Following up my prior post about state's two-letter abbreviations (i.e., postal codes), here is a cool site that crowdsources the origins of airport's three-letter codes. For anyone who travels as much as I do, you might find this quite interesting.
Last month a couple of young Russian photographers made headlines for scaling the pyramids at Giza and shooting photos of the surrounding landscape. In order to preserve these ancient wonders, such climbs are strictly forbidden. The daredevils escaped unnoticed, and then brought down all sorts of public condemnation on themselves by making the photos freely available on the Internet.
I agree that the young men should have gone through proper channels for their project rather than taking it upon themselves to risk injury and property damage with a clandestine operation. However, I don't think anyone can deny that the powerfully unique images they captured are awe-inspiring. They should certainly help re-vitalize public support for preserving, studying, and protecting these and other treasures of human society.
I was recently introduced to the Gigapxl Project, which is REALLY cool ... even if you know very little about photography (like me). I won't do it justice trying to explain it, so I will merely encourage you to visit the site, learn more about their work, and enjoy the many stunning images. Below is a sample ... but to be truly appreciated you should click on them to see additional details.
World-renowned submersible designer Graham Hawkes is the founder and Chief Engineer of Hawkes Ocean Technologies and Ocean Galactic. As he is fond of telling his aerospace colleagues, "you've got your rockets pointed in the wrong direction!" Spending time with Graham at last fall's Space Angels Network Aerospace Venture Forum, I became increasingly intrigued by the notion of focusing on exploring Earth's oceans as a precursor to exploring outer space.
I've been finding a number of interesting projects around the world, but unfortunately I'm just not sure how viable each of these will be. I'm still holding out hope! Supposedly, there are plans for a 7-story underwater hotel in Istanbul. However, the most prominent such projects include:
Poseidon Resorts in Fiji
Hydropolis in Dubai
There are other projects around the world, each in varying stages of development. I certainly hope that I'll be visiting one of them soon!
I'm not sure why they bother with the statistical analysis of "front seat v. rear seat" or "window v. aisle," when the color coding says it all: if you want to survive a plane crash, you should sit in an exit row. I guess if you put it all together, you should always fly in the aisle seat of the first-class exit row. Hmmmm ...
click image for a larger version in a new windowI came across this phenomenon a while back and thought it was really cool (literally!): ice hotels!
The original seems to be in Sweden, but they can now be found all over the world. Essentially, each winter they build a new hotel completely out of ice. As my son likes to say, "Cool!"
As a general rule, I don't strike up conversations with fellow passengers on any of my business trips, because I'm usually working during the flight. However, during my last trip from Virginia to San Francisco, a chance encounter in row 25 of Virgin America flight #468 had a significant impact on my life.
Upon taking my seat near the back of the aircraft, I said "hi" to the young woman already settled into the seat next to me. By the time we took off, she had already revealed that she was 23 years old, recently single out of an oppressive relationship, and on a one-way ticket to California to "find herself" and start a new life. Two of her friends had recently moved to San Francisco, and they would help her get back on her feet.
There was something intriguing about Amanda. She was certainly bright, lively, creative, and full of life, but there was something else. Perhaps her journey seeking self-discovery reminded me of my own trip to Mexico when I was 26 and about to start law school? Perhaps I now wanted to live vicariously through her since I knew that my various obligations would make another such journey impossible for me? Or perhaps I felt like I was glimpsing into my own future, since my daughter is already "9 going on 16"?
Whatever it was, we spent the entire flight "hanging out." We talked. We played video games on the Virgin America seat-back entertainment system. We even had a couple of drinks when we passed Chicago, since she had never been further West.
After a five-hour flight we began our descent into SFO, and she was glued to the window taking in every view. When our wheels skidded on the tarmac, I whispered to her, "Amanda, welcome to your new life." Almost immediately, she was sobbing, "You're right. This IS my new life." I think that the enormity of the moment finally caught up her, and she was overcome by the joy of her new-found freedom and by the dread of her unknown future.
Since it was on my way to the rental car pickup, I walked her to the baggage claim and wished her luck when we said our good-byes. As we parted ways I knew that I would never see her again. However, I also knew that from that day forward every time I sat down next to someone on an airplane I would think of her and wonder how her life turned out. In my own personal version of VH1's "What Ever Happened To ... ?", I will continue to wish her well.
Last year, I was fortunate enough to join some high school buddies to participate in a cross-country car rally called Bullrun. The event featured almost 75 teams of exotic/luxury cars traveling from Montreal to Key West over 7 days.
One of the more interesting moments occurred before the rally even started. At the starting line in Montreal, two of the teams were discussing the 30-year old record for driving cross-country (from NYC to LA): 32 hours, 51 minutes. This was done in the 1970's during the Cannonball Run craze. One team bet the other $50K that they couldn't break the record, and the race was on. The two-man team drove from Montreal to NYC, launched on their record-setting effort to LA, and then managed to fly back to meet the rest of the Bullrunners to finish out the rally to Key West.
Yes, they broke the record with a time of 31 hours, 59 minutes. And yes, that means they averaged 87mph the entire way across the country (top speed of 160mph). Uh, no they somehow managed to avoid ALL COPS. (Why can't I do that?)
Anyway ... here's a recent interview they did with Jay Leno on his car enthusiast site.
For those of you following this online voting, here are the results announced over the weekend (in no particular order):
• The Great Wall of China
• Petra in Jordan
• Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer
• Peru's Machu Picchu
• Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid
• The Colosseum in Rome
• India's Taj Mahal
In case you're curious, here are the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (again, in no particular order): • Great Pyramids of Giza
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• Statue of Zeus at Olympia
• Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus
• Colossus of Rhodes
• Lighthouse of Alexandria
