billcoe

The best one I've found for sussing out my secret spots at my desk instead of working is this one: http://mapper.acme.com/

We should post some climbing pics. We get to The Far Side early Saturday morning and make it down to the ledge on the route we are calling The Drop Zone. Jim Opdycke took some pictures as Scott Peterson and I grabbed gear and organized. Scott did the work while I slacked off...I was thinking that a lawn chair would have been more appropriate, but I can stand around and look silly in the cold as much as the next fella, it's even easier as every joint and my head hurts from a massive head cold. We all decide that we can trust Scotts anchors and rap off. We head to the other end of the cliff band to look at a wide crack I'd been lusting after. We decide to do it and as it's the first ascent I get to name it so I go with "Dulcinea". (sexy, seductive, but a wide crack still) I still had the massive head cold I'd had an hour earlier, and was dead tired, but my buds let me have at it ground up. Sometimes it nice to see what kind of reserves you can draw on. Ujahn Belayed, Jim Opdycke and Scott Peterson took a run up as well. Short but fun we all agreed. Little run out to start. Unless you showed up with a 12" piece which I didn't have. The only notable thing: Ujahn was tossing some blocks off when he followed it. You can see a few of the very ones right above my head on the last picture. One of the larger ones got away from him and landed on the rope he thought he'd coiled up off to the side and whacked it. Fortunately it was his old one! As we're later huddled behind a tarp Jim had set as a windbreak as Scott led Happy Crake (pronounced Crack) in the cold and damp, we thought of our friends the Silverman Brothers and Adam who had wisely bailed on this cold bullshit to go climb in Zion. Bastards Nothing says full value weekend like some 100 yard range time to finish off the next day.

That's your contribution de jour? Dude....

Ditto what RoB says on Fish's stuff Pat, Misty Mt makes great aid ladders as well. The ladders work better than the traditional alternate style step stuff IMO. There may be no way you can avoid having a second pair though, for alpine stuff, Metolius Pocket aiders would be my #1 choice. Like this: Not this: Note the elastic for flipping it around your toe so that they stay put for jugging.

Good links JB. Fairweather, if you haven't read it yet, I thought that this was one of the most awesome reads of the last 2 years. Great stuff which was deeply and thoroughly researched: and gives us a window on the world to this day.

Nice link STP, very long and worthwhile reading. If you lived in the burbs, it should be a wake up call to sell immediately and move inner city to a larger/funkier place with an eye on vacant land and mass transportation nearby. 2 parts I specially liked.

I was musing on the low inflation rate the other day. Classic econ says that massive government spending vs income accompanied by massive cash infusions into any economy will result in massive inflation. This should be upon us by now, yet it has not occurred (yet). It appears that what is happening is not only are they borrowing by issuing treasuries at record paces, but they are also buying those very T-bills back at a record pace. So the result is that less money gets in circulation. I don't understand the effects that utilizing this slight of hand trick will get us....as it appears very intentional. This appears to be having the result of deflating the dollar. Perhaps others can weigh in here on that. STP has been posting a bunch of kick assed web-sites, does anyone else check that stuff out? One site he linked suggested keeping cash on hand can be the best thing to do right now as the dollar deflates. Inflation, on the other hand, will make everything which you had stuffed under your mattress disappear faster than a KKK member at a NAACP meeting. I think that one personal hedge against this, no matter which way it goes is a bank account that is accounted in Chinese Yuan. I'm trying to resist it but am considering getting into some Wheat Futures thinking that the weather/dollar combo may help that transaction this year. What are everyone else's thoughts on this? What personal moves are you making?

Per what Mr Head speaks of on top: it was good to see Barak publicly come out against the fairness doctrine just today. Rep Henry Waxman had been pressuring the FCC to implement it. I feel that this is one of those stupid, possibly an anti-constitutional idea which many Democrats strangely love.

We should lynch the bastard. I KNEW I didn't like him, but now I'm convinced! The nice thing about moving to China is that you don't have to worry about any of that bullshit. No payroll taxes, no FICA, No FUCA, Social Security, minimal environmental laws, no OSHA, no lawsuits cause someone spilled the coffee in their crotch again...and the people will work for eggrolls and twice chewed dogmeat and NOT money! Now how come this country is loosing 3/4 of a million manufacturing jobs a year again?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/4681736/Geography-professor-claims-to-have-found-Osama-bin-Laden.html

Dude, you got some learnin' to do: Pink RULES!!!!!

This has caused a shit storm with some thinking the Chimp is a veiled racist attack on Obama. Others say that it's not as bad as attacking Islam, where the offenders must be executed, but it's close. Anyway, just helping you keep up with whats going on the the world today. For myself, I didn't even think it was that funny. I see funnier on stuff here about every hour.

Glad I don't work for that uncaring asshole.

Dinner at your house then?

Concur. If private enterprise is avoiding this wonderful "investment" opportunity like the Plague, WTF should we all go running in there like Leroy Jenkins' for? There's oil companies that have that kind of cash sitting around in their restrooms for toilet paper but just don't see this as something they should do. Why should we? People can buy Fords if they want domestic and these folks can go to work there instead. Leroy Jenkins video: [video:youtube]

Link? Because per my link, they paid $129,000,000 and change for the quarter in some kind of tax per the income statement. I'd be surprised if that was state and local only, and they then had to pay $10 in federal. Where does your info come from? Here's one story: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/07/02/26/intel-disputes-24-billion-tax-bill "Intel Corporation announced it was appealing an Internal Revenue Service tax adjustment related to export sales. The company has calculated that its federal income tax for 1999 through 2005 would increase by about $2.2 billion plus interest if it loses its appeal against the IRS. The number one chip maker noted that if it loses the appeal there is a "possibility of a material adverse impact on the results of operations" for the period when the matter is resolved, but added that management does not believe the outcome will affect its financial position, cash flow or results of operations. The IRS would also likely make a similar claim for 2006, potentially increasing Intel's tax due by about $200 million, plus interest. The company mentioned that the IRS formally assessed the adjustment in its regular examination of Intel's tax returns" You'd think that the story would specifically mention the part about wanting to pay $10.00 bucks instead of the $2,200,000,000.00 extra the IRS is asking for during those years. Does that work out to an extra $300,000,000 PLUS per year? I'VE DONE THE MATH AND HAVE SURMISED THAT $300 MILLION DOLLARS IS MORE THAN $10. Link?

