had gone 2 miles and had about 17ish minutes left, so I reset the clock for 15 minutes.   I managed to go another 1.1 miles in the 15 minutes and 0.29 miles during cool down.  I managed to keep the incline set at 1 and my speed varied between 4.8 & 5.2 mph.

December 14th: It was “warm” enough to actually run outside during lunch.  It was in the mid 40’s, over cast and just a little windy.  I ran 3.1 miles (5K) in 36:40.  Not too bad.

December 16th: I hauled the Stationary bike upstairs before work.  I DVR’ed the show Hoarders and watched while I pedaled.   I tend to keep an eye on mileage rather than time and I think I went approximately 0.67 miles before it reset.  grrrrr…  That’s getting old.  Went along with no problems, then the doorbell rang.  I wasn’t expecting anyone for half an hour!  He was early picking up the boxes of files for work.  I did glance and the mileage was 5.47 miles.  When I was ready to get back on the stationary, it had reset back to zero.  At least I keep track of it all on my notes on my phone!  Anyway. I watch the last of the show and finish with 4.26 miles for a total of 10.41 miles on the bike.

December 17th: Today was another nice enough dat to run outside.  Mid 40’s and sunny, with just a little breeze.  I did run 4.5 miles in 52:31 with minimal walking.  It was a there and back route, rather than a circuit route.  I walked for 30 seconds at the turn and then another 30 seconds heading up hill #2 (right around mile 3).  the last bit of walking was for about 10 seconds just after mile 4 on what I call the Poltergeist hallway hill.

Next week is winter break, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to do.  Hopefully more than I think. 

(ExplorersWeb.com) In previous years, ExplorersWeb have published one big Year in Review on January 1st.

This year we are cutting it up in sections, to be posted every day until the awards, with the compiled report to go up early 2010.

Today we jump straight to the darkest chapter of last year; friends and legends lost.

Obituaries – 8000ers

They won an ExWeb award for their great 2006 Himalayan Trilogy; this year “The Peters” Himalayan saga was tragically ended when Polish Piotr Morawski perished in a crevasse on Dhaulagiri April 8 at 8.40 am local time, while returning from C2. At only 33, Piotr had summited six 8000ers, and made the first winter summit on Shisha Pangma (together with Simone Moro in January, 2005).

* see : – Breaking news: Piotr Morawski lost on Dhaulagiri. Piotr Morawski zginął na Dhaulagiri. /Version english and polish/

Dhaulagiri also claimed Iranian Mehdi Etemadfar who reportedly fell to his death while pushing for the summit on May 1st.

Czech Martin Minarik and French Elisabeth Revol reached Annapurna’s Eastern summit (8,021m) following eight days of rough conditions on the peak’s south side. The two split up on descent at 7100 meters where Martin became unable to move on his own. Revol was found exhausted in Manang village while a heli SAR for Martin returned unsuccessful. Before Annapurna, Martin Minarik commemorated Tibet’s National Uprising day by flying a Tibetan flag at his house in the Czech Republic.

Denis Urubko’s free-spirited climbing partner Russian Sergei Samoilov, 52, died on Lhotse during unclear circumstances as a member of the Kazakh 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. A 2005 climb on Broad Peak’s unclimbed SW face gained Serg and Denis an ExplorersWeb award, and a nomination for the international Piolet d’Or. In 2006 the two completed a new route on the NE side of Manaslu and in 2007, they summited K2 in its latest summit ever and the first K2 north side summit in 11 years. Denis Urubko and Sergei Samoilov are the only to have gained no less than three Best-of-ExWeb awards (2005-2007).

German (Calgary resident) Frank Ziebarth, 29, reportedly perished after summiting Everest w/o O2 via the South side on May 21st. Czech Veslav Chrzaszcz reportedly passed during the night at the North Col on May 18th, probably due to a heart attack. Lhakpa Nuru Sherpa, 32, vanished in an Everest icefall avalanche while Kaji Sherpa, 45, was poisoned by methanol in BC. Chinese Wu Weng-Hong, 40, succumbed to HAPE.

