Creature Feature: Mosquitoes

by Erik Olsen on

I am sitting here writing right now trying to
focus on the words I want to use, but distracted by several raw welts on my legs, back and neck. It is mosquito season,
and the little bastards are out in full force right now.  I hate them. I loathe them with every fiber of my being
(and even some other fiber that I have outside my being). Mosquitoes are unstoppable foes. Sure, you can use DEET or
some other repellant, but that never stops them completely. And worse, once you are bit there is little you can do to
stop the itching.

What is going on here? We’re a modern civilization. We’ve gone to the moon, bitch-smacked a comet, created television,
the Internet, this creepy Japanese replicant and we can’t
get rid of a single annoying little bug? (OK, there are bazillions of them, but still, you get the point).

Well, this little pest, one of the world’s most formidable disease carriers, has had millions of years to perfect its
blood-sucking tools. Perhaps it is too much to ask of a species a mere few hundred thousand years old to take them on.
But we try.

Well, in the name of helping fellow gadling readers to learn more about the mosquito, I am posting some links about
the mosquito. From the biology of these pesky bugs, to articles on DEET and the ineffectiveness of bug zappers, there
is more than enough here to keep mosquito haters both well-informed and frustrated that no real solution to the
mosquito problem is on the horizon. So click on and enjoy!

  • A well-done site that looks at mosquto biology and efforts
    to stop the pest.

  • All about DEET, pretty much the only known effective repellant

  • Mosquito, the
    Book    . One of the best histories of the mosquiito out there (yes, I’ve read it. It is superb)

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!

Gadling Week in Review

by Erik Olsen on

Hey folks, we’re going to start taking a look at some of our favorite posts for a week and calling attention to
them. It’s hard sometimes to visit a blog everyday to keep up with it, so our intention, along with the Best of WIN
features, is to highlight a few we think are worth reading. So here goes:

1. We started a new Flickr group for photo-happy
vagabonds to submit to, and have already selected several for our Photo of the Day (keep em coming!).

3. We reminded folks to go out and get the June 27 issue
of the New Yorker for the excellent Poppa Neutrino article. He’s quirky fellow who is trying to sail across the Pacific
on a trash raft. We also took a couple swipes at the New
Yorker for the sad state of their Web site. Tilting at windmills, perhaps, but we hope they’ll listen.

4. The Bulls are Running again in Pamplona, and
Dennis Rodman is running with them.

5. A fine new adventure travel/sports magazine called
Stellar made its debut. We gushed. Check it out here.

6. Put your own photo on bona-fide stamps. I think this
is really cool and even ordered a sheet to try it out.

7. Food fiends that we are, we got fired up about the World
Spice Summit in Sri Lanka.

Salmon Fiends

by Erik Olsen on

Oh, luscious wonderful salmon. How often do I dream of gnawing
your succulent pink meat!

 — anonymous

Having spent a fair amount of time in the Northwest, I have a salmon fixation. Smoked, baked, turned into soup, fried,
grilled. Just thinking about it makes me want to head to Ivars (bizarrely, no
mention of this fishy institution in the piece). But would I be willing to do a roadtrip through salmon country just to
dine on this king of fishes? Why, yes I would. Absolutely.

But the writer of this New York
Times article beat me to it. Heading out from Seattle to Vancouver via the state’s backroads and through some of
its great little towns, the author delivers a hefty dose of Northwest history while keeping his eye firmly on matters
of salmon. It reminded me a bit of a shorter version of the Tim Egan classic (a must read for all bona-fide and
would-be Northwesterners)

The Good Rain. The article covers many of the great NW spots: Pike Place Market, Neah Bay and Port Townsend, Port
Angeles.

Makes me miss the Northwest right now, mid-July, when the palce is heaven on earth.