Half Dome Hike

Our group of 8 friends went to Yosemite National Park last weekend to hike the Half Dome. Half Dome is a very challenging day hike with a gain of 5000 feet in elevation and a total distance of around 16 miles. We had driven the previous night and stayed in a hotel just outside the park.

We got up early, got ready and drove to the park in the morning. We were about 30 min away from it. We reached the trail head parking lot at around 645AM. The actual trail head was half a mile away. Taking a deep breath we started the hike. We were at the trail head at 7AM. The initial part of the hike was moderately steep but helped to warm us up. We then reached a bridge over the Merced river giving us a view of Vernal Falls. The fall was looking very beautiful from far away. The trail went towards the falls and later around it. We saw some spectacular views of the falls. There were a series of steps and we were being sprayed by the water from the falls as we were climbing up. It was difficult even to get pictures from the camera. The trail got steeper as we went ahead. The rocks were wet and slippery and we had to go over them. The trail kept going and we reached the top of Vernal Falls. It looked very different from the top. We saw a great view of the valley as well.

The next stop was Nevada Falls. The trail continues through the jungle and we could see Nevada falls from far away. After about a mile , we were climbing over rocks and following a path with many switchbacks. The trail was very steep here and it brought out our best. We finally reached the top of Nevada Falls at around 9AM. We didn't have a nice vista point here to admire the falls. But we would get that chance later in the day on our way back. We took a break here removing our backpacks and having some energy bars and Gatorade. They were going to be our lifeline that day.

The next 2 miles were comparatively simple with us hiking on a level trail through the little Yosemite Valley. It was very scenic and there was also a campground there. This was the only reprieve we would have that day. Later the trail started ascending again through dense forests. We were just trying to take it slow and not give up. Having enough fluids and food was important. It was getting steeper. At one point I saw a deer on the trail ahead of me. It was pretty scared as well so it ran away. We kept motoring along at a slow but steady pace and finally reached the base called as the sub dome. I took another break here. There was a ranger with the NPS who was checking the permits which people had.

After getting the permit checked and recharging ourselves, we started to hike the sub dome. It is a trail of steps mainly over rocks. It goes in a zigzag manner and takes you to the base of half dome. This part is above treeline and you are directly exposed to the sun. It is very steep indeed and I was out of breath by the time I got to the top of the sub dome. We had another break here. The view was definitely worth the climb. We could see the quarter dome, another smaller feature similar to the half dome. There were also snow capped peaks on one side. We could see many granite cliffs.
The fun and most challenging part was just starting. We now had to go up the cables. I had heard about this before but trying it was going to be the challenge. There was a long line of people ahead of me. I just tried the technique the guy ahead of me was trying. To go one step at a time, pull yourself with your arms and go one step at a time. The key was to not look down. As we went higher it got steeper and consequently scarier. We were just waiting for it to end. Finally after 40 min of what seemed like eternity I managed to reached the top of Half Dome. It was a great feeling. I took few minutes again to catch my breath. There was surprisingly full network coverage. I made a few phone calls boasting about my feat and sent a tweet from the summit. That was an ego boost :P

I walked around on the summit and took some amazing pictures. I waited for the rest of the group to get there. We then spent a lot of time walking around and taking pictures. We also went to this particular ledge where I had seen many of my friends take pictures. There was a 5000 feet drop from that ledge and it was very scary to go there. I somehow managed to look down and it was scary.It was a dizzying height. My friend took pictures of me trying different stunts from there. We then walked around and saw the amazing views. We could see the entire Yosemite Valley with the Yosemite falls as well.
After having a bread and jam lunch we decided to head back. Climbing down the cables was the biggest challenge. Its much harder going down. You don't have the choice of not looking down now. I tried the technique of using both hands and placing my feet sideways. That worked for me. I kept my camera inside so that there would be no distractions. It took us about 40 min to get down. When we had done that we let out a sigh of relief . The hard part had been done.

