billcoe

For you, this is true. link for others, they define it more like this: "Regrettably, most of us committed to liberal education agree that the outcomes of an undergraduate liberal education are not widely understood or valued by the general public. While the college degree is universally recognized as the key to economic and social mobility, what lies behind that credential—the educational experience, its full value and its purposes—is more or less ignored. In general, in the popular imagination, undergraduate education is a commodity: students and their families are customers, faculty are service providers, and institutions compete to provide accommodations. Specific attention to the full purposes of liberal education is even less focused; and in light of that, it is now rarely considered a necessary element of undergraduate education. Because of its neglect of the core purposes of liberal education, the academy itself bears some responsibility for popular misperceptions—or, lamentably, ignorance of what liberal education promises. There has been, and remains, a “triad” of interrelated core purposes for liberal education: the epistemic (coming to know, discovery, and the advancing of knowledge and understanding); the eudemonic (the fuller realization of the learner, the actualizing of the person’s potential—classically to achieve individual well-being and happiness); and the civic (the understanding that learning puts the learner in relation to what is other, to community and its diversity in the broadest sense, as well as the responsibility that comes from sustaining the community and the civic qualities that make both open inquiry and self-realization possible). On one level, we have lost track of this complexity—focusing in the academy only on the epistemic. On another level, we have hardly attended to the issue of purpose at all. The gaining and transfer of knowledge and discovery, the “epistemic” purpose of liberal education, has been emphasized at the expense of the other core purposes—namely, fostering self-discovery and well-being, and establishing the relationship between knowledge and responsibility for what is beyond self, the “civic” purpose. While other institutions, such as church or the family, and other educational or training experiences certainly can separately contribute to a dimension of this triad of core purposes, liberal education is unique in that it contributes to achieving all three purposes and reveals their interdependency. These core purposes determined the original missions of the many colleges and universities that were founded to provide a liberal education. These institutions forged a de facto social contract. For its part, the college or university was expected to contribute to what is known, to teach and discover, to serve as a positive and reinforcing context for the emotional and moral development of young adults, and to encourage greater responsibility for the common good. In return, society supported both the institution and the conditions of liberty required to sustain open inquiry. Although some colleges and universities may no longer define their missions in terms of the three core purposes of liberal education, the great preponderance of institutions still do. It is not clear, however, that these institutions actually give priority to the practices that instantiate the core purposes. Nor is it clear they recognize that the intentional development of all three interrelated purposes results in confirmable outcomes affecting the full development of students. In recent years, much excellent work has been devoted to the assessment of learning outcomes. This work helps to establish whether and how the epistemic purpose of liberal education is being achieved. However, the scope of assessment should not be restricted to a single aspect of liberal education. Attention to each of the core purposes—the epistemic, the eudemonic, and the civic—is necessary to achieve the full promise of liberal education. The Bringing Theory to Practice project is about demonstrating that, as they are actualized in particular educational practices, all three core purposes produce outcomes— effects and affects, including behavioral results or consequences as well as dispositional patterns, attitudes, and inclinations—that can be documented and studied. Student disengagement The Bringing Theory to Practice project was founded on the premise of a connection between the widespread misunderstanding, devaluation, and neglect of the core purposes of undergraduate liberal education, on the one hand, and certain patterns of disengagement exhibited by a significant and growing number of students, on the other.* Multiple-year national data show that, even excepting students who drop out of school, 40 to 60 percent of all adolescents are “chronically disengaged” from their academic experiences (Blum and Libby 2004). This student disengagement is expressed in a variety of ways, from drug and alcohol abuse to cheating, from nonclinical forms of depression to suicide attempts. More than 30 percent of students abuse alcohol, for example; nearly half of these are repeat abusers whose objective is to disengage completely by becoming “wasted” to the point of passing out. Indeed, over the past decade or so, campuses nationwide have reported dramatic increases in binge drinking. “Students [are] often stuporous in class, if they get there at all,” explains Hara Estroff Marano, editor of Psychology Today and member of the Bringing Theory to Practice advisory board. “The heaviest drinking occurs on weekends, beginning Thursday, but the effects increasingly hang over the whole week.” After counseling many students, Paul Joffe, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, has concluded that “at bottom binge drinking is a quest for authenticity and intensity of experience. It gives young people something all their own to talk about, and sharing stories about the path to passing out is often a primary purpose. It’s an inverted world in which drinking to oblivion (disengagement) is the way to feel connected and alive” (Marano 2004). While it may be the most visible expression of student disengagement, alcohol abuse is among a host of behavioral and mental health issues affecting undergraduates. Somewhat less visible, for example, is the rising incidence of depression among college students. Studies generated by the University of Kansas Counseling Center suggest that, nationwide, over 40 percent of undergraduates report at least one incident of depression sufficient to interrupt their academic work. “Psychological distress is rampant on college campuses,” says Marano. “It takes a variety of forms: anxiety and depression—which are increasingly regarded as two faces of the same coin—binge drinking and substance abuse, self-mutilation and other forms of self-disconnection.” According to Steven Hyman, provost of Harvard University and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, psychological distress is now so widespread among students that it is “interfering with the core mission of the university” (Marano 2004). Overall, the response of colleges and universities to student disengagement has been partial, focused on enforcement or