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At face value, I think every effort should be made to get people in those cars. Any obstruction to this is insanity!

The adoption (is there actually a bill in committee or is this just some "study"?). Jobs or no, I'm sick of getting out of my car, unlocking the gas cap, getting back into the car, and waiting for some guy to pump the gas. I'm no economist but that's just stupid.

A pretty un-Oregon thing to do.

I think those fast birds are white-throated swifts, Aeronautes saxatalis. They are there from April-ish to September-ish. There is also the Canyon Wren, Catherpes mexicanus, which does the descending whistle call very commonly heard at Smith, and a distinct sound of the southwest canyon country too. They are permanent residents at Smith, while the swifts are just passing through.

I believe he is referring to the mis-etymology of the word "sabotage", which is popularly thought to originate from french workers who wore sabots, and threw them in the factory machinery to show their anger. I have heard the true etymology is still from the word sabot and saboters (wearers of sabots), but evolved from bungling incompetent employees who caused problems.

Ever get that feeling a thread is just about to explode

It's a good question, slothrop, since anyone interested in pirating the software knows about it. Basically it sends out a broadcast on UDP 2222 to find others on the network, then the apps use a random TCP port to listen for serial numbers. It is easily blocked with a firewall, and many argue that it is the wise thing to do. For example, it would be quite simple for someone to simply sniff the traffic, and terminate your applications by faking a serial number conflict. It's a pretty cavalier way to do sn checking in many peoples' opinions.

Skew-T plots are helpful if you are interested in where the cloud deck is. The plots are based off weather balloon data launched twice a day. Unfortunately it is not a forecast, but observation data. Basically wherever the dewpoint and temperature curves meet, you have clouds. Upper Air Sounding Plot Information: http://weather.unisys.com/upper_air/skew/details.html Maybe someone with aviation experience can provide upper air forecast information. Usually you can have a good idea of what's happening in the Cascades based on what's happening in the foothills, or what's coming off the coast.

So is the cost! That used to be true, but there are some great options these days, such as the Mac mini, iBooks, and even a few of the iMacs. In addition, you have to consider what you get for the money. A lot of PCs appear to be cheap, but often a lot of extra stuff is needed to come close to the specs of the Apple systems. A true quality PC with good hardware is actually quite expensive, and you are forced into a sub-par operating system if you do not want to tinker with Linux distributions. And tinker you will, as Linux, a powerful, artfully-designed operating system, is still on training wheels when it comes to helping grandma with her email. Out of the box, the consumer-end Macs have the software used on the most important servers on the internet. Yet my mom and dad were able to get one up and running to organize their photos and use the web within 20 minutes, no headaches at all. In fact, they loved it. Mac minis start at around $500. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Clearly you have not used a Mac recently. If you had, you would realize they are miles ahead of Windows in terms of network compatibility and standards compliance, and any open source project compiles readily on the system. Mac OS X is a work of art in terms of ease of use, modern function, and high performance. The hardware is pretty much untouchable in design.

I wasn't saying anything for or against climbing Liberty Ridge on Memorial Day or otherwise.

Not to get into some lameass geek-war but I bet half those "bugs" you attribute to your application are actually Windows making it's presence known. It is totally accurate to say MS products are almost universally sub-standard. Word crawls on a lot of mid-range hardware. It's a word processor. Holes in Explorer routinely allow executable code as if the exploiter is sitting at the keyboard. Versions of MS Office have "called home" with users' personal information. They just don't give a rat's ass about your security, or the performance of their products. They are not trustworthy, and they are stagnant when it comes to innovation. They play a constant game of catch-up. I also don't appreciate seeing the network logs rack up a bunch of entries whenever I fire up MS Word. WTF.

If you have any interest in the advancement of the WWW, you will use Firefox. It is an excellent product and supports W3C standards better than almost any other product. IE is a disgrace. The new IE may not even support CSS2 as Microsoft believes it to be a "broken standard". Hilarious hearing those words from that company.

Speaking of fossil fuel shortages I wonder if exploratory drilling in the North Cascades would change peoples' opinions on petroleum consumption.

I think that group of four from OSU (where 3 died in a storm) were climbing on Memorial Day weekend. I don't think there were any crowds though, so you got that going for you, which is nice.

here's a bitch: coming to a climbing website to avoid work, only to find everyone bitching about work.

