[Via: TheCandyTrail]

Follow me on Twitter @Kyle_Cassidy

A massive avalanche, which killed at least 17 soldiers and trapped 53 more under the snow and ice Monday, plowed into an Indian army training center near a popular ski resort designed to exhibit peaceful progress in the long-disputed state of Kashmir.

The Associated Press reports the avalanche hit the army’s High Altitude Warfare School around 11 a.m., sweeping away the soldiers during a training session. An army spokeman told the AP it was “the worst avalanche in the area in many years.”

The avalanche narrowly missed a ski resort at Gularg, situated a few miles away, where locals plus an estimated 400 foreign tourists were skiing. According to the Christian Science Monitor, The Indian government developed Gularg as a ski destination to exhibit peaceful progress in Kashmir.

Gulmarg is a bit of a dangerous place to ski even without avalanches. The city is perched near the Line of Control, which the AP describes as “a highly militarized cease-fire line dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.”

When it comes to Kashmir, there is no love lost between India and Pakistan. Claims over the state have incited two wars between the feuding neighbors since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. Now, according to the AP, hundreds of thousands of soldiers are posted along either side of the Line of Control.

[Via: Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor]

Follow me on Twitter @Kyle_Cassidy

quatchi Softsquatch

Sassy the Sustainable Sasquatch is packing his bags and leaving the Wend HQ for Vancouver for a while. Apparently, Sassy will be moseying around in the Great White North under the alias “Quatchi” to promote the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Wend crew has been giving Sassy a lot of crap for his childish appearance and sugar-coated bio on the Olympic website, which includes: favorite color – chill blue; dream – becoming a world-famous hockey goalie; and working hard and always doing his best. We all know Sassy’s real passions in life are smashing beer, skullduggery, and deceiving the dorks on Monsterquest.

Regardless, we hope Sassy enjoys his time up there and we’re looking forward to a couple weeks in the office without his dank stench and bad jokes.

Follow me on Twitter @lostcascadia

On Port Blair, a remote island in India, one of the world’s oldest dialects has become extinct after the last person to speak it died. Boa Sr, the 85-year-old last speaker of  the Bo language was the oldest member of the Great Andamanese tribe.

Tracing its origins back to tens of thousands of years ago, Bo was one of the ten dialects used by the Great Andamanese tribe.

According to Survival International, there are now only 52 members surviving members of the tribe, which is thought to have lived on the Andaman Islands for as many as 65,000 years, making them descendants of one of the oldest cultures in the world.

PHOTO: Arne Dedert/EPA

The Olympic Games have always had some sort of controversy bubbling around them. In 2000, protests about the mistreatment of aborigines broke out during the Summer Games in Australia. The China Games in 2008 received a lot of flack for the oppression in Tibet.

This year, the Winter Games in Vancouver are about to be the source of one of the largest demonstrations of Olympic opposition in history. And this time, it isn’t a human rights issue: It’s about corporate culture.

It’s no secret that the Olympic Games are often sponsored by some pretty major corporations (you can’t even go to a movie these days without getting the Coca-Cola snowball fight advertisement). According to the Los Angeles Times, this doesn’t sit right with quite a few people.

Building on years of disgruntlement over the increasingly corporate nature of the Games — and widespread alarm over a projected $5.6-billion price tag — a resistance network has vowed to post thousands of protesters outside venues, some of whom aim to disrupt the events.

Canadian officials have expressed that they plan to give the Olympic Resistance Network plenty of leeway, what with British Columbia’s respect for free speech. They realize that a lot of Vancouver natives are concerned about hosting the Games, considering the infrastructure will take years to pay off.

The protests — run mostly by “ma-and-pa people” — are going to include nonviolent rallies, lots of leaflets and street marches.

[Via: LA Times]

Follow me on Twitter @sarahesterman

Originally composed as part of an early twentieth century Russian opera, the fast-paced orchestral piece ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ has become a piano classic that can be heard on soundtracks ranging from the popular 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV to the 2003 action flick, ‘Kill Bill.’

The furious speed and frantic tempo in ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ is a result of the musician playing repeated series of uninterrupted chromatic sixteenth notes, a musical feat that is not easily mastered.

This week your dose of the sublime comes all the way from the Philippines, where ten-year-old Enzo shows what can happen when you spend your time playing piano instead of video games.

Here’s a clip from Enzo’s YouTube page:

I am Enzo and I live in Manila, the Philippines. I started playing the piano in early 2005 when I was still 9 1/2 years old. In February 2006, my parents enrolled me in a music extension program in a big University here and that started me to really enjoy music and the piano.