In spring Manaslu claimed Italian Giuseppe Antonelli, lost to HAPE while retreating from C3, and Hungarian Levente Szabo who reportedly fell to his death on descent from an aborted summit push. On October 1st, despite a rescue haul to BC, Slovenian Franc Oderlap died of presumed brain injury on the peak.

Dennis Verhoeve reportedly fell to his death while abseiling from Cho Oyu summit on June 2nd. Later in fall, US Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s husband Clifton Maloney, 71, passed while resting in a high camp shortly after summiting the peak.

He summited Makalu (his 5th 8,000er without 02) on May 21st; on June 4th Australian Mick Parker (36) was found dead in his hotel in Kathmandu due to a combination of exhaustion, lingering effects of HAPE and alcohol.

Italian Michele Fait slipped and fell while skiing down the Cesen route on K2.

Korean star climber Go Mi-Sun (‘Ko Mi-young’) fell to her death on descent at around 6200 meters close to camp 2 on Nanga Parbat. With 11, 8000ers summited in a very short time, Miss Go, 41, became known as a “dark horse” in the quest for the first female to summit all 14, 8000ers.

Austrian Wolfgang Köblinger was also lost on Nanga Parbat normal route. Traces in the snow indicated Wolfgang might have gone over a steep section at 8060m while on descent from summit.

“El Grio” (the cricket) Cristina Castagna, 31, reportedly slipped and fell into a crevasse while descending from camp 4 on Broad Peak with mate Giampaolo Casarotto. She had previously summited Shisha’s central summit (2004), GII (2005), Dhaulagiri (2007) and Makalu (2008).

Climbing behind the Iranian team with Polish mate Jacek Teler; Spanish mountaineer Luis M. Barbero was last seen near the summit on Gasherbrum II and reported lost some days later by his team mates in BC.

A snapped rope caused young mountain guide Roby Piantoni to lose footing and fall to his death on the British route at Shisha Pangma south side. Roby’s dad had been killed in an Peruvian Andes avalanche in 1981. At the family’s request, climbers on Shisha Pangma joined forces to help bring Roby’s remains home to Bergamo, Italy.

Obituaries – lower peaks

Pakistani Army Air Corps helicopters along with local and international mountaineers tried in vain to rescue Spanish climber Oscar Perez, stuck at approximately 6,200 m of altitude with a broken leg and an arm immobilized after suffering an accident when he tried to scale Latok II in alpine style with Alvaro Novellón.

His amazing life came to an end on an unknown peak, in the company of local kitchen boy Jagat, on a climb very few knew about. Air Zermatt Swiss rescue team Pilot Robert Andenmatten and rescue-climber Simon Anthamatten finally found Tomaz Humar at 5600 meters on the south wall of Langtan Lirung on November 14. Robert dropped Simon with a 25 meter static rope on the accident site but it was too late. Tomaz had died, apparently after breaking his leg in a fall.

In an eerie reminder of Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff lost in a 2007 Sichuan avalanche; American Micah Dash, Jonathan Copp and Wade Johnson died in an avalanche near BC on Sichuan’s E Gongga.

Korean climbers Min Jung-Young and Park Jong-Sung perished in their attempt for a new route on the north face of Hiunchuli (6.441m) located close to Annapurna’s south side Sanctuary.

Obituaries – other

Dr. Giuliano De Marchi, 62, perished while ski-touring in the Dolomites. Giuliano had summited Makalu, Cho Oyu, Shisha, attempted Everest and K2, and crossed Greenland from Kulusuq to Kangerlussuaq in 2000.

Climbing Mag Editor American Craig Luebben, 49, was killed by falling ice on Mount Torment in Washington’s Cascades.

Polish climber Andrzej Marciniak survived the 1989 Everest expedition that killed five of his fellow Polish climbers but lost his life in the Tatras mountains on August 7 this year.

Himalayan climber Sven Gangdal died in a boating accident on the night of September 13 at home in Norway. Sven was alone in a small motor boat which ran at high speed into a cliff. Sven had climbed five 8000ers and was twin brother of fellow mountaineer Jon Gangdal who became the first Norwegian to scale Kangchenjunga.

