Becoming 007

Extreme adventure travel has become a increasingly popular niche, as people mired in routine and technology crave something to shake up their lives. 

The Special Ops Agency  - an outfit based in the UK - provides 1-2 day adventures designed to satisfy one's need for adventure while offering exercises and training in rescue, under-cover ops, demolition and ambush survival.

The Agency's staff consists primarily of retired British Army vets and they claim to have "unprecedented access to Special Forces and Secret Services training to create the ultimate adventure missions." The adventure doesn't come cheap but their short-time packages are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to channel your inner James Bond. Sign me up.

http://www.specialopsagency.com/

Joining the Club

I'm not a member of the mile-high club. I once played under the blanket with my college boyfriend on a cross-country flight, but even in the most proper circles, it wouldn't have been considered an actual "handy." I'm a plane-virgin.

Turns out, there is an airline dedicated solely to helping people become members of the club. And yup, the airline is based in Vegas. LOVE! A Cessna 421 modified with an ultra-plush interior, Liberator sex cushions, a LED light/sound system, a teeny-tiny bathroom, and noise-canceling headphones for the pilot. Purrrrrrrr

Visit Love Cloud for more info and to book a flight.

Where can I plug in my car?

Sure, gas stations are everywhere but what if you've decided to go green? The thought of making a long drive in an non-hybrid EV can seem a bit dicey - what if you run out of juice? (This exact problem faced a friend recently so it's been on my mind ...) Problem solved: Plugshare.com. It's a database of EV charging stations and there's a whole lot more of them than I realized. And yup, PlugShare makes an app.

Now let's stop a moment and collectively drool over that sleek Tesla Roadster.

Dig it Vegas

I haven't been to Vegas for a year or two but next time I go - I'm doing this. It's a construction site amusement park - where you can drive around in huge machinery - a bulldozer or excavator and just feel powerful. OMG - where are my car keys ... http://www.digthisvegas.com/

Move over Jackson Pollock

I remember reading about a 5k last year - I think it was in Arizona - where runners were pelted with colored dust during the race. (I also have a vague recollection that the runners were naked, but that's likely just my deviant mind's wishful thinking.) I had every intention of participating the next year but wasn't keen on travelling to Arizona just to run a 5k.

Come to find out this week, the good folks over at The Color Run travel around the US to put on these "5ks of color-running madness" (from their website) and they sound like a blast. The concept is inspired by Holi - the Hindu Festival of Colors - welcoming the new spring season. And now, as luck would have it, there's a Color Run scheduled at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on November 3rd. The race isn't timed (instead just for fun), and you can get dusted off by being "blown dry" before heading home.

More info at The Color Run.

Courtesy of Lit Motors

An electric, untippable, fully-enclosed motorcycle. 200 miles on a charge and top speed well above 100mph. First release early 2014 at a $24K pricetag, which will inevitably drop if it makes it into mass production. LOVE!
More info about the C1 Electric at techcrunch.
   

     

Seaplane to East Hampton

The Standard Hotel Group has added a concierge Cessna 208 seaplane to its' offerings at their NYC property, but you don't need to be a hotel guest to fly. The seaplane shuttles between the 23rd Street NY Skyports Marina in Manhattan and East Hampton and runs during the summer months only, smartly so. :) The website states tickets run $495 per person one-way but if your schedule's flexible, you can apparently shave off a significant amount of the ticket price by "playing the flight board." (I'm not actually sure what all is involved with that ... my apologies.) The website claims off-peak flights can get as low as $29 per person one way, so bargain fun-hunters need not feel snubbed. In any event, it's an unusual antidote to Hampton traffic gridlock. You can learn more about it here. Enjoy!

But wait - It gets even better!

So this is a continuation of my last post - sort of. I've come to find out that people hoop for lobsters off of the kayaks I mentioned below. Brilliant! Lobster season started earlier this month and a recreational license will set you back just $7. You have to go at night and being near a jetty or a protected cove helps. There's a cove off Catalina that's particularly good, though I admit I haven't been there ... yet. Bait the hoop net, throw it overboard, wait about half an hour and see what you catch. 20 feet of water should be deep enough to trap. Sounds like an adventure!

