First watch this and see why the pics are so special...
and then prepare to be amazed by the following video.
Even though I see the video, I still can't believe it. (no disrespect but...) do elephants really have this much intelligence? I wonder at the kind of training they have had.
"Originally built in 1901, this walkway now serves as an approach to Makinodromo, the famous climbing sector of El Chorro." (Copied from Jeerjeerak's blog)
Being an acrophobe, this video was terrifying. All I could hear in my ear was the tranquila of the colombian guides in my ear as I was climbing the trees in the Amazonas! Amazing video!! Thanks Jeerjeerak-e gol! just when i started complaining about people not blogging too! :-P
From Wiki about El Caminito del Rey (The pathway of the King):
In 1901, it was obvious that the workers of the Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls needed a walkway to cross between the falls, to provide transport of materials, vigilance and maintenance of the channel. Construction of the walkway lasted four years. It was finished in 1905.
In 1921 the king Alfonso XIII had to cross the walkway for the inauguration of the dam Conde del Guadalhorce, and it became known by its present name.
The walkway has now gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. It is one meter (3 ft) in width, and is over 700 feet (200 m) above the river. Nearly all of the path has no handrail. Some parts of the walkway have completely collapsed and have been replaced by a beam and a metallic wire on the wall. Many people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years. After four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the local government closed the entrances. However, adventurous tourists still find their way into the walkway.
yo yo wassup wit mi homies in da crowd.. der used 2 be blog happy people around, but doz dayz are gone. No more bloggin for my girls out there, JeerK and ChissyG, nor my boyz in da hood, Valardur y Altavisto.
I know chrissyG is roaming the wilds of the valley of the kings, and altavisto is rakin in his air miles, but wazzup wit da rest??
and why isn't Juanton not bloggin?????
Check out these aerial photos of Iran's salt deserts and seas by the photographer George Steinmetz.
- the flamingos are gorgeous
- the wind tower is amazing, something out of a sci-fi movie
- you also see a picture of the old city of Bam, just before the earthquake of 2005(?) leveled it. It is such a sobering thought that something can stand the test of time for hundreds and thousands of years and then.... just gone overnight.
You guys know what other photo Steinmetz has taken right? the photo of the caravan of camels in the desert.
Recently I started looking into articles on technical writing, and let me tell you, these manuscripts are absolutely fascinating!! I really find interesting when I should use dashes and hyphens; et al. is not italicized; both e.g. and i.e. should have commas after them.... and more.
As an example, check out this site. Isn't it very interesting? then you go and find all the errors of other people's papers and you wonder at their ignorance :-P
hey, i think i just realized why my advisor is so finicky with correct writing. It drives me up the wall that instead of reading the content of the paper (at least on the first round) he instead concentrates on the writing. Maybe he read too many of these articles and now he can't help it.
oh good Spaghetti Monster, i better stop reading these articles before i turn into him!!! noooooo!!! :-P
I tasted the following wine at my lovely friend SJ's house last week. Sooo good!!! It is nice and sweet and refreshing - yummy! I can totally see me having a glass of that after dinner sometime... and this is saying a lot because I am not much of an alcohol drinker at all.
(You know the picture I have in mind? of Homer with his tongue out, salivating!!)
Producer: Schmitt Sohne
Wine: Blue Riesling QbA
Country: Germany
Appellation: Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Wine Type: White
Primary Varietal: Riesling
Grade: B
Designation: Good and Cheap
Price: $8
She said she got it from Trader Joe's - except when i went there to get me some, i didn't see it.
oh I see, it is way up there.
why did it go up there? for two very different reasons.
Africa seems to be a favorite target for many philanthropists but I often get annoyed, if not insulted by the do-gooder, condescending, fake attitude of these people. These rich people think suddenly by going to Africa, they are suddenly so deep and full of conscience. Just by going there, they think they have done something amazing.
Remember when Paris Hilton wanted to be show she has become a better person. How do she show her changed attitude? oh yes, she wanted to "give back" by visiting Africa. Salvation.
Take the show Idol Gives Back, which is essentially a money raising show by American Id0l, focusing on the plight of Africans. First of all, why only Africa? because it is fashionable? have they looked at the other poor parts of the world? Do they even know of them??
Let me not digress. They show you these videos of these singers or what not, that mix in with the poor African people. This is the way a typical clip progresses: They show the famous person/s talking to a couple of poor black people, then they show a crowd of black people dancing or something and the rich white are standing on the side and laughing and clapping - oh yes they are really in with the crowd now. and then they hug the people and offer some deep reflection. Hallelujah.
Oh come on!! I wonder what the African people themselves are thinking - oh here comes the big white man on their high horse again - it must be that time of the year again when the fund raisers are on.
And after all that of course the rich white people go back to Hollywood, and live their lives of excess and debauchery.
Ok maybe I am exaggerating. And maybe that is not the way the Africans themselves see it. I have never asked any African Americans actually what they think of this all.
All I know is that if they kept doing that about Iran, i would be pissed off.
well this was a long verbiage. I will divulge the second reason why my goat is up later.
It is such a weird feeling when you know the paper you submitted to a conference is not appropriate for that conference. I know it is going to get rejected but at the moment, I have removed all other possible options. It is either to submit here or not to. I feel regret as I could have submitted to another, more appropriate conference about a week ago, alas my deity preferred this one. Meanwhile I have learned not to listen to this deity much cause he sometimes speaks from his nether regions.
What to do... well not much now. Suck it in, keep your head down and find the next target.
On Altavisto's recent trip to Nipon, he bought a fancy Tv Box for converting a composite cable to VGA, so we could play our game cube. It's pretty cool and it seems to do many more things than just this conversion, like possibly TV tuning etc. This all seems pretty cool except.... the manual is in japanese. So we can't figure anything out!!!
The inhumanity :-P
ps. any japanese out there that want to help us?!!!
