The International Campaign for Tibet called upon world leaders to encourage China to allow journalists and independent observers into Tibet. “To begin to diffuse the present crisis, China should ensure that an accurate account of casualties, arrests and other conditions. Access by journalists and observers is essential to this process,” said John Ackerly, President of the International Campaign for Tibet.

For many years, one of my companies Avatar Web Promotions have been supporting Friends of Tibet (NZ) with hosting and monthly updates. Tibetans have suffered much since the Chinese invasion in 1950 and 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed. In March this year, Tibetans have been pushed over the brink, if you have empathy for Tibet’s plight, then become a member of Friends of Tibet (NZ) for a small contribution of $20.

New Zealand Trade & Enterprise invited Rocket Lab to participate in a Trade Mission to Canada, and we were on the November 2nd inaugural Air New Zealand direct flight from Auckland to Vancouver. Instead of having to change planes in the US, it was a relatively easy 14 hour overnighter flight. Have dinner, watch a film, catch some zzz’s, watch another film with breakfast… and you’re there.

The trip was superb; we met with a number of related businesses and talked with university space researchers. I was very impressed with the friendliness of the locals and the beautiful landscapes, so I hope to get back there soon. As a result of the new direct flights between New Zealand and Canada, there’ll be a significant increase in visitor numbers from both countries. So far, there are three flights going each way every week, which Air New Zealand hopes to increase in short time.

Check out the The Canada Tourism Council of New Zealand to plan your trip!

Image from Flickr.

Post your comment at YouTube.Check out other talented New Zealand bands on NZS.com.

I believe creating a life plan every two years is the single most powerful thing you can do to achieve your goals; it will help you get clarity on your career, health and relationships. There are heaps of ways to approach a life plan, and if you do some searches on ‘creating a life plan’ you’ll get numerous sites, but for starters, two great exercises are:

1. If you had just three years left on the planet, what would you really want to achieve?
2. Visualise yourself at 80 years old, reflecting on your life. If you follow your current life path, think about the things that are likely to happen to you and then contemplate; Is that the life you would have wanted to live? Do you have any regrets? How could you improve things?

The act of writing something down, and committing to it, will draw you towards that goal. Once you know what you want, then break your goal down into little steps and move towards it.

People often overestimate what they can achieve in a week, but they underestimate what they can achieve in a year. Within 10 years you can achieve just about anything!

He was a dedicated occultist who co-founded America’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It has been reported that “before each rocket test launch, Parsons would invoke the god Pan.” The New Zealand relationship? Sir William Pickering of New Zealand is the most famous Director of JPL.

Wernher von Braun is widely recognised as the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in America, but he held Jack Parsons in high regard… “von Braun remarked that Parsons, and not he, should be regarded as the father of the American space program.”

In 1952, Jack Parsons died in an accidental explosion of fulminate of mercury at his home laboratory, but there is an interesting connection between Pan and Apollo. “Once Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to challenge Apollo, the god of the lyre, to a trial of skill.” Of course, the US went on to name their most influential rocket program Apollo (originally meaning “the destroyer”). In addition, the new Orion (God of Hunting) capsule designed to carry people to the moon will be launched by the new series of rockets Ares (God of War).

Why has America gone for such provocative names for their rockets? Why didn’t they choose some nicer Gods like Eros, Aphrodite or Hestia? Why did they choose Greek Gods as a naming convention in the first place?

All in all, a series of interesting coincidences and I’m sure Jack Parsons will be smiling in his grave. There’s little wonder conspiracy theorists have a lot of fun in America!

If there is any natural order to the universe, the All Blacks will reach their potential on the paddock this year. We won’t be smug about it, we won’t gloat, we’ll just have four years to quietly enjoy the victory, until the 2011 Rugby World Cup is played in New Zealand. Then after the 2011 World Cup, a rightful balance will return to the universe with the New Zealand All Blacks holding three Rugby World Cup titles. Ahhh, nice.

