Kopi Luwak is the most expensive Coffe in the world!
Ever heard about Kopi Luwak? It's a very special Coffee breed and normaly only known by Gourmets. Its price is the highest you would ever pay for 100g of Coffe - arround USD 400.-! But why? Let's have closer look:
Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee and Luwak means civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). Thus this special coffee has someting todo with a civet. Actually it's very simple. The civets live on the island of Sumatera, Java and Sulawesi where the coffee finally comes from.The civets are solely night active and therefore come to the forest at night and eat big amounts of coffee beans. Due to their very excellent sense of taste the civets choose only the ripest and best tasting coffee beans. But the digestion takes off only the red flesh off the beans and thus the beans are beeing excreted and taste sweeter as a result of the degestion process. Since the civets don't eat much besides the coffee beans the remain relatively clean after digestion and are not mixed up with other fruits or wood.
Afterwards the beans are hand collect from the forest floor and washed (certainly!) carefully.The taste of the completed product is described as
"earthy, musty, similar to sirup and with undertones of jungle and chocolate" by John Cleese. Unfortunately I didn't find a place to buy it. If you know one please do post it.
Tsunami after Earthquake in South-Western Jawa
According to USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) Earthquake Hazards Program the Earth- or Seaquake 
respectively shaked the sea at 6:07:33 PM local time (Indonesian Western Time, WIB). It took place only 285km south of the City of Bandung (Bandung is located at the north side of Western Java, south east of Jakarta). The magnitude is reported to be 5.8.
The Jakarta Post reports allready 9 dead after the Tsunami hit Pangandaran Beach.
| Magnitude | 5.8 (Moderate) |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
= Coordinated Universal Time = local time at epicenter |
| Location | 9.524°S, 107.622°E |
| Depth | 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program |
| Region | SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA |
| Distances | 240 km (150 miles) ENE of Christmas Island 250 km (155 miles) SSW of Tasikmalaya, Java, Indonesia 285 km (175 miles) S of Bandung, Java, Indonesia 385 km (240 miles) SSE of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 8.7 km (5.4 miles); depth fixed by location program |
| Parameters | Nst=103, Nph=103, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.16 sec, Gp= 47°, M-type=body magnitude (Mb), Version=7 |
| Source | USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) |
| Event ID | usqgas |
BahasaPod, Episode #2 - Vocabulary related to the earth quake
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Latest details on Yogyakarta Earthquakes
Earthquake Details
| Magnitude | 4.8 (Light) |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
= Coordinated Universal Time = local time at epicenter |
| Location | 7.849°S, 110.457°E |
| Depth | 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program |
| Region | JAVA, INDONESIA |
| Distances | 10 km (5 miles) SE of Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia 100 km (60 miles) S of Semarang, Java, Indonesia 140 km (85 miles) SE of Pekalongan, Java, Indonesia 450 km (280 miles) ESE of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 11 km (6.8 miles); depth fixed by location program |
| Parameters | Nst= 66, Nph= 66, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=0.99 sec, Gp= 65°, M-type=body magnitude (Mb), Version=Q |
| Source | USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) |
| Event ID | usnfad |
GoogleEarth / GoogleMaps Views
Indonesia is in trouble
Times are not that good in Indonesia these days. A friend that is working for the UN in East Timor just wrote that they where moved to Bali yesterday. This due to the masacre going on in East Timor since a few days. News Papers and Channels over here in Europe did not report anything until today. As always CNN offers many reports about the situation. Also BBC Indonesia (from the UK) has some articles about the Situation. Honestly sometimes the CNN reports and especiall the pictures they show to us are too intimate. So please read and select with care.
The situation in Yogyakarta is even worth because of the heavy earthquake (6.2 magnitude) that rocked the City this morning. Here from what I heared from the news channels especially Unicef is allready about the help. Especially Unicef can provide tents for field hospitals and also for schools.
BahasaPod, Episode #1: how to greet in Bahasa Indonesia
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Gongcast Gamelan
The American Gamelan Institute produces a Podcast with Gamelan 
Music since a few weeeks. It's called Gongcast Gamelan and worth to hear.
You may subscribe to and download the Gongcast directly from iTunes. Enjoy then hearing it on your iPod!
[Information] You can get Apples iTunes from here!