Burning Man

Burning Man. Is it a festival? A Pagan rite? An art event? Trying to define the annual Burning Man gathering is like trying to describe what an art festival designed around a bonfire looks like.

Burning Man, which appears to have started informally in 1986 and now draws thousands from around the world, is a temporary community in a remote Nevada Desert where participants combine artistic and personal freedom. In short: it's an intriguing way to step out of one's normal lifestyle for up to eight days.

If you want to see for yourself, read the Burning Blog, which describes what is happening at this year's Burning Man festival.

In an Rolling Stone magazine cover story, American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert said he was inspired to audition for the singing competition after he had a "psychedelic experience" while attending the Burning Man festival. Was he one of the 48,000 who went to Burning Man in 2008 for a "timeout" from their normal lives?

Burning Man is a ?

Molly Steenson, a participant and one-time web team member for the Burning Man website, has a wonderful description of this experience. "You belong here and you participate....You're there to breathe art..... Since nobody at Burning Man is a spectator, you're here to build your own new world....You're here to celebrate.

On Saturday night, we'll burn the Man. As the procession starts, the circle forms, and the man ignites, you experience something personal, something new to yourself, something you've never felt before. It's an epiphany, it's primal, it's newborn....When you depart from Burning Man, you leave no trace. " For the complete essay, click on What is Burning Man? by Molly Steenson.

About.com's Reno/Tahoe Guide is a 5X Burner

Standley White, About.com's guide to the Reno/Tahoe area, has been to Burning Man five times. Here's a link to his piece suggesting where to get Burning Man supplies in Reno. Here is Standley's link to lots of pictures which show the unique aspects of Burning Man.

Burning Man 2011 Is Where and When?

The 2011 Burning Man gathering is August 29- September 5 at Black Rock City's Black Rock Desert.

History of Burning Man

Burning Man began as a small gathering on a San Francisco beach. In 2008, more than 48,000 people showed up for the Burning Man gathering in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, where for one week participants are removed from their ordinary lives and challenged to express themselves and create art.

Images of Burning Man Gatherings

To see photos of the art created at Burning Man visit images.

First-Timers Guide to Burning Man

For more information about attending Burning Man visit First-Timers Guide to Burning Man.

Burning Man Ticket Information

For details about tickets for Burning Man visit Burning Man The demand this year is greater than ever before and when the tickets are gone - you're out of luck!

Burning Man Home Page

To learn more about this unique gathering visit Burning Man.

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Checkpoint Friendly Bags

Tired of pulling your laptop and other electronic gear out of your backpack or laptop bag? TSA now allows laptops to stay inside several carry-on checkpoint friendly bags. If your gear is packed properly, you won’t have to pull your laptop out when going through the security line at the airport

Mobile Edge has scanfast backpacks and a messenger bag that should let you pass through security checkpoints without taking your computer out of the bag. Links to buy these bags online are below.

TSA Guidelines for Checkpoint Friendly Bags

Here's what the Transportations Security Administration says about checkpoint friendly bags.

For a bag to be considered checkpoint friendly it should meet the following standards:

• A designated laptop-only section
• The laptop-only section completely unfolds to lie flat on the X-ray belt
• No metal snaps, zippers or buckles inside, underneath or on top of the laptop-only section
• No pockets on the inside or outside of the laptop-only section
• Nothing packed in the laptop-only section other than the computer itself.

Mobile Edge Scansafe Checkpoint Friendly Backpack

The Mobile Edge Scansafe Checkpoint Friendly Backpack has been tested and meets the new Transportation Security Administration guidelines for carry-on luggage, according to the manufacturer. The largest part of this backpack zips open and has a mesh section that provides easy viewing of a laptop or anything else you’re taking through security and the TSA scanners might want to see. The two outer pockets will hold everything from your MP3 player and noise-reducing earphones to books and anything else you’ll need on the plane, or want to make sure arrives with you at your destination.

ScanFast? Checkpoint Friendly 17" Laptop Backpack

Stylish Mobile Edge Scansafe Checkpoint Friendly Backpack

Mobile Edge also has a stylish, contemporary looking backpack in the Onyx Line for those who a fashionable edge.

ScanFast Checkpoint Friendly Onyx Backpack

Mobile Edge Scansafe Checkpoint Friendly Messenger Bag

The Mobile Edge Scansafe Checkpoint Friendly Messenger Bag has been tested and meets the new Transportation Security Administration guidelines for carry-on luggage, according to the manufacturer. It’s chock-full of pockets and dividers so you can put everything from your iPod and noise-reducing earphones to books and anything else you’ll need on the plane, or want to make sure arrives with you at your destination.