After extensive preliminary analysis, the Awarua site was selected due to its excellent visibility of the Ariane 5′s trajectory. Civil works, road adaptation, concrete platform, power, telecommunications and fence construction started in January, 2007.

It’s superb to see Venture Southland take an active interest in pursuing space science projects. Robin McNeill from Venture Southland sums it up nicely in a Listener article quote:

“Most Kiwi kids feel that space science is something that happens overseas. But it’s happening here in Southland – that’s inspiring!”

Myself, I’m not a vegansexual, though I take my hat off to them for following their values. I’m a vegetarian who goes for a bit of cheese on my pizza, so I’m the more laid back vegosexual variety.

Personally, I think the vegan no-sex-with-meateaters thing is a bit of a rare case. For starters, there are a lot more vegetarians than there are vegans. Second, I know of a lot of vegetarians that would happily get with meateaters for a fling, but when there’s steak and kidney in the fridge, it’s the long term relationships that vegetarians can find difficult to sustain. Vegetarians with a soft spot for a meateater are left with three choices – deal with it, move on… or convert them!

It’s a real shame to see this, because often they’ve spent thousands of dollars creating a site that looks pretty swish. It’s just marketing money down the drain, and in the end gives the Web a bad rap. I can imagine them saying at some point “We’ve spent a lot of time and money developing this site, but we get nothing much out of it, the Web is a waste of time.”

To stop your Web site being invisible, make sure you get it linked from high profile directories and content sites. What’s the point of having a site if people can’t find you?! Also, if you’re a bit more serious about it, then commit to an ongoing Web site promotion program – for most Web sites this is the key to getting a good return on your investment.

One of my heroes is Wellingtonian, Sir William Pickering; he was the Director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1954 to 1976 and established himself as a senior NASA luminary. Pickering was extensively involved in America’s unmanned programme to explore the Solar System and appeared on the cover of TIME magazine twice. In my opinion, he’s right up there with Sir Ed but doesn’t get the same recognition. As an aside, I think New Zealanders generally don’t recognise our heroes enough (unless they play rugby), so it’s superb to see The New Zealand Edge site celebrate inspirational New Zealanders.

Many talented Kiwis have made significant contributions to space research:

• Frank Bateson, OBE, was instrumental in establishing the Mount John Observatory near Lake Tekapo and he founded the Variable Star Section (VSS) of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. The VSS observed variable stars and collated reports on stars from both professional and amateur observers throughout the world.
• Professor John Hearnshaw is a Professor of Astronomy at Canterbury University who is internationally recognised for his research on extrasolar planets.
• Lester Waugh emigrated to Britain in 1974 and then went on to become an engineering manager in charge of designing the ExoMars Rover. For five years he had worked with a team on getting a small British spacecraft on to the surface of Mars. It got there, but unfortunately that was as far as things went, as nobody was able to contact ‘Beagle 2′ once it landed.
• Professor Beatrice Tinsley performed ground-breaking research on how galaxies change and evolve over time and became Professor of Astronomy at Yale University.
• Though not technically a New Zealander, former Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Thomas Davis was a graduate of Otago University and later went on to serve as the Cook Islands’ High Commissioner to New Zealand. During his early career he became a Space Surgeon for NASA and researched the biological effects of humans in space.

Check out this interesting article on New Zealand astronomy which mentions many key New Zealand astronomers.

And what about future New Zealand space heroes? In the past, space has been dominated by a select few government funded agencies, but now we’re starting to see a vibrant private space industry developing internationally. New Zealanders will certainly have a part to play in this.

Whether our forefathers came from Hawaii, Taiwan, England or wherever – they were explorers. New Zealand is geographically located on the fringe, the edge of civilization; those early explorers and immigrants couldn’t go any further. With our psyche and spirit of endeavor, I believe this century will see New Zealanders play a significant role in the physical exploration of space. Exploration is genetically ingrained in our population and space is the next frontier.