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14 Reviews
Podium Foot Packs
- Versatile foot that attaches to factory-installed roof racks
- Kit-based and personalized to different car types
- Secures to roof with Thule one key locks
- Item #THU0187
Tech Specs
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Tech Specs
- Reviews
What do you think about this product?
Have questions about this product?
Thule is great
Love the Thule ski set up
Legos for Adulthood (pt. 2)
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
These foot packs were easy and quick to install (both to the fit kit I needed for my Element, as well as to my car itself). They seem sturdy and have held up well over use so far.
My one gripe is the lack of an included locking mechanism. Given that the roof rack was assembled with the same tools as an IKEA bedside table, I would like a little shoring up to make sure my roof rack doesn't disappear.
Good foot packs
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
They work good and they are easy to install.
Good Rack, Easy Install, But Overpriced
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
I just installed this system on my Honda Element, and am hoping to add a cargo box soon. The install was pretty easy, no thanks really to the Ikea like instructions included, but pretty self explanatory. The quality seems good and this should hold up for a while, and add a lot of interior space once I get a cargo box, but if I'm being completely honest it seems a little expensive for what it is.
This is my setup:
Thule Podium Fit Kit - 3109
Thule Podium Foot Packs â Rapid Aero
Thule AeroBlade Load Bars - 53"
Great rack setup
We have a Toyota Tacoma with a topper and have a Thule track system permanently installed.
Here is the system for this specific setup:
Thule Podium Fit Kit - 3101
Thule Podium Foot Packs - Square Bar
Thule Load Bar Pair - 58"
Rocky Mounts BrassKnuckles Upright Mount
Easy to install.
- Familiarity: I gave it as a gift but have feedback to share
On the impreza hatchback. A must with your Thule set up. Good quality, recommend it with the Thule Universal Flat Top with Locks!
- Familiarity: I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions
Does $155 get you a pair, or does it get you all four needed to mount a complete rack?
Comes with all four, Justin.
These are easy to install, and they hold very well to the car. Feel nice and secure. My only gripe is that it is hard to get the bar perfectly centered between the two feet, but half and inch isn't going to make a huge difference. I got the rapid aero version with aero blade bars, and I couldn't be happier. Many of the fit kits needed for this to properly fit your car are not found here on backcountry. You need to go to thule, do a fit configuration, and it will tell you exactly what number fit kit you need. I couldn't find mine for my jeep grand cherokee on backcountry, so I just ordered it straight from thule. little extra work for a lot of good times!
A bit pricey, get them on sale
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
These are the universal podium foot packs that install to your vehicle specific fit kit podium mounts. They are fairly easy to connect, but I needed help when installing the Aero Blades on the rear mount points. The Aero Blades were not sliding easily along the foot packs making it difficult to adjust and making it a two-man job. Loosen the bolts too much, they fall off your mount points; tighten them too much and the bars won't slide and you can't get the adjustment correct. Strange, the front crossbar went on fine with no issues and I needed no help, but the rear one gave me trouble. I suspect it could be a quality control issue with the fit being just a little too tight. That issue, plus price and the fact that the entire piece is plastic (I'm told it will last and their is a lifetime warranty) warrants only a 3-star rating.
Easy to install
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
Very easy to install with fit kit on car.
460R - Jeep Grand Cherokee 2011
Fits perfect with easy transitioning between seasons. I would recommend this to any outdoor explorer looking to travel with ease and comfort.
use the fit guide!
used the thule fit guide and these fit perfectly on my 2007 bmw 328xi. looks great!.
Lowering the bar (in a good way)
These look great and as mentioned before have a much lower profile than other options. Plus they were easy to install.
Low Profile
I love the low profile you get with these towers. Much better than the factor-mungus towers you can buy from a your car dealer. I purchased these with the fixed point kit for my Audi A4 Wagon (2009) and love the look. I feel sorry for the folks driving around with the factory units on their cars knowing that they could have made a more economic and better choice.
Greetings, I have a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee with factory flush rails. The Thule site says that I need the ARB53, 460R and 3142 Fit Kit. It looks like you have the first two. Are you able to fill this order or are these not the correct items? Thanks
Does this podium set come with the ability to lock? Or do you still have to purchase the separate lock pack?
Nope they are sold separately
Feel free to hit me up at firstname.lastname@example.com or 801-736-6398.
I notice some places have this model with...
I notice some places have this model with the key locks already in them, while others do not. Do these come with the key locks?
Will these podiums work with a 2014 Jeep...
Will these podiums work with a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
Yes. It will require 460 square bars or 460R Thule Aero bars bu this item will fit on Jeep Grand Cherokees from 2011-2014.
can I use the Podium Foot Pack for my...
can I use the Podium Foot Pack for my square bars on a 2014 Lincoln MKZ
Is the Rapid Aero option the same as the...
Is the Rapid Aero option the same as the "460R" mentioned on Thule.com?
Yes, the rapid aero on here is the same as the 460r rapid podium pack on Thule's website.
Does it fit on my Kia Sorento 2011? dian...
Does it fit on my Kia Sorento 2011?
Hey dia5501194,
I did some checking with Thule and I found out the Thule Podium Foot Packs will not coincide with your Kia Sorento 2011.
You do have a few options though. If you want to go with the regular Thule load bars, the Crossroad Railing Foot Pack is what you want. If you would want the Thule Aeroblade bars which are very quiet and a bit more expensive, you would need the Rapid Crossroad Railing Foot Pack.
Would I be able to attach this directly...
Would I be able to attach this directly to my 2004 Nissan xterra stock cross bars?
Hey Matthew Hall,
Thanks for the question. I checked with Thule and I did find that the
Thule Podium Foot Packs will not fit on your 2004 Xterra bars. What will fit is the Thule Crossroad Railing Foot Pack which we do carry in stock.
Does anyone know what cars these work with...
Does anyone know what cars these work with or know where there is a compatibility list? I have a 2007 BMW 328XI coupe with factory roof rack anchor points and would love to buy this setup vs. the factory option.
At the top of this page is the Thule car rack configurator. From there, click on 'build your Thule rack'. It'll give you all the options starting from scratch for your make, model, and intended use.
Be sure to double check my results, but a quick glance using your specs show that these Podiums are the ones you'll need. You'll also need #3039 fit kit for the 2007 3 Series, as well as to decide whether you want to order the 861 Aero bars or the 761 square bars. Don't hold me to it, and be sure to confirm. Hope it at least helped some.


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Bulletproof coffee [1] has taken the paleo world by storm. Not me, though.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for people dropping grass-fed butter and coconut/MCT oil into their high-quality coffee, blending it all up into a high-octane mug of frothiness, but I just can't get into it. If we're talking coffee additives, I prefer my butter in the form of cream. That's me. I definitely see the appeal of it, though, and I'm sold on the merits of the drink and its components. It's just not for me.
However, the idea of adding non-traditional fatty food items to coffee intrigued me, so I decided to explore other options. Eventually, I landed on eggs.
Why eggs [2]?
Egg yolks are excellent emulsifiers. There's the egg yolk lecithin, a famous emulsifier, plus several different egg yolk proteins with emulsification properties. Good yolks are prized by top chefs around the world primarily for their emulsifying ability. Egg yolks smooth out sauces, salad dressings, and relations between bitter enemies like oil and water. That's right: egg yolks are the great unifiers of the food world. Throw some olive oil [3], lemon juice, salt [4], and pepper [5] into a bowl, whisk it all together, and you'll have a lovely stratified bowl of fluids of different shades. Oh, they might appear to blend together into a dressing for a second or two, but once you look away, the old immutable divisions will rear their heads and the dressing will disappear. Add an egg yolk or two, though? You'll get a silky smooth salad dressing that remains so for time immemorial.
If you don't have a blender but still want a smooth, creamy coffee drink, hand-frothing an egg yolk with a fork or whisk will get you there. Hand-frothing butter and coconut oil requires vigorous labor and may not even achieve full emulsification.
Eggs are incredible sources of micronutrients. While I love grass-fed butter [6], cream, and coconut oil [7], they aren't exactly micronutrient-dense. The best butter contains beneficial nutrients like vitamin A, omega-3s [8], vitamin K2 [9], and butyric acid [10], while coconut oil is a unique source of medium chain triglycerides, but for the most part we eat those foods because they are sources of stable, healthful saturated fats [11]. They provide energy. Egg yolks, on the other hand, are baby bird building blocks. They contain everything you need to build an entire working animal from scratch – all the vitamins, minerals, protein, and fatty acids that make life work. And, if you get a pastured egg – which you should if you know what's good for (and your omelets) – your yolk will be supercharged, with extra choline, vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin K2, omega-3 fats, vitamin D, and beta-carotene from all the bugs and greens the chickens ate.
I love eggs, particularly the yolks, and enjoy adding them to everything. They're a solid, dependable, go-to breakfast item, they're good for you, and they taste great. What more can you want? That's why they ended up on my list of foods I couldn't live without [12], and that's why they ended up in my coffee. In the end, I just love eggs, and since I already add them to just about everything, I figured "why not coffee?"
Are there any potential problems with adding eggs to coffee?
Oxidation springs to mind. Not only are you subjecting egg yolks to heat, you're also whipping oxygen into them. It seems like the perfect storm of lipid oxidation, no?
I'm actually not too worried. First of all, the coffee really isn't very hot. It's well under boiling.
