Blog Marco

I bought this Mini Foldable Bike from Japan when I was in Japan last year. The brand is a "Mini". I brought it home with me as check-in baggage. Weighing at 11.8 kilos the bike isn't too heavy. I reckon I'm the only one that has this in Australia.

Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls is an awesome show. I recently stumbled upon it while flicking channels on SBS in Australia. I can't believe how behind we are as they are up to Season 6 in USA! This guy is awesome - episodes are jam packed with reality TV action - not the cheesy kind but the informative/entertainment kind. At the beginning of every episode Bear Grylls gets "delivered" to some remote part of the world - usually by jumping out of a Helicopter. The goal is to survive with just a knife and a flint while trying to make it to civilisation.

About a month ago I went on my annual pilgrimage to New York city. My first priority was to deal with Jetlag. I knew it was a threat to my time in New York, and yet I was once again defeated. I was feeling groggy in the day and wide awake at night, after the every day discipline of forcing myself to wake at 7am and go to sleep at the "normal" local time it got better... and after 5-6 days I found myself living in that time zone.

After the gruelling 24 hour trip from Sydney to New York, your body is confused. I didn't know whether to sleep or not sleep. I left Sydney on a Saturday morning at 11am Sydney time and arrived on the same day at 5pm local time in JFK airport with about 4 hours of sleep to boot. I was lucky enough to score emergency row seating with the extra leg room in Economy class but the guys to the left and right of me kept invading my elbow room. On the other hand, on the way home (QF 108 leaves about 6pm at night and arrives about 8am the next day) I opted to fly Business class on Qantas, this time no elbow matches with my neighbours. I got about 7 hours of sleep and I found when I got home I didn't get any jet lag at all. They do say that flying east (i.e. flying from Sydney to New York) takes longer for your body clock to adapt because it finds it harder to adjust to a shorter day than a longer one.

I want to try: http://www.bigapplegreeter.org/

Lookup: http://www.nycgo.com/ for the events happening in and around the city...

Don't forget to apply for US travel authorisation before departure on the ESTA website: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/

Hunedoara (German: Eisenmarkt; Hungarian: Vajdahunyad) is a city in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania. Hunedoara Castle was the place where Vlad Dracul the Impaler (aka Dracula aka Vlad III of Wallachia) was imprisoned 7 years by Matthias Corvinus (Matthias Kiraly) king of Hungary (aka "the renaissance king") after he was deposed in 1462. The castle received its shape (the way it looks nowadays) mostly in the period between the 15 and 17th centuries. The castle is considered the most impressive and best preserved gothic castle in Romania. The castle is also properly called the "Hunyad Castle". The castle is a relic of the Hunyadi dynasty. In the 14th century, the castle was given to John Hunyadi knyaz Serb, or Sorb by Sigismund king of Hungary as severance. The castle was restored between 1446 and 1453 by his grandson John Hunyadi.

The Castle is known both by the name Corvin's Castle and "Hunyadi Castle". "Hunyadi" is a more internationally recognized name for the same family, "Corvins" being used mostly by Romanians. The Hunedoara Castle is a 14th Century Gothic castle (with Renaissance and Baroque architectural elements mixed in). It was built on old Roman fortifications, on a strategic position, on a rocky cliff at the exit of Zlasti river from a small defile from Poiana Rusca Mountains. Hunedora is evocative, with three huge pointed towers, a drawbridge and high battlements. Five marble columns with delicate ribbed vaults support two halls (1453), the Diet Hall above the Knight's Hall below. The castle wall was hewn out of 30 m of solid rock by Turkish prisoners.

With all the news about the swine flu virus ravaging over the world plastered everywhere, I wonder what the difference is between an endemic, epidemic and a pandemic. (By the way, the photo has a random influenza virus illustrated in brown and the cilia from your lungs in blue)

An endemic is an infectious communicable disease (such as colds, influenza, measles, mumps, tuberculosis, pneumonia, smallpox) that exists permanently in a particular region or population. An epidemic occurs when this disease attack "a lot of" people at about the same time and may spread through one or several communities. A pandemic occurs when an epidemic spreads across the world.

The World Health Organisation has raised the pandemic alert level from phase four to phase five, signalling that a pandemic is "imminent". Here are the six different "pandemic influenza phases" defined by the WHO:

Phase 1: A virus circulates among animals but with no cases reported of infections in humans.

Phase 2: An animal flu virus is known to have caused infection in humans, and therefore considered a potential pandemic threat.

The Gaza Strip is a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, on the South-West border of Israel, bordering Egypt to its West. It is about 41 kilometres (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres (4–7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometres (139 sq mi). The area is not recognised internationally as part of any sovereign country but is claimed by the Palestinian National Authority as part of the Palestinian territories. Since the June 2007 battle of Gaza, actual control of the area is in the hands of the Hamas de facto government.

