100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
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Pilots Arms

Next time you have the opportunity look at your pilot's arms. The arms are not strong in an obvious sense. You would think that the particular part of the hero-body that with literal single-handedness guides hundreds of tons of metal and humanity would be well-formed, masculine and muscular. In fact, these very arms countering fears of passengers actually appear weak, almost stick-like. The elbow seems to drop from the shoulder unsupported, without the expected thigh-sized bicep. The short sleeve appears large and underfilled. There are tendons strongly connected from the core without strenght, but filled with confidence and grace.

In place of muscle there are highly developed nerves in the elbow and shoulder that firmly connect with the brain and the art of flight.

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grammachickens said…
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8:23 AM
grammachickens said…
It is not the arms but "the brain and the art of flight". Remember you are not just a little bird about to soar but only a heavy, unwinged human with technology.

http://www.sportpilot.org/magazine/feature/2006%20-%2010%20October%20-%20Lessons%20Learned%20-%20A%20Modern%20Icarus.pdf

Is the pilot an artist?

"In the specific domain of technique and invention, the dominating opposition is between the notions of straightness and circularity or sinuosity. Like every good carpenter, Daedalus guides his plane straight. When he begins the first flight, he adheres strictly to the rules of navigation: he flies with his eyes fixed on the constellations -- Bootes, Ursa Major, Orion's Sword -- which are the reference points of the sailor. The essential rule he sets down for Icarus is that of the straight route, halfway between the high and the low, The failure and drowning of Icarus, a bad pilot, comes from ignoring this rule.
But the carpenter-pilot who has mastery over straightness also knows how to weave undulating nets and draw curves.
The last antithesis is already present in Daedalus's genealogy: the one who has manual dexterity is characterized essentially by his intellectual qualities. The narration of the adventures of the artisan puts the accent on the form of mentality that he must prove: an inventive subtlety rich in ruses and stratagems."

http://books.google.com/books?id=ANC8Cwuk46sC&printsec=frontcover
8:54 AM
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