Second, coffee is a rich source of antioxidants – you know, those things whose primary job is to prevent oxidation. Whereas bathing fragile fats in a boiling bath of water might promote oxidation, coffee is essentially an antioxidant-rich broth. Marinating meats in herbs [13], wine [14], and citrus juice seems to prevent oxidation, and I'd bet that coffee can have similarly protective effects. Drinking coffee sure protects LDL particles from oxidation via incorporation of coffee polyphenols into said LDL particles [15]; why wouldn't coffee polyphenols frothed up with egg yolk offer similar protections to egg phospholipids?
Third, the actual blending/frothing only takes place for a few seconds. It's relatively short-lived, probably not long enough to be a problem.
Fourth, the vitamin E in egg yolks is there to prevent oxidation. It's quite good at it [16]. Coincidentally, this is why you should get pastured eggs if possible. The yolks of pastured eggs contain upwards of four times the vitamin E found in standard battery egg yolks.
What about raw egg white's tendency to bind biotin? Raw egg whites have the well-publicized ability to bind biotin (found in the yolk) and prevent its absorption. Luckily, the binding ability of avidin begins to break down at 158 ºF (70 ºC) and is almost completely degraded at 185 ºF (85 ºC). Since coffee is ideally brewed with water running between 190 and 200 ºF, the finished product should be able to keep avidin from binding your biotin.
But why eggs and coffee?
I stumbled upon something I had never heard of until recently – Vietnamese Egg Coffee – and decided to experiment in the kitchen.
Now, let's get right to the recipes themselves. As you'll see, they're not all that complex. You're basically just adding eggs or egg yolks to coffee. Still, though, read on to see exactly how I did it.
Primal Egg Yolk Coffee
I did a little playing around with this and tried several different recipes. In the end, I think I came up with a solid recipe.
- 1 1/2 cup (350 ml) coffee
- 3 pastured egg yolks
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp of salt
First, I brewed the coffee (35 grams of coffee beans – I used a light roast, single-origin bean) in a French press. Dumped the grinds in, added about 350 ml of water, gave it a quick stir, covered it, and let it sit for three minutes. Meanwhile, I separated the yolks from the whites. Once the coffee was ready, I dumped it in a blender, set it to "low," and dropped in the yolks. After a few seconds, I added a teaspoon of sugar [17] and a pinch of salt [18] (around a quarter teaspoon) and let it blend a bit more. Then, I poured it, admired the head of foam, and got to drinking.
I tried fewer yolks and found the brew too thin. I tried more yolks and found it to be unnecessary. Three yolks was perfect. If you want to switch things up, you can add something a little sweet like I did. I added my usual teaspoon of sugar, plus a quarter teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt. Honey, maple syrup, or stevia should all work well, too. The salt may sound odd, but trust me: it just works as long as you use a little sweetness to counterbalance it.
Primal Whole Egg Coffee
Think of this as a whole foods-based protein shake.
- 1 cup (240 ml) coffee
- 2 pastured eggs
- 1 tsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
I started by beating the eggs together, whole, as if you were making scrambled eggs. You could also blend them. For a 1 cup dose of coffee, I did two whole eggs. Once the eggs are beaten or blended, slowly drizzle in the coffee. You don't want to cook the eggs. You want them to stay creamy. If you're really concerned about the avidin in the raw white, dump the coffee in to ensure maximal heat exposure. Otherwise, just drizzle.
I think a higher egg:coffee ratio (using a large shot of espresso, for example) for a stronger coffee flavor would work really well. Also, two eggs in this recipe created a nice and creamy concoction. I suspect three eggs might even be better.
Again, I added a little sweetener plus some salt. It made the coffee taste a bit like a liquified custard. Really, really tasty.
Adding Other Ingredients
I also tried out a few other additions to the brews, to see how they meshed with the eggs. Consider adding these:
- Cinnamon – Goes great with coffee, provides insulin sensitizing benefits [19].
- Turmeric [20] – Anti-inflammatory spice, works well with cinnamon.
- Vanilla – Tastes good, smells better. May have anti-inflammatory effects [21]. Also works well with cinnamon (but not so much with turmeric).
- Butter and coconut oil – If you dig Bulletproof coffee, adding egg yolks makes it even better.
Use Caution!
In the course of research for this post, I ingested five eggs plus five extra yolks along with several cups of moderately strong coffee. I don't know if it was just an excessive amount of coffee or if the caffeine was potentiated by the phospholipids in the yolks, but I felt like I was under the influence of… something. Although it was a good feeling, a productive feeling, to be sure, I could see it getting out of hand if taken too far. This is potent stuff. A cup or two is probably ideal, at least for me.
"Sugar – really?"
Don't worry about a little sugar, even the white stuff. The amount I added, a teaspoon, is just four grams of sucrose. And, if you use an actual food like honey [22] or maple syrup [23], which have different (improved) metabolic effects compared to plain white sugar, the potential downsides of ingesting sugar are lessened even more. Besides, you can always use a non-caloric sweetener like stevia, which has its own set of benefits [24].
Since writing this article a few weeks back, I've begun rotating egg yolk coffee into my morning routine. I don't have it every day, but do have it several times a week, particularly if I have a busy day ahead of me where optimal productivity is required. Whole egg coffee seems to work well pre-workout, boosting energy, motivation, and providing a nice source of branched-chain amino acids [25] for the training ahead.
What about you, folks? Want to give this a shot? Ever tried this yourself? Got any tips to improve my recipes? If you do try it, let me know in the comment section how it works out!

subset: commoncrawl


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Located in Salt Lake City, Pretty Bird is a purveyor of fine American dining from the esteemed Chef Billy Lang.
Pacific Tavern opened in May 2010 and is located inside the Smith Hotel Brooklyn. Since then, Golden Spork winner Chef Lang has been serving both quality interpretations of classic dishes and daring new ventures into the uncharted territories of food.
Pacific Tavern's interior, designed by the award-winning Hayden Collective, reflects the hip sensibilities of the surrounding area while also paying tribute to Brooklyn's storied past. The multi-level restaurant offers the choice to observe passers-by in the glass-encased Cascade Bar on the 2nd floor, or watch the art of cooking as it occurs in the open-kitchen dining room.


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This post builds on the previous one on the state of the eco-humanities. Here I focus on the substantive elements for narratives adequate to the Anthropocene. One of the challenges of our time is to learn to tell an adequate story of humanity's current predicament. Next spring's Stories for the Anthropocene Festival in Stockholm aims to deal with this challenge. Numerous […]
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Toward telling an adequate story
Posted in AnthropoScene, tagged Anthropocene, Big History, Bill McKibben, climate change, climate science, ecomodernism, environmental humanities, greenhouse, humanity, icehouse, metanarrative, narrative, Roy Scranton, Thomas Berry on June 29, 2016 | 11 Comments »
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I wrote a response to the U of O Yoga scandal. If you wanna read it hop over to my new site. ❤
I wrote a response to the U of O Yoga scandal. If you wanna read it hop over to my new site. ❤
Republished from my new blog: http://www.andigracewrites.com
Last year I published my most widely read piece of writing Why I Stopped Teaching Yoga: My Journey into Spiritual, Political Accountability.
Recently I did an interview on Heart and Spirit, a show on Kootenay Coop Radio, where I spoke about my feelings regarding yoga, my experience as a teacher and community organizer, cultural appropriation, and the importance of connecting to our ancestral roots.
You can listen to that interview here:
As you know my last piece about why I quit teaching yoga was my final piece for this site. I'm going to keep the site online so the piece can continue to be read and shared.
These days I am moving onto a new writing project, one that accompanies my anti-oppressive facilitation offerings as well as tarot card reading.
You can see my latest piece on the new site here:
It's a letter I wrote to someone with whom I had an interaction with poor consent. It's not meant as a call out, or to demonize anyone, but rather it turned into something of an open letter for us all to hopefully, learn to hold each better.
If you appreciated my writing on this site, I hope you will also follow my new site.
Over the past few months people have been asking me, "why did you stop writing?". "Are you teaching anymore?" I got an email from a stranger who asked, "Where did you go?" It's taken me months to untangle the threads that wove this transformation together. Like most transformations, it runs deep.
After much soul searching, traveling and reflection I can not-so-cautiously say, I don't teach yoga anymore – and to be honest, there's not many people who I think should. At least not in the way most of us do now.
I did my teacher training in 2011. Since becoming an "accredited yoga teacher", I've taught classes in several studios; co-created a social justice based yoga collective that offered yoga on a sliding scale to folks who otherwise might not access it; taught anti-oppression workshops in yoga studios across north America; met and worked with some incredibly inspiring teachers; wrote a reasonably successful blog; had my writing published on many websites – I even planned to open a healing space in my hometown, the un-ceded Coast Salish territories of so-called Vancouver British Columbia.
Through out all of this, I have always had nagging doubts – doubts that became increasingly challenging to ignore. And like Alice, down the rabbit hole, when I followed the tug of those doubts, I came out the other side a truly different person, with some radically different goals in life.
When I first started blogging it didn't take me long to write a piece that went viral. One of the teachers I most admired was even suggested to me as friend on facebook, because our mutual friend (a prominent yoga blogger) wanted my work to be on his radar. This same piece was shared by one of the political organizers I most admire in Vancouver. It was pretty mind-blowing to me. For such a new teacher, this success definitely came as a surprise. I wanted to write because I wanted to articulate the ideas that were floating around in my head. I didn't necessarily expect them to be useful or impactful to anyone other than me. It seemed though, that folks who care about yoga and social justice were looking for someone who could articulate the discomfort they felt. Many people told me they found my voice valuable and needed. I felt useful and that felt really good.