Kayak Love

I'm doing it again. Fetishizing transportation. lol This time it's a kayak/sailboat hybrid. Now I'm not a fan of sea kayaking. I don't like feeling like a little twig, meandering on the vast ocean. Too slow, too vulnerable. This meaty beauty, however, is something to love. It's a kayak with 2 outriggers, a sail, and pedals (similar to a recumbent bike) to power the boat forward. No more paddling - WOW! (I realize I may be offending the purists among us and I'm okay with that - lol) It'll take about 5 hours to get to Catalina and I've just added that challenge to my bucket list. And since your hands are free, you can catch dinner on the ride over. Brilliant! You can learn more about these 1 or 2-person hybrids via Hobie Cat.

Here's an on-board view of this baby at sea.

Wild Riversurfing

This is the craziest river-surfing I've ever seen - in Switzerland no less!

Jet-Powered School Bus

This hot little number can reach speeds of 367 mph backed by a jet engine from a phantom fighter. 80-ft rear flames, 150 gallons fuel for a quarter-mile run - may the little ones never be late for class again. lol



The School Time Jet-Powered School Bus was created by Paul Stender.

I can't say I'm too surprised

but I do wonder about all that sex at sea .... and I love that some folks even describe the positions. lol Let's celebrate!

Ijustmadelove.com

RIP Hippie

Matthew Shuter of Somerset, England has found an untapped niche. He bought a 1989 Daimler hearse and vinyl-wrapped it "to look something like the scenery from the Beatles' film Yellow Submarine." He figured, right about now, hippies would begin needing 'one final ride' and why not have them go out in a style to which they've become accustomed? You can read more here and visit his website here.

The Gift Economy

After a stiff scotch on a rainy night in a remote cottage, it can be amusing to imagine "leaving it all behind" (and by "it all" I mean material possessions and money - certainly not family and friends :) and venturing off into the wilds of the countryside. Daniel Suelo did just that in 2000 and currently lives in a cave, completely outside of the economy. I'm intrigued. He's been blogging about his experiences here, with the help of free internet access at public libraries. That fact suggests he's not journeyed too far off the grid but his story inspires a sort of primal wanderlust in me I thought had vanished. You can read more about his remarkable story in Details.

World Taxi Meter

A great website for determining cab fares in a smattering of major US and European cities and beyond. I hope the site keeps growing and adding more destinations. Love it. World Taxi Meter

When polite becomes scary

It was a clash of cultures when I noticed an incredibly beautiful young Japanese woman wearing a surgical face mask, strolling down PCH. In Japan, it's common to wear a face mask when one has a cold, in theory to protect others from your germs. In SoCal? Ummm, errrrr .... not so much. I almost, ALMOST pulled over to tell her this but then my light turned green and I had to get going. Oh well. Happy New Year!

Body Moving, Body Grooving - Long

I saw a "60 Minutes" story about the particle accelerator in Europe, and noticed the wide-eyed, twitchy excitement of one of the project's scientists - when he was asked if he thought the project's research could possibly lead to the development of teleporting technology. Since then, I've been thinking about human transportation ALOT as in "Beam me up, Scotty" and, for better or worse, I've really only come up with questions. *sigh*

Where would the first teleport stages be installed? In hospitals? For emergency service professionals to get to accident sites? In the seats of national governments for heads of state? At the UN?

And what about country boundaries anyway? Would you still have to go through immigration first if you're porting to another country? Would we even need country boundaries if teleporting becomes freely available? I don't recall countries in Star Trek - in the teeny bit of Star Trek episodes I've watched - they were interested in entire planets. (I'm not even gonna touch inter-planetary porting ....)

And would teleporting become the new "space-shuttle ride" - only for the super rich adventurer? And as it becomes slightly more common, will an anxious stud take his date teleporting to impress her?

And what if repeated teleporting over time is bad for you - like too much sun? Will one day snooty babes whisper behind each others' backs - saying "Oooo - I think she's TP'd too much - it's starting to show" - like too much plastic surgery or drug use? Will there be permanent irreversible damage to the body from teleporting - something like - oh I don't know - subtle decay each time you do it? Ick.

