These “Bikers’ Revenge” barend plugs are a cute idea if you’re looking to get your head crushed under the tire of some asshole’s new F-150. I like them in theory since I’m one of those self-righteous jerks who mentions that he doesn’t own a car (or a TV) whenever given the chance, but I know that in practice this barend plug would just tear up my pants when I walked past my bike in my house. Likely it would also tear up the wall so that I’d have to paint it before moving out, and then it would scratch up my friend’s car who’s helping me move.

This helmet makes me want to get a car and start running over cyclists. Canedo Studio offers this razor helmet with some kind of knock-off integrated Oakley eyewear and what looks like zero padding. Smashing your head into the concrete now adds the danger of plastics embedded in your brain along with a little blunt trauma. I suppose you take the helmet off when it gets dark?

via Treehugger

The lack of new construction projects is bad news for my architect and builder friends but good news for people who sneak into construction sites and turn their bikes into wrecking balls. Expanded pool skating and construction site fun is a logical extension of the economic downturn. Related only in the sense that it’s a truly awesome photo, I also bring you this.

via Trackosaurus

There might not be any mountains, avalanches, or religious fundamentalists two clicks away from jihad in Minnesota, but that doesn’t mean camping lacks the excitement of so many more popular states in the western half of the country. The last of six men involved in a Boundary Waters Canoe Area shooting spree plead guilty to terrorizing campers with an ‘assault-style’ rifle back in 2007.

The teen admitted in court to the crimes but said he didn’t recall details of the night, saying he drank several beers while motoring around Basswood Lake with his friends.

That night sounds awesome except for the whole shooting-at-campers thing.

Olympus will begin selling this Stylus 500 WP waterproof camera for $200 this spring. It’s safe up to 3 meters deep, so it’s not made for SCUBA diving but would probably be okay for doing the dishes. It has a 10 megapixel image sensor, 3x optical zoom lens, and 2.5 inch LCD screen. Hopefully it still works in spring when I go back to the ski resort to look for it where I dropped it 3 months earlier.

via Moldy Chum

You can pick up a single-filter coffee brewer for about $4 at any coffee shop, so when GSI rolls one out for $24 it better automatically add Baileys to my eye-opener. These GSI Java Drips come with reusable cloth filters, flexible filter cups that can be crushed into a backpack, and a PBA-free cup that you’ll never quite be able to wash the coffee smell out of. The GSI Coffeemaker will be out this spring in two sizes.

Turns out they’re using some kind of vegetable matter and not people. You could make the argument that conventional plastics are also made from vegetable matter, just stuff that’s been dead for a really long time. Three of Scarpa’s ski boots that come next fall will be made from Pebax Rnew(R), which is created with 90 percent plant-based oil. Their eco plastic tele boots will cost $579 and the AT boot will be $679.

via Wildsnow

An ex-pat Australian is working on getting a non-profit skate park running for kids in Afghanistan. He moved to the country rather impulsively after breaking up with his girlfriend and selling his bakery, and began skating in a place where police have bigger things to worry about than someone waxing down a curb. Now he’s on the verge of opening an 8,600sq ft skatepark and giving kids something to do besides worry about car bombs.

Now, when he pulls his motorcycle into a residential courtyard here, a dozen youngsters pounce before it comes to a stop, yanking six chipped skateboards with fading paint off the back. The children, most participating in a sport for the first time in their war-hardened lives, do not want to waste any time.

I hope he didn’t spill his coffee, too. A man survived a 120-foot fall off of a cliff in Colorado National Monument. He was cruising along Rim Rock Drive when his car swerved off the road for unknown reasons. I bet he’s going to wish that he had died when he gets the towing bill for pulling his car out of there.

via Out There