Geeky Traveller

Steve recently wrote about these amazing laptop bags and Blackberry cases from Everquest Design (unrelated to the game of the same name). The bags are partially made out of materials from the relics of adventure history.

Your bag can feature a piece of the parachute of a Soyuz mission, or a piece of a sail from an America’s Cup boat.

This has instant appeal for me because it’s limited edition, has a great story, and the bags look pretty cool.

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I was listening to the BBC's Dispatches program yesterday and learned of a new morality crackdown in Cambodia. Among the less likely targets are the newer cellular phones:

Along with other powerful Cambodian women, [Prime Minister Hun Sen's wife] Bun Rany decided that these cutting-edge phones would allow would-be mistresses to bombard rich and influential men with suggestive material, leading them into temptation.

"We are all very concerned that bad people will use modern communication and information technology in the wrong way, and this will have a serious negative effect on morality and social welfare," said the petition from the group some have called the "Phnom Penh Wives".

What's next? Gameboys? iPods? The horror.

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There are three sites that people have recently emailed me about. I haven't had much time to explore them, but I thought I'd pass them on:

FlightStats: As far as I can figure, it's kind of a clearing house and rating system for airports and carriers. I have to log in to view a bunch of features, and I'm not inclined to register, so I can't see the whole site. They do have some cool looking widgets for the Google toolbar and your website, such as this:

Tripmates: "The interactive travel community that gets you connected before you depart and keeps you in touch while you're away." Hooray for websites which clearly articulate what they do! Friendster for traveling, from the looks of things, and appears to appeal mostly to the backpacking set. Lord knows that I don't want to travel with total strangers (I don't even like travelling with my friends and family), but looks useful for those who do.

TripTie: The most Web 2.0ish of these sites, and the most interesting looking. "TripTie is an online community of travelers, all devoted to planning and sharing their trips. Members plan and store their itineraries, then you take the best pieces of them and create your own." It looks like quite a deep application–great for the obsessive trip planners. I made a 'trip plan' (that's how they chunk their data), but I couldn't figure out how to share it with the world. Maybe I can't yet, as they're still in beta?

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Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter and geeky star to the masses, died this weekend:

Irwin was killed by a stingray barb to the heart on Batt Reef, off the remote resort town of Port Douglas in northeastern Queensland state, his wildlife park Australia Zoo said in a statement.

I've always enjoyed his programs, and he'll be missed. It's much too soon, but I think it's a fitting end for a man who spent his life around deadly animals.

I don't want to dwell on the subject, but what's the deal with stingrays? I didn't know they could actually kill people. Wikipedia to the rescue:

Contact with the stinger causes local trauma (from the cut itself), pain and swelling from the venom, and possible infection from parts of the stinger left in the wound. Injuries to humans include, but are not limited to: poisoning, punctures, severed arteries and possible death.

Fatal stings, such as that which killed Australian naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin, are extremely rare (as of 1996, worldwide known deaths from stingray barb injuries numbered 17), but can occur if a sting punctures the heart or chest, causing complications due to both the sting's location and the poison in the barbs.

Raise a glass of Fosters, everybody, to the passing of this great environmentalist. 

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