Guided Walking Week April 2016

    Dates: April 30^th-May 7^th 2016

    Location: Abdet, Costa Blanca

    A week of guided walking in the mountains around Abdet. Highlights include the climbing of Valencia's highest summit (Sierra de Aitana), traveling completely around the impressive Puig Campana, and several explorations in the Sierra de Aitana. Ancient trails lead through spectacular canyons(峡谷) to abandoned settlements situated high in the mountains. You will discover the snow trader routes which lead from the incredible snow holes high in the mountains down to the villages and towns on the coast. These years, golden eagles have made a return to this area, and you may also see other animals—wild goats, foxes, wild pigs and red squirrels.

    As part of the week you are invited to help clear some local walking paths. This involves clearing collapsed （坍塌的） walls and rocks, cutting back fallen trees. This is of course optional and is just for half a day, it's actually great fun!

Price:$499

Includes:

    Accommodation in the beautiful mountain village of Abdet

    All food-good home cooking

    Beer, wine, soft drinks

    Snacks and post walk treats

    Packed lunches & drinks(except café/bar visits)

    Expert guiding

    Photos/Videos of your days in the mountains

    Airport pick-up/return $25 each way(fly to Alicante)

    Single room supplement $75

    To book or get further information, please contact info@abdet.com.

    1990 was an important year in world events. In February, Nelson Mandela was set free after 27 years in prison. In October, East and West Germany became one country again. Then at the end of 1990, the World Wide Web was born. For this final event we have one man to thank. Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Web.

    Berners-Lee was born on June 8, 1955 in London, England. His parents, both computer designers, encouraged him to think and work creatively as he grew up. He was an excellent student and naturally took an interest in computers and science.

    After graduating from Oxford University, Tim went to work at a science research centre in Switzerland. There he developed some of the different systems（系统）that would later become the Web. The first was HTML, the computer language used to make web pages. The second was an address system that let computers anywhere find each other and send and receive information. In 1990 he put them together to make the first Internet browser（浏览器）.

    Tim knew that the more people used the Web, the more useful it would be. He wasn't interested in money but knowledge, so he gave out his invention for free to anyone who was interested. Many were interested an the growth of the Internet began.

    Today Tim works as a professor at the MIT in America, studying new ways to use the Web. He has received many awards from governments and organizations for his efforts. He is still not very interested in money. That is why he is so liked by his students and workmates. It may also be one of the reasons that few people outside the world of technology know his name.

    Half a century ago, Japan built the world's first high-speed rail network—a network that remains the gold standard in train travel today. Currently the country is now helping Texas build its own bullet train, a potential game-changer for transportation in the state.

    When it launched on October 1, 1964, the world's first high-speed rail network was known as the “super-express of dreams.” The first line in Japan's now world-famous shinkansen network was built against all odds, in the face of fierce public opposition, technical difficulties and astronomical costs.

    Half a century ago, the system was far humbler. In 1964, the first track was a 320-mile-long link between Tokyo and Osaka that reduced the trip from six-and-a-half hours (on conventional trains) to three hours and 10 minutes, traveling at a maximum speed of 200 miles per hour. For the first time, workers could get to meetings in one city during the day and be back home drinking a beer in the local pub that night.

    Not only did the train expand mobility profoundly, but also businesses appeared around the major stops as a growing emphasis on productivity swept across Japan. Today, the shinkansen network has 1,487 miles of track, with more set to open in the coming years. It seems that everything the shinkansen touches turns to city, and regions that are off the beaten track, so to speak, benefit greatly from the economic jumpstart brought by the train. New shinkansen lines are often proceeded by aggressive marketing campaigns promoting tourism in those areas, a strategy that seems to work.

    Despite its astronomical costs, it actually has saved more. Today, over 350,000 annual trips transport tens of millions of passengers all over Japan with efficiency—the average delay time is less than a minute. A research report titled 30 Years of High-Speed Railways: Features and Economic and Social Effects of The Shinkansen by Hiroshi Okada, estimates that the economic impact from the shinkansen train network, based on the time saved from faster travel, is approximately ¥500 billion ($4.8 billion USD) per year. Okada stresses that the cultural impact is also significant, a shinkansen offers people living far from urban centers “easy access to concerts, exhibitions, theaters, etc., enabling them to lead fuller lives.”