ScanFast? Checkpoint Friendly 15.4" Laptop Messenger

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Reach Humans for Service

Get2Human.com is a website dedicated to telling frustrated consumers the right buttons to push on a telephone to reach a human in the customer service department at hundreds of companies.

Reach a Human Via Telephone Quickly

The website lists hundreds of companies, with specific directions for the buttons on your phone to push to reach a human quickly, instead of punching buttons - usually more and more angrily - for minutes. (Then, too often, winding up at a dead end when you hear a cheery "Goodbye" from a computerized voice.)

Reach Dozens of Travel Providers, Airlines, Gear and Clothing Stores, and More

The list numbers in the hundreds, including travel providers, airlines, car rental agencies and other companies of interest to travelers. Here's a scattering: American Airlines, Air Canada, Alamo, Dick's Sporting Goods, Expedia, Hilton Honors, National Car Rental, LL Bean and Orbitz.

This list is valuable even to people who never travel, because it also includes dozens of banks, health- and life insurance companies, credit card companies and dozens of other businesses that millions of consumers try to reach daily.

Reach a Human Tips

The Get Human Tips section on the website has some excellent suggestions. For example, when you get that computerized voice try saying " 'get human' (or 'agent' or 'representative') or raise your voice, or just mumble. :) The IVR might connect you to a human after one of these key or unknown phrases." Another ploy: "Just hold, pretending you have only an old rotary phone."

Advice for Companies With Customer Service Departments

Get Human also has a Call Center Resources section, where companies can learn more about how to offer better customer service.

Who Created GetHuman.com?

The website was founded by Paul English, a Boston-based consumer advocate and entrepreneur, because he was so frustrated trying to get competent customer service. The concept grew so quickly that GetHuman.com is now managed by a three-person team.

Visit GetHuman.com

Visit Get2Human.com to learn which buttons to push.

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Types of Adventurous Travel

Exploring any of these types of adventure travel will enrich your life, and the pictures from your trip will fill a scrapbook with lasting images. From scuba diving to mushing huskies, these examples of unforgettable adventure travel will open new worlds to you.

1. Floating Above the World in a Hot Air Balloon

(c) D Friedland

Peering down from the passenger basket of a hot air balloon gives you a bird's-eye of the scenery. Floating over an African veld as lions roam below is a popular way to celebrate an anniversary. The views you get while floating over the unique landscape in Cappadocia, Turkey, stay with you forever. Closer to home, float in the sky during in one of the annual balloon festivals in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Snowmass, Colorado, and many other resort towns. With Buddy Bombard you can float over chateaus, historic towns and vineyards throughout Europe.

2. Traversing Between Trees on a Zip Line

Tree Asia

Heart racing, you let go and zip from one tree to the other reaching nearly 35 miles an hour during the traverse. Called by some the hottest new adventure sport, on a zip-line tour you wear a climbing harness hooked to a steel cable, so you can traverse from tree to tree using pulleys. Click on Top Ziplines and Canopy Tours for an introduction to the many places around the world where you fly among the trees,or walk on Indiana Jones-style bridges from one tree to another. Looking for a warm-weather zipline, or want to fly over snowy slopes? You can soar on the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii or on a mountainside in Whistler, B.C. Not sure what a zipline tour is? Click on How to Take a Zip-line tours and see how easy it is to start flying.

3. Hiking to Machu Picchu and in Colca Canyon, Peru

(c) Lois Friedland

Hiking on tiny ledges weaving up and down 13,000-foot-high mountains, as you follow the ancient Inca trails in Peru, is a special way to enter Machu Picchu. Hiking in Colca Canyon, believed to be the deepest canyon in the world, is a wonderful experience because you also get to see the giant condors fly.

4. Vietnam is a Feast for the Eyes and Senses

(c) Lois Friedland

In Vietnam, vacationers bounce back and forth between noisy cities where more than 500 motor scooters and bikes surround every car, and a bucolic countryside where water buffalo pull farmers on a foot plow through watery rice fields. Many of the most popular trips to Vietnam include biking and hiking to small villages and through the countryside. Click on the headline to read about some of the experiences you'll have in Vietnam. Click on images of Vietnam to see parts of the country.

