Jim

If only you knew how to visually assert your uniqueness through a tightly proscribed set of widely shared clothing, hair, and eye-glass frame options employed by millions and millions of other people to do the same thing. When "hipster" theme parties become the new 70's parties this jig is up. I hope. Does this mean I'm actually hipper than I think I am?

A cut from Portlandia I suppose. Heard a couple segment cuts on the radio; pretty funny but how many segments can you have. I give 'em points for effort. If everyone were like me life would be too boring.

Basically yes. NC were never full of griz. For the curious caribou seekers: http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/pub.php?id=00448

Seen a number of Bulwinkles up near the border during field work, but have yet to see the elusive woodland caribou. Did see old tracks once.

If that is what you came out with from two statistics classes I'd venture: 1) the classes were taken at the philosphy department of Evergreen, or 2) you were asleep.

There's very credible evidence of the occasional giz in the N.C. but several hair snare projects, a rather extensive one from a M.S. thesis out of U.W. - have come up empty. The two that I know of personally are the male that came back to a elk carcass up a drainage along the Pend Oreille river, just south of the border when I was working up there a few years ago and spotted by the local USFS biologist; and the spotted owl crew who took pictures of good prints in the snow, back around 2002(?). Basically the habitat in the N.C. is not so good for mr. griz, the Selkirk part of the recovery plan suggests maybe 3 pair could be supported. Lots of sightings of blondies - light colored black bears that folks often mistake for the big guy. [video:youtube]

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a reasonable approach. although knowing if your kid is allergic to vaccine cultures is problematic until actually administering a vaccine. btw, have you had your booster for pertussis? I wish there were a "stupid" vaccine. Your responses, which is what we have to go by here, indicate a lack of comprehension of the science of the issue.

Yesterday, editors at The Lancet officially retracted the British medical journal's 12-year-old study that they say incorrectly linked the combination Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. The retraction of the 1998 study comes less than a week after the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom chastised the Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his co-authors for acting "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in doing his research for the study, which claimed that eight out of 12 children who received the MMR vaccine began showing symptoms of autism within days of getting the shot.

Yea. No kidding hydro is the best backup to the fluctuations associated to wind and solar. Yet here in the PNW, where we have the most baseload in the country of hydro, it still creates massive issues with grid distribution, unpredictability, and scheduling. I notice that every renewable engery "base load" profile in the artile starts with -"..another promising technology". Non of which comes anywhere near providing a measurable contribution to base load. Yea - maybe some day but not in the foreseeable future. Know what grid managers see as the counterforece to deal with the ups and downs of solar and wind? Pump storage facilities are gaining a lot of traction. Of course this is great becuase these facilities actually use more energy than they produce, it's just the differential between when they use and when they sell the energy that make them "practical". And then there are the issues of drowning more land under new lakes. Yes, we need to invest more in solar and wind, particularly off-shore wind. Germany is doing a decent job on solar and the UK is doing investing heavily in tidal and wave energy, shooting for 25% of energy needs by 2050.

Did you even bother to read the article? I wasn't implying that was a chief reason - one of many. But yea - it is a factor because the French have folks in leadership positions who actually understand the technology and can discuss it with their people - and the people appaear to appreciate and respect folks with knowledge about the subject. Thus they understand the tradeoffs and are making fully informed decisions.

I've been working on the natural resource/ecological assessment end of energy for some time now, and what I see is a resurgence of consideration of nuclear power - primarily because of climate change issues. Other factors include energy independence and land use isues such as ripping up vast areas of Canada for oil sands. Solar and wind power are great supplements but they do little to assist with base load - dependable foundation energy requirements. If you know anything about energy mangement you know that large utilities, locally such as BPA, are having fits trying to figure out how to manage wind energy because it is so undependable and unpredicable. And often when you needed it most - winter and cold - is when it is not windy because a high pressure system is parked over you. Solar is not without land impacts either - you need to sacrafice quite a bit of desert land to get a cost-benefit scale. And wind turbines - many of the easy sites are already built out, the terrestrial issues mainly deal with chopping up bats and raptors. Off-shore wind has some potential as does marine energy - tidal and wave - but we are so behind the Europeans because of the byzantaine regulatory environment. The French took an early and conservative approach to nukes. The vetted designs and came up with two certified options. If you are a utility you have no choice but to use one of these designs. In the U.S. we do need to do something similar and yes, just move ahead with Yucca already.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/readings/french.html Why the Frenchies like nukes: Part of their popularity comes from the fact that scientists and engineers have a much higher status in France than in America. Many high ranking civil servants and government officials trained as scientists and engineers (rather than lawyers, as in the United States), and, unlike in the U.S. where federal administrators are often looked down upon, these technocrats form a special elite.

Yeah, you are wrong this time, buddy. There really is no comparison between the violence of the rights agenda, legislation, and rhetoric and the lefts in recent decades. Tree spiking...come fucking on. No doubt. The problem recently is that the contingent, dialog, and tactics of the extrene right has been creeping into its center as they capatialize and exploit these fringe movements for their benefit.

The typical pattern for La Nina in the PNW is normal snowpack prior to January and then colder and wetter after. We'll see.

French bread is for folks who don't know how to bake bread. Plus it's French! 'nuf said.

Not Individualism and Economic Order again! 1957?

Oh that's great! How to drive parents crazy by SELLING a motorcycle!

w/o Microsoft's hamfisted attempt at writing code. Which is the key point.

Had a mac years ago switched to PC, now back with an iMac. Before I purchased I asked two friends, both IT folks at the UW. One services a 120 mac shop, the other a 200 PC shop. Both said go Mac. After two years the thing works flawlessly.

Well there has always been some fluctuation. From bad to worse for instance.

I think that's a fairly accurate and concise summary.

Guess the WA voters didn't see this poll.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. ----Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Picked up new tele set up recently - bindings at Marmot and skis/boots at REI. Neither shop had everthing I wanted. When going to mount the bindings I discovered that the heel plate and adjustment pins (22 Designs Axl) were missing out of the sealed box. Marmot quickly discovered that many of their boxes were missing the same - but they got me replacements the same day. We came to the conclusion that 22 Designs must have hired some stoners for the holiday rush. Surprisingly I had a great salesperson at REI who was an experienced tele skier, knew the setups well, and provided a great perspective.