    Japan has a plan, known as the One-Day Travel Initiative. Its goal: regardless of where you are in Japan, it should only take you three hours to get to the nearest major regional city (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo or Fukuoka). The planned impact of this hyper-mobility is to discourage the tide of migration toward urban centers, like Tokyo, and encourage decentralization.

    Summer heat can be dangerous, and heat leads to tragedy far too often. According to kidsandcars, org, an average of 37 young children per year die of car heat in the US, when they are accidentally left in a hot vehicle.

    For Bishop Curry, a fifth grader from McKinney, Texas, one such incident hit close to home. A six-month-old baby from his neighborhood died after hours in a hot car. After hearing about her death, Curry decided that something needed to be done. Young Curry, who turned 11 this year, has always had a knack for inventing things, and he drew up a sketch(草图) of a device he called "Oasis."

    The device would attach to car seats and watch the temperature inside the car. If it reached a certain temperature in the car, and the device sensed a child in the car seat, it would begin to circulate cool air. Curry also designs the device using GPS and Wi-Fi technology, which would alarm the child's parents and, if there was no response from them, the police.

    Curry's father believes that the invention has potential. "The cool thing about Bishop's thinking is none of this technology is new," he said. "We feel like the way he's thinking and combining all these technologies will get to production faster." His father even introduced the device to Toyota, where he works as an engineer. The company was so impressed that they sent Curry and his father to a car safety conference in Michigan.

    In January, Curry's father launched a campaign for the invention. They hope to raise money to finalize the patent, build models, and find a manufacturer. Their goal was $20,000, but so many people believed in Oasis' potential that they have raised more than twice that--over $46,000.

    Curry's father remembers the first time he saw his son's sketch. "I was so proud of him for thinking of a solution," he said. "We always just complain about things and rarely offer solutions."

    Now many young people are traveling around the world on their own, not because they have no one to travel with, but because they prefer to go alone.

    Kristina Wegscheider from California first traveled alone when she was at college and believes that it is something everyone should do at least once in their life, “It opens up your mind to new things and pushes you out of your comfort zone.” Wegscheider has visited 46 countries covering all seven continents.

    In foreign countries, with no one to help you read a map, look after you if you get ill, or lend you money if your wallet is stolen, it is challenging. This is what drives young people to travel alone. It is seen as character building and a chance to prove that they can make it on their own.

    Chris Richardson decided to leave his sales job in Australia to go traveling last year. He set up a website, The Aussie Nomad, to document his adventures. He says he wished he had traveled alone earlier. “The people you meet, the places you visit, or the things you do, everything is up to you and it forces you to grow as a person,” said the 30-year-old man.

    Richardson describes traveling alone like “a shot in the arm”, which “makes you a more confident person that is ready to deal with anything”. He said, “The feeling of having overcome something on my own is a major part of what drives me each day when I'm dealing with a difficult task. I walk around with my head up because I know deep down inside that nothing is impossible if you try.”

    The great 19th century explorer John Muir once said, “Only by going alone in silence can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.”

    Can dogs and cats get along well in the same home? People who are thinking about getting a dog as a friend for their cat are worried that they will fight. A recent research has found that if the cat is taken back home before the dog, and if they are introduced when still young (less than 6 months for cats, a year for dogs), it is highly probable that the two pets will get along swimmingly. In two-thirds of the homes cats and dogs have a good relationship.

    However, it wasn't all sweetness and light. There was a reported coldness between the cat and dog in 25% of the homes, while aggression(侵略，好斗) and fighting were found in 10% of the homes. One reason for this is probably that some of their body languages are just different. For example, when a cat turns its head away it means aggression, while a dog doing the same means submission(顺从).

    In homes with cats and dogs living peacefully, researchers found a surprising behavior. They are learning how to talk each other's language. It is a surprise that cats can learn how to talk "Dog", and dogs can learn how to talk "Cat".

    What's interesting is that both cats and dogs have appeared to become smarter. They can learn to read each other's body languages, suggesting that the two may have more in common than was expected. Once familiar with each other's body language, cats and dogs can play together, and enjoy sleeping together on the sofa.

    The importance of this research on cats and dogs may go beyond pets — to people who don't get along well, including neighbors, colleagues at work, and even countries. If cats and dogs can learn to get along, surely people have a good chance.