Parking tickets in the town of Cambridge, MA now come with yoga instructions on the back. It’s part of a public art project that’s meant to instill calmness into what is normally a stressful event - seeing the ticket on your car. Also, practicing yoga will also make it more enjoyable when you go to the courthouse to get screwed over.
Tommy Caldwell’s account of climbing Keketuohai National Geological Park in northern China is posted on The Cleanest Line. It’s an interesting story. Half the battle of freeing lines in China has been convincing local authorities that they’re allowed the climb, but it looks like on the last day, the convinced a few of the security guards to hop on a top rope they’d setup.
A backcountry camper in Arizona skipped paying the $5 daily use fee while camping in the 160k acre forest surrounding Sedona. He returned to his truck to find a $100 ticket on his window. Instead of paying, he geared up for a legal battle over the winter, went to court, and won.
In his written ruling, [the judge] said that although the Forest Service could legally require passes and collect fees in areas with improvements — like restrooms, picnic tables, parking spots or trash collection — the agency couldn’t require someone to have a pass just to visit an unimproved trailhead, or a wilderness.
While I disagree that wilderness lacking restrooms and picnic tables is ‘unimproved,’ I agree that they shouldn’t be able to charge per day to camp in National Forests. That’s our land, we paid for it. And it’s nice to have as a fallback option as a place to live if I ever need. These aren’t campgrounds, it’s land owned by the government. The least they could do is let us use it once in a while.
A duo of wardens in California were on the lookout for poachers. They backed their State Dept-issued pickup truck into a quite place where they could keep an eye out. From the darkness a group of men materialized carrying large duffle bags, which they began tossing them into the back of the truck. It took this mysterious crew a moment to realize that the guys in the truck weren’t the ones making the drug buy. The wardens arrested the five and recovered 127lb of marijuana. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
This video comes to us from some National Geographic videographers who were shooting for an upcoming film called Great Migrations. They found out a dust storm was sweeping across the plains, and they decided to hangout to see what it’d be like. I hope they packed extra saline for their contacts.
Coca-Cola asked Americans to vote for their favorite national or state park in the country, and over 1.6 million answered. When the votes were totaled, there was a bit of head scratching. Joshua Tree, The Grand Canyon and Yosemite didn’t make the cut - the winner? Bear Head Lake State Park in Northern Minnesota. A place that gets 100,000 visitors annually and boasts wilderness similar to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area further north, but much easier access and amenities like cabins and car camping.
How this small Minnesota State Park won the honor is a bit of a mystery, but the good news is that they’ll be getting $100,000 of the $500,000 in grants that Coca-Cola is giving out for this initiative.
David Beckham and Gordon Ramsay packed up the tent for a camping trip in the Hollywood Hills. They managed to find a nice mountain lake all to themselves, but their getaway was interrupted.
”Woke up about 4.30 in the morning to gunfire and there was this tent about half a mile away… with these Mexicans shooting.”
Why does it matter that they were Mexican? Anyway, they beat a hasty retreat to a motel and were saved from the (manmade) dangers of camping.
My idea would have a kitten in a lower bowl that would slowly drown as water ran though the sink filling it. Savage, I know, but the importance of water conservation needs to be accurately conveyed to youngsters. Plus it’s not much worse than the cat bong. Designer Yan Lu’s ‘Poor Little Fishbowl Sink’ drops its water level while washing hands, but then the water level is brought back to normal when you’re done. Still a nice reminder of water conservation, plus no one gets killed (or sent to jail).
Some teenagers who likely just finished reading The Monkey Wrench Gang have taken it upon themselves to destroy summit registers on Colorado peaks. They’ve been bashing the plastic caps off with rocks and taking the registers and the plastic tubes off the mountaintops. If this isn’t a misguided act of environmentalism, I’m not sure what is. While I applaud your energy, I am saddened by your lack of inventiveness.
via Out There