treatment; rarely have institutions seen the possibility of addressing these issues of disengagement through the outcomes of specific forms of undergraduate learning. Awareness of the problem has often led to institutional concern for liability and, in some cases, to the dismissal of students who acknowledge experiencing psychological distress. Only rarely does awareness lead to campus-wide consideration of the gaps between academic purposes, expectations, and practices—gaps that impede student learning, health, and civic engagement. At most institutions, where attention to students’ mental health is relegated to counseling professionals and where the academic aspect of students’ lives is disconnected from the social and developmental aspects, faculty and administrators may be unaware of the full extent of the problem, and of the possibility of addressing the manifestations of student well-being and civic development through academic experiences. Engaged learning The development of the “whole person” has traditionally been the goal of liberal education; however, on most campuses today, the “whole person” is fractured into discrete parts. Students themselves are expected to integrate, cumulatively and developmentally, what institutional structures and operations formally divide. By compartmentalizing students’ intellectual, emotional, and ethical lives, colleges and universities dichotomize the various facets of learning. This paradigm of compartmentalized learning is extended to campus life: faculty take care of the intellect, student-services staff and coaches handle the rest. Accordingly, the classroom is regarded as the exclusive setting for “real” learning, which is seen as wholly separate and different from what takes place elsewhere. The Bringing Theory to Practice project began with the hunch that engaged learning is the key to reintegrating the epistemic, eudemonic,and civic purposes of liberal education. That is, we believed that by engaging students, by involving them in demanding service-learning and community-based research experiences, the academy could force them to consider their own privilege; challenge their assumptions of entitlement and self-indulgence; help them recognize that learning has implications for action and use; help them develop skills and habits of resiliency; and make them aware of their responsibilities to the larger community. And further, we believed that, with these gains, students would be more likely to transfer academic engagement to greater personal well-being and to deeper civic engagement. It may seem quixotic to describe learning as a transformative activity. Many students, faculty, and staff may see no connection between their lives and the problems facing the community, the nation, and the world. They may not feel responsible for others. The many students who today participate in volunteer programs may fail to take action to address the problems they seek temporarily to relieve. In fact, volunteering may reinforce preconceptions and stereotypic beliefs held by students. As D. Tad Roach, headmaster of St. Andrew’s School in Delaware, puts it, “students may volunteer in a soup kitchen, and accumulate hundreds of hours of volunteer service; but if service is not linked with learning, they are likely to understand nothing about the systemic socioeconomic conditions that lead to poverty. And they are, thereby, unprepared to address the desperate need for change.” We have identified service learning and community-based research as exemplars because they require active involvement by students and they have the greatest potential to transform attitudes, behaviors, and dispositions. Quite distinct from volunteerism, both forms of engaged learning require academic intensity. They entail greater expectations for students, pushing them beyond the classroom and beyond the model of learning as the passive receipt of information. And both forms of engaged learning can lead students to take greater responsibility for their learning and for its connection to both their individual development and their civic lives. Students come to recognize that not all learning occurs in the classroom, and that not all teachers are faculty. In truth, the Bringing Theory to Practice project was founded on more than just a hunch. All of us in higher education have seen the transformative potential of engaged learning. We know, for example, that when students are engaged, when someone else is counting on them, the incidence and frequency of abusive behaviors and depression decrease. We also know that students themselves report increased confidence and a positive sense of self-value as results of experiences that take them “out of the bubble” of their school or collegiate life and into the community. Students who experience engaged learning in contexts where they are expected to contribute, and where their contributions are valued, tell us of their greater satisfaction with their education, their personal choices, and their futures. The documentation of these outcomes and their replicability are among the objectives of the project’s research. In fact, part of what the project hopes to document is how findings confirm the now accepted (but, regrettably, less often practiced) view that these are forms of learning and pedagogies (in comparison to traditional emphasis on lecturing as a means of information transfer) that more effectively assure student retention of what is learned and more effectively aid student development of higher critical skills of analysis and synthesis. To this extent, the project will not only be documenting the linkage of outcomes and core purposes of liberal education; it will also be reinforcing educational practices that are more effective in realizing knowledge acquisition and intellectual development. Engaged learning appears to be the normative condition for multiple types of development—cognitive, emotional, moral, and civic. The project explores how the commitment to understanding a topic with significant connection beyond the learner, obliging the learner to put her own views and preconceptions in judgment, makes a positive difference to students’ intellectual development, to their sense of empowerment, and to their civic lives. The sources of the “hunch” the Bringing Theory to Practice project was founded to explore are hardly new. Aristotle and Dewey, among many others, began with similar assumptions about the links among the core triad of educational purposes—the necessity of the pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of self-realization, and the pursuit of justice. They too believed that realizing these interrelated purposes would result in particular forms of moral development and social action. What we would identify as liberal education was, on the classical model, focused on a public community purpose, namely good citizenship— the understanding that individuals were realized or actualized in the context of community. And it was the Enlightenment that encouraged the grounding of learning, knowledge, and discovery in replication, evidence, and the nonauthoritarian bases for any claims to know. These historical strands became linked elements in describing the sustaining core