New York City, The Big Apple, a global hub for innovation and invention from the Otis elevator through the MakerBot 3D printer… The perfect location for teachers to flex their own innovation and invention muscles at Design, Do, Discover 2015.
In June 2014, I attended the second Design Do Discover conference at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA. This June, the third DDD was held at Marymount School in New York City. Both times, the amazing Angi Chau from Castilleja and Jaymes Dec from Marymount were the fantastic organizers, and both times I was honored to have been asked to participate as a coach to support teams of participant teachers.
The first year was a wonderful learning experience for everyone – coaches and participants alike. But this year blew it out of the water. Hit it out of the park. Nailed it on the head.
The premise is simple: start with a quick tour of the facility and very brief show-and-tell of the tools (less than 30 minutes!), follow with a group brainstorming session around project ideas (less than 30 minutes!), then form groups to jump into projects. Even before lunch on the first day, groups were already sketching and tinkering with Hummingbird Robotics kits, MaKeyMaKeys, cardboard and MakeDo's, and more. For two days, I jumped in to help groups, learned new tools myself (LittleBits!), fetched tools and supplies as needed (copper tape! wire strippers!), recommended resources and suppliers (Sparkfun! DigiKey!), and acted as cheerleader for teachers pushing themselves to learn incredible new skills and create amazing artifacts of their learning.
The final projects blew ALL of us coaches away! The absolute best part, from my perspective, is that every single project was immediately applicable back in the participant's classroom. Most of them are generally applicable in any learning environment! Serious high school science content, literature and history, elementary grades, even social/emotional learning… This was absolutely the most excellent collection of practical and academically-oriented maker projects I've seen!
This project was created by a team from my own school in Seattle… They were pursuing an idea of presenting the whole school with the same project prompt: solve a problem related to water. Our kindergarten teacher on the team identified a classic kindergarten water problem – water spills on the floor at the sink and water fountain! The group decided to build a Lego Mindstorms robot to automatically clean up those spills. The robot included a motion sensor to activate, and incorporated laser cutting for the adorable turtle form and 3D printing for the optional handle for manual clean-up.
Lego MindStorms, Laser cutting (Adobe Illustrator), 3D printing (Tinkercad).
Laser cutting (Adobe Illustrator), MaKeyMaKey, Scratch programming, (some might say "excessive") ambition.
This group went all-out to try to use every single tool available. They also endeavored to create a sculpture that would encourage collaboration – in order to activate all of the "D"s, multiple people must work together to activate all of the sensors!
Vinyl cutter, 3D printer, laser cutter, MaKeyMaKey, Hummingbird Robotics kit, LittleBits, mechanical gears!
This group had an interesting brainstorming process that ended up far from their original plans… they were interested in incorporating learning about animals and habitats, they really wanted to incorporate Hummingbird Robotics kits, they wanted something immediately applicable back at their schools, AND they were interested in wearables. Although I was present for their brainstorming session, I'm still not sure how they got to "Nick Bottom's Donkey Head," but the final product was amazing and left me nearly in tears laughing!
The mouth and ears are controlled by Hummingbird servos, the eyes are Hummingbird LEDs, and they used the Snap programming system to direct the motion sensor to activate the whole system. Other than that, the whole head is cardboard, felt, and MakeDo connectors!
Hummingbird Robotics, MakeDo, cardboard and killer craftsmanship.
I worked quite a bit with this group of humanities teachers, most of whom felt very non-techy. They killed it! They used the laser cutter to etch their maps, but then really didn't know what they wanted to do next… With some brainstorming, they decided to use LEDs to illuminate different critical locations on their maps, and ALSO to use the MaKeyMaKey to give viewers of their maps more information about each of those locations. When a viewer presses one of the buttons, the corresponding location is illuminated and an informational screen pops up via Scratch to teach about that location!
Laser cutting, basic circuitry, MaKeyMaKey and Scratch programming, bravery and perseverance.
This group was interested in the intersection between technology and storytelling. They developed an digital interactive Snap version of Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears, and a hilarious physical interactive display of the bears themselves. Using the Hummingbird Robotics kit and three light sensors (one for each bear's bowl of porridge), a viewer can activate each bear to move in a different way.
Hummingbird Robotics, extensive Snap programming, Laser cutting, hot glue!
This was a deceptively simple little project with some very complex innards… These two teachers programmed an Arduino to take input from two sonar-based distance sensors to send a random compliment (from a set of text strings the group developed) to offer viewers a compliment when they approached the box. The participants who made the Compliment Bot were pretty funny… they kept insisting that the distance sensors actually conducted a retinal scan, the Arduino analyzed the viewers personality, and then the screen printed a compliment specially selected for that viewer. I was almost convinced when the Compliment Bot praised my strength in The Force.
Arduino, Laser cutting, a hilarious sense of humor.
I didn't get to chat much with this group, so don't know many of the details of the project. However, what's not to love about two aliens who dance with you when you approach?
When placed on the two sides of the scale, the viewer can see the heavier weight of the second sentence of the quote, demonstrating the heavier weight of its meaning. A truly beautiful metaphor.
Sticks and paperclips, creativity and craftsmanship.
This primary art teacher does a class monster-drawing activity with her students regularly, in which each student receives a piece of paper folded into thirds. The student draws the head of a monster on the first third, then passes it to a second student. The second student draws the body of a monster on the second third without seeing the head drawn by the first student! (See where this is going?) The third student draws the legs, then everyone opens the folded paper to see the hilarious mixed-up monsters at the end.
She scanned in several of her students' drawings and converted them to laser-cuttable files with the intent of making the segments even more reconfigurable as stamps! In the picture, you can see the acrylic, heavy cardstock, and MDF trial cuts she ran. Ultimately, she found that etching produced better stamp-ability than cutting.
This teacher produced a beautiful and simple work of art using laser cutting and an LED string from a LittleBits kit.
If you've wondered how to incorporate "making" into high school biology, this teacher had a brilliant idea. She used the laser cutter to created a hinged bacteria chromosome and set it to represent primer sequences to open the chromosome and insert a new gene. Since her classes do transformation with green flourescent protein (GFP), she used copper tape, an LED, and a coin cell battery to illuminate the gene when properly inserted into the plasmid!
This group was consistently very focused on design… Their intent was to design and prototype hacks that could be implemented on nearly any standard classroom furniture to improve the flexibility, storage, and usability in a "maker" context. In the pictures below, you can see the "open" and "closed" configurations of the different items: a locking table-extension that reveals tool storage when opened, benches that contain storage compartments, and (my favorite) a bench that opens to reveal project trays, so students can move and store their projects flat without needing to sweep everything into a bin.
Laser cutter, vinyl cutter, design thinking!
This group was very interested in the idea of creating spaces-within-a-space, or small architectural hacks to offer smaller experiences within the classroom. They brainstormed a wide variety of amazing implementations, like a small domed cave for making cave paintings. The two spaces pictured included the "emotional regulation cubby" (where students can retreat when overstimulated or in need of soothing) and the "private art-viewing booth" (where viewers can view art individually even within a crowded space).
MaKeyMaKey, cardboard and glue guns.
This teacher identified a problem in her school – iPad implementation was going well, but learning spaces were all too loud for students to make decent voice recordings for their range of video and audio projects! She prototyped a great personal sound booth that folds up neatly for storage, holds the user's iPad easily, includes a curtain to close off additional sound from behind the user and quiet fan to keep the inside from becoming stifling. The photo and video really do not do the piece justice.
Foam and ingenuity, LittleBits, basic circuitry.
This team from the Philippines was very interested in examining their school's disaster preparedness plan, as well as learning as many of the tools as they could. They designed and laser-cut the front facade of their school, and 3D designed and printed a side-building, then sought me out for help with their electronics idea: they wanted to create a feature that would illuminate the pathway to first aid and disaster stations when activated by a user walking by. With little time left, I didn't think we'd be able to achieve that with a Hummingbird Robotics kit or certainly not with Arduino! However, I'd *just* learned about LittleBits and was confident that system could be used to achieve their goal! As you can see in the picture, they were successful.
Laser cutting, 3D printing, LittleBits.
This group's premise was to devise a project template that would incorporate multiple subject areas and focus on using sustainable materials with as few "consumables" as possible. With this in mind, they started by creating a blank template – which they're sharing here! – that could be used for any lesson/unit design.
The example project they built out was a unit around water conservation, demonstrating their proposed format for a fully-integrated unit. In each content area (they chose Math, Social Studies, Science, and English), lessons would be taught with the subject of water being a theme. Math would look at volume, English at poetry, Social Studies at the economics of water control, and Science at actual conservation. As students showed mastery in each subject, they would be asked to build a "button" using a metal bottle cap (water bottle) and other sustainable or recyclable materials. The button must to show the subject area they learned about (ie. Math has a 3D printed "V" for volume). Once the students had made their four buttons, their task in the maker space would be to create a video game around the theme of water conservation in Scratch and use a MaKey MaKey to create a controller for that video game using the buttons!
This team's goal was to create something that could continue to add meaning to making and help teachers to create lessons that would incorporate responsible making in their classrooms, teams, and schools – a goal thoroughly met!
MaKey MaKey, Scratch programming, 3D design and printing, with a little Lego and laser cutting for pizzazz.
