chelle

Murray - I thought this was going to be about some new webcam you installed on the roof of your store or that had been mounted on the deck of the Brewery. When is that going to happen?

No surprise. I found this part interesting. Especially the use of the word alternative referring to sources for oil, not "energy" as stated. If they (and the three previous administrations) poured half their efforts into investing in real means of alternative energy we might not be in this predicament today.

The New York Times September 28, 2005 Interior Secretary Says U.S. Will Push Search for Energy By FELICITY BARRINGER WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said Tuesday that after the two destructive gulf hurricanes that battered the nation's energy heartland, the Bush administration would intensify its push to expand energy development on public lands including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the nation's coastal waters. "The vulnerability of having all the energy supplies and refining and processing capacity in one geographic area reinforces the idea that we need diversity of supply," Ms. Norton said in an interview. Citing government reports on the increasing demand for petroleum and natural gas and the sustained high prices that tend to result, she said, "The hurricanes have brought more attention to the fundamental issue." While Ms. Norton took no position on a Congressional proposal to end a 25-year moratorium on oil leases on the outer continental shelf and to eliminate internal departmental appeals of administration decisions to lease public lands, she did not reject its approach. She said she had read only a two-page summary of the measure, which is before the House Resources Committee, but she was open to the idea of alternative energy development on public lands. In a wide-ranging interview in her spacious, wood-paneled office, the secretary - one of the few Cabinet members to serve since the opening days of the Bush presidency - spoke of what she deemed the flaws in the Endangered Species Act and of her worries about restrictions on some activities in national parks. But she carefully sidestepped any endorsement of final solutions. Ms. Norton's remarks came at a time of intense debate over efforts by Congress or the administration to reshape longstanding laws and policies on matters within her department's purview, among them oil leasing practices, protection of endangered species and management of the national parks. But while cautious about endorsing legislation or making new policy pronouncements, Ms. Norton left little doubt that she would continue her efforts to reshape the policies and practices that have restrained private interests - be they energy exploration companies or the makers of recreational vehicles like motorized water scooters and all-terrain vehicles - that seek greater access to public lands. Craig Manson, an assistant interior secretary, who joined Ms. Norton for the interview, defended the review of national park management policies. Permissible "impacts" on park lands, Mr. Manson said, are confused with impermissible "impairments." "Footprints are going to be made if people are in the parks," he said. "But that's not necessarily an impairment." The 1916 law creating the park service, known as the Organic Act, says its purpose is "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife" of parkland and "to provide for the enjoyment" of these in a way that "will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Citing this law, Mr. Manson said, "It's important that there be a balance between the two aspects of the mandate." He added, "From time to time those two aspects sometimes get out of balance." The "bulk of the work" of the current rewrite of department policies set in 2001 - a rare occurrence, as rewrites are not usually done so frequently - will be handled by "park service management," Mr. Manson said. A draft revision of the management policies that govern more than 390 units of the park system produced sharp denunciations by the National Parks Conservation Association and a group of retired park employees, who said it was catering to commercial interests, like the manufacturers of often noisy recreational vehicles, at the expense of conserving park resources. While saying that the revisions were a work in progress, Ms. Norton did say that she found it hard to see how noise, like the noise of recreational vehicles, impaired park resources. "Sound is an instantaneous issue," she said, adding: "There are things that need to be dealt with in terms of the enjoyment of current visitors. Clearly, current visitors are the ones impacted. But we tend to lump all of that under impairment." Construction of cellphone towers, Ms. Norton said, is not necessarily deleterious to park landscapes. "Cellphone towers are an issue," she said, "but the scale of land use of a cellphone tower is a very tiny impact. We have some cellphone towers that are disguised within buildings, or fake tree cellphone towers. There are ways you can do it without impact." The two officials took no stand on the rewrite of the Endangered Species Act that the House is scheduled to consider Thursday. But they made clear their openness to the act's two major proposed changes. The first would replace the current process of designating areas of "critical habitat" deemed essential by biologists for the recovery of an endangered species with a slower and less binding process of identifying "specific areas that are of special value to the conservation of the species." It also proposes the use of financial inducements to win landowner cooperation and the reimbursement of landowners who, because of the law, must forgo economic benefit their property would have provided.

What kind of climbing trip? For a several week expedition, I've bought through Backpacker's Pantry on the web. Most stuff these days comes from the local grocer (Trader Joe's or the Thriftway). For car camp trips to Squamish I just buy food up there...

What I heard... Shut down because of failure to pay taxes, 3-4 years ago maybe. Much of the stuff was sold off a couple summers ago. The tavern itself was for sale for awhile. No idea what the status is.

What an accomplishment! Congrats on the ascent, but mostly on the safe return. Glad you guys came back to tell the story.

The Gokyo Valley/Khumbu Valley trek is very beautiful. Allow 18+ days.

Here you go people...A thread for you to organize a Smith Love Fest, 3rd Annual I think. Have fun. I'll be in the thick of my final quarter at school and won't be able to show. Somebody kick bunny face for me. I hate that climb.

