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6 Tips For A Moneyless Vacation At Home

2012-04-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

6 things?

There may be a thousand things you could do while at home, complaining that you can’t go on vacation in top-ranked locations.

Most of the complaints deal with work and the lack of money: you’re either too tied up to leave work, or your budget doesn’t allow you to spend money on a vacation, or… both.

These 6 simple activities can make your vacation a great one, while still being at home. You don’t have to drown into consumerism to have some quality time.

Home vacation advice #6: Read. Read more. Read even more.

After a stressful day you’d rather watch a comedy or a tv show, but when’s the last time you laid your hand on a book?

If you argue you’re one of those persons who don’t read, then take a look again at Home vacation advice #2.

Reading is like food for your brain, besides making you less ignorant and improving your knowledge. Trying a book that improves you language skills and challenges your ideas can be a good exercise.

Home vacation advice #5: Spend more time outdoors

You don’t have a lot of money to spend on travelling, but I’m sure you have a quiet place near/outside the city where you can go for a breath of fresh air. The more, the merrier, so invite somebody to keep you company.

Take your bike for a stroll. Take a book for a read in the park.

Home vacation advice #4: Practice some sports

If affordable, you can choose a fitness gym, but it’s not a must. If you’ve got enough motivation, you can do some exercises at home or go for a run.

Home vacation advice #3: Learn something new

Either it’s a new language, or a food recipe, learning something new keeps your mind alert. It also gives you a feeling of satisfaction, of personal achievement.

Home vacation advice #2: Doing what you usually don’t have time to do

You know how long ago you wanted to clean the computer keyboard but you just didn’t find the right moment to do it? Well, now is the perfect moment for details like these.

Home vacation advice # 1: Wasting time can be benefic

When’s the last time you took some time and just sat and did nothing? No TV, no Internet, no magazines, no movies, no music, no other form of distraction?

Wasting some time (in moderate quantities) can be very productive and it ultimately makes you more creative. Best ideas are born in these sessions of ‘time wasting’.

3 Ways Bill Gates Spends His Money

2012-04-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Steve Job’s death drove the point home even harder for Bill Gates that he has to use the short time he has left to do as much as he can for the world. During an interview with Yahoo! and ABC News, Gates says of Job’s death, “Well, it’s very strange to have somebody who’s so vibrant and made such a huge difference and been… kind of a constant presence, to have him die. It makes you feel like, ‘Wow, we’re getting old.’ I hope I still have quite a bit of time for the focus I have now, which is the philanthropic work. And there’s drugs we’re investing in now that won’t be out for 15 years – malaria eradication, I need a couple of decades here to fulfill that opportunity. But, you know, it reminds you that you gotta pick important stuff, because you only have a limited time.”

So how is Mr. Gates spending his vast wealth and limited time?

The Gates Foundation has pledged to spend 95 percent of Gates’ personal wealth on philanthropic work. At home, Gates has made it his mission to improve education in the U.S. through a “peer-reviewed” teaching program. According to his proposed strategy, an elite group of teachers, after undergoing training, will observe other teachers’ classes, evaluate their teaching methods, and advise them about improvements that need to be made.

He explains, “You take 2 percent of the teachers, train them very well and have them do structured visitations. And they tell the teacher, ‘OK, you were good at this, but you didn’t engage these kids very well. You didn’t create discussion here. You didn’t explain why a kid would wanna know this thing,’ and help those teachers improve.”

Most of the money pledged by the Gates Foundation, however, goes to international charity; approximately 75 percent is allotted to helping out the world’s poorest countries. One of their priorities is the fight against preventable diseases. In India, their recent vaccination efforts were so successful that there was only a single case of polio reported last year.

This year, the top focus of the Foundation’s annual letter is agriculture; more specifically, Gates is channeling funds towards the genetic engineering of crops that are resistant to flood and drought. Despite the controversies surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Gates firmly believes that giving farmers access to this technology will also give them the ability to feed the world’s continually increasing population.

The Gates Foundation Uses Genetic Modification For Good

“Over time, yes, countries will need to look at specific GMO products like they look at drugs today, where they don’t approve them all,” says Gates. “They look hard at the safety and the testing. And they make sure that the benefits far outweigh any of the downsides.”

To his critics who point out that his money would be better spent at home, Gates says, “Well, the question is, are human lives of equal value? For the mother whose child dies in Africa, is that somehow less important, less painful? If we can save that life — for very little [money], is that appropriate to do? And, in fact, we know that if we do save those lives, it can reduce the population growth. It can let them be on a path to graduate from receiving aid.”

Futuristic Flying Wing Aircraft No Longer a Thing of the Past or the Future

2012-04-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

Back in the 1940s, a futuristic airplane was designed and subsequently abandoned by aerospace giant Northrop Grumman. Until recently, Northrop’s flying wing idea has remained an unfeasible concept mostly because technology has not caught up to the revolutionary design. Needless to say, the flying wing design was decades ahead of its time but not anymore.

