catbirdseat

Coal can be anything from anthracite, which is mostly carbon to bituminous coal, which contains a great deal of hydrogen and "heteroatoms" such as O, N, S, etc. If all coal were anthracite, we wouldn't have quite the problems with sulfur and mercury. Indeed, as you say, natural gas burns cleanly without particulates and heavy metals, etc., but to make it from coal, you do need hydrogen from somewhere, and the carbon has to go somewhere. Natural gas from the ground already has four hydrogen atoms for every carbon. If you start from coal you generally have to get your hydrogen from water, but that hydrogen is in a "low energy" state. The upshot is that whether you burn coal or methane made from coal, you end up producing about the same quantity of CO2 per unit of coal. If you don't have some way of trapping it, CO2 goes into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. So it may well be that there are environmental and perhaps even economic reason for coal gasification, but it not the solution to global warming, in case anyone thought that was the case.

Seen for sale at Lowe's Hardware, Scotch Broom (labelled Sweet Broom, same thing).

What trees?

2C +2H2O --> 2CO + 2H2 (coal gas) -?-> CO2 + CH4 Now, what to do with the CO2?

Smashing!

I try to give you people fire and look at what I get for my troubles- a bird that comes and pecks out my liver for the rest of eternity. A lot of thanks I get. Grrrrr.

I can safely say that I don't have any "sacred cows" that you could insult that would incite that sort of anger in me. I guess that's the definition of a humanist, one who doesn't cling to dogma. Do you have any sacred cows? What's the one thing I could insult that would guarantee you'd come out swinging, other than "yo momma"?

...and you want to know what else is good? There were donuts in the lunchroom when I got to work.

I was driving over the Ship Canal bridge this morning. I looked to the east and there it was, peeking out of the clouds- THE SUN! I resisted the temptation to put on my sunglasses because I wanted to maximize the effect on the pituitary. Reminded me of that Outer Limits episode in which a radioactive rain makes people turn into bug-eyed monsters that die in the dark. I remember this freaked out monster in a cave holding a flickering match up to his face and then the screams as it goes out...

Can't beat this.

CTuller, not seen since September '03.

You gotta have chops to play trumpet.

You sure fucked up! Are you posting from the drunk tank or the real jail? Glad you're OK. You know what? It seemed like a good idea at the time!

Found it!

I heard about this on the radio, but couldn't find a link. Some drunk decided to steal a medevac helicopter. He had the ropes off of the blades and when security caught him, he was pulling wires and flipping switches trying to get the machine to start. I did $5000 damage, but didn't manage to fly.

Slight tights

That's good to hear about autoblock for 8 mm, because in my experience, the B52 is not reliable for small diameter ropes in this mode.

They put it in solution and stored it in recycled saline bags.

Like those unfortunates in Eldorado Canyon?

Anyone hear about this? Supposedly, it transmits the vital signs of the wearer when to the receiver. You can tell if the buried person is dead or alive. It might make a difference in deciding who to dig up first in a multiple burial scenario, but I think that it would also tend to freak a rescuer out who is already going as fast as he can.

You aren't the first nor the last to ask for one rope that does everything well. It doesn't exist. If you don't have the money for several ropes, you'll have to prioritize.

I suspect that this will not remain a mystery after the toxicology results are available.

One of the relevant factoids I recall from the RC.com thread was that, whereas the ATC-XP was designed to have 3x the friction of the ATC, the ATC-Guide was designed to have 2x the friction of the ATC.

Reminds me of the International Star Registry. Name a star after the one you love!

Here are a few more photos, courtesy of BCollins. Second Pitch Wilson Route,5.8(?) Variation: Click here for large format Click here for large format ...and one more nice sunset. Click here for large format