When I was younger, so much younger than today, I used to like to go camping. The Adirondacks were our usual destination, but over the years we have camped in many places across the country, including Yellowstone, BLM land outside the Canyonlands of Utah, Northern California (being cursed on that trip by the ghosts of Bodie could be a blog post all by itself), Arizona, and so on. The inclination for camping faded by about age 35, when we pretty much decided that hotels were a much preferable travel option. [caption id="attachment_9577" align="alignleft" width="300"] via Gizmodo[/caption] Anyway, most of our outdoorsy ventures took place long before the advent of mobile phones, portable computers, or any of the shackles—er, I mean, amenities of modern life. But, if we headed to the great outdoors today, no doubt we would schlep along our iPhones, iPods, etc. The challenge, though, would be how to charge them? Sure, via our cars, but what about on those long hikes or when you make camp in locations far from the car? How then can you ensure that your mobile device is ready to take your last-known-photographs? (You know bears, Blair Witch, etc.) Well, now there is the BioLite Camping Stove, a steal at $130. Says Gizmodo:

burn whatever you find in the woods—sticks, leaves, pinecones, whatever—and let the stove transform the heat into electricity you can use to charge via USB—and it should provide about the same output as your laptop.

Now, it could be argued by some of us in the Going Greenosphere that you’re burning stuff, and thus releasing a goodly amount of CO2—you’re using what is essentially a wood-burning iPhone. But, the BioLite can also be used for cooking and some of the other purposes to which we put actual fire while camping—so why not charge a device at the same time?