Hidden or inconspicuous cameras are fairly common in businesses with security concerns. Those black balls you see in ceiling corners or hanging from stems near checkout are undoubtedly watching and recording shoppers to make sure merchandise is being paid for.
I walk toward an orange and white English setter that is as motionless as a leopard before the pounce, the dog puffing quail scent like a man drawing the flicker of life into a cigar.
To call Nims Purja an accomplished mountain climber would be a severe understatement. In 2019, he climbed all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter (26,000 feet) and above peaks in six months and six days- a speedrun never even considered before. In 2021, he led the first successful expedition up K2 in winter- without bottled oxygen. He's been to the top of Everest a half-dozen times. Purja's feats were chronicled in his book Beyond Possible and in the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.
Purja has been criticized for being a dedicated self-promoter, a social media influencer who relies on simplistic motivational aphorisms to promote his brand. But Purja's most personal business venture is based on a novel but welcome innovation: his Himalayan climbing guide company, Elite Exped, employs and partners with Nepalese Sherpas and pays them at least as much as Western mountain guides are paid, making the most skilled guides into rich men. Read a profile of Nim Purja, known as Nimsdai, and how he turned the sport and business of extreme mountain climbing on its head at GQ. -via Digg
"People variously called the house a castle, a mansion, a palace. But it reminded me of the badger sett," Prince Harry wrote. "Dark, claustrophobic. I walked around saying, ‘The King lived here, you say? Really?’"
In the book, Prince Harry quipped that whoever picked out the decor of the famous residence must have been on drugs.
Prince Harry recalled, "I stood in one tiny room with loud furniture and shag carpet and thought, ‘The King’s interior designer must have been on acid.’"
The immensely popular tourist attraction attracts more than 600,000 visitors a year, according to the property, and features some 200,000 square feet of entertainment space, restaurants, gift shops and more.
It is the second most-visited house in the country, behind only the White House.
Now that Instagram has transformed into a short-form video platform geared towards creators and influencers looking to go viral, where do we hobbyists and enthusiasts share our photos and find other photographers?
The film photography revival is going strong but these pictures don’t just magically appear out of thin air! Eventually you need to develop your film so I put together this step-by-step guide to process black and white negatives at home. It’s easier than you might think!
If you’re someone who loves listening to music through a pair of headphones, then listen up. The new FiiO K7 desktop headphone amplifier that’s ideal for listening to music at a desk or for enjoying tunes late at night without disturbing others.
Here’s your periodical reminder to be careful of which foods you bring to the airport. Especially if you’re traveling internationally, customs has a lot of restrictions on what can and can’t pass through security—even a half-eaten Subway sandwich can cost you $2,000 in fines if forgotten in your luggage. And if you’re…
There’s nothing quite like being a brand ambassador—particularly if it allows you to drive around the country greeting the masses in a giant peanut-shaped vehicle. Planters (of Mr. Peanut fame) recently posted a job listing for three Planters Brand Peanutters, a role “for those wanting a crack at their next nutty…
This new tool by the Clearer Thinking team helped me discover and build a list of my own guiding principles. Your principles are what guides you when making decisions and if you know what they are, you can have less anxiety surrounding decisions and make them faster. Here are a few questions and principles that influence my decisions:
Choose life-expanding choices over comfort.
Ask yourself how this serves your growth.
Can I accept the consequences of this choice? If I can, that is true freedom.
What would my fully-actualized self do?
When in doubt, opt for the natural path over the forced path.
