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Perl for fasta

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Parkside
1200 Taraval Street (at 22nd Avenue)
San Francisco, CA 94116
(415) 355-5770
Days Hours
Sun 1-5
M 1-9
Tu 10-9
W 1-9
Th 10-6
Sat 10-6

Where to eat?

MaggieMudd - no dairy!

Peru

Peruvian Resources
Very good personal account of a
tour
Useful link-INDEPENDENT TRAVEL GUIDE TO PERU
Cuzco
Cuzco, the capital of Cuzco department in southern Peru, was the capital of the INCA empire from its beginnings in the 14th century until the Spanish conquest in 1533. A tourist attraction, the city is known for its Inca ruins and Spanish colonial architecture. Situated at an altitude of 3,416 m (11,207 ft) in a broad valley of the Andes, it is the busy hub of a thickly populated agricultural region where sheep are raised and cereals and tobacco are grown. The population is predominantly Indian, and the city, with its open markets, adobe houses, and narrow, winding cobblestone streets, is Indian in character. The area is subject to earthquakes
Inca Trail

The Inca Trail is Peru's best known hike, combining a stunning mix of Inca ruins, mountain scenery, lush cloud-forest and rich subtropical jungle. Over 250 species of orchid have been counted in the Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary, as well as numerous birds such as hummingbirds, waterfowl and the majestic Andean Condor. The star of the Sanctuary is the spectacled bear - a shy, herbivorous animal that is extremely rare and close to extinction.

Essentially the Inca Trail is a mountainous jungle hike leading to the sacred Inca city of Machu Picchu. The 45km trek is usually covered in 4 days, arriving at Machu Picchu at daybreak on the final day before returning to Cusco by train in the afternoon.

Prices & Services
The Inca Trail can be hiked year round although the months of May till October are probably more comfortable since the weather is drier. June through August is the high season when reservations must be made well in advance.
If you are searching the web for information about the Classic 4 day Inca Trail you'll probably be overwhelmed to find hundreds of tour companies offering this popular trek amongst their services. Many of these companies are acting only as agents for the relatively few that actually operate the trek. Prices for the Classic 4 day trek start at about US$240 per person (including entrance fees and return on train) and can climb anywhere up to a staggering $1000. For a clarification of why the price can vary so much for walking the same 45km path see below:
The main difference between the various Inca Trail services are the number of people in the group, the level of comfort that you can expect, the quality of the guide, food and camping equipment and whether the company will actually guarantee their departure date, even if they can't find anyone else to fill up the group. The prices quoted below are to be used as a guide only and may vary considerably from company to company .
Prices for the 4 day group service Inca trail trek generally range between US$300 and US$400 per person including entrance fees and return on train (You can almost double these figures if you buy the trek with a tour agency outside Peru even though the service is the same). This price includes Peruvian sales tax known as IGV which is currently at 19%. A US$30 discount is offered to students who have valid ISIC cards and to children under 16 years old. This is the standard service offered by most tour operators in Cusco and offers the most economic way of hiking the Inca Trail as part of an organized group. Group sizes tend to be between 12 and 16 persons. Although services can vary from operator to operator, generally speaking, the following services are included: Bus to the start of the trek, bilingual guide, assistant guide for groups of 9 and over, entrance fees (US$60 adult or US$30 student), tent, sleeping mattress, cooking equipment, cook, meals, porters (to carry the tents, food and cooking equipment only) and return to Cusco on the Backpackers train service (currently US$46). The following items are not usually included: Breakfast on day 1, snacks along the trail, tourist bus from Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes (US$6), meals on the final day apart from breakfast, porters to carry your personal items (can be hired separately for between US$60 and US$80 for the 4 day trek), entrance to the thermal springs in Aguas Calientes (US$3), any tips for the porters or guide.
Itinerary