This elation quickly faded though, when I started to receive criticisms from folks of colour. I received these critiques both online and in school. At first and still to this day, they arrived in lesser frequency than the waves and waves of compliments I was receiving. But here's the problem – most of those compliments were from white people. White people, who like me, were not aware (aka. blinded by our privilege) to some glaringly obvious problems in my work. My analysis often failed to meaningfully address colonization and my participation in that oppressive system as a culturally appropriating, white yoga teacher.
When these critiques started coming in I will admit I felt very hurt and this lead me to become defensive. I looked for reasons to dismiss the critiques because they felt painful to look at and inconvenient to consider or process deeply. I was, as most white folks (especially white women) are when we get called out, so wrapped up in how much it hurt to be told I was failing and fucking up – that I used my pain as a reason not to look at my mistakes with the empathy, patience and clarity they needed.
One day, crying in my front yard to one of my best friends I told him, "I just don't know what to do. I feel like I'm doing the best I can and I just can't let go of how much this hurts. What should I do?" In his painfully typical, sage and patient way he suggested, "maybe you should focus less on how much this hurts and more on what it was that you did wrong. What was it that you did that made these critiques start coming? Try to shift some of your focus that way and see what answers come."
Hearing that made me realize what a tremendous (and typical) mistake I was making. I was focusing more on my own pain, privileging my emotional response over the critiques of the very people who I was oppressing. I took some deep breathes, worked to settle my discomfort and started to focus on the work of understanding the critiques.
I started to ask questions. I sent some of the online critiques to other yoga teachers. People whose politics I respected. One after the other, they all told me some variation of, "these people are reacting from a very emotional place. You do good work, just focus on that and keep doing it." I was literally being told that I should ignore the critiques. That I should "let it go". And I was told this over and over again no matter who I asked. And as much as this was something a part of me really, really wanted to be able to do, I just couldn't. I knew I needed to get to the bottom of what these critiques were pointing out.
Eventually in my process of asking everyone I could find whose opinions I respected, I eventually asked a mentor of mine – this time not a yoga teacher, but a well loved and deeply respected facilitator. They kindly and patiently pointed out to me: you're like the Jackson Katz of yoga. You're saying things that folks of colour have been saying for a long time. And sure, some white folks are listening to you and that's good, but it's reinforcing of your privilege that they are listening to you, when these critiques already existed (and they didn't say this to me at the time, but really, other people had articulated these ideas a lot better than I had) – and you, a pretty white yoga teacher needed to say them for them to be heard or seen as valuable. Maybe you need to shift your work towards uplifting the voices of people who are already making these critiques? See where that takes you.
The time this person took to offer me this explanation, I realize, was a gift. A really beautiful, valuable challenging gift. Finally, someone was helping me focus more on what I had done wrong, rather than encouraging me to ignore the critiques and just move blindly forward. From there I decided to stop blogging, focus on teaching and facilitating and see what I could learn from stepping out of the online spot-light. Since then I've reached some radically different conclusion in terms of how I feel about yoga – which I want to share with all of you.
Before I share what I've learned I want to make clear what my intention is in with writing this piece. I'm not trying to attack anyone or take away from the good work people are doing. What I'm suggesting is a re-frame. I'm hoping, that maybe what I've written here will spur you to action, but I'm also aware that it might make you feel a lot of emotions, especially if you are a white yoga teacher. It might make you feel angry, sad, hopeless or defensive, but whatever you feel I hope we can share in the journey of diving into deeper accountability together. My hope is that this offering will encourage discussion, bravery, reflection and critique – not tear anyone apart.
I would encourage you to keep in mind that the ideas I'm about to share with you literally took me years to shape in my own head. All the ideas presented here are gestures to some of the meaningful learning I've done since I stopped blogging. Lots of conversations, so much reading, travelling, self inquiry and facing some big fears. As such, this blog, while longer than average, is literally just scratching the surface. If you have follow up questions I would encourage you to do some of your own research. Talk to people and ask questions till you get answers that feel right to you. Answers that feel real and bold and brave. And if you need – I would be happy to refer you to resources. What I can't do, is explain all the ideas presented here in endless detail. It's a blog piece – I'm inviting you to do some of your own research, reach your own conclusions. See where it takes you.
I also want to make clear that I do and always will, value my yoga practice. It has been in many ways a life raft for me through some of the hardest challenges and deepest healing that I've experienced in my life. No matter what happens in the future I know that what I have learned from yoga will always be with me. Being able to feel my body, ground into connection with the earth, introduce breath to places that are tight and hiding, sit through pain and discomfort without immediately reacting – all of these things are lessons that I attribute to my having had practiced yoga for the last ten years of my life. All that said, I can't take part in yoga the way we share it in the west anymore. It took me along time to admit this to myself and make the necessary changes this realization entails, but what I know in my heart, my mind and my gut is that what we are doing in western yoga is an entitled, willfully ignorant act of theft.
The truth is, I feel, that we are appropriating and destroying the practice that we rely on and love so much. Recently I watched a video produced by SAAPYA titled "We Are Not Exotic, We Are Exhausted: A Film On Being Desi and American, Now". One of the youth in this video explained this process, from their perspective, much better than I could:
"It's cultural appropriation with white females, even white males, doing yoga but they don't even know why they are doing yoga. It's cultural appropriation because of the fact that it can be turned into a billion dollar industry with these clothes and mats. Yoga isn't about buying the right things and doing poses. Yeah they say its about reaching, going inside of you to find something spectacular, to find your soul or something. But I don't think they understand that yoga and finding your soul runs deeper than that."
In many ways, the most challenging part of this learning process for me was coming to terms with the fact that I don't actually know what yoga is. I thought I did – I thought it was about healing trauma, getting into my body, but I realized that I had been missing the mark completely. I was missing much bigger picture, where some of the most valuble lessons in yoga come from.
A friend of mine, who is of South Asian descent, a woman who grew up practicing yoga her whole life, helped me see that how we practice yoga in the west is a HUGE departure from what it looks like for her and the culture she comes from. She helped me understand that yoga is a multifaceted spiritual practice, philosophical tradition, medicine system and way of life – not an exercise regimen. And when we see it this way, we miss some of yoga deepest teachings.
This same friend used to be part of a teacher training program in Vancouver and was told she needed to teach "our yoga" aka western yoga rather than what she had been taught her whole life. As a result of her refusal to adjust how she teaches she is no longer part of the teaching staff. Can you imagine, a white woman telling someone who has practiced yoga her whole life, that she needs to teach a more Americanized, more white version of a practice that she has practiced her whole life? It's absurd. This dynamic is exactly why most of us aren't exposed to any of the philosophical or cultural roots of this practice until we do our teacher training, if we are exposed to this information at all.
What hearing this story taught me is that I don't and can't know what yoga's roots are, because its not part of a culture that I belong to. I could perhaps dedicate my life to learning and unpacking my understanding of yoga, going to India and really digging into that learning, but even that endeavor feels contentious for lots of reasons.
What I've come to see is that when I come into a public forum – whether I'm opening a business, teaching a class, writing a blog or speaking in a video – I am claiming that I know and have the right to create what yoga is. This is part and parcel in the process of appropriation and this is part of how we have created what Frank Jude Boccio calls the "yoga industrial complex". We've commodified, materialized and westernized a practice that has roots in a culture that we (and by we I am speaking largely to white folks here) are not a part of. We are taking an aspect of this culture removing it from its context and then we are changing it, claiming to own it, attempting to copyright and sell it and ultimately shaping it into something that is harmful to all of us. However, this harm is unevenly and more deeply experienced by the people from whom we are stealing. Roopa Singh explains this really well when she says:
"What happens when people rely on a country or culture as a panacea for their own wounds with respect to race, lineage, and home? No one comes out of this kind of political or personal violence unscathed, and segregation in yoga is injurious to us all."
In the time since I stopped blogging I started to re-engage in work resisting industrial expansion – specifically against oil pipelines. One of my most valuable lessons I've learned came from time I spent at the Unistoten camp in Northern so-called BC. In the process of working in solidarity with indigenous front line communities, settler folks like me are asked to consider the cultural roots they come from. "Remember, we all come from beautiful origins" is something I've heard my friend and mentor Mel Bazil say many times. The process of starting to trace back my family's origins has lead to me see the way that many European folks have lost touch with exactly what many of us are seeking in our yoga practices. We have become so spiritually hungry and lost we are willing to steal. We feel comfortable doing this because whiteness breeds entitlement – the feeling that it is our right to practice and change a practice that isn't ours in the first place.
For many white settler folks, whose family lines run back to Europe like mine, the times when we lived in community, on shared lands, in harmony with the moon, the earth and each other are much further behind us than those of the indigenous people whose land we occupy today. This is not to say that these ways only exist in the past, many indigenous communities, despite massive state violence, have maintained or relearned the practices our ancestors worked to destroy. Also many European traditions of witch-craft, herbalism, magic and other land based skills persisted and are still practiced today by European folks. That said, for the majority of us settler folks, we've lost touch with the spiritual practices which ground us to place and the natural world. Those spiritual practices were intentionally and often violently stolen from us through the imposition of capitalism, the division of communally held lands, witch hunts and the forced introduction of Christianity. As a result we land where are today: living on lands we don't have historical or ancestral connections to, with very limited access to spiritual practices that are culturally derived – and this, I feel, is part of what leads so many of us to practice yoga. Not only are we able to heal our bodies physically, we are able to nourish ourselves spiritually. What I would like us to consider though, is that what we are doing to yoga is tantamount to what happened to our ancestor's spiritual practices. The solution to being spiritually lost is not to steal from others and then claim what we steal for ourselves.
