Linsey Pollak is brilliant. Some of the best beatboxing coupled with creative musical instrument overlays I’ve ever seen. Turn it up, enjoy Pollak’s musical creativity.

[via wimp.com]

Schaghticoke Ridge, Appalachian Trail, Kent, Connecticut. This foam whirlpool was on a stream crossing the Appalachian trail on the Schaghticoke Ridge section between Bull’s Bridge and Rt. 341. This is the largest stream on the hike which can be difficult to cross in high water.

The three films they have up now are excellent, each in its own way.

Kaaterskill High Peak from Dibble’s Quarry
Along the Pecoy Notch Trail on the way to Pecoy Notch just east of Sugarloaf Mountain in the Catskills. Kaaterskill High Peak is on the skyline.

Dibble’s Quarry was mined for sidewalk slate used in New York City but over the years that it’s been part of a state park people have built a menagerie of cairns, chairs, tables, and fortresses out of the slate.

Beaver dam and pond below Pecoy Notch
This beaver pond and dam sits next to the Pecoy Notch Trail. Behind the dam and pond you can see Pecoy Notch and Sugarloaf Mountain, one of the Catskills. The Devil’s Path runs along the skyline here, it’s a spectacular hike that Dave and I have done. Today we just went up to the notch using micro spikes.

This beaver pond is active and there are fresh tree stumps where the beavers have taken wood for the dam and for food.

Stream coming out of Pecoy Notch
This stream is part of the drainage from Twin and Sugarloaf Mountains and Pecoy Notch.

Now that I’m sensitized to ice crystals I’m looking for them everywhere. This day there was quite a bit of melt and the ice had more rounded edges.

This is a great interview. The Planet Money guys are brilliant and Marco gets right in sync with their style.

Marco made and sells one of my all time favorite utilities: Instapaper. In a nutshell, if I start reading an article on my computer and want to finish it or read it on my iPad, I hit a button on my browser “read later” and the article is sent up to Instapaper, a cloud-based service that acts as my breadcrumbs in the clouds. Later, when I’m using my iPad (still connected to wifi) I click the Instapaper app and update its cache of saved stuff. The article appears and I can read it there.

What many don’t realize is that Instapaper caches the articles on the iPad and/or iPhone and so, I can read them there when I’m not connected, like when I’m on a plane. So, before my regular trips to LA I routinely load up my Instapaper account with things I want to read on the plane, then update the iPad’s Instapaper cache memory and I’m set.

Instapaper has many iBook-like reading tools including typographic control and more.

I’m hoping to use Instapaper to help my mother read The New Yorker as its app is totally worthless for anyone who can’t read small type.

Michael Garnier talks about his treehouse collection and B&B resort. It’s in Takilma, Oregon.

I love this guy, he’s the John Muir (How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive) of the treehouse world.

This documentary takes a while but its well worth it. Garnier and his little Jack Russell terrier are treasures.

[via Boing Boing]

Mt. Race, Massachusetts. All of these shots were taken in a single puddle to the side of the Race Brook Falls trail near the intersection with the Appalachian trail.

This was taken in a small pool in Race Brook on the blue Race Brook Falls trail.

Mt. Race, Massachusetts. All of these shots were taken in a single puddle on the Appalachian Trail on the north ridge of Mt. Race. I don’t know enough about ice crystals to understand why some puddles produce crystals and others don’t but when I find a patch of great crystals like this it’s like finding gold. The only downside is that the gloves come off and one’s hands can get cold in a long session. The day I took these was relatively mild so hands didn’t suffer and as a result, more ice shots.

A very nice routine using the iPad for close up sleight of hand (in German).

[via Hank Murrow]