j_b

unless unnecessary, historically significant or not, unsafe bolts should of course be replaced. a couple of comments about scott_j's examples (not to be argumentative but for the sake of providing a different perspective): the direct east buttress of sew wasn't an obscure and forgotten climb before some of the bolts were replaced. the traffic on it has no doubt increased since rebolting but i'd say it was regularly climbed in the mid-to-late 80's. replacing the bolts on the cruxes was indeed well worthwhile since the combination of falls and rust had made them quite ugly. I don't recall tooth and claw as being particularly bold (and i am no hardman even though i occasionally 'act' like one). some of the bolts are (were) somewhat dubious-looking since the rock chipped around a couple of studs. call me naive, but i never felt unsafe on the first pitch even though i recall falling on it once; granted, they may look much worse now. it'd probably be a good idea to replace a few of the critical bolts (if anyone is so inclined) since it is a great climb with easy access.

- invest in clean energy technology (yesterday would be best) - stop gutting emissions legislation (the industry will not control emissions by itself) - raise (significantly, like double) car fuel economy standards it's a start and it won't be enough.

it is obtained from the ratio of heavy to light stable oxygen isotopes in ice. at colder temp, the lighter isotope evaporates more readily from sea water than the heavier isotope (more fractionation) which results in a low ratio of heavy to light isotope in the ice sample. the heavier isotope will also precipitate more readily at colder temp while travelling poleward. Note that during colder climes (large icesheets) the oceans will be enriched in heavy oxygen which will be reflected in the ocean sedimentary record (carbonates). the ice and ocean sed records are the 2 main proxies for quaternary temps although carbonates in caves (speleothems) have also been used to such effect.

no. it is new today. you must be thinking of the trudeau offer of $10,000 for same which hasn't been claimed yet. either you have a negative too many in this sentence ("can" instead of "can't"?) or your logic escapes me.

this is science not mathematics. science never provides absolute proof to very complex real world problem such as global warming. based on available evidence, the increase in greenhouse gas concentration (human induced) is the only credible explanation for the observed rise in temperature over the last century (and increasingly so with each new study). all other hypotheses (change in solar activity, earth albedo change, etc ...) do not explain most of the increase in temperature especially that observed over the last 50years.

some of the "folks [who] jump to conclusions": intergovernmental panel on climate change: linkprovided in other posts above american meteorological society: http://www.ametsoc.org/POLICY/climatechangeresearch_2003.html american geophysical union: http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/policy/climate_change_position.html national academy of science: http://tinyurl.com/7xbmc american association of state climatologists: http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/aasc/AASC-Policy-Statement-on-Climate.htm etc ...

Group offers $50,000 for proof of Bush service "(CNN) -- The founder of the group Texans for Truth said Tuesday that he is offering $50,000 to anyone who can prove President Bush fulfilled his service requirements, including required duties and drills, in the Alabama Air National Guard in 1972."

odd how you left vehicle fuel economy standards out of your list ... or is it that noting the refusal of this administration to raise fuel economy standards amounts to enviromarxism as well?

Cumulative mass balances for eight of the glaciers in the data set show a general decline through the record, 1984-2003. including lynch glacier

anyone who has been paying attention knows there are experts telling us the technology used to write the docs was well established in the early 70's. yet, the wingnuts categorically assert they are fakes. it just shows how much credibility they really have. to top it all they want us to swallow that whoever supposedly 'made-up' the memos didn't bother to spring 50bucks for a used early 70's typewriter but instead used MSwords quite some hairbrained scheme there buddy. of course, they also forget to tell us that much of the info contained in the memos is consistent with that of numerous other sources and what we know about the case. yet, many appear ready to jump ship on this issue; it is maddening to hear liberals fall once more for the wingnut propaganda machine. grow a spine, people.

for a dramatic photo comparison of cascade glacier between 1928 and 2000, go here: http://www-nsidc.colorado.edu/sotc/glacier_balance.html note the change in terminus location but also the massive surface drawdown (compare the elevations at which the ice meets the rock on the sides). also check out the global mass balance curve further down the page and the noticeable acceleration in melting over the last decade on record. as for savoca's comment: even though a glacier mass balance scientist may not be able to say that increase in glacier melt at a specific glacier results from greenhouse gas emissions (his data only speak to changes in mass balance), the scientists who are aware of variations in solar activity, earth albedo and greenhouse gas concentrations do think that only anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases can explain much of the increase in global temperature that occurred during the last century and especially over the last 50years. we also know that temperature is often the main driver for the mass balance of many glacial systems.