Appropriation is a very difficult and unpopular topic to address in yoga circles. When the wesbite Decolonizing Yoga was launched I was excited, because it meant that perhaps there would be a forum for us to address racism and colonization in the yoga world. And I'm going to be painfully honest here, much to my disappointment I think Decolonizing Yoga has failed to do meaningful decolonizing work. It doesn't mean that they can't, but they have a lot of work to do to get there.
Some of my work was up on the site when it first launched and it is where most people came to know my work for the first time. I have considered asking to have my writing taken down from the site many times. When the critiques I mentioned earlier in this piece came in, I sent them to the founder of Decolonizing Yoga, along with some critiques of the site itself. It was brought up to me that the site doesn't mention the land from which the work on the site was being done – a central and very basic part of decolonizing practice. Further, much like Yoga Journal, none of the content at the time was written by South Asian authors, let alone addressing cultural appropriation. When I brought this up to the founder of the site she told me nothing had been written on the topic that she felt could be posted on the site. I did some research and sent her some articles I thought would be good to post. They weren't hard to find, just a couple hours on google. One by one she turned each article down. Eventually I posted on my facebook that I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the nature of the site. She responded publicly quite politely and as if she was committed to working on improving the site, but in a private message was quite defensive and upset with me for making the post.
This behaviour, I have found, is pretty typical of white yoga teachers – including me. When appropriation is addressed, many of us get defensive. We stop being able to listen. My theory behind why this happens is that we get scared. We rely on our yoga practices to heal our bodies, ease our minds and give us a sense of purpose and spiritual connection. I think the idea of looking at ourselves with a critical lens is scary to us because most of us have no idea what we would do without our yoga practice. And I will admit, it's been a scary and destabilizing thought for me too, for sure. But I really do believe we can do better than this. We can turn to our own cultural roots to discover practices that build spiritual sustenance. And yes, yoga is a practice that anyone can come to, but I'd encourage you to ask yourself, is the yoga you are practicing a spiritual practice? Or is a glorified fitness regime that is more invested in outwards appearances than deep spiritual work? Because what I know, is that yoga is a practice that can give us deep learning and that most of what we are doing, is running as far a field away from that learning as we can.
That being said, there are some really amazing teachers and leaders who I feel are doing some essential and game changing work in the western yoga world. These projects consist of people I have learned a lot from who I would encourage all of you to keep an eye on. Check out The Underground Yoga Parlour for Self Knowledge and Social Justice, Total Liberation Yoga, Third Root in Brooklyn and People's Yoga in East La. And finally I would encourage you to watch South Asian American Perspectives on Yoga in America (SAAPYA) and Roopa Singh. I can confidently say that Roopa is doing some of the most meaningful, spiritually integral and politically brave work that I've seen in all my time as a yoga teacher and blogger. Watch her – and do your best to really listen.
I'm going to leave you with a note of painful honesty, because I don't want to let this go unsaid. This is a community that I have often felt pretty alienated and isolated from. I know I'm not the only yoga teacher out there who cares about social justice and I know that it is not often our intention to stifle these conversations, but the truth is, we do. We often focus more on our latest instagram post of our favourite new pose, than we do on the impact of our actions on the world. I have seen some of the wisest, most thoughtful and inspiring teachers I know leave the yoga world, because their ideas were not well received, because they didn't want to teach huge vinyasa classes or for very little money – or because they realized that this practice is just not right for them. I would encourage you to not let the people who leave exit your mind quietly. Why are we losing so many teachers and role models who want to challenge systems of oppression? Why do they feel silenced in the yoga community? And beyond that, take note of who isn't here. Who doesn't show up to class? Really dig deep and ask yourself why. These questions do not have easy answers.
If the answer seems simple – keep digging.
If these questions make you uncomfortable, don't turn away – take a deep breath and ask yourself why.
The rabbit hole awaits, and trust me – it's not as scary as it seems.
This project officially ended in the fall of 2014. In the fall of 2015 I launched my new magic + writing project. If you'd like to follow my current work you can find it at www.andigracewrites.com
Next week I'm traveling down the west coast to take part in UC Berkley's Yoga and Access conference. I'm very excited to participate in this conference, learn from so many inspiring teachers and meet folks in person who I've known online for some time.
While I'm in Cali I'm teaching two workshops. One in Oakland and one in Grass Valley.
The Oakland workshop will take place at Underground Yoga Parlour (3209 Peralta st) on Saturday April 26th. I'll be co-teaching a consent based yoga class from 11 am to 12:30 pm and then offering a Sacred Justice workshop from 1 to 4. More details are available on facebook. This workshop will be geared mostly towards teachers and studio owners, as an extension of the conversation we'll be engaging in at the conference.
The Grass Valley workshop will take place at Yoga Well (144 Hughes Rd) on April 29th from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. More details are available on facebook. This workshop is geared towards community members, healers, teachers, therapists, youth, educators, PFLAG folks and yogis and meditators of all stripes.
If you have any questions or would like to request a workshop in your community, please leave a response in the comments section of this post, or send me an email. You can find my email in the contact section of my website.
This is why we need queer yoga. In Vancouver it happens on Thursdays at 6 at 1814 Pandora. ❤


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It can be quite wet, so baking it adds an interesting extra layer of textures and flavours as in this recipe for a late summer salad, full of vibrant herbs to perk you up on a near-Autumnal evening.
The earthy lentils add a wonderful contrast of texture. I wrote a note in the margin of this recipe suggesting that a roasted red pepper cut into strips might make a lovely addition.
Lentil and baked ricotta salad
Ingredients (serves 2 as a light salad)
- 75g lentils
- 200g ricotta
- 4 tomatoes
- 1/2 a red onion
- A handful basil
- A handful mint
- half a small packet of cress
For the dressing
- 1tsp Dijon
- 1 tbs chestnut honey
- 2 tbs white wine vinegar
- 4 tbs olive oil
Cook the lentil in stock or water for 12-15 minutes until cooked but still with bite. Set aside to cool.
Cut the ricotta into ½ cm slices and bake at 180 for 20 minutes until starting to brown.
Quarter the tomatoes, finely slice the red onion and chop the herbs. Mix these all together gently with the cress and season with salt and pepper. Add the cooled lentils and crumble in the cheese.
Whisk the ingredients for the dressing together and pour over the salad. Serve with crusty bread.


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|Picture shared in family history by Josh Buch
As I wrote in my first blog post (and first post on this series), my 3rd great grandfather, Manus Maurice Boyle, died in the Royal Charter shipwreck. Now a good question is, how did I ever find it out to begin with?
When I was a genealogical newbie and was posting on message boards, I was lucky enough to link up with a distant cousin, William Turnbach, Jr. While I've been truly fortunate to correspond with many distant cousins since, Bill was the first to introduce me to "The Letter."
What is "The Letter"? Well, it clarifies what exactly happened to Manus. It explains why I'm not searching Pennsylvania mining records and obituaries trying to find out why he disappeared. It explains why I'm not cursing his name while making the assumption that he abandoned his wife and children.
In 1917 Alice Boyle McGinnis nee Monaghan wrote a letter about a house that Manus built for them to live in. That letter gives so much wonderful genealogical information, to include that Manus was a passenger on the Royal Charter and drowned.
I encountered family history gold within my first year of genealogy research. Bill shared so much with me, and I shared my little branch of our family tree with him (he was much more advanced in his research than I was at that point).
|Photocopy of picture shared by Josh Buch - The house that Manus built
Since that time I have come in contact with numerous cousins that shared the same letter with me. I've often wished that I had a copy of the original. I've wished that I knew why Alice wrote the statement to begin with. Always wishing, but the original seemed elusive.
So during my series of Royal Charter blog posts I've gone back to look over some information that I had collected over the years and see what I've over-looked (I do that...more often than I'd like to admit). I have a wonderful 1+ inch thick genealogy that was sent to me by Josh Buch back in 2006-2007. Josh is the husband of a distant cousin and the genealogist of their family. We met online, exchanged emails, and even spoke on the phone and then he graciously mailed me a hardcopy of the entire genealogy he did for his wife. Complete with photocopied pictures of the house that Manus built. I revisited those and as I began paging through the genealogy I saw the letter. The transcription that everyone always passes around...and the handwritten letter that it was transcribed from. Yes, this was one of those moments that I felt like a complete dork. I had been looking for something that had been in my possession for 5 years. It's so time to get better organized!
So I'm delighted to be able to add on to the Royal Charter family story by including a digital copy with the transcription. I was also excited to see in the family history that Josh wrote, that Manus did find some gold during his years in Australia and had sent some money home (great job, grandpa!). I'm sure he had gotten this information during his many interviews with family members that had known/remembered Alice.
|Photo of the house that Manus built from Josh Buch
I can't really explain why, but knowing that Manus had found gold made me feel better. It's not a greed thing and it doesn't change the fact that he died, but it did mean that he didn't fail in his mission. He and his family sacrificed so he could go and try for a better life for them. So many people that went to Australia failed. He didn't. He had succeeded in his goal and then fate dealt him a bad hand.
Grandma Alice went on to marry again (John McGinnis), but had no additional children to my knowledge. John died early as well (a coal mining accident) and Alice never again married. Perhaps after having had two husbands cruelly taken from her she decided enough was enough.
I'm delighted to be able to share this genealogical gold nugget (and it truly is...just look at all the information in there!) and hope that it will be useful to any other descendents of Manus that may be out there that haven't found the rest of us yet. Thank goodness for those distant cousins and their incredible generosity and helpfulness!
|Page 1
"Statement of Mrs. Alice McGinnis regarding dwelling house built by Manus Boyle in the autumn season of 1854, at which time the above mentioned Manus Boyle was the husband of the above mentioned Mrs Alice McGinnis.
