Exit Zero

I walked down to the beach at Tel Aviv to take some sunset photos and found a group of kitesurfers enjoying the waves.

If I’d brought my camcorder I could show you how kitesurfing works, but I didn’t, so I’ll have to make do with this wikipedia definition:

Kitesurfing, also known as kite surfing, fly surfing, and kiteboarding, involves using a power kite to pull the rider through the water on a small surfboard, a wakeboard, or a kiteboard.

A kitesurfer uses a board with foot-straps or bindings, combined with the power of a large controllable kite to propel himself and the board across the water. However, this simplicity also makes kitesurfing challenging. A kitesurfer’s body is the only connection between the kite and the board. The kite is piloted in the sky while the board is steered on the water.

According to the kitesurfers I talked to, some hours of lessons and lots of practice were needed to perfect the tecnique of combining flight over water. Snowboarding is difficult enough – imagine combining that with kiting and surfing.

One kitesurfer, Avri, demonstrated this jump (click on photos to see larger images)

It would take a lot of time and effort to learn how to soar like that, but it would be worth it.

Very bad news –
Egyptian Sandmonkey is quitting..

Very bad news –
Egyptian Sandmonkey is quitting..

Walking up Jaffa Hill

..on the road, taking pictures, packing and unpacking.

In the meantime, visit Michael Totten’s, Bill’s INDC and Fausta’s for always-interesting and well-researched posts.

Around December 14, there was a massive explosion on the sun*

“Solar flares are essentially magnetic,” Davis explains. In the maelstrom above a sunspot, lines of magnetic force are twisted and stretched until the tension reaches a certain point—and then the whole thing explodes.

A rubber band provides a good analogy. Take one from your desk, hold one end in each hand: stretch and twist. If you twist, twist and twist to extremes, the tormented band will eventually snap, painfully releasing all the energy you just put into it.

When we’re talking about the sun, that’s a lot of energy..

* Space news thanks to Bruce

If anyone had any doubts that some ‘green’ ‘no impact’ luddites are trying to return the world to the all natural lifestyle of the 4th century, read this..

She’s not the only one...

Margaret Bourke-White, Garment district, New York City, 1930

More here…

Have you noticed that Global Warming hysteria has become more – unreasonable lately?

If you’re in a mood for some extreme adventure, try walking into a roomful of Democrats. Suggest that you might have a few questions about the veracity of the Global Warming theory. See what kind of reaction you get. (Don’t express any outright dissent of course – that’s not adventure, it’s just pure suicide.)

Global Warming is a crusade now, beyond reason, mired in faith. Gore, that sanctified smarmy Colossus of smugness has become an icon of redemption and rebirth. In the Left’s common dreams, Gore’s Global Warming crusade will usher in their second coming. He’s their Vanilla Jesus.

Via Draft Gore

Run Al Run

..How can you lose when you already won
Way back before all the damage was done
Now you’re the number one favorite son
So Run, Al, Run

Whose son are we talking about here?

The Left was lost, but now they’re found. With Global Warming, the Blame Bush crusade becomes a world class Leftish event, no longer limited to American politics. Now Bush (and American Republicans) can officially be blamed for the weather. Dissent will bring about the end of the world and the death of baby polar bears. Praise “science.”

If Gore can find a way to blame Bush for acne and irritable bowel syndrome, he will become a God.

He’s got the whole world in his hands..

Yesterday in New York

Reflections on Avenue of the Americas

Airstream Land Yacht at MoMa