I am not an organized person. I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder at the age of 12, and I鈥檝e always had a hard time planning ahead. I move through my days chaotically, arriving at meetings late and forgetting when I鈥檝e scheduled an appointment with someone. I always hope I鈥檒l get to that after-work yoga class or make time to read the novel on my nightstand, but more often than not, I don鈥檛. That internal voice that鈥檚 supposed to tell us when to stop what we鈥檙e doing so we have time for what鈥檚 next? I don鈥檛 have it.

For the past year, I have made a conscious effort to take the reins and create healthier routines for myself. At the top of the list is something that may seem basic: carving out time to cook and eat my meals at a reasonable hour. For me that鈥檚 a real challenge: I rarely do any advance thinking about a menu, which translates into lots of late-afternoon burritos for lunch and frozen meals or takeout on nights I鈥檓 responsible for dinner. (That is if my fianc茅e, Erin, doesn鈥檛 get hungry first and figure things out.) It is a miracle if I get home from work in time to make something from scratch.

The irony in all this is that I really love to cook; I simply struggle to fit it into my schedule. Perhaps if I could find a way to prepare and eat three home-cooked meals a day, it would lay the foundation for a healthier and more organized routine. Not to mention the money I鈥檇 save, the waste I鈥檇 reduce, and the goodwill I鈥檇 build with Erin.

Enter meal planning.

To be honest, I鈥檇 always thought of meal plans as the domain of fitness influencers and frantic parents, but I had to admit that I needed help. I found in our sister publication Clean Eating, with recipes incorporating do-ahead components that looked delicious and unfussy. For breakfast there were egg, spinach, and feta breakfast burritos and tahini shakes; for lunch, salads with Halloumi and baked falafel; and for dinner, harissa salmon, meatballs with roasted vegetables and tzatziki, and artichoke chicken thighs.

On a recent Sunday, Erin and I went to Whole Foods with a massive grocery list. We piled a cart high with vegetables, meats, herbs, sauces, and cheeses. When we got home, I went straight to work. First up, breakfast burritos: I prepped enough for every other day of the week. Then I baked falafel, roasted Halloumi, simmered lentils, and chopped salad veggies. I snapped everything into containers, threw them in the fridge, and marked my Google Calendar with what we鈥檇 eat each day at Chez Luke.

Mornings went great鈥攚e zapped our burritos in the microwave, and they kept us full until lunch. For the salads, I tossed the ingredients into a Tupperware bowl and brought it to work, along with a little container of dressing. Having a nutritious, filling meal waiting for me in the office fridge when my stomach started to grumble felt like a revelation. But dinners proved to be a challenge. I didn鈥檛 have time to prep those recipes sufficiently, and they weren鈥檛 large enough, portion-wise, to afford us leftovers for two. As the end of the workday approached, half of my brain power shifted from task lists to ingredient lists.

The following week, I focused on meals that would be easier to modify for larger portions, like a kale salad with sweet potato and sausage that I doubled to last several days. In the process, I learned that I needed to build in time to read through and visualize the recipe, not just skim it and scribble down the ingredients. That way I鈥檇 have a sense of how involved the preparations would be, and of what I could do ahead of time to make life easier.

Erin and I ate extremely well during those two weeks, and we avoided takeout and frozen food entirely. That in itself felt like a success, though it was also clear that planning several meals every week was not going to be sustainable for us. Still, I learned to exercise some rarely used muscles鈥攕couting recipes, thinking ahead to the week鈥檚 meals, and prepping ingredients. More important, I rediscovered the joy and satisfaction of cooking, and ate healthier, more delicious food. That felt worth making time for, even if I鈥檒l still be grabbing a pizza on the way home from work every now and then.

The post A Chronic Non-Planner Takes on Meal Planning appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Before writing , Heather Hansman was asking herself a lot of questions about the life decisions she鈥檇 made since moving from Beaver Creek in Colorado, where she turned lifts and waited tables to be able ski as much as possible, to a bigger city and a more stable desk job. She was now living in Seattle and working as a writer (including as 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 environmental columnist). While skiing was still a big part of her life, her world was completely different than the one occupied by the ski bums she used to be surrounded by in mountain towns. She wondered whether she should have continued that level of devotion to skiing, but she was also aware of how precarious such a life had become, thanks to everything from a climate crisis threatening snowpack to a housing crisis making it impossible for locals to find affordable places to live near ski resorts.

In Powder Days, Hansman tries to find out if there still is a way to create a life around skiing that contains meaning, community, and stability in the face of such massive forces. The result is a compelling look at an activity that on its face might seem trivial鈥攕liding down snow on sticks鈥攂ut that provides something much more profound to the people who put it at the center of their lives.

Powder Days was the November pick for the newly relaunched 国产吃瓜黑料 Book Club, and we鈥檝e been discussing it for the last month in (which we encourage you to join). I recently talked to Hansman about how the book came to be and what she found out about what it鈥檚 like to be a skier today.

国产吃瓜黑料: What made you want to write this book?
Hansman: There are a couple of different strands to it. One of them is that it felt like there wasn鈥檛 that book about skiing鈥攁 state of the ski world and industry. Most of what has been written about skiing before has either been like a wonky history of the Tenth Mountain Division or an 鈥淚 went to a rad place and did a rad thing,鈥� which both felt tired and not that interesting to me.

