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Google has made an awesome logo in honor of what would be Freddy Mercury’s 65th birthday. And I am posting this video:
Really listen to the guy’s voice. It’s the best one to have ever graced rock.
Filed under: Music | Tagged: Freddy Mercury, Queen | Leave a comment »
This is day 7. We left camp at 12:15am. We were told it was in the 30’s, but I’m from Maine and I’ve been in the cold. It was at least in the 20’s, if not a little lower. Combine that with the low oxygen and relative lack of sleep and a tough night was ahead of us. And of course, it was worth every uncomfortable moment to reach that summit.
This first one is from just below Stella Point.
I’m not sure of the name of the peak in the distance in this one. Sure is purdy, though.
Here’s one of the remaining glaciers atop the mountain – the only place glaciers make an appearance in Africa. They used to be much larger, extending well down the side of the mountain. Gee, I wonder what’s to blame for their demise.
This next one doesn’t do the landscape justice. (Really, none of these do.) Despite the glaciers shrinking over the years, they are still quite massive. If a person stood next to this, he would be a small speck.
And of course,
And finally, everyone. I honestly could not have picked a better group. (Sorry, people I personally know. These guys and gals were better.)
Filed under: Hiking | Tagged: Kilimanjaro | Leave a comment »
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
~Mark Twain
And for a more complete post, here are my major travel plans over the next several years: Haiti (2012), Italy (2012), Aconcagua (2013 or 2014).
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Thought of the day, Travel | 1 Comment »
Day 6. This day and day 7 were practically the same since we left this last camp around midnight. But until then, we enjoyed still having some oxygen. And a hell of a view.
And if I turn around,
Filed under: Hiking | Tagged: Kilimanjaro | Leave a comment »
I know, I know. An exclamation point in the title? Well, this is one of the few times I can justify it because two members from my Kilimanjaro hiking group, Colin and Christie, just had their first child, Clay. I can’t imagine it happening to a better couple. Seriously, I recall talking with one other member of the group, Nicole, about what a wonderful couple they made – it was that apparent in the short time I spent with them. I’m glad to see such joy brought into their lives and I wish them the best. And as if a newborn wasn’t enough, happy belated anniversary to to them yesterday!
Filed under: Hiking | Tagged: Kilimanjaro | Leave a comment »
Day 5. This is the Barranco Wall. It’s an 800 foot climb of steepness that takes a good chunk of time to defeat. Unless you’re a porter. In that case, it’s hardly noticeable. (Look closely and you’ll see a whole line of porters snaking their way up the wall.)
Filed under: Hiking | Tagged: Kilimanjaro | Leave a comment »
Day 4. This picture is the first clear view we had of the mountain.
This next one is from above the Shira Plateau, not to mention most of the clouds. (My profile picture to the left is from the same area.)
I didn’t get any great pictures of this next landmark – Lava Tower – because I had very little desire to do anything but descend to the next campground. You see, what happens is that the days will often include climbing to a particular height and then camping down lower. This allows one to acclimate better, especially for the sake of sleeping. But what it also does is cause absolutely intense headaches during the rapid ascent.
Filed under: Hiking | Tagged: Kilimanjaro | 1 Comment »
What we need to do to spur job growth – especially given the reports for August – is to give big corporations more money. I know what you’re saying, “But that’s retarded. They already have trillions of dollars on hand and they aren’t using it to hire anyone. At all. It’s the consumer who needs to be given more money. They will then go out and spend, thus giving businesses a reason to hire in the first place. And if you don’t believe me, just look at the fact that giving corporations more money has been a dismal economic failure for the past 10 years, save the times when we enjoyed a few bubbles.” To that I reply, let’s slash everything in the budget so that overall growth will immediately shrink.
…
Remind me again why we listen to a damn thing Republicans have to say?
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Thought of the day, Trickle down economics | 26 Comments »
Let me start out with the obvious first: The Bible bears no relation to any actual science. It is a wildly inaccurate account of nature, it has no evidence for any of its significant claims, and it offers zero methodology for determining what is true. That said, I have an analogy I would like to make.
Christians love to look at their cute little holy book and see how it matches up to the world. Sometimes they’ll find something – a battle here or a town there. They never uncover anything of significance – a large boat or a big ol’ tomb, for instance – but the trivial things they discover seem to be rather important to them. The reason is clear: Any confirmation of something in their particular, cultural book is seen as indicative of the truth of the fundamental claims they make (such as Jesus’ existence and divinity, two things for which there is no convincing evidence). This makes for yet another logical fallacy by Christians.
To put things in perspective, imagine taking a 19th century science text and seeing where it matches up today. Except instead of saying, “Okay, these few things are true, but we know where the book has things wrong”, suddenly we’re taking the book to be entirely true. “Well, we can confirm that 19th century scientists knew X, and well, X is actually true, therefore Y and Z must also be true.” The flaw in logic is obvious here. And this all must make one wonder: If the flaw is so obvious in one place, why is it not obvious when religion is involved?
I don’t think it’s too difficult to figure out why Christians are so willing to make an exception to logic: they have no evidence for any of their major claims. Zero. Zip. Zilch. The only option that leaves them is to support their silly beliefs by proxy. It’s just too bad for them they haven’t been very good at doing that either.
Filed under: Religions | Tagged: bible, Christian logic, Logical fallacy | 16 Comments »
For the Sake of Science 