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Showing posts from November 12, 2017

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...
SpaceX is launching the secret ZUMA project today. We know it is not a spy satellite. I think the secret is right beneath our noses. Forbes Article below from Oct 2015. First Private Moon Mission Set For Blast-off In 2017 Brid-Aine Parnell , Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Tweet This The magnitude of this achievement cannot be overstated, representing an unprecedented and monumental commitment for a privately-funded organization The first private mission to the Moon plans to launch in just two years, as Israeli non-profit SpaceIL aims to win Google’s Lunar XPRIZE of $30m. SpaceIL has become the first of the competition hopefuls to actually book a place on a launch to get its uncrewed rover on its way to a private soft landing on the Moon. At a press conference in Jerusalem, the non-profit organisation said it had signed up with Spaceflight Industries, which recently bought a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to facilitate the ridesharing launche...