And what about the possibility of instantaneous teleporting? What about being able to just push a button to get somewhere else?

What does this mean for thrill-seekers or fans of the game "chicken"? Someone could jump off a building or out of a plane sans-parachute and then teleport just before they crash. I suppose that would be another form of natural selection. Quick reflexes = ability to get out of bad situations FAST. And certainly, one could say that even having the thought to play "chicken" could be a natural selection factor. ;-)

And when it's still a fairly new technology, would there be TP amusement park rides that promise to both scare-the-crap-out-of-you but ultimately save you as the rider? You could be teleported to safety right before the point of impact? Think a moment about the guy who's job it is to hit the "transport riders now" button. I hope he's always happy and benevolent.

And what about being able to teleport based upon where another person is? What if you could say - "I want to teleport to where my friend Joe, the plumber is?" (couldn't resist - hehe) And what if your friend Joe doesn't want you to find him or have you near him at that moment? What if a person doesn't want to be found or caught in a compromising position? Are there going to be restraining orders or privacy laws in the future saying you can't teleport within 500 feet of another person if they don't want you to?

And what if people are, in the future, routinely GPS/micro-chipped and you can't find you child? Could you say "I want to teleport to my child - chip number 123456-69696?"

And I suppose we'd all get better at latitude and longitude if you have to punch in exactly where you want to go. Just saying "Send me to Paris" might not cut it. I mean Paris is a big, beautiful city but I'm sure there are parts I wouldn't want to go to.

And what about being able to instantaneously flee the scene of a crime? That could be social chaos.

And what if you could say "I want to be transported to the single place on earth that looks most like the landscape that I'm visualizing in my mind at this moment." Then you could see a picture and teleport right to that location. Cool.

And what if you saw a picture of a living person you've never met before, but you wanted to meet them - so you said "Teleport me to where that person is right now." Big problems for anyone that has groupies or a stalker.

And when you do teleport - do your clothes and personal items teleport with you or conversely, do you end up naked in a foreign country with no ID? Ouch.

And I suppose a new industry of impenetrable materials would develop. At least some buildings would need to be built of materials that you can't teleport through.

And how does the possibility of virtual reality affect the necessity for human teleporting anyway? Maybe it's more important to think about resource teleporting instead of people-porting?

Damn - I sound like Andy Rooney. I'm going to bed.

Oh Sealand, I barely know thee

There's a tiny principality off the south eastern coast of England called Sealand and it's offering titles for sale ....... titles as in nobility ...... as in "Lord" or "Baroness." It turns out that Sealand, established in 1967, covers about an acre in area and claims dominion over a floating pontoon base, which is the entirety of this micronation. It has a prime minister, a flag, a national anthem, currency, issues stamps and passports (over 150,000 passports to date - WOW!), and has suffered from treasonous citizens and forcible takeovers. (*sigh* - Isn't that the way of the world?) It's legal status isn't generally internationally-recognized but don't let that stop you from gaining a title there. They're selling them on the net and you can snap one up for less than $36. You can buy a title here and read more about Sealand here and at their official website here.

Let's test the mattress!

Most hotel guests get a better night's sleep if they don't start wondering about the people that have stayed in the room before them. Other visitors shamelessly post evidence of their hotel room antics on the net. Nope, it's not what you think. It's bed-jumping! Click here for pics.

Earth's Largest Instrument

David Byrne, ex-frontman of the Talking Heads, has rigged up the landmark Battery Maritime building in NYC and transformed it into the world's largest instrument, played with a keyboard. Fantastic! Among other things, wires and pipes run from the back of the keyboard to different parts of the building, causing parts of the infrastructure to creak, moan, rumble, howl and more. I've heard a bit of the results and I'd liken it to the spooky sounds of monsters in a basement dungeon. Not for everyone of course, but Byrne obviously continues to produce innovative sound projects. Best of all, you can play the keyboard and participate in this noisy adventure yourself! Closes Aug 10, 2008. You can read more here.