I also thought a lot about the books that I like to read, and a first-person narrator and strong voice is always so much more compelling to me than the dry, pulled back thing. And there were all these questions that I was sitting with about the life choices I鈥檝e made. I was thinking a lot about how much skiing has been a part of my life, and, for better or worse, it has been this throughline for me. I was watching my friends, who I was 21 and 22 with when I entered the ski community, who are now in their mid-to-late thirties and trying to figure out having kids and having a house and trying to solidify these lives that have become their careers. It felt like there was this really tricky tension point and that wasn鈥檛 really getting talked about. There are these myths about life in the outdoors, but it just felt like some of them weren鈥檛 really true or were glossed up and cleaned up. The interesting, hard parts hadn鈥檛 really been talked about.

These issues facing ski communities, like the housing and climate crises and inequality, are also extremely urgent for the society at large鈥攄id it feel like the ski world was a prism through which you could look at these huge, intractable problems?
I had the first draft of the book basically done in January 2020, and then COVID-19 hit. And I was like, Is skiing even going to feel interesting or important to anyone? Is anyone going to go skiing? That was a real down point.

But in a lot of weird ways, COVID just magnified these issues even more, in terms of affordable housing, in terms of who has access to being outside, in terms of income inequality and who has access to healthcare and basic social services. So sometimes I think I鈥檓 too far down the wormhole of skiing, but then actually, in these towns where the highs are so high and the lows can be so low, you have this kind of compressed view of these issues that are happening pretty much everywhere.

Did you find anything hopeful or promising in terms of efforts to reverse some of these forces that are making skiing so expensive and inaccessible, or is the momentum behind these huge conglomerates like Vail and Alterra too strong?
Yeah, the barriers are so high and the momentum is really, really big. And if you look at a winter like this winter, which is not shaping up to be that great anywhere, Vail or Alterra have deep enough pockets where they can float places for a couple of years. Or if Tahoe has a bad winter, but Colorado has a good winter, they can shuffle money around. But if you鈥檙e just a Tahoe resort and you鈥檙e independently owned, the margins are so skinny anyway, and then it becomes really hard for those places during a bad year.

There are some places that are still independent and really community-oriented that are thriving. Like you look at a Bridger Bowl, or Mad River Glen, or Mission Ridge, they鈥檙e local, they have their own culture.

I have an Ikon pass, I get the appeal. And I get on some level, it makes those resorts more stable and Vail resorts can pay people $15 per hour across the board. There are some ways that it does pull up the baseline, but at the expense of who exactly?

It felt like in the book there was this reckoning with the loss of the soul of skiing, because of how corporate and expensive ski towns and resorts have gotten.
It鈥檚 hard to articulate, but there is something that is meaningful and powerful and feels important about skiing, even if it is superficial. If we鈥檙e losing that, what else are we losing with it? Is it community? Is it access to being outside? Is it joy and fun? One of the core questions of the book is why is this thing so important to me, and I think it is because it鈥檚 all of those things.

What did you discover about why people become so obsessed with skiing and being in the mountains?
It turns out there are certain people who are just more geared to get obsessed with skiing. In the DSM, there is one personality factor called sensation seeking and there are people who really do need more of that. There is this nature component that certain people just have higher set points for adrenaline and dopamine and risk. And then there is this nurture side of it, where when you are embedded in these communities and immersed in it and everybody is charging really hard around you, your baseline gets totally skewed, and when you鈥檙e doing that kind of stuff all the time, your tolerance goes up. This addiction counselor and extreme athlete named Ryan Burke who I talked to in the book was like: dopamine isn鈥檛 a satisfaction chemical, it鈥檚 a wanting chemical. When you take a really great powder run and you get down the bottom, you鈥檙e not like, 鈥淥h, cool. That feels good.鈥� You鈥檙e like, 鈥淚 want that again.鈥� And that can be healthy and exciting and fun. It can also be totally toxic and disruptive for people. So that tension of what’s healthy and good is another interesting piece in all this.

Could you talk about mental health in mountain towns and among outdoor athletes and professionals, and how the conversation around it is changing?
I do think that conversation is changing, even just a little bit. Look at and , these people who are like, Hey, the pressure of operating at a super high level based on my body is really real. And it鈥檚 that idea of, I鈥檓 doing something that鈥檚 really fun and cool and it鈥檚 a privilege. But it鈥檚 still hard and exhausting and traumatic in certain ways. I think that鈥檚 why someone like Simone Biles got so much shit at the Olympics. It was like, you鈥檙e lucky to be there, what a privilege. But also it’s hard.

It鈥檚 the same thing with ski patrollers: doing CPR on somebody in the backcountry is traumatic. But there鈥檚 this culture where all the time you鈥檙e supposed to be like, 鈥淭his is awesome! This is awesome! Best day ever!鈥� But it doesn鈥檛 always feel like that. It鈥檚 really hard because you don鈥檛 want to be the downer when your whole community is based around this idea of stoke.