purposes of liberal education. In translating our hunch into a set of testable hypotheses, we recognized that not all relationships are causal, that discernible effects are distinguishable from likely affects, and that the relationships may be additive or even symbiotic. Nonetheless, concrete evidence is needed to substantiate the effects and affects of actualizing the core purposes of liberal education. The Bringing Theory to Practice project is supporting ongoing research that seeks to document outcomes and to justify the changes in educational practices required to make engaged learning normative. The key role of faculty Faculty are viewed by students as the primary agents of transformation on campus, and they are the group students respect the most. Thus, faculty are perhaps the only group on campus with the authority and the educational responsibility to confront the proximate conditions of self-indulgence and the withdrawal of students from the challenges of engagement. For this reason, the Bringing Theory to Practice project is attempting to demonstrate that, through their teaching and their expectations, faculty can affect students’ choices and behaviors, as well as students’ emotional and civic development. Faculty are not counselors or therapists. Appropriately, they recognize that the provision of mental health services is beyond their expertise. But faculty are often aware of the crises their students experience. They are very likely to notice when individual students are incapacitated by depression or abusive behaviors, and they are concerned about these problems. Most faculty recognize that they have considerable influence on the choices and behaviors of young adults, and most want to help create positive contexts for learning and for student choices. If faculty do not actively encourage the full integration of students’ lives, if they elect to address the issues through grading alone and to relegate all other responsibilities to student affairs staff, then the current conditions of disengagement will continue to prevail. The Bringing Theory to Practice project Developed jointly by the Charles Engelhard Foundation and the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Bringing Theory to Practice project was designed to encourage colleges and universities to revisit or review the core purposes of liberal education and to assess their students’ achievement of the full range of related outcomes. Such an effort can reveal the need for a significant redirection of energies and resources or for broad cultural changes. Most significantly, it can result in changed student expectations. In addition to providing support for specific campus programs, the project, now in its fourth year, supports research on the connection of certain forms of engaged learning to student health and well-being, and to the complexity and depth of students’ civic development. To date, over two hundred colleges and universities have been linked to aspects of the project, and forty institutions have received grant support for their programmatic or research work. Project research is currently focused on seven institutions that are serving as national demonstration sites (see below). Getting at purposes through an examination of possible outcomes is a complex task; it is exceedingly difficult to isolate the epistemic purpose and to determine effectiveness in creating and measuring learning outcomes. The Bringing Theory to Practice project is focused on very specific forms of pedagogy and learning that already are important elements of many undergraduate liberal education programs—namely, service learning and community-based research. These particular forms of engaged learning encourage students to examine how concepts translate into practice, how they expect and value greater personal involvement from students, and how they oblige students to link action and understanding. The project is currently studying the possible effects and likely affects produced by engaged learning experiences that are expected, intensive, and valued elements of the undergraduate experience. We are gathering evidence— both testimonial and empirical—of outcomes that link engaged learning to behavioral choices and to student development. And we are learning how faculty and administrators who are involved across many campuses can begin to structure a “learning community” of their own affecting directional change at their own institutions. The provisional evidence supports the initial premise of the Bringing Theory to Practice project: the core purposes of liberal education can be realized through particular forms of engaged learning that affect the health, behaviors, and well-being of students and foster civic responsibility. Even as the research goes forward, the project is encouraging campuses to continue, or to initiate, conversations about the purposes of liberal education and about the institutional means available for achieving them. This effective strategy already has led several campuses to reexamine the extent to which they are defining and actualizing their own sense of quality, and the extent to which they are pursuing services and activities that are driven by perceived “market” demands. Additionally, the project has supported the efforts of individual campuses to better understand the actual behaviors and patterns of experience chosen by their specific populations of students, and to assess those data within the context of national studies. The overarching aim of the Bringing Theory to Practice project is to help colleges and universities deliver on the full promise of a quality undergraduate education by orienting their campus practices to the achievement of the three interrelated core purposes of liberal education. The project encourages institutions to create and support learning contexts that enable student transformation and, where current practices do not succeed in creating such contexts, the project argues for change. In creating and sustaining contexts for engagement, faculty must be supported, valued, and rewarded for experimenting with new and emerging pedagogies. This work is complex and often difficult; however, faculty frequently find such experimentation to be among the most intellectually, emotionally, and morally satisfying dimensions of teaching—especially when they are supported culturally and institutionally. The faculty members and professional administrators involved in the project have demonstrated their strong commitment to the students on their own campuses. They have been willing to act somewhat counter to prevailing campus cultures by seriously considering how the very heart of their institutions—the faculty, dominant pedagogies, and the curriculum— can positively and holistically affect the lives of their students. Through their involvement in the project, faculty and administrators alike have found the reinforcing rationale and evidence for strengthening the academic experience in ways that more directly involve students, that expect more from them, that take them out of the classroom, and that involve them in experiencing and understanding the relation of what they study to issues and responsibilities rooted outside of themselves." good luck

