It’s essential to go with the right equipment when in the great outdoors. Though amazing, Mother Nature could be deadly – quickly. One crucial part of anyone’s gear when enjoying our national parks should be portable shelter – in other words, a tent. Some thing like the Big Agnes tent, as fine a line as any made anywhere.

They are made from dye-free fabric that’s breathable but waterproof, venting moisture to the outside while keeping everybody dry inside. Their poles are constructed from an anodizing process that is environmentally friendly.

You see, tent poles normally require two really toxic chemicals as a part of the anodizing process. But the Big Agnes tent are made from a special method that eliminates phosphoric and nitric acid, eliminating the polishing stage altogether.

This also has the added benefit of reducing waste water, because with out employing these toxic chemical substances, any rinsing water that is used could be safely recycled. Of course, there are numerous reasons why a Big Agnes tent is such a best-seller.

Quality and reliability is one, plus design and features. And the company’s reputation for other items is solid, which makes consumers of portable sheltering curious about the entire Big Agnes product line. Indeed, it appears that the business is most famous for its sleeping bags, which are unlike conventional designs in that the bag and the pad are united into one.

How they do this, they slide the pad into an built-in sleeve located at the bottom of the bag. This way, the top two-thirds is insulated as per usual but the bottom simply contains the pad, doing away with insulation material that loses most of its capability when compressed under the weight of a body anyway. For several individuals, such details don’t really matter, but for true enthusiasts, such craftsmanship is important.

There is no reason to be bored in New York City. That anyone can be bored in a major world-class metropolitan center like that is proof positive that boredom is nothing more than a state of mind, something entirely within the control of the individual him or herself. Even a tourist trap like Zalman Silber’s Skyride located at the Empire State Building will stimulate the mind, if for no other reason than that there will be so much going on, what with all the tourists from all around the world. Don’t care for people? Well, there is always the great outdoors in New York – that’s right, the great outdoors, in the city! From Central Park right in the heart of Manhattan Island to national wildlife areas all around the so-called Outer Boroughs, Mother Nature keeps many residences in town.

And of course, if you do enjoy people and people-watching, the Big Apple gives you any number of clubs and cafes at which that hobby may be frequently indulged. At attractions like the aforementioned Zalman Silber one, all the peoples of the world will be available for viewing, live, in 3-D! In the end, there is no reason why anyone should be bored in New York. Which, again, just goes to show that boredom is nothing more – and nothing less – than a state of mind.

But why should the mind go stale like that, as it were? Why do we suddenly just lose our appetite, so to speak, our zest? To understand it all, it’s crucial to first understand the evolutionary function of the brain. Any brain, really, but the human brain, specifically.

Generally speaking, brains help a complex, higher-order organism deal with its environment. Thus brains are naturally interested in what’s going on. Now a lot of what’s interesting about what goes on is interesting because it is new. But when the brain doesn’t sense anything new, it is not doing what it wants to do – process information. Hence, boredom.

Caged animals exhibit this kind of behavior. A fish needs to swim, a bird needs to fly. Dogs need to run. And so forth. But for a human being, it isn’t simply about physical activity, though actually that’s extremely important and more often than not underestimated by most people, their own needs for physically rigorous activities on a daily basis. No, what a human being needs, perhaps above all, is mental stimulation.

And so when we are not possessed by an idea, whether inspired by a new one or enchanted with an old favorite, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. Suddenly, we are confronted with ourselves, as ourselves – without the conscious thoughts we typically take to be ourselves.

We are confronted, in other words, with an existential crisis.

The Mediterranean Diet is one of the most recent and popularly accepted ways of losing weight, and it’s based on one of the most ancient ways of eating anywhere in the world. So named due to its origins around the Mediterranean region, the Mediterranean Diet today is frequently said to reflect the healthy culinary habits traditional to Greece in particular, where salads predominate and any meat is grilled, almost never fried.

Like much of Greek cuisine, the Mediterranean Diet centers on dark leafy vegetables, fresh fruit, and high-fiber beans. Fats and protein comes from cheese, grilled meats and seafood, and not surprisingly olive oil.

