“Greatest Good’ Documentary

by Erik Olsen on

First a question: under what cabinet division is the US Forest Service. If you
answered Interior (which has the National Park System, the US Geological Survey and
the Fish and Wildlife Service…well, you’re wrong). It’s Agriculture. And the DOA is an agency who’s purview is largely
an economic one, which means that when it comes to the Forest Service, the issues that the agency most often wrestles
with are ones of money, not conservation (and trust me, I worked at Interior for a few years).

But forest management issues are very complex, and over the years the agency has done a so-so job of protecting our
national forests. Some years are better than others. They themselves even refer to some periods as a shift to “the dark
side”.

If this is of interest, you might be happy to note that the agency has produced a documentary called
The Greater Good to commemorate it’s 100 years as steward of public
forest lands. You can catch a brief (very brief) glimpse of the film
here, and it will be showing at Forest Service events arond the
country. You can check out a schedule here as well.

The World’s TV: Online

by Erik Olsen on

A pretty cool new service that should help, if in just a small way, to make us better informed about the rest of the
world. According to this TV
Squad post, Jump TV, an online subscription service, will allows media
fanatics to have channels from around the globe beamed directly to your computer.  From Thai TV Global to Nepal 1
in India and TRT Int’l in Turkey, you can watch the history of global programming as it unfolds. It will cost a small
fee for each channel, but perhaps that’s a small price to pay for global enlightenment.

Chernobyl’s Charms

by Erik Olsen on

There is adventure tourism (mountain biking, etc.), there is experience tourism (cooking in Florence, etc.) and now
there is environmental disaster tourism.

The brilliant marketing folks at the Chernobyl nuclear plant have come up with a great gimmick:
walk the ruins of one of the
history’s worst environmental catastrophes! You go, we show, you’ll glow! or something like that. Maybe it sounds
better in Russian.

Anyhoodle, on a serious note, I have to say it’s fascinating that this “dark symbol of Soviet rule” as the article
puts it, has become a tourist destination. But you have to admit that the idea has an odd, kind of sick allure. I mean
Auschwitz is a tourist destination. I’ve
actually been there and it had great impact on me. So perhaps it”s not such a bad idea. What’s next, though? Perhaps,
tram rides through Falluja??

Go Abroad Young Man/Woman

by Erik Olsen on

Ever dreamt of going overseas for a year or more? Trying to live in a completely different environment than the one
you know? Living abroad is one of the best things you will ever do. I’ve lived overseas a few times, and those are some
of the best memories of my life. In fact, I am constantly thinking about how to get overseas again. I would guess that
sometime in the next five years I will have moved outside the states.

But what about you? Do you want to pick up and see another part of the world as well? Then check out this site called
Transitions Abroad. It really is the most solid and useful site out
there for would-be expatriates. There is an amazing amount of information here to help you decide where to go, what you
can/will do, how to prepare and so on. As you can probably imagine, lots of books have been written about the subject
of living abroad, and you can find many off them here as well.

In this age when America’s image seems to be suffering so badly across the globe, doesn’t it behoove us to get out
there and show the world the angels of our better nature?

The Poo Problem

by Erik Olsen on

Climbers face a lot of challenges when the decide to scale the world’s great peaks. Avalanches, grizzly bears,
altitude sickness. But few probably realize how dangerous is their own poo. Yes, I am sorry to say, but poo is
dangerous. No, it does not come alive at night and attack unsuspecting climbers when they sleep. Nor does it sometimes
explode when struck by the perfect combination of neutrinos (although scientists are currently studying this). But the
badness of poo comes from its nasty ability to harbor viruses and other nasty bugs, and this is making things
unpleasant for some climbers.

This article explains the
problem. On Mount McKinley in Alaska, the unsanitary conditions created by piles
of feces (heretofore known as Piles o’ Poo) often cause diarrhea among climbers. This, according to the report in the
journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. The numbers are clear: of 132 climbers interviewed on McKinley in the
summer of 2002, more than a quarter reported having trouble with diarrhea, and the poo is to blame. Clearly there is a
poo problem.

So what do you do? Well, it’s funny you should ask, because I have just come up with my latest a greatest new product
idea: The Poo Palace! Yes, the Poo Palace is a portable home for your poo. It looks like a regular doll-house but has a
retractable roof which is lifted and the poo is placed inside. There is poo furniture, a poo dinner table and even a
poo bean bag chair. Everything to make your poo comfortable and sanitary, therefore less prone to breed viruses or give
your poo the incentive to attack you at night (just to be safe).