Category Archives: Around the World

How many of these have you done?

Adventure Journal: The 20 most beautiful day hikes in America.

André and I have done these four:

Observation Point, Zion National Park, Utah (2012)

Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona (1999, a blast from the past)

Coyote Buttes North, aka “The Wave,“ Paria Canyon/Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona (2012)

Hoh River Trail, Olympic National Park, Washington (2008)

My favorite hike ever was the one to and from “The Wave”. André and I were lucky and scored permits at the lottery for our tenth-anniversary-trip to the Southwest in 2012. The hike out to the Wave was well worth it and would even be among my personal top three hikes if The Wave wasn’t at the end of it. Here, take a look at the scenery:

The Wave is of course, famous, and only 20 people are allowed in every day, but if you hike a little further, you reach the “Second Wave”, which we had all to ourselves on our hike:

View from the ISS

Did you know that the ISS has a webcam? You can see the live stream on Ustream or on the NASA website (oder bei der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR).

You can also see the ISS overhead at night. When? Look it up at Spot the Station on the NASA website.

If you’d like to see where on above earth the ISS is right now, check this page, which gives the ISS’s position and velocity as well as the time until the next sunset. Similar information is available at ISSTracker.com.

NASA also offers a lot of other live information, for example crew timelines, science timelines and live console displays.

Inspiration Watching the world turn bei Pharmama.

Cephalopods

I watched a great documentary about cuttlefish today: Kings of Camouflage (YouTube).

Cuttlefish (German: Sepien) on Wikipedia:

“Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopuses and nautiluses. ‘Cuttle’ is a reference to their unique internal shell, the cuttlebone. Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but mollusks.
Cuttlefish have large, W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey. They generally range in size from 15 to 25 cm (5.9 to 9.8 in), with the largest species, Sepia apama, reaching 50 cm (20 in) in mantle length and over 10.5 kg (23 lb) in weight.

Cuttlefish eat small mollusks, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopuses, worms, and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals, seabirds, and other cuttlefish. Their life expectancy is about one to two years. Recent studies indicate cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrates. Cuttlefish also have one of the largest brain-to-body size ratios of all invertebrates.”

Diese (und letzte) Woche in der Zeit

Die Zeit 04/2014 und Die Zeit 05/2014

Grundschule: Schulleiter gesucht! “Deutschlands Grundschulen gehen die Rektoren aus. Der Posten ist zu schlecht bezahlt.” Von Ariane Breyer.

Ada Lovelace: Ada und der Algorithmus. “Sie war die erste Programmiererin, noch bevor der Computer erfunden wurde. Ihre Aufzeichnungen inspirieren bis heute.” Von Anne Kunze.

Überwachung: Wie ein Phönix. “Die NSA wird es bald schwer haben. Denn Hacker und Konzerne erfinden das Internet gerade neu.” Von Götz Hamann.

Obama-Doppelgänger: In doppelter Mission. “Louis Ortiz ist New Yorker und sieht aus wie Barack Obama. Als der zum Präsidenten gewählt wurde, veränderte sich Ortiz’ Leben. Ob er wollte oder nicht.” Von Bastian Berbner.