Honour Mandela with a good deed  

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Residents have been urged to do any one of 67 community works to celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day. A photograph or the video of the work can also be a part of a souvenir of 67 stories to be published in October to inspire the community.
Mandela’s birthday has been declared the “Nelson Mandela International Day” conferred by a UN resolution adopted in November 2009.
Nahtham Social Responsibility, a charitable organisation in the capital, the South African Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the business community will be organising a series of events until July 18, the 93rd birthday of Mandela.
They have published a list of “67 ways to do the community work” including making friends with somebody from a different culture and several other activities in the areas of health, education, helping the poor, caring for the youth, elderly and the environment. “Select any one of the 67 activities or take up an activity of your own that will make a difference in the community,” the organisers said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“You have to dedicate 67 minutes for social responsibility at your home, workplace… or with the people who need you most on 18th July 2011,” Yacoob Abba Omar, the South African Ambassador, said.
“Sixty-seven minutes is a symbolic number, representing the number of years Mandela was actively involved in humanitarian activities.

UFO- Like clouds?  

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Diwali - A celebration, A new beginning!  

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Diwali means the festival of lights. Each one of you is a light to yourself. This festival is celebrated throughout India, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mauritius, Suriname, Trinidad, and South Africa. People wish each other ‘Happy Diwali’ and exchange sweets.

During Diwali, we let go of all the past burdens in the mind. Whatever is suppressed in the mind, you light firecrackers and let it go. Like crackers, the past is gone, all burnt out and a fresh new mind begins. This is Diwali.

Travel Awards 2010 - India has the warmest welcome  

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Forget countries such as Thailand, France, South Africa, and even the USA -- India is becoming an increasingly popular destination for luxury travel.

Readers of the UK Conde Nast Traveller magazine have voted India as the 7th best holiday destination in the world. Votes were based on satisfaction with travel facilities and services, including hotels, spas, airlines and airports. However, what India scored the highest on was the warmth of its people and hospitality. New luxury trains, such as the Maharajas Express have also added to India's appeal as a luxury destination.

DESTINATIONS: COUNTRIES


Turkey is your favourite holiday destination. When asked to score it

Tips and Information on Dubai  

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THE RULES YOU NEED TO KNOW FROM DAY ONE 
- have a huge amount of passport copies, your original driving licence, and a stupidly large amount of passport photos if you're moving here. Trust me.
- do not kiss or fondle or do anything else like that in public even if married 
- do not bring drugs into the country under any circumstances, this includes morphine derivatives like codeine, which are in products such as Nurofen Plus and Feminax 
- do not carry alcohol around in public areas 
- do not drink ANYTHING and drive

WHEN YOU ARRIVE (phone code +971) 
Dubai has 2 telecoms providers, Etisalat and Du. Use Etisalat. Du is cheaper but still has quite poor reception and connectivity, it's noticeable that calls to get cut off to Du numbers a bit more often than you'd like. The UAE has a 3G network, I turned it off on my previous phone because it just cut out whenever it switched networks, this might have changed by now.
Phone numbers to put in straight away are: 
Dubai Taxi 04 2080808 
Dubai Airport 04 224 5555 

Directory Enquiries: 181

GETTING THROUGH CUSTOMS 
Look through your bag and think what Granny would say. No drugs, no sex toys, no porn.

Backpacking Advice & Tips  

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The questions I most commonly receive during public presentations and through email relate to lightweight gear, nutrition, training, and sponsorships. In these pages I have tried to address these questions.

In addition to these pages, I would also highly encourage you to check out GoLite's "How to GoLite" sectionas well as Backpacking Light Magazine, both of which contain more great information about lightweight gear, skills, and philosophy.

Lightweight Backpacking Philosophy
Light is right and less is more, especially when you are backpacking. A lightweight pack is safer and more comfortable, and more FUN, than a heavy pack full of overbuilt and unnecessary stuff; and it makes the backcountry more accessible for anyone who does not want to (or cannot) carry a traditional pack, which should be everyone but the masochists among us.

Gear Lists
Prior to every trip I create a spreadsheet with all of the gear (and the weight of the gear) that I plan to take. This ensures that I have everything I think I need and nothing that I do not; based on the conditions that I actually encounter, I may change my gear kit during the trip or conclude that next time I should take something different. I have posted many of these gear lists because they can be useful guides in developing your own.

Gear Recommendations
During 3-season conditions my pack usually weighs 6 or 7 pounds (minus food and water), and during the deep winter I have pared it down to a mere 14! These pages explain the rationale behind some of the gear that I carry, including shelters, sleeping bags, footwear, water purification, and more.

Techniques & How-To's
How to train for a long-distance hike, how to get sponsored, how to protect your food from bears, how to integrate vapor barrier liners into your winter and 3+ season clothing and sleep systems, and more...

Nutrition & Cuisine
The dietary habits of a long-distance hiker are unique, as cooking methods and food variety is limited. I have found a bar-based diet combined with easy-cook dinners to be the most efficient and effective system for me.

Planning for a Long-Distance Trip
Resources for specific long trails, reviews and critiques of planning tools (e.g. mapping software, Excel), resupply advice, etc.


Find much more amazing tips on : andrewskurka.com/advice/index.php

Formula 1 to launch Videogame - F1 2010  

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The F1 videogame which will hit the stores on September 24, 2010 looks stunning. We can't wait to get our hands on this 'masterpiece'





F1 2010™ is the first multi-format, high definition Formula One videogame from Codemasters®, the developer and publisher of award-winning racing games, under its exclusive worldwide agreement with Formula One Administration Limited.

Complete with all the drivers, teams and circuits featuring in the current 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, F1 2010 will immerse players in the glamour and exhilaration of the world’s most exciting motorsport, from the paddock to the track.

