Madagascar’s Charms

by Erik Olsen on

Consider the lemur. A cute furry creature with Marty Feldman eyes and a friendly disposition. They are relatives of ours, you know. Crawl back along the knotted, twisted branch of human ancestry and make your way down towards the trunk and there they are, all bug eyed and unevolved. Now consider seeing them in the wild. Hanging to with Lemurs, as it were, as if having a beer with an old friend you haven’t seen in 25 million years. That would be cool, right?

Well the only place you can do this, that is the only place these cute semi-primates live is the island of Madagascar off Africa. And that is where the author of this article went on vacation. Trekking around Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, one of the island’s few remaining primary forests, she encounters “luminous birds and fluorescent frogs”, exploding blossoms. The piece has its activist side, but it’s pretty good. Good enough, anyway, to make me consider Madagascgar as a potential destination.

The Death Valley Experience

by Erik Olsen on

It’s not the place that many people think of when it comes time to
plan vacation. But Death Valley is a great place to head right now. The diluvian
rains that fell on California this year, up to 6 inches of rain in some places, have given rise to a phantasmagoria of
colorful flora and fauna that experts say is unlike anything seen here in a century.

The
News-Leader.comcalls it
a “once-in-a-lifetime display” with so much exploding color that shutter bugs will get callouses on their fingertips.
So if Death Valley has ever been on the agenda, do it now. Get up there. Go, bring your camera and a tent and camp
under the stars. Or if you prefer, do the local hotel thing, and check out the following places. Try the
Furnace Creek Inn,
Furnace Creek Ranch, and/or the
Sunset Campground.

Best of WIN

by Best of WIN on

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a
week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to
you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You’ll find links to the hottest posts from the second week of July after the
jump. Enjoy!


The Download
Squad?s Jordan Running speculates on
when Longhorn really will ship.
Victor Agreda, Jr. turns you on to
Portable Firefox for surfing without
leaving a footprint. Barb Dybwad gives the skinny on
the latest bump to OS X 10.4.2.
Marc Perton dispels the rumor that Microsoft is buying
spyware-maker
Claria. 

Engadget?s Marc
Perton finds the ideal accessory to protect iBook and
Powerbook ports. Ryan Block spreads reports of an ultrathin
Motorola Scalpel cellhone. Vince Veneziani explains how
to build your own pedal board from scratch. Barb Dybwad
follows Robocup 2005.

Autoblog?s Eric
Bryant goes inside the 2006 COrvett Z06?s new LS7 engine,
and reports that rising fuel prices are sinking used
truck sales. Randall Halcomb thinks the ?cute? little
Nissan Micra 350SR has got cojones. John Neff reveals
that half of all hybrids sold in June were Prius?.

Joystiq?s Steve
Parsons offers Burnout Revenge eye candy. James
Ransom-Wiley solicits your great game ideas, and reports
on the San Andreas sex scandal. Conrad Quilty-Harper sheds
light on plans for the Nintendo Revolution controller.

Gadling?s Erik
Olsen covers the famous running of the bulls, rants at the
New Yorker, and ruminates on
mosquito season. Adrienne Wilson cools things off with
ice skating in Florida.

Hackaday?s Vince
Veneziani says it?s looking good that Jolt cola will sponsor the August 4
Hackaday meetup in Philly and offers another juicy set of
Hackaday links. Eliot Phillips finds a way to mod an
Epson printer to print labels directly onto CDs and
scopes out a homebrew wind turbine. 

Luxist?s Peter
Thompson is awestruck by Dubai?s Golf City. Adam Newman
showcases a $15,000 Humid?or. Rick Reed looks at
Havencrest, on the market in St. Thomas. Deidre Woollard
follows the huge Rising Sun yacht to its new home in
Cartagena, Spain.

Blogging
Baby?s Sarah Gilbert discusses stigmatization of
Moms who don?t breastfeed, and reports on a lawsuit
over a man dying during his wife?s epidural. Jay
Allen applauds Britney Spears? maternity clothing
line. Meiera Holz Stern ponders whether pink is a
no-no for boys.

Cinematical?s
Karina Longworth wonders if the
box office slump
is a political issue. Ryan Stewart revisits
Immortal Beloved.
C.K. Sample III ranks

Nice Tahoe Gallery

by Erik Olsen on

Years ago, I spent a winter working at Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe and remember the time very fondly. But while many
people know Tahoe has a winter destination, it is also a kick-ass summer spot, with fine mountain-biking and hiking, as
well as water-skiiing on the Lake (remember that scene in the Godfather of folks skiiing on the lake…for some reason
that always comes to mind).

Anyway, no big deal here, but a
pretty nice
little gallery on Tahoe can be seen at the Sac Bee (requires registration). It shows some of the summer fun at the
Lake and gives a niice taste of what a nice place it is to while away some summer days.

What Locals Love About L.A.

by Adrienne Wilson on

“The gas is almost $3, but I love it here! I’m never leaving Los Angeles!” – My Insane Travel Companion also a Los Angeles Native.

I did my time in Los Angeles, three whole years and I’d surely go back. To visit. Maybe I’ll even settle into a nest of my own again, but if it shouldn’t happen I wouldn’t die. It’s that love hate thing I’ve got going on with the city, but there are certain things that are just unbeatable when it comes to one of Southern California’s most popular and smoggy cities. Nat Geo Traveler has an excellent piece on what the locals dig. What makes the weird, diverse, and possibly normal folks happy and keeps them staying there? The list is actually 30 items deep with many of my personal favorites included like dining in Little Ethiopia, Korea Town’s karaoke favorite Brass Monkey, shopping at The Grove, and cruising the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu. These are the things I miss a lot, but what really makes me want to take a speedy road trip down I-10 is Sunday’s until sunset dancing at the drum circle in Venice Beach, the after hour reggae mixes at Dumas and of naturally my own wonderful friends.

Before I begin to go further with all the memories the article brought back I encourage you to take a look at L.A.’s greatness according to the piece at Nat Geo Traveler and the cutesy photos to go along. It’s fah-boo-lous!