Hi, I'm Matt and I tried something new last semester.

I should start by introducing myself, generally how this works right? I am one week away from graduating college. Come September, months after the day I walked across that raised stage, dressed in black, with one of those goofy, tasseled hats on, Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Colorado at Boulder is what my diploma will say.
That's right, I am graduating in a recession- yes, I know. Oh and there's all this Swine Flu business to worry about as well. Let's break out the SARS masks and hand sanitizer already before shaking all those hands at interviews.

Typical of the college student, my mind is starting to wander. Back to the issue at hand. As part of my degree, a semester-long internship is required by the school. Most of my peers took traditional print routes; copywriting for a local paper, covering local legislature meetings, profiles, the economy, etc. All very relevant stuff, I just wasn't all that interested in that sort of thing, so I went after Backpacker's 'new media' internship.

That's where this blog comes in. Well, this isn't so much a blog as much as a collection of work over the last semester while I've been interning at Backpacker.com. Clever title eh? Think of this site more like a portfolio or sorts than the standard blog you are used to.

In the previous posts that follow, I will categorize the type of work I did, link to and post some of the content I worked on and generally give you a sense of what my two-day-a-week duties consisted of.

Let's get started.

The above photo is of me, in the Flatirons of Boulder, taken by my good friend Tara Chacon.

I will be including three types of posts here.
1) Blogs/copywriting
2) Video projects
3) Website management

Descriptions-
1) Generally my blogs for the site were always done in a link-blogged process- meaning that each day I searched around the net on a variety of blogs (news, technology, sports, art, design, going green and the outdoors) including my ideas in an e-mail to my editor with a description of each. I was told which were the best of each day and set forth compiling blog posts. Generally each post was around 500 words and included around 2-5 links to each mentioned source, page or photo. These posts generally had no original reporting content, as it was a new media internship and increasing site-traffic and utilizing social media was very important. I could include polls, maps, photos, coordinates or videos as blog accompaniment. Since the internship was only two days per week, these blogs ate up many of my mornings. Expect me to share around 12 of my favorite blogs in the posts that follow.

2) The possibility of getting to shoot, edit and work with video was something that excited me. Because of daily blog duties, website and archive management, and our lengthy Gear Guide issue in April, I wasn't able to get to working with as much video as I would've liked. Never enough hours in the day right?

3) This final category of website and archival management is mostly what I spent my time doing. Although at times mind-numbing, this work was immensely important to keeping our site run as it should. This included all the small things that one would never think of when working on a website. It ranged from checking manufacture prices and styles with what we had for our articles, to linking to their sites and resizing photos to even the really minute techy-type stuff like finding dead links, entering page breaks, and fixing non-html-friendly content. It's safe to say that these type of fixes are what make a high-traffic website like Backpacker's run smoothly.

Each one of the posts will be grouped by category, i.e. all blogs will be posted one after another under their corresponding title post card.

How California rolls: Auto greenhouse gas emissions capped

World's first low carbon car regulation is a boon for some environmental groups but may upset ethanol producers

Hot on the heels of Wednesday’s Earth Day hoopla, California passed a law Thursday that limits  greenhouse gas emissions  released by fuel-powered vehicles.

The regulation, which  was passed 9 to 1 by the Air Resources Board, is the first of its kind. Carbon emissions and greenhouse gases from motor fuels have long since been a major cause of global warming and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hopes that his new, lower-carbon fuel plans will “reduce global warming,” and “encourage the investment we need to transform our energy infrastructure,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

With this new complex rule, California is anticipated to cut its gasoline consumption by a quarter in the next decade, open the roads and market up to more alternate-fuel-powered vehicles, and foster a growth in newer, more innovative means of getting fuel, the article said. A $100-million plant that converts trash into fuel is already planned for a north L.A. county valley.

Starting in 2011, when the new regulation takes effect, all those who make, refine and import gasoline-- including diesel-- will be forced to lower their fuel’s carbon footprint by 2020. The state hopes that by doing so, a greater movement towards tackling Earth-heating gas emissions and bringing a greater general awareness to the effect that these gases have on our climate.

