Photo by Sam Kaye

A 12-year-old photographer who anonymously submitted his photos to the Royal Photographic Society (yes, such a thing exists) was awarded the distinction of “Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society.” One of the oldest photo clubs in the world, the kid’s 10 photos look like they were shot on a school field trip (actually, it looks like an amazing safari). The Royal Photographic Society’s Stuart Blake: “It is an excellent achievement for someone so young. We have people who are much older apply for the title and do not come anywhere near the standard required.”

I’m sure that loads of old British guys with drawers full of rejection letters from the Royal Photographic Society share his enthusiasm. I think some of them chimed in on the comments on the blog post.

The widow of a man killed by a grizzly is suing the federal government for $5 million dollars. While most of these lawsuits can be easily dismissed, this one might actually have some merit. Federal biologists had trapped and tagged the bear about 7 miles from Yellowstone’s entrance. After adding the radio collar they took down all signage that there was a bear study being conducted in the area and left the tranquilized animal behind. While leaving the site they encountered the woman who expressed concern about where the bear had been left and her husband’s whereabouts. Returning to the site, they found the man mauled to death right under the tree where they’d hung bait to lure the bear in the first place.

The man who died was a well known botanist who’d recently published another botanical guide on the region around Yellowstone; he was very familiar with the territory. His wife said he had no idea bear studies were being conducted in the area, but friends say he knew and were baffled by his decision to hike up Kitty Creek during the study.

Man, the folks who made the Muir Project video are good at taking a relatively boring, non-dynamic subject like hiking and making it fun to watch. I’m sure they’ll all be offered jobs making TV commercials for pharmaceutical companies soon (check LinkedIn!). The Muir Project is a project embarked by a group of multimedia artists who took 25 days to hike the 219-mile Muir Trail over the last summer.

via Adventure Journal

Photo by Everest Summiteers Association

The Everest Summiteers Association is trying to get the Nepalese government to install portable toilets on the hike to base camp. It seems that the 35,000 visitors and 80,000 Nepalese guides are making something of a mess in the villages on the route as well as all along the route. The group Saving Mount Everest hauled away eight tons of garbage from the mountain this year, including about five tons that had been piled in the villages along the base camp route. I say skip the pit toilets and go straight to laying pipes all the way up the mountain.

via Get Outdoors

Researchers have developed a wireless bike brake that relies on batteries and signals instead of cables. It lacks a brake lever, instead the harder you squeeze on your grips the harder it brakes. I suppose it will help you learn to stay relaxed through white-knuckle sections. The concept might be used eventually on planes and trains. Other good news, the inventors say that it works 99.999999999997 percent of the time. Might be good to get that last bit nailed down before you take it to market, though, I suspect normal brakes actually fail a few times out of every trillion braking attempt as well.

Thanks Mike