Monte Alban, just out side of Oaxaca Mexico, was built by the Zapotec people around 500 B.C. At the time it was one of the largest cities in Mesoamerica. The Zapotecs apparently leveled a mountain top to put this city on top of it. What remains of Monte Alban is the temples and ceremonial structures. The private homes continued down the sides of the mountain and have not been uncovered. Structures like Monte Alban also cover many of the nearby hills and probably only 10% of the cities scale is currently apparent, but why the Zapotec were know as the “Cloud People” by their neighbors is pretty apparent. The Zapotec were peaceful traders and with the men gown for years at a time it is believed that the society was matriarchal. Eventually the city grew two large and the nearby valleys were over farmed. The Zapotecs remained in the area and much of the population of the area speaks Zapotech at home.

James Lick

James Lick had a problem. He was a very rich man and wanted to be remembered after his death. He thought about building a giant pyramid in downtown San Francisco, he thought about a colossus on the San Francisco coast before a friend talked him into funding the construction of the largest telescope in the world and an astronomy department at the newly formed University of California.

If you are willing to drive 45 minutes up a very windy road from San Jose, California to the top o Mount Hamilton (at 4212 feet the tallest mountain in the San Francisco Bay area) you can see what $750,000 would buy you for a legacy in the 1880s.

Guided Tour

I had the opportunity to take a private guided tour yesterday with one of the 3 resident astronomers at the facility. There are now 9 different domes with different telescopes that have been constructed at the site. The newest two telescopes are robotic telescopes that quickly scan the sky for particular phenomena. One of these is spotting 1-2 supernovae a week (it used to be that the scientific community would find about a dozen in a year). The newest one will look for planets around other suns using a technique pioneered here at the Lick Observatory that has found roughly half of the 300 planets that have been discovered.

Adaptive Optics

Our tour lasted from 6:30pm to about 11pm. We learned about the history of Lick and his observatory. We also learned about a technique that was pioneered there for using adaptive optics in astronomy. In adaptive optics you focus at a bright star close to the object you are trying to observe. Sensitive instruments detect distortions in the atmosphere in front of that bright star and you use that data to deform a reflector to compensate for these distortions. All of this is done by a computer 1000 times a second. Since only 1% of the sky had a bright star near it a technique was invented where a bright laser is shined on sodium molecules in the upper atmosphere that glow creating, in essence, a temporary fake star.

The View

The culmination of the tour is a peak through the old 36 inch telescope that was the worlds largest when it was installed directly over the tomb of James Lick. To make it easy to reach the eye piece the entire floor in the dome can be raised or lowered on hydraulics. This was originally driven by water power supplied by a local windmill. Even today, long after the telescope ceased to be state of the art, this is still a pretty great feat of engineering that does its namesake proud.

Visitor Center

James Lick’s vistor center is open:

• Saturday and Sunday 10 am - 5 pm
• Monday thru Friday 12:30 pm - 5 pm

But to look through the 36 inch telescope yo need to buy a ticket through the Summer Visitors Program.

< !– google_ad_section_start –>One of the images that I often see on the tourism brochures for Istanbul and Turkey is this image of the town of Ortaköy at the base of the Bosphorus Bridge on the European side. This picturesque and relatively modern mosque is bright on the inside and the exterior makes a wonderful counterpoint to the bridge. The bridge reminds me a great deal of San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge, especially at night when they light it up with lights that change color. Around the pigeon-filled square are a number of cafes with outdoor seating. This picture is from a beautiful day in February and I can only imagine it is more lovely when the trees have not lost their leaves. Near Ortaköy you can catch a boat to cruise up the Bosphorus to the fortresses, one on the European side and one on the Asian side, built by Mehmed the Conquerer and his father in preparation for the successful siege of Istanbul in 1453.< !– google_ad_section_end –>

see video of Ortaköy at the end of Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul Turkey - Amateur Traveler Video Episode 16

A video interview with journalist Karen Schaler who has written a book, Travel Therapy, on the different was we can use travel to cure what ails us from dealing with stress to recovering from breakups or divorce. Karen also has a website focusing on travel therapy trips.

Next time you race to catch a train… try and make sure you get INSIDE the train.

Tourist Chad Vance clung to Ghan train for two hours

A YOUNG American tourist has survived a terrifying train ride in which he clung to the outside of the legendary Ghan in the freezing dark as it hit speeds up to 110km/h in the South Australian Outback.

Chad Vance, 19, frantically pursued The Ghan after missing it in Port Augusta, managing to climb on and squeeze himself into a tiny stairwell as the train raced for almost 200km through the night.

Ever since SARS, China has take quarantines seriously as the mayor of New Orleans learned this week.

New Orleans mayor quarantined in China for possible flu exposure

The mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, has been quarantined in China after possible exposure to the H1N1 virus, his office said Sunday.

Mayor Ray Nagin, who traveled to China on an economic development trip, flew on a plane that carried a passenger being treated for symptoms suspected to be from the virus, commonly known as the swine flu virus, the mayor’s office said in a statement.

Want to take your 9mm pistol with you when you move? No problem, just get your roommate who works for the airline to help you sneak it on. Great idea… right?

FBI: Airline worker helped roommate get gun on jet

The FBI charged a US Airways employee with helping his roommate get a concealed, semiautomatic handgun onto a plane departing Philadelphia early Thursday.

Customer service agent Roshid Milledge switched black carry-on bags with passenger Damien Young at the gate so Young could board the 7 am flight to Phoenix with the unloaded 9 mm weapon, the FBI said in an affidavit.

Expect this study to spark a debate over how you should travel if you want to save the planet.

Train can be worse for climate than plane

True or false: taking the commuter train across Boston results in lower greenhouse gas emissions than travelling the same distance in a jumbo jet. Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is false.

A new study compares the “full life-cycle” emissions generated by 11 different modes of transportation in the US. Unlike previous studies on transport emissions, Mikhail Chester and Arpad Horvath of the University of California, Berkeley, looked beyond what is emitted by different types of car, train, bus or plane while their engines are running and includes emissions from building and maintaining the vehicles and their infrastructure, as well as generating the fuel to run them. (Table 1 on page 3 has a complete list of components that were considered).

But the bad news for the airlines:

World’s airlines set to lose $9 billion

The world’s airline will lose $9 billion this year on top of $10.4 billion lost in 2008, IATA has warned.

The airline body’s director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani cautioned that a return of rising fuel prices was putting recovery from global recession at risk.

Airlines post 79% on-time rate in Apri

But some things have actually improved… of course it is easier to be on time when fewer passengers are getting on the plane.

U.S. airlines’ on-time performance improved in April compared to the previous month and the same month last year, according to a monthly federal report released Tuesday.

The 19 largest carriers recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 79.1%, better than both the 77.7% of April 2008 and March 2009’s 78.4%, according the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight is considered on time if it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule.

Some other blog posts that I liked:

• Seven Ways to Immerse Yourself in Spanish at Home
• 9 of the Weirdest World Heritage Sites
• Traveler’s 101 - The Complete Travel Tip Post