The Gaza Strip was promised to the Palestinians in 1948, it was captured by Egypt in the Middle East War, and was then captured by Israel in the 1967 War. It is currently under Palestinian rule, though it seems lately to just be falling apart.

The Gaza Strip in History

Here are some more trivia about the Gaza strip you may want to know about: The first mention of the city of Gaza was in the 15th century BCE where the Torah and the Old Testament has the story of Samson and Delilah.

I've got a personal interest in riding bikes. Sometimes I get nightmares of things that can go bad - like this crazy bike crash that happened recently. But of course, you never get your fears the best of you... But there was news recently of a 14 year old girl being attacked by a bear while riding her bike. She was participating in a 24-hour mountain bike race - and in the middle of the night the bear attacked. She called for help through a trusty old mobile phone. The attack was severe - she had head, neck, torso and leg wounds... scary stuff. They said the attack may have been caused by a sow grizzly bear. The bike race itself was an event put on by the Arctic Bicycle Club (about 60 bike riders raced) in Bicentennial Park on Anchorage's east side, borders on Chugach State Park. Wild animals - from grizzly and black bears to moose, wolves and wolverines - frequent the area... Rescuers had to hike in more than three kilometres to reach the girl. When she made the emergency call she had only whispered one word: "bear". Dispatchers, following procedure called back the number and another rider heard the phone ringing, stopped to investigate and spotted the teen off the trail. It's scary stuff... I'll probably won't a bike ride in Alaska... too risky...

Why do you participate in Outdoor activites?

I like to participate in outdoor activities because...

I feel more in touch with myself then
It helps me to relieve stress and refocus
It’s an escape from routine & gives a sense of freedom
It gives my family bonding experiences and an opportunity to grow closer
I enjoy facing the challenges that outdoor activities pose
It’s an opportunity for me to enjoy some time to myself
I enjoy competing against myself more than competing against others
I really enjoy socialising and meeting new people
I feel I share a common bond with others who participate
I enjoy competing against others more than competing against myself
I crave excitement and to get an adrenaline rush
I enjoy exploring places and having new experiences
Of the “natural high” and feeling good
I enjoy experiencing nature and it’s beauty
I’m motivated to test my skills and push myself

I remember this being reported some time ago: about scanning machines which can "see" underneath clothing. And now, they've been installed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (JFK). "For now, the scans will also be voluntary. Flyers selected for a secondary screening after passing through the metal detectors will have the option of stepping into the wave scanner, rather than undergoing a physical pat-down." I would rather get the pat down instead of having to step into this machine. Who knows what the long term effects are of having been exposed to these waves? Also what about people's privacy? Personally I've been used to pat-downs. While traveling in the Philippines, for years they have already been patting down everyone at the airport (I remember being searched at least four times before I stepped into the aircraft) and they also pat down people when you enter in any of their shopping centres or their public trains (Yep, you get patted down and your belongings looked at before you enter a train station.

According to Hollywood, you shouldn't travel to these places. Repeat. Don't travel to these places. Never ever visit these places.

Don't Travel to:
10. Antarctica, as depicted in The March of the Penguins (2005)
9. Kazakhstan, as depicted in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
8. Colombia, as depicted in Romancing the Stone (1984) and Collateral Damage (2002)
7. Texas, as depicted in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
6. Brazil, as depicted in Turistas (2006)
5. Burma, as depicted in Rambo (2008)
4. New Mexico, as depicted in The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
3. Mexico City (Mexico) and Caracas (Venezuela), as depicted in Man on Fire (2004) and Secuestro Express (2005)
2. Slovakia, as depicted in Hostel (2005)
1. Sierra Leone, as depicted in Blood Diamond (2006) and Tears of the Sun (2003)

Shouldn't USA (especially New York, Las Vegas...) be in the list too? I mean, of all the crime (Law & Order), murders (CSi), gangsters (GodFather Trilogy), disasters (The Day After Tomorrow) and monsters (Ghostbusters) that happen in the USA from the silverscreen.

Its no secret - everybody knows which seats on the airplane are the best seats. It's first class, then business class then there's coach aka economy class. Most of us have to travel economy class. Again - its no secret which seats are the best seats in economy class - the exit rows and bulkhead (the front) seats are the bes because they offer the most leg room. Aisle seats are great too (Have you watched those comedies when someone had to get up over people just to go to the bathroom?).

But no. There are other best seats in economy class. So if it isn't the bulkhead, the exit row or aisle seats, which are they? In every plane its different because of the different configurations for different carriers.