honesty? more orwellian speak from a conservative. shame on you robbob. there isn't one shred of evidence supporting the swift liars' version of events. schachte wasn't even on the boat: "Bill Zaladonis and another enlisted man back up Kerry's story. They say they were in that boat with Kerry that night and Schachte was not there." http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5842595/ come on. it's well documented that most of these guys are long time supporters of bush/ kerry haters. "schachte is also a long-standing supporter of President Bush and a lobbyist whose client FastShip Inc. recently won a $40 million grant from the federal government." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47542-2004Aug30.html

yeah sure ... so let me recapitulate: the guardian, a leftist paper, was first to denounce stalinist terror in ukraine while the rest of western media was content to whitewash the entire affair, but according to you the left condoned stalinism. so much for logic or is it your usual attempts at demonizing the left? as for muggeridge, he was indeed the journalist who broke the story in the mid-30's but the stuff you quote was written much later (these quotes come from a book written in 1988). he apparently attempted suicide in the 50's upon which he found god and became some kind of zealot. or are you pretending that since the guy did something right sometime in the 30's everything else he wrote in the following 50years should be taken as gospel? funny you didn't quote the following it would have added some perpective on the guy (so much for honesty btw): "It was the Catholic Church's firm stand against contraception and abortion which finally made me decide to become a Catholic . . . As the Romans treated eating as an end in itself, making themselves sick in a vomitorium so as to enable them to return to the table and stuff themselves with more delicacies, so people now end up in a sort of sexual vomitorium. The Church's stand is absolutely correct. It is to its eternal honour that it opposed contraception, even if the opposition failed. I think, historically, people will say it was a very gallant effort to prevent a moral disaster . . ." also it is interesting to note that while it is true that gide visited the soviet union in the early 30's, muggeridge forgets to mention that gide wrote a book denouncing stalin and the soviet union as soon as he came back. that ought to give us an idea of muggeridge's agenda in portraying liberals as accomplice in stalinist terror. it is in fact probably an agenda similar to yours which consists of portraying anyone on the left as a bloody murderer thus conveniently ignoring that 1) everyone on the left but the communist parties was opposed to stalinism and 2) non-communist leftists were often the first victims of stalinism.

excellent find, jayb. so, does this mean you are going to have to reassess you typically slanderous diatribes against the left in which you accuse it of condoning stalinist terror?

the media is "so liberal" they spent the past month publicizing the swift boat lies and finally concluded they could not tell who was lying despite massive evidence to the contrary. the media is "so liberal" they rehashed neocon intelligence fabrications during the build up to war while the rest of the world knew they were fabrications. go figure? etc ... the list is so long i could spend all day listing examples of "liberal bias" in the media.

What Liberal Media?

let's face it people: is there a better way to promote honesty than to perpetuate the "liberal media" lie.

a neocon invoking honesty is equivalent to a neocon invoking democracy, or if you'd rather have a different analogy it's similar to a bushie invoking compassion.

~60,000 americans and millions of vietnamese died in an optional war and the only thing this moron can say is that opposition to the war was a fad?

brush hell to get there!

which people are we dealing with here? do we really know? moreover, was there ever any doubts about the nature of fundamentalist extremists? it is what the immense majority of iraqis want. the sooner it's done, the lesser the legitimacy for extremists. One has to be amazed at the brilliance of PP's post. perhaps he should blame the neocons instead of the french for the death of american troops. but i must say that quoting an aaahhhnold hollywood script to justify warmongering takes the cake.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1QVWGA13AT43ICRBAE0CFEY?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=6114308 Noisy Sex Session Awakens Entire Street Tue Aug 31, 2004 10:20 AM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - A pair of young lovers so annoyed their neighbors with a noisy sex session that police had to go and ask them to lower the volume, police said on Tuesday. Officers in the western city of Essen interrupted the couple shortly after midnight after neighbors, listening to the sounds through an open window, called to complain. "Gradually more and more neighbors gathered in front of the house to investigate the noise," said a police spokesman. The embarrassed couple were asked to close the window and continue at a lower volume, he said.

wow! what an impressive post klenke. even cracked thought it was funny (quite an endorsement)!

sure, musicians have nothing interesting to say apart from music commentary. a b movie actor and a GE spokeperson (reagan, your hero) in turn would have been totally qualified to run the california then the nation. or an actor in major hollywood shoot'em up (schwarzy) is totally qualified to run california.

well, it would not nearly piss me off quite as much although i do agree that even if it was privately held, stealing it would likely make it more remote from public viewing. no doubt, the system of patrons is still important to art production yet the idea of large private collections unavailable for public viewing does bother me. sorry about the thread drift. dru made me do it.