— CD
Peculiar, charming film
Here is an uplifting, charming film that should not work, but does. It is a live-action film with a talking sea shell as the hero. Marcel-the-shell overcomes disabilities (he is just a sea shell!) to reunite his lost family. It’s adorable, strange, inventive, weird, and heartwarming. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On began real life as a YouTube short that went viral, and was turned into a feature film with expert stop-motion effects. It’s so odd, but joyful, you won’t forget it. Available for rental ($6) on all the commercial video streams. — KK
Best coffee creamer
I usually like my espresso black, but lately I’ve been adding Peak evaporated full cream milk. Unlike most canned evaporated milk, which has added sugar and thickeners, Peak contains nothing but milk, minus a lot of the water. It tastes delicious, more so than half and half, and a little amount is all I need to lighten my coffee. — MF
Personal annual report
Rather than making new year’s resolutions, I answered these seven pairs of questions, structured as a “Personal Annual Report” in this downloadable PDF created by Shane Parrish at Farnam Street. For instance, “What can I do this year that will leave me in a better position for next year?” The quick exercise is worth doing once a year. — KK
Museum of Failure
The Museum of Failure is a collection of failed products and services from all over the world. It’s kind of weird, kind of sad, kind of funny. You can check out the collection here. — CD
Top year-end lists
Here are a few of my favorite end-of-year lists, with two samples from each:
“Keep your identity small. ‘I’m not the kind of person who does things like that’ is not an explanation, it’s a trap. It prevents nerds from working out and men from dancing.“
“Cultivate compassion for those less intelligent than you. Many people, through no fault of their own, can’t handle forms, scammers, or complex situations. Be kind to them because the world is not.”
“Channel your discontent into an immediate positive action—make some calls about new job opportunities, or walk to the community center to volunteer.”
“Remind yourself these are your only three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it. These acts create happiness; holding onto bitterness never does.”
If traveling is on your to-do list in the new year, one place worth exploring is Phoenix, Arizona. The city provides the perfect blend of urban life tucked inside a postcard-like exhibit of Mother Nature at her finest. Whether you’re in town for the Super Bowl or hoping to hike one of the country’s most…
Whitewall tires like those offered by companies like Shinko were not the first thing that came to mind when I considered new tires for my 2011 Harley-Davidson Blackline. Normally I look for a black set that balances the line between cheap and reliable, but the whitewalls pulled me in like a tractor beam, so I thought I would give them a shot.
Most of the riding I do is cruising around rural roads in western Minnesota, and these new tires required a test that only our fair state could offer. Cold winters and hot summers are tough on our roads, creating plenty of bumps and potholes for riders to evade.
When the Shinko White Wall SR777 tires arrived, since it was my first time with whitewalls, it came as a shock to find that the white was actually a vibrant blue. Turns out the “blue” was a thin layer of soapy material that protects the whitewalls during shipping. My set was installed by Motoprimo Motorsports, and they cleaned the tires before installation.
Shinko White Wall SR777 Tires on a 2011 Harley-Davidson Blackline
The install was just in time for a three-day, 1,000-mile ride up through the center of Minnesota, from Minneapolis to International Falls. Conditions included rain and mist, temperatures of 50-85 degrees, and even a few gravel farm roads. The tires delivered a comfortable ride and provided much-needed confidence that I didn’t know I was missing. Cornering felt smooth – as did swerving, especially when evading road obstructions and the occasional deer. The tires dealt with the distressed roads well, dampening the worst of the bumps and buckled asphalt. Wet roads did not have a negative effect on grip, though I didn’t feel the need to push that threshold too much.
When new, the white on the tires is bright, and it stayed that way for the duration of my trip, which was surprising considering the dust and debris that accumulated on them. Though the tires require a little more maintenance to keep clean, it is well worth it if you want your bike to stand out amongst the common rabble.
Shinko tires are designed in Japan, manufactured in South Korea, and distributed by Western Power Sports. Shinko constructs a range of street, off-road, dual-sport, and scooter tires. SR777 cruiser tires are available in White Wall and Black Wall versions in a wide range of sizes starting at $96.95 for front tires and $156.95 for rears.
They feature an aramid belt, and a Heavy Duty version with a reinforced carcass is also available. For riders who want a stylish, sturdy, and comfortable tire, they’re a good choice.
On Day 1, riding the “Goat Road” (A-4050) through Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama Natural Park on our way to Granada.
Every international motorcycle tour is special, but none is as memorable as your first one. For my wife, Carrie, and me, our first international tour was in 2010 – a two-week tour of Spain and Portugal with IMTBike, a motorcycle tour and rental company based in Spain with office locations in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Málaga, and Lisbon, Portugal.
