billcoe

I gave up on them after the Napster thing. I would refer you to the true genius and greatness of Al whats hisname for more info. [video:youtube]Yz-grdpKVqg Or my son said for a long time you could download it for free of from Weird Als site! Link to Weird Al Yankovic "In April 2000, Ulrich became a vocal opponent of Napster and file sharing as Metallica sued the company for copyright infringement and racketeering. In July 2000, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee after Metallica's entire catalogue was found to be freely available for download on the service. The case was settled out-of-court, resulting in more than 300,000 Napster users being banned from the service.[3] Due to his high profile role in Napster's legal troubles and subsequent demise, Ulrich faced significant criticism and ridicule from users of the service.[4] Since the Napster ordeal, Ulrich was quoted by LAUNCHcast as having some regrets:[5] “ I wish that I was more...you know, I felt kind of ambushed by the whole thing because I didn't really know enough about what we were getting ourselves into when we jumped. [...] We didn't know enough about the kind of grassroots thing, and what had been going on the last couple of months in the country as this whole new phenomenon was going on. We were just so stuck in our controlling ways of wanting to control everything that had to do with METALLICA. So we were caught off guard and we had a little bit of a rougher landing on that one than on other times than when we just blindly leap. But you know, I'm still proud of the fact that we did leap... and I took a lot of hits and it was difficult. ” One such 'hit' was being featured in an episode of South Park in which the children are taught not to download illegally because multi-millionaires like Ulrich now have to wait a little longer to buy expensive, extravagant things, like the ridiculous "gold-plated shark tank bar beside the pool". The segment is a parody of the Napster case. Ulrich has been target to many verbal attacks after this incident." __________________________________________________________________ Frankie Yankovic, the late Polka King and seller of 30 million records who passed at 83 years old in 1998 (no relation although Al played on one of Frankies albums!) could hit that accordion way hot too!

DOHHH! ... . . . OUCH!

Global warming - todays artical: link UK telegraph "2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph. By Christopher Booker Last Updated: 7:40AM GMT 29 Dec 2008 Polar bear Polar bears will be fine after all Photo: AP The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day". Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects. First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century. Ever shriller and more frantic has become the insistence of the warmists, cheered on by their army of media groupies such as the BBC, that the last 10 years have been the "hottest in history" and that the North Pole would soon be ice-free – as the poles remain defiantly icebound and those polar bears fail to drown. All those hysterical predictions that we are seeing more droughts and hurricanes than ever before have infuriatingly failed to materialise. Even the more cautious scientific acolytes of the official orthodoxy now admit that, thanks to "natural factors" such as ocean currents, temperatures have failed to rise as predicted (although they plaintively assure us that this cooling effect is merely "masking the underlying warming trend", and that the temperature rise will resume worse than ever by the middle of the next decade). Secondly, 2008 was the year when any pretence that there was a "scientific consensus" in favour of man-made global warming collapsed. At long last, as in the Manhattan Declaration last March, hundreds of proper scientists, including many of the world's most eminent climate experts, have been rallying to pour scorn on that "consensus" which was only a politically engineered artefact, based on ever more blatantly manipulated data and computer models programmed to produce no more than convenient fictions. Thirdly, as banks collapsed and the global economy plunged into its worst recession for decades, harsh reality at last began to break in on those self-deluding dreams which have for so long possessed almost every politician in the western world. As we saw in this month's Poznan conference, when 10,000 politicians, officials and "environmentalists" gathered to plan next year's "son of Kyoto" treaty in Copenhagen, panicking politicians are waking up to the fact that the world can no longer afford all those quixotic schemes for "combating climate change" with which they were so happy to indulge themselves in more comfortable times. Suddenly it has become rather less appealing that we should divert trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into the fantasy that we could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 80 per cent. All those grandiose projects for "emissions trading", "carbon capture", building tens of thousands more useless wind turbines, switching vast areas of farmland from producing food to "biofuels", are being exposed as no more than enormously damaging and futile gestures, costing astronomic sums we no longer possess. As 2009 dawns, it is time we in Britain faced up to the genuine crisis now fast approaching from the fact that – unless we get on very soon with building enough proper power stations to fill our looming "energy gap" - within a few years our lights will go out and what remains of our economy will judder to a halt. After years of infantile displacement activity, it is high time our politicians – along with those of the EU and President Obama's US – were brought back with a mighty jolt into contact with the real world. I must end this year by again paying tribute to my readers for the wonderful generosity with which they came to the aid of two causes. First their donations made it possible for the latest "metric martyr", the east London market trader Janet Devers, to fight Hackney council's vindictive decision to prosecute her on 13 criminal charges, ranging from selling in pounds and ounces to selling produce "by the bowl" (to avoid using weights her customers dislike and don't understand). The embarrassment caused by this historic battle has thrown the forced metrication policy of both our governments, in London and Brussels, into total disarray. Since Hackney backed out of allowing four criminal charges against Janet to go before a jury next month, all that remains is for her to win her appeal in February against eight convictions which now look quite absurd (including those for selling veg by the bowl, as thousands of other London market traders do every day). The final goal, as Neil Herron of the Metric Martyrs Defence Fund insists, must then be a pardon for the late Steve Thoburn and the four other original "martyrs" who were found guilty in 2002 – after a legal battle also made possible by this column's readers – of breaking laws so ridiculous that the EU Commission has even denied they existed (but which are still on the statute book). Readers were equally generous this year in rushing to the aid of Sue Smith, whose son was killed in a Snatch Land Rover in Iraq in 2005. Their contributions made it possible for her to carry on with the High Court action she has brought against the Ministry of Defence, with the sole aim of calling it to account for needlessly risking soldiers' lives by sending them into battle in hopelessly inappropriate vehicles. Thanks not least to Mrs Smith's determined fight, the Snatch Land Rover scandal, first reported here in 2006, has at last become a national cause celebre. May I finally thank all those readers who have written to me in 2008 – so many that, as usual, it has not been possible to answer all their messages. But their support and information has been hugely appreciated. May I wish them and all of you a happy (if globally not too warm) New Year." Don't know about this. I had posted that the New Farmers Almanac had called for cooling for the next 80 years.

