London 2012

"K2T Wisata"

The Paralympic and Olympic Games of 2012 will be held in London. There’s still some time left, but England is already working hard on getting ready to receive all the tourism in London that will arrive to see all different disciplines and sports in London.

There is a lot to be done to make sure things will go smoothly. Even when the British have a reputation for their good planning, the Coordination Commission of the International Olympic Committee visited the city during three days this week to see how preparations are going.

Reviews of the plans for the 2012 Olympic Games in London will take place twice. The topics covered are very varied, including: security, commercial, integrated operational planning, communications and engagement, culture, transport and volunteers. “We are convinced that this will continue to lead to successful Games in 2012,” said Dennis Oswald, chair of the International Olympic Committee inspectors that took the trip to London.

The visit included a trip to the new timber cycling track in the Velodrome, which is thought to be the fastest cycling track in the world, with an all-around seating design for a better atmosphere.

Post 2012: encouraging the practice of sports in London

When you think of a destination for sports tourism, London is not the first place that comes to your mind. As in all big cities, you can practice a great variety of sports in London, but it is not a city that is traditionally well known because of sports.

Nevertheless, all this may be about to change. The city is now trying to get the most out of its role as the host of the next Olympic Games of London 2012, which will make London the main focus of the whole world.

This is why those in charge of the organization of the Olympic Games in London announced this week that they will invest 135 million pounds to get more people to practice sport after the Olympic Games in London 2012 are finished.

Under the “Places people play” slogan, the new campaign will use the money obtained as lottery profit to improve regional sport facilities, as well as to train some 40,000 youth sport leaders. This way, they are planning to encourage some two million British to be more active and practice more sports in London and in other areas of England.

A trip to London is always fun, but it can be even more if you get the chance to practice sports as well!

12 top performers

"K2T Wisata"

With Week 12 of the college football season officially in the books, here is a look at some of the top stars from this week’s games.

Mikel Leshoure ran for a school-record 330 yards and two touchdowns in Illinois' 48-27 win over Northwestern. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Bryant Moniz, QB, Hawaii
Buzz: The junior set a school-record throwing for 560 yards and three touchdowns in a little over three quarters passing Colt Brennan’s record of 559 yards while leading the Warriors to a 41-7 victory over San Jose State.

Ryan Lindley, QB, San Diego State
Buzz: The California native has a career day, completing 67 percent of his 58 pass attempts for 528 yards and four touchdowns in the Aztecs’ 38-34 loss to Utah.

David Piland, QB, Houston
Buzz: Piland, a true freshman, threw for a career-high 467 yards and four touchdowns in a mostly catch-up role as the Cougars couldn’t overcome Southern Miss, 59-41.

Zach Collaros, QB, Cincinnati
Buzz: The Bearcats signal-caller threw for 366 yards and four touchdowns to help Cincy snap a two-game losing streak by beating Rutgers, 69-38.

Mikel Leshoure, RB, Illinois
Buzz: A record-setting day for the junior who carried the ball 33 times for 330 yards, shattering a school record held by Robert Holcombe’s 315 yards in 1996. It was also the most rushing yards this season surpassing Nebraska’s Roy Helu Jr. who gained 307 yards against Missouri.

Bobby Rainey, RB, Western Kentucky
Buzz: Another record-setting day for Rainey, who’s 48 carries Saturday set the school’s record for carries in a single season with 313 and the 248 yards helped him move up to third on the program’s all-time rushing list with 1,492 yards.

Isaiah Pead, RB Cincinnati
Buzz: The Columbus, Ohio native had a season-high in carries (31) and yards (213) in the Bearcats’ 69-38 win over Rutgers.

Montee Ball, RB, Wisconsin
Buzz: Filling in for the injured John Clay for the second straight week, Ball carried the ball 29 times for 173 yards and four touchdowns in the Badgers’ 48-28 win over Michigan. In the past two starts, the sophomore has amassed 340 yards and seven touchdowns.

Mark Harrison, WR, Rutgers
Buzz: The Scarlet Knights’ receiver had 10 catches for 240 yards and a school-record four touchdowns in Rutgers’ 69-38 loss to Cincinnati Saturday.

