One of the best sites out there for National Parks news and debate just got better.
The National Parks Traveler has hooked up with ParkRemark, gotten itself a fancy new site design, and is entering the deep and turbulent waters of the Web 2.0.
The new site looks great. It’s easier on the eyes, more organized, and does a great job of making everything quick to locate. It seems like they’ll be working on more social-network style things, too. And it sounds like they’ll be working on their “Visitor Section” subpage to make it your one-stop-shop for planning your National Park visit.
Great work, guys. I can’t wait to see what comes out of the revamp.
With the Democratic and Republican Presidential hopefuls gearing up their campaigns, politics are on a lot of peoples’ minds. Lucky for us, Grist has an excellent list of 15 of the globe’s best green politicians (with 4 additional runners-up), so should you happen to find yourself living in one of these areas, you have a better idea of who to vote for to clean your green conscience.
I’m happy to know two of the top 15 (and one runner up, to boot) represent me in various levels of government — but California’s already got a good rep as a pro-environment state. More surprising are inclusions like the mayor of red-state capital Salt Lake City and the leader of the British Conservative Party … and then there’s Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, who wants to make her country the first completely carbon neutral nation on the planet.
Sick of waiting for the government or the Invisible Hand of Commerce, Google’s decided to throw some of its considerable financial weight into developing plug-in hybrid cars.
Test models of Google’s modified Priuses currently get almost 74 miles per gallon, up from the standard model’s 41. And Google wants more.
They’ve offered up $1 million in grants - with another $10 million not far behind - to anyone whose research helps them get the cars up to 100 miles per gallon, or works toward a viable system of Vehicle-to-Grid infrastructure.
To me, better gas mileage is great, but Vehicle-to-Grid is really the revolutionary new energy technology of the future. Granted, it would require a lot of effort on our part to restructure the power grid and the concept of power companies as we know them, but the concept of a decentralized electric economy, where you could drive a clean car around town and sell excess power back to the government from home is pretty amazing.
And why would an internet search engine get involved with something like this? CNN sums it up:
Renewable energy, unlike coal or nuclear, will likely come from thousands or tens of thousands of different locations. Analysts have long said that one of the big challenges will be managing that flow into and out of the nation’s electric grid, and that companies that manage the flow of information are well placed to handle that task.
Keep up to date on Google’s RechargeIT project here.
A 9 mile round-trip backpack along the Sespe Creek to a shaded riverside campground. Hot valley air, cold river water, and plenty of scenes of recent wildfires keep up the variety, and the relatively level elevation makes it easy on the knees. A great weekend getaway.
An article in today’s Daily Mail bemoans how today’s children have lost the ‘right to roam’ in four generations, due to a combination of automobiles, overprotective parents, and an over exaggerated news media.
It profiles a family in Britain whose ‘roaming radius’ from their homes went from six miles in 1919 to one mile in 1950, down to just 300 yards today. And unsurprisingly, this has adverse affects on peoples’ mental states.
According to representatives from Natural England, people are “healthier and better adjusted if they get out into the countryside,” and that “people deprived of contact with nature are at greater risk of depression and anxiety.”
I love it when technology companies put aside their differences, chill out around a campfire with some microbrews, and figure out how they can all work together for the greater good. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
… which is why I’m psyched about the new Climate Savers Computing Initiative - a group of major technology companies led by Google and Intel, working to reduce the energy consumption of personal computers across the world.
The group has agreed to work toward halving PC’s power needs by 2010, which would save $5.5 billion in costs and reduce 54 tons of CO2 emissions annually. That’s the equivalent of taking 11 million cars off the road.
According to MSNBC, two climbers who were attempting to climb Everest in the same 1920’s-style gear used by George Mallory and Leo Houlding have just given up, donning modern-day threads instead. Which is fine because a). they still made it pretty far up the mountain and b). they won’t end up dead.
Cautious hikers and climbers are living hikers and climbers.
Because it’s never too early to start getting informed, here are two comparisons of both parties’ candidates’ positions on various environmental topics - from carbon caps to fuel efficiency to alternative energy. Even though it’s still very early in the campaign, some of the answers may surprise you.
… and it’s always nice to know where your guy (or gal) stands.
I was all set to write about the New York Times’ coverage of “Speed Hiking,” a new fitness phenomenon threatening to turn our precious backcountry into the world’s largest Bally … then Tom beat me to it.
I can understand how gyms and outdoor fitness are cut of the same cloth - and I’d much rather spend time in a forest than I would in a stuffy gym. And while I do generally exhaust myself when I’m out on the trail, that’s never my intent when I go there. The gym is for physical maintenance. Hiking is for mental maintenance.
Tom agrees, saying:
I never deluded myself that (speed hiking) was hiking, which to my mind is a condition of being in the wilderness rather than passing through it. It requires letting go of your hard-charging, achieving self and giving at least four of your senses a workout (I draw the line at taste).
I’m all for people getting fit. And I’m really all for people enjoying the outdoors. But I remember hiking Mt. San Antonio last year during a trail race, and having to stand on the side while dozens of runners made their way downhill.
It’s a scene I’d rather not see again while I’m out in the woods.
This may be a bit late, but so goes the tide of the blogosphere.
A video from this year’s TED conference has been making the web-rounds recently, and it’s pretty freakin’ awesome.
It’s a live video demo of some new Microsoft technology called Photosynth. It’s partially a new way to organize and search for photos, but at about 3:50 the demo gets really incredible when it scans tagged Flickr photos to build a fully 3-D model of the Notre Dame cathedral.
They’ve got a very early beta demo available for download, if you’re running a decently powered Windows machine.
Until the final build is released, check this thing out and know we’re one step closer to having fully navigable 3-D trail maps at our keyboard fingertips.
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Click here for a Google Map of Los Angeles hiking trails.
One of the best sites out there for National Parks news and debate just got better.
With the Democratic and Republican Presidential hopefuls gearing up their campaigns, politics are on a lot of peoples’ minds. Lucky for us, 
Sick of waiting for the government or the Invisible Hand of Commerce, Google’s decided to throw some of its considerable financial weight into developing plug-in hybrid cars.
A 9 mile round-trip backpack along the Sespe Creek to a shaded riverside campground. Hot valley air, cold river water, and plenty of scenes of recent wildfires keep up the variety, and the relatively level elevation makes it easy on the knees. A great weekend getaway.
According to MSNBC, two climbers who were attempting to climb Everest in the same 1920’s-style gear used by George Mallory and Leo Houlding 
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