Jim

The guy made a mistake - or several. Glad he stopped and called for assistance when he knew he was at his limit. My advice: check the friggin' weather report. The facebook thing. FB is weird enough. The need for 15 minutes of fame, or less, seems to be a continued preoccupation for some.

I agree that map/compass work is a fading skill. Maybe because of GPS use folks are more comfortable following the blips on their screen. And having worked on some big landscapes owned by the military, some of those guys were among the best at map work I've ever come across. Plus, they could land a 'copter on a postage stamp to get us in and out of remote places. Knowledge of your terrain, use of map, compass, and altimeter can get you out of almost any sticky situation. That said - on the volcanoes I can see a GPS being very useful.

Don't think about this stuff while driving. Death by Vaccine

Stranger things have happened. I think the Seals did in OBL with the MMR vaccine.

I'd strongly suggest you read the online article rather than an obvious proponent's opinion piece of vaccine wacko theory. The study include a whopping 25 patients - one (1!!) of which had some ASD issues who had a recent vaccine and: No shit! Friggin' A. This is what the vaccine wackos are banging on the door about? 1) There is no evidence of a relationship between vaccines and autisim (period. 0. nada). 2) for some small, yet undefined group with ASD, there is a relationship with mitochondria disease, and 3) one person with in the study group of 25 had mitochondria disease and also had a recent vaccine! Wow. That settles it for me. Now on to the chem trail discussion.

yup, nothing to see here. right, jim? Do you know what you are reading?? It says that ASD may be associated with ICS - so what?? then goes on to comment on the "no difference in ICS and childhood diseases - all prefaced by the comment that there is NO EVIDENCE relating all this to vaccines. WTF?

Yea. Funny in a ha-ha sort of way: From your link: Translation: There is no evidence here by to pacify the wackos we'll look at clinical data - that has no significance because of extremely small datasets of organic-granola eating-don't vaccine my kid wackos so we can try and get them to STFU. Love that term "democratization of science" like it's up for a vote. Shit - now all we need to do is put evolution up for a vote and be done with it.

I noticed you failed to post this salient point in the article: And later in the article it points out that the only reason they are going to look at data is because of "some public interest". What a waste of money. They should spend time looking into this more: Autism

Hey, that's a tayra! Some Dutch chick saw three on the trail just before me in the Amazon - she was nonplussed - I was like where, where?

Like I said - it was a report I heard on KUOW about Washington banks, not a nationwide report. They did not outright state "no MJ medical businesses can get a bank account" - thus I only passed on what I heard - which seems the honest thing to do, eh? But - from their reporting one would infer that you cannot go into a WA bank and say - "Hey - I have a MJ business and I'd like to open a commercial account". Well you can, and you will be refused. Can you point to a MJ business that operates a commercial account with bank in full knowledge of their business? Given that they interviewed a range of banks, including small community banks the interviewer thought would defer to state law - the banks interviewed (3 I think of different sizes) all said the same thing. As an institution with federal links (all banks have this unless you are the mafia) they believe it's too much risk to touch MJ businesses. Also - the Seattle Times article I linked to said the same thing. So it's not speculation. And I'm not disagreeing with the big picture - I think this all will end up in court. Where it goes after that - I don't know. Found the NPR transcript - so you can make your own interpretation Pot in WA

Well, on the drive up from Olympia I was listening to a segment on KUOW this afternoon. They interviewed big banks (BOA) and small one and credit unions. All of them said they would not touch MJ businesses, including medical, because of the threat of the feds. There was no upside to it from their perspective - the risk far outweighed the minor benefit of another small customer. Then they interviewed medical MJ businesses and they told their saga of having to deal in cash and money orders - because no bank in WA will touch them. Finally - they ended with a MJ medical dispenser who said he just did not say what his business was because when he did that he was refused an account. So, while I admit I don't know the business transactions details - this report seemed to indicate that no MJ business in WA was admitting to a bank what exactly their business was. Tried but failed to find the KUOW podcast - but is was on about 11:30 or so today. Did find this: MJ Banks

Interesting. I'm assuming that this will be settle in court, somewhere. Maybe regarding commerce, since no commercial bank will touch an MJ grower, distributor, or merchant because of federal guarantees. Right now if you want a commercial account as a medical distributor in WA you have one option. Lie to the bank about your business.

This seems the only "news" show that just says what it iz

I thought the shots of each post-election camp was striking - Obama - folks of all colors and women. Romney - a bunch of white old guys. Same in the House elections: White Guys There was a great segment on The Daily Show recently - an interview with Mike Huckabee. John Stewart said - let's watch this clip - and it was of Fox news on election day showing - 21 times during 8 hrs - a shot of a black poll monitor who was dressed in retro black panther gear. Oh the bemoaning of intimidation of voters etc - the usual racist slime. One guy outside a polling place in Philly just standing there - you would have thought the slaves escaped and were taking over the mansion. Stewart asked Huckabee - how can the GOP get votes from a growing minority population that will eventually be the majority - while they still try to use such tactics to scare white people? Huckabee danced and danced.

So, let me see if I have this straight: General has fling with married writer working on book called All In 8D Writer is jealous of General's friend and sends emails saying back off bitch General's friend goes to FBI friend, who had sent pics of self shirtless to her previously :kisss: FBI guy starts investigation though no crime involved General resigns Other General investigated because of email flirting with first general's friend ... That's it......for now

Worth an encore:

"Climbers may find the ratings at Joshua Tree harder or easier than what they are used to" -- Randy Vogel Thanks Randy! I met up with Doug in J Tree for a week to catch up and get on the warm rock. We both had not been cragging for a bit so we warmed up on easy ones and lapped some cracks. Doug is smooth on cracks, I'm working on my technique. It was a fun trip and the weather was great. We explored a number of areas I had never seen, so that was fun. Doug examined his life a while a go and made some major changes, which included now being on the road for 8 months of the year exploring the southwest, camping, hiking and climbing. He and Kathy have quite the system - satellite internet access so they both can work and quite a number of organization systems. Pretty good for being in your 60s and just going for what you want in life. Some of my favorite routes - Sail Away, No Calculators Allowed, Ball Bearing, Ravens Reach, New Toy. A few photos below. Doug on The Bong warm up The Flue No Calculators Allowed Ravens Reach After four days of climbing I felt I was getting the hang of cracks - and it became fun. My finger tips are still a bit raw though.

They should have kept the state liquor stores around a while longer and we would have had and easier weed transition. And what will the Feds do now with wayward WA and CO?

Better Poll Analysis

Newsflash. It ain't about you. Here, let me find another chair for your ego. Cheers. I've work to do. Carry on.

...no. I don't believe we are having a conversation with a similar tone. Mine expresses sympathy.

It is, particularly for older folks. Such as the couple in their '70s who live next to my brother and got 2 ft of water in their house as well. Or Gus, the poor older guy around the corner who made a mistake, tried to ride out the storm, got trapped in his house when 6 ft of water came in over 20 minutes and drowned. So I'd say, yea. It's a big deal. Good comprehensive look: Sandy

Given the climate change models and associated sea level rises already documented, which will be getting much worse in our lifetime - this level of infrastructure damage is going to be an all too common scenario - or something like it. Makes a cap on carbon emissions 20 yrs ago look pretty cheap by comparison. Reminds me of that Churchhill quote

.....makes you wonder though what is the convention about here?

If they were serious why not publish in a real "peer-reviewed" journal, not a crack-pot online thing for conspiracy theorists? 'nuff said.