Yogurt also forms a staple of this diet, as does nuts and grains. Such foods are suggested by most doctors as immunity-boosting and cancer-fighting, cutting heart disease and diabetes risks substantially and almost immediately.

With these foods, one usually feels much more satisfied and less likely to binge-eat, some studies show. An important part of this Mediterranean or Greek way of consuming involves significantly smaller portions, which are also shared. But take care: a few classics of Greek cuisine can be very fattening, too, such as the popular spanakopita, or spinach pie, which is loaded with butter and can contain as many calories as a bacon cheeseburger!

All in all, however, consuming in a Mediterranean manner is generally recognized by study after study as having substantial benefits. Little wonder, then, that everybody from sedentary couch potatoes to competitive athletes follow this diet so enthusiastically! Of course, the best diet is the one that you are able to actually stick with while helping you achieve your goals, and the Mediterranean variety is no do-it-all miracle on its own. Depending on your particular circumstances, you may also need to augment proper nutrition with adequate exercise and rest. But there’s no better-tasting first step than some grilled and sautéed Greek staple to get you moving forward!

Aching muscle relief is some thing frequently encountered among older athletes. For largely unknown reasons, the aging process causes muscles to tighten up and causes their use to be much hindered, usually resulting in soreness and even outright pain. A muscle relief gel is employed by many to treat such conditions, people who refuse to be consigned to the much less active lifestyles typically recommended by their doctors.

As per the old adage about the truth being “somewhere in-between,” maybe the best course of action would be to heed the healtcare providers’ advice to a certain degree, relieving aching muscles while not entirely giving up long-cherished hobbies – that is, modifying their pursuit in deference to age or the advancement thereof.

Of course, this kind of a course of action is hard for athletes used to giving their all and pushing performance envelopes. But it must be learned, and practiced and mastered the same as any new skill, in order to lay the proper foundation for a physically rigorous, but also safe, life. The older athlete faces enough challenges without bringing on more, for instance creating issues outright by refusing to accommodate nature’s inevitable progression.

Decline is unavoidable. What is not inevitable is catastrophic break-down, and that depends in big part on the older athlete’s psychological acceptance of dramatically changed circumstances. Go with the flow, working with Mother Nature, and you’ll be able to typically expect a vigorous enough life still.

Listen to your body. Learn its new language, its reduced syntax. The range of physical expression diminishes, but vibrancy is still possible when effectively channeled.

That is the challenge for the older athlete, pain or no pain. It is to learn anew how to work with the limits of one’s body, encouraging it to excel its capabilities even while respecting those limits. It is the challenge of any athlete at any age, but advanced ages make the challenge much more plain.

Historical Greek vases are a testimony to one of the founding civilizations of Europe, one that extended well over seven hundred years. It is the one seminal culture that’s most responsible for making the West what it really is. Through its own genius, and the genius it inspired in the Romans, ancient Greek methods have gone on to influence lands far outside of Europe and cultures far different than any on the continent.

Part of the beauty behind Greek vases has to do with the beholder’s own awareness of such a storied legacy. Modern science, politics, mathematics, and philosophy are greatly indebted to ancient Greek thought. Of course, art and culture have been significantly Greek at their core for hundreds of years as well. So profound has been this influence that historians and general thinkers-at-large frequently wonder why modern Greek society seems such a pale reflection.

The meditative contemplation that comes with a deep consideration of Greek vases may lead one on such flights of intellectual fancy as to draw startling connections tantalizing and tenuous as a result of their novelty. For example, China, the other great foundational influence in the human heritage (and certainly within their respective part of the world), is now rising up.

Modern day greece, nonetheless, is hamstrung by the cynicism and greed of its own citizens. Businessmen in China and Greece both understand how endemic corruption and bribery is in both countries, and yet it is odd how China can still manage to challenge even the United States despite such deficiencies while Greece needs European Union help. Is it merely a matter of size?

What exactly is it that determines that one people should prosper, and prosper again, while another shall only ever have prospered within the past? What is the magic factor here? Is as simple as the “destiny” and “fate” that both ancient Greek and ancient-modern Chinese culture regards so highly?