This conference really shows just how innovative teachers can be when presented with challenges, tools, and a collaborative and supportive atmosphere. Participants ranged in their self-identified experience-levels with the tools from utter novices to experts, but all showed deep expertise in student learning needs and connections to their respective content. This is the sort of learning we should be consistently striving for, both for our students in our own schools but also in our professional development. The learning and growth experienced with this kind of critical thinking, tinkering, and connection-making is what is going to enable us and our students to solve the huge problems that our world is moving towards: poverty, climate change, lost habitat diversity, social injustice, and more. I'm sure it sounds hyperbolic, but the great resilience, collaboration, creativity, empathy, and other skills afforded by "maker education" are precisely the skills needed to change the world.
Thank you so much for this comprehensive round up of all the projects! It really was a special conference and we could not have pulled it off without all the talented coaches. Can't wait for next year!
Dear Lindsey….amazing projects! Thanks so much…my mind is swimming with ideas!
I am now determined tofight extra hard at budget time for a laser cutter….it's the last piece missing in our Design Studio!


BEST, The Netherlands and TORONTO, July 21, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) (AEX:PHIA) and Profound Medical Corp. (TSXV:PRN), a Toronto-based medical device company, today announced that they have signed a joint development agreement to support Profound Medical's proprietary TULSA (Transurethral Ultrasound Ablation) technology designed to treat patients with prostate cancer on Philips' Ingenia and Achieva 3T MRI systems.
Profound's TULSA technology is emerging as a new minimally invasive, whole gland ablation of the prostate. This single session procedure has the potential for outcomes comparable to the best of current treatment options, but with lower rates of side effects and higher quality of life for patients.
"Philips has stepped forward and enthusiastically shares our vision for the technology. With their support, TULSA-PRO will soon be available to clinicians and patients for primary treatment of localized prostate cancer," says Steve Plymale, CEO, Profound Medical Corp. "This new relationship will provide us with access to a large installed base of MRI systems and customers and we look forward to developing this mutually rewarding relationship further."
As a leader in image-guided therapies Philips is expanding its efforts in the fast growing interventional oncology domain. MRI is emerging in oncology applications, because of its excellent real-time 3D visualization of soft tissue and Philips has a suite of industry-leading solutions for MRI guided procedures. Philips has deep expertise and experience in providing clinical solutions for prostate MR imaging.
"With 3T MRI emerging as a technology standard for multi-parametric MRI diagnostic imaging of the prostate, our collaboration with Profound Medical will enable us to offer our customers access to a novel MR guided ultrasound ablation therapy that's critical to prostate care research," said Christopher Busch, General Manager MR Therapy, Philips Medical Systems. "We look forward to teaming with Profound Medical to refine the integration of our technologies and drive clinical research and reimbursement efforts with the ultimate objective to improve clinical performance and enhance the patient experience."
Profound Medical will soon release 12 month data from its 30 patient safety and feasibility study with the goal of obtaining a CE mark and commercialization of TULSA-PRO in Europe and Canada in 2016.
Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) (AEX:PHIA) is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people's lives through meaningful innovation in the areas of Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle and Lighting. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips posted 2014 sales of EUR 21.4 billion and employs approximately 108,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. The company is a leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as male shaving and grooming and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.


text:
Myra Lucretia Taylor Biography (1960-)
Born July 9, 1960, in Fort Motte, SC. Addresses: Contact: Harden Curtis Associates, 850 Seventh Ave., Suite 405, New York, NY 10019.
Fort Motte, South Carolina, United States
Ceres, The Tempest, New York Shakespeare Festival, Riverside Shakespeare Company, New York City, 1984
OB, Dennis, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York City, 1985
The Colored Museum, Crossroads Theatre Company, New Brunswick, NJ,1985-1986
Norma Faye, Black Girl, The Second Stage, New York City, 1986
(Broadway debut) Negro Woman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Circle inthe Square Theatre Uptown, 1988
American Clock, Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, MA, 1988-1989
Lorraine/Maid/Mrs. Johnson/Dr. Croyers/Mom, Phantasie, Vineyard Theatre, New York City, 1989
Maya Deboats, Walking The Dead, Circle Repertory Company, New YorkCity, 1991
Mattie Clark and understudy for the roles of Zora/Teets/Mambo/Lindsay, Mule Bone, Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City, 1991
Puck, A Midsummer Night's Dream, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival,Drew University, Madison, NJ, 1991
Maya Deboats, Walking the Dead, Circle Repertory Company, Circle Repertory Theatre, New York City, 1991
Come Down Burning (workshop), Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, CT, 1992-1993
Dr. Oleander, Fugue, The Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland, OH, 1992-1993
Tee, Come Down Burning, American Place Theatre, New York City, 1993
Nancy, The Women, Hartford Stage, Hartford, CT, 1993-1994
Ruby Savage, Marathon Dancing, Soho Repertory Theatre, New York City, 1994
Ms. Pike, July 7, 1994, 1994-1995
Suddenly Last Summer, Hartford Stage, 1994-1995
The Poet, Hartford Stage, 1994-1995
Victoria, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Plymouth Theatre, New York City, 1995
To Kill a Mockingbird, Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, MA, 1995-1996
Once upon This Island, Virginia Stage Company, Norfolk, VA, 1995-1996
Quilly McGrath, The Old Settler, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ,1997
American Clock, Signature Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, 1997
Electra, Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 1998
Witch, Macbeth, Music Box Theatre, New York City, 2000
Paulina, The Winter's Tale, Royal Shakespeare Company, London andStratford-upon-Avon, England, 2002
Dionyza, Pericles, Royal Shakespeare Company, London and Stratford-upon-Avon, England, 2002
Saraghina, Nine, Eugene O'Neill Theatre, New York City, 2003
Also appeared in Greensboro (A Requiem), McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ; Byrd's Boy, Primary Stages, New York City; Force Continuum, Atlantic Theater Co., New York City; Oo-Bla-Dee, La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, CA; Scent of the Roses, Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center; Splash Hatch on the E Going Down, New York Stage and Film; appeared in productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT; and in a special performance of Conrack at the White House for President George Bush.
Stage Manager, Success Story, Jewish Repertory Theatre, New York City, 1981
Hospital dancer, Everyone Says I Love You, Miramax, 1996
Beverly Wilson, Music of the Heart, Miramax, 1999
Waitress, Better Living, Goldheart, 2000
Judge Frances Abarbanel, Changing Lanes, Paramount, 2002
Gloria, Unfaithful (also known as Untreu), Twentieth Century-Fox, 2002
Confection, Life of Riley, 2003
Also appeared in Wes Craven's Fifty Violins.
Jocelyn Weston, "Wager," Law & Order, NBC, 1994
Suzanne Waters, "A Question of Truth," New York News, CBS, 1995
Jane Monroe, "Good Girl," Law & Order, NBC, 1996
Leslie Yulkowski, "Breaking In, Breaking Out, Breaking Up, Breaking Down," Trinity, NBC, 1999
Donna, "Collision," Law & Order, NBC, 2000
Nurse, "Young Men and Fire ... ," Third Watch, NBC, 2000
Metro editor, "Lovers and Madmen," Deadline, NBC, 2000
INS officer, "Dearly Deported," Madigan Men, ABC, 2000
Myra, "The Old Ball Game," Deadline, NBC, 2001
Myra, "Somebody's Fool," Deadline, NBC, 2001
Amanda Juno, "Poison," Law & Order: Criminal Intent, NBC, 2001
Principal, "Popular," Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (alsoknown as Law & Order: S.V.U.), NBC and USA Network, 2002
Also appeared in episodes of One Life to Live, ABC; All My Children, ABC; Wonderland, ABC; Sesame Street, PBS.
Variety, February 17, 1997, p. 80

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Simplicity: We must have radiation (and meteor) shielding of about 10 tons per square meter of surface. A complex chevron array of mirrors would be needed to reflect light around this shield, plus mirrors would need active positioning to track the sun. Joints between windows, shield, and structure would be subject to thermal cycling, introducing failure points.
Room: We don't have enough surface area to position our farms on the inner surface of our habitat where reflected sunlight could be most easily directed. Artificial lighting allows growing crops in rooms with very low ceilings, supporting 5 to 10 times the population in the same size structure.
Thermal Efficiency: Natural sunlight is largely heat, and heat dissipation is the primary limiting factor in the size and population density of a large space habitat. Every watt admitted or generated in the interior must be radiated away. The interior will be warmer than the blackbody radiating temperature of the exterior.
There are other considerations as well. Much of natural sunlight is not photo-synthetically active radiation (PAR). Plants appear green because they reflect this wavelength of light and do not utilize it (chlorophyll has absorption peaks in the red and blue regions of the spectrum). From an energy efficiency standpoint, natural sunlight is relatively poor (worse when considering infrared and ultraviolet which comprise 55% of the sun's energy flux). Only 1%-2% of solar energy is converted into biomass by plants, compared to 8%-16% of the energy of optimized LED light sources (C4 plants - including crops such as wheat, corn, rice, barley, oats, and sugarcane - have higher efficiency than C3 plants).
Sources for this information offer a wide variety of opinions. For LED lighting, see the research articles at LED Grow Lights Outlet. For sulfur microwave lights, see MacLennan et al. For a discussion of photosynthetic efficiency, see R.J.Bradbury.
Using available information on LED grow lights, optimal plant growth is achieved using approximately 72 PAR watts per square meter. As indicated in my earlier post Farming in Space, we should conservatively allocate 64 square meters per person to maintain a good (largely vegetarian) diet. This equates to 4600 watts per person to grow crops.
