Adrenaline

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

The past does not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.
– Mark Twain

Yep.

Thanks Brian...

In the midst of a new biz-venture. My horoscope for the month.

On the 1st, your coworkers are getting teary. They're getting all choked up. They might be getting angry. They might be getting furious. They're probably taking out their aggression on all kinds of innocent bystanders. One of these innocent bystanders could be you. Luckily, you're cool as a cucumber, and you assess this situation with a refreshingly unemotional clarity. You'll put everything to rights before anybody blows their top. And if they blow their top anyway, steer clear of them and don't pay their outburst any attention. On the 5th, you're at risk of overreacting emotionally when your boss ticks you off. Try not to! The 11th and 12th are emotionally in-tune days, when you make some very exciting new work plans. On the 17th, spend the day figuring out how to put things right at home. It'll clear up some emotional room for you to do better work. On the 21st, don't be too hard on yourself if you can't decide between a double caramel latte or a shot of espresso. Some days are tough for big choices! On the 24th, don't gossip too much. On the 28th and 29th, keep your eye on the money. It'll lead you exactly where you need to go!

I'll let you know if this becomes the prophecy it's set out to be! Exciting times none-the-less...

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;

There is a rapture on the lonely shore;

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love man none the less, but Nature more…”
-Lord Byron

Cartograms of the social and economic world

Here's a group of cartograms that give visual reference to the world's social and economic data, by charting this information to the size of each country one can see visual cues as to who is doing what around the world.

Click on the map for a more detailed analysis.

Frozen in Grand Central Station

Quote of the day...

If evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve.

Take a stand - Our freedoms are being threatened again!

The 29er is so yesterday… I present to you the “Yarder”, 36” of big rolling fun.

So much for the 650b gaining any momentum...?

How free are we?

New York Times 2/13/2008
WASHINGTON — After more than a year of wrangling, the Senate handed the White House a major victory on Tuesday by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers and to give legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants.

One by one, the Senate rejected amendments that would have imposed greater civil liberties checks on the government’s surveillance powers. Finally, the Senate voted 68 to 29 to approve legislation that the White House had been pushing for months. Mr. Bush hailed the vote and urged the House to move quickly in following the Senate’s lead.

The outcome in the Senate amounted, in effect, to a broader proxy vote in support of Mr. Bush’s wiretapping program. The wide-ranging debate before the final vote presaged discussion that will play out this year in the presidential and Congressional elections on other issues testing the president’s wartime authority, including secret detentions, torture and Iraq war financing.

Republicans hailed the reworking of the surveillance law as essential to protecting national security, but some Democrats and many liberal advocacy groups saw the outcome as another example of the Democrats’ fears of being branded weak on terrorism.

“Some people around here get cold feet when threatened by the administration,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who leads the Judiciary Committee and who had unsuccessfully pushed a much more restrictive set of surveillance measures.

Among the presidential contenders, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, voted in favor of the final measure, while the two Democrats, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, did not vote. Mr. Obama did oppose immunity on a key earlier motion to end debate. Mrs. Clinton, campaigning in Texas, issued a statement saying she would have voted to oppose the final measure.

The measure extends, for at least six years, many of the broad new surveillance powers that Congress hastily approved last August just before its summer recess. Intelligence officials said court rulings had left dangerous gaps in their ability to intercept terrorist communications.

The bill, which had the strong backing of the White House, allows the government to eavesdrop on large bundles of foreign-based communications on its own authority so long as Americans are not the targets. A secret intelligence court, which traditionally has issued individual warrants before wiretapping began, would review the procedures set up by the executive branch only after the fact to determine whether there were abuses involving Americans.

“This is a dramatic restructuring” of surveillance law, said Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department intelligence lawyer who represents several telecommunication companies. “And the thing that’s so dramatic about this is that you’ve removed the court review. There may be some checks after the fact, but the administration is picking the targets.”

The Senate plan also adds one provision considered critical by the White House: shielding phone companies from any legal liability for their roles in the eavesdropping program approved by Mr. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks. The program allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without warrants on the international communications of Americans suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda.

AT&T and other major phone companies are facing some 40 lawsuits from customers who claim their actions were illegal. The Bush administration maintains that if the suits are allowed to continue in court, they could bankrupt the companies and discourage them from cooperating in future intelligence operations.

The House approved a surveillance bill in November that intentionally left out immunity for the phone companies, and leaders from the two chambers will now have to find a way to work out significant differences between their two bills.

