Felix Baumgartner to Jump from a Height of 37 km

Felix Baumgartner from Austria closer to his goal to jump from a height of 37 km (~23 miles). On Thursday, he has successfully completed a test jump with a height of almost 22 km, the balloon was filled with helium. The flight lasted eight minutes from there. 3 minutes and 43 seconds of them have been in freefall. LINK, Via: Youtube


On March 15, 2012, Austria's Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a space capsule from an altitude of approximately 71,580 feet as the Red Bull Stratos project moved forward into the manned flight stage in New Mexico. The 42-year-old rode the space capsule attached to a giant helium balloon above the so-called "Armstrong Line." The goal of the Red Bull Stratos project is to see Baumgartner attempt a record-breaking freefall from 120,000 feet this summer where he'll potentially become the first man to go supersonic without the support of a vehicle.

Four Sacred Mountains (R. Carlos Nakai - Song For The Morning Star)

"In contrast to the Judeo Christian religions which tend to celebrate people and events, and thus can be practiced anywhere, the Navajo religion is founded on relationships to specific places. The Navajo religion is defined by and cannot be separated from its relationship to specific geographical places. These sites are sacred because of special religious events which have occurred in that particular site.

The Navajo people believe that the Creator placed them on land between four sacred mountains: Blanca Peak in Colorado, Mount Taylor in New Mexico, the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona, and Hesperus Peak in Colorado.

According to their own history, the Navajos have always lived between these mountains. The Navajo people have been instructed by the Creator never to leave their sacred homeland.

The story of the creation of the Navajo people and their emergence onto their sacred homeland is recounted in a ceremony known as the Blessingway, which is the foundation of the Navajo way of life. Blessingway focuses on the story of Changing Woman, who is the inner form of the Earth through its seasonal transformations. She is the major deity for the Navajo. LINK: Youtube

More on this at the Link above.

A Tour of the Deepest Cave in the United States

Lechuguilla Cave is part of the Carlsbad Caverns Natural Park in New Mexico and is regarded as one of the most beautiful caves, with some of the most unique geography, in the entire world.

You can't visit.

Because of the delicacy of many of the formations, the cave is only open to scientists and the explorers who are still figuring out what all is down there. Nobody else is allowed in. Or, rather, nobody else but David Attenborough.

This video from the Planet Earth TV series takes you down into Lechuguilla for some amazing sights and fascinating commentary on the chemistry and biology that makes this cave so strange and lovely. Even more impressive, nobody knew it was there until 1986. LINK, Via: Youtube

Nova has a whole page on Lechiguilla, if you want to read more.

Land’s End

“Above Eastern New Mexico. These fields seem to be slowly eroding away into barren wasteland. At 30,000 feet one can more easily see geographic transitions like this. LINK