We then started back on the trail making our way back. It felt like a long walk. It had been a long and tiring day and there was still some time left. We had started from the sub dome at around 4PM and reached the Yosemite Valley around 6. After taking a break we started hiking again and reached the Nevada Falls at around 7PM. We decided to take the John Muir trail back instead of the Mist trail as it was less dangerous. It would avoid us going through the slippery rocks and would be easier on the knees as it was less steep. It was getting very difficult now. Our feet, ankles, knees , calves and many other muscles were hurting. It was starting to play on the mind too. We just wanted to get this over with.
Finally 2 of us made it to the parking lot at 830PM. It had been a long 13:45 min hiking day. We were really tired but were very happy that we had accomplished something special.

Most food places had closed. We had stuff like chips and bananas and decided to suck it up and drive back to San Jose. We reached at 2AM. Since it had been a long tiring day with no proper breakfast, lunch or dinner I decided to treat myself at Denny's. One of the best meals I ever had. :)
NPS video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l_D5zouojSY

Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100392907586903.2725563.6239868

Camping at Channel Islands National Park

I had been camping over the weekend to Channel Islands. Channel Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Santa Barbara and are a popular National Park . They are a protected reserve and there are no commercial establishments on them. We had camped on Santa Cruz island which is the largest one among them.
It took us an hour long catamaran ride to get to Santa Cruz island. We had booked a campground there.
Day 1:
We took a short 3 mile hike to potato harbor. It offers some stunning views of the island shore. The Pacific was looking very blue and beautiful indeed. We got back late in the evening and had the dehydrated food packs. You pour boiling hot water in the pack and have the food after 15 min. The first day this was good but I knew I was going to be sick of it 2 days later. We retired pretty early as we had a long day tomorrow. We also watched the documentary about restoration of some of the species on the islands. That was very informative. Grazing and livestock had endangered some of the plant and animal species like the island fox and bald eagles. The NPS had worked hard to restore them back to the island. No wonder the islands are called Galapagos of North America.

Day 2
We went on a kayaking trip through the sea caves on Santa Cruz island. I was on a 2 person kayak with my friend. We didn't do that splendid a job and fell of the kayak about 3 times. This messed up the kayaking company's average of utmost 2 kayaks turning over in a trip. We went inside many caves and it got very exciting at times. In one particular case the cave entrance closes when a tide comes in. You have to get out when the wave has subsided and before the next one comes in. That was pretty exciting. We went on either sides of the harbor through many caves. Before going to the final cave , we had to brave the surf. Most of our trip so far had been in the calm water of the shore. The last part made us go against the waves in the main sea current. This was not easy and we had to row much faster to go against the tide. We did manage to do it and the cave at the end of it was worth the effort.
In the afternoon we went for a short 1 mile hike as we were really tired from the workout during the day. Dinner was again the same , dehydrated food, was tired of it by now :)

Day 3:
We took a longer 5 miles round trip hike to Scorpion beach. It was a nice hike to the other side of the island.We could get a great view of Anacapa island from there. We saw some breathtaking views on the hike and also from the destination.
After getting back we had lunch and headed back to the Scorpion Cove to head back to mainland and civilization. It had been a fun weekend

Some pictures below.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kulkarniajitv/ChannelIslandCamping

Snow Shoeing in Yosemite

I and 4 of my friends had the lucky fortune of visiting the Yosemite National Park and doing snow shoeing there . This was my first experience with the sport. Its like skiing but instead of a ski you have a snow shoe below your feet which makes walking on snow easier. The apparatus basically distributes your weight over a larger area and avoids your feet from sinking into the snow.

Our day started pretty early. I picked up my friend at 6AM and we all met at the Danville BART station at around 715AM. From there we carpooled to Yosemite in my friends' awesome Land Rover. Its a 3-3.5 hour drive. As we neared the park entrance the road got steeper and narrower. A lot of snow had fallen the night before so there were a lot of precautions to be taken. We didn't need chains on our tires as we were in an SUV but we saw others doing so. Some sections of Yosemite like the Tioga Pass and the Glacier point were closed in this season.

We continued driving at the speed of 25 mph. We passed some popular vista points on our way. These are popular tourist attractions and always have many people taking pictures. One of these is the view where you see the waterfall amongst cliffs on both sides. The second one is the one with the El Capitan on the Left and he Half Dome in the center.

We did the normal touristy stuff taking pictures here but then we left for the snow shoe trail which was the highlight of our trip.