Of course, if it's a multi-pitch route, if someone fell 9 feet off the belay while trying to clip, it would be an 18' fall - massive fall factor 2 right onto the anchor. Hanging belay would add the weight of the belayer onto the calculation. If there was a ledge, add potential 2 broken ankles to the score. You don't say anything about the route. What is this anyway, Canadian new math?

who cares? lets go after the real criminals--cheney, rumsfeld and, oh yes, friedman.... heh heh! This asshole IS a real criminal. They should all be locked up everytime they get caught! Many of our representatives are honest hard working folks: and jackasses like these give them a bad name and break down our respect for what should be a great system IMO. I'm saddened to see that it appears that Barak appears to be going to let bygones be bygones with the last group of criminals. Cheney recently looks to have owned up to outing Valerie Plame, yet Scooter Libby took that hit. WTF kind of crap was that to just be ignored? WT heck is with Illinois anyway? They already have the last Republican asswipe locked up in stir and now they're adding another asshole?

Yes, horsecock can be serious business to our Canadian brothers PC.

......see what I mean? All opinion all the time. No links or corroborating evidence. If it's anecdotal it's in! must be the theme there. Wheres my Monkeys?

--source: Millions of monkeys So, when a financier produces an exotic instrument whereby someone of lesser means can achieve the unthought-of, then that raises a red flag. It’s ok in a limited sense but when it balloons to the extent where it can produce the effects that we’re seeing, then something’s fucking rotten in the state of Denmark. Here’s a graphic to ponder: http://voltagecreative.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/bailout-pie.png You're a damn breath of fresh air STP. Someone who not only READS the link, but comments on it directly and also airs some interesting personal ideas as well that relate. You contribute a lot to the subject, unlike some (Prole and Jb), who would appear to not be bothered to read the link or the story but just attack the writer without bothering to add links or any extraneous supporting documentation on their weak-asses opinion and blowhard assertions. Somehow they expect us to either take them seriously and/or find their hot air and public flatulence interesting. Although I don't know why. But thank you for those posts and the contributions. ps, Monkeys at $35 seems like a fair price to me. Put me down for 3-4 and I'll have them out typing and out thinking both Prole and JB in the spray thread and save myself some work.

It's only ghey if you get buried for eternity and some archeologist like Raindawg finds you 2,000 years from now. PS, the ice is melting too. Have fun but be safe. God I sound like my mother did 30 years ago.