My maiden name was Alice Monaghan. I came from Ireland to America with my mother Mrs. Ann Monaghan, my brothers John and Eugene, and sister Elizabeth. We arrived in Jeanesville, January 1, 1853. I was married to Manus Boyle, a coal miner, in November 1853, and lived with my husband Manus Boyle in Leviston, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. My husband worked for Rockliffe and Johnson who owned the coal mines at Leviston, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, at that time. The superintendent was Jenkin Reynolds. My husband [obtained permission from Rockliffe and Johnson to build a]
|Page 2
...dwelling house and was told he could build a dwelling house on their land at any location he wished. At the time it was customary to get permission from the land owners and build dwelling houses as the houses were very few. My husband bought the lumber and in the autumn season of 1854 built a dwelling house in Leviston, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. It consisted [sic] of three rooms on the first floor and one large room on the [sic] second floor which was called 'up stairs'. The place was covered with trees and bushes and my husband cleared off trees and bushes to build the foundation and also the garden adjoining the dwelling house. When the dwelling house was built we then moved into it.
On March 4, 1855 my daughter Mary Boyle, who is now Mrs Mary Fay, was born in this dwelling house, and [on December 24, 1856, my daughter...]
On March 4, 1855 my daughter Mary Boyle, who is now Mrs Mary Fay, was born in this dwelling house, and [on December 24, 1856, my daughter...]
|Page 3
...Annie Boyle, who is now Mrs Martin Blanchfield, was born in this dwelling house.
My husband Manus Boyle went to Australia in September 1856 and in the autumn season of 1859 when my husband was returning from Australia in the sailing vessel Royal Charter, the vessel was wrecked near the coast of Wales and my husband, Manus Boyle was drowned.
When my husband Manus Boyle went to Australia in 1856 my brother-in-law Richard Dougherty with his wife Rose and daughter Cathryne moved into this dwelling house and lived with me for company after my husband Manus Boyle was drowned, I lived here until the spring of the following year 1860 and then I went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and lived there, working for various families. When I went away my brother John Monaghan took care of my youngest daughter Annie [and my brother-in-law took...]
|Page 4
....care of my daughter Mary.
In the year of 1866 I married John McGinnis in Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. We lived in Jeanesville, PA, New York City, NY, and then in Leviston, PA. In 1889 my husband John McGinnis and I returned to this dwelling house in Leviston, Carbon County, Pennsylvania which was built by my first husband Manus Boyle in the year 1854. During the time I was away from this dwelling house 1860 to 1889 my brother-in-law Richard Dougherty and family occupied it and in the meantime built an addition to it. Richard Dougherty died about the year 1882 and his family continued to live in this dwelling house until 1889 when they vacated the rooms of the house which my first husband Manus Boyle built and moved into the addition which they had previously built [adjoining the rooms of my house.]
|Page 5
.......The statement given on the four pages attached is correct to the best of my knowledge and also to the best of my brothers knowledge, John Monaghan, and we have this date signed our names as shown below.
John Monaghan
Mrs Alice Mcginnis
Leviston P.O.,
Carbon County, Pennsylvania
Thursday, July 12, 1917
|Page 6
Mrs Mary Fay
Loretta Fay
George Fay
Leviston, Caron County, Pennsylvania Thursday, July 12, 1917"
NOTE: Unfortunately the bottom of each page didn't copy, so I put the transcription from a copy of "The Letter" that was also in the family history (and had been passed around for years!) of the pieces that were missing in parentheses.
NOTE: Unfortunately the bottom of each page didn't copy, so I put the transcription from a copy of "The Letter" that was also in the family history (and had been passed around for years!) of the pieces that were missing in parentheses.


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Install a premium plugin on my websites
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What's on Now!
Recipes & Projects
Travel Tip: Using an ATM in Europe
Saturday Marathons
February 21, 2020
Let the Good Times Roll!
Home>> News>>Create™ Tv Channel Offers Saturday Themed Programming With More Superstar Chefs… Garden Makeovers… And More!
Press Release
Create™ Tv Channel Offers Saturday Themed Programming With More Superstar Chefs… Garden Makeovers… And More!:Create TV's themed marathons showcase many of America's most popular and highly rated how-to, cooking, travel, gardening and arts & crafts series
BOSTON Feb. 28, 2008 – Superstar chefs and more of America's favorite public television personalities will be featured in Saturday themed marathons this April on Create TV – available on digital cable and digital broadcast across the country (check local listings). The channel, a unique destination for many of television's highest-rated lifestyle series, showcases six-hour marathons of episodes focusing on different themes each week.
This April, Create TV's marathons feature entertaining food, travel, craft and gardening themes including: "Southern Hospitality" (April 5); "Superstar Chef II (another full day of the chef biography series Chef's Story)" (April 12); "A Passion for Fashion" (April 19); and "Flower Power" (April 26).
Southern Hospitality – April 5
Create TV crosses the Mason Dixon line in the company of talented chefs John Shields and Chris Kimball, equestrian traveler Darley Newman and historian Burt Wolf. This group of talented hosts will show viewers exactly what Southern Hospitality is! Destinations include Georgia, Virginia, the Carolinas and Louisiana.
Superstar Chef II – April 12 Twelve more superstar chefs discuss their passion for food with another full day of the biography series Chef's Story. See revealing interviews from top culinary professionals, including Todd English and Charlie Trotter.
A Passion for Fashion – April 19
This arts and crafts marathon focuses on our team of expert seamstresses, Sue Hausmann, Shay Pendray and Martha Pullen, guiding viewers through every stitch until they have a gorgeous garment! Topics include double-stitching, quilting, embellishments and more.
Flower Power – April 26
Learn some great tips for your indoor and outdoor spaces with Create's gardening and home experts. Create TV features a full day of garden-focused programming, including the popular garden and home series P. Allen Smith's Garden Home, Katie Brown Workshop, and For Your Home, starring mother and daughter team Vicki Payne and Sloan Payne-Rutter.
Create TV, produced and distributed by American Public Television (APT), Thirteen/WNET and WGBH Boston in association with NETA and PBS, is carried nationwide by 186 public television stations – representing 71% of USTVHH – via digital broadcast or basic digital cable.
Research studies show that viewers praise Create TV's quality of programs, depth of knowledge of the hosts, and variety of how-to topics. They also appreciate that its programs are shown as complete half hours – uninterrupted by mid-program commercials or breaks.
Visit www.CreateTV.com for more information, TV schedules, program descriptions, recipes, news, shopping, tips and more.
About Create™
Create™ is the dynamic TV channel that spotlights many of television's most popular how-to, cooking, arts and crafts and travel series. Create is produced and distributed by APT, Thirteen/WNET and WGBH Boston in association with National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) and PBS.
About the Entities That Make Create TV Possible:
American Public Television
For 47 years, American Public Television (APT) has been a prime source of programming for the nation's public television stations. APT distributes more than 300 new program titles per year and has 10,000 hours of programming in its library. It is responsible for many public television milestones including the first HD series and the 2006 launch of the Create channel featuring the best of public television's lifestyle programming. APT is known for its leadership in identifying innovative, worthwhile and viewer-friendly programming. It has established a tradition of providing public television stations with program choices that strengthen and customize their schedules such as Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti in Concert, Battlefield Britain, Globe Trekker, Rick Steves' Europe, Great Museums, Jacques Pķpin: Fast Food My Way, America's Test Kitchen From Cook's Illustrated, Broadway: The Golden Age, Lidia's Family Table, California Dreamin' – The Songs of The Mamas & the Papas, Rosemary and Thyme, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home, The Big Comfy Couch, Monarchy With David Starkey, and other prominent documentaries, dramatic series, how-to programs and classic movies. For more information about APT's programs and services, visit APTonline.org.
Thirteen/WNET New York is one of the key program providers for PBS, bringing such acclaimed series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, Charlie Rose, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Wide Angle, Secrets of the Dead, and Cyberchase — as well as the work of Bill Moyers — to audiences nationwide. As the flagship public broadcaster in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut metro area, Thirteen reaches millions of viewers, airing the best of public television along with its own local productions. And, through its Web site and educational outreach projects, Thirteen extends the power of its work beyond the television screen. In 2003, Thirteen merged with sister station WLIW21 New York, America's fourth most-watched public television station. WLIW distributes live daily broadcasts of BBC World News and produces PBS programming celebrating the diversity and ethnic character in America. More information about Thirteen and WLIW can be found at www.thirteen.org and www.wliw.org.
WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source of one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup, along with some of public television's best-known lifestyle shows and children's programs and many public radio favorites. WGBH is the number one producer of Web sites on pbs.org, the most-visited dot-org on the Internet. WGBH is a pioneer in educational multimedia and in technologies and services that make media accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video descriptions. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards…even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was honored with a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information, visit www.wgbh.org.
National Educational Telecommunications Association
The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) is a professional association that serves public television licensees and educational entities in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. NETA serves by connecting people and ideas, by providing quality programming, educational resources, professional development, management support and national representation. For more information, visit www.NETAonline.org.
Public Broadcasting Service
PBS is a media enterprise that serves 355 public noncommercial television stations and reaches nearly 73 million people each week through on-air and online content. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment, and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.
Create interests
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Last year in a state of severe depression I found myself willing to try almost anything to help it abate more quickly. One of the things I tried was acupuncture.
Unfortunately, I didn't have much success with it treating my depressive symptoms (though I seemed to have a little luck with the relaxing environment helping my anxiety) but an article yesterday centered around a study involving electroacupuncture relieving some of the symptoms of depression caught my eye.