The Trail:

We parked our car at the trailhead and started. It was about a 4 mile trail. We put on our gear. Wearing a snowshoe is like wearing giant sandals. They are made of metal and give you a great grip in the snow. You also need hiking/ skiing poles which give you a hold when you move forward. The start of the hike was pretty steep but later it turned into a leisurely walk. We were chatting, playing with the snow, throwing snow on each other and enjoying ourselves. We would pass conifers and would try to shake off the snow that had accumulated on their branches. We would pass cross country skiers as well. It was turning out to be a fun experience. We kept walking through the snow for about one and a half hours.

The Snow Fight and lunch

Everyone was starting to feel hungry by now so we decided to take a break. We started hiking downwards towards the frozen river bed. The snow here was much softer and powdery. We were worried that we didn't want to fall into the river itself. We unloaded our backpacks. Then began the snow fight. No one was spared. Everyone was targeted individually and pelted with a lot of snow. We took a video of the same. The snow feels really cold when it gets into your jacket. When I see the pictures now , I see how happy everyone was. The smile on everyone's face is very genuine indeed.

We found a clearing of snow near the river bed and sat down for lunch. There was no insulation available to sit on so it was going to be a chilling experience. Our friends were kind enough to pack lunch boxes for us. They had prepared individual boxes with Indian Chhole (like Garbanzo beans) and rotis. This is one of the most interesting lunches I have ever had. We were sitting in the middle of nowhere on white snow and having lunch. The sky was clearing and and being overcast in alternation. It even snowed at a point. The food seemed even more delicious. We joked around after finishing lunch about how numb our backside was becoming.

The Hike part 2

We continued our hike after lunch. We now decided to get off the beaten road. So we tried things like walking on fresh snow parallel to the trail. This meant going up and down slopes. This was definitely more interesting than following the trail. Our expert guide who has done this many times suggested to create your own trail by walking on the snow and not follow an existing rail. This would be more fun as your feet would sink in the snow. I somehow got philosophical at that point thinking isn't that true in other aspects of life as well. If you create your own path and not follow others you would have more fun. You would sink initially, won't be on solid ground but would eventually rise up. I didn't share it with my friends though. Now I think I should have. :)

We decided to head back after talking to some cross country skiers who said that the trail ended about a mile later. It was more of the same terrain so we headed back. We now decided to go near the river bed and walk along side it. This was more adventurous being in the powdery snow. We took a different course going uphill and downhill alternately and walking through the snow. We had a second round of the snowball fight and this was much more fun. We even nearly buried one of the guys into the snow completely. He must have been freezing then. That was one of the memorable events among many that day. We then climbed uphill and took a break to catch the view. Since we were much higher up we could see the treetops. We even built a small snowman. It was a great job considering we made her (sorry it was a snow woman :)) in under 15 min.

We hiked back and reached the trailhead around 430PM. Everyone was tired now so we started driving back.

Bridal Veil Falls

On our way back we decided to stop at the popular Bridal Veil falls. This is one of the most popular attractions at Yosemite. It was starting to get cold now. There is a small walk to the falls and as we got nearer it kept getting colder. If you come here in the summer there is a big spray of water that greets you. Today it was different. There was snow everywhere and we were greeted by a shower of big snowflakes. It was unlike anything I had experienced before. There was a continuous shower of snowflakes on our faces. The waterfall itself was pretty high . There was a lot of snow settled on the vegetation near the water fall. My camera was also getting a shower. It was a pretty incredible experience which we all savored.

Curry Village

It lies in the heart of Yosemite valley. We took a break there, bought some food and juices at a grocery store and just walked around. We got some great views of the mountains all around us , the waterfalls and also the Half Dome.It was around 530PM now and people were getting ready to leave.

Tulomne Grove of Giant Sequoias

This is my highlight of the trip. I have had great experiences the whole day, the lunch, the snow shoeing, the snow fights but this took the cake.

I was expecting us to leave for home as it was dusk and everyone looked pretty tired. My friend suggested that we take a short trail called the Tulomne grove trail which takes you to Sequoia trees. I was a bit apprehensive as it would be getting dark soon but decided to try it.