We'll need additional illumination. According to The Engineering Toolbox, direct sunlight provides over 100,000 lux, and full daylight 10,000 lux. An overcast day (1000 lux) is equivalent to the needed light level in a store or a detail-intensive workspace. A normal work (office) environment may only require 500 lux, and home illumination and classrooms only 250 lux. Hallways are even less, perhaps 100 lux. A reasonable average is about 500 lux, which requires 250 watts of white light for my proposed habitat space of 50 square meters per person (ignoring the farms and central park).
The central park area requires much more light – enough to grow plants, and the park will need a white light spectrum. In addition to recreation, the park will grow fruit and nut trees. We have a lot of space to be brightly illuminated, about 10 square meters per person at 10,000-20,000 lux (half of the time), requiring an average of 350-700 watts per person (assuming doped sulfur microwave lamps).
One last point: contrary to current public opinion, I predict that the lights in a permanent space colony will provide moderate (non-zero) levels of ultra-violet light. During exposure to sunlight (containing UV light), human skin produces large amounts of vitamin D, a nutrient vital to health. See the non-profit Vitamin D Council for additional information about the value of this vitamin. "Current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more." Vitamin D deficiency may only be the most obvious result of a lack of full-spectrum light in our lives.
Humans evolved to require gravity, and sunlight, and a varied diet. Until we learn otherwise, we need to replicate the conditions of life on Earth very closely in our new homes in space.
In previous posts I've described plans for space habitats which include allowances and techniques for the closed system recycling we will need to establish self-sustaining life in space.
This post describes in some detail just what is needed, and where I found the information. Fundamentally, we will need to provide recycling for nearly everything in space.
Humans breathe oxygen which is plentiful in the form of oxides and silicates, but rare as the free element in space. We each need a bit less than a kilogram of oxygen per day (0.83kg on average, more under high work loads). Note that processes such as smelting metallic ores use heat and a reducing agents such as carbon to turn metal oxides into the metal plus oxides such as CO2. Green plants turn the CO2 into carbon (or carbohydrates), freeing the oxygen, and the carbon can be fed as raw material into the smelter. The only net products of smelting are metal (such as iron) and oxygen.
Humans consume water for drinking, food growth and preparation, cleaning, even entertainment. Since hydrogen is in short supply (until we can gather and use the resources of a comet, in which case we'll have more than enough to throw away), we'll need to carefully recycle water. Each human drinks or eats about 2.6 kg of water daily; more is needed for hygiene and growing crops, a lot more.
Working humans need to eat, on average, about 2500 Calories per day (some estimates suggest 2000, my wife's diet suggests 1500). This can be provided by about 540 grams (dry weight) of food (50g protein, 70g fats, 420 carbohydrates).
The total consumption of a human is about 4 kilograms of oxygen, water, and food per day, and it should come as no surprise that that the same human produces 4 kilograms of waste (in the form of carbon dioxide, exhaled water, sweat, urine, and feces) per day.
Also unsurprising is that green plants (such as algae) can take those 4 kg of wastes and produce the needed food and oxygen with only the addition of energy in the form of light.
The complications arise from the need for a balanced, nutritious, and tasty diet containing all of the essential amino acids and fatty acids, and from the fact that we do not digest all portions of plants. Cellulose (fiber) is undigestible, and we don't even attempt to eat most of the plant material of a crop (stems, roots, leaves, bark).
The ecosystem we create in space must be perfectly balanced. When plants produce food for us to eat, they simultaneously produce the exact amount of oxygen needed to metabolize that food. But they also produce those stems, roots, leaves, etc., and excess oxygen to match. All of that extra plant matter must be fed to some other animals (such as rabbits or goats), or to fungi, or to bacteria, or burned. The excess CO2 must be captured and fed back to the growing plants of the next crop, because we don't exhale enough CO2 to feed the plants, only enough to grow the food we ate – a fraction of the total plant material.
Note that we can meet all of our dietary needs by growing a variety of algae such as blue-green algae including spirulina, and chlorella.
Somewhat surprising is how little water is needed to grow adequate volumes of algae – as little as 6 to 10 liters per person. This is due to the extremely high growth rates of alga under optimal conditions.
However, an algae diet is not only boring, it doesn't taste good. It is likely to only be used for long space missions where space and payload is at a premium, and even then at least 4 varieties must be cultivated to meet our dietary requirements.
Whether we are growing alga or traditional crops, much of human waste is not readily usable as fertilizer. Portions are, and some bacteria excel at producing nitrates out of urea and ammonia. But much solid waste cannot be so easily processed. Luckily, a technique is available to solve the problem: a Supercritical Water Oxidizer applies high pressure, modest temperatures, and oxygen to burn the carbohydrates to water and CO2, freeing nitrates and mineral salts in the process. This is called the Zimmerman Process.
feed much of the rest to animals such as rabbits, goats, and chickens, as well as vegetarian fish such as tilapia.
use that Supercritical Water Oxidizer on animal and human wastes to convert them back into CO2 and fertilizers for the plants.
Condense water out of the air for drinking, and recycle irrigation water (which holds excess fertilizers) for plants.
Remember, as we are growing crops we need to feed them extra CO2 (much more than humans exhale), and store the excess oxygen they produce; we'll restore the balance when we burn the crop residues and wastes. The "burning" doesn't have to be an open fire. Feeding crop residues to goats counts as burning, as does using the plant matter as a reducing agent in the production of iron – both produce CO2 and free the water in the carbohydrates.
What crops should we grow? In general, dwarf varieties of grains, beans, and vegetables will satisfy most of our needs. We'll have bread and pasta from wheat, rice, soybeans, oatmeal, lettuce, tomatoes, melons, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, herbs, etc.. I'm sure we'll grow strawberries and other fruits, and eventually our parks will also serve as a source for nuts and fruits such as apples. I'm also quite certain we'll grow grapes for wine, barley and hops for beer, coffee, and tea. Some human appetites insist on being satisfied.
That does leave the question of space. Just how big must our farm be? According to T.A. Heppenheimer's excellent book Colonies in Space, the answer is derived from existing studies and experiments in high-intensity farming. Using dwarf varieties that have also been selected for short planting-to-harvest times, using interplanting (sowing the next crop before the current one is harvested), and optimizing CO2, water, light, and humidity, Heppenheimer calculates that 60 acres of farmland will support ten thousand people. This is only about 25 square meters per person.
I propose to average less than half that efficiency and allocate 64 square meters per person to include space for crop tending, to support a greater variety of foods, and to allow some extras to feed goats (for milk, cheese, and meat), rabbits (for meat), and chickens (for eggs and meat). Note that crops don't require high ceilings; a single meter is good enough (on average), yielding a volume requirement of 64 cubic meters per person. This is less than the 100 cubic meters per person of living space I recommend in Designing a Space Habitat, where I also recommend about 33 cubic meters of workspace volume and an equivalent amount of overhead.
In that previous post, I assumed that 3 levels of living space would be allocated for the farms, but that may not be the best option. Rather, the farms are the primary source of waste heat. All that light energy ends up as heat and must be dissipated. The end caps of our cylinder expose a great deal of surface, so it makes the most sense to place our primary heat sources – the farms - adjacent to them. Using 8 meters along both end caps as our farms provides 64 cubic meters per person, independent of the size of our habitat (as long as we use the Kalpana geometry). Many plants need little gravity, indeed aquaculture (raising algae and fish) may require none, and these may be placed near the center. I expect that we'll place livestock near the outer rim, as their needs for gravity are likely to mirror our own.
A future post will describe the lighting needs of the crops, and the technologies we'll use to provide it.
Bernal sphere - "Island One", a spherical habitat for about 20,000 people.
Stanford torus - A larger alternative to "Island One."
O'Neill cylinder - "Island Three", the largest design.
Lewis One A cylinder of radius 250m with a non rotating radiation shielding. The shielding protects the micro-gravity industrial space, too. The rotating part is 450 long and has several inner cylinders. Some of them are used for agriculture.
Kalpana One, revisedA short cylinder with 250 m radius and 325 m length. The radiation shielding is 10 t/m2 and rotates. It has several inner cylinders for agriculture and recreation.
Of these, the most complete design is "Kalpana One, Revised," which properly accounts for issues such as shielding and rotational stability. Most designs presume that it is best to provide windows to admit natural sunlight, but there are many reasons to prefer artificial light sources, primarily involving heat, but also the need for shielding. For adequate shielding from radiation and meteors, the outer walls of the habitat must mass about ten tons per square meter. While transparent quartz windows could be built of this thickness, most designs involving natural sunlight use mirrors to deflect sunlight around shields of stone. But the admitted heat is the real problem (discussed below).
In my previous posts, including Our First Colonies In Space, Life in an Asteroid, and Our Homes, the Comets, I assumed that we would tunnel into asteroids and comets, enclose and spin them for gravity if they were small enough, or build spinning structures inside them if they were too large.
But while writing a sequel to my short story Apophis 2029, I realized that the best choice was simply to build one or more space habitats from the raw materials of the asteroids and comets. I came to this conclusion because of considerations for effective use of space, the stresses of spinning large objects for gravity, and (most importantly) thermal dissipation.
People consume energy in their homes, workplaces, and travel. Much more important, food requires a large amount of energy in the form of light for growing crops. After extensive research on plant needs, high-intensity farming, and lighting technologies, I concluded that the minimum light levels needed requires 4 kilowatts of very-high-efficiency LED lights to grow the food for one person (assuming a primarily vegetarian diet – you need more to grow additional crops for livestock). Add to that the per-capita electric consumption in the U.S.A. of about 1.5 kilowatts, add a little more for contingencies, and I realized we need to plan on 6 kilowatts of energy consumption for every human aboard the habitat.