Peru Treks - tour operator

Calle Garcilaso 265, Office 11, 2nd Floor, Cusco, Peru

Tel: (51 84) 805863

Web: www.perutreks.com

Small family run tour operator specializing in trekking in the Cusco region of Peru. Offer Inca Trail 4 day group departures on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Their 2007 standard 4 day Inca Trail trek is priced at US$350 (Jan) and US$365 (March to December). Excellent treatment of porters. Private treks to Lares Valley, Choquequirao, Salkantay, Ausangate & Vilcabamba. Can also arrange cultural homestays with local Quechua families in the village of Chinchero. Package tours, private treks, custom trips. Voted Best Travel Agency in Cusco 2006 by Peru's Ministry of Tourism. Recommended by the South American Handbook 2007 and Cusco & the Inca Trail Guidebook as well as by the South American Explorers Club. US$10 Inca Trail discount for SAE members

Mexico

Teotihuacan is about 31 miles North East of Mexico City and has Piramide del Sol first century AD, Pyramid of the mood , Piramide de Quetzalcoatl. The rise and fall of Teotihuacan coincide roughly with the rise and fall of the Roman Empire beginning around 600 BC, and going into decline around 650 AD before the city was sacked, burnt, and abandoned.
Palenque is considered by many to be Mexico's most beautiful and alluring archaeological site. Palenque is reached from Villahermosa via highway 186/199. The trip takes about 90 minutes (140 km).

Between Palenque and Ocosingo is the beautiful 100-foot waterfall at Misol-Ha (20 km south of Palenque), and the breathtaking Agua Azul Natural Reserve (60 km south of Palenque). The reserve is a stunningly beautiful series of pools, ponds, and rivers bordered by tropical flowers and exotic dense jungle. The water is a deep blue and is ideal for swimming.

Thirteen km east of Ocosingo are the Mayan ruins of Toniná. The site has several large structures carved into a sloping hillside. Recent excavations have unveiled a large city-state that thrived between the years 500-800 A.D.

Chichen Itza is actually two cities: one that was ruled by the Mayas during the sixth to the tenth century; the other a Toltec- Mayan city that emerged around the year 1000 A.D. Most of the prominent buildings at Chichen Itza were developed during the city's "rebirth" under Toltec rule.

Need Yarn?

Greenwich Yarn
2073 Greenwich Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
415-567-2535

ImagiKnit
3897 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
415-621-6642
www.imagiknit.com - online retailer!

Donner Ski Ranch

is there snow?
Lift Ticket Rates
Weekends & Holidays All Day 9am - 4pm
Adult 13-61 $38
Child 6-12 $10
Senior 62-69 $25

Rental Rates
All Day Half Day (at 12:30)
Ski Combo/Adult-Youth $27 $20
Ski Combo/Child $15 $12

Lesson combo $60 package includes equipment rental, an “all chair” lift ticket, and a 1½-hour group lesson. Child 7-12: $46

Private Instruction
Individual instruction is the fastest and easiest way to learn snow sports. Private lessons start at $70 (1 hour) with an additional $20 for each extra person (up to three add-ons). This price does not include lift ticket or equipment rental. Add-ons are not available for lessons for children under 7.

Lessons meet: 9am, 10:30am, 12:30pm and 2:00pm

Future Vacations

Explore Grand Canyon by Raft!

Grand Canyon Expeditions

"Thank you" In Chinese

非常有趣

What is Culture anyway?

What makes us human? Is it our culture? What is culture? Do animals have culture? It is interesting to look at what a primatologist have to say on the subject:

"....I define culture as
behavioral variation that owes its existence at least in part to social learning processes, social learning being defined as changes in behavior that result from attending to the behavior or behavioral products of another individual."
Susan E. Perry
More from her article:

Because imitation (copying of a model’s motor actions) comes so easily to human children, and because folklore about primates is riddled with “monkey see,
monkey do” stories, some researchers (e.g., the early Japanese primatologists) started with the assumption that imitation must be easy, a cheap trick for learning many new skills quickly....
[After reasearch was done: JS]

The general conclusion by the early 1990s was that copying motor actions was easy for humans, difficult for apes (although present at least in human-reared, i.e., “enculturated,” apes) and essentially absent in monkeys (Byrne 1995,
Tomasello 1996).
[Interesting!! JS]

..Huffman & Hirata (2003) found no consistent effect of group size on diffusion
rates, although they did find that innovations regarding food type and experimental tasks spread more slowly than do play and foodprocessing innovations.
[Cooking and sex books would be bestsellers if apes could read! JS]