It was a 2.5 mile trail which meant it would definitely be dark when we got back. We started our descent. We were a bit tired of the snowshoes by now so decided to just go in our hiking boots. We were chatting and descending down the trail . By the time we reached the first Sequoia tree we had gone down a fair bit and there was very little sunlight. I was just blown away by the size of the tree. I don't have a measure or analogy of the height, lets just say it was very tall, and very wide too. When three of us stood end to end hands outstretched, the chain formed by us approximated the breadth of the tree. That was a moment of awe for me looking at the size.

I was thinking the hike was done and we would be heading back. Was I wrong again :). We decided to continue to the second Sequoia tree which was affectionately called the Tunnel tree. It was this big dead tree which was so big that a tunnel had been cut into it so that people could walk through. This one was much bigger than the previous one.

We continued on our trail. We were passing by big Sequoia trees on both sides now. It had started with a baby and now we were nearing the Mommy and Daddy Sequoias. We passed an enormous fallen Sequoia tree. It was nearly 100 metres long. I maybe wrong on the number but that is my closest approximation.

We walked along its length and reached its base. We could see its roots. There was a small tunnel in there which I was tempted to enter but it was really late now. The base was pretty wide, it was equivalent to atleast 2 people standing end to end hands outstretched.

The Adventure

This was the most fun part of the day for all of us. It was night time by now. The only light we had was that of the moon which was surprisingly a lot. We decided to head back. We did have flashlights but we didnt use them. We didn't have a map. We were supposed to follow a loop which got us to the first Sequoia tree and after that it was the standard trail. We kept on going. At some points we felt we had taken a wrong turn. We corrected ourselves and moved along. This being dark made things more difficult and interesting. After walking for what seemed like eternity we reached the first Sequoia tree. I let out a sigh of relief. We then started hiking back up the trail. There was only the moonlight guiding us.

Most of the signs and directions had been buried by the snow. Someone thought it would be a good idea to share ghost stories. This was getting much more fun. We exchanged a few stories. The idea was to keep talking and stay together so that we don't spook ourselves. It was about 815 PM now. We kept on going. The trail seemed to take eternity. I was worried about wild animals. We had seen a coyote at very close range in the afternoon. That was however from the comfort of our SUV. We didn't want to see anything now. Also this was bear country. But then this is winter so those bears are supposed to be hibernating. I don't think I will be that tasty anyway. I felt like my hero Bear Grylls from the Discovery Channel show 'Man vs Wild'

After about an hour we reached a fork. We could see lights on our left so we decided to take it. We reached come wooden cottages. I let out a sigh of relief as we had reached civilization. But we hadn't seen them on our way down. One of my friends suggested that we should have taken the right at the fork. So what do we do now? This seemed like private property. We suggested the lady in our group to knock on the door. She did and it was greeted by a 'Come in'. She knocked again. This time many kids shouted the same. This relaxed me. There seemed to be a family inside. We opened the door and told the group inside that we were lost. They were a similar group from the bay area visiting Yosemite. A man named Jose told us that we took the wrong turn and the fork and suggested us to just find their parking lot and then walk along the road to the trail head. Joe was a real nice guy. He even walked out ,pointed us to the right way and followed us to make sure we were on the right track. I don't do this often but I actually prayed for Joe then.

We reached our trail head where we saw our car waiting for us. The adventure had come to a successful end. The forest ranger greeted us and suggested to be slow as there was some black ice on the road. We packed up and drove back. This had been one of those most amazing days.

Pictures and videos here

https://picasaweb.google.com/kulkarniajitv/YosemiteSnowShoeing#

Shantanu Narayan- Adobe CEO at Asia Business Conference 2011 in Berkeley

I and my friend attended the Asia Business Conference in Berkeley today. This was a pretty historic day as the Indian cricket team had won the World Cup. We had stayed up all night and watched the event. We were really tired but decided to go to the conference as Mr. Shantanu Narayen the CEO of Adobe was speaking.

The Dean of the Haas School of Business interviewed Mr. Narayen . Here are some of Mr.Narayen's thoughts. Unfortunately I don't remember all the questions which generated these responses.

Mr. Narayen feels that mobility, the cloud and social are the 3 important areas in technology today. This is where Adobe is focusing its attention as well. Publishing in the US is declining but its increasing in other places are India. The phone and tablet market is very ripe in India. These devices can be subsidized by advertising. The desire to learn and consume there is very high. Many generations of technology like the desktop and the laptop are being leapfrogged .

