Duluth News-Tribune, Minn., Sam Cook Column: A Cup of Tea on an Island, and Hold the Technology
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By Sam Cook, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.  May 25--I have a nephew in Texas who sends us YouTube video links about twice a week. Crazy stuff. A wild bass player in a 1940s marimba band. Engineers stress-testing the wings of a Boeing 777.
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Spoons are so old school. And so slow. Harried Americans searching for ways to shave precious seconds have seized on new foods designed to keep them on the go -- no utensils needed. There's soup in heat-and-sip cups. Yogurt in squeeze tubes. Mini cookies in little cans that fit in car cup holders. Even frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ...
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Science & environment: Island restaurant and Scottish cafe get excellent marks on environmental grounds
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By David Nivens, High Point Enterprise, N.C.  Feb.
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(InfoWorld) - Forget isolation and relaxation. For the seriously connected geek of today, vacations just aren't what they used to be. An informal and completely unscientific poll of InfoWorld readers revealed that -- although a few certified techies unplug completely when on vacation -- most elect to stay at least somewhat connected with their regular life; thanks to the ever-broadening range of cellular and wireless networks, most of them can. [See InfoWorld's Top 10 geek vacation list.] Jeff Helm witnessed the transition at one vacation spot: "I first took the family to Pigeon Forge (near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park) in October 2001. I walked across the hotel parking lot to the new public library to get on the Internet and check mail. I was told I would have to fill out a form, pay $5, let them hold on to my driver's license, and swear that I wouldn't 'conduct any business' or credit card transactions of any kind." Fast-forward to August 2006: "We went to the same hotel. I got out of the car to check in, and my PDA gave an audible report that it found a wireless signal. Yes, the same library was now beaming invitations to connect to the Internet to everyone in the area. Every hotel â¦ did the same. I checked e-mail at the outside mall, waiting for a patio table at the restaurant, and just about every place I went. I shut off the audible alert because the thing was going off constantly with all the networks." "The Outer Banks of North Carolina have a full complement of Net hotspot and cell-phone coverage capabilities," writes Peter B. Young. "I like to sit in the shade of an upper deck on our mansion-of-the-week, my sturdy old laptop plugged into an outlet in the living room or often out on the deck itself, and let 'er rip -- as gentle southern breezes caress my worn and wounded body." Rand Foster recommends cruising the San Juan Islands in northwest Washington between                                                     Vancouver Island and the mainland: "There is Wi-Fi at every marina." Brad St. Pierre found the perfect combo in Canada's Northwest Territories: "At the Bayside B and B in Yellowknife, I could watch the lakeside airplane and boat activity from the lounge or deck all day while surfing the Net. With almost 24 hours of sunshine, it's never too late to do the things you forgot to do while you were online." High-tech contractor David G. Evans found a way to have his vacation and get paid for it, too. "I was on call for production support. I spent a few weeks grooming my contacts to text me if they had an issue. That being done, I found a wonderful camp spot in Seaside, Calif., 20 seconds from pristine dunes and the ocean, 15 minutes from downtown Monterey, private, inexpensive, and well equipped. The recreation room has two hookups for Internet and a Web-mail kiosk. "Since this was an East Coast contract, I would get up at 4:30 or 5 to do a quick message check and reply as a first-thing-in-the-morning connection for them. Then we would drive to the Monterey Bay Aquarium but leave me three blocks away at the Kinko's with my laptop, where access is free, 24 hour, and comfortable. I would spend an hour or two working, then wander down to the wharf to meet them for some exhibits and lunch. If there was work, I would check back at Kinko's; if not, we had family time. Except for some mad coding from the backseat of the Volvo, plugged into the cigarette lighter for a portion of the trip home, this was the best working vacation I ever had." Edward C. Horvath had the best idea for a busman's holiday: "Buy yourself a ticket to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Live on caffeine, sugar, new technology, and the famed Jobs Reality Distortion Field for a week." The prize for the most far-out connected experience has to go to Savio Rodrigues, one of the authors of our Open Sources blog. He proudly sent us a photo from Machu Picchu -- not of himself, but of his BlackBerry, with a strong connection. A close second: April Harris Calderwood's working vacation, "going to a third-world country and helping a community project with technology; you rest and give back to the community."
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The Garden Island. I really don&#39;t know what&#39;s a better treat: Gobbling down some turkey at Thanksgiving or watching golf&#39;s best at the PGA Grand Slam.
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Barren and uninhabited, Hans Island is very hard to find on a map. Yet these days the Frisbee-shaped rock in the Arctic is much in demand -- so much so that Canada and Denmark have both staked their claim to it ... via Ann Arbor News
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(InfoWorld) - Strange but true, some people -- certified techies among them -- prefer to turn it all off when theyâre on holiday. [See also: Great escapes for geeks | Top 10 vacations] Stanton W. Schmidt writes, âI really do want to leave it all behind when I go on vacation. With that in mind I would recommend the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. There, you cannot get a signal for your cell phone, no matter which provider you have. You don't drive in, you paddle in (no boat motors allowed either). And they don't even allow you to carry in cans or bottles. And no matter where you go, you are likely not to see another human being for most of your trip.â âI purposefully select vacation choices where it's extremely difficult to geek out every day,â replied Ed Kummel. âMy last vacation was in Durango, Colo. Sure, there are coffeehouses in town that have Internet access, but the bike ride down and back up the mountain is not worth it! I learned to make do with my BlackBerry for that week!â For those who would brave the mountain for some quality Internet time, hereâs your real cold turkey, from Gregg Cooke: âThe banks of West Virginia's Greenbrier River, most of which lies inside the National Radio Quiet Zone, so named because it is a 13,000-square-mile âholeâ in the eastern part of the state centered over the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Even the slightest radio transmissions are hunted down by a team of radio detectives and silenced â¦ they even find malfunctioning microwaves and mistuned automobiles. (Your tax dollars go toward this, you know.) The result is blissful radio silence for the gi-normous radio dishes the NRAO operates to scan the skies and look deep into celestial radio sources. You'll get no cell or wireless signal here, guaranteed!â
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By Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.  Jun. 13--The Branson of Southern Illinois. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? That's what a development company in Glen Carbon envisions for the Pickneyville area.
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Pampering knows no limit in the land of the high-tech commode
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Japan is pretty serious about robotics. If the droids are going to fit in, they probably need to learn the Japanese custom of serving tea.
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In this week's TravelWatch column, National Geographic Traveler geotourism editor Jonathan B. Tourtellot examines a stewardship program that keeps Maine's ocean islands untrampled.
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By Richard Lee, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.  Sep. 13--Call it a marriage of an age-old art form and a new-age communications technology.   They can learn a lot from each other, and that's a goal at CoolTea's "Blog and Dine" business networking event on Sept.
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Swarovski crystals have created a trend in consumer technology.
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By Mike Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  Feb.
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Jack Connors and I are sitting on our usual bench at Castle Island. Lunch is the usual, too: couple of hot dogs each, mustard and relish, and we split an order of onion rings, though neither of us needs them. We talk about the governor&#146;s race. We gossip about what&#146;s happening downtown and at the Globe. We talk about how ...
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By Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.  Sep. 13--Bob and Yvonne Davis' dream for Ricehaven may yet come true.   On Tuesday, the St.