California Air Resource board chairman, Mary D. Nichols, in a statement to the New York Times, praised the newly-passed regulation by mentioning some of its major benefits.

“The drive to force the market toward greater use of alternative fuels will be a boon to the state's economy and public health — it reduces air pollution, creates new jobs and continues California’s  leadership in the fight against global warming.”

The passing of this measure has sparked talk from 16 other states, which are considering  implementing similar restrictions. President Obama has talked of a nation-wide regulation but no immediate move for such action seems on the horizon.

Not everyone is happy with the rule though—and a flurry of criticism is coming from both sides of the environmental fence. Activists and fuel investors alike criticized the new rule at a hearing that was held in California back in March and another one right before the vote. A main concern is that the regulation could hit the major alternate fuel, corn ethanol, and its industry and investors hard, having an adverse affect on the state of the fuel, which has been thought to be a cleaner gasoline alternative. In 2008 alone, corn prices reached an all-time high as biofuel demand grew.

Corn ethanol producers feel that the regulation is based on bad science and an exaggeration of the effect plant-based fuel has on our climate.

“The corn trade is understandably nervous and watchful,” Rich Feltes,
senior vice president of MF Global Research, a company that analyzes agricultural and energy markets, told Reuters.

“We all know the extent to which ethanol has been a factor in the last three years in pumping up risk premium in corn. Anything that would unwind that is going to be viewed as negative.”

Ethanol producers are seeing some hard times. According to Reuters, over the last year, corn prices have fluctuated and gasoline prices have fallen.

Environmentalists have claimed that there has been much land and forest displacement with the increase of corn growth.

Despite the strife stemming from the regulation, the standard’s passed is significant in terms of the precedent it sets for the environmental policy going forward.

Roland Hwang, the transportation program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, thinks that regardless of which way you stand on the issue, the larger, greener issues at hand are what matter.

“Instead of fighting the implementation of the standard,” Hwang said, “We encourage the existing ethanol industry to face this challenge with the same spirit of innovation that makes California the center of clean-tech investment."

What do you think? Is California’s move a good one? Tell us in the comments section below.

-California to limit greenhouse gas emissions of vehicle fuels- The Los Angeles Times, Margot Roosevelt, 4-24-09

-Ethanol investors try to derail California’s carbon-emissions proposal- The Los Angeles Times, Margot Roosevelt, 3-27-09

-U.S. corn girding up Calif low-carbon fuel standard- Reuters UK, 4-23-09

-California fuel move angers ethanol makers, The New York Times, Kate Galbraith, 4-24-09



Photo Credit to Atwater Village Newbie on Flickr


--Matt Draper
Originally posted on 4-24-09
Original link

$40,500 reward for condor shooters

Feds & P.I. on case, as cash reward amount grows

In 1987, the United States implemented the largest, costliest and most intensive conservation plan for any animal ever.

Then, 22 California condors, the only in existence, were captured and bred at zoos in California, in hopes of  raising population numbers and In 1991, they were again reintroduced into the wild. The amazing bird is the largest species in North America and lives only in specific locales like Zion and the Grand Canyon.

With global populations of the condor estimated at around 322 (172 of those in the wild), you can imagine the furor that arose when two of the majestic birds were found shot through the wings and body last week in Big Sur, California.

Amazingly, both birds (one male, one female) were discovered alive by the Ventana Wildlife Society in Monterey.  The male, who took 15 pellets in his wings and torso from the shotgun blast, is in critical condition, the LA Times reports.

Environmental group Defenders of Wildlife initially offered up a $1,000 reward for information leading to a conviction, but with help from other groups and advocates, including the Center for Biological Diversity, that reward grew to $40,500—a hefty chunk of change.

That reward remains one of the highest ever for a case involving an injured endangered species.

Apart from federal wildlife investigations currently underway, the Center for Biological Diversity, located in Arizona, has gone all Pinkerton on the case and hired a private investigator, Bruce Robertson, a member of the center, to investigate.

