Gecko Gloves
Having wormed my way up miles of static rope with Gibbs and Petzl Frog ascenders, my biggest desire is to do away with the rope itself. I wants me a set of Gecko gloves and booties!
Wes Phillips
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Oregon Judge Rules Fixed Gear Bicycles Illegal
Fixed gear bikes, in case you don't know, have no freewheel, which means that if the rear wheel is turning, you're peddling. There's no coasting on a fixie—and braking is a matter of leg power.
The Paping Soapbox Derby
C'mon, 'fess up—don't you wish <I>you</I> lived in Brooklyn?
"You Always Get a Subway Seat. . ."
"When you're carrying a book with the big fat title <I>Embalming</I>." Lisa Takeuchi Cullen has written a gentle update to <I>The American Way of Death</I>. Putting aside her statement that "death is a big, huge bummer," it sounds interesting.
What's a Meta For?
Metaphors help us understand the universe, but what if they're really helping us get it wrong?
The Great Bore
Another subway pun, this time the title refers to the project that created the London Underground. Must be something in the air (hah, I slay myself) today.
Underground History
Not as in counterculture, but as in the London Underground, Cool tour of unused and abandoned stations. Gosh I love this stuff—the only thing better is actually sneaking in yourself.
Medical Slang
I'm a complete sucker for jargon. Specialized vocabulary identifies you a an insider and, whether you mean it to or not, it reveals a lot about your group.
Eightfold Monomania
My buddy Jeff Wong and I were talking about the collector's mentality on one of our bike rides recently. Jeff observed that there are two major strategies for collectors who have it bad: Try to collect <I>everything</I> and the other is mine a tightly defined subgenre.
Ultimate Ears "Everybody Wins" Contest
Ultimate Ears, the headphone company that specializes in in-ear monitors such as the <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/headphones/1204ultimate/">UE-5c</A>, is developing a new model slated to join the <A HREF="http://www.ultimateears.com/superfi/superfi.htm">super.fi</A> family of products. During the prototyping period, the design crew referred to the new model as "XXX" (triple X).