hobolinks :: September :: 2006

Another wild kingdom discovery: tarantulas secrete silk from their feet. The ability may even predate web spinning, but has gone unnoticed until now.

This is a popular story right now: it’s been discovered that the parasitic dodder plant smells it’s prey, and prefers some smells to others.

After reading the talking points and ways and means testimony I’m still not sure what exactly the Bike Commuter Act would do, besides provide $78 million in “incentives” to bike commuters in the next 5 years. Good enough? Comment here.

I was looking for a quickie tool for building a custom Google map. Of course I found this after I’d already done the job, but it looks like it would work.

I climbed this symbolic landmark in high school, and have wanted to do it again for years now. Mark Jenkins, a writer from my hometown of Laramie, Wyoming, writes a nice portrait of the place.

(Via Gadling)

“People should be skeptical,” said one of the ornithologists involved.

Always nice to catch a slideshow of some of the best outdoor photography around.

(Via GoBlog)

This javascript app is the best topo work I’ve seen – I think he downloaded all the tile images and wrote code to stitch them together. Aside from the downloaded tiles it’s not really a mashup – there’s no Google map or other scripts used that I see.

The article says that Nepal has lost half of its conservation expertise in this mountain accident.

The Access Fund is reporting the formation of a coalition of human-powered outdoor recreation groups called the Outdoor Alliance. No word on what it will do yet, besides “advocate”, but I hope I hear more about it in the future.

Walking apparently doesn’t improve fitness after all. Oh well, there’s always the bike.

Sounds fun to me.

(Via Best Hikes)

Satellite imagery has revealed an ice-free path from northern Europe to the North Pole. It’s the first time such a thing has been recorded. Storms may have had something to do with it, but once the ice is broken the water absorbs more solar energy, making it more likely to happen again.

This new Google Maps Mashup is another site taking aim at created a community-supported trail map database. The lack of topos is a problem for outdoor users, but otherwise it looks like a good interface.

(Via Progammable Web)

Renata Chlumska has biked and kayaked 11,000 miles around the continental U.S. My own perimeter bike tour tallied to 13,400 miles – I wonder if she’s shorting herself?

The report from US-based Conservation International includes a species of shark that walks on its fins. The group worries that local fishing practices that make use of explosives and cyanide threatens the diversity of the area.

These crazy Auzzies have their motivation cranked way up for all sorts of outdoor endeavors. They provide a stoker for small, passion-funded expeditions – very nice.

I picked Sidewinder’s trail journal among this year’s batch of Continental Divide Trail hikers to follow, and it’s been a good one. He’s done the trail with flair, including the finish, which was highlighted by a high-altitude dog rescue.

I was exploring a local crag without a guidebook last night when I met some guys from California looking through a sheaf of papers. The had printed a guide from Dr. Topo, a site I had heard of but forgotten about. Nice to find some beta on a crag that would be a total mystery otherwise.

It’s like a mini daddy longlegs. Sonny longlegs?