Posted on September 19, 2008
The Figure 9 carabiner lets you quickly fasten — and quickly loosen or adjust — a small-diameter rope to a fixed point without a knot deploying a clever combination of friction and angles. To those of us with knot-dyslexia, this is a real boon. The only requirement: your fixed attachment point must feature either a place to clip the carabiner (i.e. a metal loop in a pick-up truck bed or a thin, sturdy tree branch), or something around which your line can be looped. That could mean securing a Tarptent to a tree, improvising a handle around a bundle of cables, or securing a travel clothesline between window-grate and curtain-rod.
All you need to do is pull the rope through in the right sequence and finish with the rope's loose end tugged into the notched “V” section to keep the rope attached and taut. There are actually multiple sequences and ways to work the geometry. Three methods are diagrammed in the instructions that come with the carabiner (see below).
Thus far, I have used the devices only with standard-issue parachute cord, but they’re sized to work with a range of small-diameter ropes. Though the tying system looks suspiciously wimpy, I’ve found it is as robust as promised. I ordered the Figure 9s to replace the mesh netting that came with the roof-rack basket on my car. Not only do these make a decent replacement (i.e. riding around with a kayak strapped to my car this summer), but tying one more knot under the car is something I’m glad to skip. Note: the device is anodized aluminum and weighs a bit more than I expected (slight downside to ultra-light hikers); still, “Not for climbing” is printed on the packaging, repeated in the instructions, and emblazoned on each carabiner. I think they mean it.
– Timothy Lord
Nite Ize Figure 9 Carabiner
$5
Available from Amazon
Also available from Think Geek
Manufactured by Nite Ize
Related Entries:
Nite Ize S-Biner
Animated Knots
Folding Kayaks
Posted on September 12, 2008
Web site OnionMap hosts interactive, high-resolution tourist maps of popular destination cities across the globe. From New York to Tokyo and San Francisco to London, OnionMap brings the look and feel common to tourist maps to a Google Maps-like drag-and-drop interface. You can browse popular attractions, find your hotel, pick out a restaurant, and in general just find your way around. It’s probably not what you want to use to map out your entire trip, but if you’re in search of tourist traps and trappings, OnionMap might be worth a look.
Posted on September 12, 2008
Web-based travel planning service GoPlanit attempts to take the solo and tedious act of itinerary planning and inject it with a social element. Upon signing up for the service and selecting a destination city, GoPlanit can roll an itinerary for you. I told it I wanted to go to New York and I had no idea what I was doing. GoPlanit provided an instant travel itinerary I was able to tweak based on how active or low-key I wanted to be and how much money I had to blow. Have a few things planned you want to do, but a whole lot of downtime to go with it? GoPlanit has a “fill in the gaps” function on its planner which will suggest fun and interesting things to do in between other commitments. GoPlanit also offers support for mobile devices (including an iPhone-optimized mobile site) and a microblogging tool to journal your trip adventures.
Purchasing new tires would seem like a straightforward proposition. If it looks brand new, smells brand new, has a factory sticker on it, and no signs of wear and tear, it is brand new and perfectly safe, right? Unfortunately there is more to something as simple-looking as a tire than the average consumer has been lead to believe. Tires have a shelf life and gambling with that shelf life can mean gambling with your safety.
Many manufactures don’t advertise the fact that tires have a shelf life, and that even a brand new tire that has never seen the mean streets can expire before it’s time. Paul Michael over at the financial blog Wise Bread has written an excellent overview of how you can protect yourself against putting dangerously old tires on your car.
When it comes to determining the age of a tire, it is easy to identify when a tire was manufactured by reading its Tire Identification Number (often referred to as the tire’s serial number). Unlike vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and the serial numbers used on many other consumer goods (which identify one specific item), Tire Identification Numbers are really batch codes that identify the week and year the tire was produced.
Although in many other countries there are restrictions on selling older tires, in the United States there is no restriction. A retailer in the U.S. could sell you a 15-year-old set of tires if it looked new enough to convince you to pay for it, all the while knowing that the tire could well be dry rotted or degraded due to its advanced age. Stamped into the side wall of every tire is the date of manufacture, Paul covers the various incarnations of this date stamp and how to read it. Armed with the ability to read the Tire ID Numbers the next time you go to purchase tires you’ll be able to determine how old the tires are and ensure that you end up with a newly manufactured and safe set of tires.
Now that most of the major airlines have begun charging an extra fee for checking a second bag, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered tackles the art of one-bag packing, interviewing Doug Dyment, owner of previously mentioned OneBag.com. In the piece, Dyment suggests that the key to a one-bag trip is making a list of your must-haves and sticking to it. In all the story offers some good advice, but since we’ve covered one-bag territory a lot in the past, hit the jump for some of our favorite tips for traveling light.
If you’ve got your own favorite tips for stuffing all your gear in one bag as summer vacation approaches, let’s hear them in the comments.
How to Pack Everything You Own in One Bag [NPR]
Car and Driver magazine knows a thing or two about getting pulled over, so they asked seven state troopers from across the country what they want and don’t want from you, the driver, during a routine traffic stop. For example, rather than preparing your license, registration, and insurance information before the officer asks for it, “most cops don’t want you to do anything except rest your hands on top of the steering wheel until directed otherwise.”
In fact, most of the tips—which include the five best and five worst things you can do as a motorist—are pretty understandable, if you put yourself in the trooper’s shoes. If you take these recommendations—like opting for honesty rather than evasiveness—one officer claims that he’ll often lower the driver’s speed on the ticket or let the driver off with a warning. Then again, if you still end up with a ticket, you’ve still got other options for beating that speeding ticket. Photo by redjar.
Busted! What Should I Do Now? – Feature [Car and Driver]