Researchers at the School of Chinese Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, and the Department of Psychiatry in Kowloon Hospital did a clinical trial using dense cranial electroacupuncture stimulation (DCEAS) on patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).
To dumb that down a little bit, consider DCEAS to be something like acupuncture on the head (primarily) that involves the added bonus of electric pulses (yes, electricity) to those needles. This is a new treatment technique developed only recently, and I am sure it is a lot less terrifying than it sounds. From my own experience, regular acupuncture is considerably less painful and scary than it looks (and I've had it done on my head/face), so I wouldn't let that deter one from potentially seeking this treatment in the future, if this is something that becomes more widespread and seems like it might be desirable to you.
The article leaves out a lot of details, but the takeaway seems to be that notable improvement was said to be seen in patients receiving electroacupuncture in as few as three days, with continued improvement throughout the trial.
Want to read more? Read the full article here…


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CF PETG Hard Tube 12/10 mm - 2 x 100 cm
Under the label "CoolForce - powered by Nanoxia" we present selected components for demanding water cooling and modding enthusiasts.
Our CoolForce PETG Hard Tubes are ideally suited for experienced water cooling fans who are interested in creating a truly individual system. The set consists of two 100 cm long PETG Tubes, i.e. a thermoplastic polymer, which the user can trim as needed and which can even be bend, if desired. The use of high-quality PETG gives our Hard Tubes a unique firmness, making them almost impossible to break.
With our Hard Tubes, you can realize the most demanding projects with a little effort and creativity, without the need to use a broad variety of different fittings or adaptors. By employing a heat source, for example a heat gun, the tubes can be bent easily. We strongly recommend using our 10 mm CF Rubber Core, which gives the Tubes the necessary stability in order to ensure a safe and accident-free bending.
Our PETG Hard Tubes have an outer diameter of 12 mm and an inner diameter of 10 mm. We also offer suitable CoolForce fittings to use with our Hard Tubes.
Please note: We accept no liability for any damage caused by using of this product. Use at your own risk.


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Student's research leads to humanitarian mapping work
Student's research leads to humanitarian mapping work
While working on his dissertation on volunteered geographic information, Department of Geography doctoral student Sterling Quinn noticed that one of these kinds of applications, OpenStreetMap, was being used for typhoon Haiyan relief, as it was for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and decided to volunteer his help, too.
OpenStreetMap is an online map built by volunteers in the same pattern as Wikipedia: anyone can add, edit or delete any feature, and the data is free to download. But the amount of useful data for any location varies depending on the skills, resources and opportunities of local populations. "Some areas are what Mark Graham (director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute) calls 'virtual black holes' until someone facilitates the collection of information there," Quinn said. "Pre-earthquake Port Au Prince is a good example of this. I am interested in places that remain 'virtual black holes' in the map and how the growth of mapping communities can be encouraged in those areas. I am also interested in how contributors to OpenStreetMap can be guided to add the most socially meaningful features to the map (such as parks, gardens, and bus routes), in addition to the standard roads, businesses, and building footprints."
"Volunteers are needed for the very simple work of looking at satellite imagery and tracing existing roads, buildings and residential areas," Quinn said. "People might wonder: Why trace imagery that happened before the storm? Well, a detailed map of the area pre-typhoon is still useful to aid workers. Some advanced volunteers are now examining imagery of the damage and marking buildings as damaged, but in order to do that, you have to have the buildings and residential areas in the map to begin with. This is where crowdsourcing is helpful." The Red Cross's use of volunteered geographic information was featured in a recent article in The Atlantic.
The work is organized by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team so that you can informally claim a sector to work on. This ensures that duplication is avoided. You don't need to commit to finishing a sector; you can fit the work into whatever amount of time is available to you, Quinn said, adding that no special GIS skills or software are needed; all the work can be done in your browser.
Quinn organized a meeting to demonstrate the tool and enlist others in the volunteer mapping work. "About 12 to 15 people showed up at the talk I gave, representing various departments and clubs. I have gotten some other informal email solicitation since that time," Quinn said. "People who are interested in helping can contact me and I can send them some tutorial instructions that I wrote up, or give a talk. I am really just getting started with this myself, but I organized the meeting in order to share what I had learned."
Quinn hopes to get together an OpenStreetMap group in State College next semester and do occasional mapping parties to ensure that central Pennsylvania is well represented on the map. There is a reasonable amount of detail in State College, but not in some of the surrounding communities, he notes.
"In the longer term, I am studying how OpenStreetMap growth can be fostered in places where the map is not built out yet, like Latin America, "Quinn said.
If you want to get started with OpenStreetMap, go to openstreetmap.org and create an account. No personal information is required; just an email address to prove you are a human. The page organizing the Typhoon Haiyan work is: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Typhoon_Haiyan_(2013)


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Shopping and Entertainment
to the Ozarks
Whether it's shopping for unique gifts from some of our local artists, working up a sweat on a biking or jogging trail, relaxing at a park or lake, or enjoying water sports and fishing on our lakes and rivers, the Arkansas Ozark Mountain Region has it all.
Explore the possibilities below and plan your adventures, activities, explorations and excursions. Locate area cabins, lodges, attractions, golf courses, fishing information, restaurants, maps and much more. Piece it all together, map it out and then make your plans to come visit us! We can't wait to see you.


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Star Wars Episode VII: A DARK FACADE-Extended Edition part 4
November 4, 2008, 01:27 AM »
Umble Zarr: it was nothing more than a little hero worship Mrs. Skywalker, I longed to question the man who had risen to the challenge of Dethroning the Emperor and vanquishing his own father.
Mara: you must be Mrs. Soear, a pleasure.
Umble Zarr: (shaking hands) no, the pleasure is mine. Mara Jade, the woman who once could hear the emperors command from anywhere in the galaxy. Another champion I have longed to question.
Gigin-Taue: hello my dear, where is Zeb-Ska?
Umble Zarr: Asleep, Luke it has been far too long since our last meeting.
Luke: (clearly annoyed) yes umble, it has.
Gigin-Taue: well master Luke, the council will convene within the hour. Umble what are the cooks preparing for our fest tonight.
Master Soear and his wife make their way back towards their chamber as Luke and Mara are left to share an uncomfortable silence.
Mara: (walking away) I wonder how disruptive you let you get.
Luke: (attempting to follow) whatever youre attempting to accuse Umble and I of is unthinkable and falsely based. I will not be condemned of actions that I did not partake in! Do you understand me Mara.
Mara: (turning around) youre scaring me Luke. Ive never seen you like this.
Luke: (stomping past) I dont have time for your acquisitions. I must meditate before the council convenes.
Luke storms off back towards the landing pad where the Jedi escort is landed, Mara is left standing in the middle of the temple completely dumbfounded. Skywalker boards the ship and confines himself within his meditation chamber. Suddenly the spirit of Yoda appears within the chamber.
Luke: master yoda, I thought the distances where too great for obi-wan to communicate with me.
Yoda: too far for obi-wan they have become. But not for me.
Luke: master
Yoda: come to chat I have not, things you have done that are questionable. Lies that remain hidden from those dear to you, will only awaken more dangers.
Luke: its too late for you to lecture me, I cannot tell them.
Yoda: the longer you cloud those around you; the harder will it be for them to trust you once more.
Luke: I will not let it be known. Theres nothing you can do.
Yoda: under its will, the dark side has you. Corrupted you are Luke, redeem yourself you must if any progress is to be made.
Luke: I need no redemption master yoda, I have everything under control.
Yoda: so certain are you? Your attempts to control are blinding the truth. Until you see the truth then useless you are to the force
The spirit of Yoda disappears while looking down in shame. Luke continues his meditation. On the other side of the planet Han Solo leads the entire Relief Effort in battle against the Space Raiders base of operations in a steep valley, the republic fighters rain laser blasts on the highly defended base which is heavily fortified and guarded by massive junk barges.
Han: jacen, stop only aiming at the turrets take out those troops!
Jacen: (from within turret) Im not going to murder those mercs dad. Its goes against my training as a Jedi.
Han: forget your training and help me win this battle!
Jacen: (from within turret) I cant concentrate on this with you yelling at me.
Han: All right, concentrate. Groups seventeen and nineteen move in on my course and eliminate those turrets. Bombers I need a hole in that front gate ASAP!
Bomber: I copy general solo.
The millennium falcon as followed by a muiltude of V and X wing fighters dive low and open fire on the base, exploding the entire front gate sending the mercenaries on the wall flying in every direction.
Han: call me crazy or is that base empty?
Jacen: (sitting in co-pilots seat) this kind of trick requires the power of the force.
Han: what are we dealing with here? Pissed off garbage collectors or force-sensitives?
Jacen: We need to contact Gigin-Taue, with this base empty that means their forces are mobile.
The relief effort speeds away from the disserted base. Meanwhile in the deep forest regions The Jedi Council convenes.
Gigin-Taue: Ive summoned you the leaders of this Jedi temple, to debate the disturbing chain of events of late. That started with the murder of my father. And now have led to the complete invashion and destruction of our community at the hands of the space raiders.
Cas-Lo: I for one would like to welcome the insight of our revered guest Luke Skywalker.
Corran Horn: were here to discuss our reaction to the invashion, master Vont. Not witness your further attempts at belittling the image of master Skywalker.
Luke: thank you master Horn, I believe a one-time pupil of mine is leading the Space Raiders. But I cannot testify as to whom as completed his training or pointed him in this direction.
Mara: the beast montagra doesnt have the wits to come up with an invashion of this scale.
Luke: Nor does he have the force potential to cloud the intention of this invashion from us.
Putag: (speaking ewokese) these Junkers arent this brazen, this is too bold for them.