5. Experiencing a Volunteer Vacation

i-to-i Meaningful Travel

VolunTourism – combining traditional travel with volunteer work - takes travelers out of their normal environment or travel style,? and enhances a vacation.? Here's where to find organizations and tour operators that offer volunteer experiences for part of a trip,, or for the whole vacation.? If you're not sure if voluntourism is for you, take a look at How to Decide

6. Heli-Climbing and Heli-Skiing in the Rockies

Does hitching a ride on a helicopter to a remote mountainside in the Canadian Rockies and climbing to the peak interest you? Easy scrambles on Trident Peak to steep climbs on Mount Sir Sandford (and rappels back down) are in the mix of mountaineering experiences offered by Canadian Mountain Holidays. Best known as CMH Heli-Skiing for its winter heli-skiing trips, during the summer CMH Heli-Hiking offers mountaineering and hiking packages at its five lodges in the Canadian Rockies.

7. Scuba Diving Off the Shore on Australia Great Barrier Reef & in the Caribbean

Clint Hempsall

Scuba tank-laden humans are far outnumbered by the parade of sea life cruising in the multi-hued coral canyons off Lady Elliot Island. This fragile cay is the southernmost in line of interconnecting reefs that form Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Here, you can walk off the beach and peer into the three-foot-wide mouth of a giant blue-tipped clam or jockey for space with manta rays.
You can walk off the shore and float in underwater coral gardens in the Caribbean, too. Click here to learn about Top Off Shore Diving in Bonaire, Curacao and the Cayman Islands.

8. Visiting Yellowstone National Park in the Winter

(c) Lois Friedland

You can snowmobile or cross country ski past steamy clouds drifting from blue-tinted hot springs, or go snowshoeing on paths in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. You photograph bison from the safety of your snow coach and watch wolf pups play. Click on the headline for the top 10 reasons to visit Yellowstone in the winter. Click on images of Yellowstone to see how this national park looks covered with snow.

9. Bring the Family to Meet Seals and Bears

Introduce your children to the wilder side of life on Vancouver Island, Canada. Take them kayaking in the Pacific ocean off the desolate beaches of Tofino, seal watching from motorized Zodiaks and looking for black bears scrounging for crabs and clams. Austin-Lehman Adventures offers this Canadian trip every summer.

10. Mush Your Own Dog Sled Team

Whether you're tucked under a robe behind a guide or steering your own team of huskies, riding in a dog sled on trails through a forest is a lot of fun. There are dog sled operations at many winter resorts, from Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Snowmass, Colorado to Nome, Alaska. Wintergreen Dog Sledding up in Minnesota's north country has multi-day trips where you'll get to mush your own team.

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Zipline Tours at Whistler

Summer or winter you can take a zipline tours at Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. After a safety orientation, you'll take a ride that zips you on a traininng Skyline over 16 Mile Creek and through the massive old-growth forest separating Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. Then, the real fun starts. It takes five Skylines to get back to the base, and along the way the guides will tell you about the surrounding ecosystems. The five ziplines are linked by boardwalks and trails. Tours are offered daily.

Where to Learn More

Visit Whistler Zipline Tours to learn more or call the Whistler Blackcomb Activity Hotline at 877-935-4528.

Find Zip Line Adventures Around the World

Zip lines adventures keep growing in popularity. Once you had to travel to Costa Rica, Thailand, South Arica or other exotic countries to go on a zipline, but today there are zip lines around the globe. Click on Top Zipline Adventures to see if there is one near you, or one in the locale you're planning to explore on your next trip.

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Walking on the Great Wall of China

Taking a cable car up to walk on the Great Wall of China, chatting with locals from the elderly to teenagers, then taking an alpine slide back down, adds a Disney-style touch to visiting one of the World's 7 Wonders. But walking from one watchtower to another to another (there are 22 on the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall) and stopping to peer through the tiny spaces in the parapets where warriors fired arrows at invading armies, you have to marvel at their bravery.

Photo: ? 2011 Lois Friedland

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RainDrop: An Award-Winning Video of Extreme Kayaking to Watch on Your Computer

Have you seen the short, award-winning RainDrop video of kayakers dancing their way through extreme whitewater in rivers all around the world?? It begins with a single drop of water splashed on the camera then the flow of water escalates until you're watching some of the world's best kayakers twisting, turning and dancing their way through extreme whitewater.

Kraig Becker, who writes the Adventure Blog featured it on his site. Here's where you'll find a link to this wonderful? video.

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