But it's out of bounds in the no climbing area.

Mexico has strong gun control laws and now only the criminals and the police have guns. Both are preying on the honest civilians and it's out of control. They have 3 kidnappings a day on average (sometimes they use machettes), more than Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran combined. The guns are mostly smuggled from the US, however, if the US didn't have a single firearm, they'd easily get them elsewhere....Uganda, Afganistan, lots of countries in South America.... IMO, guns should be in the hands of every law abiding citizen for political reasons first and foremost.

Sweet, just what I need to start my new spaid route starting from the parking lot at Beacon. First I gotta rap in to set up the burly anchors. Something like that already was done and then erased: Gordons retro-bolted 5.9 up that pretty and steep slab which Wayne had done trad (as I understand it) right by the water fountain. And that was not for aiding but for freeing although you could have stick clipped the bolts to aid if you wanted....so whats that called?....spaid and neutered? As long as we are defining terms, how about when the route gets put up, it's "Spaid", when it's removed, it's "Neutered"? Good name for a route...spaid and neutered.

Hellllooooo! Over here!

ABOUT FRIGGAN TIME LINK "....Obama also directed his administration to get moving on new fuel-efficiency guidelines for the auto industry in time to cover 2011 model-year cars. "For the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and commitment to change," Obama said in his first formal event in the ornate East Room of the White House...." DAMN STRAIGHT I'm high now, and hoping this legislative onslaught of good doesn't turn bad as you all know how I feel about the 2nd amendment... President Obama also added .."Year after year, decade after decade, we've chosen delay over decisive action," Obama said. "Rigid ideology has overruled sound science. Special interests have overshadowed common sense. Rhetoric has not led to the hard work needed to achieve results — and our leaders raise their voices each time there's a spike on gas prices, only to grow quiet when the price falls at the pump." Good stuff.