Democratic opponents, led by Senators Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, argued that the plan effectively rewarded phone companies by providing them with legal insulation for actions that violated longstanding law and their own privacy obligations to their customers. But immunity supporters said the phone carriers acted out of patriotism after the Sept. 11 attacks in complying with what they believed in good faith was a legally binding order from the president.

“This, I believe, is the right way to go for the security of the nation,” said Senator John D. Rockefeller, the West Virginia Democrat who leads the intelligence committee. His support for the plan, after intense negotiations with the White House and his Republican colleagues, was considered critical to its passage but drew criticism from civil liberties groups because of $42,000 in contributions that Mr. Rockefeller received last year from AT&T and Verizon executives.

Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a Maine Republican on the intelligence panel, said the bill struck the right balance between protecting the rights of Americans and protecting the country “from terrorism and other foreign threats.”

Democratic opponents, who six months ago vowed to undo the results of the August surveillance vote, said they were deeply disappointed by the defection of 19 Democrats who backed the bill.

Mr. Dodd, who spoke on the floor for more than 20 hours in recent weeks in an effort to stall the bill, said future generations would view the vote as a test of whether the country heeds “the rule of law or the rule of men.”

But with Democrats splintered, Mr. Dodd acknowledged that the national security argument had won the day. “Unfortunately, those who are advocating this notion that you have to give up liberties to be more secure are apparently prevailing,” he said. “They’re convincing people that we’re at risk either politically, or at risk as a nation.”

There was a measure of frustration in the voice of Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, as he told reporters during a break in the daylong debate, “Holding all the Democrats together on this, we’ve learned a long time ago, is not something that’s doable.”

Senate Republicans predict that they will be able to persuade the House to include immunity in the final bill, especially now that the White House has agreed to give House lawmakers access to internal documents on the wiretapping program. But House Democrats vowed Tuesday to continue opposing immunity.

Congress faces a Saturday deadline for extending the current law, but Democrats want to extend the deadline for two weeks to allow more time for talks. The White House has said it opposes a further extension.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats hope to put some pressure on Republicans on Wednesday over another security-related issue by bringing up an intelligence measure that would apply Army field manual prohibitions against torture to civilian agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency.

Republicans plan to try to eliminate that provision, a vote that Democrats say will force Republicans to declare whether they condone torture. Democrats also say it could show the gap between Mr. McCain, who has opposed torture, and the administration on the issue.

“We know how we would feel if a member of the armed services captured by the enemy were, for example, waterboarded,” Mr. Reid said. “So I think that we’re headed in the right direction, and I hope that we’ll get Republican support on this.”

Carl Hulse contributed reporting from Washington.

Gotta ride!

So you thought humans couldn't fly...? Yeah right

Check this shit out.

One of the best legal disclaimers ever!