That's not too bad, especially considering that readily available solar power can easily provide such levels and at a modest cost.
But energy consumption turns into heat, and heat must be radiated away. The bottom line is that we must allot 19 square meters per person of surface area assuming black body radiation at a temperature of 0 degrees C. It does not help to plant little radiators all over the surface, as they interfere with each other. All that matters is the apparent size of the habitat from a distance, and how closely it approaches the ideals of a black body radiator. Of course, we could use active cooling to heat radiators to much higher temperatures while cooling the interior, but I prefer passive techniques so that a failure of the cooling system doesn't rapidly result in cooking the inhabitants.
There goes my idea that a million people could thrive in a cubic kilometer of comet. There is plenty of room, more than enough materials. Unfortunately, their waste heat would rapidly boil their home away.
Also, solar light has a large content of heat – and that excess, too, must be radiated away. Sunlight is not energy efficient for growing crops in a thermos bottle (which is what a habitat in space effectively is).
So, my revised plan calls for 20 square meters of surface per person. Also, to provide radiation and meteor shielding equivalent to the Earth's surface requires 10 tons of shielding per square meter of surface – and thus 200 tons of shield mass per person (regolith is fine, slag works well and is dense, ice is best as long as it doesn't boil away). But the needed surface area and shield mass per person are constants.
My earlier thoughts on structure did not consider rotational stability, and the folks that designed Kalpana One came up with some very strong arguments that a spinning cylinder is best, and that the width of the cylinder should be 1.3 times the radius. Thus, a cylinder of radius 100 meters (spinning at 3 rpm for 1 G gravity along the outer rim) should be 130 meters wide. That gives a 1-G living area of a little over 80,000 square meters, a total surface area of over 144,000 square meters, and thus a maximum population of 7,200. This structure provides 11.25 square meters (121 square feet) per person of 1-G living space. Is that enough?
It's comparable to the space provided (per person) in many hotel rooms and cruise ships. But few couples want to live in a 242 square foot efficiency for long, although 28 sm (300 sf) studio apartments are common in many expensive cities.
There is no need to live only on the outer 1-G surface. Assuming 3-meter intervals, the next level up provides 97% of a G. Surely that is adequate. And now we have 22.5 square meters per person of available living space, equivalent to 450 square feet per couple – or 900 square feet for a family of 4. A third living level raises the per-person space to over 33 square meters – 675 sf per couple – 1350 sf for a family of four. Not spacious, but certainly comfortable.
Humans need space for living, working, and of course for growing food. We must allot some space for office space, work space, schools. A single level should suffice (11 square meters per person), partly because some people will work in the farms, or in their homes, or outside the habitat entirely (such as in the mines, the smelters, the steel mills, the solar power satellites, etc.).
Each person requires approximately 64 cubic meters for crops, but crops don't require 3-meter ceilings. Allocating 2 levels for agriculture may be tight, but 3 levels is more than enough and provides some excess capacity for the production of meat, milk, and eggs.
We need a little more space for overhead: storage, aisles, conduits for air, water, sewage. So we add an 8th level for good measure. That still leaves an interior cylinder with a radius of 75 meters as a park or recreation area. It has 3/4ths of a G of gravity. The opposite side is more than 500 feet overhead – it will feel spacious enough, and 15+ acres of playgrounds, hiking paths, trees, and grass will provide a little bit of Earth in space.
But there's no need to leave the end caps – the walls of our cylinder – as bare metal. We should build offices, low-gravity facilities (perhaps hospitals), hotels, etc. along those walls. Allocating 15 meters of depth along each end-cap for such purposes still leaves a hundred-meter-wide park, now with only 12 acres of usable space, 100 meters wide by 470 meters around. The lowest level of the end caps is a perfect place for shops and restaurants.
The above ramble describes the capacity of a 100-meter radius cylinder, spinning at 3 rpm to provide Earth-normal gravity. This spin rate is often considered the maximum for a rotating space habitat, as most people (but not all) can adjust to it. More people can adjust to 2 rpm, and essentially everyone has no problem with 1 rpm. So how much room do we get with these and larger structures? Can they be built?
This table shows the size, possible population, and mass (in kilotons or kT) of the external steel shell, the internal steel infrastructure, and the shield (total mass of steel shell plus rock). Note that once the steel shell reaches a mass of 10 tons per square meter, additional shielding is not needed. For a reference point, the total mass of steel in a modern aircraft carrier is about 60,000 tons, about 20% less than the smallest habitat. The dimensions given are of the habitable volume; the outer walls are assumed to be an extra 5 meters in thickness to provide the volume needed to contain the shield mass (but that extra external area raises the maximum population as well). The thickness of the outer steel shell is also given, in meters, and it ranges from 3cm (1.2 inches) in the 100 meter cylinder to 1.31 meters (4 feet) in the largest. The table also shows the percentage of the asteroid Apophis needed to build this structure, or alternatively the minimum size of a rocky asteroid large enough to build it. *Note that the largest structure would require a nickel-iron asteroid, as there is no rocky shield mass needed.
It is clear that Apophis contains enough raw materials to build habitats supporting 125,000 colonists in up to 16 structures. It is interesting that a 1-kilometer nickel-iron asteroid (of which there are approximately 50,000 in the main belt) provides enough iron that (adding the resources of a small carbonaceous chondrite for carbon, oxygen, and water) a 9x6 kilometer cylinder could be built, supporting over 15 million people. Still larger structures may be constructed; steel has adequate tensile strength for structures large enough to support a billion people, but they become wildly inefficient, requiring nearly 10 times the steel per person.
Launching the people to make it possible with enough consumables to get past the bootstrap.
Designing and implementing closed-system recycling facilities capable of efficiently converting human wastes (and crop residues) into food, oxygen, and water.
Once enough infrastructure is in place, the colony should not need the addition of oxygen, water, food, or structural materials. High tech tools will be needed, including whatever is needed to construct solar cells, but the raw materials would already be in place. The Earth will export technology, tools, vitamins, pharmaceuticals, and people. In exchange, the Earth will receive bountiful energy from the Sun, with zero carbon footprint.
But that, too, will take time, energy, and especially people. In the long run, the demand for people in orbit is likely to exceed our capabilities of putting them there. And that, too, is the subject of a future post.
I began researching this post believing that Apophis (with its April 13, 2029 close approach) was our best opportunity to capture the resources of an asteroid for humanity and the space program.
Soon I realized that the selections are bountiful (or frightening, depending upon your point of view).
The Sentry Risk Table at http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/ listing PHOs in order of threat. Apophis is currently #4, not based upon 2029 or 2036 but the 2068 approach.
As I described in my post Capturing Apophis, these objects are far too large for us to simply man-handle. We must use finesse, or more precisely, we must use the gravitational influence of a body such as the Earth to do most of the work for us. We can nudge small to medium size bodies a bit given months or years of head start. So, we need objects that pass close by, perhaps within the orbit of the Moon.
Plus, I'm interested in objects we can capture in my lifetime.
Here is a list of potential asteroids. Their distance of closest approach is given in Earth radii (1 Er = 6400 km). For reference, the Moon averages 60 Er (Earth radii) away. This list is in order of close approach date.
2005 YU55 passes at 25 Er on 8-Nov-2011. It's 120 meters across, masses 3 million tons. I wish it passed later – it would make a wonderful practice asteroid but we're not likely to be able to launch a deflection mission in time.
2008 UV99 passes at 7.16 Er on 30-Mar-2019, is 400 meters wide and masses 87 million tons.
2001 FB90 passes at 13 Er on 24-Mar-2021, is 349 meters wide and masses 58 million tons.
2007 RY19 passes within 0.89 Er on 12-Mar-2024, is 110 meters wide, masses 1.8 million tons.
2001 CA21 passes at 6.41 Er on 9-Oct-2025, is 677 meters wide and masses 422 million tons.
2001 WN5 passes at 37.5 Er on 26-Jun-2028, is 780 meters wide, massing 646 million tons.
Apophis 99942 passes at 5.86 Er on 13-Apr-2029, is 270 meters across and masses at least 25 million tons.
2007 FT3 passes at 22 Er on 03-Oct-2030, is 340 meters wide, masses 54 million tons.
2009 UN3 passes at 19 Er away on 09-Feb-2032, is 919 meters wide massing just over a billion tons.
Note that the sizes are estimates based upon the apparent brightness of the asteroid. None of these have been imaged and measured. The masses are estimates based upon a spherical body of that size with a density of 2.6 tons per cubic meter (partly porous). A solid body would mass more, nickel-iron much more.
This list is not exhaustive, and some of these asteroids may be moving too fast (or not have suitable advance rendezvous orbits) for our purposes. But all 9 of these pass close enough to the Earth that their subsequent orbits are changed by the Earth's gravity, and a relatively small nudge can be used to control a gravitational slingshot and choose its subsequent path. Some may require multiple slingshots and many elapsed years before they can be parked in a suitable orbit, but even the smallest of these (2007 RY19 at 1.8 million tons) contains enough resources to pay for the effort many times over.
There are many other asteroids from which to choose. A number of asteroids are in horseshoe or spiral orbits near the Earth, and may make suitable low delta-V rendezvous targets. Many more are easier to reach (in terms of required delta-V) than the surface of the Moon. Some of these are nickel-iron asteroids, others may be extinct comets containing huge amounts of ice. One estimate is that 6% of asteroids may be extinct comets.
