Cool and Interesting
outdoor stuff and experiences
Category: Uncategorized
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Here are some of the very old fixing projects haunting my cupboard: How to spend it, and my time, wisely… How does spending time mending stuff compare with spending time with friends & family or exercising or doing something meaningful? P.S. The term “life energy” comes from the book “Your Money or Your Life” by…
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The graph above shocked me. I was aware that we are using much more energy than our grandparents in 1945, but 8 times as much? The graph is for Switzerland but I’m sure the orders of magnitude are the same elsewhere in Europe and North America, and have also risen substantially in the rest of…
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I’ve decided to call the room I used as my WFH office from 2012-2025 my “studio” now, to reflect the more creative work, rather than corporate work, I’m focusing on. This provides a guideline to clean up the mouldering old projects in the cupboards in my studio. For example: The bags have been haunting me…
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I love looking at maps of the world and imagining travel routes. One possibility that caught my eye decades ago is the “green triangle” around Milan: Since I have been pondering buying the Coros Dura Solar GPS Bike Computer, I thought I’d try to plan out this route using a bike route mapping app. I…
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This is what I brought on my last 1300m vertical race: 250ml nalgene bottles of: maltodextrin, electrolytes, chicken soup, maltodextrin, electrolytes, maltodextrin. I drank a little more than half of it. Fuel loading complete How can I bring maltodextrine with me in powder form? Nanobaggies? Add homemade cookies and bacon? Addendum: the 1300m vertical race…
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In June 2025 I went on a multi-day bike trip with some friends on the north side of the Alps. While using a trucker’s hitch to attach my 15l EXPED Typhoon waterproof backpack to the lightweight detachable rack on the back of my road bike, a thief snatched my bodybag from the table behind me,…
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The trade fair was enormous and I made some wonderful new acquaintances, some of them quite unexpected. There were also some interesting follow-up consequences. One stand I particularly liked was https://ispomunich2025.wordpress.com/2025/11/30/light-my-fire/ where the founder herself, Calill, demonstrated how to light a fire with a magnesium fire steel and fatwood stick shavings. A couple of days later…
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I was just sitting here, pondering how to make pedaling even more fun, when the email arrived confirming that This feels so right! Shop, applied math, canoeing, sewing, mechanical engineering, designing, computational geometry, outdoor enjoyment, scribe … my neglected loves all coming together! I am ecstatic! As I plan to review many of the companies…
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My Dutch friends came to visit and were immediately enthusiastic about participating in a nanobaggy workshop. They came up with many applications right away. Ideas for nanobaggies were: wet bathing suit, toothbrush, bar soap, shoe, snacks and cellphone baggies.
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I’m going on a long winter bike ride today. My husband would like to be reassured for the next three hours that I am ok. He would like me to take “his” pebble along. This worked great when we wanted to find our luggage in the airport and someone had taken it off the conveyor…
Cool and Interesting 