Aconcagua had a season deadlier than usual with the most controversial fatality being that of Federico Campanini. A video posted on YouTube showed the mountain guide surrounded by a group of rescuers asking for permission over radio to leave the crawling climber behind, claiming that he has “no more than 40 minutes to live.”

Lack of funds forced British Mark Evison to postpone his aspiration to become the youngest person to ski solo to the South Pole. Instead, Mark (26) went to Afghanistan. Nicknamed ‘007′ by his brothers in arms, the young soldier sadly took a bullet and passed away on May 12.

Obituaries – legends lost

Italian Riccardo Cassin died near Lecco on August 6. Part of Ragni di Lecco (the Lecco Spiders), Cassin made many legendary climbs in the Dolomites and around the world, fought in WWII and set up shop with his own climbing gear. In 1961 at age 52, Riccardo became the first to summit Denali via the Cassin Ridge, and he continued to climb well into his 80s.

American K2 explorer and high-altitude physician Charles Houston died September 27, at 96 years old. Member in the 1935 Nanda Devi expedition, Houston tried K2 in 1938 and 1953. Houston wrote “K2: The Savage Mountain” and later Bernadette McDonald compiled his biography in “Brotherhood of the Rope.”

K2 pioneer Achille Compagnoni died May 13 in a northern Italy hospital at age 94. On November 20 at age 83 fellow Italian Lino Lacedelli followed Achille for one last time.

* Previous story : –  Tragedy in the Himalaya.

- Tragedy in the Himalaya, 2009 climbing season.

Exweb Week-In-Review is sponsored by HumanEdgeTech the world’s premier supplier of expedition technology. Our team helps you find ultra light expedition tech that works globally.

e-mail or call +1 212 966 1928

* Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

Hey everybody!

Last week was quite exciting at the Outdoor Academy! While it was our last week of classes, and final exams and projects were lingering on our minds, we still managed to have a good time between study sessions. It was a big relief to turn in our science papers and our Hero’s Journey stories. In Environmental Seminar, we had a three-day final, which involved an essay, an art project, and a conversation with a faculty member. In these conversations, faculty members played devil’s advocate on environmental issues, forcing us to substantiate our convictions. In PE we did our final fitness evaluation which included running a timed mile. Many of us also spent time this week working on our giving day projects.

A student works on her art project for her Environmental Science Final.

Following a week of hard studying, we blew off a little steam engaging in some fun-filled activities this weekend, with a few study halls peppered in here and there. During dinner on Friday night, Chef Michael’s cooking students participated in an Iron Chef-style culinary competition. Students were put in teams of two and given the task of creating a meal with each dish containing Granny Smith apples. Each team prepared a salad, an appetizer, and a main course evaluated by a panel of student judges with a special guest judge- Jane Davidowski, the wife of our own Ted Wesemann. Judges looked at a variety of categories including presentation, color, and flavor. Our winners were team “Bon Appetite,” who won in a landslide with their apple-cider marinated steak.

Team Bon Appetit presents their championship-winning meal to the judges,

Later that night, we put on the Semester XXIX Talent Show. There were all kinds of acts, such as dancing, rapping, jumping rope, and musical performances. Many performed original songs, from tunes about rambling blind men, to songs about the OA experience, and even comedic ditties about lost love. Capping the show, nobody could ever forget Cabin 10’s brilliantly hilarious Nativity Scene, complete with musical numbers and animals!

Students perform the "Ramblin' Toe-Tappin' Blues," an original song about a blind man on a Hero's Journey.

On Saturday morning, people filtered in and out of Cheoah to meet with Josh and record songs for the Semester CD. Many of us sang songs we performed in the talent show and songs we have written over the course of the semester. The Swedish Patella Theory Crew, for example, threw down their jam “Finnz and Eggz” a rap about muffins and hard-boiled eggs, their favorite breakfast. The recordings turned out very well and Josh said he would get us the CD’s before we went home. Then following lunch and study hall, we went on CABIN NIGHT OUT! Dorm groups separated and went out to dinner in Brevard and then went on to their adventures that evening. Cabin 10 and West Side ended up at the local bowling alley for Bolley-okee (Bowling and Karokee combined). The East Siders spent their time on Saturday watching movies. Then on Sunday, we had a few Study Halls to get us ready for exams, some free time, and our final cabin meetings.