Carrie and I have had the good fortune to go on many international motorcycle tours together. Riding two-up, mostly on a big BMW GS, we’ve explored a dozen countries in Europe, as well as Canada and Ecuador. We got engaged at the top of Stelvio Pass in the Alps and spent our honeymoon on a tour in Norway. But for that first tour, our guides were Scott Moreno, IMTBike’s founder and CEO, and “Super” Chano Lorenzo, IMTBike’s longest serving guide, who’s been with the company since 1998.
Like old friends, Scott and Chano shared their unabashed love and deep knowledge of Spain and Portugal with everyone in our group, treating each one of us as special and taking time to get to know us so they could tailor the tour experience to our particular needs or desires.
Chano is part toro.
Wake-Up Call
Of all the tours Carrie and I have been on, our most embarrassing moment happened on Day 1 of that first tour in 2010 – before we had even gotten on the bike. While enjoying ourselves at the festive welcome dinner the night before, we imbibed a bit too much vino tinto. When we got back to the hotel, feeling the effects of jetlag and the wine, we decided to wake up early to pack and get ready for the tour. I set my alarm, and we went to bed.
With the curtains drawn to block out the city lights of Madrid, I was jolted awake by the phone. It was Chano. “Buenos dias, Greg! It’s nine o’ clock, and everyone is on the bus, waiting to go. Are you ready?”
Mierda! I had gotten the a.m./p.m. mixed up on my phone’s alarm.
“I’m soooooo sorry! We overslept!”
“Don’t worry, that means you were relaxed! Scott will head over on the bus with the others and start the bike handover. I’m downstairs with everyone’s luggage in the van. I’ll wait for you.”
Hungover with throbbing headaches, our pulses racing, we threw everything into our luggage and suited up in our riding gear as fast as we could. Carrie and I are both fastidious Type A people, and we hate being late. We did the walk of shame out to the van, only to find Chano with a big smile on his face as he reassured us, “Is no problem!”
And it wasn’t. As embarrassed as we were, Chano and Scott just rolled with the situation. Our blunder was the source of playful ribbing throughout the tour, an inside joke we still share to this day. And we learned our lesson – in nearly 100 days we’ve spent on overseas motorcycle tours since that first morning, we have not been late once, and we’re often the first people on the bikes in the morning, ready to go.
A Very Good Year
The rolling hills in the Andalusia region are covered with millions of olive trees. (Photo by Carrie Drevenstedt)
Like all motorcycle tour companies, the pandemic was a gut punch to IMTBike. Covid restrictions meant the company couldn’t run tours for more than a year, but Moreno kept his team on the payroll, and they used the downtime to refresh, refine, and expand their tour offerings. IMTBike specializes in tours of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), but it also offers tours in France, Italy, the Alps, and Morocco, as well as MotoGP tours (Catalunya, Jerez, and Valencia) and tours in Turkey, Thailand, Japan, and New Zealand.
IMTBike resumed its tours in 2021, the same year it earned a coveted Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best award. In 2022, IMTBike celebrated its 25th anniversary, and Scott personally invited Carrie and me to join him and Chano on the Southern Spain Andalusia tour.
As much as we were looking forward to getting the band back together for a reunion tour, a family emergency precluded Scott from joining us. Chano served as head guide, and our consolation prize was Paolo Pezzoli, a young, energetic Italian who was new to the IMTBike team.
The Southern Spain Andalusia tour hits the sweet spot – not too short or too long, not too easy or too challenging, and just right in terms of daily mileage, choice of roads, scenery, sightseeing, and accommodations. The tour is nine days, with six riding days, one rest day, and travel days on each end. It starts and ends in Málaga, a city on Spain’s Mediterranean Costa Del Sol (Sun Coast), and includes stops in Granada, Córdoba, Seville (rest day), Arcos de la Frontera, and Ronda.