People are talking about it more and it is a little more normalized to bring that up. But then when a ski patroller wants a day off because they鈥檙e, you know, emotionally exhausted, they don鈥檛 get it. It鈥檚 definitely a long road.

There鈥檝e been a lot of conversations around inclusivity in the ski industry and in the larger outdoor industry. You use the phrase in the book 鈥渉idden entry requirements鈥� and talk about the signifiers that can make some people feel automatically included and some people feel excluded. Can you talk about that dynamic?
I think about this a lot for myself, because on some level I鈥檓 like, Skiing is so great and open and welcoming. In a lot of these spaces, I could text a friend of a friend and show up and have people to ski with. But is that because of the way I look or what I wear or what gear I have on? Skiing is so image based and gear based and there are all these things that you need to have to even start鈥攑hysical things like the right gear and enough money. It鈥檚 not even necessarily what you as a person look like, it鈥檚 how you present yourself. It鈥檚 hard to take yourself out of your own skin, but 鈥淲as this easy for me because of what I look like?鈥� was something that I thought about all the time. The fact that I鈥檓 white, able-bodied, all these things definitely play into this.

This is a conversation that鈥檚 starting to happen among skiers, but it needs to come from resorts, from brands, from that kind of thing. The economic barrier to getting people in is a big part of it.

What do you think skiing is going to look like in 30 or 50 years if the climate crisis keeps progressing?
I mean, it hasn鈥檛 snowed here yet. And maybe it鈥檚 just me getting anxious and vociferating, but every year it feels like the climate crisis is coming sooner and happening faster. In the book, I talked to meteorologist and skier Joel Gratz, who鈥檚 a nerd about this stuff. He was like, some places are going to do better, like a Breckenridge or a Mammoth, places that are high and cold and have solid snowmaking. As the places around them start to fade, they鈥檒l get more traffic, but that鈥檚 at the expense of the little dinky, suburban Massachusetts resort or the Snoqualmie in Washington, or like these places that are lower down or don鈥檛 have any infrastructure currently.

Our Book Club members are always looking for new recommendations, so we have a few rapid fire questions for you on your favorite books. First one: What is your favorite book about the skiing
by Ted Conover, which is about his stint as a cab driver in Aspen, and by Dolores LaChapelle, which is a little tiny book full of huge ideas about why skiing and snow and being outside is important.

What is your favorite book about the climate crisis?
Elizabeth Rush鈥檚 is so gutting and so beautiful at the same time.

What is your favorite book about the housing crisis and inequality?
by Eula Biss is more about broad scale economics and capitalism, but the book of essays has wormed its way into so many of my thoughts about inequality, and money, and how that frames up pretty much every choice we make.

What is the best book you鈥檝e read this year?
, a short story collection by Claire Boyles, is like nothing I鈥檝e ever read before about living in a warming world.

What is the book you鈥檙e most looking forward to reading next?
by Megan Mayhew Bergman doesn鈥檛 come out until the spring, but I鈥檓 already excited about her story collection.

Which author would you most like to meet?
. I want to know how she鈥檚 so good at every kind of writing.

What is the book you鈥檝e learned the most from?
I always go back to John McPhee, and particularly , for structure and simplicity.

What is the book that most influenced your writing?
Raven鈥檚 Exile, and really anything by who was so funny and clear and on point.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The post Heather Hansman on Her New Book 鈥楶owder Days鈥� appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

For my 30th birthday, my dad got me a . Before that my woodworking experience had been limited to assembling IKEA furniture and installing prefab shelves鈥斅璱ncidentally, with a drill my dad bought me for my 29th birthday. He would appear to be sending me a message.

I took the saw out of the box, carefully spun the toothy blade, and decided that I was going to learn how to use this tool. When my dad was my age, he was fram颅ing walls and building cabinets. By contrast, I recently had to google simple carpentry terms while editing a story about a couple of guys who raised a cabin in the woods. I wasn鈥檛 looking to become a master builder, but I thought that having some basic skills would make me feel like a more competent person.

A planter box would be my first project. But it was weeks before I started to build it. First I had to set up a workbench, something that required multiple ill-informed Home Depot visits and calls to my dad. His shopping list included screws, which seemed simple enough. Not so much. I had no idea there were: wood screws, deck screws, sheet-metal screws, Torx head, Phillips head, all in dozens of lengths and diameters. I bought five kinds, just in case. I also immersed myself in YouTube how-tos, which were quite soothing until the mustached hosts started saying things like 鈥淒on鈥檛 forget to square the end of your dimensional lumber.鈥� Time to FaceTime Dad again.

After five trips to the hardware store (fun fact: circular saws don鈥檛 always come with their own battery or charger), I finally was able to start using my saw. I practiced rip cuts鈥攄ividing the board lengthwise鈥攐n my homemade jig, which helps keep the cuts straight. Once I got over the fear of slicing off a finger, I was delighted by how smooth it felt. The blade went through the wood like butter. I made cut after cut until I got the hang of it.

Things became less fun when I actually started building the planter. I fretted over every 16th of an inch while calculating the dimensions of the frame pieces, then wound up ripping half of them too wide. Frustrated, I tried to put together the planter with my motley assemblage anyway. I drilled and glued the uneven panels, and though I had to recut a couple of them to fit, it was easier to figure out what I needed to trim with the box taking shape in front of me. Even though the pieces were slightly off, the planter came together.