WARNING

Nature is unpredictable and unsafe. Mountains are dangerous. Many books have been written about these dangers, and there's no way we can list them all here. Read the books. Nelson Rocks Preserve is covered in steep terrain with loose, slippery and unstable footing. The weather can make matters worse. Sheer drops are everywhere. You may fall, be injured or die. There are hidden holes. You could break your leg. There are wild animals, which may be vicious, poisonous or carriers of dread diseases. These include poisonous snakes and insects. Plants can be poisonous as well. We don't do anything to protect you from any of this. We do not inspect, supervise or maintain the grounds, rocks, cliffs or other features, natural or otherwise. Real dangers are present even on trails. Trails are not sidewalks. They can be, and are, steep, slippery and dangerous. Trail features made or enhanced by humans, such as steps, walls and railings (if any) can break, collapse, or otherwise fail catastrophically at any time. We don't promise to inspect, supervise or maintain them in any way. They may be negligently constructed or repaired. They are unsafe, period. Live with it or stay away. Stay on the trails whenever possible. The terrain, in addition to being dangerous, is surprisingly complex. You may get lost. Carry food, water and first aid supplies at all times. Rocks and other objects can fall from the cliffs. They can tumble down slopes. This can happen naturally, or be caused by people above you, such as climbers. Rocks of all sizes, including huge boulders, can shift, move or fall with no warning. Use of helmets (available at entrance station) is advised for anyone approaching the rock formations. They won't save you if you get hit by something big or on another part of your body. A whole rock formation might collapse on you and squash you like a bug. Don't think it can't happen. Weather can be dangerous, regardless of the forecast. Be prepared with extra clothing, including rain gear. Hypothermia, heat stroke, lightning, ice and snow, etc. can kill you. Rain can turn easy terrain into a deathtrap. If you scramble in high places (scrambling is moving over terrain steep enough to use your hands) without proper experience, training and equipment, or allow children to do so, you are making a terrible mistake. Even if you know what you're doing, lots of things can go wrong and you may be injured or die. It happens all the time. The Preserve does not provide rangers or security personnel. The other people in the preserve, including other visitors, our employees, agents, and guests, and anyone else who might sneak in, may be stupid, reckless, or otherwise dangerous. They may be mentally ill, criminally insane, drunk, using illegal drugs and/or armed with deadly weapons and ready to use them. We aren't necessarily going to do anything about it. We refuse to take responsibility. If you climb, you may die or be seriously injured. This is true whether you are experienced or not, trained or not, equipped or not, though training and equipment may help. It's a fact, climbing is extremely dangerous. If you don't like it, stay at home. You really shouldn't be doing it anyway. We do not provide supervision or instruction. We are not responsible for, and do not inspect or maintain, climbing anchors (including bolts, pitons, slings, trees, etc.) As far as we know, any of them can and will fail and send you plunging to your death. There are countless tons of loose rock ready to be dislodged and fall on you or someone else. There are any number of extremely and unusually dangerous conditions existing on and around the rocks, and elsewhere on the property. We may or may not know about any specific hazard, but even if we do, don't expect us to try to warn you. You're on your own. Rescue services are not provided by the Preserve, and may not be available quickly or at all. Local rescue squads may not be equipped for or trained in mountain rescue. If you are lucky enough to have somebody try to rescue you or treat your injuries, they may be incompetent or worse. This includes doctors and hospitals. We assume no responsibility. Also, if you decide to participate in a rescue of some other unfortunate, that's your choice. Don't do it unless you are willing to assume all risks. By entering the Preserve, you are agreeing that we owe you no duty of care or any other duty. We promise you nothing. We do not and will not even try to keep the premises safe for any purpose. The premises are not safe for any purpose. This is no joke. We won't even try to warn you about any dangerous or hazardous condition, whether we know about it or not. If we do decide to warn you about something, that doesn't mean we will try to warn you about anything else. If we do make an effort to fix an unsafe condition, we may not try to correct any others, and we may make matters worse! We and our employees or agents may do things that are unwise and dangerous. Sorry, we're not responsible. We may give you bad advice. Don't listen to us. In short, ENTER AND USE THE PRESERVE AT YOUR OWN RISK. And have fun! NRP Management

bike 29

It's always cool when you see good friends of yours launch a business in a fun & adventurous activity; like riding mountainbikes in an amazing locale that is Vermont.

George has introduced Vermont; as well as other regions of the country; to the benefits of riding 29" wheeled bikes.

Bike29 is doing well, the bike industry as a whole has seen a resurgence in interest. The sport seems to morph into new avenues of vision and direction. This allows folks to carve out a living doing what they love to do. Not to mention ride some of the most amazing bicycles coming from a thriving community of bike enthusiast.

Checkout the travels and experiences of the 29 revolution via Bike29's Blog.

Buff Headwear

Popular for nearly a decade in Europe and now distributed in 22 countries, Buff(R) Headwear expanded its U.S. distribution network in early 2003 by establishing an office in California. Buff has been featured on CBS's Survivor television series. Buff Headwear is manufactured by Caviro, S.L., which is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.

The beauty of Buff is simplicity--one garment serves many functions. Designed to offer technical performance and protection from the elements during a wide range of sports, Buff Headwear can be worn as a hat, headband, neck gaiter, helmet liner, balaclava, sun or wind screen, bandana, scarf, pirate-style cap, hairband, or wristband.

Original Buff(R) Headwear--a seamless tubular garment made from a high-performance microfiber fabric--performs well for hiking, cycling, motorcycling and skate sports in the warmer months and skiing and snowboarding in the winter. It provides the same performance benefits that athletes demand from the rest of their performance clothing. In warm weather, Buff(R) is breathable, wicks sweat, and helps keep you cool. In colder temperatures, it has thermal and wind-resistant properties similar to soft-shell fabrics.

Get yours today at OutdoorGearCare.com

Fivefinger discount

Reviewed by Joe Brown

From the January/February 2006 issue of I.D.

I am a robot Hobbit from the year 3000. Or at least that's what I look like wearing these, the weirdest shoes on planet Earth. They're called Vibram Fivefingers; they're made of bright orange elasticized nylon and have articulated toes and white rubber soles. They were created for boating, and I am sitting on a red velvet couch in a carpeted room in Brooklyn testing them.