We need better observations of all of the above objects. If one were a carbonaceous chondrite or an extinct comet, its value would be immensely greater due to the high content of carbon and water – the stuff of life. If one was nickel-iron then that, too, would have extra value. But all asteroids have great value once they've been captured into a stable Earth orbit, as all of them contain oxygen, silicon, magnesium, and iron.
Clearly, we don't need to fight over these trillion-dollar resources. There are enough potentially valuable asteroids to share.
Luckily, some of these are easily addressed, as certain asteroids have all the resources we need, including the majority of the asteroids in the belt – the carbonaceous chondrites.
STEP 1: Capture an asteroid into a useful orbit. The next great opportunity is the asteroid Apophis 99942, which will be in a location suitable for capture in 2029. See my post, Capturing Apophis for details. The good news is that Apophis contains 50 million tons of resources, including 10 million tons of iron, 15 million tons of oxygen, 12 million tons of magnesium, and perhaps 8 million tons of silicon. The bad news is that we presently believe that Apophis is an LL Chondrite, low in volatiles including water, carbon, and nitrogen, also relatively low in calcium, aluminum, and titanium. Available carbon is likely less than 0.2%, water less than 1%. Still, half of these values equates to 50,000 tons of carbon and a quarter-million tons of water.
How much water and carbon is needed? Studies of high-intensity farming techniques suggest that about a half-ton each of carbon and hydrogen are needed per person to grow crops for food and oxygen recycling. This is equivalent to about 3 tons of carbon dioxide and 5 tons of water, per person, much of which will be contained in the growing plants of our farms. Plants are, after all, carbohydrates. We also need significant amounts of nitrogen (for proteins), and phosphorus as well as various trace elements. But all of these are abundant in ordinary asteroids except carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The most common asteroids, carbonaceous chondrites, contain these volatiles in abundance.
Still, it is clear that even a dry rock like Apophis contains enough raw materials to support as many as 50,000 people.
STEP 2: Establish a temporary beachhead. An empty shuttle tank works great.
An empty Space Shuttle SLWT External Fuel Tank has a hydrogen tank 8.4m by 29.5m (97x27'), and an oxygen tank 16.6m by 8.4m (54x27'); these function nicely as pressurized crew quarters. If the hydrogen tank is converted to recycling (growing plants and recycling wastes), its 1493 cubic meter volume could support about 36 people who reside in the oxygen tank volume (553 m^3), or about 15 cubic meters per person (2x2.5x3m).
You bury the tank for radiation and meteor protection. Five meters of regolith gives about the same protection as Earth sea level; we could get by with three meters on top.
STEP 3: Mine the asteroid and use a solar furnace (or other techniques) to smelt it into useful metals and free oxygen. Also, the first gases emitted when you heat up the regolith are CO2 and H2O. Save them. And note that all the leftover slag is extremely valuable as radiation shielding for the habitat we want to build, so don't throw it away, either.
To yield enough water and carbon dioxide to grow food for one person, you'd need to process only 50 tons of ore from a carbonaceous chondrite like the Murcheson meteor, but more like 500 tons if Apophis is truly an LL chondrite. You'll get a little excess carbon which lets you make steel instead of just iron. 100 tons of steel. As a bi-product, you'll end up with perhaps 25 tons of oxygen, which you'll want to save, also. This is a good use for a few more empty shuttle external fuel tanks. We'll be using oxygen as fuel, I suspect, in VASIMR type thrusters powered by solar energy.
STEP 4: Establish a farm in that empty hydrogen tank (or in several of them as the colony grows). My estimates of needed space are based upon 64 square meters per person of crop area, using high-intensity techniques, and using LED light sources. I also assume hydroponic techniques instead of soil, because it's easier to recycle the root mass. We won't use soil (even if it's free and abundant) until we have a huge surplus of carbon and water to waste.
Note that we need to feed extra CO2 to the growing crops – humans don't produce enough to grow everything we need, because of the small fraction of plant material that is edible. We'll even be burning the dried crop residue to create CO2, or turning it into coke (carbon) to improve the efficiency of iron production.
STEP 5: Start building Solar Power Satellites. You've got the steel, and all the magnesium you could want, plus more than enough silicon. A square kilometer array of solar panels or collectors intercepts a gigawatt, yielding a net 200 megawatts to Earth. But why stop at a gigawatt? You're building in outer space where it is simple to build large structures.
A circular array with a 1.6km radius would yield 4 gigawatts of power to be beamed to Earth from geosync orbit. Each generates $1B per year in wholesale electricity (at $.03/kwh). With no energy costs – just maintenance.
The steel & other raw materials for each one consumes about 1% of Apophis' regolith. By the time you've built 50 of them, your revenue is $50 billion a year, and you've only consumed half of Apophis.
STEP 6: While you are building Solar Power Satellites in one factory, you can be building a large, permanent, self-sustaining habitat in another. Many designs have been proposed, and I, personally, like a rhombic triacontahedron. It is constructed from 30 identical rhombic steel plates. A simpler design (but more difficult to build) is a cylinder. Both would be spun for gravity.
For radiation and meteor shielding, you need about the same mass of shield as the Earth provides us: 10 tons per square meter. That's about 5 meters of regolith, or 3 meters of slag (which is nice and dense). I realized that this much mass, spinning at one G along the periphery of a sphere (which is close to a rhombic triacontahedron) exerts an outward force entirely equivalent to a pressure vessel, whose characteristics are well known. To contain a force of 15 tons per square meter (3 tons of which is air pressure), a spherical pressure vessel 100 meters in radius only needs to be about an inch thick, masses about 25,000 tons of steel.
The limiting factor for population is likely to be heat dissipation. Using very high efficiency LED light sources to grow our food, and minimizing all wasted energy interior to the structure, we need about 20 square meters of cooling area per person (assuming passive cooling – the only safe kind). Thus, a 100 meter radius habitat, spinning at 3rpm for 1 G, has sufficient area for a population of about 6,000 people. It takes about 4 tons of steel per person to build the pressure vessel. Since the area per person is constant (20 square meters), and the amount of shielding per unit area is constant (10 tons per square meter), each person needs 200 tons of shielding. Thus the habitat for 6,000 people requires a 25,000 ton steel pressure vessel, plus probably that much again for internal structures, plus 1,200,000 tons of shield mass. This is 2.5% of Apophis – we could build 20 of these with the half left over from building 50 solar power satellites.
Spinning at 3rpm is too fast, you say? If the radius of our vessel is increased to 225 meters (yielding 1 gravity with a 2 rpm spin), our pressure vessel needs to be 5.6 cm (2.25 inches) thick, and requires nearly 300,000 tons of steel. But it now is large enough to support a population of over 30,000 people. And its construction consumes 12.5% of Apophis. Yes, we can still build 4 of these: one in Apophis orbit, one above geosync as the ideal place to maintain those solar power satellites, and I'm sure we can find places to stash the other two. How about L4 and L5?
Sorry, but if you want to spin at 1 rpm (radius of 890 meters), it takes all of 2 Apophis-size asteroids to provide the needed raw materials and would have living space to support about 500,000 people. But it takes more steel per person the larger you build it – there is no economy of scale, as larger and larger pressure vessels take more and more steel per unit area (and thus per person). But as long as we are doing the math, if you raise the radius to 4 kilometers, your steel shell must be a full meter thick, and itself provides all the shield you need.


I believe in simple, sensible heath advice. There are WAY too many conflicting, confusing health messages thrown around in today's world. Detoxes, fad diets, ANY diets, fasting, meal replacements, bikini body programs, protein only, low carb, low fat.. high fat! … the list goes on.
As a nutritionist I do not advocate any of these and my true passion is to help people achieve a healthy balance in their lives - leaving you not only feeling great about your weight, but enjoying a healthy relationship with food and exercise thus living a happy, healthy life.
Learning how to eat healthily and sensibly in a balanced lifestyle of nourishment, exercise and relaxation day to day, is the key to long term health and a healthy weight. Balance is my key word for healthy living as it provides you with a lifestyle approach that can be sustained for a life time, unlike a 'diet'. Diets are only short term solutions, they are not a way that you can live and behave forever. I like to encourage and share healthy living tips and habits which last a life time resulting in a healthy, fit and happy life - for good!
Eat well. Healthy foods, most of the time. Eat whole foods, less processed, lots of plant based. Don't over eat. Moderate alcohol. Water, drink it!
Be active. Get out and do something, anything! each day. Try to work up a sweat a few times a week. Walking, play sports, run, ride, weights, box, yoga, boot camp, swim - mix it up.
Balance your lifestyle. Sleep, get lots of it. Socialize with family and friends, love and laugh! Work hard, love what you do. Manage stress. Take time to relax.
Within balance also lies the ability to eat your favourite foods! Your daily cappuccino you enjoy so much, the occasional desert or chocolate, enjoying a beer or wine with friends - these things can be part of a healthy lifestyle in moderation. As long as your day to day food intake is healthy and whole, and your exercise regime is up to scratch, you don't need to cut things out or feel guilty about occasionally treating yourself.
Eating well, being active, and balancing your lifestyle (relaxation / work / social / sleep) are equally important in maintaining a healthy life. Don't reach for your goals using dieting or obsessive behavior, use a triangle of healthy foods, exercise and balance to create a foundation for a life of health, happiness, positive weight maintenance and longevity.


The first recipe is for Cheesecake Bites which I have shared on Standard Issue Magazine. I love chocolate and a nice cheesecake so I thought I would put these two treats together and make these cheesecake bites, which have chocolate in the base, chocolate in the filling and chocolate on top – just to make sure these have just the right amount of chocolate!
Hope you enjoy making and eating them!