This imperfect perfection surprised me. I usually conduct endless research before trying something new, instead of figuring out what I鈥檓 doing wrong along the way. It was by actually making the planter, not by watching five more YouTube videos, that I began to get a grasp of woodworking and gain confidence, as if slowly becoming conversational in a once foreign language.

I realized that I had fallen into the trap of preparing too much. The finished product wasn鈥檛 exactly a masterpiece, but it was sturdy enough to hold a tomato plant. With my newfound knowledge, I was confident that my next project would take half the time, and be twice as good.

The post I鈥檇 Never Made Anything in My Life. Then My Dad Sent Me a Saw. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Lifekey Fetch Tag ($25)

Fetch lets passersby pull up a lost dog鈥檚 contact info and health data by scanning this tag with the Tap phone app. Worried owners will get an instant notification with their pup鈥檚 GPS location.

Ruffwear Switchbak Harness ($60)

The Switchbak鈥檚 sleek, low-profile pockets have just enough room for the essentials鈥攁 bowl, some food, and poop bags.

Atlas Pet Company Lifetime Leash ($58)

After getting chewed, dragged, and tugged, this climbing-rope leash showed no sign of wear. The stainless-steel clip is easy to use with one hand and is extremely secure.

Klymit Travel Dog Bowl ($15)

This collapsible nylon bowl was the lightest we tested, and also the best designed. It鈥檚 flexible, it鈥檚 stable, and it folds down to fit into a pant pocket.

Nite Ize NiteDog Rechargeable LED Collar ($25)

Keep track of your fur baby at your campsite with this light-up collar. It鈥檚 water-resistant and lasts just over six hours on a charge.

Helinox Dog Cot ($150)

With an elevated mesh base, this cot is perfect for all seasons. It鈥檚 quick to assemble and has wide feet to prevent mishaps when getting on and off.

Vapur EZ Lick Foldable Dog Bottle ($20)

Similar to a hamster bottle, this 23.7-ounce water vessel has an ingenious cap that drips water slowly as your dog licks it, dispensing only what Buddy wants and nothing more.

Hurtta Outback Dreamer Eco Sleeping Bag ($115 and up)

Keep your pup warm with this waterproof sleeping bag, which has a foil-lined polyester interior that reflects body heat.

Carhartt Canvas and Felt Chew Toy ($10)

It鈥檚 simply a block of wool felt covered in duck canvas, but this was the only toy we tested that withstood months of abuse. It鈥檚 great for tug-of-war.

The post The Best Dog Gear of 2021 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

When it comes to my morning and evening bathroom routines, I鈥檓 a man of habit. It took years of getting pestered by my dental hygienist鈥攁nd a couple of cavities鈥攂efore I ditched my cheap analog toothbrush for an electric one. I鈥檝e been using the same deodorant since I was 14 (!).听And听until a few years ago, I washed my face every night with the bar of hand soap next to my sink.

The latter habit changed a few months into dating my girlfriend, when I started spending听several nights听of the week at her apartment. Before bed听I鈥檇 steal a dollop of her fancy face wash,听and听gradually, I began to notice that my face was getting less dry and more clear. I kept using it when she wasn鈥檛 looking,听and for the first time in my life, I thought there might be something to all those grooming products out there.听It felt good to take care of my skin at the end of a long day.听

Soon after this revelation, I learned about 听($21 for a pack of three). is best听known for its hipster shaving box that sends subscribers听refill听razors every month. I鈥檝e had a beard since college, so I never needed that sort of thing, but the company also sells grooming products听such as听 and face wash. I decided to give the face wash a go鈥攖he branding didn鈥檛 look too听douchey, like a lot of men鈥檚 skin-care and shower products, and I knew 贬补谤谤测鈥檚听had a good reputation for its听quality. It seemed听like the perfect fit for my evening routine. (I鈥檓 generally听too harried in the morning for more than a splash of water on my face.)

That instinct paid off. I鈥檝e always hated the musky scents of most male hygiene products. The labels tout听sandalwood听and tobacco,听but I just smell my high school locker room and the desperate attempt to cover up teenage body odor. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that 贬补谤谤测鈥檚 face wash had no hint of Axe-brand听odors. It was听refreshing but not perfumy, with notes of hay and earth that I鈥檇 never smelled听in a shower product. After rinsing it off, a pleasant tingle remained on my skin, thanks to essential peppermint and eucalyptus oils. After a week of using it each evening, my beard hair began feeling softer, too, perhaps due to the small amount of shea butter in the formula.

The wash听features听little听bits of volcanic rock. That sounded awesome (exfoliating听your face with lava!)听and, it turns out, also felt awesome. While rubbing the foam in, the particles would gently lift the layer of sunscreen, sweat, and dirt on my face after a听day鈥檚 hike or bike ride. The best part? I didn鈥檛 have to worry about听harming any听critters in the sea, because听, volcanic rock isn鈥檛 toxic to听marine life.