Where did this odd footwear come from? The legend of Fivefingers goes that Marco Bramani, grandson of the founder of Vibram—the Italian shoe-sole company responsible for that elongated yellow octagon on the bottom of your hiking boots—asked his grandfather's successors to design shoes that would allow him to retain the sensation of traipsing barefoot on his sailboat while boosting his traction and protecting his toes from deckside hazards. Eighteen months later, Fivefingers was born.

My Italian yacht is in the shop, so I'm in the shower now, testing wet traction. There are not many better laboratories for this particular experiment—like a typical boat deck, my shower's floor is made of fiberglass with a texture that helps prevent slipping.

Fivefingers' soles are also designed to keep you from biting it: They're made of a rubber called TC4 (an abbreviation for "traction control," uhm, "four"), which is common on the bottoms of trail-running shoes and outdoor sandals. However, according to Tony Post, president and CEO of Vibram's U.S. division, TC4 isn't the best rubber Vibram has in its arsenal for wet traction. "Choosing a material is an exercise in compromise," he said. "Unfortunately, grip and abrasion-resistance tend to cancel each other out."

The technique used by Italian footwear masters to boost wet traction is to increase the sole's porosity. When a porous rubber sole presses down on a wet surface, the pressure forces water into the tiny holes that are, Swiss cheese–like, endemic to that kind of material. With this water diverted, the sole is essentially in contact with dry ground. The downside is that a porous rubber is not very durable. TC4 is a pretty good compromise, but not good enough for Vibram's designers—they were, after all, designing a shoe for the founder's grandson.

In order to give the Fivefingers extra traction beyond TC4's capabilities, Vibram borrowed from the tire industry, which faces similar hurdles when engineering winter tires: These need to be grippy on ice but also can't wear away after a couple thousand miles on dry pavement or plowed-and-sanded roads. The solution: sipes! No, that's not a yelp of pain or surprise; it's a noun (plural) that refers to the tiny cuts you'll find along the surface of a winter tire. You'll also find sipes—1.5-millimeter-deep zigzaggy cuts—across the ball and heel of Fivefingers' soles.

When the shoe is in flat contact with the ground, it behaves just as it would without the tiny cuts. But when the sole flexes—as it would when one is running across the deck in a desperate effort to save an overboard-bound Campari and soda—the sipes slide apart like the steps on an escalator, pulling water into the spaces in between, increasing traction. It's kind of like porosity on demand, and it worked in the shower.

I'm out of the shower now and ready for phase two of my test: walking around the port city of Brooklyn.

Walking in Fivefingers is not like throwing on a pair of Top-Siders, or even flip-flops. The shoes force your foot muscles to provide a lot of the stability they'd normally get from the sole and upper of your shoes. So I've worked up to this maiden voyage by wearing these bad boys around the apartment for the past week to build up strength. And also to build up the courage to appear in public looking like I stole George Hamilton's feet.

Once you stop thinking about the texture of the ground, it's almost possible to forget that you're wearing neon-orange footgloves—except that everyone you pass is looking at your feet. The stretchy nylon uppers dried out from the shower in about five minutes, and the suede-ish material that lines the insole and surrounds your Achilles tendon does an admirable job of preventing chafe.

The only truly uncomfortable part of wearing Fivefingers is all the loudmouthed landlubbers. Even the guy handing out the flyers for the custom-aquarium store had an editorial: "Where's the rest of your wet suit, man?" Ahahaha. Wet suits don't have feet, genius, but I'll bet you a bespoke fish tank that all your buddies are going to be sporting these while poaching exotic fish from tropical oceans. Neon or not, these shoes rock.

You can find these cool little shoes at my webstore BeyondOutside.com

A green note

We hate thinking about the future of plastic. Using and chucking disposable cups and plastic bags can add up to nearly 700 pieces of plastic a year per person. Most of it ends up in landfills, but quite a bit of it flows through storm drains and out into our oceans. So much so in fact, that there is a garbage patch the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific. Read more...

Life is all about the simple things...

as it should be... As I grow older and experience even more incredible things in my life. It truly is the simplest things in life that bring me the most joy. A message from a trip taken over a year or so ago. These are the things I recall as well as embrace.

