slothrop

Feminists are loathe to respond with flushed sexual anticipation to images of the patriarchal oppressor.

I wasn't making a personal attack, Peter. If you think one photograph's interpretation can be said to contain the entire history of the war, you're an idiot. Are you in that category? I think you're just being disingenuous, as usual. If I see a photograph of Iraqis dancing around charred corpses, it means it really happened. Were they celebrating to impress the journalist? Because they were really happy about dead foreigners? What does that say about the war? Such a photograph is "good" because it asks those questions. This is why a photograph of an M1 Abrams just sitting behind a berm is boring. There are not many deep questions to be asked about such a photo. The thousands of photographs of Iraqis with purple fingers after the election, some even taken (horrors!) by Iraqi photographers, are certainly candidates for 2005's Pulitzers, doncha think? Even though they don't tell the whole story of the election?

Ever raise your arm while hiking? Water rolls down the sleeve into the armpit. My pit zips start and end well away from the protected area directly under my arm.

Pssh, he said "most likely", so he cannot be held responsible for the ideas contained within his deceitful assertion.

Life is a big computer program, like the telephone switching system. It works, and we can observe that it works, but no one person can comprehend the whole thing. Only smaller parts make sense to anyone. If you study enough of it, or analyze it into layers and modules of varying complexity, then you can grasp bigger parts of it (though you lose some details in the process). Somehow, it was created, from all the countless individual modules and their increasingly unpredictable interactions. Someone saying "God created the world in seven days" just means that they don't understand the details and don't care to, or they just like having a clever allegorical shorthand for life. It's like Life for Dummies, useful but inaccurate.

So true. Look at any of the feminist lifestyle magazines. Hot chicks everywhere.

Are those photographs not true? Did those things not happen? Are war and death not disgusting? Anyone who reads the entire history of Iraq War II in 2004's Pulitzer photographs, or assumes that everyone in the future will, is acting like a self-serving idiot.

robert, you were hiking in the snow, not the rain, right? Snow's much less likely to drip into your big zip holes, but rain will follow the folds and curves into those holes. It did when I went hiking in my Gore-tex jacket the day before Easter in the rain up to Melakwa Lake. I was totally soaked, despite my Gore-tex, from either sweat or rain leaking in. Whatever the cause, the Gore-tex jacket did not keep me dry in a modest rain shower while hiking in mid-30-degree weather. I'm unimpressed. On a three-day ski trip in clear, cold weather, I wore softshells top and bottom. My friends wore hardshells and were constantly taking them off and putting them on. Back at the hut, everyone else was wringing out their shirts, while I just kept all my clothes on from the day's tour because they were still dry. This is why I only wear a hardshell, and grudgingly at that, if it's really raining. If it's snowing, I wear a softshell jacket. If it's cold or windy, but otherwise clear, or even if it might drizzle, I wear a softshell jacket. If I get wet, I will dry out after it stops raining. If I get wet in Gore-tex, I'll stay wet until I do an hour of sunbathing. I guess the moral of the story is that rain will get you wet unless you cover yourself with a rubber tarp and don't move. Gore-tex doesn't solve the problem and it's an easy target of criticism because it's so over-marketed.

I'm using Gore-tex wrong and that's my problem? The only time I'd want to wear an expensive laminated garment is when it's steadily raining, because I want the waterproofness. But I'm not just going to stand around when it starts raining--I'm going to keep hiking. If it's warm enough to be raining, then I'm going to be sweating as I hike. If I open the vents, then the rain water goes in the big holes I just created. If Gore-tex can't keep up, then there's plenty of room for improvement. But the majority of Gore-tex garments are probably sold to people who never do anything more strenuous in them than walk to Starbucks on a cloudy day. Maybe eVent is better... I've never tried it. What jackets are made with it?

Yeah, like wow, girlz can climb, too! That's just so amazing and special, considering women are otherwise incapable of anything! In other words, what's so special about women climbers? Women have proved themselves capable of climbing well for as long as climbing's been around. This kind of sentiment reminds me of someone saying "He's so articulate!" about a black man.

I went to the gym for the first time in months and realized I am so suck. Today I am recovering.

The ol' 'lanche haz' is up to 'siderable 'bove fo' thou'. But that don't mean nothin' because it could be anything in two weeks. Yes, it stinks right now, unless you are skiing. Post a TR with the lowdown on the "meteo" for us after you get up there 'n check 'er out.

Or you can get real, revenue-generating work done by dinking around and writing software for Linux. Like I'm doing today.

PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) is the procedure that Air Force pilots are allowed to get. If I remember correctly, it leaves your cornea at the greatest strength after surgery. They can't get LASIK or RK.

Man, look at that guy choking up on the bat like he's going to bunt the seal. They should hire Barry Bonds. He could bring in the whole harvest in a single fit of roid rage.

George Bush has ordered the FDA to move the calorie-counting lab to Terri Schiavo's hospital room and hire her as a test subject in a last-ditch effort to keep her alive.

Ah, the "smooth jazz" of blues rock guitar.

Dunno if this will make it into the new edition, but I'll post it here for reference anyway. The route description for the NW Face of Kangaroo Temple is confusing, though the topo is right on. The first paragraph is fine; here's how the second paragraph should read (bold indicates changes):

Gosh, you're so right. Now go away.

Cool! Nice to see what that peak looks like in winter.

Check's in the mail.

Rad.

Can someone translate those FPS numbers into a fall factor for NOLSe?

@ SG: what Alpinfox sez, except vertical hands: 5.7 overhanging hands: 5.10 fingers/tips through roof (hands) in old bouldering area, rocks for feet: 5.10 fingers in back alcove, old bouldering area: 5.9+ thin hands in front room: ridiculous @ UW rock overhanging hands with back to arete, N side W tower: 5.10+ S side of W tower, flaring fist crack: 5.9+ layback, I can't jam that shit S side of W tower, slanting shallow hands: 5.8 S side of big tower, fists to fingers: 5.9 N side of big tower, rightmost hand crack: 5.10 start to 5.8 E side of westernmost wall, shallow offwidth: 5.9+ layback... or you can Leavittate it like AlpineDave 500-foot hand cracks to the top of the Bank of California building: looks like 5.8 all the way

MEC's softshell pants are nice, except the size that fits my legs is too big in the waist. Gotta wear a belt or I get plumber's butt. They are quite comfortable in a wide range of temps and levels of exertion, and more durable than the REI Mistrals. They have an unobtrusive elastic cord at the ankles and well-placed pockets (accessible when wearing a harness).