Although concerned with the same goal, Robertson seems pretty focused on his sleuthing duties, and wants nothing to do with the feds. The LA Times quoted Robertson telling a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent to "stay out of my way" while working on the case.

Robertson hopes the money will prove to be a powerful attractant for those struggling with tough economic times. (It seems almost impossible to but any price on such a rare and amazing species of bird, but if it brings the avian assailants to justice, we're all for it.)

"The goal is to solve the crime," Robertson told the Times. "These shootings need to stop now. We can't wait for weeks or months."

Robertson seems to have a pretty thorough plan to capture whoever is behind the shootings, including a "team of investigators on the streets leverage[ing] their connections to cast a wide net."

Although some might say that this is a bit Hollywood-movie overkill for just two birds, protecting California condors is in fact very serious business. Since 1967 the California condor has been listed as a federally-endangered species.

Whoever is behind the shootings could face both federal and state penalties for Endangered Species Act violation, if found and convicted.

Unfortunately for the condors, there's more ways to fill them with lead than shooting them. Since condors often depend on carrion killed by hunters, they are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning from remaining bullets. In 2007, California passed a law that prohibits using any lead ammunition within the bird's 2,000-square-mile-plus territory.

If you have information about the shootings, you can contact the California Department of Fish and Game TIP line at (888) 334-2258.

$40,500 reward offered in shooting of 2 California condors- Los Angeles Times- Louis Sahagun, 4-10-09.

California condor found shot dead; second one in three weeks- Los Angeles Times- Kelly Burgess, 4-6-09.

Photo credit to norjam8 on Flickr.

--Matt Draper
Originally posted on 4-10-09
Original link

Feds defend guns in Nat’l Parks

Gun control advocates want change, but the Justice Department defends Bush-era ruling

Better make room in that pack of yours for a gun, a box of shells, and maybe even a cool-looking leather holster: After much concern, President Obama will support a midnight regulation change from ol’ Dubya that allows concealed firearms in national parks.

The Justice Department chose to defend the last-minute firearm rule in the face of a lawsuit filed by environmental and gun-control groups trying to overturn it.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees consider the ruling a huge mistake by the executive branch. They fear it could discourage certain groups from visiting the parks and contribute to a generally unsafe environment.

Since the Reagan era, guns had to be dismantled and unloaded before they could be taken inside parks. But as of Jan. 9, visitors can now carry concealed and loaded guns into any of reserve or national parks managed by the National Park Service (as long as it doesn’t violate any standing statelaws).

The Brady Campaign, one of the nation’s largest grassroots gun-control groups, felt the rule passed too quickly and without a full review of potential consequences. In a press release from last week, the group called the ruling “unlawful” because it involved no “analysis on the rule’s impacts on environment and park visitors’ safety.”

The Brady Campaign’s president, Paul Helmke, told the Washington Post on Tuesday that the law is rooted in “bad policy and procedure.”

But the Justice Department doesn’t want to budge: Friday, the department attempted to block a preliminary injunction of the rule, commenting that the ruling will “not alter the environmental status quo, and will now not have any significant impacts on public health and safety.”

The Justice Department’s decision is far from the last word. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asked for an internal review and assessment of the ruling, and whether concealed weapons in parks will create any environmental and safety impact.

Monday, Salazar said he wants the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a 90-day review of any environmental considerations associated with the passing of this new rule.

Regardless of your position on the rule change, the fact remains that most national park and reserves have a relatively low rate of violence and animal attacks. National Park Service Director Mary Bomar reports that since 2002, there have been only two reported fatalities and 16 ‘serious injuries’ as a result of wild-animal encounters. 

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report found the same when it comes to human-on-human violence in national parks. According to the report, there were only 1.65 violent crimes per 100,000 visitors in 2006—which means national parks are statistically some of the safest places in the country. It’s better than Detroit, at least.  

