TYMHM: Start of August

TYMHM

5 Aug

My regular feature sharing some interesting things that I've seen, heard or read over the last few weeks: they are Things That You Might Have Missed.

🍏 This advert from Apple made me choke on my coffee this morning. It's a dry humour take on 'work from home' life with some useful Apple products thrown in, of course.

🧗‍♀️ Pretty exciting news for climbers. Pre-lim research suggests that climbing chalk 'deactivates' COVID19 – well we always knew it was magic, but I definitely didn't see that coming. However, further research is required to really test this theory so don't start taking your chalk bag to the supermarket... at least not yet.

🧳 I attended a super interesting online event hosted by The British Guild of Travel Writers on Decolonising Travel Writing – check out an overview through the link. (I also plan to write up my own notes in the next couple of weeks to share with you!)

🗺 One of the panelists in the BGTW discussion was travel author Noo Saro-Wiwa. If you are interested in diversifying the travel writing you read, she's compiled a list of 15 travel books written by people of colour.

🏇 I don't know about you, but I had no idea about the possible mental health problems faced by jockeys in the horse racing industry.

🕴️The provocatively named TED article 'Why do so many incompetent men become leaders? And what can we do about it?' is an interesting read. As someone who specialised in women in leadership, it's great to read more mainstream articles challenging the status quo... and particularly our weird obsession with charismatic leaders, who are far more likely to crash and burn taking others down with them.

🔥 Outdoor advocate and former 'Eden' participant Katie Tunn has been sharing her top tips for #LeaveNoTrace when getting out and about now lockdown is lifting for some of us. Her Instagram account has featured advice on everything from dealing with 💩 (see below) to the ethics of geotagging. I've learnt things, you might too.

View this post on Instagram

#LeaveNoTraceWeek: TALKING CRAP! 🧻 A week ago I asked what my lovely social media friends would like to know more about when it comes to getting outside responsibly. How to poop outdoors was the number one most requested topic (or shall we say ‘number 2’ heehee!) 🧻 Laughs aside, this is a really important subject. It’s not glamorous but it’s something everyone needs to learn about. Most walkers have come across human waste on their travels and it’s an unpleasant experience. Not only is it gross and upsetting to find, human waste is also highly dangerous to humans, pets, wildlife and livestock. Dogs can die after eating human waste found on walkies. 🧻 The call of nature is something that can’t always be predicted -when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go. It’s how you do it that makes the difference. Here are some basic tips*: 💩 CAN YOU DIG IT (PLEASE)? In Scotland, the most common way to poop responsibly is to dig a ‘cat hole’, a hole 6-8” deep to do your business in. You can use whatever you like but I recommend the #ArloTrowel by @alpkit. In places where this isn’t possible (on exposed mountains for example) you need to take it out with you. Some parks and reserves require this as standard, check before visiting. Using a dog poop bag to take away your waste and tissues might seem icky at first but it’s the most ethical way of pooping outdoors. 💩 LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: You need to find a spot that is AT LEAST 200ft from a water source, your camp and the path. Ideally you want to find soft, deep soil in a sunny area (the sun helps speed up the decomposition) 💩 TAKE YOUR PAPER AWAY WITH YOU! This is one of my pet peeves as I often find piles of toilet tissue months and months after it was first discarded (and wet wipes are plastic, they’re there forever!) Tissue does not dissolve in rain, it just makes white clumps that make you feel sad/mad/grossed out when you find them. Don’t be tempted to bury the paper in your cat hole either. It can be dug up by wildlife and eaten or used as nesting material. Yes, it’s gross to think about but even worse is the fact that the remaining bacteria can easily kill an animal. 💩 Continued in comments...

A post shared by Katie Tunn (@katietunn) on Jul 7, 2020 at 12:37pm PDT

👂 I've been listening to podcasts to help me distract me from the fact that I'm running, when I'm running. One of my best new discoveries is The Diversity Gap podcast. This podcast series covers diversity from the perspective of different experts, with different backgrounds and approaches. Below is the one I listened to today, which is an interview with Stephanie Ghoston – a coach who works specifically with black women and has some interesting thoughts on self-limiting beliefs tied to societal factors.

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