After using up my first bottle of 贬补谤谤测鈥檚, I saw it at Target and threw it in the cart. The next time I passed by it in the store, I threw three bottles in my basket so I鈥檇 never run out. The timing was perfect, because my girlfriend was catching on to the fact that her face wash had begun disappearing at an alarming rate.

The post This Face Wash Made Me Rethink My Skin-Care Routine appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In December, the driver of a box truck plowed into a group of cyclists听riding along U.S. Highway 95 south of Las Vegas. Five people died in the crash, and it was later discovered听that the driver had听methamphetamine in his system. At 国产吃瓜黑料, we were horrified by the tragedy,听which was covered in and news, but we also knew it was part of a troubling trend: record numbers of听cyclists (and听thousands听of听pedestrians)听on our nation鈥檚听roads are being killed by drivers often without any media attention beyond a brief听local news story. In 2018, in crashes with drivers, the deadliest year for people on bikes since 1990. In 2019, while the total number of deaths , cities like New York recorded their highest number of cyclist fatalities ever.

Last January, in response to those disturbing numbers,听we launched the听#2020CyclingDeaths project, which aimed to track every person on a bike killed by a driver in the U.S. over the course of the year.听In the end, we recorded 697 cyclist deaths.听Since we were only able to count deaths reported by local media, the actual total is likely significantly听higher.听The five victims of the Nevada crash were numbers听662听through 666听in our database.

In late December, we partnered with the nonprofit , founded by Trisalyn Nelson, a professor in geographic information science at the University of California at听Santa Barbara. BikeMaps.org has been collecting crowdsourced information about cyclist crashes, near misses, traffic hazards (like potholes and road construction), and bike thefts in the U.S. and Canada since 2014. Its听team helped us analyze the data we collected and synthesize the information. While the overall number of cyclists deaths in 2020 appears to be lower than the past couple of years, likely because of the spring lockdowns in response to the pandemic, there is no sign that our streets are getting safer. Here鈥檚 what we found.

Number of Cyclists Killed by Drivers听in 2020: 697

The vast majority were men.

Percentage of Deaths That Were Hit-and-Runs

In more than a quarter of the crashes we recorded, the driver fled the scene.

Where the Deaths Happened

We found that fatal crashes were occurring all听over the country. We recorded deaths in 47听states and nearly every major metropolitan area.

The post What We Learned from Tracking Cycling Deaths for a Year appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Last Saturday started out normally for Kyle Burgess. The 26-year-old got off work at UPS, changed into his running gear, and then headed to one of his go-to trails in the听Wasatch Range on the edge of Provo, Utah, where he was born, raised, and still lives with his wife. Near the end of his ten-mile trail run, however, his day took a very scary turn. He encountered mountain lion cubs and, right behind them, a very protective mother. Burgess, who had pulled out his phone, began walking backwards while filming the mama cougar leading him away from her babies, pouncing at him each time he started to crouch or turn away.

Human encounters with mountain lions听are extremely rare听and typically last only seconds. The six-minute听video Burgess captured is extraordinary,听as riveting as a听Planet Earth segment鈥攋ust with Burgess shouting, 鈥淥h fuck! Oh fuck!鈥� and 鈥淵ou鈥檙e a fucking scary kitty cat!鈥� instead of David Attenborough鈥檚 soothing narration. So it wasn鈥檛 surprising when, after Burgess decided to upload it to Instagram the following听morning, it quickly went viral. By Monday afternoon, he was appearing on local TV shows and mentioned in听. On Tuesday, Good Morning America on him, and that evening he was on CNN. As of publication, the video has been viewed and听.听

Burgess told听国产吃瓜黑料听the story of听that harrowing听afternoon amid an onslaught of media requests from around the world. Here鈥檚 what happened in his own words.听

I got off of work at UPS in the morning, and I decided to go on a trail run that afternoon around four o鈥檆lock. My plan was to go up and then come down 听to do a full loop. That鈥檚 about ten miles.听

It鈥檚 a trail that I run a lot, especially the Y Trail. It鈥檚 steep鈥�1,000 feet听up in the first mile鈥攕o it鈥檚 just tons of vert, and it鈥檚 good training, good conditioning for my legs. I would like to say I鈥檓 a big trail runner, but I don鈥檛 get out as often as I鈥檇 like to. I have two jobs鈥擨 work at a knife company called Blade HQ, too鈥攕o I end up spending a lot of my time in the office.听

Around seven miles into the run, two or three miles from my car, I was coming down the Slate Canyon Trail, and I stumbled across some wildlife. Usually when I see wildlife on the trail, I pull my phone out and start taking pictures to show my family when I get home. So that鈥檚 why I pulled my phone out and started taking some video. I had no idea I was about to start filming a viral video. I started videoing these animals, and I thought for sure they were bobcats, because I have previously seen bobcats on this trail. They normally just kind of walk around, and once they see you, they scamper off. But this time, obviously, it was very different. It ended up being some baby cougars. Before I could react, it was too late, and the mama cougar saw me.听

