Due to the tremendous response we've gotten, we've decided to give The Rugged Elegance Inspiration Network site room to grow by moving it to a new, improved location:

http://www.ruggedelegantliving.com

Please re-set your bookmarks as all new posts will occur on the new site.

As part of the move we are also transitioning to a Moveable Type content management system, which will allow us to add more editors while providing better search and categorization capabilities.

Thank you your continued support. Growth is good.

-Tim
1:41:54 PM    

When Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa set out this past spring to set an Everest speed ascent record, little did anyone know he would not only break the late Babu Chirri Sherpa's Everest speed ascent record of 16 hrs 56, but shatter it altogether with a time of 10 hrs 56 min and 46 sec -- 6 hours faster than Babu's seemingly unbeatable record.

4:47:10 PM    

First Picture of Earth From Mars

A century after H.G. Wells wrote his novel about the invasion of the Earth by Martians, the first photograph of our planet as seen from Mars has been made. It is what Martians would see if they scrutinized the Earth.

This is so good that it deserves another look.

-Tim
4:26:52 PM    

MarsToday.com

Have you ever wondered what you would see if you were on Mars looking at the Earth through a small telescope? Now you can find out, thanks to a unique view of our world recently captured by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet.

7:20:28 PM    

San Franciso Chronicle:

Every year for the past decade The Chronicle's Food staff has selected a crop of young chefs who we think will soon be stars on the national stage. The group's alumni include chefs such as Michael Mina, Traci Des Jardins and Loretta Keller, whose talent, creativity and skills have put them at the top of the dining establishment.

We're confident this year's picks will do the same, in the process shaking up culinary expectations and setting trends across the country.

10:23:53 AM    

Minneapolis Star and Tribune

Great food cities and spectacular farmers markets go hand in hand. Everyone benefits.

Farmers prosper, and consumers and chefs gain access to fresh, affordable, locally raised foods, sparking the kind of satisfying, knowing-where-your-food-comes-from culinary culture that's sadly absent from so much of American life. Remarkable markets also enrich city living in a way that no number of publicly financed stadium-seating multiplexes could ever hope to emulate. This scenario is far from unreachable.

San Francisco, arguably the nation's most food-obsessed urban enclave, recently christened a year-round showcase worthy of its passionate love affair with food and drink. The Ferry Building Marketplace, an $90 million renovation of a tattered, 105-year-old Beaux Arts landmark, is a glittering new home for the city's largest farmers market, several restaurants and shops for more than three dozen of the Bay Area's finest owner-operated artisinal food producers.

11:26:01 AM    

Plates Of Foie Gras, Flattery On The Side

Los Angeles Times:

A sparkling soiree sets the stylish tone at a French Riviera movie mecca. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

CANNES, France -- Even with Franco-American relations sinking lower than the Titanic, and an oil slick threatening to literally blacken this preciously expensive seaside idyll, the mood at this fete seems robustly buoyant.

11:41:55 PM