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| It took over 30 years and cost a lot of money to dig that 50-miles |
The Canal Builders
No Computers or hard hats required
Two days to go before I embark on the two-week expedition to Los Angry Cars (LA)
through The Panama Canal.
It still stands as one of the 20th
Century's greatest feats of engineering, built on the blood, sweat and skin of peoples from the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, who remain anonymous and capriciously perished with greatest of ease from
landslides, dynamite explosions, steam shovels dredges and cranes toppling over , falls from
scaffolding , railroad accidents, diseases. I'll have my moments of silence and awe when I steam through there. |
Welcome To Hoover. I'm Your Dam Guide |
Prior to 1972, no feat of modern engineering was undertaken without a slide rule. The space shuttle, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam,the atomic bomb, the Empire State Building, and The Panama Canal.
These dudes used slide rules to build stuff. Back-in-the-day, the slide rule was more common than a telephone, yet I personally, have never seen one. I guess that would be the equivalent of kids today not seeing a vinyl record, eh?
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| Panama City in 2009 |
Read More: Panama Canal Crossing-Epic Grand Voyage
Gray Matters-The Travel Molecule
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| A Gift Horse |
I used to think working on cruise ships was bad, but I stopped thinking- I guess I have ship for brains!
The need to break free
and sail away is ancient, enduring and incessant. Voyages trigger
a concept called psychological distance: Something about the
experience of leaving your place creates
a shock and awe, a pathway into a new
perspective that floods the brain with ideas.
For me, this shift in perspective starts as soon as I'm on a cruise ship Ships are weirdly the most lucid part of my life. Every cruise I take somehow changes my life in some way.
For me, this shift in perspective starts as soon as I'm on a cruise ship Ships are weirdly the most lucid part of my life. Every cruise I take somehow changes my life in some way.
The actual cruise might
be four days or a week, the anticipation of Norwegian
Fjords cruise, for instance was months and
the memory will probably last for years
or forever. So, while I focus on the joy of the doing the cruise there is joy or anticipation and the joy of THE memory of it all the time.
Travel is an art and a
science-- proven to alter perception, personality and may even rewire your
brain. That’s what I mean by Ship for brains. The novelty and unique
one-of-a-kind experiences drives up levels of dopamine, a chemical in the brain
that gives you optimism, energy, curiosity and creativity. 