When the video starts, that鈥檚 when all the action starts. I saw the cubs, and I was like, Oh, super cute!听And then reality hit me鈥擮h fuck. That鈥檚 a mama cougar. And she鈥檚 coming straight toward听me, and she wants nothing to do with me.听As you see in the video, she comes jolting toward听me and then kind of dips down into a ravine to my left. And I鈥檓 hustling back, not taking my eyes off of her. I didn鈥檛 want to turn around, because I knew if I turned around, I wouldn鈥檛 be able to see her, and there鈥檚 no way I could have either jumped out of the way or protected myself. And so听my plan was to just keep my distance between her and me听and to make myself look as big as I could. I started walking back up the canyon, the opposite direction of my car.听

While I was backing up, the mama kept swiping at me and doing her little paw thing. Every single time I either bent down to grab something, or if I looked away, I looked weak at that point,听because I was either smaller or I wasn鈥檛 looking at her. She knew exactly what was going on. These animals, I think we underestimate that they鈥檙e so, so smart, and they know exactly when to attack. And that鈥檚 kind of what she was doing, she was waiting for the opportune time to take her swipe.

There鈥檚 that point in the video where she does those three pounces, and there鈥檚 one of them where she gets within, I鈥檇 say, four feet of me. That鈥檚 honestly when I thought she was going to get me. I tensed up and kind of squinted my eyes a little bit like, Ooooh, this is going to hurt.听My heart rate was going. I was able to keep myself relatively calm, though, for the most part, because I knew if I psyched myself out, I鈥檇 probably make some irrational decisions. I knew I had to keep a level head听and stay in the moment听and kind of just keep making rational decisions so that I could听get out鈥攁nd the mama cougar could听get out鈥攐f the whole situation. I knew that she just wanted me away from her kids. She was just doing her job as a mom. There鈥檚 nothing wrong with that. I just happened to roll up on the baby cubs at that moment.

Six minutes felt like forever. I was getting kinda tired, and eventually I was like, I think I鈥檓 in a good spot.听It was probably the most distance I had between me and her at that time. And so even if she did take another pounce, I think I could have grabbed the rock quick enough to have time to toss it. So that鈥檚 what I did. I was able to toss the rock, throw it in her way, and it startled her enough that she went away.听

I laugh at myself when I watch the video at that part, because I鈥檓 just like, 鈥淥h yeah, get away from me! That鈥檚 what鈥檚 up!鈥� It was me just being super excited that she鈥檇 left. I was so relieved it was over.听

At that point, if I鈥檇 backtracked all the way, the other way around the loop, it would have been another seven miles of steep vert. It was coming up on six o鈥檆lock and getting to be dusk. I would have been hiking in the dark, and it was a little bit thicker brush听going that way.

I had service, because I was听only around two miles from the trailhead. So I actually ended up calling my father-in-law. He goes hunting quite often, and I was like, 鈥淗ey, like, what do I do?鈥澨鼿e鈥檚 like, 鈥淲ell, wait it out. If there鈥檚 babies, that means they were probably heading somewhere. And so if you just wait it out, they should听leave, and you should be able to go down at a slower pace and just be careful.鈥澨� So that鈥檚 exactly what I did. I was able to wait it out for 30 minutes once the mama cougar left me and was able to finish the loop to my car.听

I actually ran into two other hikers who were coming up the trail. I stopped them and was like, 鈥淲ait a second, did听you guys see the cougar?鈥澨齌hey laughed a little bit, thinking I鈥檓 joking with them. I鈥檓 like, 鈥淣o, for real,鈥澨齛nd pull my phone out and start showing them. And they鈥檙e like, 鈥淣o way!鈥澨齌hey had no clue. The cougar had left. The next day, our Department of Natural Resources, the wildlife service out here,听actually went up to try to look for the cougar, and they said they couldn鈥檛 find anything.听

I鈥檝e always watched those documentaries with Bear Grylls, and you always think, like, Wow, I could use that,听but you never get the chance to. You hear about, like, 鈥淥h yeah, my buddy saw a cougar or bear one time.鈥� But you never really think something like that will happen to you. I feel like I did what I needed to do. Obviously, there could have been different outcomes if I鈥檇 done听something different or if I鈥檇 thrown a rock sooner. There鈥檚 always the what-ifs.听But if I could have thrown a rock sooner, what if I made her mad? And she would have just come straight at me, because I was only 50 yards away from her cubs and I鈥檓 throwing rocks at her.听It could have ended different ways, but I鈥檓 happy with the way it ended鈥擨鈥檓 home with my family, and the cougar is out there in the wild where she鈥檚 supposed to be, with her cubs.听

When I got home, I just kept watching it over and over and over. It鈥檚 such a cool video.听I mean, you just don鈥檛 see that. My family was like, 鈥淲ow, that was so crazy! You should post it, you should post it!鈥澨鼳nd I鈥檓 like, yeah, whatever.听So I waited until Sunday morning to post the video. And then that night is when this complete mayhem erupted. I got 1,000 views within a couple of hours. And then it just kept growing and growing and growing. Eventually, news people after news people started calling鈥攍ocal, national, and international outlets. Right now I鈥檓 on like three hours of sleep in the past three days. It鈥檚 just been interview after interview after interview. When I鈥檓 done with the national people, international starts calling me, because that鈥檚 when they鈥檙e waking up in Australia and the UK.听

No way will it prevent me from going back outside. If you get in a car wreck, you鈥檙e just going to go fix your car and get in听your car again the next day. It鈥檚 something you have to do. And I think it鈥檚 kind of that same mentality. You have to听deal with what you are given,听and take it as an experience, and learn from it. When we鈥檙e out there, we鈥檙e in their home, and we just gotta be aware of what we鈥檙e doing听and be respectful to them.