There is dramatic acceleration of innovation.

Where should a company do its R&D?

It should be near the customer. It should also be geographically dispersed. There are a lot of patents filed outside the US nowadays. Many hi tech companies are not just doing maintenance of existing software but developing new products outside as well in places like India.

P&L and Marketing is also done in India now. This geographical dispersion becomes a challenge in times of a recession for big companies like Adobe.

He has also observed that China has more PhDs while India has more application developers. Developing the middle management is a challenge for his organization.

What are business risks for working in Asia or a particular country in Asia ?

How to protect IP? Compliance issues. What is acceptable ethically ? How to take a global product and tailor it for a local market. How do you look at the explosion in the mobile market and make use of it ?

Is mobile market a qualitative (disruptive) or a quantitative (acceleration) case?

Because of the browser and apps , tablets are becoming popular. There is far more experimentation possible with localized products.

Where will the innovation come from ?

The innovation needed now is business model innovation. e.g: Software now is a perpetual license. Once you buy it, its yours. The next would be a worldwide subscription. (e.g. monthly access with lower subscription cost)

Since media will move to the internet there will be a need for demographic based advertising.

another example for innovation is the following

In India there are less credit card based transactions. How do you deal with that.

Cellphone plans are very cheap in India. Incoming calls are free. There are Dual SIM phones which is another innovation.

Managers should celebrate failure so that people take risks. But they should not fail on the same thing repeatedly.

Has the US / Silicon valley lost its edge ? How does it get it back?

It hasn't lost its edge. Access to capital is easy in the US. Innovation will continue to happen but it won't be the exclusive source. It is still the largest market in the world.

Global branding is a challenge for Adobe. They are known by its products like Acrobat , Photoshop and Flash but not as Adobe.

Flash on Apple devices:

Its on the debate of a closed vs open ecosystem. Google and RIMM have allowed Flash on Android and RIMM Playbook respectively.

What will leaders in Asia need ? What qualities should they have ?

This is the business of innovation. They should have a vision of where to go, be able to get a team in place, take initiative , take ownership of both the issues and outcomes.

Advice for founders:

Constantly reinvent yourself and allow others to do the same. Hire people smarter than you. Ask questions like how would you like to impact the company and take direct feedback.

Mr. Narayan's words were pretty inspiring. He is a smart guy,No wonder Adobe is doing well. :)

Attending TEDxBerkeley 2011

I had the great opportunity of attending TEDxBerkeley this last Saturday at UC Berkeley. I had attended it last year and was hence looking forward to attending it a second time. I always find myself opening up to a whole new world when I visit this conference. There are some really smart people who are trying to make a change in this world. Their stories are very inspiring and this year was no different. I had written a summary of the event last year on this same blog mainly as a personal reference and it was pretty well received. Hence I would like to repeat that this year as well. I hope it is helpful to anyone who wants to get a gist of what the conference was about.

The TEDxBerkeley website is http://tedxberkeley.org/

The theme this year was 'Engaging the World.' The talks were grouped into 3 sessions reach of which focussed on a 'Dream' , 'Pioneer' and 'Connect' required to engage the world. Before we get started I would like to add that my favorite talk was the one given by Erin Ganju about her 'Room to Read' organization. I was very much inspired and motivated by her and the work she has done. It represented the success story of an organization which flourished and grew to scale. Two other talks I liked were by Robert Fuller about human beings having respecting Dignity one by Gopi Kallayil about finding your inner mindfulness.

I jotted down some notes while listening to the talks and have tried to best to present this in a way that makes sense. I would also frankly say that there were some talks which my limited IQ couldn't grasp completely so they aren't described in detail here.

So please excuse me and let me know if there is something in these summaries which is incorrect, I shall do my best to correct it.

The first talk was by Jason Atwood about the Ethiopia ConnectED an eduction initiative where low powered computer systems are setup in schools in Africa. Many kids started using these computers and took an instant liking to them. These computers use EduBuntu, an education oriented operating system. He showed some heart rending videos of kids having their first experience with a computer and the joy on their faces when they started using it and learning from it. He mentioned that his organization had kept a condition that there would ne no adults in the room and no supervision by teachers when the kids initially started using the computers. I thought this was unconventional but it worked so that the kids had their first experience as an unbiased one. Mr. Atwood spoke of a very simple equation in the end which was pretty inspiring.