Of course. You're discounting an important message by assuming everyone agrees with a vocal few. It's reasonable to fight for conservation tactfully. Instead of slapping a sticker on the neighbor's truck anonymously, genuinely ask, "that's a beast of truck, what are you hauling with that thing?" or "damn gas prices must be killing you commuting with the rig" when you take out the trash. Billboards with some frightening stats on gas payments per month would be effective. Maybe plant a few right on I-5 for rush-hour. Of course, what your neighbor does is his/her business, it's a free country. You're free to be an asshole, but you won't get many friends either. This is where, in my opinion, government should play a role. Yes, you should be free to buy a gas-guzzler. But, for the burden that places on our society, we are going to hit you with taxes rather than reward you with exemptions. I'd be happy to pay more to counteract the Tacoma I drive, or get rid of it. Money talks, unfortunately. You seem to have a lot of upscale assholes in Seattle. Yes, Portland has a few too, but I think you are again pigeonholing the "environmental movement" into distortion. This is often what I see Fox News (and really any new station) do, usually with some story about "environmentalists" want to ease the suffering of flies, quoting some ELF maniac. There are a lot of people - feet firmly planted on the ground - who are not like the above yet still want to do the right thing w/o self-righteousness. No need to boast. I think most people fall into your category. The words "conservationist" or "environmentalist" need to be replaced with something like "patriot" or similar. It is patriotic to protect our homeland, and part of that is showing respect for the natural resources that made this country the superpower that it is. That's the kind of ad campaign the "environmental" movement needs to develop to succeed. You can't do it by insulting people, and that goes both ways.

It seems some feel this is an all-or-nothing deal. Either water your lawn with gasoline and drive a tank to work, or live off alfalfa and get a thatched roof house off-grid. Just think if a lot of people who COULD ride their bike to work for just ONE day a week did so, and continued to drive every other day. The step towards US energy independence would be significant. If people didn't switch to a hybrid but just used a vehicle that consumed a few mpg less for their daily commutes, the contribution would be enormous. OF COURSE it is not out of line to go on vacations that require air travel. Obviously it consumes a lot of fuel, but that is something we are willing to sacrifice to enjoy life. The point is, it's the little changes in our lives that can pay off big if everyone, all several billion of us in the USA who can, do. In addition, this is not just about fringe enviro-wacko save the tree frogs stuff. This is about keeping America strong as a nation and beautiful as a country, and making sure it stays so for our kids. I want my kids (if I ever have them) to get a chance to appreciate what I have been given, and I know everyone here does too.

That bibler winter bivy is a nice material for balancing the breathability/weatherproof tradeoff. It is very light. However, it is also somewhat flimsy and is quite small. I wouldn't want to endure a major storm in one, but then again, if you are in a bivy sack in weather, you're going to be miserable no matter the material. Might as well be a bit breathable and light, I say. I have found this plus some kind of siltarp is a nice combination. Bivying w/o some kind of overhead cover like a tarp in the rain/snow sucks!

This seems to change on a day-to-day, even hour-to-hour basis. I have skied it on fairly hard, featured ice one day, then gone up literally the next day and it is butter.

You just follow the crater rim to the summit. It is easy but you have a good view down the north side which can wig some people out. Note there is a secondary maximum for avalanches in the Oregon Cascades in spring, where storms can still roll in but the sun puts out a lot more heat during the day. The last avalanche-related fatality on Hood was on the WCR route in May, 1998, where a group was caught on the route too late on a hot day after a storm. It is also a pain in the ass to posthole up that face so it is one to hit earlier than later. It is also an excellent ski if you are so inclined. The walking descent is the South Side route.

Right I guess my point was people are not dying from cordelettes blowing because they do not totally equalize. They are dying when they are unaware of what reality is showing them, and they try to hang their lives off it. That's all.

Rigging for Rescue did extensive testing of a very similar rescue anchor system (above) and determined it does not load distribute very well at all. They even substituted the rings/biners for pulleys, yet still, it was unacceptable. The replacement? The 8mm cordelette, useful for all kinds of other stuff too. The system looks good when you slide loads around on it, but when you hook up the load cells to the pro, things looked a little different. the 6/7mm cordelette simple, light, time-tested, multi-use, what more do you want... I am all for you guys beta-testing new things though, let me know.

have a chat with Dru-spotter instead

that would be sweet