Cas-Lo: nevertheless they have invaded, they have destroyed most of our cities, they have set flame to the jungle, and they will find this temple. What are we to do wait until they find us before we act?
Tenel Ka Dijo: I agree with master Vont we must stand up for the destruction of natural life. This has already gone too far.
Gigin-Taue: now now, tenel your dathomir instincts are not to be misread as the will of the force.
Tenel Ka Dijo: Are you willing to sit here as the jungle burns around you, I will not allow it.
Putag: (speaking ewokese) I too will not sit by as the jungles are burnt!
Luke: the foliage will grow back; the people of this planet will not, there have already been heavy losses on all fronts.
Saba Sebatyne: how many more must we allow to be lost in vain, before we act?
Corran Horn: this council is unbalanced without the presence of Yap-En Soear. But a decision must be made.
Lowbacca: (speaking wookie) were not senators, this should be left to Gigin-Taue to decide!
Cas-Lo: I agree Lowie, but this council is the only ruling body capable.
Gigin-Taue: Im sorry that Ive imposed this upon you all, But my fathers aids where lost at Orran.
Saba Sebatyne: my knights are more than capable of protecting the temple.
Tenel Ka Dijo: Im prepared to call upon my sisters on Dathomir, if this council is incapable of coming to a decision on this matter.
Gigin-Taue: I will not accept the aid of the Witches of Dathomir that is out of the question!
Mara: youre already turning down the aid of outsiders.
Luke: Master Soear our relief effort has already sustained heavy losses.
Clighal: and my healers arent quite up to the challenge yet.
Cas-Lo: we need to come up with a solution before the space raiders can claim this planet.
Putag: (speaking ewokese) my apprentices arent capable of defending themselves against ion canons.
Gigin-Taue: may I suggest we attempt to gather our collective force energies and generate a rainstorm strong enough to extinguish the raging fires?
Luke: with our combined energies we can also attempt to stop the space raiders.
Clighal: Cunning plan, but what if were unable to stop them all.
Lowbacca: (speaking wookie) their junk vessels wont be able to withstand the kind of weather we will summon.
Corran Horn: what of this Montagra?
Saba Sebatyne: Ecadogrens arent exactly known for their wits.
Putag: (speaking ewokese) He has displayed unusual intelligence.
Gigin-Taue: no matter, we must do this for the sake of a peaceful resolution.
Cas-Lo: unless anyone else has something of importance to add to this session. Then I believe we may get started on focusing our energies.
As the nine council members start meditating, Han and Jacen Solo bust into the chamber bearing bad news.
Han: weve lost all trace of the space raiders, their base was deserted and there is zero visibility out there due to the smoke.
Jacen: have you come to a decision on how to deal with this invashion?
Gigin-Taue: weve decided to focus our energies on causing a planetary rainstorm capable of putting out the fires and crashing the junk barges.
Han: what of the merc army, I doubt these guys are afraid of getting a little wet.
Luke: I will deal with Montagra, alone.
Mara: as you wish.
Jacen: uncle Luke are you sure, I would like to accompany you.
Luke: no jacen, I can handle this by myself.
Cas-Lo: Montagras capture means more to this council than whatever personal reasons you are harboring, master Skywalker.
Gigin-Taue: I insist that your nephew and Chi-Ro Rahem accompany you; they are this temples best students.
Luke: very well, but I wish for my wife and child to remain here.
Mara: I wouldnt ever take Ben into harms way and you know that.
Han: my troops need to rest and I doubt this place is big enough for all the survivors.
Cas-Lo: they may take refuge in the lower levels.
Han: great. I have to go work on my ship.
The general leaves the room as the council members scatter in different directions to prepare both themselves and their students.
Jacen approaches the three with C-3PO and a hulking bodyguard droid.
Mara: (cradling Ben) whos the can?
Jacen: this is Acheff-9; hes a new standard issue bodyguard droid. Mom sent him here to watch my back. Ive reprogrammed him to guard you in Lukes absence.
Luke: thats nice of you jacen, but you know Mara can take care of herself.
Mara: yes, but I welcome the droids help. It doesnt hurt to be too careful these days.
Jacen: exactly.
Acheff-9: (simplistic voice) Im here to protect, go about your regular routine. There is nothing to see here.
Mara: well hes certainly covert. Is this fastest he moves, or is he pretending to be a piece of junk.
Jacen: Im not quite sure, but Im certain hell keep Threepio Company.
Luke: oh yes, Im sure but what exactly makes him a bodyguard droid is he outfitted with any weapons?
Jacen: lets hear it Acheff.
Acheff-9: (simplistic voice) Im capable of dispensing nine thousand laser bolts per seconds via my built in blaster modules. I can generate a protective energy shield for a period of fourteen hours. Im also well versed in physical forms of combat.
Mara: thats great, but how do you shut him up?
C-3PO: Oh my! An advanced bodyguard unit.
Jacen: like most droids their vocal transactions are vital to their other functions.
Acheff-9: (simplistic voice) Cybot Galactica Protocol Unit. Is your prescience required at this moment?
C-3PO: (cowering) no I believe it isnt.
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The other day, a reporter for a Hispanic business magazine asked me what I thought the hottest franchises were this year. I hesitated, like I always do when I get asked that question, and shared a couple of "categories" that are currently popular.
When he pressed me for the names of specific franchises, I hesitated again, but this time, I spouted off 2-3 concepts that have been getting a lot of PR, or have been selling a lot of new franchises lately. But, I really don't like naming names. I'm much more comfortable naming some of the trends in franchising.
A "hot" franchise opportunity can mean a number of different things. It depends on who you are and where you are in the franchise buying process. Take a look at the three things I listed below that could make a franchise concept "hot," and maybe you'll understand where I'm going with this important topic:
High New Unit Sales
In my industry, things are measured in units. Franchisors are always on the hunt for new franchisees. New franchisees open new units. New units create new franchise fees, and a new stream of monthly royalty income.
Check out this Introduction to Franchising to learn about these fees, which are the lifeblood of the franchise model. If a franchisor is selling a lot of new franchise units, it could be considered to be a "hot" franchise concept.
Locations Everywhere
Let's say that you travel a lot for business. Let's also say that you've been thinking of leaving your job and becoming the owner of your own business, maybe even a franchise. Since you're in the "looking for an opportunity" mode, you've been keeping your eye on certain businesses that populate all the places you travel to. And, there's this one restaurant franchise that you keeps popping up everywhere you go. Not only are these franchises everywhere, they all seem to be new. In your eyes, this franchise seems like a "hot" one.
Some franchises get a lot of publicity; the reasons why, vary. For example, Dunkin' Donuts tends to get a lot of PR. Like this story featuring two very-well known sports figures that just purchased the rights to 50 Dunkin' Donuts franchises.
Earnings announcements can be turned into PR, too. Here's a story that discusses Burger King's 2Q profit going up 60%. (The reasons include their new menu, and recent marketing initiatives.) Then there's the recent publicity surrounding a certain chicken-sandwich franchise, that may or may not be considered what's termed, "good" publicity.
So, based on the publicity that those three franchises have been getting as of late, one could say that they are pretty "hot" franchises. The reason I chose to attempt to define what a hot franchise is by using the examples above, was to get you to stop and think for a minute.
Now, I understand why you want to find out what the hottest franchises are these days. You're equating popularity with higher income opportunities. That's completely normal. But, it's not necessarily the case, every time.
Look at the recent Facebook IPO, for a moment. Didn't you want to secretly "get in on the ground floor," so that you'd have a chance to make a lot of money on a brand new stock? And, wasn't the fact that Facebook has been considered a "hot" social media site-a hot company the main reason for your interest in it?
Investigating a franchise because its "hot," and using whatever criteria you're using to make it so, can be really tricky. Will the franchise concept you're interested in potentially be a short-lived fad? Are there too many locations nearby for you to really have a chance to make money? Can the franchisor keep up with all the new units being opened?
Those are all great questions that you need to ask yourself before you sign on the dotted line. Of course, one of the best things about franchising is that you get to ask actual franchisees, the ones that took a risk already and that are in business, all the questions you want.
But, in your excitement to become an owner, to finally be in control of your career, don't forget to ask yourself this question:
"Is the franchise I'm thinking of purchasing right for me?"
If so, maybe it can become a "hot" franchise for you and your family.
Make sense?
Burger King Photo via Shutterstock


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The watchers: They won't hear of prof's politics
I was happy to learn the other day that a conservative student group at the University of Texas had published a "professor watch list" of instructors who "push an ideological viewpoint on their students through oftentimes subtle but sometimes abrasive methods of indoctrination."
I have long held that one of the most serious problems on our campus– the largest in the country, with more than 51,000 students– is that the student body is largely depoliticized. Given that lack of political engagement, I'm grateful for anything that gets students talking about politics, especially the role of politics in the university.
So, when my name ended up on the list of the alleged indoctrinators (with no clear indication whether I am subtle or abrasive), I wasn't upset, even though the group's description of my "Critical Issues in Journalism" course doesn't quite square with my experience in the classroom.
While I teach about the role of economics, race, and political ideology in journalism, there's a bit more to the semester than "a crash course in socialism, white privilege, the 'truth' about the Persian Gulf War, and the role of America as the world's prominent sponsor of terrorism." (The watch list is at studentorgs.utexas.edu/yct/watchlist.html. My syllabus is at uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/J310/J310syllabus.htm.)
But more important than arguing about the accuracy of these course descriptions is challenging what seems to be a key assumption of the project: Professors can, and should, eliminate their own politics from the classroom. For example, the list valorizes one professor who "so well hides his own beliefs from the classroom that one is forced to wonder if he has any political leaning at all."
