That’s right! You can now find the Under Solen blog on our new and improved website! Just click here. Lots of fresh original content on new media, the outdoor world and beyond… all with the taste of Under Solen sass that you’ve come to love.
cheers
The Under Solen Team
Filed under Things we like
A little Wednesday social media humor for you!
Filed under Social Media, Things we like
Especially with snow… we couldn’t have asked for a better kick off to Winter Outdoor Retailer. Now here we go!
Filed under Outdoors, photos, Things we like
Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
An earthquake, registering 7.0 on the Richter Scale, rocked the island of Haiti last week. Within 24 hours of the disaster, aid organizations, individuals and businesses responded in full force. And now, a week later, the outpouring of support isn’t waning. With more than $2.5 million donated via text message to relief organizations working in Haiti, social media networks have been abuzz with news and action alerts, so we compiled a list of several businesses in our community that have stepped it up to help Haiti.
Mountain Hardwear is organizing a collection drive for tents and sleeping bags (or money to purchase the same and help with shipping) to aid the tens of thousands of displaced and injured people in Haiti. Along with clean water, food and medical supplies, temporary shelter is desperately needed. Used tents as long as they are functional, and lightweight sleeping bags are fine and of course new tents and sleeping bags from any of our outdoor industry friends would be ideal.
ExOfficio employees sorted through customer returns, overstock and unsold inventory to supply World Concern with clothing for earthquake victims. Altogether, ExOfficio donated nine pallets or an estimated $429,000 worth of product. Four pallets will be immediately shipped to Haiti, along with food, water, and medical supplies.
Klean Kanteen donated 4,500 water bottles to be used at water treatment and desalination sites.
The Lizard Lounge in Portland, Ore. donated 10% of all profits from their January sale over the weekend to MercyCorps to help with relief efforts.
Portland Pedal Power, a company dedicated to human powered transportation of products in downtown Portland, donated all of their tips in the days following the quake to MercyCorps’ relief efforts.
This incredible response in a time of crisis is humbling, and needed. But remember, many countries like Haiti need our support on a regular basis, so let this week be your jumping off point to lead a more mindful life and give when you can to those who need it.
Filed under Impact, Lifestyle, Non-profits, Things we like
This week is a crazy combination of social media presentations and Outdoor Retailer for us… Over the weekend we got to check out the fine city of Boise. Nice people + good skiing + an amazing breakfast join = a pretty great place to visit.
But while the rest of the world hunkered down and celebrated MLK day today, we parked it at Big City Coffee and prepped for the rest of the week. Fortunately good coffee and a bowl full of fruit and granola can take you far, so if you’re in Boise, be sure to check out this hopping joint, complete with over-sized baked goods and a fast wifi connection. We give it a great big Under Solen recommendation!
Filed under Things we like, travel
We can’t get enough of the dry humor employed by someecards, so we rounded up our top 5 favorite Twitter related ones. Perfect for those times “when you care enough to hit send.”
1. Sometimes acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step.
2. We do believe that social media has the power to make positive change, but that doesn’t mean we can’t poke fun at the idea.
Filed under Social Media, Things we like
Oregon's Mount Hood Photo © John McAnulty
As we launch into 2010, many of us are planning new adventures in wild places across America. Before we get too far into the new year, here at Under Solen, we are taking a quick moment to be thankful for last year’s conservation victories that protected these places.
In 2009, Congress passed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act. In total, the landmark legislation designated 2 million acres of Wilderness, 1,100 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers and closed the 1.2-million-acre Wyoming Range to new oil and gas development. One of the big driving forces behind this victory was the outdoor industry.
Of the projects in the legislation, 13 were supported by grants from The Conservation Alliance — a group of outdoor industry companies that disburses its collective annual membership dues to grassroots environmental organizations. Their goal: to engage businesses to fund and partner with organizations to protect wild places for their habitat and recreation values. Well, good on them, because last year was a huge success! Check out specific projects on on their website.
We’re stoked to play hard in these newly protected places and work even harder to keep the conservation victories coming in 2010!
Filed under Adventure, Impact, Outdoors, Rivers, Things we like
As 2009 and draws to a close, we’re getting excited about what’s in store for next year. We can’t believe we only launched back in November! It’s been a very busy two months, and we’re hoping that energy takes us right on through 2010. So what wisdom are we taking with us? Just a few thoughts that should hep clear our minds and keep us creative and cutting-edge.
1. Social media is here to stay, but change is on the way. In the last year we’ve seen all forms of social media take off at tremendous speeds, and don’t think that speed is anywhere near slowing down, but it might be changing direction. We’ve been reading up on social media predictions for 2010, and there are some great articles including Six Social Media Predictions for 2010 on TalentZoo.com and Social Media Experts Make Their Predictions for 2010 on Mashable. We certainly agree with Charlene Li, Founder of Altimeter Group “Social media in 2010 will cease being the shiny new object and instead become part of the everyday lexicon of business.”
2. New media will continue evolving and help people inspired to create positive change. The internet has allowed people around the world to share their stories, photos, videos and build communities with others that are excited about their cause. This isn’t going away for 2010, and we’re betting that new media is going to become an even stronger vehicle for positive change. That’s why we’ll be doing many more features for our Profiles series, so that you can learn who’s making a difference in the world of new media and how they’re doing it.
3. Social media is still not a replacement for real relationships and networks. We love our social networks, but we love face-to-face time even more. In 2010 we’re committing to doing more things in person, getting active on the ground, talking on the phone and maintaining relationships by sending meaningful emails instead of quick updates. Keep up your personal relationships; real coffee breaks with friends are better than virtual ones.
Now we’re off to pour ourselves a glass of bubbly and ring in what we hope will be our best year yet. We hope you do the same – Happy New Year!
Filed under Lifestyle, Social Media, Things we like
We’re in high winter gear here at Under Solen HQ and so our eyes are ever intrigued by anything that features one of our favorite seasons. We can’t embed it here, but you absolutely must go and check out this time lapse video of the northern lights, documented over the Ringebu Fjell in Norway, part of the super cool project The World At Night.
Do you have any fantastic winter sky pictures? We want to see them! Leave the link to your photo in the comments below.
[Via: Boing Boing]
[Photo: TWAN]
Filed under Adventure, Outdoors, photos, Things we like
Happy Holidays from Emily and Anna, and thanks to everyone for all of the fabulous support in this crazy and exciting venture of ours!
Filed under Things we like
