iain

I live in an apartment. I might be able to tie ol' bessy up to the mailbox though, I'll look into it.

Just be a vegetarian. Any problems with livestock, potential or otherwise, are on your moral shoulders now. I'd point to the Ogallala aquifier in western Nebraska as one that has been severely depleted, I would say mostly due to agricultural uses. As for hogshit runoff...please explain why you don't think this is a problem. As for water depletion, there's plenty of places to point fingers. The Colorado R. for instance is depleted both for Vegas and L.A. municiple use, but also for those multimillion dollar farming operations in the middle of the f'ing desert.

We don't just follow rules because they are there. If we don't like the rule we change it. It is more of an agreement that obviously gets broken from time to time in really bad weather on glaciers, etc. where big gloves needed. The typical rescue load (1 patient, 1 attendant, and 1 litter) is 210kg. If you are minding prusiks and they become shockloaded, there's a chance of some hand injury. Same if you are adjusting the bars on a brake rack as you lower the litter to reduce or increase friction. It's just a risk management item.

The deal in high angle rescue stuff is that the loads are quite high. Lowers are usually done with a brake bar and raises with pulleys going every which way. It would be easy to catch a finger in something. Belays are usually tandem prusiks that you have to tend with your hand to keep from locking, so if the main line fails, all of a sudden the load is on the belay line while your hand is on the prusiks which are locking off 200kg at times. This could cause some finger damage w/o gloves, that's all.

I see you found the ninja website. That website rawks. I love ninjas with every part of my body. Even my peepee.

the vinylove gloves are great! keep you warm wherever and very cheap. Also double as bsi rubber gloves if you are involved in medical rescue stuff, so you don't have to freeze your hands off in nitrile when blood is involved.

Thanks for all the great advice guys, this kind of help keeps me tuned to the board. Thanks for the offer Rob, I'm not sure if I will make it to Pubclub but I will try. Cheers.

Interesting that your work requires bare hands. In both mountain rescue units I work with, gloves are mandatory when belaying, lowering, or raising.

I agree iceguy there is usually a significant difference in both skill and requirements between an active mtn rescue unit (such as those in the MRA, and a few others who are not) and many below treeline SAR teams. I apologize for not making that distinction, but I also have a strong connection with many "groundpounding" teams. They have been pivotal in many cases, selflessly carting in all our gear, bringing in food, and finding people quickly. I definitely appreciate anyone involved in any capacity. Just sometimes in the chaos people wind up in situations for which they are ill-prepared. Anyways, I think Ray Smutek said it best: "I can tell you from experience that nothing is more devastating to a helpless person's morale, than an obviously incompetent rescuer."

sure was...I seem to recall a Dr. Who....ah yes, "Seeds of Doom". yep a lot o stuff has been thawed out of the ice. bad stuff

we are all stardust and our ages are infinite. did you know if you see someone 7 years later you are seeing an entirely different person at the cellular level?

The goal of any enemy of ours now should be to instill so much fear in the populace that we simply outspend ourselves to total meltdown. This, combined with the sinister japanese invention known as the snooze button, will bring us to our economic knees.

Are you insane? Any continuation of this discussion now that the goat has arrived is the equivalent of taking a paddleboat tour to Charybdis.

DFA wadda mean, they have the Canada Arm on the spacestation. Makes maple syrup and bodychecks incoming shuttles 'n everything.

Since I was not alive during the race to the moon I feel a bit sheepish talking about it, but it was clearly an "I'm better than you" game. It was most likely not because of any "humanity must explore our final frontier" liberal Star Trek stuff. Otherwise, why are we not still out there exploring? NASA's next step is a "construction platform" at lagrangian point L1 between the moon and earth. Will we see that this century?

unfortunately NASA never was about space exploration, but was rather a bit of political muscle flexing. We haven't been back to the moon and all funding has dried up after the Soviet fall. NASA is equally to blame, as they waste so much time and money just trying to organize themselves nevermind getting any R&D done. It'll take another shuttle crash (we're running shuttles that are much older than most cars on the road) to either axe NASA completely for awhile or kick it back into gear. My guess is axing, since all money will be going to lasers in space now apparently.

And did we? Show me the proof! Until a smoking gun is produced I will continue to believe we never made it there, just like there is no such thing as anthropogenic global warming.

for a more worthwhile reply: I can lead sport face routes in the 5.10 range, but I don't think it really makes much difference on my trad climbing range, since it seems almost a different skill set altogether.

nice, dragging this old beast back up from the basement.

diesel exhaust is now considered much worse for our atmosphere than gasoline due to the heavy particulate matter produced. I'd also like to add that I did not mean to totally restrict auto purchases, but perhaps some serious financial incentives to think about a better commuter choice.

I don't want to see a totalitarian system where someone dictates what you can buy, but when such ridiculous decisions are being made that clearly jeopardize our collective well-being, what are you going to do? I, for one, don't believe these people will ever say "well for the good of the community, I won't drive my troop transport today." I consider that selfish. You seem to consider that a god-given right. Maybe it is, but I can't fly an F-14 to work everyday either. I believe you are living proof of the need for regulation, as you clearly do not prescribe to the "good of the many" argument, which is exactly what is needed to initially drive improvements in personal transportation. Could you imagine how nice life would be without traffic jams? If everyone chips in, it could happen. Now you would call that last statement naive. Why? Because that will never happen. Why? Because people most often do not make decisions based on the "good of the many". So where do we go from there?

It is clear automakers don't give a rat's ass about fuel efficiency and smog reduction unless they are prodded with laws. It is also clear the people are driving over-powered cars for commuting if a V-8 is somehow justified in a light truck that sees no hauling or towing duty. Don't give me the "how do you know" stuff either, I know plenty of people like this. You DON'T need a Land Rover Discovery V-8 full-time 4wd in suburban Portland. People still buy these even though Prius, etc is available, and they do not go offroad or anything even close.