UPDATE-
Journalist Randi Minetor points out that the comments made about allowing guns in national parks were actually made by Bush-era Interior officials, but were released in 2009, after Obama took office. President Obama seems to have been misquoted. His Interior Department still plans to conduct a review of the matter. We will report here as soon as those updates happen.

Justice dept. defends Bush rule on guns (Washington Post)

--Matt Draper
Originally posted 2-17-09
Original link

Some green for the green

Forest Service gets millions from stimulus package

Our nation's forests are in need of some upkeep.

Twisted roots, hazardous trees and shotty bridge and trail states are becoming an all-too-common sight for many of our nation’s parks.

Thanks to the recent $1.15 billion chunk of change from a stimulus package, the Forest Service is starting to think about fixing some of these problems.

The money, part of Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that he signed last month, is being divvied up- $650 million for road, trial and bridge maintenance, $500 million for fire hazard reductions and $50 million allotted for biomass and other issues.

Percents of the allotted categories will be used for projects in states and private lands, many of which are already planned and in the works. This funding provided the catalyst for these smaller projects to get the ball rolling on things like bark-beetle-bills in Colorado, cleaning up a New Mexico mine and brush and tree clearing in rural Oregon to prevent wildfires.

These individual state money amounts aren’t too shabby either. Take Colorado for instance. They got $5.6 million for national forests in the northern part of their Rocky Mountain state. States are also available to get more future funding as new projects come up.

The money is also expected to create new jobs.

The Forest Service’s goal is to create around 30,000 new private sector jobs over the next two years, according to a message from Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell.

Many of those jobs are expected to go to contractors, as The New York Times notes.

In the Forest Service message, Chief Kimbell commented on what the prospects that the money provides.

“We have an opportunity to serve our country in the cause of conservation. Restoring forests and grasslands, reducing hazardous fuels and improving our infrastructure all contribute to our priorities of healthy ecosystems,” she said.

Forest Service doles out stimulus funds (New York Times- Kate Galbraith 3-19-09)
Stimulus money to boost forest work (Summit Daily News- Bob Berwyn 3-13-09)

--Matt Draper
Originally posted on 3-13-09
Original Link

Forest fights

The Supreme Court rules against environmental groups seeking to stop deforestation projects

Environmentalists hoping to sue against logging projects may now have one more hoop to jump through.

Tuesday, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reinstate a Bush-era logging rule that will make it harder for the public or gung-ho green groups to sue against some deforestation projects.

The issue arose back in 2002 after a 238-acre plot in California's Sequoia National Park burnt down in a forest fire.

After the fire, the Forest Service put the land (known as the Burnt Ridge Project) up for grabs to loggers. Because of President George W. Bush's rule,  the US Forest Service wasn't obligated to allow public comment or appeal of small-scale logging projects less than 250-acres in size.

Environmental groups Earth Island Institute and Sequoia ForestKeeper didn't like that idea, and went ahead and sued the Forest Service.

The groups won in federal district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge ordered a new nationwide injunction prohibiting the Forest Service from blocking public comment on small projects.

The Bush exemptions ended up moot, as the area in Sequoia was never logged. After six years, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and they reversed the outcome.

The Supreme Court found that the groups Earth Island Institute and Sequoia ForestKeeper had "no legal standing to bring their case because they couldn't demonstrate direct harm," according to a LA Times article.

Because of the court's ruling Tuesday, The Forest Service can dive back to 2003 and again place a restriction on public comment and hearings against small-scale salvage logging plans, and even "forest-thinning projects of fewer than 1,000 acres," as noted in an Olympian article.

Score one for the Bush administration: You have to give them credit for passing agendas from beyond the political grave.

Supreme Court limits Challenges to logging in federal forests (The Olympian-Michael Doyle)
Bush Logging rule is reinstated (Los Angeles Times- Bettina Boxall)

(Photo Credit- Jessejay on Flickr)


--Matt Draper
Originally posted 4-4-09
Original link

Pythons on a plane

X-Ray pictures catch man trying to smuggle Australian snakes to Bangkok in suitcases

Travelers at Sydney Airport last week had more to deal with than the usual annoyances of long lines, sticky plastic bins, and removing their shoes and belts: They had some 44 snakes and lizards (including a few pythons) in the line ahead of them.

