After hearing for years that water is the best thing to drink after exercise I was surprised to hear that the latest thing in recovery drinks is…chocolate milk! I don’t know if it’s my imagination – or the placebo effect – but my knees do seem to feel better if I follow a run with…
Christopher Van Tilburg talks on Outside Blog about a search and rescue operation that went far better than usual because the stranded hikers had a smartphone. Rescuers were able to get detailed coordinates and guide the hikers to a safe pickup location. Maybe smartphones should be basic equipment? If you are an adventuresome smartphone user,…
Do you love camping but hate mosquitos and…well, everything that has to do with the outdoors? Welcome to Hüttenpalast, an affordable (30 euros per person, roughly $43), hotel near Berlin that brings the outdoors inside. Here you can sleep in a tiny hut or canned-ham style trailer, sing campfire songs with total strangers, and stumble…
If you hike then sooner or later you will have to deal with ticks. These cunning relatives of the spider wait on the ends of leaves and grasses for an unsuspecting mammal to brush past and then climb aboard for a free lunch. Alicia MacKleay provides a comprehensive guide to dealing with ticks on and…
One of the dreariest chores that goes along with car camping is stashing your cookware and supplies in the bear-proof cupboard at each campsite. You’ll never have to do that again with these expedition-tough purpose-built field kitchens from Kanz Outdoors. Built from marine-grade aluminum with polished birch plywood interiors, Kanz certifies that their rugged boxes…
Road trips need music. Some songs are better for the long open road than others and if you can string together a playlist that harmonizes with the emotional tenor of your adventure then you’ve got a winner. To this day I can’t think of Mendocino without hearing Van Morrison’s No Guru, No Master. Amanda Arnold…
Gear Junkie reviews the Sea to Summit Dry Daypack – tipping the scales at a little over 3 ounces. Sounds like a great pack for hikers who want to set up a base camp and take side junkets. The drybag design would also make this pack great for paddlers who want to get in some…
Our gas grill recently reached the point where it was more blowtorch than barbecue. We figured it was time to pony up for a new outdoor cooker. But face it, a barbecue is a pretty simple machine. Not much more than a bucket with fire inside. So why not fix the old one? The first…
Recently I tried cutting a crusty baguette with a sharp, serrated bread knife. Instead of placing the bread on a cutting board like a reasonable person, I simply held the loaf in one hand and the knife in the other while thinking “this is a bad idea.” Which it was. Ouch. Make: Online has a…
Peter Strauss Ranch is a great place to explore, picnic and introduce kids to hiking. The 0.6 mile Peter Strauss Trail is one of the best places in the Santa Monica Mountains to hike with children who are at that awkward age – too big to lug in a backpack carrier but not quite ready…
I loved our Roomba until the day it died. Could any other floor cleaner heal the pain? It turns out the Mint floor cleaner fills the void nicely. We have laminate flooring throughout the house. And two dogs, one of which blows out his wiry coat every few months. Unless we stay on top of…
This kid plays like a machine. Awesome. More Jonny Mizzone here. And check out the brothers’ Facebook Page, Sleepy Man Banjo Boys. Via BoingBoing
I’ve reached a place in my life where I don’t want to learn one more stoopidly designed interface. Take the Shoretel phone system…please. (Although it’s a big improvement over Rolm phones). Former Wired editor and technology guru Kevin Kelly explains that the technology we need most is not necessarily the technology that’s available today. Instead,…
Tapirs, with their prehensile snouts, are by far my favorite ungulate. Who knew that today is World Tapir Day? I wish I was more prepared. Via BoingBoing
This week’s big iPhone news was that the device tracks your every move and stores it on your PC when you synch with iTunes. The discovery of this location tracking freaked out a bunch of people including Al Franken who is demanding an explanation from Apple. Franken is concerned that unauthorized snoops could easily discover…