Carrie and I arrived a day early to shake off our jetlag and spend a day exploring Málaga, which was founded in 770 B.C. and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. IMTBike booked a modern, stylish hotel that’s a short walk to the heart of the city. We visited the 19th-century Atarazanas Market, the 14th-century Cathedral of Málaga, and the 11th-century Alcazaba, a Moorish palatial fortress perched on a hill overlooking the city and coast.
The Renaissance-style Cathedral of Málaga was built between 1528 and 1782 but is technically unfinished since the tower on the right is incomplete.
After our walking tour – which included a stop at a busy sidewalk cafe for tapas, sangria, and people-watching – we met the tour group in the hotel’s bar. Over beers and wine, we met Lonny and Linda, a couple from Idaho; Kobus and Magda, a couple from South Africa; Bernard, a solo rider from Canada; and Oliver, a solo rider from Dominican Republic. Each of us took turns telling the group a little about ourselves, and Chano gave us an overview of the tour and rules of the road in Spain.
To keep us connected, IMTBike set up a group on WhatsApp so we could send text messages, live locations, photos, and more via Wi-Fi. We also received links to the tour’s daily routes on Google Maps and to a Google Drive folder so we could upload and share our photos.
Following the briefing, we walked to dinner. Spain is known for its afternoon siestas and late-night dinners, and in the evenings, the streets of cities we visited were bustling with locals and tourists, young and old and everything in between. Our tour was in October, with mild days and cool nights – ideal for strolling on cobblestoned and tiled sidewalks that are hundreds of years old, their surfaces worn smooth by millions of footsteps. Our welcome dinner was at a restaurant handpicked by IMTBike, and Chano got us started by ordering Iberian ham, cheese, and wine for the table. Everyone was in good spirits as we broke bread and got to know each other.
Up, Up, and Away
Our crew (plus Paolo behind the lens) enjoying a short break overlooking Arcos de la Frontera. We stayed in a historic Parador situated on the edge of the cliff in the background. (Photo by Paolo Pezzoli)
Carrie and I woke up early, enjoyed a decadent breakfast at the hotel, brought our luggage down, and walked outside to find two R 1250 RTs, three R 1250 GSs, and an F 850 GS lined up on the sidewalk. IMTBike is an official partner of BMW Motorrad, and it owns the world’s largest fleet of BMW motorcycles (more than 200 at last count). Bikes available to rent range from the G 310 R to the K 1600 GT, and all are outfitted with a top case and side cases; a GPS unit is optional. Our group was followed by a support van that carried luggage and a spare bike.
Grazalema is one of the many Pueblos Blancos (White Towns) tucked into the mountains of Andalusia.
On our first tour in 2010, Carrie and I described Spain as “California with castles.” The coastal areas of Southern Spain and Southern California have mild Mediterranean climates as well as rugged mountains that rise dramatically from the sea. Within minutes of leaving Málaga, we climbed up, up, up into the mountains on a tight, steep, endlessly curving road that kept us on our toes. After a midmorning coffee stop, we rode back down to the coast to have delicious paella right next to the beach. We ascended into the mountains again on a narrow lane carved into the rock known as the “Goat Road,” arriving in Granada in time to explore the city’s old quarter before meeting up for a gourmet dinner at one of the best restaurants in the city.
Paella, made with rice, saffron, seafood, and chicken, is one of Spain’s most emblematic dishes.
From Granada, we got full use of our tires and leaned deeply through the curves of a shaded canyon before popping out into the high plains, where we got a bird’s eye view of the village of La Peza from an overlook. We rode through endless olive groves and visited the Núñez de Prado organic olive oil factory in Baena, where the olives are crushed by enormous stone mills to extract the “flower” and first cold pressing of extra virgin olive oil.
Large cone-shaped stones are used to crush olives at the Núñez de Prado olive oil factory in Baena.
After lunch in the Baena town square, we rode to Córdoba, home to more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other city. It was a hot afternoon, so we cooled off in the rooftop pool overlooking the Guadalquivir River and the city. We explored the narrow, cobblestoned streets and visited the stunning Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba. At an outdoor cafe, Carrie and I joined Lonny and Linda for sangria, and then we enjoyed a family-style dinner with the group at a local restaurant.