Before you even say it: No, Samuel L. Jackson wasn’t in Sydney shooting Snakes on a Plane 2.

Instead, a 24-year-old man headed to Bangkok attempted to smuggle a load of living reptiles through security in his suitcase. Customs agents noticed something strange on the x-ray, though, and opened his luggage to find 16 bluetongue lizards, 24 shingleback lizards, three black-headed pythons, and a rare, endangered albino python hidden among socks, bits of cloth, and a wire hanger.

The albino python is extremely rare, with global population numbers believed to be only around 100. Most of the other reptiles are native to Australia.

According to a Telegraph article, Customs officials estimate the slithery suitcase’s contents to be worth upwards of $120,000 on the black market. The rare albino python could fetch around $12,000 to $15,000 alone.

The reptile-obsessed traveler, who is from Bonnet Bay, New South Wales, Australia, has been charged with attempting to export native species without permit, and was granted bail on the basis that he appears at a Sydney court in March. He faces penalties of around $70,000 and up to 10 years behind bars.

The snakes and lizards, meanwhile, avoided a lengthy plane ride and instead were taken to a wildlife center in Sydney.

Samuel L. Jackson could not be reached for comment.

Photo Credit- National Pictures UK

Man smuggled snakes into Australia in Suitcase (Telegraph UK)

--Matt Draper
Originally posted on 2-27-09
Original link

EPA clamps down on greenhouse gases

Agency hopes to build aggressive regulation policy after investigating links to human health risks

Don't like that smoggy smell that seems to destroy your olfactory senses when you go by that certain industrial section of your city? Apparently the Environmental Protection Agency isn't too fond of using nose plugs, either.

The EPA wants to move toward a full-scale regulation of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, as soon as they can investigate the link between the gas and its effects on global warming and human health risk.

The impact of the regulation could be felt far and wide in transportation, manufacturing and heavy industries, who’ve long been blamed for the release of the fumes.

Companies that have already streamlined their reduction of CO2 emissions, by attempting to release less, while moving along on the 'green bandwagon,’ will most likely benefit from the regulation.

In an article from the LA Times, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said, "We are going to be making a fairly significant finding about what these gases mean for public health and the welfare of our country."

The new regulations are rooted in the both a December 2008 ruling by ex-agency administrator Stephen Johnson who banned greenhouse gas limits in clean air permits, and the EPA's memo, "Prevention of Significant Deterioration," which outline a program the agency has, to "protect public health, enhance the air quality in national parks, wilderness areas, seashores and areas of recreation," and to encourage "public participation in the decision making process."

That bit about protecting air quality in national parks sounds particularly like music to our ears.

The only problem: The EPA doesn't think they can go on the offense alone. They feel that the issue is too large to tackle solo, and further moves will also require congressional action as well.

The next step, the EPA says, is to "vigorously review the Johnson memo to ensure that it is consistent with the Obama Administration's climate change strategy."

EPA moving toward regulation of greenhouse gases (The Los Angeles Times, 2-18-09)

--Matt Draper
Originally posted 2-18-09
Original link

Why did the coyote take the subway?

Ask Mikel Uribetxeberria--this Spanish photographer gets wild with urban environments

Everybody knows the answer to the age-old question 'why did the chicken cross the road,' but can you answer:

-Why did the fox check into a seedy motel room?
-What made the coyote miss his G-train to Brooklyn?
-How did the elephant get away with graffiti?

Before you let these wildlife brain-busters get your head in a tangle, just take a look at the work of photographer Mikel Uribetxeberria from the Basque country of Azkoitia, Spain. His new photo set, entitled "Animalia," takes all sorts of wildlife and places them in human and otherwise sterile, urban environments, like airports, subway terminals, and even laundry rooms. The photos remind us just how far our society is removed from the rest of the natural world, but it also reinforces the timeless beauty of our animal friends.