You'd have to pay me to listen to that for more than 2 min. Painful.

Best just let him finish his business Clark? It's at 1 billion and growing! Talk about fu*king up your Kwanza and Festivis celebrations.

yes

Words of the framers of the Constitution, expressing their views on gun rights: "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." Thomas Jefferson, proposed Virginia constitution, June 1776. Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C. J. Boyd, Ed., 1950) "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." Thomas Jefferson, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in "On Crimes and Punishment", 1764, pp 87-88. When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny, Thomas Jefferson "The Constitution of most of our states, and the United States, assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves: that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press." Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776 "Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can." Samuel Adams "The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." Samuel Adams, During the Massachusetts U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788 "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the governor, November 11, 1755 "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States." Noah Webster, An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (1787) in Pamphlets to the Constitution of the United States (P. Ford, 1888). "Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at the individual discretion, in private self-defense." John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787-88 "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8 "A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." Richard Henry Lee, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights. Additional Letters From the Federal Farmer 53, 1788 "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined. The great object is that every man be armed. Every man who is able may have a gun." Patrick Henry, During Virginia's ratification convention, 1788 "The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." James Madison, The Federalist No. 46 "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of people, trained in arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country." James Madison, I Annuals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789) "I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." George Mason, during Virginia's ratification convention, June 4, 1788 (From J. Elliott, Debates in the General State Conventions 425 (3rd ed. 1937). "Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived the use of them." ...Thomas Paine, Thoughts on Defensive War, 1775 "A free people ought to be armed. When firearms go, all goes, we need them by the hour. Firearms stand next to importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence." George Washington, Boston Independence Chronicle, January 14, 1790 "To ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that is good." George Washington

You folks seem to think that countries with strict gun laws have less crime. Not necessarily. IMO, these laws are about political control. If they can make you, or any other honest person, a criminal by passage of a law, then they got ya. "Russia, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil have very strict gun laws and much higher crime than we do. Switzerland has almost 100% handgun ownership. They even have shooting competitions for teenagers. Their murder rate is lower than England, where handgun ownership is banned. Violent crime in England has risen since the ban. If guns caused crime, Switzerland would be the most dangerous nation on earth, rather than one of the safest. Finland has higher per-capita gun ownership than America, and they also have lower crime rates. Israel has 40% higher gun ownership, and near zero murder, except for terrorists. New York, California, Chicago, and Washington DC have the strictest gun laws in America, and the highest crime rates. Virginia borders Washington DC, yet it has few gun laws and far fewer violent crimes. Vermont has the least restrictive gun laws in America, and their gun crime rate is 48th out of 50 states. Every state that started allowing average citizens to carry concealed weapons saw a decrease in violent crime over the ensuing years. Gun laws have been proven to make things worse, not better. (Prof. J. Lott, More Guns, Less Crime, 1998)"

On THE FRIGGAN MONEY Reilly! Spot on!

Yeah, nice call. Liked the video Bstach attached too once it hit over 1:50 and the extended intro segued into the song.

Any dregs left? I'll be over if it's yes!

Does a 1 hour long $6 full body massage by a comely Thai lass sans "happy finish", paired with a foot massage and extra oil count?

More than 170,000 men and women of our military will spend their Christmas and New Year's in Iraq and Afghanistan. My thoughts and prayers are with them. Happy holidays to you and yours as well!

Classic! _________________________________________________________________ Nothing to do with your post, but wanted to put this somewhere.

That sounds damn painful Rudy, probably not a consolation that at least the weather sucks so bad that it's a relatively good time to stay inside and heal. How did it happen? Jumping off the roof into the snow again?

You might not recognize the place Joseph. Just clip and go now, wall to wall folks. This shirt I picked up over there may explain some of the trip for me. At 54, 33 is so far in the rear view mirror that I can't even remember what that was like. Coupled with NO training and my natural dislike of crowds, clip climbing and climbing with strangers ....well, it was a good time, but I didn't get a lot of climbing in. Still, it was 80 degree warm and clear everyday, with warm sunny beaches and hotties in skimpy bathing suits for a view, then to come back to the Seattle airport, all flights canceled due to shit snow weather, I rented one of the last cars in the town and drove down to PDX past all the wrecks on I-5. The green roofed building is the restaurant next to the bar, pretty much where I ate breakfast every am on the deck right there. View from that deck. Here's an overview of the walls from the viewpoint further down the way. Typical climb, steep to overhanging with interesting stalagtite features.