Virtual travel has just only come of age now, in the 21st Century, thanks to the kinds of Web 2.0 applications like Google Magps’ Streetview function. Unlike something like the sort of corny movie one might view at a Zalman Silber Skyride or Oztrek, where the audience simply sits back and watches tape of a helicopter flyover intended to induce a you-are-there feeling, virtual travel today is really virtual, and much more interactive – which is all to say, realistic like never before.

Indeed, two pals have even embarked on that good ol’ tradition of The Great American Road Trip – only this time, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, they will do it all from the comfort of their own homes. Using Google Maps and its Streetview option, Peter Baldes and Marc Horowitz have managed to trek across the country without paying for gas – or speeding tickets!

Perhaps best of all, however, are all the strangers you can come across during such a road trip – and they aren’t necessarily locals, either! Thanks to those same wonders of modern technology, it’s easy for others to check in on you, joining you for a part of the virtual trip by webcasting the trip live, just as Marc and Pete mentioned above had done. After all, what’s virtual travel without virtual companions?

Unlike the travel videos of yesteryear, virtual sightseeing this way is fully open-ended, just as if you’d won the lottery and can afford to do whatever you want, whenever you want to! No longer will you merely be following along passively; with the simple click and drag of a mouse you can instantly teleport anywhere! Started off in Rome and suddenly longing for Paris? Have most of Germany covered and now want to check out Japan? It’s easy, and fast, with virtual travel in the 21st Century!

Of course, as any Physics 101 student will tell you, you don’t get something for nothing in this universe. And with respect to sightseeing virtually, you give up a lot even as you save a lot of time and money. You won’t meet folks face-to-face, or feel the wonderful weather or sample regional specialties, culinary and otherwise. Most of all, as any globetrotter knows, much of the fun lies in the journey itself, the very getting there. All this, and much more, are lost on a virtual trip.

It is, in many ways, about what you get with a Zalman Silber spectacle, only without the professional production values – a flowing stream of images, as if instead of a juicy well-done steak on your plate you are presented with a glossy high-resolution photo of one! Virtual travel will likely never replace really being there yourself, and it still has a long way to go before it can even begin to rival the same level of fun offered by the real thing – for right now, the sizzle is the most attractive thing about it.

Have you heard that unlocked cell phones have received something of a major nod from the American judiciary lately, thanks to a judgment that permits the unlocking of someone’s own handset fully legal. Cellular service providers normally lock the telephones they provide their buyers so that those handsets will exclusively function using the provider’s network. The upshot of it all is that mobile phones are immediately made useless whenever consumers change carriers, and so a cottage industry has grown around those people who really want to take their phones with them to a brand new carrier. And currently the courts just awarded this practice its blessings, but with one fatal caveat – while unlocking handsets is allowed, the means mandatory to accomplish it is not!

Pass by a statue in the park, and chances are that it’s a bronze sculpture, which rank among the most common of cast metal works because of a naturally occurring trait that can make it more convenient to fashion than numerous other materials. Bronze alloys expand a little prior to being set, and this helps to make certain that even the finest details of a mold are filled.

Moreover, bronze sculptures are strong while not being brittle, a quality recognized as ductibility, so that works may be fashioned that depict actions performed mid-sequence, as if frozen in time, for example leaps and flights, simply because the needed supports require will smaller and thus less obvious (that is, visually intrusive) cross-sections.

Few examples from antiquity exist comparable to those sculpted of stone and ceramics due to the precious nature of the metal. In instances of war, such art was simply melted down for arms, or victorious conquerors melting them down for recasting and to produce new statues.

Few bronze statues survived from ancient times, and those which do are frequently not in good condition. The originals on display in museums have been painstakingly restored to a quality suitable enough for exhibition but even the naked eye can still easily discern traces of wear and tear.

Modern-day works are usually some ninety percent cooper and ten percent tin, though in ages past other components figured into the alloy, elements like phosphorus and manganese and aluminum and silicon. But reactive chemicals are often added nowadays to be able to achieve novel effects such as a marble-like luster.

