Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Ascent - Commemorating Shuttle
As a Huge fan of space exploration and someone you who has studied photography. This is by far one of the best things i have ever watched.
Props to the people that put this all together.
Photographic documentation of a Space Shuttle launch plays a critical role in the engineering analysis and evaluation process that takes place during each and every mission. Motion and Still images enable Shuttle engineers to visually identify off-nominal events and conditions requiring corrective action to ensure mission safety and success. This imagery also provides highly inspirational and educational insight to those outside the NASA family.
This compilation of film and video presents the best of the best ground-based Shuttle motion imagery from STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 missions. Rendered in the highest definition possible, this production is a tribute to the dozens of men and women of the Shuttle imaging team and the 30yrs of achievement of the Space Shuttle Program.
The video was produced by Matt Melis at the Glenn Research Center. Ben Burtt Jr. and the Team at Skywalker Sound helped with the Riding the Booster Video.
https://sites.google.com/site/ascentcommemoratingshuttle/
Props to the people that put this all together.
Photographic documentation of a Space Shuttle launch plays a critical role in the engineering analysis and evaluation process that takes place during each and every mission. Motion and Still images enable Shuttle engineers to visually identify off-nominal events and conditions requiring corrective action to ensure mission safety and success. This imagery also provides highly inspirational and educational insight to those outside the NASA family.
This compilation of film and video presents the best of the best ground-based Shuttle motion imagery from STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 missions. Rendered in the highest definition possible, this production is a tribute to the dozens of men and women of the Shuttle imaging team and the 30yrs of achievement of the Space Shuttle Program.
The video was produced by Matt Melis at the Glenn Research Center. Ben Burtt Jr. and the Team at Skywalker Sound helped with the Riding the Booster Video.
https://sites.google.com/site/ascentcommemoratingshuttle/
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Chad Kellogg Killed by Rockfall in Patagonia
climbing in Patagonia. According to local authority and guidebook author
Rolando Garibotti, Kellogg and Jens Holsten had climbed the Afanassieff Route
on the northwest ridge of Fitz Roy. They reached the top in late
afternoon on February 14 and began their descent via the Supercanaleta
route.
After the third rappel, one of the ropes got stuck, and while pulling
on the cord to try to loosen it, "the rope dislodged a block which hit
Chad," Garibotti wrote at Supertopo.com.
"He died instantly. It was 9 p.m. Jens continued the descent alone
through the night, reaching the base early in the morning to then
continue to El Chaltén, the nearest town. Because of the complexities of
the location, a body recovery will not be attempted."
Kellogg, 42, was based in Seattle and ran a construction business
that remodeled historic homes. He was best known for his speed climbs
and attempts—he set speed records on Mt. Rainier and Denali, won the
race up 7,000-meter Khan Tengri in Kyrgyzstan, and made two attempts to
break the Everest speed record. But pure alpinism was his true love, and
in recent years he had accomplished many superb ascents, going solo or
partnering with a select group of highly accomplished Pacific Northwest
climbers.
In 2008 he and Dylan Johnson climbed a 72-pitch new route on Siguniang
in China. Kellogg soloed a new route on the enormous south face of Aconcagua
in Argentina (without going to the summit) in 2009.
Kellogg and Johnson did the first ascent of 18,346-foot Seerdengpu
in China in 2010. In January 2013, he and Colin Haley did the second
ascent of the Corkscrew Route on Cerro Torre,
climbing the Patagonian spire without using any of the controversial
protection bolts placed by Cesare Maestri on the southeast ridge.
In the fall of 2012, Kellogg and David Gottlieb were in Nepal to try
the first ascent of Lunag Ri in a remote section of the Khumbu. When
Gottlieb got sick, Kellogg soloed the second ascent of 22,238-foot Jobo
Rinjang. The two men returned to Lunag Ri last fall and made two
unsuccessful attempts on Lunag Ri. Kellogg recently won a 2014 Mugs
Stump Award to return to this area with Gottlieb and Jens Holsten later
this year.