Uribettxeberria commented on his art process, as well as the quick response he's received, courtesy of the Internet.

"The Animalia series has been so successful, so fast. The images are made with two photos, one of the place, which is mine, and one of the animal, [which are] photos from Flickr," he said via e-mail.

We've posted some "Animalia" images below, but if you need more to satisfy your animal urges, visit ink to Uribettxeberria's site here







--Matt Draper
Originally posted 1-9-09
Original link

(This blog had a imbedded poll with it as well)

New York's green playground

City turns $1 purchase into million-dollar eco-park

It seems like a buck can't really buy a lot these days, except maybe some greasy fast food grub. Not so for New York: The city purchased most of Governor's Island in New York Bay, from the Federal Government, for just $1.

Even better, city officials recently unveiled plans to transform 40 of the 172-acres into a public eco-park, complete with waterways, an aquarium, restaurants, complimentary wooden bikes, paths and even a 10,000 person amphitheater.

In a New York Times article, Mayor Michael Bloomberg commented on the project, saying, "It is one of the jewels of our city, we couldn't have a better location."

Bloomberg's dead right about location: The island is a mere half-mile from Lower Manhattan and about one mile from Liberty Island. Visitors will access the park by ferry boat.

Former New York state governor Eliot Spitzer commented on the city's definite plans for the park construction, saying "we are committed to building it." He also mentioned that Governor's Island had previously "languished without attention and sufficient investment." The city hopes that the new large-scale public park (still a dwarf compared to the 843-acre Central Park) will lead to commercial interest and future development.

Currently Governor's Island is a bit of a mish-mash of trash and history—literally. The island (which has been used for military and government purposes since 1792) hosts two 19th-century army forts protected by landmark status, but it also contains a landfill. It also includes rundown and unused military and Coast Guard buildings.

The park renovation project received dozens of submissions for construction, but the architecture firms West 8, Diller Sconfidio + Renfro, and Rogers Marvel Architects, won the rights to design the new park. A West 8 partner says they hope to create "a more intimate, human-scale green island."

Unfortunately, all you urban-suffocated New Yorkers hoping for a new local getaway, you'll have to wait a few more years: The project won't be completed until 2012.

The park's price tag is a far cry from the original $1 purchase price: Renovations are expected to cost the state and city of New York around $400 million.

Follow this link for more info about the Governors Island eco-park project.

Park plan is chosen for Governors Island (The New York Times, 12-20-07)

--Matt Draper
Originally posted 1-23-09
Original link

Oregon Trail on the trail

Floppy disc-era wilderness adventure comes to the iPhone

It's been more than thirty years since three guys from Minnesota got a generation of grade-school kids hooked on the floppy disc game Oregon Trail. I remember sitting in my grade-school computer lab, playing it for hours. Hunting, crossing rivers and finding supplies all with the help of those stunning early 8-bit graphics.

Thanks to French-based mobile developers Gameloft, a new version of the adventure begs a whole new generation of iPhone-weilding players to travel the Oregon Trail, find food and try not to get infected with dysentery or cholera all over again.

The new app looks to be the best Oregon Trail yet, with Anime-ish graphics and enhanced features to help players along the journey from the Missouri to Oregon.

We showed you how the iPhone is already super trail-friendly with its' GPS, map and entertainment features, and now thanks to Gameloft, the 1890's trail has a place on the 2009 trail.

The game hits the Apple App store February, 28. No word on pricing yet.

--Matt Draper
Originally posted 2-20-09
Original link
Oddly enough, this post generated the most page views the entire time I was at Backpacker.

Tired of Survivorman? Try Survivordog

Australian cattle dog survives on remote island for four months

For all of us here at BACKPACKER, the word survival conjures up some serious issues. making last-ditch efforts to stay warm, rationing food and maybe even some MacGyver-esque gear alterations if need be. At its' worst, surviving for a few nights can be hell, imagine doing it for a few months. Gulp.