This kind of corrosive materials are applied after final polishing to be able to form a patina or film, establishing for the sculptor a degree of control over the color and finish. As can be imagined, working successfully with bronze requires a high degree of technical skill.

The Sea Eagle 435ps PaddleSki inflatable catamaran-kayak. Yes, that’s a mouthful – as well as the boat is quite an eyeful, too! But the included boat seats, even in the “pro” and “ultimate” packages, leave a lot to be desired. They definitely look cool, all sleek and hi-tech in black, but they do not provide much in the way of comfort, barely supporting a kayaker up!

Indeed, the boat seats included in the cheaper packages, which are standard inflatables, seem to be a whole lot more comfy. Everything else provided by Sea Eagle makes a good impression, nonetheless. To be fair, the black high-back seats are supposed to be more performance oriented, and that means comfort was a deliberate second-place consideration. Being closer to the water provides far better stability and a lot more paddling power.

In the final analysis, it is performance in the water that truly matters, and in this regard the PaddleSki is very excellent. It tracks well and is quite fast, thanks to its length and catamaran-style pontoons, respectively. The pontoons keep most of the boat above the surface of the water, making for less drag.

Stability and speed. Sea Eagle’s PaddleSki offers both crucial characteristics in spades. It is a really friendly craft only marred, perhaps, by the boat seats available for it. Otherwise, it’s a very sturdy animal, with great handling suitable for fishing or camping trips along the river. By being an inflatable, the PaddleSki is easily stowed away. Regrettably, it weights a whopping fifty or sixty pounds when packed, but seems really light, if a bit unwieldy, when fully inflated.

Accessories consist of such useful items as a side motor mount for electric or gasoline engines and a sliding seat and frame for rowing. Sailing is also possible thanks to Sea Eagle’s sailing rig. They all cost lots of money, however – anywhere from a third to a full half of the price of the most inexpensive PaddleSki package available!

Athletic tape is used by many athletes to help support the joints most critical to performance in their sport. It’s often used by boxers to stiffen up their wrists, while soccer players may apply them to their knees. Weight-lifters will sometimes use athletic tape to prevent calluses from developing on their palms.

Many varieties of tape are made from cotton, with an adhesive on one side to help with binding. It was first invented by a Japanese chiropractor for therapeutic uses but is now sometimes applied in the belief that the assistance it lends will help even in the absence of injury.

The evidence on athletic tape is really quite mixed, nevertheless, no matter its widespread popularity. Numerous professional athletes of great standing seem to swear by it, for example Lance Armstrong and Serena Williams. But clinical studies have had a difficult time proving substantial advantages. Could the infamous placebo effect be operating in those instances of athlete endorsement?

Utilizing tape does seem like a logical thing to do. After all, how many of us have discovered on our own how good it feels to rub a pain and even grasp it tightly? Think back to the last time you accidentally bumped your wrist – hard – against something like a doorknob. Didn’t you immediately grab that wrist and, after initially massaging it a little, hold tightly for dear life?

Compression is a recognized method of protecting against or controlling swelling, and firmly binding with tape seems to conform with that understanding of how our bodies work. And perhaps therein lies its lasting appeal. It just makes so much sense! Utilizing tape feels good, and for numerous athletes that’s enough. As long as it’s not in the way or be otherwise a hindrance, the psychological pleasure of compression is good enough for most people.

Tourist traps. Thought-up to wring every last dollar out of you. It’s as if they were thought up to ruin your vacation. And sightseeing rides rank right up there.

Take Zalman Silber’s Skyride in New York’s Empire State Building. With a name like that, you’d think it was up there at the top, where it’s located. Instead, it’s merely on the second floor. Moreover, express access to the top – for which you pay an additional fifty percent of the ticket price – is just a matter of skipping a few lines. It’s not as if you go straight to the top. You’ll still have to wait on lines, only perhaps one or two less.

And so what is the Skyride? A movie. A half-hour film. That’s it! Definitely a case where the sizzle sounds better than how the steak tastes.