Privilege + Opportunity = Responsibility.

We all have an obligation. We don't have to change but just engage the world. He ended his talk with a simple thought, what would you do with the knowledge of today to change the world of tomorrow ?

David Rose spoke next suggesting that the future of computing is enchantment. We would be adding 'enchantment' to many objects around us. He spoke of 5 different areas and gave examples. This reminded me of a class called 'Embodied Interaction' that I had taken in Grad school 3 years ago. These were the areas that Rose thought of

1> Omniscience- Desire to know everything. Technology would be used so that humans can be helped with preattentive processing.

2> Communication: Use devices to spread information around us.

3> Protection: We can augument devices to protect us as well. A funny example is to add hidden cameras to toys to spy on babysitters.

4> Healthcare: This is what Mr. Rose's company works on. Technology that ensures that you take your meds. He showed results of the Glowcaps product of his company which looks at medication adherence. There was a funny example here as well of a pepper projector which takes pictures of food on the table , mines this data and projects onto the food the calorific value of every dish.

5. Transportation. An example given was of a bus pole which a mile away from the actual bus stop and tells you how long for the actual bus to arrive which tells you if you have to rush to get it or you can walk leisurely and maybe even get a coffee.

6> Expression:

Examples of using embedded robots which use added information about objects which will lead to and having a better interface, glancability and more success for business.

The next talk shown was the following video. It speaks of a very simple but powerful idea. http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html

It talks about the importance of teh first follower of any movement who gives the leader his credibility.

Robert Fuller: He talked about rankism and how it can get difficult to live with Dignity in this world. Predators are those who pick on the weak. The school is one place where we see this. Students armor themselves so that they aren't teased. He quoted a poem 'Nobody' by Emily Dickinson http://www.beyondbooks.com/lit71/1f.asp. where he talks about being an outsider.

Mr. Fuller than talked about the Dignity Movement. It is where you accept my place and I accept yours. It is against humiliation and rankism which is a degrading assertion of power. He mentioned that rankism is seen within the same groups as well. e.g. between women or people of a particular race. He mentioned that it takes 6 generations for an 'ism' like sexism, racism to go giving an example of his own family.

These ism's have been prevalent as excluding people makes it easy for you to progresss. But that should change now. Rankism is a residue of predation. In the end he ended suggesting the audience to protect other's degree as you would defend yours. This was one of my favorite talks of the conference.

Mart Spiegelman

She spoke about human and global consciousness. She spoke of her trips around the world meeting many indigenous populations and seeing how aware they are of their consciousness. She suggested that intelligence is just streaming all around us trying to get our attention. We need to just tap into it. She spoke of some of the ideas she had learnt

Pacha State of being there

Ayni- Reciprocity

Munay- accept unconditionally

Aylla- return to collective

She also spoke of relational awareness. We need to feel and not think. For this we should go to nature and the wilderness where this will be expedited.

The afternoon session started with the following talks

David Silverman

He was an animator on the Simpsons. He spoke at length about the Tuba instrument, its history and evolution. He also spoke a little about the history of the Simpsons and how Lisa came to play the saxophone. It had apparentlt happened as he had brought his idea and passion of playing the Tuba to the meeting for Simpsons show. He suggested to always bring your idea out to the fore, you never know when it maybe used. He was one of the most funny speakers that day.

Erin Ganju

As I mentioned this was my favorite talk. Ms. Ganju opened with a line from the Dr. Seuss classic and talked about her 'Room To Read' project aimed a creating libraries all around the world's schools. She opened with the statistic that 759 million people all over the world cannot read or write. She mentioned 5 points to follow if you want to make your dream of making a difference a success.

1. Find an idea that changes the world.

For her the key to develop solutions is an educated population. She mentioned a Nelson Mandela quote'Education is the most powerful weapon you cn use to change the world'

2. Turn that idea into reality.

3.Learn from setbacks and take risks

She spoke of how having a beginner's mind helped her and she had a fresh unbiased approach. This included taking risks such as walking into the office of the education minister of an African country without an appointment. Today they have over eleven thousand libraries.