Inside the incomparable Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that blends Moorish and Renaissance architectural styles.
On our third day, we rode from Córdoba to Seville on a series of backroads that seemed tailor-made for motorcyclists. Spain is a motorcycle-mad country, and you can’t help but think that civil engineers said to themselves, “Let’s make these curves flow with a nice rhythm. We’ll give them a consistent radius, good banking, and smooth pavement. Riders will love it!”
After winding through farmland with rolling hills filled with oak and cork trees, herds of sheep, and black Iberian pigs (the source of highly prized jamón pata negra), we rode over the Sierra Morena mountains and back down into the Guadalquivir River valley and the magnificent city of Seville.
Plaza de España in Seville.
We arrived with a few hours to unwind, relax, and explore before dinner. We walked from the hotel to an old restaurant decorated with bullfighting memorabilia, and we enjoyed vino tinto and plates of jamón, queso, ensalada mixta, and other delicacies, all topped off with a variety of diet-busting sweets and little glasses of house-made liqueur.
Caves, Coffee, and Cava … IMTBike Style
After a rest day exploring the wonderful city of Seville and a mesmerizing flamenco show, we continued our meandering lap around Andalusia. We rode through rolling hills of olive trees and passed several of the region’s iconic Pueblos Blancos (White Towns), where all the houses and buildings have whitewashed walls and terra cotta tile roofs. We stopped for lunch in Setenil de las Bodegas, a town built along a small canyon with houses and shops built into the hollowed out limestone caves on both sides of the river.
Houses and shops in Setenil de las Bodegas are built into limestone caves along the river.
Next up was the most impressive road of the trip, an Alps-like climb from the valley to 4,452-foot Palomas Pass. We descended an equally winding and scenic road and made our way to Arcos de la Frontera, an old town built high on a limestone promontory. De la Frontera means “on the frontier,” so named because Arcos was on the frontlines of Spain’s 13th-century battle with the Moors. Perched on the edge of the cliff overlooking the Guadalete River, our hotel was a Parador, one of roughly 100 hotels managed by Spain that are in buildings of historical, artistic, or cultural interest.
The winding road up to Palomas Pass reminded us of the Alps.
Leaving Arcos de la Frontera, we rode under the flying buttresses of the cathedral and descended steep, narrow cobblestone streets made damp by overnight rains. We continued our ride along La Ruta de los Pueblos Blancos (Route of the White Towns) where whitewashed villages on the mountainsides stand out like large polka dots on the green landscape. We rode into Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park and wound our way up to El Boyar Pass on our way to our morning coffee stop in a bustling town square.
In Arcos de la Frontera, we stayed in a Parador across from the 15th-century Basílica de Santa María de la Asunción. Its flying buttresses tower over the narrow road that leads into the town’s old quarter.
Every day, we rode up and down on small mountain roads and through idyllic agricultural plains. Traffic was minimal, and the rugged, old-world scenery was enchanting. On our fifth riding day, we enjoyed more fast and fun roads in the afternoon as we made our way to Ronda, a city perched high on both sides of the Tajo gorge carved by the Guadelevin River. We stayed in a Parador on the edge of a cliff overlooking the “new” 300-year-old bridge over the gorge (the old bridge was built during the Roman Empire).
Our second clifftop Parador of the tour was in Ronda, overlooking the “new” bridge and the Tajo gorge.
We started our last day of the tour with a beautiful sunrise over Ronda. We rode east into the rugged granite mountains of Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park, winding our way through canyons and over passes toward El Burgo.
Sunrise over Ronda.
It was Saturday, and we stopped for coffee at a popular meet-up spot for motorcyclists, its tables abuzz with riders and its parking lot full of bikes. The final highlight of the tour was a ride up to El Torcal de Antequera, a mountain ridge covered in unusual karst rock formations that reminded us of Joshua Tree National Park seen through the eyes of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.
Having fun during a coffee stop.
