Must-Do and Dream List 2012

National Geographic's Travel page has published the 2012 Dream List and Must Do List.  They pick 20 athletes or explorers to tell NatGeo what their dream trip is, and what their must-do trip is.  While none of the trips are plausible for the average NatGeo reader, they recommend we start with the Must-do list.  The layout of the list is a little confusing, and will take you forever to get through if you have a slow internet connection so I'm outlining the list: 

Enric Sala, Marine Ecologist and Diver 

Dream: Dive the Poles

Must:  Dive Cocos Islands

Alex Honnold, Climber

Dream: Climbing Odyssey in Southeast Asia, Australia

Must: Climb Geyikbayiri, Turkey

Jill Kintner, Mountain Biker

Dream: Mountain bike New Zealand

Must: Mountain bike Morzine, france

Chris Davenport, Big-Mountain Skier

Dream: Ski South Georgia Mountain

Must: Ski Mount Ranier

Ueli Steck, Speed Alpinist

Dream: Climb in the Himalaya

Must:  Climb the Swiss Alps

Ben Stookesberry, Whitewater Kayaker

Dream: Kayak the Entire Yarlung Tsangpo, Tibet

Must: Raft the Siang River, India 

Will Gadd, Ice Climber

Dream: Ice Climb Baffin Island and Greenland 

Must: Ice Climb Rjukan, Norway 

Kenny Broad, Cave Diver

Dream: Dive and Surf from Florida to the Bahamas

Must:Dive Caves in the Yucatan 

Steph Davis, Climber

Dream: BASE Jump Off Shipton Spire, Pakistan
Must: Climb the Diamond, Longs Peak, Colorado

Jennifer Pharr Davis, Speed Hiker

Dream: Hike the Continental Divide Trail
Must: Hike the GR 20, Corsica, France

Candice Appleby, Stand-Up Paddleboarder

Dream: Stand-Up Paddleboard Peru
Must: Stand-Up Paddleboard Oahu, Hawaii

Gretchen Bleiler, Snowboarder

Dream: Snowboard the Himalayas
Must: Heli-Ski the Selkirks

Will Steger, Polar Explorer

Dream: Traverse the High Arctic, Canada

Must: Dogsled Minnesota

Kristin Armstrong, Road Cyclist

Dream: Bike the Highest Roads in Western Europe

Must: Bike through Tuscany, Italy

Lynsey Dyer, Big-Mountain Skier

Dream: Ski Road Trip to the Powder High Way, US, Canada

Must: Ski Jackson Hole, Wyoming 

Layne Beachley, Surfer

Dream: Surfing Circumnavigation of the Earth

Must: Surf Mentawai Islands

Andrew Skurka, Long-Distance Hiker

Dream: Arctic Traverse
Must-Do: Pacific Northwest Trail

Sarah McNair-Landry, Kite Skier

Dream: Traverse Kamchatka, Russia »
Must-Do: Polar Survival Course, Canada »

Freya Hoffmeister, Sea Kayaker

Dream: Kayak South America »
Must-Do: Kayak Vancouver Island » 

Ed Viesturs, Mountaineer

Dream: Ski to the South Pole »
Must-Do: Climb Mount Rainier »

Now, the Musts are supposed to be slightly easier, and considering the Dream List, they seem like a piece of cake, but man, oh man.  Are those some tall orders!

 

 

National Geographic for iPad

I just bought a year's subscription to National Geographic for iPad for  $19.99.  When I first downloaded it, it didn't work.  I had to uninstall in and then download it again.  It was kind of annoying, but once it started working it was great.  Every once in a while it does freeze though, which is extremely annoying The download came with a free daily update about Conrad Anker, Cory Richard, and Mark Jenkins' excursion to Everest.

A great thing about the app is that it makes it really easy to move around the magazine.  In other magazine apps, there's no easy way to go from page 15-140.  You have to flip through all those pages, and for me, that's annoying.  With National Geographic, there's a scroll bar so that you can jump around, and there's also a table of contents with photos and story summaries.  Then you just tap a photo and you're at the story! 

Another great feature is nationalgeographic.com which links to their twitter feed and has updates all the time.

I read a story in it about a bird called a manakin that makes a humming sound with its wings that sounds like a violin.  There was also a video to go with it and it is ridiculously cute.  To woo his mate, the male manakin moon walks on branches while making a ticking noise.

And one more cute thing:

EPILOGUE:

After writing this post, I went to NationalGeographic.com and saw this.  If you can't see it, I'll tell you what it says! it says that you can now get the printed edition, the ipad edition, and the online archives for only $19.99.  This deal was not up yesterday, and I payed $19.99 for just the iPad app. 