In addition to his climbing and business challenges, Kellogg had
endured numerous other difficulties. In 2007 his wife, Lara Karena
Kellogg, was killed in a rappelling accident in Alaska, while Kellogg
was climbing in western China. Kellogg also survived a bout with colon
cancer, with which he was diagnosed shortly after his wife's death. In
2011, one of Kellogg's best friends and partners, Joe Puryear, was
killed in a cornice collapse in Tibet.
Chad Kellogg: self-portrait on the summit of Jobo Rinjang in Nepal in 2012.
Date of accident: February 14, 2014
Chad Kellogg Killed by Rockfall in Patagonia | Climbing
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Man Responsible For Olympic Ring Mishap Found Dead In Sochi
This is my favorite part of the article.
"Although his body was badly mangled and the wounds were
consistent with a struggle, so far officials say they don't suspect foul
play.
“Sure there were stab wounds and bruises all over the
body,” admits the lead investigator on the case, “But who knows what
caused them. Maybe he tripped and fell on a set of knives. Right now
we’re ruling this an accidental death."
UPDATE
“It’s terrible when accidents like this happen. But then again, maybe Mr. Avdeyev should have thought twice before he screwed up the Olympics. Accidents tend to happen to people who betray Russia.”
Despite the government’s story, fellow hotel guests reported hearing a struggle in Avdeyev’s room around 3 a.m. local time.
“There was a very loud noise last night,” Canadian bobsled member Guy Lafleur, who was staying two hotel rooms down. “I called the front desk but the phone didn't work so I went to the room where the sound was coming from and saw three big men leave the room.
I asked if there was a problem and they told me to go back to my room. Then this morning I find out the guy inside was dead. Very scary I told the police what I saw but they told me to forget what I saw. They were very intimidating.”
Putin, The Man You Can Trust
It was reported that Vladimir Putin was visibly upset with the botched ending of the ceremony and he may have been out for blood. He stormed out of the stadium and took off in a helicopter before the media could ask him any questions.
The embarrassment of his nation could have been too much for him to handle.
“Putin loves Russia to death,” said Alexander Zhukov, the Russian Olympic Committee president. “He also loves accountability.”
While there has not been accountability from the contractors responsible for building the Olympic Village, the ceremony was a world wide event for everyone to see. Putin may hold that to a higher level.
“If he feels the Ceremony reflects him, who knows what he’ll do to seek justice,” said Zhukov before part of a hotel ceiling crashed to the floor beside him. “All I know is Borris Avdeyev failed Russia and got what he deserved.” More of the hotel began to crumble and the interview had to be cut short.
UPDATE UPDATE
I have no proof this is real...
Friday, February 7, 2014
Earth - Seen from Mars
A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, could easily see Earth and the moon as two distinct, bright "evening stars."
The distance between Earth and Mars when Curiosity took the photo was about 99 million miles (160 million kilometers).
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam.
More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.- Image Credit:
- NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMU
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17936
Thursday, February 6, 2014
The Islands of Seattle
If all the worlds ice sheets were to melt, this is what Seattle would look like.
Were going to need more Ferries.
Link to Article by: Jeffrey Linn
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Landy Like Around the World
If mountain bikers use saws and other tools, it's often to create wood features in the forest. Julia Hofmann used them for a different reason, though: to finish her bachelor thesis. No, she didn't assemble a series of wooden jumps and drops for school, but rather transformed a Series 2A Land Rover into her travelling bike caravan. Simply put, the German racer built her own dream vehicle, a two-wheeler's four-wheeler that she'll use to get to riding spots the world over. Below, she tells us the story of how it all came together.
Click link for Video and full artical by: Julia Hofmann
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Kittinger's jump from the edge of space.
He jumped like a sack of potatoes...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger
MSR Snowshoe Win ISPO GOLD Award
I have worked on this Snowshoe for over a year with some very talented Engineers and Designers. All that work seems to have payed off.