True dat: my cousin is a dweebe Phd in Russian studies and still gets paid (by you, the taxpayer) to hunt geriatric Nazis. How old do you think the last few are? Wonder how long this will be going on? I keep waiting for someone to step up and say, "hey, lets put this money to better use, the war ended over 60 years ago". This happening next spring? Good luck to Eddy, it gets brutal at elevation, I think the Russians may have the studies and ideas that give the best chance at adapting to that elevation. ___________________________________________________________________ Ivan, too funny!

Hi all: I'm in Thailand right now. A quick note on the climbing in Thailand. First, note to self to remember that training in advance is not just de regior - but critical. I always seem to have this flat lull at the end of the year, so shaping up in Thailand at the back end of that lull makes a startling reminder that being old, fat and out of shape isn't something one wants as a starting point. Trashed at the end of 1 day. I met some great Aussies who invited me to go climbing yesterday and it trashed me so bad I'm taking a rest day to lay on the beach today! It turns out that grades have advanced while I haven't! When I was getting into climbing, (spoken in an old man voice wherein it was uphill to school both ways and 8 feet of snow to boot) 5.10 was the top of the scale, but a lot of 5.10s were still called 5.9 becasue folks didn't know what 5.10 was. I was feeling kind of guilty about the rest day today until the 2 germans whom the Aussies had tried to coach up a route yesterday afternoon, lets just call them Adonis and Abercrombie and Fitch dude because of the way they looked, walked by me laying on the beach on the way home early today before 10 am with their tails between their legs on the way to a rest day themselves. Getting in yesterday was a shock. It's like this is where all the Victoria Secret chicks go to relax or something. No kidding. 9s and 10s were about it. They all seemed to have Euro boyfriends who looked to be built like brick shithouse looking stud muffins though. I'd say the population is running 70 percent Euro, 20 percent Aussie and the rest North americans. And about 90 percent Victorias Secret models. In fact, while eating sticky rice yesterday I did in fact see a perfect ass in a thong - I mean perfect. (insert old guy leer here) Everything here is steep, overhanging, very physical and mostly hard. Pretty much everything I'm not. It doesn't fall to guile either, (one of the tricks I occasionally can pull out of my bag), because each hold is super chalked, only a blind man would be stumped where the routes go. This is left right left right 1,2,3 just follow the chalk trail. The Aussies saw me bouldering yesterday am and invited me to climb. They asked what I can get up and I say @ 5.10, which is generally true. The invite was awesome and greatly appreciated too as I really wanted some mileage. The first route went well and I cruised it, but being already pumped from the bouldering, in addition to being old and out of shape *cough *cough* well, I got even more pumped on it. They suggested I then do the route to the right of that one, which they said was easier. It went OK till the last clip and I hung like a whipped puppy my forearms were so pumped. Later, they tell me the names and I look them up in the guidebook. Route one was 10c, but the description for route 2 (whipped puppy might have been a good name), says " this is the easiest route on this wall". 6a which infact translates to 10.a. They decide that doing the route next to it was a good idea, and after they dog their way up it, offer me a toprope. It looks harder than both of the others combined and it was. Grateful, I make it less than half way up, totally trashed. The book listed it at 7A or 5.11D. So on Tonsai, it's 10A and up, lots of 5.11 and 12. Of course, I'm getting to hang out in a great spot, nice warm tropical water etc etc as well. No pics, I'll try to get some at some point. It's too warm to climb in the sun right now or even hang out on the beach mid-day, like 78-82 degrees in the shade. The routes I was on had this sticky amalgam of chalk and sweat that resembled dried bird guano and made the holds slippery. But this is some good shit here, even more so if you love gym climbing in an amazing setting. I've heard this before, "I'm climbing harder than I ever have, but I've noticed the route grades are significantly easier:-) " and it sure seems applicable.

I told dude the same thing only much more poorly. On that subject: Dude, you toss a few sheep, a midget, a tricycle and 3 rodeo clowns in that mix and you'll have a saga of Homeric proportions yourself! Keep that shit flowing! Good stuff:-)