Open Mic Night for Honduras

Everyone loves an open mic night, especially when it’s for a good cause, and last weekend’s Open Mic Night for Honduras went to a great cause. 

The event was hosted by BU Global Medical Brigade, and the suggested $3 donation will go towards purchasing medications to stock the clinics that the group set up in Honduras.   This is their eighth fundraising event of the semester, enabling them to surpass their $4000 semester goal. 

Open Mic Night for Honduras was preceded by an a capella concert with performances by BU, BC, and local high school groups, a zumba class, a yoga class, an auction for Red Sox and Bruins memorabilia and MCAT review courses, Dance for Honduras (a hip-hop workshop led by some club members), a 3-on-3 basketball tournament called Hoops for Honduras, and an Agganis Arena clean-up.  In addition, they have several ongoing fundraisers like selling bracelets and pins. 

“It was wonderful having the turnout we did last night at our open mic night, as it enabled us not only to raise money for the May brigade, but to share the mission of Global Medical Brigades, empowering others, with our BU community,” said Katelin Blackburn, who is on the e-board. 

Brainstormed by the Global Medical Brigade’s fundraising committee, open mic night was originally envisioned to be a Night of Comedy for Honduras, and the club sent emails to improv troupe Liquid Fun and BU’s Funniest Kid, Cody Brotter.  But as word spread from the members to their friends, interest was gained from all sorts of performers, including spoken word poems, rappers, and BU Off Broadway.

Biannually, a group of 40 undergraduate Brigaders travel to Honduras with medical professionals to promote sustainable health care.  They spend a week in January and May traveling to rural areas around Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, setting up temporary clinics where people can receive free medical treatment.   BU Global Medical Brigade began going to Honduras in 2008 and since then has treated over 10,000 patients in rural villages.  They work with one of the country’s most highly regarded nonprofits, Sociedad Amigos de los Niños led by Sister Maria Rosa Leggol, a recent nominee of the Nobel Peace Prize. 

For each trip, they recruit students, nurses, residents, pharmacists, dentists and doctors to volunteer.  The trip costs $750 for the week plus airfare which typically ranges from $600 to $900.

“There’s still so much that needs to be done before sustainable health care is a reality for Honduras without the help of organizations like Global Medical Brigades,” said Blackburn. “Honduras is the second poorest nation in Central America, with only seven hospital beds for every 10,000 individuals, and access to health care a luxury that the majority of the rural populations never get a chance to access.”

Blackburn, a pre-med sophomore at BU, went on her first trip to Honduras last year and described it as life changing. 

“It was such an amazing opportunity,” she said.  “The patients we saw, their gratefulness has really been a driving force for me becoming a doctor.  The people are just inspiring.”

BU Medical Brigade is just one chapter of Global Medical Brigade, the world’s largest student-led global health and sustainable development organizations.  The Medical Brigade is the oldest discipline under the Global Brigade umbrella organization, with other issues including water, public health, environment and business.

Follow this event on twitter: @Kristakano #omnhonduras

  My response post-show:

Nine Planets

This week, Nat Geo featured an article about a solar system that may have more planets than the sun, making it the most populous solar system yet found.  It’s 127 light-years from Earth, and likely doesn’t have any planets that could support life. 

The sun-like star in the southern constellation Hydrus first made headlines in 2010 when they confirmed five planets and two more planetary candidates.  Now there are two more planet candidates, bringing the grand total to nine.  Remember when our solar system had nine? RIP Pluto. 

I was hoping to compare this story with other news outlets, but I actually couldn’t find any American news sources that reported on the new finds.  I found a short 100-word article on an Italian website and a slightly longer one on a French website.  Actually as I was writing this, I also found a story on Discovery News that appeared a week ago and is great. 

Early indications imply that the two new planets are slightly larger than Earth with rocky surfaces, but it’s too far for us to actually see.  So instead astronomers detected them by measuring their gravitational tug on the host star. 

The planets that they’ve already determined are 12-25 times the size of Earth, which means that they are probably more like Uranus or Neptune, making them incapable of supporting life. 

One of the newly confirmed planets is 65 times the size of Earth and the other is 1.3 times the mass of Earth and circles very close to the star. 

The new unconfirmed planets have extremely tight orbits (10 and 69 days) so they’re unlikely to host life. 

Students find alternative transportation in response to T fare hikes

The Green B Line runs through Boston University, and as a result, is one of the main forms of transportation for BU students. But now with 23 percent fare hikes approved by the MBTA on Wednesday, Boston University students will pay more to ride the T or will have to find alternative forms of transportation when they return in the Fall. These changes will go into effect on July 1, 2012, so those staying in or around the city for the summer will feel the squeeze even sooner.