We descended more narrow, twisty roads back to Málaga, where we turned in our BMWs at IMTBike’s warehouse and toasted a celebratory glass of cava. After drinks and laughs on the hotel’s patio, we enjoyed a festive farewell dinner at another wonderful restaurant.
Admiring the view from El Boyar Pass in Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park. The Mediterranean Sea is visible on a clear day.
The week went by fast, a sure sign of how much fun we had. Chano and Paolo were a constant source of charm and good humor, and they did a lot of work behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. Our small group bonded quickly, and even months after the tour, we still send messages via WhatsApp to stay in touch.
Lonny and Linda, a delightful couple from Idaho, enjoy a scenic ride through Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park.
If you love good roads, good food and wine, and nice accommodations, as well as history, architecture, and rugged mountain scenery, this tour is for you. Just try not to oversleep.
On the last day of the tour, we rode through El Torcal de Antequera, a natural reserve that protects a mountaintop covered in unusual rock formations.
The 2023 Southern Spain Andalusia tours run March 11-19, April 15-23, and Oct. 14-22. Visit the IMTBike website for more info.
The Sentinel Chickens are performing their protective duty in New South Wales, Australia, but it's nothing like what a guard dog would do. In fact, it's more like the canary in a coal mine scenario, except for the fact that these chickens send a warning of danger not by dying, but by having their blood drawn once a week to check for specific antibodies. It's an all-around cushy job for a chicken, spending all their time doing important chicken things in a yard and eating, right up until the time they develop permanent antibodies for some mosquito-borne disease. Then the chickens are sent off to who knows where; let's hope it's a free-range egg-producing farm or backyard coop instead of someone's frying pan. After all, they've done their bit to safeguard humanity. The chickens were already unlucky enough to be in a place where they're going to get bitten by mosquitoes constantly. Tom Scott explains the procedure, and you can read more about it at NSW Health.
Ready to get your creative juices flowing? Origami is a great way to stretch those brain muscles with a new skill, beat boredom and make beautiful art! Plus, research shows that engaging with the arts — whether it’s creating your own, visiting an art gallery, or even browsing a museum virtually — can lower your risk…
Sadly, crystallized honey is often mistaken for honey that has "gone bad." Instead, the sugars in the honey have simply arranged themselves into crystals, a completely normal process. It's delicious!
Once unimaginable, buying stuff online has now become a way of life. We now buy groceries, food, tickets, and even cars online. Almost 30% of U.S. new car sales last year were completed online. This goes to show just how far we’ve come. But when buying things online, it’s important to be very careful. Buying […]
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, but the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
Worms convert kitchen scraps into highpotency garden fertilizer. In the process they multiply, and can be used for fish bait or for chicken snacks. The worms reduce your trash load. The fancy name for this is “vermicomposting.” It requires little beyond a modified wooden box or plastic tub in the kitchen, basement or backyard. This perennially best-selling, and now up-dated, book will tell you all. Wormpoop.com is an all-worms site that sells worms (by the pound) and worm poop fertilizer (by the gallon), and worm raising information and supplies. – KK
Whichever you start with, breeders or bedrun, when they produce more worms than the garbage you are feeding them will support, many will get smaller, some will slow reproduction, and others will die. Eventually, no matter how many worms you start with, the population will stabilize at about the biomass that can be supported by the amount of food they receive.
Any vegetable waste that you generate during food preparation can be used, such as potato peels, grapefruit and orange rinds, outer leaves of lettuce and cabbage, celery ends, and so forth. Plate scrapings might include macaroni, spaghetti, gravy, vegetables, or potatoes. Spoiled food from the refrigerator, such as baked beans, moldy cottage cheese, and leftover casserole also can go into the worm bin. Coffee grounds are very good in a worm bin, enhancing the texture of the final vermicompost. Tea leaves, even tea bags and coffee filters, are suitable.
Still another method for harvesting worms is the divide and dump technique. You simply remove about two-thirds of your vermicompost and dump it directly onto your garden’s surface. No digging nor turning; no muss, no fuss. Add fresh bedding to the vermicompost still left in the box. Enough worms and cocoons usually remain there to populate the system for another cycle.