A soul mate, a past partner in life, a partner in crime south of the border... 50 miles of extreme washboard, oh yeah some good wine and tasty food; plus a natrural spring hot tub, some sunshine, some new friends selling dirt (healing pre-historic volcanic ash?) and survivng.. in mexico!... no phones, little security and wasps nest in our kitchen... mexican highways, border breaches and long lines returning to familiar lands...

It's definitley the simple things that bring the most pleasure...! I'll take this any day over the rat race, keepin up with the jones' trying to impress friends who don't understand the desire to leave the easy chair. Life IS good. Bless each and everyone of you that gets the real message, the recipe for living a real life. Getting out there, getting lost and finding yourself all on the same trip. I hope that you all are well and finding happiness in this journey we (pigeon-hole) call life. May the life-force be with you... Buenos dias muchachos, Good day I say. =)

Peace,
Sherpa

OGC - Press Release

Outdoor Gear Care Announces a New Business Venture and Outdoor Community

Combination Creates New Opportunities for Backcountry and Outdoor Enthusiasts

ESCONDIDO, Calif., June 1, 2007 – Outdoor Gear Care announced today it opened it’s website for business. The idea for Outdoor Gear Care born from a lack of consolidated information regarding outdoor gear care techniques and recommended manufacture care requirements for literally everything in use in the backcountry.

What originally started off as a technical apparel care website has spawned into a web based gear care community, information portal and e-store. The category structure is set to include bicycle, backpacking, camping, climbing, snowsport, watersport, and personal care advice. While the web-store’s product selection encompasses a full range of gear care products and fixes to help “Protect Your Investment” in all of your outdoor endeavors.

“Outdoor Gear Care is open to all, as a resource. Our desire is to create a community in which information can be shared openly by everyone looking for the best performance from their outdoor gear. We have simplified the process through the implementation of an online forum and news blog,” said Greg Smith aka Sherpa, co-founder and President of Outdoor Gear Care. “Our attention at the moment is to welcome the outdoor community in for a closer look.”

“We’re inviting everyone who has proven methods for caring for your outdoor gear to share their experiences and maybe learn something new from others.” We have just started to cover all categories and our team is busy developing new content. The Outdoor Gear Care Store product selection is growing daily. “We’re sourcing the best products to support every category. If there’s a product that has worked well and we don’t have it. Let us know and we’ll bring it into our product line-up”

Outdoor enthusiasts generally buy the best products. Outdoor Gear Care wants to aid in the proper care for all of that gear. What good is buying the best gear only to have it under perform or break down when you need it most? This is where Outdoor Gear Care hopes to have all of the answers and products to help you protect your investment.

Visit the website at: http://www.outdoorgearcare.com/

To request more information:Email: tiler.cabot@outdoorgearcare.com

Neighbors stealing your wireless Internet?

This little trick will have them scratching their heads for weeks.

Dynamite Surfing

What do you do when the surf is flat? You make your own....
Parents lock up the TnT. Kids don't try this at home.

Geesh.......!

Too bad you don't work!

That's what I say to myself, and maybe out loud..?

A few replacement parts which were hard to come by...(and not entirely compatible). The three year old mod (affectionately known as 'Sanitorium') is difficult to resurrect these days.

When I originally built this machine it was overclocked @75% over it's listed rating, water cooled and zipped along with a SCSI 10k rpm hard drive. I'm not a gamer, but Photoshop and AutoCad were running almost at the speed of light!

Oh well, now I have some good parts for Darwin... The machine that understands the need to give and cares to give it's very best.

I'm currently saving up for a Apple G5 quad core, running OSX and Win XP using Parallels.

Long live Windows XP, AMD, SCSI & Unlocked processor cores.

Back to the future

After several years of doing strictly graphic and web design... I've been commissioned to open the old AutoCad r14 and try to pick up where I left off six years ago now.

Funny, AutoCad is nothing like Photoshop! One man's logic is nothing like anothers...

Good design is just that good design. Whether it's designing an advertisement, designing a logo, or designing a design and business empire. (excuse me I have high aspirations). The creative juices never subside.

Over the past year I have established two new businesses. Outdoor Gear Care and Sherpa Design Group. All the while working a full time position as a buyer/business developer for a well known Outdoor Retailer. It hasn't been easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. (a cliche' in know, but so true)... The greatest thing you can carry with you are the people who helped you realize these dreams within your self.

So.... Cheers to all of my good friends. I love you all!!! There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of you and the 'good' times we've shared. You're there with me always!

Till then... keep the rubber side down and keep your dreams at the forefront of your thoughts. Keep on believing! Your dreams will come true.

Peace

Sherpa