After months of heated public debates, Tuesday's Occupy the T protest took to the steps of the Statehouse, representing the sentiments of many Boston residents upset with the price increase. BU students may be just as angry when the prices of BU's Fall 2012 T pass are released on May 1. 

The Blandford Street T stop

All of these changes mean that the price of BU’s discounted Semester T pass, priced at $210.04 for Spring 2012,  will likely rise, according to Timothy Dunn, Office Manager of Parking and Transportation Services at BU.  

“They’ve never increased the price in the six years I’ve been here, but with this fare increase we’d probably see a price increase,” he said.  

There will be an overall fare hike of 30 cents per ride on the T and 25 cents on the bus, bringing prices up to $2.00 and $1.50 respectively. Luckily, none of the approved service cuts will directly affect the BU campus, but students venturing off campus will notice the elimination of weekend service on some E line stops, and cuts or route changes to bus lines in other parts of the city. 

Local students and faculty who commute to campus, or students who will commute to a summer internship in the city are facing an increase of $1.25 per commuter rail ride, making the total $10.50 each way. However, even with this increase, Boston commuter rail is still cheaper than New York City, the NJ Transit, LA, San Francisco, and Washington DC.  

The BU Shuttle route.

How will students respond to these changes? Many students will likely continue to ride the T, but perhaps some will look for alternative modes of transportation. In addition to walking, using the free BU Shuttle service, and riding their own bikes, more students might consider taking advantage of the new public Hubway bike stations on campus and around the city.

A Hubway bike station at Marsh Plaza

Since the launch of Hubway bikes in July 2011, four stations have appeared along BU’s campus:  one in front of the St. Paul Street T stop, one in front of Marsh Plaza, one at Kenmore Square and another on Beacon St. near Danielsen.  In total, there are 600 bikes at 60 stations around Boston. 

There are four Hubway Bike stations along BU's campus and several more in the surrounding area.

Hubway bikes are free for the first 30 minutes, which may appeal to people with a short commute.  It costs $2.00 after the first 30 minutes, and $6.00 after an hour. An annual membership costs $85, considerably less than the cost of riding the T for a year.  Hubway riders also have the option of simply paying for an entire day of riding, or for three days.

Riding bikes is already a popular mode of transportation at BU, with a registered 1400 bikes and 231 bike racks around campus, providing 3140 spaces for bike parking, according to Dunn.

With increased tuition and housing fees next year, the T prices are yet another unexpected cost of studying at BU.

Students walking on Commonwealth Avenue

Video Diary 1

Iceberg! Right ahead!

Lately it feels like everything I blog about relates to James Cameron, but it’s for good reason.  Sure he went to the deepest point in the ocean, but he also directed 1997’s Titanic starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, which was the highest-grossing film in history for 12 years, until Avatar, also written and directed by Cameron, surpassed it in 2010. And as the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is only ten days away, and because Titanic the movie was rereleased in IMAX 3D, and 2D last night, news outlets everywhere, including National Geographic, are posting stories to commemorate the sinking. 

National Geographic’s main story today is “Titanic would encounter more icebergs today?” discussing how if the Titanic sailed today, it would actually encounter more icebergs than it did when it departed in 1912.  It’s a feature-y story that takes a new look at the sinking by focusing on how the northern Atlantic has changed today, and asking if the changes could be caused by global warming.  Definitely not a story you’d find anywhere but National Geographic. 

According to the article, melting glaciers and ice sheets shed 100-200 gigatons , a kilometer cubed, of ice each year, and all those ice cubes likely add up to more icebergs, but those can’t necessarily be correlated with global warming.  There are however a few examples of warmer temperatures making for icebergs, like Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf which lost huge masses to the ocean.

But, the article also tells us that an increase in icebergs today wouldn’t endanger the modern vessels since ships today use radar that can spot floating ice masses miles away, unlike in Titanic’s day when it was just two guys sitting in the crow’s nest in the middle of the night.  Remember the scene in the movie when Jack and Rose have just run out of the boiler room, and the two guys in the crow’s nest are watching them, say something along the lines of “bleedin love!” and then spot the iceberg?  If not, here’s a refresher:

My favorite part of this story though is the ending because it leaves us with a call to action. Jeremy Bassis, a glaciologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is quoted heavily in the story, so it’s right that the story ends with his quote:

“ ‘People changed their behavior in response to the Titanic catastrophe,’ he said—for example by providing more lifeboats on cruise ships.  Adopting new habits, he said, is ‘one of the things we need to start doing more of in the climate change realm.’”