The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive at least one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world.
Why? Because, like the
author, there are lots of people who like to receive real mail. The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you probably have never heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises - and who wouldn't like that?
http://www.postcrossing.com/
Image above: Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams (center) and Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer conduct a conference with reporters on the ground Friday morning. Credit: NASA TV
Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev will complete their stay onboard the International Space Station on March 18. They will undock their Soyuz TMA-16 from the orbiting laboratory at 4:03 a.m. EDT and land in Kazakhstan about 3 1/2 hours later. Staying behind will be new station commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi. The three crew members will become the Expedition 23 crew. Joining them two weeks later will be new crew members Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko. They will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-18 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on April 2. As the off-going crew members packed gear for the return home, Williams also performed hatch seal checks in the American side of the station. Williams, Creamer and Noguchi spent some time Friday morning talking to reporters on the ground. The trio conducted interviews with MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal Digital Network. Space shuttle Discovery is due to launch to the space station on April 5, beginning the STS-131 mission. Discovery and its seven-member crew will deliver new science racks for the station inside the Italian-built Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Science continues in space as the orbiting crew set up an experiment inside the Human Research Facility. The experiment seeks to study the long-term effects of microgravity on a crew member’s heart. The Columbus lab’s Fluids Science Laboratory had its video hardware updated, and the crew collected samples from the station’s air and water, as well as various equipment surfaces, to be analyzed for microbial growth.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the, Sydney Harbour Bridge, The CN Tower in Toronto, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.
In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world’s largest global climate change initiative. Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.
Earth Hour has done a lot to raise awareness of climate change issues. But there’s more to it than switching off lights for one hour once a year. It’s all about giving people a voice on the future of our planet and working together to create a sustainable low carbon future for our planet.
With participation levels now exceeding all expectations, and with more cities and towns signing up every day to be a part of this historic event, the success of Earth Hour 2010 is limited only by the will of the global community to want a say in the future of their planet.
The challenge of Earth Hour is to rethink how we live our lives in the next hour, the next day, and the day after that. It's always darkest before the dawn. Let's make this hour the dawn of a new greener age. Send us an email at
green@go-green.ae and let us know what you will be doing this Eath Hour.
ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO
Amateur radio service is defined in the Communication and Multimedia (Spectrum) Regulations 2000 as a radiocommunications service (covering both terrestrial and satellite) in which a station is used for the purpose of self traning, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by authorized persons who are interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without any pecuniary interest.
AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR'S CERTIFICATE
Regulation 27(1) of the Communications and Multimedia (Technical Standards) Regulations 2000 states that no person shall undertake or conduct any activity in designated skil area unless that person is certified. Amateur radio operator has been gazetted as a designated skill area category under the regulation, hence to operate an amateur radio station a person needs to have an appropriate proficiency and skill i.e. certified in this area.
INTERFERENCE
Please ensure that the radio transmision does not cause interference to any other radio services. Regulation 15(1) of the Communications and Multemedia (Technical Standards) Regulations 2000 states that no person shall intentionally design, install, operate, maintain or modify any communications equipment in a manner is likely to cause interference with, impairment, mulfunction of, or harm to any communications equipment or any other equipment.
Regulation 15(2) of the regulation denotes that a person who contravenes this regulation commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding three hundred thousand ringgit (RM 300,000.00) or to imprisonment for a term of not exceeding three years or to both.
To eliminate the potential of interferences, the following procedures must be followed strictly:-
a) Ensure that suffient equipment, tools and test gear is available and can used to monitor and verify that your transmission does not cause any interference to other radio services.
b) You must responsible if your amateur radio is found to be the caused of interference. Immediate remedy action must be taken to rectify the problems in case of interference.
c) Ensure that the transmission do not exceed the level of over deviation.
d) Ensure that the radiated energy is always within the narrowest posible frequency bands for any class of emission in use.
e) The radiation of harmonics and spurious emissions should be suppressed to minimize interference.
Historical Description of Amateur Radio: From the Encyclopedia Britannica:-
Interest in amateur radio arose around the turn of the century, shortly after the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi successfully sent the first transatlantic wireless signal in 1901. The interference of amateur broadcasts with commercial and military transmissions led to the institution of government control in 1911. After World War I, amateurs became active in radio experimentation, contributing to developments in long-distance broadcasting and becoming the first radio operators successfully to exploit the upper medium-frequency and lower high-frequency radio bands. Over the years, amateur radio operators have also provided emergency communications during forest fires, floods, hurricanes, and other disasters. They serve as an important link between stricken communities and the outside world until normal communications are reestablished.Amateur radio operators in the United States are subject to international and federal regulations. There are five classes of licenses. Competence in the use of the International Morse Code and a knowledge of radio theory and regulation are required to obtain the advanced-level licenses. Amateur radio is allocated frequencies at the extreme high-frequency end of the medium-wave band, five groups of frequencies in the shortwave band, two groups in the veryhigh-frequency band, three in the ultrahigh-frequency band, and seven in the superhigh-frequency band for telegraphic and telephonic communication using amplitude and frequency modulation. There are restrictions on the power of the transmitters, and certain of the frequencies must be shared with due regard for the needs of other users.
The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive at least one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world.