My dad will be posting my videos from time to time and I hope some of you will advise me on how to further improve my playing.

The Clymb

Are you afflicted? Have you ever crawled out of bed at four in the morning to be at the front of the line at an REI gear sale? Do you wish there was a place where the gear sales never end?

TheClymb–one of the first websites of its kind in the outdoor gear industry–is an online private sales network that features high-end gear on the cheap.

Here’s how it works: the site has three-day sale events for various partner brands (which include Icebreaker, Dakine and Keen, among many others), offering 70 percent off high-end gear. Members get an email informing them which company is being featured each round and what products are available. Then it’s up to you to hold yourself back from buying.

While TheClymb is a private forum that you can only enter if invited, you can bypass the membership for a limited time by clicking here.

We’ve been big fans of TheClymb (based in Portland, Oregon) ever since one of the founders, a former executive at Adidas, accidentally wandered into Wend HQ while checking out an open office in the space next door. He told us what he did, we told him who we were and then we all just sort of basked in the irony.

TheClymb been available to industry insiders for a few months, but it has now officially launched to the public.

Great people, great company. Check it out.

Follow me on Twitter @sarahesterman

In the 1995 comedy Canadian Bacon (written and directed by filmmaker Michael Moore), Niagara Fall Sheriff Bud B. Boomer (John Candy), frustrates fans at a Canadian hockey game by refusing to sing the country’s National Anthem. But it isn’t until he takes a sip of Canadian beer and exclaims, ‘Man, this beer sucks!” that the fans break into a riot.

Beer, delicious beer, can be found all over this wide world of ours. In Kyrgyzstan you can order a Baater beer, which means ‘beer of the brave’. In Tanzania you can sip on Serengeti Lager. In Peru you can drink Pilsen Callao. Regardless of how far you wander when you finally sit down to rest odds are that you will be able to find a beer to wash the dust from your mouth.

So loosen your belt and pop open a cold one, because this week we are taking you on a visual journey of Beer, ‘Round the World.

If you like our ‘Round the World series, you might enjoy some of the previous themes: authorities, fanny packs, dogs, Jesus, swimming, sweaters, mustaches, stairs, chess, foods, silhouettes, outhouses, cemeteries and donkeys.

Click on the thumbnails to view the images. If you’d like to see more work by any of the photographers featured here then follow the link that appears below each photo.

Enjoy.

Follow me on Twitter @Kyle_Cassidy

Tucked deep in the woods of the misty mountainsides there hides a brewery of legend and lore. Here, Sassy the Sustainable Sasquatch mixes and mashes hops, malts and grains in an array of beers that eventually find their way into microbreweries. The following are Sassy’s most prolific contributions to brew culture.

Sasquatch Stout – Old Yale: With all the abandoned chocolate bars Sassy’s found along trails, he’s developed a bit of a sweet tooth that shows in this stout. A strong chocolate taste is enriched with a slightly bitter hint of coffee that makes this brew a good match for a cold night.

Bigfoot Barelywine – Sierra Nevada: The Bigfoot has a strong malt body and a floral taste reminiscent of a sweet wine. Characteristic of barleywines, this brew has a 9.6% abv. that will have you sitting at the bar with your back slumped like Sassy in no time.

Yeti Imperial Stout – Great Divide: This brew will put some hair on your chest… and maybe the rest of your body. Dark roasted malts give this stout a color as dark as the woods where Sassy lives and a 9.5% abv. to match. Don’t get lost out there.

Skookum Creek Strong Ale – Cascade Lakes: A seasonal release from Cascade Lakes, this brew is a mash of Sassy’s favorite Pacific Northwest bounty. Combining seven malt selections and four hop varieties, this strong ale is has a rich complexion of herbal goodness.

Wild Duck Sasquatch Strong Ale: While the original concoction created by the late Wild Duck brewmaster Glen “Sasquatch” Falconer has been retired, every year several breweries such as Ninkasi and Hopworks brew their own spin on the classic for the Sasquatch Brewfest as an ode to one of Oregon’s most beloved brewers… and legend.

Image via Twitpic: Mt. Kilimanjaro

Apparently even astronauts are tweeting these days, and unlike some of the idiots out there who think everyone cares that they just ate a sandwich, the folks outside of Earth’s orbit actually have something awesome to show us.

One such astronaut, Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi, has been sending images from the space station to Twitpic. In his collection are photos of Munich, Port-Au-Prince (after the devastating earthquake), and the Golden Gate Bridge, among others.

You can check out his entire collection here.

[Via: Telegraph]

Follow me on Twitter @sarahesterman