But Zalman Silber redeems himself with his other attractions, the Skywalk and The Edge. The first amusement is aptly named for sure, essentially a catwalk a thousand feet above street level outside the top of the Sydney Tower in Sydney, Australia. It’s an exhilarating experience where, unlike traditional observation decks enclosed behind glass, visitors walk out onto a metal platform that juts out of the building, creating the breath-taking feeling of being suspended in mid-air!

As can be imagined, wind gusts are quite strong at such a height, and special “skysuits” cable-tethered to support structures are used to ensure guest safety. But the Skywalk is open in most kinds of weather, and available practically the whole year.

A similar attraction is The Edge at the Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Australia. This time, visitors are in a fully enclosed cube that sticks out of the building near the very top, with fully transparent glass all around – even underneath one’s feet! A really cool feature of this amusement is how everything is initially opaque, and only suddenly transparent to create an exciting sense of unexpected suspension almost a thousand feet above ground!

These two are great fun and a must for any to-do list when in Sydney or Melbourne. These are the kinds of experiences that really make vacations memorable. After all, vacations are about more than simple relaxation and getting away from work. They are about experiences – ideally, new experiences, positive experiences, unique experiences. And while such attractions as the Skywalk exist elsewhere, such as over the Grand Canyon in the State of Arizona, there’s only one such thing in Sydney and one such thing in Melbourne, offering stunning vistas outdone only by a helicopter flyover.

So beware the tourist traps and spend your hard-earned dollars instead where it would go the furthest. Patronize only those rides which offer true value for the money!

The all-important first date. This getting-to-know-you can be greatly enhanced by an amusement ride, and the most exhilarating one of all must be the Skywalk by Zalman Silber. A serial entrepreneur who made his first big fortune with New York’s infamous Skyride, a much ballyhooed but modest thirty-minute movie of helicopter flyovers, Sydney, Australia’s Skywalk is a much more visceral affair – and for a first-date, visceral is where it’s got to be at!

No, get your mind out of the gutter – “visceral” here simply means heart-pounding thrills which, studies show, make dates more attracted to one another. Uh-huh, it’s true: the more physically exciting the activities the more likely dates are to think of one another as being physically attractive. Scientists have paired up total strangers of the opposite sex and asked them to secretly rate one another’s attractiveness. Then each pair was put through a roller-coaster, sitting side-by-side, and asked again to rate one another’s attractiveness after the ride. The second set of responses were almost always substantially higher than than the first set!

So if you need to make a great impression, make sure to get her (or him!) engaged in some kind of physically exhilarating activity with you – such as the aforementioned Skywalk from Zalman Silber. Located at the top of the Sydney Tower, the Skywalk is really a catwalk with glass flooring that provides visitors with a panoramic view of the city a thousand feet above street level. Being a catwalk, everything is out in the open, with no windows between guests and…nothingness. The Skywalk offers not only a bird’s-eye view of the Harbour City but all the visceral feelings to go with it as well!

And if the simple fact of being up so high doesn’t get your date’s heart throbbing, make sure she looks down! Visiting the Skywalk is a perfect first date because the Skywalk is the perfect ice-breaker. Don’t be surprised if she reflexively grabs your arm! Even though everyone is tethered by cable to sturdy metal support structures, the frequent gusts of wind can be strong enough to make one forget all the safety features built into the experience. Afterward, you and your date can retire to the conventional observation deck of the Sydney Tower to enjoy the romantic view while sharing fond memories of your Skywalk. Or better yet, purchase another set of tickets to really jack up the excitement and send her emotions through the roof!

The recent PBS/POV documentary “Wo Ai Ni Mommy” concerns the adoption of a Chinese eight year-old by an American family. More specifically, it’s a movie chronicle of a slightly handicapped older child’s integration into the social milieu of a Long Island Jewish family. Most of the documentary can be rather uncomfortable to watch, in a creeply queasy way, the cringe-worthy kind reminiscent of family get-togethers, as audiences are treated to some possibly unflattering details which jointly seem to make the case for better pre-adoption screening beforehand.