From Wormpoop.com. The worm bed is 36” high (about waist level), reducing stress on the back and legs from bending. This worm bed has four removable partitions for easy access for feeding and harvesting the worms and wormpoop castings (also called Vermicompost). It allows the person working with the worms to do so with less effort. It also helps reduce the workload when harvesting the worms. Adding Vermicompost to soils aids in erosion control, promotes soil fertility, stimulates healthy root development in plants. This life cycle is the process of things being born, living, dying, and being reborn again. This is nature’s way of recycling and keeping the earth in balance.
This is a great composter, made out of a recycled pickle drum. It comes via UPS and you assemble it. It has endover- end tumbling action (unlike the larger, more expensive drums that roll horizontally) and it has solved the problem I’ve had for years of composting kitchen scraps and fending off coons, skunks, foxes, and possums. Here it’s locked up and impenetrable. It takes a while to get it working right, with the proper amounts of green stuff, dry stuff, and soil organisms. I’ve transferred some worms from my old compost bin into it, to get them processing the organic matter. – Lloyd Kahn
I was more burdened by wet garbage than I thought, and more relieved than I expected by a fiendishly simple device called the Green Cone.
Regular composters are notoriously picky: no bones, no meat, no oil, no avocado pits or shells, no citrus peels, no dairy products. The Green Cone happily devours all that stuff, which means that pretty much all your kitchen waste can go in it, right now. File and forget.
All you need is some yard and a spot that gets sunshine. The Cone’s perforated plastic basket is sunk two feet into the ground. The Cone stands 28 inches above the ground, collecting sun warmth to encourage the bacteria down below who are chowing on the garbage and seeping the resultant nutrients into the soil. Thanks to the ground seal around the basket, there’s no smell at all, except when you open the top of the Cone to add more yummy garbage for the microbes.
Garden wastes should not go in the Cone, because they would overwhelm it with volume. Nor should paper or plastic products, which is about all you’ll have left in your now light and odorless kitchen trash bin. – Stewart Brand
The vaccine is intended to help honeybees—one species of pollinators at risk of extinction, facing habitat loss and other threats—fight back against American foulbrood, a destructive and deadly disease that can wipe out entire bee colonies. American foulbrood spreads through spores and kills bees when they’re still in a pupal stage, essentially eliminating the bee larvae, turning it dark brown and rotten.
But this new vaccine works by cutting off the spores at the source. Rather than injecting the bees with miniscule syringes, the vaccine is fed to the bees and ultimately made into a sugar substance, irresistible to bees: royal jelly, like bee candy. Beekeepers would mix the vaccine into food fed to the worker bees, who then secrete royal jelly for their queen to feast on. Once the queen has ingested the vaccine, it will spread to her ovaries, where developing bee larvae will be exposed to the vaccine, and they will be born with immunity to the disease.
Once it’s widely released, the vaccine could be a lifesaver—literally—for beekeepers, who presently have to rely on antibiotic treatments with limited success. Trevor Tauzer, owner of Tauzer Apiaries and a board member with the California State Beekeepers Association, said in a statement that such a vaccine would prevent other treatments, such as burning entire infected colonies, as well as all equipment used in their handling. “If we can prevent an infection in our hives, we can avoid costly treatments and focus our energy on other important elements of keeping our bees healthy.”
The vaccine currently has conditional approval for two years. Dalan plans to release the vaccine to a small number of commercial beekeepers over the 2023 season. From there, Delaplane hopes to move from bacterial diseases, such as American Foulbrood, to viral infections, which are tougher to vaccinate against. “It is trickier to create inherited immunity with viruses, yet viruses are front and center in all literature about bee health problems,” he said in a statement. “They have proven to be an intractable problem—my hope is that this partnership can lead to a viral vaccine.”
Built over two decades ago, this original Icon build is back in the hands of co-founder Jonathan Ward.
Setting up in under 3 minutes and weighing under 60 lbs, the SweatTent is an on-the-go sauna.
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Distilled in Barbados and dating to 1780, this light spirit is among the world's oldest rums.