The end is approaching quickly and we’ll be with you before you know it! We love you and we thank you for this experience!

-XXIX

Check out lots more on our flickr page

Find out more about the Outdoor Academy at our website.

So I’m back to writing my weekly update.  Things are finally slow enough in my life that I can actually get around to it.  And I have a couple of other post ideas, so be sure and check back later this week.  And since it is gray and rainy here in Alabama, I’ll have plenty of time…but I digress.  Here’s what you are here for.

Music That I Am Listening To and Enjoying – I posted my songs of 2009 list last week, so those have been in pretty heavy rotation since the iMac is still down.  Not sure when or how I’m getting a replacement, but I’m going a little crazy without it right now…

Customer Service Moment of the Week – I had a Starbucks customer stammer around at the drive-thru speaker wondering out loud what her regular drink was, then ordered the wrong drink and corrected herself by saying that she did not usually get that.  Insanity comes in all shapes and forms people.  I also had an older lady at J.Crew get mad that we did not have the special printer that writes out your check for you.  Really?  You choose to use checks and then get mad because you have to fill it out?  People are ridiculous.

Sports Moment of the Week – Nothing of real note on my radar here.  A Heisman was won, but I did not really care since I’m not really a fan of any of the candidates.  College basketball is in full swing but I’m more of a March Madness guy.  Pro football is still going but the Niners play tonight and I’m working.  So it is a big goose egg for me on the sports front.  Thankfully there is enough other stuff going on to keep me occupied.

Books and Movies of the Week – I’m hoping to get some good reading done this week as I have a little more off time.  I watched License to Wed and it was pretty cringe worthy, though in a good way.  However, last week I did see Fantastic Mr. Fox and I totally loved it.  Wes Anderson put his stamp all over it and totally nailed it.  Favorite move in a long time for sure.  I’ve also been watching ESPN’s 30 for 30, a series of documentaries about sports events they’ve made in honor of their 30th anniversary.  They are phenomenal and I highly recommend catching them if you can.

Video of the Week – A little Christmas humor here for you.  This will be in your head all day…

5 Things I Think I Think

On Sunday, I should have spent more time working on my paper than I did.

On Monday, I finally keyed in edits I made to a hardcopy of draft 3 last week.  Doing this reminded me (again) of how much I don’t know about Connecticut history, so I also purchased two books that will fill in this gap.  I also spent a chunk of my free time in the evening trying to get red ink out of two of my husband’s shirts because his pen exploded in his pocket Monday morning.  Sometimes, domestic responsibilities are unavoidable.

On Wednesday, I had an entirely free day!  Because of the snow that hit the northeast, I did not go in to work.  I took some time to gather some materials for my paper, looking at my bookshelf and pulling out the books I have taken out from the library.  I am gathering a list of background reading that can help to support my project, particularly the historical memory aspects of my project.

On Saturday, I set aside working on my project to finish Christmas shopping.  Perhaps not the progress I’m constantly striving for, but progress in some way nonetheless!

The Week in Review for December 7 – 11, 2009

Well, this has been a pretty lackluster week for wrestling I must say. Out of five shows, only two were good, one was alright and two were downright abysmal. So let’s just this week over with, as there’s a PPV to get to.

Top 5 Matches of the Week.

1. Dolph Ziggler v. Finlay from Superstars 4.25/5
2. Hart Dynasty v. Jimmy Yang Wang & Slam Master J 4/5
3. MVP v. Jack Swagger from Superstars 4/5
4. Shelton Benjamin, Yoshi Tatsu & Christian v. Ruthless Roundtable from ECW 4/5
5. CM Punk & Luke Gallows v. Matt Hardy & R-Truth from Smackdown 3.75/5 <TIE>
6. Kofi Kingston v. Randy Orton from Raw 3.75/5 <TIE>

The Worst Matches of the Week.