Well, for an Australian cattle dog named Sophie Tucker- yes, named after the famed entertainer- her animal instincts seemed to have taken charge while she survived on the largely uninhabited tiny Australian island, St. Bees, for four months.

It was on a sailing trip with her owner, Jan Griffith, near the Queensland coast last November, when the pooch fell overboard and was presumed to have drown when the boat hit a rough patch of water.

She seemed doggone-determined to survive though, swimming five nautical miles, through choppy, shark-invested waters no doubt, to St. Bees Island, where, for four months she survived on baby feral goats. Before you ask, we’re pretty sure Sophie didn’t have one of these doggy tents with her either.

The dog, which was an average house dog before going overboard, garnered quite a wild and fierce reputation for herself on the island, not accepting food handouts or generally not letting anyone near her.

After a friends’ suggestion that the wild dog might be their Sophie Tucker, the owning couple contacted rangers and last week, after four long months, Sophie, looking quite haggard and in need of a bath or some pooch-pampering, was reunited with her owners.

As you can imagine, the event was quite the emotionally-filled, tail-wagging sight as the dog bolted out of a cage and “just about flattened us,” owner Jan Griffith told the AAP news agency.

"She surprised us all. We wish she could talk, we truly do."

Want more on Survivordog? Check out the SkyNews coverage with photos and a video interview with her owner.

--Matt Draper
Originally posted 4-8-09
Original link

Glow-in-the-dark tea

South Korean designer comes up with a light-up beverage, but should you ditch the headlamp?

We are hyper-familiar with getting up in the middle of the night for a late-night bathroom break—to pee is human, after all. After you've loosely laced your boots, you stumble out of the tent, fumble for a headlamp, and look for that special tree.

But what if you didn't need a headlamp for your late-night calling? A South Korean product designer may have found a solution. Save the batteries: Simply plop a tea bag into a clear glass, and presto, you've got light.

Wonsik Chae, a designer from Suwon, Korea (an area known for technological advances from the nearby large Samsung Electronics plant), has invented what he calls the Lighting Bag.

It's a tea bag filled with fluorescent molecules that reacts to a chemical intermediate liquid agent already in a clear glass. According to Chae's website, once the tea bag hits the water light is given off—the tea "work[s] as a catalyst of the chemical reaction."

Use it, and your tea will glow brightly with an almost toxic yellow-y tint.

Chae created the innovative lighting concept for the 2008 Industrial Design Degree Show at his school, Hongik University. The assignment for the light bag seemed to crib from an old Apple slogan: "create a different way."

The bags come printed with the words 'draw a light' on them, and while the prototype isn't for mass consumption yet, one can only hope that soon enough, Chae will roll out a whole line of flavored-light teas. How about Green Tea Gaze or Chai-spiced Illumination? Celestial Seasonings, eat your heart out.

It might be great to have a glass of tea ready when you get done with your potty break, but it could turn into a vicious cycle—you'll be peeing all night if you keep refilling yourself with tea each time you go.

To see photos and a video of these tea lights at work, check out coverage over at Toxel.

--Matt Draper
Originally posted 3-6-09
Original link

Video- Eddie Bauer First Ascent gear preview

Climbing guru Peter Whittaker gives Backpacker a preview of a new line of gear from Eddie Bauer.

Here is a video I edited that correlates with a series of articles we are hosting about a team of legendary climbers, using a new Eddie Bauer line of gear, as they climb Everest.

Climber and co-designer of the new First Ascent gear, Peter Whittaker speaks as he gives us a preview of the new gear. I cut down the footage from 10 or so minutes to the manageable 2:30-minute chunk below. Enjoy!



--Edited by Matt Draper
Originally posted 4-24-09
Original link

Backpacker.com and site management

Creating traffic and building awareness
When I joined the backpacker.com team, the embracing of new social networks was just starting to happen. I had the pleasure to help contribute, post and utilize these important resources to the advantage of the magazine, as just another means to audience communication. I sat in a meeting with my editors, while one wrote on a dry erase board about ways to which site traffic, readership and general awareness of the Backpacker.com brand could be achieved.