4. take it to scale

5. remain open to refine the vision

Walter Hood then talked about the Green Print project. A hill was created many years ago in the city of Pittsburgh. This hill was created after dirt and mud was dumped there many years ago when digging for coal. As part of the project 'hills' and 'woods' we created on the hill. To counter the public opinion that the hill should be removed, Mr. Wood had to explain the people that green is not scary. You can now walk through the woods about a mile from downtown Pittsburgh and enter the 'village'. The project has 3 areas namely the 'woods', the 'village' and the conveyance system.

In addition there is a 'Curtain Call' which has pictures of people who have lived or have had experiences with the hill.

Lopa Brunjes spoke about Biochar which is product created when charcoal is added to soil. She started her talk with a great quote frm Khalil Gibran 'Work is love made visible'. According to Ms. Brunjes, climate change is an interconnectivity issue and the solution lies within the problem. Carbon dioxide is adding carbon to the atmosphere so the solution is taking it back from the atmosphere and adding it to the soil. That is what biochar does.

Biomass + heat + oxygen produces biochar with a process called pyrolysis.Biomass is bio waste left over after making processed food. e.g. shells of nuts or wood chips. Adding charcoal to the soil makes it fertile. Biochar is used like compost. It seen that food and vegetables created with soil having biochar is much bigger and better. She gave a nice thought saying that the earth with 6 inches of topsoil and rains is the only reason why humans exist.

It takes 1000 years to build 1-4 inches of topsoil and 30-40 years of agriculture to destroy it.

The reasons biochar does such a great job is that its very porous and microbes stay there. It absorbs water and nutrients like a sponge.

But why should we care about biochar

Currently the cycle is as follows

Oxygen is given by plants -> air while carbon dioxide is given by air -> plants

By adding biochar to this process

Plants -> pyrolysis -> energy -> CO2 -> plants

1 ton of biochar can take out 3 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Hence both can help climate change. Biochar can help with issues like energy, food security, soil fertility or erosion and desertification. She ended her talk with another memorable quote ,'if you don't change courses, you will end up where you are headed.'

Bryan Alvarez talks about a project where he wants to build something similar to Google Earth for the human body. In an orchestra you are part of a whole. Our body is also similar to a symphony where we are only 10% of it, 90% is occupied by other species and we have to work in concert with them. He then talked about the human atlas project. Its about creating a 3D immersive environment where you can look at organs like atoms. You would be able to look at different species living in your body. You would be able to imagine healing and also adaptation and plasticity. He mentioned that Google and XVivo are working together on a project like this using animation. He also ended with a nice quote, 'If you as a body can work together with thousands of species, why can't humans work together being just one species'

Gopi Kallayil talked about connecting the internet and the inner- net. We are a very connected society. Technology has leveled the field for everyone. The brain is equally available for everyone. For peak performance it needs some quiet time. These are the ways to do it.

1. Focus of essential

2. Do one thing at a time

3. A minute of mindfulness (do something for 1 minute every day )

4. Appointments for mindfulness (these should not be deleted or skipped)

5. Friend yourself

He ended his talk encouraging the crowd by asking what would they commit to today?

Anat Baniel talked about brain plasticity where the brain cannot change his behavior. So can we change its behavior ? Can the brain be reprogrammed? She had a very unconventional idea where she asked the audience to perform some exercises. She summarized her suggestions for programming the brain using physical exercises as follows

- Movement with attention

- Slow down

- Use less force

- variation

- have flexible goals

our muscles are built to contract and not stretch.

Eric Barlow , a video was shown http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Feric_berlow_how_complexity_leads_to_simplicity.html&ei=Gi5qTZm0LI28sAO95cWmBA&usg=AFQjCNFQkhPRV2XOJQmS8AbqnR4u73sjfA&sig2=XXDIxLvdkZdn6vwq6pztJw

Chip Conley talked about creating joy at his company. He talked about some psychological principles like the 'Hierarchy of Needs' pyramid. There are 100 suicides per day in the US which

is more than homicides. He talked about some very good equations which he calls as emotional equations.