The second recipe is for Rainbow Cupcakes that I have shared on my YouTube channel. These colourful cupcakes are easy to make and taste light and delicious. Striking for a birthday party or any celebration. The buttercream is light and fluffy and adds a great finish to these beautiful rainbow cupcakes.
Subscribe to Food with Chetna to see even more amazing recipes and get your creativity flowing!


These players were awarded "Player of the Year" as senior players in the club who have accomplished great things in their time at Albion SC and showed extraordinary qualities on and off the field.
The following players have been awarded the John Bunton Memorial Scholarship Award. This award is given to players that display qualities most favored by the great John Bunton, former club president, parent, and advocate of the Albion Soccer Club. This player will receive a 1-year scholarship to attend the Albion Soccer Club for their great committment and contribution to the club.


text:
Balșa – gmina w Rumunii, w okręgu Hunedoara. Obejmuje miejscowości Almașu Mic de Munte, Ardeu, Balșa, Bunești, Galbina, Mada, Oprișești, Poiana, Poienița, Roșia, Stăuini, Techereu, Vălișoara i Voia. W 2011 roku liczyła 871 mieszkańców.

Przypisy

Gminy w Rumunii
Okręg Hunedoara

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Alfred Must Die so Mahmood Can Live: Why Socialized Medicine Makes Euthanasia Inevitable
Posted by Daniel Greenfield 7 Comments
There's always a price for everything or as they say in certain circles, TANSTAAFL, or There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Politicians though increasingly build their promises on a government bureaucracy that will give you a free lunch. Of course the government bureaucracy isn't free and there's a hell of a tab to pick up for the lunch too.
The problem with offering pie in the sky though is someone has to pay for it. Medicine is justifiably a human right, but when doled out by the government comes packaged with a massive bureaucracy to implement and distribute and manage it. While the governments promised a lot, reality interferes naturally. Drugs and doctors don't grow on trees.
Socialized medicine may give away a lot, but it has to stagger carefully what it gives away and lower the quality. Americans may go to Canada for cheap drugs but Canadians will go to America because America offers the procedures they need, without having to wait months for them. Wards in England are a national disgrace and a nightmare with nursing shortages, mixed sex wards and severe cleanliness problems. France's broken health care system is climbing the ranks of election campaign issues.
For parts of the 19th and most of the 20th century, civic medicine has made great strides. Health care and hygiene came to the slums, diseases were fought and conquered. Much of what was accomplished was toted up as yet further evidence that government programs when applied to social problems could create an ideal society.
As social prosperity increased, lifespans increased and birth rates fell. In America they fell somewhat, in Europe they fell drastically. So drastically that Europe from the English coastlines to the Russian tundra is facing the loss of millions of people and the depopulation of entire areas. This would have been a severe enough problems in and of itself, but a system in which younger worker's pay is leveraged to provide social services for them and for retired citizens cannot survive a gap in the birth rate any more than you can build a building with a missing two stories in the middle.
Immigration was meant to make up for that but of course immigration only makes things worse. On paper immigration seems like an easy way to make up for a birth rate shortfall. But immigration is not some sort of clone factory stamping out fresh new young workers to take their places at the desks and counters of tomorrow. Immigration meant importing entire families, often in three generations, from the third world, most with health care needs vastly outweighing those of the natives. And then there are the social problems.
Using immigration as a stopgap solution for the birth rate was a lot like a thirsty man at sea drinking salt water. It made things a good deal worse and placed massive stresses on socialism's free lunch pail. This wasn't so much a problem for the government bureaucracies though as for the nation's citizens. The bureaucracies were perfectly happy with the infusion of third worlders as it meant more jobs for them and expansions of their programs. The bonus crime, diseases and social unrest was manna from heaven for them. The worse things got, the more funding they could demand for their departments.
For the Western nations as a whole though it was a horrific disaster that undermined their social fabrics, created war zones in formerly peaceful small towns and of course gave them a whopping huge bill for the whole thing.
But still the squeeze was on and immigration only made it worse. You could squeeze it by cutting off social services for deadbeat immigrants, at least for the illegal ones, but no municipality in Europe and America would hear of that. It's not only racist but it's equivalent to taking away a farmer's milk cows just when he expects years of use from them.
That leaves squeezing the elderly and the disabled through euthanasia. And that's exactly the situation where disabled patients in England sue to not be disconnected from life support and are denied. Euthanasia is declared to be a human right, but it is not only applied to those who actively wish to die, but to those whom the bureaucracy decides should die.
The resource shortfall has to be made up from somewhere and the elderly are no more use to anyone as far as the bureaucracy is concerned and there is a whole lot of them about. As immigration further strains the health care system, choices are made. Alfred has to die, so Mahmood can get treated for three diseases that had formerly been eradicated in the Western world.
It's not only Europe. It's America too. A family friend recently passed away in no small part because the hospital he was in decided he should die. His feeding tube was disconnected and not reconnected for days despite pleas for his wife. Doctors pressured her repeatedly to disconnect him from life support and would not respond to her questions about his condition. She stayed by his bedside but in the end they got what they wanted.
Another acquittance some years back found that her uncle had been disconnected from life support without her authorization leading to his death. When she demanded answers, she was told, "He lived his life."
He lived his life, is the epitaph of a lot of elderly men and women dying under socialized medicine or perhaps being outright murdered. Eugenics today is a dirty word, but the distinction between eugenics as practiced by the Germans or practiced under socialism today, is the definition of "Life Unworthy of Life." The Germans applied it to the mentally ill, the disabled and a variety of categories including the Jews. Today it's often applied to the disabled, babies and the elderly, whose "Quality of Life", a euphemism that could proudly be translated into the German, is measured, found wanting and disposed of.
Peter Singer, one of the moral and ethical authorities of modern medicine, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne, has endorsed killing disabled newborns and mentally disabled elderly. Singer isn't some obscure crank, he's the leading inspiration of the animal rights movement.
Singer premises the right to life on "the ability to plan and anticipate one's future." In a bureaucracy of course no one has much ability to plan and anticipate one's future and accordingly have no right to live. Like Nazi eugenics, such selection targets the weakest and most vulnerable people in a society by the government.
The most common reasons for disapproving of eugenics have been racial, rather than the moral argument that murder is simply wrong. Modern eugenics instead of targeting racial minorities, targets the weakest people on behalf of minorities. The selection is made to prioritize social services for third world immigrants, over the nation's own disabled and elderly citizens. The resource gaps created by socialized medicine have to be balanced and the scales weighed. Alfred must die, so Mahmood may live.
Labels: America, Europe, future of the west, Important Posts, socialism ·
Keli Ata said...
It is indeed a vicious cycle. Immigrants are brought to the US in ill health, many suffering from AIDS/HIV, pregnant, or unwilling to use birth control for religious reasons and create a huge strain on the US medical system.
And we see a reversal of priorities in the medical system. Huge amounts of money spent on AIDS prevention and birth control, huge amounts on prenatal care for immigrants, many of whom are from countries where birth control is prohibited for religious reasons.
Families of the elderly are encouraged (if not coerced) to sign "Do Not Resuscitate" and "Do Not Intubate" orders.
The usual arguments involve "quality of life." Sanctity of life and morality is rarely if ever a consideration to the hospitals. Family wishes are ignored. Nursing homes are "too expensive", the elderly only have so long to live and so most hospital bioethics boards typically hound families until they're exhausted, give in, and sign DNRs and DNIs.
Despite their feign concern for the patient's quality of life, other matters of comfort such as adequate pain control, turning often enough to prevent deep and painful bed sores are ignored. In my mother's case, despite repeated requests and demands that her call button be placed within reach, the nursing staff repeatedly put in where she could not reach it; and she was much too weak to call out for help or pain medications.
We finally had to transfer her to another hospital. But even there, treatment was less than ideal. And at times, downright cruel. They wanted to insert a chest tube using only a local anesthetic. As her health care proxy I refused to sign permission until they changed the consent form to include the use of an IV medication for sedation and pain control--and insisted on watching them place the vial at her bedside.
I recall a nurse in nursing school tell me once that there should be a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Human Beings.
Hospitals just want them dead and out of the way so they can spend their research dollars on experimental treatments. The more uninformed the patients are(such as immigrants)the better--for them.
Chana @ Lemon Lime Moon said...
Socialism in any form is the death of free enterprise and individualism. Socialism is Communism and should be fought and destroyed wherever it is found.
Socialism destroys freedom and individuality, stifles the imagination and gives far too much power to government while treating people like morons who need their chins wiped for them.
Doctors should not be run by the government, which has proven already their incompetance at so many things (education for one).
People like Hillary who loves this crap will not be subject to it either. They can pay their way into good care.
For those who cannot, just wait til you have to wait a year for much needed surgery under a socialized plan.
This is why Canadians opt to come here for important surgeries.
But like with Hanoi Jane Fonda and her ilk who like to fool around with things to help the "little folk" whom they look down on. Of course, being the incompetant jerks they are, they don't know what they are doing.
Government should keep its mits out of a whole lot of stuff.
you know, it hit me once how much the liberals look down on immigrants.
In a washroom of a giant super store I saw a sign over the sink in spanish with directions about how to wash your hands!!!
Not why.. not please do.. but "how to"
Did you ever see those signs years ago for other immigrants?
Signs in Polish or Gaelic or German or Dutch or Italian?