My thoughts as well. Having a bolt ladder for aiding isn't the end of the world although I know others will argue endlessly otherwise. If it crowds an existing route that's another matter of course. However, I'm so far away emotionally from Broughtons that I don't even feel like I should have a voice anyway. I might have climbed there once last year, but I can't remember why. I know a solid trad climber who has approached me about putting a bolt ladder up in the gorge at a more remote, abiet historic, location - I passed on helping out. Although it's not my thing, I could understand having one to access a remote pinnacle that gets climbed about every 15 years...if that. There is a ladder at the butte thats' been there since probably the 50's or early 60's. However, the hangers were removed at least 37 years ago so it's just rusty old 1/4" studs. It's pretty much invisible unless you get right up on it and squint. Then maybe you'll see it. I know that almost all of the people who have stood right under it have not seen it. Could it be the worlds first A3 bolt ladder?:-) I suspect this is eventually going to turn into a very involved, long, self righteous thread, so let me only say it once: thanks for the heads up Bryan - but speaking only for myself, this ladder to nowhere doesn't bother me.

I rather be greeted with "Whats up Doc", than, hows it going Mr Wrinkly? ! This advice should help us all age more gracefully:

One doesn't see Robert Reich called a dumbass too often. Liberal...sure, professor, OK, ...short...absofrigganloutly:-) Dumbass, not too often. As a former "White Male Construction Worker" myself, I always felt like I could take care of myself and wasn't to concerned. Of course, there was that time where my boss went bankrupt during the 20% interest rate days, and I missed getting 5 paychecks (got some partial $ here and there) with the end result that I when I had finished my very last sack of potatoes, I had to dive into the garbage where I'd so stupidly tossed the peelings the day previous to pull out the skins so that I could eat something for 2 more days. The part of the sound bites on the video that seems to strike me wrong is the assumption that at the root: what they are talking about is taking away money from those who have it and giving it to those they deem worthy. In doing so, as a forced measure, it makes the gesture which could have been highly altruistic, meaningful and beautiful: a morally bankrupt one with bad feelings on both sides. The good that a person would have felt about voluntarily contributing to a person in need goes away. Furthermore, the government doesn't appear to but rarely be concerned about "teaching a man to fish", but usually settles for "giving the man a fish". This makes the poor folks feel indebted: not in a good way, but more like a beggar, unable to do achieve success on their own and dependant on da Gobment. I don't want to see folks starve, or even have to pull out their potato peelings to eat though, even if it didn't use to bother me when I had to do it. On the other side of the transaction it makes those who have money have less. They then do not want to give any to anybody for any reason since it's getting forcefully yanked from them already and to top it off da Gobment usually winds up wasting a shitload before they even start to feed the man that fish with the result that productive money goes down a shithole never to reappear again and both the recipient and receiver have strange non-happy feelings or feel like shit about it. It ain't healthy. However, what can you do?

Hmmm, are you suggesting that I need to stop watching the clock ? LINK ps, I'm over both Bush and Clinton....they were so, hmmm, sooo 90's:-)