It is not known from the ninety minutes of screentime whether such matters were involved, as the filmmakers intent appears to be a simple record of what occurs in such cross-cultural/racial/national adoptions. Nonetheless, even a psychological evaluation can only do so much, since it’s hard to guage the subtle aspects of human motivation, which also frequently happen to be those bearing the most weight.

In the documentary “Wo Ai Ni Mommy,” one such subtlety concerns the very fact of a cross-cultural/racial/national adoption. While the Sadowskys, the American family featured by this film, were asked why they happened to pick a Chinese girl as compared to any number of children in the United States, there was never truly an answer given.

It was just love at first sight, claims the mother, which begs the question of why she had happened to select to view Chinese babies first. And even though one with an understanding of the wider context of the popularity of Chinese adoptions in turn-of-the-century America might point out that she had many friends who had also adopted girls from China, the ultimate question of just why China, of all places, remains unanswered.

A fine look into some of the nitty gritty details of older-child adoptions further complicated by language, cultural, as well as physical barriers due to mild disformity, “Wo Ai Ni Mommy” is heartwarming while wistful, raising many more questions than it intends to answer, in the process highlighting just how complex an adoption could be.

College flags rank amongst the most collectible of memorabilia, with a wide variety of styles that reflect the unique heritage of each individual institution. Officially licensed college flags and pennants ensure authentic insignia as well as top quality construction, and they provide a source of earnings that goes back to support the school. You can purchase flags or pennants to hang by the door of one’s house or display in one’s garden as well as banners that may be streamed over an entrance or across the yard. Two-ply constructions allow designs to be seen properly from either side.

But most types of college flags are most often to be found at intercollegiate games, particularly football games. They are used by the fans to cheer on their team, and waving them is a symbol of the school spirit. One popular activity while waving them is to sing the school’s fight song en masse. In fact, it is hard to conceive of a college flag apart from that college’s fight song. One would seem incomplete without the other.

Thus, there are hundreds of fight songs, just as there are hundreds of flags. At times both are equally old and hallowed, and sometimes each is of vastly different vintage. The earliest fight song in generally recognized to be Boston College’s “For Boston” of 1885, but it is not certain which is the oldest college flag. Indeed, it is not certain when the tradition of college flags and pennants began, although one may safely imagine that their origins roughly coincided.

Speaking of origins, many flags have changed over the years owing to cultural developments that made it unacceptable to feature mascots based on racial stereotypes or designs integrating the old Confederate Battle Flag. Many alumni protest, but ultimately new generations of students with no sentimental attachment to old symbols make the revised models their own.

Italian marble statues – the phrase conjures up any number of images, from ancient examples like Augustus Caesar to the achievements of the Renaissance. Given that these kinds of works are priceless, even with all the money in the world they could not be bought, assuming they were offered for sale in the first place.

But replicas of such marble sculpture are available for everybody to appreciate, with a degree of faithfulness that is belied by their affordability. Museum-quality replicas of these kinds of masterpieces are a excellent way to enjoy art in your own home or office.

Greek vases, Italian statues, Flemish canvases – any variety of reproductions could be purchased to adequately appoint any setting, lending an elegance or austerity to your interiors or exteriors.

Of course, not every person who purchases replicas is interested in such high-minded matters. Actually, one of the largest class of clients for such fare is the entertainment industry. Stage or screen, production assistants are regular shoppers of extremely accurate props, although interestingly enough there exists some controversy as to how much verisimilitude is really necessary.

Many directors insist on painstaking accuracy, not only in historical terms and not even also in technical terms but right down to every ding, scratch, or other such detail. Most take a much more practical approach with an eye on the budget, where the role of the prop determines the amount of attention paid to its details.

That said, however, it ought to be noted that museum replicas usually don’t merit such intense scrutiny merely due to the fact that they are usually employed as a part of the background and no more than that. Accuracy is most likely not too great a concern in these instances, although in the 1980s Spielberg hit “The Goonies,” Michelangelo’s David had to be anatomically correct in order for a sight gag to work!