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As told to Luke Whelan

I had been dating my boyfriend, Kennett, for a year and a half, and he was the one who really got me into bike racing. I entered it pretty quickly. I was working in the bike industry, writing copy for bike shop websites, then I started racing听bikes in the spring of 2014.

At that point, I was living in Boulder with Kennett, and we had moved into an apartment with his brother and his brother鈥檚 girlfriend. We had a new puppy. We didn鈥檛 own a car. We bike-commuted everywhere, so we were on the bike together daily in some fashion or another.

I decided to do a longer-distance triathlon in mid-November. October 18听was basically the last big ride before my race. I was going out to do over 100 miles. For me, it was really a mental training ride. Kennett and the other guys went up into the mountains for a climb, and I was staying on the flats because I was on my triathlon bike, which would mimic what my race would be like.

I was maybe 30-some miles in, traveling on U.S. 36. There鈥檚 a road that intersects with 36 on a wide-open downhill fairly early on. I was going down the hill, and this red Fiat came up from the east, went past the stop sign and straight into the road, and stopped in the shoulder lane of traffic. He wasn鈥檛 fully out into U.S. 36 where he would have had a car hit him, necessarily, but he was directly in the line of all the cyclists.

I was going about 35 miles an hour, and I hit the brakes as soon as I saw him鈥擨 only had seconds to react. I skidded 50 feet. My rear wheel skidded out from underneath me. I thought I was just going to hit the pavement, but I hit the car probably going about 10 miles hour. I don鈥檛 remember impact. I have a very fuzzy vision of being lifted into the ambulance and the one EMT saying to the other EMT, 鈥淗er face has peeled off.鈥�

Apparently, your body will dissociate, and so I don鈥檛 have any memories except for that one, but I was awake. They were trying to keep me calm, obviously. I think I asked why there was so much blood.

I crashed on Saturday, and my first memories are on Thursday. They had put me in a sedated coma. I couldn鈥檛 talk, so I spent several days just writing notes to people. Nobody sat down and listed off my injuries to me. At one point, I was writing to my mom, 鈥淚 was so lucky. I can鈥檛 believe I didn鈥檛 break a bone in my body!鈥� And my mom had this look, and she said, 鈥淵ou broke every bone in your face.鈥�

My head and my shoulder had gone through the window. The whole left side of my face was broken. My skin was ripped back from my lip all the way back to behind my ear听on the left side. I tore my shoulder muscle. I broke my eye socket, nose, cheekbone, and jaw. When I say I broke them, they were shattered; they needed to be reconstructed. Every four hours, they were putting leeches on my upper lip to draw blood鈥攎y lip was dying, so that was a way to keep the skin alive. I had around 700 stitches. I had to do neurological testing after the crash, and the neurologist said I had PTSD. Subconsciously, I was going through a lot more than I realized.

I spent 11 days in intensive care, and I improved a lot every day. I had goals every day. By February, I was pretty much fine physically,听but to this day I still deal with the emotional repercussions of the crash.

But when I was in the hospital, there was a newspaper article about my crash, and it . [After its initial report, the newspaper interviewed Perr and followed up with a .] I read through the witness statements, and the driver had lied. He said that there were black cars that prohibited him from moving out of my way. Nobody had asked me to submit a witness statement. These stories that come out in the newspaper often blame the cyclist, and the cyclist often does not have a chance to submit a witness statement, because, to be frank, the cyclist will often be the one who dies.

I submitted a witness statement anyway. I have so many things that I wish the police could have looked into. Other cars had to put on their brakes and get out of the way. Another cyclist who was only a few feet behind me had to swerve into the oncoming lane of traffic to avoid hitting that car. It was pretty obvious that the driver was in an area he shouldn鈥檛 have been in.

The district attorney and I met, and she said that if she could have, she would have charged it as reckless driving, but it鈥檚 really hard to prove and there鈥檚 a good chance he would have gotten off without punishment. Charging him with careless driving鈥攐ne step below reckless鈥攁lmost guaranteed that he would get charged and sentenced.

And he did. He pled guilty to careless driving resulting in injury. He got a $1,000 fine, 200 hours of community service, and four points on his license, and he had to take a driver鈥檚 class, but he got to keep his license. I didn鈥檛 go to the sentencing because it would have been to traumatic to be in the courtroom while the driver got sentenced so lightly..

In Colorado, my case of careless driving causing serious bodily injury doesn鈥檛 fall under the Crime Victims鈥� Rights Act [which protects victims of crime and ensures they are kept informed about the criminal justice process]. The district attorney and the legal system do not have to keep me in the loop at all. But they did. They put my case in a yellow folder, which was designated for people who fall under the Crime Victims鈥� Rights Act. There were several people within the legal system who really did watch out for me.