These illusions of neutrality only confuse students about the nature of inquiry into human society and behavior. All such teaching has a political dimension, and we shouldn't fear that. The question isn't whether professors should leave their politics at the door – they can't – but whether professors are responsible in the way they present their politics.
Every decision a professor makes–- choice of topics, textbook selection, how material is presented– is political. If the professor's views are safely within the conventional wisdom of the dominant sectors of society, it might appear the class is apolitical. Only when professors challenge that conventional wisdom do we hear talk about "politicized" classrooms.
The classroom always is politicized in courses that deal with how we organize ourselves politically, economically, and socially. But saying there's a politics to teaching doesn't mean teaching is nothing but politics; professors shouldn't proselytize for their positions. Instead, when it's appropriate– and in the courses I teach, it often is– professors should highlight the inevitable political judgments that underlie teaching.
Students– especially those who disagree with a professor's views– will come to see that the professor has opinions, which is a good thing. Professors should be modeling how to present and defend an argument with evidence and logic.
For example, in both my introductory and law-and-ethics classes, I offer a critique of corporations in capitalism. For most students, corporations and capitalism have been naturalized, accepted as the only possible way to organize an economy. But the modern corporation– a fairly recent invention– should be examined critically, not taken as a naturally occurring object. Given the phenomenal power of corporations, including media corporations, in contemporary America, how could one teach about journalism and law without a critical examination not only of the occasional high-profile corporate scandals but of the core nature of the institution as well?
The conservative group claims its goal is "a fair and balanced delivery of information" in the classroom. If that really is their concern, I have a suggestion: Check out the business school. I've heard reports that some faculty there teach courses in marketing, management, finance, and accounting that rarely, if ever, raise fundamental questions about capitalism.
Wouldn't that be shocking, if we were to discover that there really are places on campus where the classroom is so thoroughly politicized that the myriad alternatives to how to produce and distribute goods and services are not explored? Would it not be unfortunate if students were being indoctrinated into corporate capitalism, whether by means subtle or abrasive?


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A new gadget from Apple is typically cause for a sales jolt, but demand for the latest redesign of the company's popular iPhone has been off the charts. AT&T, the smartphone's U.S. carrier, suspended sales of the device on June 16 after more than 600,000 early orders strained company computers. Some calls to Apple's service line weren't answered because of heavy volume.
What accounts for such demand? Performance upgrades and a sleeker look, analysts say. The thinner, square-edged, flat-back design is the first cosmetic overhaul for the three-year-old smartphone. While speedier, the iPhone 4 will sport a 5-megapixel camera, videoconferencing capability, and an outerbody antenna that should improve call reliability — a common complaint among current iPhone customers.
"The phone is sleeker and thinner," says Adam Leach, principle analyst for Ovum, a London-based technology research firm. "The current model is starting to look a bit old."
With 50 million iPhone users, many orders are coming from fans who want to upgrade, says Charles Wolf, senior analyst for Needham & Co. He expects a large percentage of the iPhone 4's initial sales to be upgrades. As the phone expands into overseas markets, he says, Apple will see more first-time buyers. AT&T, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier, also boosted sales by allowing any iPhone customer eligible for an upgrade in 2010 to buy the new phone at the lowest price — $199 for the 16GB model or $299 for the 32GB. That will lock iPhone customers into two-year contracts this summer, just as many analysts and others expect that Verizon Wireless will eventually become a carrier for the Apple device. "It's a smart move for AT&T," Wolf says.
In a June 17 report, Morgan Stanley predicted that the number of iPhone users may surpass 100 million in 2011. "We see the iPhone installed base rising from approximately 30 million subscribers at the end of 2009, to over 100 million by the end of 2011," analyst Katy Huberty wrote. "Upgrades will emerge as a key demand driver in the coming years."
Since Apple typically unveils iPhone enhancements annually, usually in the summer, many people decided they don't want to wait any longer. "Customers are thinking, 'I'm going to have to wait another year,'" said Francis Sideco, an analyst with iSuppli, in El Segundo, Calif. "'I might as well get it.'" Beyond the tech specs and new case, some of the demand is coming from Apple's hardcore aficionados, those who always buy the latest gadget from the world's largest technology company, Sideco says. While this group's size is hard to estimate, Sideco said these loyal customers represent a small but reliable sales base.
Peter Petrassi, one such "Applephile," owns an iPhone 3GS but is eager for the upgrade. The 40-year-old subway conductor from Queens, N.Y., bought his new smartphone at an Apple Store in Long Island. He wanted the upgraded phone for its multitasking features. Petrassi, an avid sports and New York Yankees fan, has five sports apps and the new iPhone 4 will allow users to group similar apps in categories. "Now, I don't have to have pages and pages of apps," he said.
Even non-Applephiles are being lured by new software, said Carolina Milanesi, research vice-president for mobile devices for Gartner research. The new iBook app allows customers to buy books through Apple's iTunes store. Customers buy the book once and can synch it with an iPod Touch, iPad, and their computer, she said.
The phones will be available on June 24. Says Wolf: "I expect the store to be wild."
Copyright © 2012 Bloomberg L.P.All rights reserved.


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There seemed to be some interest in several different living arrangements I have mentioned in prior blogs, so I want to take this opportunity to describe several I have lived or with which I have had contact.
After hiking the Appalachian Trail, I got an urge to travel and see this country. The first time I flew west, rented a car, drove to several scenic areas, and sometimes camped (I had packed a tent and sleeping bag), and sometimes stayed in small motels. The next time I drove my old car (100,000+ miles), fully loaded, and stayed in campgrounds. After the Baja trip, I realized, not only that I enjoyed the vagabond life, but also that I could live in a minivan. Here's how I did it. I had one rear seat taken out and both middle seats.
The bedroom. On one side of the van I installed a plank for a bed, with room underneath for storage. A piece of foam was a mattress; on top of the bed I kept my sleeping bag, pillow, and extra blankets. My routine involved night reading and for that I had a headlamp (take extra batteries), and a large piece of mosquito netting. I attached this overhead with pushpins, and draped the material over me so no bugs could enter. I had two medium size tubs for clothes (carry warm clothes as it will be colder at night than you think it will be).
The kitchen. I had a tub for dishes, pots and pans, cutting board, can opener, paper towels, and anything needed for food preparation. Another tub held food supplies, and I had a cooler for refrigeration. Be sure to have one with an outlet hole for drainage. Ice is easily available at gas stations. The stove was by Coleman, fuel was by propane cartridges. Don't forget a lighter, kitchen matches or the flamethrower types are easiest. You will need two dishpans, dishwashing soap, and drying towel. Potable water is available throughout the United States, but I had Clorox for emergency use. Think of your routine to know what you will need, like a coffee press, or corkscrew. I added a folding table when I got tired of squatting on the ground to cook. A picnic table in a campground is a luxury.
The bathroom. Carry lots of toilet paper, and a shovel. Be sure you pack out your TP and bury your poop. Carry a hand towel, bath towel, bath soap, shampoo, and all that you would use at home. Forget the electrical appliances.
The office. Pannier type bags with shoulder straps hung over the front seats became places where I kept such records as van maintenance, medical records, writing paper, etc.
Miscellaneous. I had a first aid kit, sewing kit, and toolbox stuffed in whatever space I could find and remember. The toolbox included a piece of line for hanging clothes, and clothespins. I also stored somewhere a Wisk broom for cleaning up, and a folding chair. Books were also in there somewhere. Sometimes books (especially used) are easy to find, but sometimes they are not, so if you are a reader, have a few extra. You will also probably want CDs, definitely you will want maps, sun tan lotion, and bug repellent.
More nuts and bolts. Be sure to obtain a America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass– Senior Pass, formerly the golden age pass! You will be able to enter national parks and other public lands free and camp for half the posted price. I have found public lands (national parks, national forests, Bureau of Land Management lands) the most scenic but they don't have showers, and other amenities vary. Often there are none. State Parks have showers and hot water. They are, however, more expensive. Other campgrounds such as Kampgrounds of America (KOA) have all amenities, including laundry, but are also expensive.
These are the safest places to camp, as there is usually a campground host. If there are several large RVs camped in a location, that would probably be safe also, but don't stay where there is no one around and you appear as a sitting duck. You can find laundry facilities in town; Many RV parks offer showers for a minimal fee. I had my oil changes and minor maintenance on the van at the large Walmart stores but I had no trouble finding that service in small towns. You just have to ask.
I have a roof rack carrier and that helped a lot with the overflow, especially as I also carried sport equipment. My bike went on a rack in back of the van. Mail can be sent to you in care of general delivery. Most post offices are very helpful.
Communes. I have only visited at one commune. My impression is that commune living may be more appealing to younger people, although there were older folks there. I do not think communal living is a panacea. People live close together, and there can be internal strife. All are expected to contribute work hours and abide by rules. Flexibility is a large asset there, you can often set your own hours for working, and such things as childcare and carrying wood are rewarded job credits. If you are interested in this, check the Internet for communes that offer a visitor program and be sure to visit before you commit. Then you will have a better idea if you want to live in one.
Hostels. I have only stayed in hostels while I was hiking. These range from converted homes of varying structural soundness, barns filled with cots, B & B type places that enjoy hikers and offer them reduced rates, and usually very good meals. There are books listing hostels in the US and abroad. I understand it is also possible to ride trains throughout Europe. It sounds like a great adventure, and I am sure readers will have much more experience than I have about this. I would love to hear about this. Please comment.
And to the reader who asked about my son. I can only say that some people must walk on the very edge of the precipice, and that he seems to be of those.