Vincent Brown, WR, San Diego State
Buzz: The senior had eight catches for 184 yards and three touchdowns including a 90-yard strike in the second half of the Aztec’s 38-34 loss to Utah. He surpassed 1,000 yards receiving for the season in the game.

Big 12 Conference set

"K2T Wisata"

What was once a clear path to the Big 12 Championship, became muddled as five teams still are in the running for division titles.

Oklahoma State's Kendall Hunter (24), Josh Cooper (25) and Justin Blackmon (81) celerate Cooper's second-quarter touchdown on a 21-yard pass against Kansas at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas, on Saturday. Oklahoma State defeated Kansas, 48-14. (Shane Keyser/ Kansas City Star/MCT)

Nebraska’s disappointing 9-6 loss to Texas A&M Saturday and Oklahoma’s 53-24 win over Baylor set into motion an exciting finish to the season. With a big college football week ahead, here are what the five teams left in contention need to do to have a shot at winning either divisions in the Big 12 courtesy of the conference offices:

Missouri: Needs to beat Kansas and for Colorado to beat Nebraska. That would make the Tigers North Division champions.

Nebraska: Can clinch the North Division with a victory over Colorado or a Missouri loss to Kansas.

Oklahoma: The Sooners need to beat Oklahoma State Saturday in Stillwater. If Texas beats Texas A&M Thursday, an OU victory over Oklahoma State would give the Sooners the South Division title

Oklahoma State: Can clinch the South Division title with a victory over Oklahoma. A loss to the Sooners plus a loss by Texas A&M would put Oklahoma and Oklahoma State into a first-place tie but Oklahoma would have the head-to-head tiebreaker edge.

The Cowboys would fall into a three-way tie for first with a loss to the Sooners and a Texas A&M victory over Texas.

Texas A&M: Would finish 6-2 with a victory at Texas Thursday. If Oklahoma beats Oklahoma State, that would create a three-way tie in the South Division.

And in case of a three-way tie, the fine people over at the Big 12 Conference have provided an easy, seven-step tie-breaker format. Enjoy.

If three or more teams are tied, steps 1 through 7 will be followed until a determination is made. If only two teams remain tied after any step, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative.
1. The records of the three teams will be compared against each other
2. The records of the three teams will be compared within their division
3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5 and 6)
4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents.
5. The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series poll following the completion of Big 12 regular season conference play shall be the representative in the Big 12 Championship Game, unless two of the tied teams are ranked within one spot of the other in the BCS poll. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the Big 12 Championship Game.
6. The team with the best overall winning percentage (excluding exempted games) shall be the representative.
7. The representative will be chosen by draw.

An Epic Journey To Mecca- By Bike

"K2T Wisata"

These two show how cycling thousands of miles to Mecca can be done.

Every year, millions of Muslims from all corners of the world board a flight heading to Saudi Arabia to fulfill their pilgrimage to Mecca.While there are no figures on the carbon footprint of these … [visit site to read more]

Oil Exploration In Iran’s

"K2T Wisata"

Is nothing holy anymore? The Iranian Government rubber stamps oil exploration in the country’s most important national park.

The Iranian government has decided to start an oil exploration project in a national park in Kavir National Park in the Semnan province, south east of Tehran.

The opponents of the project, from  the Iranian Environmental Organization, which is a governmental institution, and also environmental activists, have had debates with the advocates, who are the governmental authorities like the Ministry of Oil heads. … [visit site to read more]

Green Crimes

"K2T Wisata"

No more Mr. Nice Guy! Interpol intends to step up regulation of illegal wildlife trade and other environmental crimes.

What eventually became The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) began with fits and starts in the early 20th century. Then the Nazis and disturbing fellows like Reinhard Heydrick, Chief Executor of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” took control and diluted its vigor as a non-partisan organization devoted to rooting out international crime.

After 1945, Interpol rose up from the ashes and has since become the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations. Such villainy as child pornography, drug and human trafficking, and genocide all fall under their purview. In a sign of just how serious they are, during the recent 79th General Assembly in Qatar, Interpol resolved to place a renewed emphasis on “green crimes.” … [visit site to read more]

Adjusting Homemade Brownies

"K2T Wisata"

This week I received a comment from one of my readers about my homemade brownie mix. She loved the flavor of the brownies, but was having trouble getting the right texture. She lives at a high altitude and thought that might be the prombelm and she asked if I knew of any tips that might help.