Developed using Codemasters’ EGO™ Technology Platform, an evolution from the award winning EGO Engine, F1 2010 will deliver an unrivalled F1 experience, powered by cutting edge graphics, advanced physics systems and integrated network play. 
Features:

All the cars, all the stars
 - fully licensed, F1 2010 features all the drivers and teams contesting the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, including drivers’ world champions Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.


Every circuit, beautifully realised - race wheel-to-wheel on all 19 of the 2010 tracks, each modelled with exceptional attention to detail and jaw-dropping visuals. The revitalised line-up features iconic circuits including Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and Monaco and challenges players to race at the returning Canadian Grand Prix, take on Singapore’s dramatic night race in high definition for the first time and debut ahead of the drivers on the all-new Korean circuit. 


Maldives to float islands to combat rising sea levels  

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We do a number of trips to maldives for diving and other adventures. It would be a shame to see this lovely island nation disappear but there is a solution......



The tiny island nation of the Maldives is under serious threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change. No part of the 1200 islands which make up the Maldives is more than six feet above sea level, so as sea-levels rise (as they will if rampant climate change is not stopped), the entire nation will be under water. Because of this, the Maldives government is pulling out all the stops in the fight against climate change. Not only has the entire country gone carbon neutral, educated all of their children in environmental science and furiously built retaining walls around every island, but the government is buying up land in nearby nations as a place to retreat to when the Maldives disappears. Now it appears that the intrepid Maldivians have come up with a new strategy to fight the rising tide: creating mini floating islands!


The Maldives government and Dutch Docklands/Dutch Watervalley just signed an agreement today to develop several floating facilities for the islands, including a convention center and golf courses. Designed by architect Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio.NL, the people who brought you the Citadel floating apartment complex and these amazing floating homes, the renderings for the amphibious mini-cities appear depict star-shaped, tiered islands with indoor spaces hidden under lush green-roof terraces, complete with interior pools and beaches.





Rubens Barichello celebrates his 300th Grand Prix  

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Rubens Barrichello reaches a spectacular landmark this weekend as he celebrates his 300th Grand Prix. Three hundred! Just think about that for a second. Barrichello has been racing in F1, non-stop, since 1993. He has won 11 times, scored 14 pole positions, set 17 fastest laps and visited the podium 68 times.But Barrichello is about more than statistics. If you want a measure of his stature in the Formula 1 community, then cast your mind back to his last victory in Valencia in 2009. As Rubens drove slowly down the pit lane at the end of the race, rival teams applauded him all the way. F1 does not do ‘friendly’ – at least, not in such an ostentatious manner.  This was a simple show of affection for a driver who knows most of the team members personally. Barrichello raced for Jordan, Stewart, Ferrari and Brawn before moving to Williams in 2010.  This was also a sign Barrichello’s unquenchable enthusiasm for going motor racing, his flawless drive that day having come from the top drawer. It is a factor that is recognised and put in perspective by Sir Jackie Stewart, the three-time World Champion for whom Barrichello drove between 1997 and 1999.“I retired from driving in 1973 on the eve of my 100th Grand Prix and Rubens has now completed three times that number,” says Stewart. “That’s a marvellous achievement. A driver seldom tires of driving Grand Prix cars; it’s the business that surrounds the driving – the travel, the time away from home – that grinds you down and Rubens has managed his life in such a way that he can deal with that.”Barrichello uses a private jet to stay close to his family in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is a reaction to the lonely times a young Rubens spent in Europe while making his way through the junior ranks to win the British F3 championship, further acclaim and, eventually, a drive in Formula 1. I was present in the Jordan garage that day in Kyalami when Barrichello made his F1 debut in the 1993 South African Grand Prix.  His slight build added to the impression of a shy but serious young man intent on making his way. But neither  I nor anyone else witnessing an inauspicious beginning that day – he retired while running near  the back – would have believed that 17 years later Barrichello would still be in Formula 1 and continuing to enjoy every minute of it.

Dr. NakaMats - The World's Most Prolific Inventor  

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Any idea who invented the Karaoke Machine? Dr. Nakamats - The man behind many amazing gadgets and technologies we use everyday. We wonder how sports and travel would be any different without him....



It should come as little surprise that Japan, home to the world’s most advanced and strangest inventions, would give rise to an inventor like Yoshiro Nakamatsu. But the quirky, fun-loving 81-year-old scientist seems ripped from another dimension altogether. Dr. NakaMats, as he’s known, is a kind of mash-up of Thomas Edison and Willy Wonka – on steroids.


The mastermind behind over a world-record breaking 3,000 patents, Yoshiro Nakamatsu (中松 義郎) began inventing at the age of five, and is responsible for a universe of genius gadgets you probably use every day, like the “PyonPyon” spring shoes, the karaoke machine, CinemaScope, the “Cerebrex” armchair, the sauce pump, the taxicab meter, and a hydrogen-powered engine. And if you’ve ever happened to use a digital watch, a floppy disk, a CD or DVD, you’ve also got him to thank.


Dr. Nakamatsu harbors other ambitions too: in 2007, he took his penchant for political campaigning to a new level, becoming a candidate in the gubernatorial election in Tokyo, and the election for the Upper House. Although he failed to get a seat, Dr. NakaMats has other tricks up his sleeve. In 2005 he was awarded the Ig Nobel prize for Nutrition, for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting). By the time he dies at the age of 144 (a goal he maintains with an elaborate daily ritual that rejuvanates his body and triggers his creative process), he intends to patent 6,000 inventions.


Motherboard recently visited Nakamatsu’s lab in Tokyo to learn more about the mad scientist’s inventions, his underwater brainstorm sessions, and his quest to spark technological creativity in others.