1. Lacey Von Erich v. Velvet Sky from Impact DUD
2. Eric Young v. Hamada from Impact 1/5
3. Hornswoggle & Eve v. Jillian Hall & Chavo Guerrero from RAW 1/5

Overall, the best show of the week for the second week is Superstars which had 3 great matches with two 4’s and 4.25. Some people may think I overrated the Hart Dynasty match, but I loved the match up, loved the finishing move of Tyson Kidd, and I’m huge fan of all five in the match. It pains me to but Impact in worst matches for two matches, but this week’s episode was awful and really had nothing to save it.

Overall Ranking

1. Monday Night Raw averaged a 2.5 for seven matches over two hours; almost double the matches of last week abomination. There were some pretty good matches this week, other than the mixed tag. Not a bad episode, but I’m looking forward to this week, as I’m a huge fan of Dennis Miller, so hopefully this week’s should be fun to watch.
2. ECW averaged a 3/5 for 3 matches in an hour. A great main event with 4 huge talents, and two possible future stars. Vance actually had a good match with Tommy and I can see Vince pushing him hard and the tag match once again did a good job showcasing the new guys of Barreta & Croft. A good episode of ECW as usual, it’s going to be a shame if and when they kill the brand.
3. Superstars averaged an impressive 4/5 for 3 matches in an hour. Excellent show with not a single bad match on the show this week. This week was must see TV, if you haven’t seen it yet, go find it and watch these three matches.
4. Impact averaged a dismal 2/5 for 7 matches in two hours. The same number of matches of RAW, but the quality of the matches was just embarrassingly bad. I don’t know what they were thinking with the booking of this week’s show. It was almost like they wanted to see how it could get and still have viewers. A major disappointment of a show, I hope they can do better next week, with the PPV next Sunday.
5. Smackdown averaged 2.75/5 for 5 matches in two hours. Not a bad show, just too much Batista this week, with a promo, recaps and a match was a bit of overkill. The Morrison/McIntyre segment was funny though and that maybe the big match of the PPV. CM Punk is gold on the mic as always, and I love the gimmick, I’d like to see the Straight Edge Superstar v. The Rated R Superstar, when Edge returns.

Overall, not a great week, but Superstars was miles ahead in terms of quality for this week. I can’t wait for the Slammy Awards on Monday, should be a good show.

I wasn’t able to find either the Hart Dynasty match or the Finlay/Ziggler, but here’s the MVP v. Jack Swagger match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7n9q6FwCMY

And for an added bonus, here’s the John Morrison/Drew McIntyre face off from Smackdown as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAjNh0ERjg

Finally, here are my predictions for tonight’s PPV:
1. Sheamus over Cena for the title
2. Batista over Undertaker for the other title
3. DX beat Jerishow for the tag title
4. Christian over Shelton Benjamin
5. Drew McIntyre beats John Morrison for the title
6. Kofi Kingston over Randy Orton
7. Mickie James beats Michelle McCool for the title
All in all, should be a good PPV, looking forward to matches 4-7, not interested in the top three matches. PPV recap should be posted sometime Monday.

• Negotiations for an agreement for action on the problem of global climate change began as a UN-led summit opened in Copenhagen, Denmark this week. The summit will continue until December 18. At issue is how much financial support wealthy developed countries should give to developing nations to aid their efforts and what the target reduction of greenhouse emissions should be. Summit homepage.
• Debate continued in the U.S. Senate over a healthcare reform bill. Opponents of healthcare reform tried to insert a provision that would prevent public funds from being used for pregnancy termination but it was defeated, Christian Science Monitor. The Senate will continue debate as they try to get a bill that can be passed. The Senate bill will need to be reconciled with the bill from the House of Representatives and then that bill must be signed by President Barack Obama to be put into law.
• Students used the occasion of a scheduled state-sponsored day of demonstration to protest the current government on college campuses in Iran on Monday.  The protests are usually brief, but they show that support for he reform movement is still strong, Times Online.