Although I have made my homemade brownies many times, in both the regular and gluten free version, I have never lived at a high altitude, so I was clueless on how to help.

So, I asked my friend Carrie who lives in Colorado, and blogs at  Springs Bargains and  Denver Bargains, if she had any tips that might help. She took on the challenge and offered to share her thoughts with my readers.

Thanks Carrie!

When Lynn told me one of her readers was having trouble adjusting her homemade brownie mix recipe for high-altitude, I jumped at the chance to try it out and see what I could tweak to make it work.

Now, I live in Colorado Springs, which is 6,035 feet above sea level.  It really doesn’t feel like high-altitude to me, as we can see the mountains but aren’t really in them, so the thought of having to adjust recipes for the elevation hadn’t occurred to me until our first Easter in Colorado found me assigned to make two cakes, both of which rose beautifully, and then fell in just as dramatic of a fashion.

When Lynn’s reader said the brownie recipe turned out extremely gooey, I knew exactly what she was talking about.  It’s exactly the same problem I had when making brownies from a box, before I started following the high-altitude directions.

For Duncan Hines brownie mixes, the box says to decrease the egg from 2 to 1, add two tablespoons of flour, and switch the amounts of water and oil (1/3 cup oil becomes 1/3 cup water, and 1/4 cup water because 1/4 cup oil).  I personally like to say that brownies are healthier in Colorado because of the decreased egg and oil!

I was thinking of doing something similar to the boxed directions with Lynn’s recipe, but asked people on my Springs Bargains Facebook page what they would do.  A knowledgeable baker recommended following the guidelines found in the High Altitude Baking, which were:

• Decrease sugar by 1 T per cup
• Decrease baking powder by 1/8 tsp per teaspoon
• Add 1 to 2 T liquid, such as water

So, I followed those recommendations, and also intended to try it with two eggs instead of three; but as I started mixing it up I could tell that the batter was too dry without the third egg, so I went ahead and threw it in.

I baked the brownies at 350º as recommended in the original recipe, and preheated the oven for at least 30 minutes beforehand just to make sure an improperly-heated oven wasn’t going to throw off my results.

After the minimum recommended time of 22 minutes, I checked the brownies.  Knowing that the problem I was trying to prevent was gooeyness, I inserted a toothpick into the middle to see how the inside was doing, as the outside looked quite done.  I’m not sure that using a toothpick is the proper way to test brownies, but I didn’t want to mutilate them with a knife – yet.

The middle was nowhere near done, so I put them back in for another 3 minutes.  And another 3 minutes, and another three minutes.  By now, we were about 10 minutes over the recommended baking time, and I was starting to get worried about the edges being hard (I’ve done that a time or two in an effort to prevent gooey brownies)!  By this point, I had given up the idea of a perfect-looking pan of brownies and was testing with a knife.

Finally, after about 12 minutes over the recommended time of 22 minutes, I thought they looked basically done, but popped them back in for another minute or two just to make sure.

After 35 minutes of baking, they were finally deemed done!  After allowing them to cool, I tested them – I know, such a hard job! – and they were a great texture throughout the pan.   And, my worried about the edges being crusty were unfounded: they were nice and chewy, just like a brownie edge should be.

I’d like to try making these again without the sugar, baking powder, and liquid adjustments.  I’m not convinced adjusting those items actually did much – I think the key is just to be prepared to bake them much longer than the sea-level recipe states.

I’ll test them out again sometime without the adjustments and let you know how they turn out!  For now, I would say you can totally use Lynn’s brownie mix recipe – just be prepared to bake them anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes longer than the recipe states!

Carrie Isaac shares savings information for high-altitude bargain hunters living in Colorado at Colorado Spring Springs Bargains and Denver Bargains.  She frequently gets brownie mixes for 50¢ or less using coupons, but might just start making Lynn’s recipe – they were much tastier!

I would love to hear your thoughts on baking at high altitudes? Do you have any other tips to add?