Raccoons aren't your cute, cuddly friends

As with pretty much everything in life, there's always something that seems cute but really just wants to bite you, and spending times in nature is pretty much the prime example. Nothing is your friend when you're truly immersed in nature; maybe your dog, but your dog is not going to get a good face-licking by the skunk that wandered into your tent.

Something to be acutely aware of when dealing with animals is the rare, yet extremely deadly rhabdovirus. Rhabdovirus is the causative agent of Rabies, which ranks very high in the worst ways to die. . .ever.

Rabies is transmissible by animal bites (pretty much the only way), and the typical culprits are raccoons, skunks, and bats. It's rare, but aerosolized virus can be a problem in bat caves. Basically, any time you get bit by an animal, rabies should be considered and treatment should be sought after!

Rabies works as such:
1. gets into your body through a wound; the larger the wound, the worse the infection
2. gets into your nerves, the closer to the head, the worse off you are
3. travels up the nerve to your brain
4. fever, nausea, vomiting, inability to swallow water, coma
4. kills you.

Here's the deal, you have anywhere from 1-120 days for rabies to start to work, so any bite should be considered a serious threat. IF AND ONLY IF medical treatment is sought early, can a victim be saved. Through a series of vaccinations, rabies can be stopped in the early stages. Once it makes it into your brain and the symptoms start, you're hosed.

Take home lesson? Don't trust any animals, especially ones behaving oddly. If a raccoon is out during the day, staggers around, and approaches you, it's highly likely that the lil bugger is the spawn of satan and wants to give you rabies. The whole foaming at the mouth thing? Not so much.

Just be careful, and anytime you've been bit, seek medical attention as soon as possible.

iPad. I'm a sucker.

As a medical student I'm always looking for a good smartphone or smaller, utilitarian net book. Other than the iPhone, you can look to android for a decent phone iu. But... Androids market blows. It has not been fully accepted by the medical community, plus it's full of porn. I had been a disgruntled htc eris user, but frankly it was slow and buggy. Did I mention that the android market blows? I wasn't willing to go back to AT&T, since I literally had to press my head against the window to get reception in our apt. So I did the next much better thing.

I bought the iPad.

After a Lot of math and long introspection, I decided to go for it. After much longer pleading and whining, my wife broke down and let me go for it. Win, Win, Win if you ask me (name the reference and win, probably nothing tangible though)

As an outdoor athlete, I thought I could come up with a good arguement for and against the iPad as the outdoorsmen computing device of choice (I'm not comfortable calling it a full computer yet)

For:
The iPad weighs nothing and a half. It's light as turds and so easy to use that most grandmothers can jump right on up to playing with it.
I'm very impressed by the appearant computing power behind the iPad. Truly you're only limited to what developers come up with. Developers will come out with some truly amazing crap, so what you see in the App store isn't the only option indefinitely.
The 3G connection is an awesome addition. You can now backpack this thing in, and as long as there is some cell connection, you can access the web as necessary.
Plus, the battery lasts for 10 hours straight... RUNNING HD VIDEO! I have been able to routinely use the iPad for 3 days in a row (with heavy use) and not have to charge.

Against:
You're stuck on AT&T. See above statement about head pressed against the window
The keyboard can be unwieldy, but really you get used to it very, very fast.
The screen is pretty scratchproof, but really its not.
I don't think the iPad can handle a drop onto a rock. Of course, most computers can't. Hopefully companies will be coming out with much tougher cases in the future. They do have waterproof bags manufactured, both "made for iPad" and the normal ziplock.

I think the iPad is a welcome addition to any backpacker, climber, or expeditionist needing the utility of a computer but hates carrying the weight.
It's really only limited by what developers have put out (and it doesn't run flash... I think it's more a battery issue), so the utility will only grow. Can you imagine maps on this thing? GORGEOUS!