April 7– Day 97

24,276.6 Miles

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REPORT FROM THE WALK:

Right now we’re in a little town in the Punjab of India named Mansa.

I guess it was Tuesday night, we were up in the Hindu Kush mountains – really rough terrain and it was cold and wet and getting dark. Our guides kept pushing us on and kept having these conferences where they would emphatically point at the mountains in nearly every direction. We all thought they were hopelessly lost.

We started climbing up this really steep rock face and suddenly there was an opening into a cave. No way you could have seen this without being right in front of it.

Inside, the cave was huge. There must have been other entrances because there was some pretty big furniture inside. They had lots of lighting as well. It was so bright it was like daylight inside. It turns out this is the secret home of Nawab Mohammed Akbar Khan Bugti.

The Nawab told us his amazing story after dinner. He grew up as a young wizard in eastern Europe a long, long time ago – before it was even called Europe. His main claim to fame was the invention of the game of chess. Most people think chess was invented in India around the sixth century. He laughed and laughed. He said he came up with the idea when he was a youth in eastern Europe and carried the idea with him to China where he lived for nearly a thousand years. He taught the game to the children of the ruling families and it caught on. When he moved to India, he introduced the game to Narasimhagupta Baladitya, the last of the Gupta rulers. Narasimhagupta was so taken by the game and considered it such a great contribution to Indian culture that he offered the Nawab a gift of anything he wanted. Nawab asked for a simple contribution of food. One grain of wheat for the first square on the chess board, two grains on the second square, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth and so on. The ruler quickly agreed. To his credit, Narasimhagupta Baladitya tried to fulfill his pledge, but didn’t get far beyond the middle of the chess board. It did make Nawab extremely rich and drained the resources of the Gupta empire. It turns out that the grain required to meet this pledge would fill a warehouse twenty five miles long and twenty five miles wide and a thousand feet high!

The Nawab said, “Hey, There’s some folks here I think you would like to meet.” He took us through some long tunnels and we started to hear some voices and it was so amazing. There were a small group of people and the orangutan twins! We finally got to meet them. They seemed a bit like maybe attention deficit disordered or something. They kept looking around quickly and seemed unable to stay focused on any of the stuff happening around them.

The people having the intense discussion were:

Abdellatief Abouheif of Egypt

In addition to swimming the English Channel, he has swum 20-40 miles in all the major rivers of the world. He once swam a course of over 60 miles across Lake Michigan!

Winaugusconey of the Iowa Nation

His name means “Man Not Afraid to Travel”. It is said he walked all over North America before there were any roads. He would show up anywhere and everywhere and people thought he was maybe even a spirit.

Gilbert Tuhabonye of Bujumbura, Berundi

T-bone has an amazing history. As a member of the Tsutsi tribe in high school, one day he and his class mates and fellow tribe members were rounded up by a gang of Hutu tribe members and were put in a hut and burned alive. T-bone was the only survivor, running from the hut while he was on fire. He went to the University of Georgia on a scholarship and is now a running coach in Austin, TX.

Miss Nina Sevening of England

Nina is a talented Edwardian actress and fitness enthusiast whose best performances were in the 1890’s.

It turns out these 4 had been negotiating for several days a formula for a contest dreamed up by the Nawab for the orangutan twins. We watched as they reached agreement and signed off on a deal. They had arrived at a formula for comparing the energy expended in walking vs jogging vs biking vs swimming. The Nawab was very pleased. He wanted to design a contest where EarthWalkers were rewarded exponentially for “stepping on the gas”. Here is his masterpiece:

The

Asiatic

Exponential

Challenge

- The contest started April 1 and the contest ends upon reaching the shores of Australia

- each pound lost earns a base point

- average miles per day of biking in Asia earn base points

- average miles per day of walking in Asia earn base points multiplied by 2.14285714285714

- average miles per day of jogging/running in Asia earn base points multiplied by 2.74285714285714

- average miles per day of swimming in Asia earn base points multiplied by 7.34693877551021

- base points earned will become the exponent of base 2 in determining free lunch points awarded

The Nawab was so excited about announcing this contest that he brought in some great musicians and we drank this wonderful nectar/juice and logged a ton of miles dancing the night away.

Here is an example of how the contest would work:

Joe Nibs loses one pound, runs 6 miles, walks 35 miles and bikes 20 miles in Asia.

It takes us 25 days to get to Australia. Here is what Joe earns in free lunch points:

Pound Lost – 1 base point

Running – 6 miles/25 days = .24 base points times the multiplier = 0.658285714285714 base points

Walking – 35 miles/25 days = 1.4 base points times the multiplier = 3 base points

Biking 20 miles/35 days = 0.571428571428571 base points

Add up all the base points and you get 5.22971428571428 base points

The base points are used as the exponent of base 2 which calculates to 37.52328 free lunch points (here it gets rounded to 38 points)

So here is truly your chance to “step on the gas” and be precisely rewarded.

FROM EARTHWALK COSMIC HEADQUARTERS IN OMAHAHA

Here’s a contest worth 4 free lunch points.

In the picture below, find the hidden 3D image and when you submit your next miles, write down what you see in the comments field.

The contest will end with the next email and we’ll let everyone know what the hidden image is. No, it is not a monkey.

FIND THE HIDDEN IMAGE

Enjoy a beautiful and uplifting movie this weekend at Computer Co-op in Jackson, Mississippi. All EarthWalkers will be given a free teleporter pass to wormhole their way to the event. Here’s the description of the movie:

This coming weekend, the Computer Co-op will be screening a sneak preview of the new movie, The Celestine Prophecy. The story centers around a man named John Woodson and a series of synchronistic events that unfold for him a spiritual journey that speaks to how we all live our lives. Many of you may have read the best-selling book from the mid-90's. With the action carrying our main charactre to Peru and across the landscape, this really stands to be a visually stunning film as well as a good message. It is probably summarized best by a quote from the author.

"If we pay attention, we can find a greater life, no matter where we are, no matter who we are, no matter what our circumstances are. If you tune into the mysterious coincidences in your life, if you discover and then follow your intuitions, you will find that there's a door of opportunity for a greater life for you. You can't be a victim and do it, but if you go beyond that, if you find a way out of whatever circumstance you're in, whatever block you think you might face, what happens is that it works. It always works. The only thing that holds any of us back is not believing that it works."
-- James Redfield

The Celestine Prophecy is rated PG and will be showing in the Computer Co-op at 7:30 April 7,8, and 9. $10 admission. This price is because it is a sneak preview before the film goes to theaters. While i do not know for sure on this, Jackson often does not get movies such as this so this may be your only opportunity to see it before it comes to our town on video.

See the movie trailers and more at http://www.thecelestineprophecymovie.com/celestine/

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