My 82 year old mother was very ill having under gone two hip replacements in the same hip. They were in a big hurry to get her up and walking after surgery but her bones were so fragile that when they stood her up the screws broke right through the bone of her hip and they had to re-do it. After, she was in a wheelchair and because of a blood clot they put her on blood thinner. They were aware she had two strokes previously and the inevitable happenend - she began to bleed out into her brain. She went in and out of conciousnesss. The prognosis was very poor. She couldn't eat. We put her on palliative care. We wanted to make her comfortable. It was her choice that nothing heroic be done for her. My sister and I began to notice they weren't even giving her water. When we told them we don't want her to suffer thirst they seemed genuinely surprised. Did they think we wanted to watch our mother die of thirst in front of our eyes? I wouldn't do it to a dog.
Needless to say my mother passed but it was because it was time, not because her organs shut down due to lack of water.
lemonfree2 said...
how about the brain worms mexicans are bringing in now? Leprosy, Tuberculosis and all manner of things Ellis Island would never have allowed to come through.
Today the liberal gov and the catholic church fight to bring in as many as they can to make more liberal voters and to swell catholic coffers.
My Mom died a year ago today (March 11, 2007). She was 93. She had to go for a "temporary" stay in a "nursing facility" to ostensibly recover from one illness, and when she went there the lack of sanitation gave her another that is probably what killed her.
By the time I realized how serious her condition had become and had her transferred to a hospital, it was too late. They never told me how serious her condition was. They just didn't care. And before she got sick nurse "Kavorkian" (I don't remember her real name) told me. "She's old. She's lived her life."
They not only don't care, they do, as you say, seem to actively pursue euthanasia (or at least advocate a passive form of it) of those they deem unfit to continue.
I never knew how bad it had become, where the living are so helplessly under the control of the spiritually dead.
Teshuvah said...
Giving free care to illegal aliens comes at a high cost to the middle class who pay the taxes. I know a working man who needed a cancerous kidney removed. He could not afford the insurance payments because the premium had risen so much. The hospital wanted $50,000 up front for the operation, yet would have done the operation for free if he had been an illegal alien rather than a born and bred American.
He explored alternatives and found he could have the kidney removed in India for US$5,000 plus his airfare. He went and had the surgery. This is unfair to Americans. This is called Medical Tourism and is very common. Google "Medical Tourism" or see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tourism
Udiyah did the right thing and so did her mother. For the most part, intubation of all sorts and resuscitation are heroic measures. There is nothing wrong with a DNR order IF it comes from the patient or his/her family who know his/her wishes. Sometimes a feeding tube and ventilator amongst others can be cruel. My Mom was at home, which is the best way to avoid these issues, and her appetite declined in the last month. She wasn't suffering from hunger and she didn't starve to death, she did not want a tube for nourishment. She simply let go but she did sip water and small amounts of clear broth. Westerners need to stop depending on homes to care for their sick parents. Your career may suffer but your conscience will be clear if you do the end stages care yourself. And yes, it is a HUGE SACRIFICE. I had a toddler at the time who didn't even know her mother for that year and it made a difference.


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How PDP will return to power in 2023 – Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to purge itself of "bad eggs and hypocrites" who "lack the commitment" to return the opposition party to its lost glory.
Obasanjo rued that many of the PDP leaders still preoccupy themselves with what ministers to "their pockets and stomach".
He wondered why some of them left the party and others lost hope as soon as the results of the 2019 presidential election were announced.
The former president spoke on Sunday evening when Southwest PDP leaders, led by the party's National Vice Chairman (Southwest), Dr. Eddy Olafeso, visited him at his Pent-House Residence within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State.
At the meeting were: Senate Minority Leader Mrs. Biodun Olujimi; senators-elect Kola Balogun (Oyo South); Ayo Akinyelure (Ondo Central); House of Representatives member-elect Ajibola Muraina (Ibarapa North and Central); former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola; former Minister for State for Defence Erelu Olusola Obada and the PDP candidate in Ekiti State during the 2018 governorship election, Prof Olusola Eleka.
Obasanjo told his guests that Nigeria's situation demands a vibrant voice and opposition in PDP to engender a virile democracy.
The former leader also bemoaned the failure of leadership in the country, saying Nigeria "can't move forward if we continue the way we are".
Obasanjo, whose Coalition for Nigerian Movement (CNM) failed to dislodge President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) at the centre, urged the opposition PDP to purge itself of "hypocrites and bad eggs"
He noted that the purge would put the party on a higher pedestal to scout for those he called "critical mass of committed people," who "would be ready to stand with the party come rain, come shine".
Obasanjo said: "I knew PDP would lose election in 2015 because it was clear. And I knew PDP will need to be rebuilt after losing the election.
"You need what I call critical mass of committed people and come rain, come shine, they are committed. With that, you can make Nigeria better.
"You see peoples' faces beautiful but you don't know what each person harbours inside of him. If you discover a bad egg, remove such a person. And if such person has learnt his or her lessons, there can still be room to accommodate the person.
"Politically speaking, you can't be my friend if you don't buy into the Nigeria project. For me, till death, I will continue to push for a better Nigeria.
"I said if you compare the two of them (referring to Atiku and Buhari); with what I know and all I have written about the incumbent, which they have decided to cover up, Atiku is better than the incumbent by far. That's the point I am making. And nobody is perfect.
"I am not a perfect person. I have my shortcomings. If I deny my shortcomings, it means I am not being truthful to myself. But, my shortcomings have nothing to do with my love for Nigeria. It has nothing to do with being greedy or selfishness."
Earlier, Olafeso had explained that the visit was to celebrate Obasanjo on his 82nd birthday, which he marked recently, and thank him for his support for the PDP presidential candidate (Atiku) in this year's election.
He described the former president as a loyal, upright and committed leader who is "ready to speak the truth to power" fearlessly.
"We could not have done well in the last elections in the Southwest without your support. Your voice resonates above all the lies told in the country and you told the world what is actually happening in your country. You decided that you are going to stand up and fight. There is nothing we can say here that would compensate the role you have played.
"You supported our presidential candidate and I know for sure that he won that election even if the powers-that-be decided to write results for themselves in the North. It is certainly sure that it is the corner you asked all of us to go that won that election and I know full well that God will take this thing back to our party," Olafeso said.
Former Lagos State Deputy Governor Mrs. Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, former PDP Deputy National Chairman Shuaibu Oyedoku, and Ondo PDP governorship candidate in 2017 Eyitayo Jegede SAN, among others, also attended the meeting.
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Hi all, until a few days ago i had my ps4 hard wired and it was working perfectly. now, i cant connect to the internet at all via a LAN cable as I get the error "LAN cable not connected" or it fails to get an IP address.
I have scoured the internet and cannot find a solution at all. the ethernet cable is brand new and works on other machines like my laptop. my internet is on, and the ps4 can connect through wifi. why cant I connect through a LAN cable anymore? its driving me mad.
I had this issue on my PS3 and did everything you did to a T.
But I ended up fixing it myself. I went through all my ethernet cables and even bought a CAT7 cable of all things and still got the message/ip failed.
I started looking for physical damage - I looked at all my ports on my router and they were all perfectly fine.
I then checked my PS3's ethernet port and noticed one of the pins slightly out of proportion.
I used a sewing needle to push the pin back down and cleaned it out for good measure.
Since then I've never had that issue. This was recent too, both my PS4 and PS3 are hard wired.
Since my PS4 was fine on any port and my PS3 wasn't this idea sprung to mind.
So all in all look for any physical abnormalities this may solve your problem with your PS4.
As I know wireless isn't ideal for gaming.
So how do ya know if you are on wifi or lan connection? Since I hardwired it seems a lot better but there's the question of how do I know if im actually using cable or wifi is there something to show this in settings?
Hey, @mark_g33 ! I tried what you said but it comes up with a screen saying Automatic Manual and PPPoE? My brother told me the setting to put but when I do "test internet connection" it says "failed to obtain IP address" what should I do?


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Home | About DAB | Traffic Statistics
Hurricane Dorian impacts September airport traffic
Passenger traffic at Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB) decreased 15% for September in comparison with the same month last year.* During the month, 48,763 passengers flew in or out of the county-operated airport, compared to 57,355 passengers last September.
For the 12 months ending Sept. 30, total passenger traffic at DAB decreased 2.5% with 728,681 passengers traveling through the facility this year compared to 747,973 passengers last year.
"Hurricane Dorian had a significant impact on our operations in September," said Airport Director Rick Karl. "With 47 flights canceled, which affected 4,312 passengers, we expected that September passenger traffic would be down compared to last year. The storm not only negatively impacted passenger numbers in Daytona Beach, but universally across the state of Florida."
Karl added: "With the continuation of Sunwing seasonal service starting in November and the recent news that American Airlines will be expanding its service in January of 2020, I'm optimistic about once again seeing positive gains in passenger traffic for next year."
For more information, contact Marketing & Customer Experience Director Joanne Magley at 386-248-8030, ext. 18309.
Disclaimer: *The monthly passenger traffic data obtained by the airport from the airlines is unofficial. Airline revenue passenger data can be obtained through the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Data is usually reported three months after completion. http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/subject_areas/airline_information/index.html
The full traffic statistics report is available upon request by contacting Pat O'Brien at pobrien@volusia.org.


One of my clients requests to know if the MVL 661.20-2.5 is compatible with refrigerant R449a. They are doing a retrofit from an installation that had the MVL and aRWR 62.732 controller. The refrigerant wasR404a and they want to change it to R449a.
In the documentation from HIT I have found details concerning R410, R404, R401... but no R449a.
There is no R32 either in the documentation. I believe it would be better to update it to take into account all the new refrigerants that are being used nowadays.