• Iraq’s government moved to go forward on planning elections for 2010. Opponents of the current government, staged a massive attack on Tuesday, using car bombs to strike 5 sites in Baghdad, including government and military buildings. 127 people died in the bombings and hundreds were injured. Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, Baghdad’s security chief, was removed from his position after the attack, Times Online. Who is counting the bodies in Baghdad?, BBC News.
• In a small bit of uplifting news, the story of a dog that survived Tuesday’s attack despite being chained to the roof of one of the buildings that was bombed, Daily Mail.

• U.S. President Barack Obama picked up his Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, despite criticism that he had not done enough to earn it. Obama accepted the prize with “humility” and used the occasion to defend war as an instrument in the pursuit of peace.  Transcript of Obama’s speech, Associated Press.
• Thursday, December 10, was Human Rights Day, a day that marked the 61st anniversary of the adoption of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A look back at human rights in 2009 from Human Rights Watch, Al Jazeera.

• After violent protests, India announced that it will separate part of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh into a new state to be called Telangana. Calls for Telangana to become its own state date back 50 years, BBC News.

A brand New Year is around the corner and this marks ExWeb’s very last 2009 week-in-review. Instead, the Year in Review has been cut up in sections to be posted each day until the Awards.

Check in Monday for the first entry but before that, here goes a fast check of recent stories, a number concerning adventure media:

National Geographic Adventure magazine folding; Outside Mag on shaky ground? First it was Alpinist and now National Geographic Adventure magazine is folding its print edition. The jury is still out on Outside Magazine, rumored earlier this year to having laid off employees and being very late with payments to freelance writers contributing the majority of the mag’s articles.

The Wildest Dream: Mallory & Irvine coming to theaters in 2010 Filming a documentary on Mallory & Irvine’s last ascent a few years back, a big team led by Conrad Anker created controversy after falsely claiming a first free climb of the Second Step. “So what have we come to conquer, only ourselves,” Mallory said poignantly upon his arrival on Everest. Now the documentary about his climb is ready for screening. “The film explores Mallory’s obsession with becoming the first person to reach the highest place on Earth,” a movie press release stated.

UK media does it again: decade’s top international (mostly British) explorers listed According to the UK Telegraph, people who pushed “themselves to their limits and beyond during the past 10 years” were mostly British or at least Anglo-Saxon. “Can’t have Ruskies or Kimchis in the Empire,” wrote ExWeb’s Tina Sjogren in a popular editorial.

Young at Heart: ExWeb interview with Carlos Soria Since he topped out K2 at age 65, Carlos has been smashing Himalaya age records one after the other. This year, barely stopping to celebrate his 70th birthday, the Spaniard achieved a new route on Dome Kang and one of the few (real) GI summits of the season. Preparing for two more 8000ers next year; the veteran climber took a break in his daily training for a chat with ExWeb’s Angela Benavides.

Winter Himalaya action ahead: Falt and Pivtsov for Kwangde Lho Comparing routes, style and proper cool-value in Himalaya becomes much easier in winter. Usually, there’s no one there. But just as we started to prepare for another deserted season, Vassily Pivtsov (33) and David Falt (38) unwrapped their plans for Nepal’s’ Kwangde Lho (6187m): a cool new route up the peak’s north face in alpine style and within strict calendar winter.

Aconcagua kicking off Last season was one of the busiest in the past few years, and also one of the most tragedy-struck. This week Alpinismonline.com reported that Aconcagua has claimed its first victim already while nine rescues have been performed.

StatCrunch, take 3, final: ladies of thin air – XXIst Century women While Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Everest in 1975, Tibetan Ms. Phantog followed only ten days later, via the north side. The biggest name in female Himalaya history was Polish Wanda Rutkiewicz who summited eight 8000ers until Kangchenjunga took her life in 1992. In the final part of female Himalaya stats ExWeb’s Rodrigo Granzotto Peron ran the Individual female current ranking, and the National female ranking.