Northrop Grumman’s tailless, fixed-wing aircraft of the 1940s is now closer to taking off from the drawing board to the skies. In response to NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation program, which calls for aircraft designs that are quieter and have better fuel efficiency, Northrop has revisited the flying wing concept and with today’s computer-controlled, fly-by-wire technology, has made the necessary improvements to make a flying wing aircraft a reality.

Nineteen-forty’s technology limited the firm’s ability to correct the stability problems of the flying wing design. A flying wing aircraft does away with the horizontal tail to eliminate the downward force that the tail delivers; this downward force is necessary to balance a traditional aircraft’s weight and its main wing’s lift. While the tail adds drag as it generates lift in a conventional aircraft, it also provides stability to the plane when it’s airborne and prevents it from rolling.

Northrop’s 1940’s tailless, fixed-wing design resulted in yaw instability; the absence of a stabilizing tail gave the flying wing aircraft a tendency to rotate around the vertical axis. The limited technology back then prevented them from correcting these stability issues and forced them to abandon the concept. The development of today’s fly-by-wire technology, however, makes it possible now to reduce or eliminate these stability issues.

Northrtop’s new flying wing aircraft resembles another one of the firm’s innovative aircraft creations, Northrop Grumman’s B-2 bomber. Unlike the B-2 bomber, however, the new flying wing airliner design has a 230-foot wingspan, which is wider by 58 feet than the B-2 bomber’s. For the flying wing cargo aircraft version, the wingspan is 260 feet and the aircraft would have a smaller cabin area than the flying wing passenger airliner. The flying wing also features a shielded engine to reduce noise. Because of the aerodynamic design, it is also more fuel efficient than conventional aircraft. While the sleek contours of the flying wing is supposed to significantly reduce drag, aircraft control strategies that are necessary to maintain stability still result in drag penalties. In the near future, these drawbacks should also be resolved as technology continues to improve.

Sensational Luxurious Villa Almyra Residence in Greece

2012-04-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

The SK Place hotel in Almyrida operates highly exclusive villas and apartments on the north coast of the island. One of the luxurious villas is in a stylish contemporary design with three floors and three bedrooms. The villa offers a spacious open-plan living/kitchen and dining room, a private steam room, covered terrace, garden with private pool, internet connection and air conditioning.

The Happiest House in the World

2012-04-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

The Happy Rizzi House is а fаmоus tourist аttrасtiоn in the German city оf Braunschweig. It wаs crеаtеd in 1999 bу аn American artist James Rizzi.

Incredible Treehouse Restaurant

2012-04-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

At the Soneva Kiri Eco Resort in Thailand, guests have the option to dine in a lofty woven Tree Pod perched 16 feet off the ground.

Eco-friendly Micro Houses

2012-04-10T00:31:00.000-07:00

Made from scavenged materials, Derek Diedricksen’s tiny houses cost just $200 to make. What the little wooden dwellings lack in space, is made up for in style thanks to plenty of decorative detail. The 33-year-old uses parts of discarded household items to ensure each home has basic functions, the glass from the front of a washing machine is converted in a porthole-like window while a sheet of metal becomes a flip down counter.

Global Seed Vault In Norway

2012-04-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (26 FEBRUARY 2008) - The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.

At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the vault, and together with the African Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai he placed the first seeds in the vault. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and a host of dignitaries and agriculture experts from around the globe deposited seeds during the ceremony. A variety of Norwegian musicians and choirs also performed in the opening ceremony held 130 m deep inside the frozen mountains.

Fascinating Ice Caves

2012-04-05T23:24:00.001-07:00

Few people manage to get into the fascinating world of ice caves. Once they were lava and limestone and after a while all in these caves got covered in ice. This collection of photographs is consisted of most famous ice caves in the world.

How to Camera Ambush Wild Animals

2012-04-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

This is how great pictures of wild animals are made. Beside of providing yourself with a good cover the most next important part is a comfy armchair because there is no telling how long are you going to sit there waiting!

Mighty Titan Beetle

2012-04-05T23:15:00.002-07:00

The Titan beetle (Titanus giganteus) is the second-longest known beetle in the Amazon rainforest and one of the longest beetle species in the world. It is from the family Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles). The titan beetle is the only member of its own genus. It is known from the rain forests of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the Guianas, and north-central Brazil, where it is most commonly collected by the use of mercury-vapor lamps, to which the males are attracted. There is a local ‘cottage industry’ in French Guiana of leading tours specifically to collect specimens of this beetle. Dried beetles are commonly available to collectors, but the very large specimens, in particular, are sought after and routinely command high prices, running into hundreds of US$. For instance, a 150 mm male secimen was sold on the internet auction site eBay in March 2012 for US$540.

Chrysopelea – Flying Snakes

2012-04-05T22:58:00.001-07:00

Chrysopelea is known under its assigned common name “flying snake”. It glides by using its ridge scales along its belly, pushing against rough bark surface of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a tree’s branch, the snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the branch’s end. It then makes a J-shape bend, leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to travel to control its flight path, as well as selecting a desired landing area.