I have this same problem with my Solomon Super8's. Totally sucks. I've often wondered if it the leather or if it is a breatheability issue and they wet out from the inside. Anybody else have problems with this?

This guys was good : Apparently the US media is a little more intimidated by the show of force the US has displayed since sending in the troops... From today's Seattle Times: There have been other moments of tension. At a fire near the French Quarter, Williams noted in a posting on NBC's Web site, a police officer from out of town "raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media ... obvious members of the media ... armed only with notepads." He also noted that the National Guard is barring journalists from the city's convention center and Superdome, the very facilities that evacuees were barred from leaving last week. "I saw many fingers on triggers," Williams said yesterday, producing such a sense of being in a foreign land that he repeatedly caught himself saying, "When I get back to the States."

I'm sure this group of elites didn't have to arm twist very hard to get ol' W to repeal the prevailing wage laws that would allow the skilled laborers who will physically rebuild the city to participate financially in its revival. Now they'll just be underpaid laborers scrapping to get by in the new better version.

The dispenser may have nothing to do with your problem. It is the quality of the TP itself. If it was quality TP it wouldn't tear so easily.

Looked at that link you posted again...Colin's hair is so short I did not recognize him. I look forward to the TR and pics at the Sausage Fest slide show this fall.

Dismissed by some in the NPS...maybe they all aren't so bad. Discuss. - - - - The New York Times August 26, 2005 Top Official Urged Change in How Parks Are Managed By FELICITY BARRINGER WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 - A high-ranking appointee at the Interior Department proposed fundamentally changing the way national parks are managed, putting more emphasis on recreational use and loosening protections against overuse, noise and damage to the air, water, wildlife or scenery. But a group of senior National Park Service employees rejected the proposal at a meeting this month. The 194 pages of revisions to the park service's basic policy document suggested by Paul Hoffman, a deputy assistant secretary of the department, could have opened up new opportunities for off-road use of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles throughout the park system, including Yellowstone National Park, whose roads the Interior Department has kept open to snowmobiles. Mr. Hoffman's proposals often involved seemingly minor word changes but their effect was nonetheless sweeping. Illegal uses, Mr. Hoffman proposed, must "irreversibly" harm park resources, instead of just harming them. Instead of obligating managers to eliminate impairments to park resources, he proposed that they should "adequately mitigate or eliminate" the problems. The draft was part of an effort to re-evaluate the park service's core mission and illustrated the continuing tension between the need to preserve park resources and the desire to make them available to the broadest possible public. The draft would also have added potential hurdles to the procedures for designating new parks. And in its discussion of park service system resources and educational programs, it would have eliminated virtually every reference to the theory of evolution. The Park Service's ability to influence events outside park borders would have been curtailed under the draft. For instance, it would have been more difficult for park officials to call for the Environmental Protection Agency's aid in reducing haze and air pollution in parks. David Barna, a spokesman for the park service, said Thursday that 16 senior employees of the service met in Santa Fe, N.M., on Aug. 8 to discuss the suggested changes and decided to scrap them in favor of a more modest rewrite. "We did not take his document and try to rewrite it," Mr. Barna said. He added, "We're looking at how we've doing business in the 21st century," with an emphasis on public participation and efficient management. Mr. Hoffman, a former executive director of a local Chamber of Commerce in Wyoming and an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney when Mr. Cheney was a congressman in the 1980's, was appointed to his current post in 2002. The Park Service's director, Fran Mainella, also a political appointee, ranks below Mr. Hoffman in the Interior Department. The draft, which had been closely held until this week, was given to The New York Times by park advocates who opposed the proposed changes. Asked how park employees junior to Mr. Hoffman could summarily reject his proposals, Mr. Barna said that Mr. Hoffman "has been very comfortable with us saying, 'Well, not so fast.' " He added, "Our view of that was he was playing devil's advocate: Gee, Park Service, tell us why you shouldn't do this." Tina Kreisher, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, referred calls about the issue to Mr. Barna. Bill Wade, a former superintendent of Shenandoah National Park who now directs the executive council of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, said that prohibiting only damage considered "irreversible" meant that taking it "to its extreme, I suppose you could do anything to a wildlife population as long as you preserved the last breeding pair." The issue of motorized recreation in parks has been an area of sharp controversy in recent years, crystallized in the dispute over continuing snowmobile use in Yellowstone after the Clinton administration's decision to phase it out. The draft said "the variety of motorized equipment and mechanized modes of travel are diverse, and improved technology has increased the frequency of their use and makes their use more feasible in larger areas of the parks." It noted that some uses of these vehicles "may cause impairment of resources or values." A sentence in the existing policy saying "the Service will strive to preserve or restore the natural quiet and natural sounds associated with" the physical and biological resources of the parks was eliminated in the proposal, as was mention of natural sounds like "waves breaking on the shore, the roar of a river or the call of a loon."

Another pretty easy hike is Goat Mountain out of Mazama. Great views and the guy at the lookout is a hoot.