Can you please help me with this? I did not find any information on the RWR controller either. Where could I find it?
Products from Siemens Building Technologies are not easily accessible outside of that division, and information is not easily gathered from our side (Siemens Industry- Automation and Drives).
The standard datasheet for the MVL661.20-2.5 refrigerant valves only mention the same refrigerants that you show in your post. There is no mention of R449a.
This can be found on the support webpage for SBT, where you can find further ressources.
Thank you Daniel for your answer. The resources are indeed useful for the future.
Unfortunately the answer to my question is not there, so I guess I will keep looking somewhere else.
Have you tried reaching out to SBT personnel through the contact link suggested above? They should be the most competent support.
The MVL661.. valve is compatible with R449a refrigerant.
Please note that the customer has to check if the size/DN of the existing valve is still matching in case of retrofit. Depending on the pressures / temperatures in the circuit, the kvs for R449a is about 25% smaller than for R404a. This means the installed valve should be big enough, but not the whole mechanical stroke range can be used in future for controlling (100% of the capacity will be reached with a smaller stroke).
Thank you Albis, this is what I was looking for. Are you based in Zug?


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Existing Customers:
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Insights » Number Plate Changes
Number Plate Changes
Flags on number plates
Leaving the European Union has had implications for all number plates produced after 31st December 2020 when the option to include an EU flag ended. Since the start of 2021, people have been able to choose to include the Union Flag, the Cross of St George, the Cross of St Andrew or Saltire, or the Red Dragon. Each will be accompanied by letters or national identifiers, including GREAT BRITAIN, Great Britain or GB, UNITED KINGDOM, United Kingdom or UK, CYMRU, Cymru, CYM or Cym, ENGLAND, England, ENG, Eng, SCOTLAND, Scotland, SCO or Sco, WALES or Wales.
Please be aware that the flag must be above the identifier. The flag or letters cannot appear on the number plate margin, and neither can be more than 50 millimetres wide.
If a vehicle has an EU flag already – there's no need to change it.
While the choice of flag and identifier is up to each individual, there are implications for driving abroad.
If the number plate includes the letters GB and the Union Flag, vehicles don't need to display a separate GB badge. However, they must include one if the number plate displays: a Euro symbol; an English, Scottish or Welsh flag; or numbers and letters only with no flag or letters.
New number plate standards
As of September 2021, a new standard of number plates will be introduced. It will be sturdier, more resilient material able to handle more damage, more bending, abrasion, impact, and thermal change, and will also show up clearer on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras on UK roads.
It also means that the digits will change, and as a result, two-tone number plates will not be allowed when the new standard is introduced. Instead, solid black digits will be the only acceptable digits on physical number plates, again, to make it easier for ANPR cameras to pick them up and identify vehicles. 4D is fine, but again, they need to consist of solid black digits.
All number plates will also have to show the supplier's business name and postcode in the bottom centre of the car registration plate and the number plate manufacturer with BS145e in the bottom right corner.
Borders will remain unaffected.
Vintage number plates
From the start of 2021, the DVLA withdrew the linking of the vintage number plate definition to the rolling 40-year tax exemption. It meant that 'vintage' style black and silver number plate are only allowed on pre-1980 vehicles.
Mann Island Finance Win Another Award
2021 has witnessed an impressive level of award success for Mann Island Finance, culminating in the business picking up the much-coveted Car Finance Provider of the Year award at the Credit Awards, which took place in December.
Mann Island Finance "Technology Team of the Year"
The landscape for financial services was already changing long before the global pandemic, but as with many things, there can be little doubt that COVID-19…
Mann Island Celebrate Award Success
We were thrilled to hear the Mann Island Finance name read out on the stage of this year's Car Finance Awards. The only event that…
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Planes: Fire & Rescue
Eddie Harrison
This sequel featuring the voices of Ed Harris and Teri Hatcher improves on the original but still fails to soar
A sequel to Planes, itself a spin-off from the Cars franchise, Planes: Fire & Rescue is a Disney animation aimed at very small children who might appreciate its world of cheerful, chattering vehicles. Adults, however, would do well to stay away, there's none of the multi-layered appeal of the best of Pixar, Disney or DreamWorks, just colourful, simple-minded entertainment for undemanding mites.
When our airplane protagonist Dusty Crophopper (voiced again by Dane Cook) is forced to give up his racing career due to gearbox issues, he decides to dedicate his time to the socially useful business of protecting holidaymakers, who are regularly endangered by raging forest fires in tinderbox national parks.
Dusty teams up with crusty-but-fair helicopter Blade Ranger (Ed Harris) to train for this noble profession; the film opens with a po-faced dedication to all of those brave folks working in the rescue services, as if a minor animation featuring farting tractors might be an appropriate reward for their efforts.
Roberts Gannaway's film is at least a considerable improvement on 2013's dismal original, with a more substantial story, a genuine sense of peril, and some choice returning and newly cast vocal talent including Hal Holbrook, Stacy Keach and Teri Hatcher. The animation is never less than clean and tidy, and frequently impresses, particularly in its POV shots as the planes fly into blazing forests, shots which are enhanced by their 3D rendering.
As with the first film, children will be drawn to the bright colours and simple morals, which makes some of the sexual and racial stereotyping on the sidelines rather regrettable. The use of AC/DC's power-anthem 'Thunderstruck' over an early training montage illustrates the good-ole-boy attitudes and broad, male-orientated humour that flavours the enterprise. This sits awkwardly with the more universal, home-spun values that Planes: Fire & Rescue seems to simultaneously want to encourage.
General release from Fri 8 Aug.
Disney's "Planes: Fire & Rescue" Trailer 1 - Courage
Directed by: Roberts Gannaway
Cast: Dane Cook, Ed Harris, Julie Bowen
UK release: 8 August 2014
When perky aeroplane Dusty (Cook) is forced to give up racing, he decides to retrain as a firefighter under crusty-but-fair Blade Ranger (Harris). Gannaway's sequel is better than the dismal original, but even as simple-minded entertainment it's a pity about the sexual and racial stereotyping and broad, male-orientated…
Planes (13 Aug 2013)
Knocked-off rehash of Cars feels brazenly opportunistic and mean-spirited
Teri Hatcher hopes Planes character will inspire girls(7 Aug 2013)
mother! (11 Sep 2017)
Jennifer Lawrence astonishes in Darren Aronofsky's provocative and infuriating latest
Run All Night (10 Mar 2015)
Liam Neeson has yet more men to find and kill in this serviceable actioner
The Face of Love (8 Dec 2014)
Powerful romantic drama starring Annette Bening, Ed Harris and Robin Williams
Promised Land (26 Mar 2013)
Gus Van Sant's eco-drama is fundamentally likeable but shies away from deeper issues
Man on a Ledge (23 Jan 2012)
Well paced, high concept thriller starring Sam Worthington, Jamie Bell and Elizabeth Banks
Hal Holbrook
Planes: Fire and Rescue
Roberts Gannaway
Stacy Keach
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Travel to Zurich: Cheap trains, buses and flights
About Zurich
When it comes to quality of life, Zurich holds the crown for being one of the world's best cities. From the luxurious lakeside homes that line the banks of Lake Geneva, to the lively restaurants and upmarket shops, it's easy to see why Zurich attracts so many visitors. Boasting some of the world's greatest museums, galleries and theatres, like the Swiss National Museum, the Zurich Opera House and the Zurich Playhouse, this is a city of fine arts, culture and elegance. By mixing the picturesque backdrop of snow-capped Alps with a vibrant nightclub scene and a shopping avenue of exclusive boutiques, Zurich really does have something for everyone.
Quick Guide to Zurich
Must Know: The summertime is considered as the best season to explore the outdoors. So try visiting Zurich during the months of July and August. The months between December and January, when temperatures dip below zero degrees Celsius, is the low season.
Must See: Visiting the Old Town, set against a spectacular medieval background is an absolute must. For leisurely strolls and some local shopping, Burkliplatz , a boat dock, is one amazing place to check out.
Must Do: Catch a show or two at Tonhalle Orchestra, The Opera house or Schauspielhaus Zurich—some of the world-famous cultural venues in the city.
Did You Know: St. Peter Church in Zurich is the Europe's biggest church clock face. Dating back to 1534, it is one of the hidden historical treasures in the city.
Travel to Zurich
Travel to Zurich is quick and easy by air, as travellers can fly direct to Zurich Airport with Swiss Airways. The airport is one of the world's best connected, with a wide choice of transport options to reach the city. Passengers can easily make the 6km journey to the city by taking one of the fast daily trains, which run regularly from the airport to Zurich Main Station in just 10 minutes. For a more leisurely journey, travellers can also opt to take a streetcar from the airport to Zurich Main Station, which takes about 35 minutes.
Trains to Zurich
Choosing the train is also an excellent way to travel to Zurich, especially as Zurich Main Station is the largest in Switzerland. The station is conveniently located just north of the Old Town, so the city's main attractions can be reached on foot in just a few minutes. The station is a major transport hub for international, domestic and long distance services and is well connected by bus, tram and trolleybus.
Buses to Zurich
Arriving in Zurich by bus offers an economical and relaxed way to reach the city. Bus companies offer long distance services direct to Zurich Bus Station, which is ideally situated near Zurich Main Station, so it takes just a few minutes to reach Zurich's Old Town and major attractions on foot.
Other destinations you might be interested in
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Popular routes to Zurich
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HomeTravelTravel to Zurich: Cheap trains, buses and flights