Kennett told me that he had asked me to marry him that first night I was in the hospital. That still makes me way more emotional than thinking about when he asked me again, when I could remember. I have bipolar II, so one of the major concerns was how the crash was going to impact my emotional state. That had always been something that made me question whether Kennett would want to be with me. So here was this event that almost guaranteed to impact my emotions in a negative way, and he was willing to be there for that. That was huge. I lucked out big-time; he鈥檚 the greatest guy ever. Some of the time, we just had to suffer through it, but we were going through it together. We got married at the county clerk鈥檚 office in 2015.

There鈥檚 nothing about my situation that makes me different from what many other people have been through. But I鈥檓 willing to be the face for what happens to people. If I can, I will confront people who are driving unsafely. Kennett chased down a bus a year ago. If they apologize, I won鈥檛 call the cops on them. A lot of people are really aggressive. They鈥檙e like, 鈥淒on鈥檛 touch me!鈥� with their four-ton SUV behind them.

I have this feel-good story because I鈥檓 back and I鈥檓 training and I鈥檓 a professional as of last summer. I think when I talk to other people, it can come off as happily ever after. And, honestly, in my case, sometimes I do feel it that way. My bones are all repaired. I didn鈥檛 lose my eyesight鈥攖hat鈥檚 a really big one. It was really close to my jugular, really close to my eyes. There were a lot of things that could have gone wrong. But that鈥檚 not the case for a lot of people鈥攏ot everyone survives or makes a good recovery.听Even when a crash victim does make a full physical recovery like I did, something had been taken from them. The joy that they used to get from riding and their sense of justice may never be the same. My scars show the physical trauma that I went through, but fail to capture the emotional damage that was done, which is largely irreparable.

is a writer and professional triathlete.

The post A Nightmare Crash Highlights Cyclists’ Unfair Treatment appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Drones and unmanned ground vehicles since the Twin Towers fell 16 years ago. But engineers have yet to manufacture a robot that can withstand the elements, navigate unpredictable terrain, and send data to disaster-response coordinators. Now they鈥檙e looking to the animal kingdom for inspiration. 鈥淚nsects are the most successful organism on earth,鈥� says biologist Bob Full, head of the University of California at Berkeley鈥檚 pioneering . 鈥淭heir design ideas could be useful.鈥� Advancements in 3-D printing and artificial intelligence have led to a flurry of small, nimble bio-inspired prototypes. The timeline for deploying the tech is hazy, but emergency-response experts are confident that the next time a disaster like the 2015 earthquake in Nepal strikes, bots will save lives. 鈥淒etermining the safety of a collapsed structure and locating survivors is always our first objective,鈥� says Sam Stover, a search and rescue team manager with , part of a 28-squad group deployed all over the country by the . 鈥淗aving this type of technology听will be invaluable.鈥�

RoboBees

Harvard researchers drew on bee biology to develop a 鈥減erching鈥� technique that uses electrostatic adhesion鈥攕imilar to the static created by rubbing a balloon on your hair鈥攖hat will allow tiny to alight on walls and ceilings and assess earthquake-damaged infrastructure.

Snakebot

Created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, the can move through tight entry points and packed rubble to locate and communicate with trapped survivors via camera and microphone. Artificial intelligence enables it to sense its environment and react accordingly, guiding its 16 independently moving parts.

CRAM Cockroach

The is made partially of 3-D-printed soft plastic and can squeeze down to a fraction of its size. It鈥檚 cheap鈥攋ust $10鈥攁nd, equipped with cameras, an army of them could help locate victims in collapsed buildings.

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I鈥檝e always liked the idea of being听an amateur naturalist鈥攕omeone who could name trees and flowers and听identify听birds by their call. But birders always intimidated me, and the more plant guides I read, the more confused I became. Bats, though, have fascinated me since first seeing renowned ecologist and conservationist听. Thankfully, a newly released handheld device called is making bat听identification accessible to everyone鈥攏o guidebook needed.听

The Echo Meter Touch 2 is the size of a cracker and very light, so you can bring it with you听anywhere: on a hike, camping,听trick or treating, or even just in your backyard. It plugs into the charging port of a smartphone and听can identify dozens of species of bats by their ultrasonic call. The device works in tandem with an app and monitors a 100-foot diameter for bats that are echolocating. When it picks up a call, it translates, in real time, the ultrasonic sounds to chirps that are audible to the human ear. It will also show the call on a full-color spectrogram in the app. If you are a bat expert, that would be enough data to identify the bat. But for amateurs听like me,听Merlin Tuttle-shot photographs听of the two most likely bat species pop up on the screen, too. 鈥淪eeing those portraits on the screen as bats fly overhead really makes you feel connected to these magnificent animals,鈥� says Sherwood Snyder, the app and module鈥檚 developer.

Snyder works for a company called which makes monitors for everything from birds to elephants. Their clients are mostly scientists, government agencies, and companies that use the devices to make sure new building projects don't infringe on the animals' habitats. These monitors cost thousands of dollars but Snyder听saw a potential market of amateur听wildlife enthusiasts. After five years of development, the Echo Meter Touch 2 is the first consumer-facing听bat detector ever made. At $179, it is still not cheap, but it鈥檚 significantly more affordable than anything else on the market. And once you try batting听you'll discover that identifying听a bat can be just as exciting as spotting a whale or a bear.

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