That's a great book. A new perspective on baseball! Duncan's book "The River Why" was a great read too.

I've been thinking about doing this, but I didn't think my partners would be so cool with climbing on my mank homemade pieces. I've also been thinking about modifying a set of cams to get some offsets since those damn aliens are so hard to find. Fenderfour - call the Mountain Shop in Yosemite. They probably have mulitples of all sizes of offset aliens for you and will ship to your door.

They give very fair deals on buying your used stuff too. I just sold 4 climbing books and one of my Marmot fleece hats I don't wear too much anymore. Walked out with $23 to buy lunch with. Coulda got more with in store credit, but I am trying not to buy more stuff these days. Except the new Kona mountain bike I got from them on Sunday to replace the one that got stolen a couple months back.

Not making any assumptions about your riding skills. My comments about bikers also being assholes sometimes was not directed at you, but a comment in general about how to ride more safely when in traffic. What I did point out was a possible interpretation to your views above about why people floor the gas pedal when passing. Maybe it is in direct response to you passing them on your bike. But it could also have nothing to do with your presence on the road. Lighten up. Go ride and have fun. And no I am not in a little bubble when in my car. When driving I stop for pedestrians and look for cyclists on the road. There is no reason to be in such a hurry that you make people walking stand on a corner and wait to cross the street (especially in the rain). The only times I floor it past a cyclist with them in mind is when I need to pull into the oncoming lane to pass because there is little shoulder and I want to give the biker plenty of room OR when the idot is weaving all over the road and I am afraid I will hit him when he weaves right into my path. Nuff said. I gotta go to work.

Maybe this is "true" based on your research, but I have asthma and chalk and dust from the pea gravel at Stone Gardens has triggered an attack more than once. And was a major reason I stopped climbing at the gym. If by shape you mean on the molecular scale, then yes. But then you say not chemical composition so lets leave the molecular scale. Above molecular scale,in lung toxicology the size and mass of inhaled particles is important. For diameters much above 2 microns the particles tend to slam into the airway walls when the path to the alveolus makes angles. They get stuck in the mucous and cilia transport it all back up to the throat where you hork it down or out. For diameters below 2 microns the particles follow the airflow gracefully to the alveoli but there they just get absorbed into the cells and disposed of like other junk. 2 microns is supposed to be a bad size, but I don't remember why, only that a toxicologist told me that long ago. And now I finally got to sound technikal. Sorry I couldn't answer your question, though. I imagine little ninja death star sharp-edged shapes could be bad. There was a very interesting article about particle size in a recent Harvard Magazine (April or May issue). Both particle diameter and length are an issue. The problem with asbestos and other micro fiber shaped particles is that the macrophages in your alveoli wrap around them but can't fully engulf them. They end up looking like a bagel dog with the hot dog sticking out the ends. When the macrophage secretes digestive chemicals to absorb the particle, they leak out the ends. This leakage is what causes damage to the lungs over time and what they believe causes asbestos related cancer.

I don't deny that people in cars can be assholes spicoli. The drivers may be speeding past you to show they can go faster, but they may also just be speeding up because the traffic has eased and they are totally unaware of your presence on the road. It is pretty narcisisstic to think that you are the cause of everyone else's behavior (good or bad). Also, people on bikes can be assholes and can ride in ways that are totally unpredictable to cars. If you are going to ride in traffic. Pick a line and stick with it. Don't weave in and out of parked cars. Keep your speed constant. Bike defensively assuming that everyone in a car cannot see you and wear a bright yellow green shirt or coat. Use lights if riding at night. Actually stop at stop signs and stop lights. If there is a stop light and you are in traffic, stay with the flow of traffic instead of sliding up the side on the right or left. At busy, dangerous intersections, use the crosswalks... It's pretty common sense how to stay safe while riding a bike. And if you decide to bike like you own the road and people in cars need to yeild to you, PLEASE sign your organ donor card so someone's life can be saved when you get creamed by a car or truck.

Collin - If you can get a used Yashika T4 it is a great camera. The lens is by Zeiss, which is why it takes such great photos.

I used to have a Polar HRM that I used when running. The batteries ran out for the 2nd or 3rd time and I did not feel like searching for the shipping info to send it into the company to change them. I just tossed it in the trash last week when I moved. If you want to spend the money, get a model that lets you can change your own batteries and that is user friendly to program. I use Olyclimber's model... palpate my own pulse and time using my watch.

No, its where a collection of radical cyclists get together on a designated weeknight, in a downtown area and seriously f^ck up traffic for drivers who are trying to get home to pick up the kids. I am all for increased awareness of cyclists, being one myself. BUT I am not in favor of the tactics used by Critical Mass. They delight in being disruptive and generally piss off the majority of drivers during an event. How does that help to insure the safety of cyclists on the road? Because there is percieved safety in numbers, they are agressive both verbally and physically. Maybe here in "polite" Seattle they are not banging on cars stuck in traffic and cussing at the motorists. But I saw a lot of this is SF back in the 90s when Critical Mass started. Sorry Dave, this group sucks.