Article - http://insideoutdoor.com/msr-snowshoe-win-ispo-gold-award/
MSR has won an ISPO Gold Award 2014 for its MSR Revo Explore snowshoes at the ISPO Trade Fair in Munich, Germany. The Revo Explore snowshoes won the ISPO Gold Award in the Snowshoes category, for their excellent functionality and beautiful design, says the company.
In the new Revo Explore, MSR melds the superior grip of metal perimeter traction with the durability, torsional flex and cold-temperature performance of its proven plastic decks. Combined, this engineering delivers exceptional grip and a more natural foot position on traverses, climbs and descents, says the company.
“The MSR Snowshoe convinced the jury members because of its hybrid construction,” said Klaus Lehner of the ISPO Jury. “This combination offers a dual advantage of perfect grip on hard snow, and low weight of the snowshoe.”
Peter Freuchen, 6',7", "lived inside the cave of his own breath"
Standing six feet seven inches, Freuchen was an arctic explorer, journalist, author, and anthropologist. He participated in several arctic journeys (including a 1000-mile dogsled trip across Greenland), starred in an Oscar-winning film, wrote more than a dozen books (novels and nonfiction, including his Famous Book of the Eskimos), had a peg leg (he lost his leg to frostbite in 1926; he amputated his gangrenous toes himself), was involved in the Danish resistance against Germany, was imprisoned and sentenced to death by the Nazis before escaping to Sweden, studied to be a doctor at university, his first wife was Inuit and his second was a Danish margarine heiress, became friends with Jean Harlow and Mae West, once escaped from a blizzard shelter by cutting his way out of it with a knife fashioned from his own feces, and, last but certainly not least, won $64,000 on The $64,000 Question. -- Kottke, Peter Freuchen
"The Danish-Jewish explorer Peter Freuchen was twenty years old his first winter in the arctic and bursting with vitality and enthusiasm for the other world he’d entered. He volunteered to stay alone on the edge of the ice sheet in Pustervig northeastern Greenland for the duration of the dark winter of 1906-1907. A few other men were there at the beginning, in a stone and timber house built for the purpose, about nine feet by fifteen feet. Freuchen’s task was to go out every day and take weather measurements on the mountain, which sounds easy enough until you factor in that it was dark most of that time and extraordinarily cold, and that the wolves that ate his seven dogs were deeply interested in him as well.
It was so cold that even inside his cabin, even with the small coal stove, the moisture in his breath condensed into ice on the walls and ceiling. He kept breathing. The house got smaller and smaller. Early on, he wrote, two men could not pass without brushing elbows. Eventually after he was alone and the coal—“the one factor that had kept the house from growing in upon me”—was gone, he threw out the stove to make more room inside. (He still had a spirit lamp for light and boiling water.) Before winter and his task ended and relief came, he was living inside an ice cave made of his own breath that hardly left him room to stretch out to sleep. Peter Freuchen, six foot seven, lived inside the cave of his breath."
From Rebecca Solnit’s The Faraway NearbyPeter Freuchen - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Freuchen
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/citizens/peter_freuchen_thats_pete.php
http://intheborderlands.tumblr.com/post/72328918927/the-danish-jewish-explorer-peter-freuchen-was
The $64,000 Question - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_$64,000_Question
Monday, February 3, 2014
Sweet Buses to Trippy Music
I have watched this video so many times. There is just something about watching these two old Buses drive around the field to this strange music.
1957-58 Trans Antarcrtic Expedition
When I see images like this, I am just in awe of the first explorers that went out there and just did it.
The true adventure of just going out and seeing what happened and were men about it.
In this photo, these guys are just casually unloading the truck before it drops into the abyss. Now a days, the camera crews would dramatize the whole thing and everyone would be back 200yrds just in case, trip over, send in the helicopters. What I would give to be on a trip like this.
And the truck didn't fall, they needed it so the saved it.