I thought Obama was smarter than that. I don't have a clue why he'd give that windbag free media air time AND something to talk about on his show for the next 4 years. Jeeeze. http://www.nypost.com " WASHINGTON -- President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration. "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package. One White House official confirmed the comment but said he was simply trying to make a larger point about bipartisan efforts. "There are big things that unify Republicans and Democrats," the official said. "We shouldn't let partisan politics derail what are very important things that need to get done." That wasn't Obama's only jab at Republicans today. While discussing the stimulus package with top lawmakers in the White House's Roosevelt Room, President Obama shot down a critic with a simple message. "I won," he said, according to aides who were briefed on the meeting. "I will trump you on that." The response was to the objection by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) to the president's proposal to increase benefits for low-income workers who don't owe federal income taxes. Not that Obama was gloating. He was just explaining that he aims to get his way on the stimulus package and all other legislation, sources said, noting his unrivaled one-party control of both congressional chambers. Republicans, along with Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate, met with Obama to hammer out details on a stimulus package that has reached $825 billion. "We are experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis that has to be dealt with and dealt with rapidly," Obama said during the meeting. Republicans say that is too big a burden for a nation already crippled by debt and that it doesn't do enough to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes. "You know, I'm concerned about the size of the package. And I'm concerned about some of the spending that's in there, [about] ... how you can spend hundreds of millions on contraceptives," House GOP Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) later said. "How does that stimulate the economy?" But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs countered: "There was a lot of agreement in that room this morning about the notion that we're facing an economic crisis unlike we've seen in quite some time ... There was agreement that we must act quickly to stimulate the economy, create jobs, put money back in people's pockets." Gibbs disagreed with those who called the meeting window dressing. "The president is certainly going to listen to any ideas," he said. "He will also go to Capitol Hill the beginning of next week to talk to Republican caucuses and solicit their input and their ideas." Obama acknowledged that $825 billion was a tough price tag for some conservatives and deficit hawks to swallow. "I know that it is a heavy lift to do something as substantial as we're doing right now," he said. "I recognize there are still some differences around the table and between the administration and members of Congress about particular details on the plan," he said. "But I think what unifies this group is a recognition that we are experiencing an unprecedented, perhaps, economic crisis that has to be dealt with," he said. The president added that legislation governing the use of an additional $350 billion in bailout money for the financial industry must include new measures to ensure accountability. And he continued his initial round of calls to foreign leaders, dialing up Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Saudi King Abdallah and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown"

Could be a combo of both warm weather and : However, last year was sooo cold for soooo long. Hope the last winter did some winter kill on those insects. This was last 4th of July weekend (my new feather friends coat my brother bought for my birthday came in handy). I saw that story, and have been seeing some of the tree die off, even as close as the 1-205/Camas interchange - pretty disturbing.

Ha ha! Your standards will drop as you age:-) You watch!

Prostitution is not for me but among consenting adults it seems harmless enough. However, from what I've heard about the Thailand scenario is that most of the prostitutes are forced into it and often before they are of legal age. Sure sounds like slavery to me, or at least child abuse. Even if only a small percentage of the prostitutes there are slaves or minors, it would certainly taint the whole industry, IMO. How could you be sure the one you are paying for is not someone's slave? The pimp assures you she is not? Just the fact you can "own" someone in Thailand makes me sick to think about. Then again, do they do windows too? Can't speak for Thailand first hand, although they seem happy enough when you see them about. I was speaking to Europe from first hand knowledge. The Gov't regulate's it, girls are treated with respect and dignity like the consummate pros they are, they make a lot of money and have a lot of fun. I have heard that in Thailand, girls do it so that they can feed their poor family's back home, and that it is often a family decision that involves mom and dad.

Well, I've been with the same woman for over 29 years...and faithful too....so don't take this the wrong way as I discuss this internet girl, but this young woman is over my dollar limit by about $3,799,950.00. Most I ever paid was $20 and every damn of them looked better than her and I'm not just sayin' that cause I was most likely drinkin' at the time, was young and horny. I realize there's been inflation and all...I'm just sayin'. $50 might be fair I suppose, but shes a virgin and all, so make it $40 as my max ....nah, looking at her closely, $25 is my max for her as there are much better looking women out there so I have to down grade her on that. I think prostitution should be legal, so I don't have a morality clause in this game. I'm happy for her enterprise an resourcefulness, it's what makes this county great. Luck and Pluck as they say. The fact she can make this kind of money indicates to me that the supply and demand curve is greatly out of whack, or the mental institutions are missing a couple of dudes who have figured out the internets, or people paying over $3 mil for a single toss are simply not aware of a country called Thailand, where you can outright own (as opposed to a short term rental like this instance) a much better looking woman, and a younger model as well, for easily less than 1/20th of that price.....probably better personality as well, but that's guessing just based on what I've read. The fact that she is 21 and has never f*ed before looks real real bad to me. In Europe, Prostitutes who are great at it went into the profession because they couldn't believe that they could get paid for doing something which they love to do for free. Perhaps this woman either doesn't like men or is fridged. Hmmm, after further consideration and with that as a backdrop, I've dropped my price to 10 bucks as the max I'd pay for this person, and I suspect it would still be a bad experience as well since she is only doing it for the money. (if I was single) That is my honest opinion. What are your thoughts Kev? ps, I've done the math, if you went to Europe, where prostitution is legal, and paid an astounding $200 an evening: you could get laid 19,000 times. That's 52 solid years of sex every single day. Of course, the bidding may get higher here.