Yoga

Stanford
Tuesday
Yoga in Daily Life, Section 1, All Levels, STAP
Location: Hoover Pavilion, #400
Swami Satyambararanda
Dates: 1/9/2007 to 2/13/2007 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

Thursday
Mid-day Yoga: Relax & Renew, Section 2, All Levels (STAP)
Location: Mitchell Building #A062
Moj Razmi
Dates: 1/11/2007 to 3/15/2007 12:5 PM to 1:00 PM

HIP link will expire!
YMCA Stownsetown schedule
Monday 6:30 PM Jeanie
Bija Yoga website 1348 9th Ave/Irving
Iyengar Yoga Institute schedule
Yoga for Scoliosis main page

Renaissance in Europe - Greek connection

How good things come out of a bad thing:
In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Turks, ending the Byzantine empire. This date also marks the beginning of the Renaissance, since the waves of Greek refugees spread knowledge of Greek throughout Europe. Included with the newly available Greek manuscripts were the Corpus Hermetica, Plotinus, and the works of the Neoplatonists.

cell phone radiation

link to ratings
LG1200 is 0.83 W/kg digital BEJLX1200 (1.5 and above is bad, 0.2 is very good)

History of Christmas

In Soviet Union we did not have Christmas. But we did have the fir tree, the festive lights, and the gifts for New Year's Eve. Does every human culture have some "festival of lights" to survive the darkest time of the year? Was Jesus really born on December 25th, or was his B-Day moved to coincide with old celebrations of light? Were many other deities allegedly born at that time? How does our brain suffer from lack of sunlight at that time?

The festivities in the week following the winter solstice (after which the days grow longer), today called Shab-e Yalda in Iran, are a remnant of the culture which celebrated the birth of the divinity of light on that day. Yalda literally means "The birth of sun".

Similarities between Mirtha and Jesus:

Mithra (Avestan Miθra, modern Persian مهر Mihr, Mehr, Meher) is an important deity or divine concept in Zoroastrianism and later Persian mythology and culture.
The reforms of Zoroaster retained the multitudes of pre-Zoroastrian divinities, reducing them in a complex hierarchy to "immortals" under the supremacy of the Creator Ahura Mazda. In this scheme, Mithra is a member of the triad, protectors of the order of the universe. Mithra is additionally the protector of truth and justice and the source of cosmic light.
Mithra is not present in the Gathas of Zarathustra (Zoroaster) but appears in the younger Yashts of the Avesta. There, Mithra comes to the fore among the created beings. In the Yashts, Mithra gains the title of "Judge of Souls" and is assigned the domain of human welfare (which he shares with the Creator). He is then the divine representative of the Creator on earth, and is directed to protect the righteous from the demonic forces. As the enemy of darkness and evil spirits, he protected souls, accompanying them to paradise, and was thus a redeemer.

While in older Zoroastrianism Mithra is seen as a creation of Ahura Mazda, in later Persian culture, Mithra evolved to be an incarnation of Ahura Mazda.
By at least the 3rd century BC, Mithra was identified as the progeny of Anahita, a mother-entity who is not mentioned in the Gathas of the very early Avesta texts. The largest temple with a Mithraic connection is the Seleucid temple at Kangavar in western Iran (c. 200 BC), which is dedicated to "Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras".

Mithra was born on December 25, of a virgin. His birth was witnessed by shepherds and magicians [magi]. Mithra raised the dead and healed the sick and cast out demons. He returned to heaven at the spring equinox and before doing so had a last supper with his 12 disciples (representing the 12 signs of the zodiac), eating mizd, a piece of bread marked with a cross (an almost universal symbol of the sun).
In America, Christmas was generally outlawed until the end of the last century. In Boston, up to 1870, anyone missing work on Christmas Day would be fired. Factory owners customarily required employees to come to work at 5 a.m. on Christmas -- to insure they wouldn't have time to go to church that day. And any student who failed to go to school on December 25 would be expelled. Only the arrival of large numbers of Irish and northern European immigrants brought acceptance of Christmas in this country.

Patagonia

Torre del Paine link