Free Spirits and Four Girls: First all-Chinese new route on Siguniang massif Word arrived from the Outdoor Exploration magazine that Chinese climbers Yan Dongdong and Zhou Peng completed the first all-Chinese ascent of Siguniang’s central south face. The new 1000 meters-long route includes difficulties up to M4/AI3+/VI and follows a direct line to the 6,250m main summit in Sichuan’s Siguniang mountain massif.

GoPro! Ultralight helmet mounted video camera now at HumanEdgeTech At $189 the new simple and light GoPro video camera is a steal. Standard or HD, both camera kits include water-proof housing and a bunch of mounts clipping to your helmet, your chest, the tip of your surfboard or just about anywhere your imagination offers. Check out HET’s review.

Exweb Week-In-Review is sponsored by HumanEdgeTech the world’s premier supplier of expedition technology. Our team helps you find ultra light expedition tech that works globally.

e-mail or call +1 212 966 1928

* Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

Quote of the week

“Barack Obama jetted from Copenhagen to Oslo Thursday to accept his Nobel Peace Prize. We have duly noted how little Obama has done to deserve the Prize, but, to his credit, he followed suit in his acceptance speech. We would give Obama credit for what seemed like humility — ‘Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize … my accomplishments are slight’ — but then again, the Prize has been given to Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and terrorist Yasser Arafat. Are these the ‘giants of history’ Obama was referring to? Besides, we hope his accomplishments remain slight.” – The Patriot Post

A Note on the Supposed Independence of the Fed

by Jörg Guido Hülsmann

“The Fed has had one success, and we must acknowledge this: it has spread its budget widely enough throughout the economics profession (both by outright hiring and also through numerous conferences, scholarships and consultancies) that many macroeconomists have succumbed to its blandishments. If there is any ‘independence’ that is needed, it is intellectual independence from the Fed.” more…

Who Wants War?

by Ron Paul

“Eisenhower warned of the increasing power and influence of the military industrial complex and it seems his worst fears have come true. He believed in a strong national defense, as do I, but warned that the building up of permanent military and weapons industries could prove dangerous if their influence got out of hand. After all, if you make your money on war, peace does you no good. With trillions of dollars at stake, there is tremendous incentive to keep the decision makers fearful of every threat in the world, real or imagined, present or future, no matter how ridiculous and far-fetched. The Bush Doctrine demonstrates how very successful the war lobby was philosophically with the last administration. And they are succeeding just as well with this one, in spite of having the so-called ‘peace candidate’ in office.” more…

EPA Calls Greenhouse Gases a Public Threat

by Jeffrey Ball, Charles Forelle, and Ian Talley

“The Environmental Protection Agency said greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and welfare in a decision that could eventually lead to new emissions regulations.” more…

Regulars

• Comics.
• Bill Bonner: Anthropogenic Market Warming
• Financial Sense Editorials: A Hot Future for Geothermal
• As of tonight, there have been 133 failed banks year to date.

New and stuff

• 79% of the people support an audit of the Federal Reserve
• On a generic congressional ballot: 36% support Democrats, 23% Tea Party, 18% Republicans.
• Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges\
• Israel will have a biometric database that holds the finger prints and facial scans of all of its citizens, err subjects
• EFF’s report on Facebook’s new privacy settings.
• A leaked document that could form the basis of any agreement to come out of Copenhagen has folks, especially developing nations, in a tizzy.
• Gold supply is short.
• Congressional Panel okays a bill that would attempt to force a playoff system into the NCAA Bowl Championship Series (BCS). No, this is not a joke.
• The art work of Audrey Kawasaki.
• The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession.

Technoloy

• Check out the ICON Personal aircraft.
• Mobile Firefox is coming.
• So is artificial meat. Pork actually. The video in the post (Daily Show out take) is much better than the self-righteous post itself. Seriously, how many people have an “ethical problem” with eating an animal?
• Got super strength? Not quite yet, but soon.

Videos

• Hide the decline (of global temperature). It’s a parody music video. Fun times!
• Stephen Colbert on the Fed. Includes an interview with Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders.