Despair = suffering - meaning

here suffering is constant but meaning is variable

Happiness = wanting what you have / having what you want

= gratitude / gratification

= practice / pursuit

workaholism = what you are running from / what you are living for

calling = pleasure / pain

anxiety = uncertainty * powerlessness

uncertainity -> what you dont know

powerlessness -> what you can't control

curiosity = wonder + awe

wonder -> present in childhood, awe ->what you have in old age

Daniel Goleman

He talked about emotional intelligence. 2/3 rd of business leadership is emotional intelligence. In his company when performance evaluations are done by evaluating results vs relationships. He used a nice play on words to say you don't have to be superhuman but a super human.

Shore Slocum spoke about evolution of consciousness. Most of us go through life asleep. Awareness preceeds change. The Buddha had consciousness and is 'awake'. If you don't wake up life will be 'reactive' and not 'proactive'.

The evolution of consciousness has 4 stages

1> TO ME : Life is happening to me

2> BY ME: You can do something and get a different result

3> THROUGH ME: Something is moving through you. Things happen to you hence less effort is required as compared to the BY ME stage.

4> AS ME: We are all connected

To go from TO ME to BY ME stage you have to give you blame and take responsibility.

BY ME to THROUGH ME: Give up control

THROUGH ME to AS ME: Give up a sense of seperation.

He ended with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi 'You must be the change you wish to see in the world' which he modified as 'You must BECOME the change you wish to see in this world' saying its an ongoing and continuous process.

Overall I had a great experience at the conference and was pretty inspired by some of the talks.

Hike to Angel Island, San Francisco

I went with my friends to the beautiful Angel Island in the San Francisco bay. Its a 20 min ferry ride away from Pier 39 and is a great place to spend the day. It has a 5 mile hiking loop which goes around the island and gives you some great views of the bay. The interesting thing is that you get views from all 4 sides so you can see the SF skyline, the Bya Bridge, Oakland and also the Richmod San Rafael bridge. The hike is not that strenuous either.

On a clear day you get some great views of the San Francisco skyline. There is a small visitor's center which explains the history of the island. It is a place where migrants had to check in when they arrived in the US, very much like Ellis Island in New York. The history is also pretty fascinating.

Backpacking Trip to Havasupai - Day 3

We woke up really early around 430AM. We had a small breakfast and packed our stuff. Packing the tent and the sleeping bag was a pain as it had to be compressed and fit into a small bag. We finally started at around 6AM. It took us an hour to go the first 2 mile and get to the village. This is because it there were portions of the trail which were steep.

A welcome surprise greeted us at the village. There were helicopter services available. For $20 they would transport your backpack to the hilltop. Most people were on board and gave their backpacks (which weigh around 30 lbs) or transferred their heavy luggage into their friends' backpacks. Though I was pretty idealistic initially I gave in later. The day was going to get just too hot.

After this the hiking was comparatively easier. I was hiking back with my roommate. We decided to avoid a break as much as possible and try to maintain a good pace. I think we did pretty well. It took us 2 hrs and 15 min to cover the almost 5 miles to the base of the canyon from where final ascent began. We were walking in the shade for most of the first hour. Later when the sun rise higher into the sky things started getting difficult. We tried to drink as much water as we could.

The Final Ascent

There were 3 of us hiking together for the last stretch. It was a very steep climb. We tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. The sun was up and it was making it very difficult. However we successfully completed it in about an hour. As we reached the top we took pictures of ourselves. The exhaustion on the faces was pretty noticeable.

After everyone was back at the hilltop we drove back to Vegas. Now time for committing some sins in the sin city. :) However everyone was really tired so there weren't many sins committed. :)

Conclusion

Its an amazing place and everyone should go there given a chance. The waterfalls more than make up for the hike. There are other options like mules and helicopters as well. However it tastes more sweet if you do the whole hike.

For myself and few of my friends this was a challenge. We have been very impressed by our new found hero, Bear Grylls from Man vs Wild on Discovery Channel. Ok we didn't do anything as crazy as him but we just wanted to see how that life would be like. Camping and backpacking are activities which bring you very close to nature. You learn to live without the pleasures and comforts of life. Just like how primal man used to live. That is why its a challenge for us who are very used to an easy city life. You learn how important a resource like water is which you take for granted. You appreciate the importance of carrying lightweight materials so that your backpack is lighter.

Ok, that's enough, now time to enjoy my soft bed :) and my TV show