You fuckers! Great stuff there, the writing alone damn near gets me off. Holy sh*t. , Are you yanking my chain? The story just keeps getting better 'n better! I almost built me a campfire right here to go with the alcholhol I'm consuming as greedily as yer yarn Arrrgggg! Now about yer speed:-) Das Kapitan Ja? Yur running about a 2 day trip to get to Sickle yarrrgggg.!!!!!!Things speed up in the warmth, but yer need to get yer speed on. The first pitch gets done in under a half hour with out much sweat. I did just under 30 min last spring, which would have normally been a cause celbre' except my old buddy Andrew did it in 25 min. I only console myself in that I didn't take as many biners and had to unclip gear and cornsolidate nuts and cams to free up some extra biners towards the top. This in no way says you folks do not rule for getting on it whilst the snow fell and the epic swirled...yarrrg....ya Monkeys! What's that? This isn't the Pirates forum....yAAArrgggggg DOHHHHH! Good stuff Ivan as usual, real, real good. bet ya had the Monkey to yourselves too!

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090217/120177026.html The global crisis finally hits home, things are getting tight everywhere evidently: "Chinese tycoon's best-mistress contest takes tragic turn MOSCOW, February 17 (RIA Novosti) - A bizarre best-mistress competition held by a local tycoon in eastern China ended with one of the women driving him and her four rivals off a cliff, the Shanghai Daily said on Tuesday. The woman was killed, while her four rivals and the businessman were injured in the incident, which took place in the Shandong Province on December 6. The details behind the crash came to light after the parents of the 29-year-old dead woman, only identified as Yu, handed over to police a letter that she had written. In her letter she said had been one of five mistresses kept by a married Chinese businessman, identified only by his surname, Fan, since 2000. All the five knew about each other, but chose not to break up the relationship as they received a monthly allowance of 5,000 yuan ($733) and a rent-free apartment. "The businessman was going to lay off four of his five mistresses due to financial troubles," the paper said. "The women were allowed to vie for the remaining position by competing on their looks, their singing and speaking and their ability to drink alcohol." The man decided to organize a closed pageant to select the best of the five and even invited an instructor from a modeling agency to help him with his choice. Yu was knocked out of the first round of the competition. "When Fan told Yu she had lost her position and he was selling her apartment, she decided to take revenge," the newspaper said. She invited the businessman and the four other mistresses on a mountain trip and drove the car off a cliff, killing herself. As a result of the scandal, the tycoon's wife demanded a divorce after learning about his affairs, while the four mistresses left him after he shut down his business. He also had to pay 580,000 yuan ($85,000) compensation to the parents of the dead woman. "

You have some anger issues Choda. No one is dissing your choice of work here. Gary, you just need to follow the great leaders example. He's flying into Denver, Colo. JUST to sign a bill at this very moment. The bill is coming out with him from DC. He's going to Denver to make a statement. The statement is twofold. 1st) This bill has 50 billion dollars committed to making cleaner energy and getting our energy house in order. FINALLY!! 2nd) NONE OF THIS STUPID BULLSHIT SHOULD APPLY TO ME, BUT SOMEONE ELSE MUST BE DOING SOMETHING SO I'LL LET MAKE THEM CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOR, ILL FLY AIR FORCE 1 TO DENVER ANYWAY!!! So I'm saying consider just tossing it off a bluff or burn it then you at least won't have to listen to some of the unnecessary bullshit like you've seen on this thread.

You absolutely have that number wrong in a big way. Those companies are publicly traded and that info can be confirmed with just a few clicks. I wish we were at a bar so I could bet you can get a free buzz on the bet. I only checked one, Nike, and see they paid, $129,000,000 (thats million) dollars in tax last quarter alone. It's only a quick check of and income statment, but those figures are public and publicly audited so I don't doubt they are correct. They are not broken out to specifics, but I'd encourage you to do the research first. Check it yourself, you are wayyyy wrong on this. http://www.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NYSE:NKE You might report back to us with the dollar figures that Intel and Tektronix actually did pay. It will be a good opportunity for you to learn and grow. You can get the info here as well: http://sec.edgar-online.com/nike-inc/10-q-quarterly-report/2008/04/04/Section7.aspx later

Didn't know that.

As long as you're so fine with it, you can pay for folks like Pink and me, who don't want to pay it. Why they don't hit it on the income tax, where people actually pay based more if they make more, VS, regressively hitting a poor person who just enjoys a good pint, is total bullshit it seems to me. Send your contact info over and I'll figure out how many pints I'll be drinking and you can send a check. Pink and I thank you in advance for your largess.

I joined last month and all these people came out of the woodwork to be my friends. Some I knew (Hi Geoff! ) but I mean, come on, I barely met Steve House one time in Yosemite cause a guy I was camping with knew him and he stopped, I'm suspicious that 15 min after I join facebook he wants to be my friend. Some of those folks I don't even know if I'd ever heard of at all.

Probably some lawyer came up with this stat to prove a point in a court of law. :-)

Thanks for the LOL