"One of the four 1955 Tucker Sno-Cat Type 743 Double Drives (A) used during the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1957-1958. Led by Vivian Fuchs, the sno-cats traveled 3473 km in 98 days consuming 70 litres of petrol per 100km. After the expedition this unit worked at Scott Base until 1971 when it returned to New Zealand and is now part of the display at the Canterbury Museum, New Zealand, which also includes a converted Ferguson TE20 tractor and sledges."
AMAZING Skydivers Land Safely After Plane Crash
This would be extremely terrifying, But to be honest
(knowing the outcome) It would be amazing to experience and walk away from.
I have skydived once before and this does not detour me.
When two planes carrying a total of 9 skydivers collided mid air, 12,000 feet above Superior, Wisconsin. The wings disconnected from one of the planes causing a fiery explosion. All 9 skydiver landed safely, as well as the two pilots, one of which was taken to the hospital to treat minor cuts.
http://bit.ly/JukinSportsSub
Balloon Capsule Ride to the Edge of Earth
Vicespy.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Why 4ORTY2?
I am huge VW Bus fan, and have been fortunate to own several, but my favorite is my 1966 SO42. Hence 4ORTY2 as a nod to my bus.
Thanks to Frank's
bus for giving a great explanation to the definition of SO. The photo below is not mine, but mine looks the same.
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SO comes from sonderausfuhrungen which means 'special model' and was how VW designated that special models. For example SO1 was a westfalia's mobile shop, SO3 a police car or SO30 an ambulance. All these models where based on VW's Buses. SO42 was ones of the last westfalia's camper conversions on a Split (T1) bus basis, before was SO22, SO23, SO33, SO34, SO35. SO44 and SO45 where contemporary to SO42 which was available between 1965 and 1967. 1967 was the las year of the Split(window), then came the Baywindow (T2), then the Wedge (T3), then... |
|
 |
The SO42 westfalia conversion is sure the most famous and the
most ever copied all around.
Many other coachbuilders made similar conversions on panel or kombi basis but Westies where the only that could be ordered directly from the VW Factory. |
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Frank's bus, an example of a pretty SO-42
Miley Cyrus - "Jolene"
Yes... a Miley Cyrus video.
I used to hate her, but then finally realized that she can actually sing REALLY well!
For someone who has been in the spotlight her whole life, Its no wonder she is a bit crazy. Though I do think she knows what she is doing. Giving the media/public what they want/sell.
There are far worse with less talent.
Like the Fucking Biebs
Bunker 599
It took 40 days to slice through the solid concrete bunker, which was
one of 700 constructed along the New Dutch Waterline, a series of
water-based defences used between 1815 and 1940 to protect the cities of
Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem.
The bunker was built in 1940 to shelter up to 13 soldiers during bombing raids
www.raaaf.nl
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Bunker 599
In a radical way this intervention sheds new light on the Dutch
policy on cultural heritage. At the same, it makes people look at their
surroundings in a new way. The project lays bare two secrets of the New
Dutch Waterline (NDW), a military line of defence in use from 1815 until
1940 protecting the cities of Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem
by means of intentional flooding.
A seemingly indestructible
bunker with monumental status is sliced open. The design thereby opens
up the minuscule interior of one of NDW’s 700 bunkers, the insides of
which are normally cut off from view completely. In addition, a long
wooden boardwalk cuts through the extremely heavy construction. It leads
visitors to a flooded area and to the footpaths of the adjacent natural
reserve. The pier and the piles supporting it remind them that the
water surrounding them is not caused by e.g. the removal of sand but
rather is a shallow water plain characteristic of the inundations in
times of war.
The sliced up bunker forms a publicly accessible
attraction for visitors of the NDW. It is moreover visible from the A2
highway and can thus also be seen by tens of thousands of passers-by
each day. The project is part of the overall strategy of RAAAF | Atelier
de Lyon to make this unique part of Dutch history accessible and
tangible for a wide variety of visitors. Paradoxically, after the
intervention Bunker 599 became a Dutch national monument.
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