And now the numbers…

DOW Jones Industrials – 10,471.50 (+82.60/0.80%)
S&P 500 – 1,106.41 (+0.43/0.04%)
VIX – 21.59 (+0.34/1.60%)
CSI 300 (China) – 3,575.02 (-68.471/-1.88%)
BSE 500 (India) – 6,714.66 (-5.60/-0.08%)
MICEX (Russia) – 1,301.33 (-41.25/-3.07%)
BOVESPA (Brazil) – 69,267.469 (+1,663.946/2.46%)
RICI – 3,114.00 (-92.22/-2.88%)
Gold/oz – 1,119.90 (-49.60/-4.24%)
Silver/oz – 17.09 (-1.43/-7.72%)
Copper/lb – 313.30 (-10.45/-3.23%)
Oil/bbl (Brent) – 71.88 (-5.64/-7.28%)
Wheat/bu (CBT) – 537.50 (-20.50/-3.67%)
Corn/bu – 404.50 (+16.00/4.12%)
EUR-USD – 1.4615 (-0.0243/-1.64%)
USD-JPY – 89.103 (-1.457/-1.61%)
USD-BRL – 1.7585 (+0.0269/1.55%)
3 Month Treasury – 0.02 (-0.02/-50.00%)
2 Year Treasury – 0.80 (-0.03/-3.61%)
10 Year Treasury – 3.55 (+0.08/2.31%)
30 Year Treasury – 4.50 (+0.11/2.51%)
U.S. Public Debt (official) – 12,092,672,900,402.30 (+5,311,225,387.50/0.04%)
Baltic Dry Index (BDIY:IND) – 3,579.00 (-528.00/-12.86%)

Busy week. School is almost out for the semester. But there is still a ways to go. Two more papers to write to be exact… Then only one year till graduation, and getting back to real life again.

Continuing on the personal stuff, my daughter is doing very good. She’s such a happy baby and she’s babbling and gooing and all kinds of stuff. She’s really found her voice. I think she’ll get to wear her Christmas dress tomorrow.

Well, nothing else for tonight. Have a nice weekend.

The Week in Review is (hopefully) a weekly feature about all the important things I think you should know.

Wow, it seems like a lot has happened this week. (And I guess in reality I’ve been busy so a lot must have been going on!) First things first, for those of you keeping track, I’ll be coming home in 11 days. (Yes, that’s right, we’re down to under two weeks!) Now, on to the good stuff!

• As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I spent portions of last Saturday and Sunday standing out in the cold parking cars at Rockwood Mansion for their annual Holiday Open House. We got a little snow, on Saturday, but is was more slush than anything. (But at least it was some form of snow right?)
• The earlier part of my week wasn’t all that exciting, I spent Monday and Tuesday at my station doing the normal stuff. (In other words, I was in the office all day.) I did “finish” the junior fire camp brochure. It has been submitted to my supervisor and fire chief for approval. (Which means that I’ll have some changes to make next week before it is actually finished.)
• Thursday and Friday (today) I spent the day at the Office of Emergency Management receiving CERT training. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. Basically it’s some additional training for me to have in case of a wide spread emergency that were to take place in DE. I now have training (that I also got in fire school, but that’s besides the point) to carry out operations in an emergency situation (and I got a cool helmet and neon yellow vest).
• Thursday night was the New Castle County Volunteer Fire Fighter Association’s Banquet and swearing in ceremony for their new board. The Emergency Service Corps was invited to attend since we play a role in supporting the fire companies and impact the fire companies throughout the county. Not to mention it helps to spread the word that we are out there (although most of the people there know we exist already).
• Friday night (tonight) are elections at my fire company. I have to be here because they want me to try and get updated information for our volunteers. This is easier said than done, but I’ll (of course) do my best!

That’s pretty much my week in a nutshell. After I’m done tonight I’ll have put in around 45 hours this week (and I took most of Wednesday off to try and do some Christmas shopping.) This weekend will hopefully be restful before I jump into my last week before I fly home for Christmas (and snow!).