Facebook and Twitter
Having already started using a Facebook page, the new audience-gathering device was to be Twitter (access both by clicking respected logos below). After most every blog, video or article post, a tweet and Facebook update would always come next. When traditional sites lacked interesting blog ideas, I headed over to our followers on these networks to look for content.

Results
In looking at the general impact these social networking sites had on Backpacker.com's traffic, Facebook increased traffic by 21% since January and Twitter alone, in a few short months brought in 4,135 new page views since the start of the new year. Please see the Google Analytics graph below (click to enlarge).







Website maintenance-
Apart from cultivating and communicating with our audience on the social networking platform, a major part of my internship duties were website cleanup, referencing, and article maintenance. One of my major duties consisted of taking the print version of an article, and using our CMS system, to transform that article into a searchable, tag-able and linkable online article.

CMS and The Gear Guide
Our April issue was the 2009 Gear Guide. It was packed full of over 500 separate reviews and skills. It remains one of the more popular of our monthly issues. Most, if not all, of the gear articles in print, had to be transferred online. For each I would write a head and deck, webtitle, a brief description and make a quick edit of the body. I would then test or format links and add a photo from our servers. The process taught me two very important things; how to maintain a eye for detail and mistakes even after a few hundred of these articles are under your belt and to implement my deck, head and copy-writing skills to even the most non-breaking-news articles we hosted, such as a backpack review.

From print to web all thanks to CMS and site maintenance.
Below is the cover of our Gear Guide issue, featuring the Osprey Variant 52 pack. Below that is the web version of the pack's review, again, click to enlarge. The original link is here if interested.

This past semester has taught me a lot.

I went into my internship at Backpacker.com expecting many things and left having learned just that. From day one I was taught that this would be a learning experience in how a national, award-winning publication worked to create an healthy online presence that would keep readers coming back for more.

It is important to note that when I was hired on of the 'new media' interns, the magazine had never previously offered the internship. I learned in my interview that the magazine had recently redesigned their website, hired on new online editors and were really hoping to take the Backpacker.com name to the next level. I am very grateful to have been involved with this process. As it is with the media world, traffic and volume are important, hell, they're crucial for survival. I tried my very best to incorporate every bit of social-networking, transparency and user-involved content that I could when I worked. I was regularly updating the magazine's networking sites- each blog and poll had a Twitter, Facebook and typically, a newsletter component to it.

I had some preconceptions of what I would be doing before I started. Mainly I had envisioned office hikes, GPS tutorials, interviewing/original reporting and marathon gear-guide blog posts. Some of these happened and some didn't. Looking back on the whole experience, I learned that before any work can be done, you have to understand your audience- simple I know, but it's something that at times I've forgotten in the days of in-class how-to-source lectures and how to abbreviate state names according to AP.

So much of new media and social networking's popularity is the ability to create a simple relationship with people wherever they are. Relationships with others online are just as important in the Web 2.0 world as they were when chat-rooms and Instant Messenger were created years ago. Everyday I tried to walk into the Backpacker offices trying to understand who I was writing to, why would they care and how they could use whatever it was I was producing in order to create a relationship with our readers. At this stage I am happy with whatever type of response from my readers that I can get. From recognizing my name at the bottom of a post, to laughing out loud at their desk, or maybe even actually downloading the Oregon Trail iPhone app and hitting the trial as I suggested, all of these audience responses mattered to me. I tried to remember this each day.

In the end I wish I could have had time to write some more original material, maybe work with a handheld GPS and tackled a few more video projects. Like I mentioned above though, there is only so much time in the day right?

Thanks to my wonderful editors Anthony Cerretani, Ted Alvarez, my intern-partner-in-crime, Morgan Keys, Web Producer Katie Herrel, and everyone else at Backpacker Magazine who I had a chance to work with. Its time now to hit the trail and start the next trek.