Prototype of a small herd: The final version is expected to have more duct tape and we'll get the cost under $100 bucks as it's mandatory and all. PS, sorry about one of the side effects but your McDonalds and Burger King Burgers will now cost double. The vegetarians are supportive of the orange raincoat initiative, I hear the rumor in the Olympia halls of power that they were so impressed with his "Running Fence" series that they are considering hiring Christo Oblique Christo reference on artcylopedia for a couple of million bucks...it's only money and you taxpayers have unlimited amounts of it. Right Prole and JB?

I was going to respond but thought better of it.

Bidding is currently at 3.8 million US.

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. . . and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you." I suspect this may flip back some after the next attack depending how big it is. For now, nice that part of the genie got stuffed back into the bottle. They are still monitoring every phone call and computer transmission in the United States, possibly most of the world as well.

Link Or at least make people register them. 3 killed in this sensless attack. "DENDERMONDE, Belgium (AFP) - Two children and an adult were killed on Friday when a man armed with a knife went on a rampage through a child day-care centre northwest of Brussels, a local prosecutor said. Around 10 children were injured "some of them seriously", according to local prosecutor Christian Du Four, when the man, who had his face painted black and white, ran amok in the crèche in the town of Dendermonde."

The nanny state has moved to Washington? BTW, I've bagged going out when I went up into a normal vacant spot in the woods and seen pickup trucks every 1/2 mile on the road. Why even be walking around with orange on opening day unless you have too do so. At times like that, when I check the season dates after I get home, that I realize I was out in the woods for most of a month the previous year during hunting season wearing but natural colors. These things should be about choice. How many people get shot accidentally each year who do not have orange on? Very, very rare. Once more needless law. I suppose there would be a $100-$500 fine if you forgot to bring the orange, and there would be paid babysitters, cops, rangers monitors out there too?

screw Petzl. After the way their shit fell apart and they just ignored it, I'd never ever want to buy any of their shit ever again, but especially their ropes. Do a search on Rockclimbng.com on "Petzl ropes falling apart and Petzl telling owners to piss off" if you are wondering.

Abosofrigganloutly I do and you can borrow whatever you prefer! I have both, of course, don't like either...cough*gearwhore*cough* you pick one. The SP is almost new, HOWEVER, the common knowledge caution is that they are not to be used in sub freezing conditions. Frozen water inside, even condensation, can cause the centrifugal clutch to be inoperative and not lock up when you're screaming towards the dirt. Stick it in your crotch area and it should stay warm or above freezing though. The downside of the Soloist is you need a chest harness and it won't lock up on inverted falls, I've been using a tied 8mm rope as a chest harness, it works acceptably as long as you don't fall. I can get it to Adam easily and you folks can hook up. In eithercase, you still get a great DMM Locksafe Boa biner - with the tag still attached, by way of a thank you from me for your honesty and for grabbing his stuff. Thats sooooo cool. Adam can be your beer dealer or whatever! When do you need this by? I might be skiing Sunday at Meadows and can swing by your house, or probably will be at the Far Side Saturday digging dirt off the cliff in the rain. That would be the best....or I suppose I could head over to Beacon for a corner lap with you first....whatever works. I'll be at the far side in the rain as long as it's not crazy wet. You can come to my home if you're in PDX too. Or I can drive over to your house too, as long as you return the gear back at some point it's all good. PM me your phone number and address and let me know what works. ____________________________________________________________ JH, I think this common malady has hit a lot of us:-) I'd rather blame the cold though. Hope you heal fast!

Perhaps others may have taken "We will not apologize for our way of life..." to to mean: "We will continue to borrow like the world will end tomorrow and spend money like drunken sailors while we use the worlds resources 3 times as much as anyone else as we damn well please so sod off and just move out of Iraq so we can get our pumps in there and move along to Afghanistan we're not apologizing for any of this at all." ? Hmmmm....