catbirdseat

(From that article above.) LOL. drC Doh! Honey, that was wonderful, but I've got some bad news. I went and left my "faucet" in the open position.

We used to tie them around a tennis ball. For cragging, you'd want something harder as the core.

His most famous line, "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit".

I know what that knot is. It is called a Monkey Fist and it is used as a weight for throwing lines between ships, etc.

Yes, but I am a knot junkie. I can't get enough of knots.

A butterfly knot is used on the bight. It is not used to join two ropes, although in theory, it could. I suspect that it is prone to slipping if tension is repetitively applied and released. On the bight, it's no big deal if it slips (one use of the butterfly is to isolate damaged sections of rope). A butterfly would go over edges better than a standard double fisherman but not as well as an EDK or a flat double fisherman. Try it.

That flat double fisherman knot is a new one on me. I tied it and I don't see any reason why it would not work. I appears that, like the EDK, it needs to be carefully cinched. It will not self-tighten in the same way the conventional double fisherman will. The knot would have the same ability as the EDK to rotate away from edges. I'd prefer to see actual test data before using it to rappel though.

Sounds like a spoof to me.

Let me get this straight. Are you saying that a double fisherman might not have been stuck in this instance? Or simply that any knot could have stuck- that the EDK isn't isn't a panacea against stuck ropes?

I think Dru is right.

Sure biodiesel is clean, but there is a limit to how much waste vegetable oil can be produced by MacDonalds and Burger King.

Gas prices have gone from $1.50 to $2.15 in the space of a couple years. That's about 40%. You ain't seen nothing yet. Right now it like a pinch. Soon it will feel like a bite.

That would definitely do the trick!

If you can keep it open until about 10 pm, that should be good enough for most folks.

The "American Death Knot" is a true death knot. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. So, Mike, tell us more about that bootied 60 m rope. Are you saying their backup knot caught in a crack or something? You know for sure that it would not have caught had it not been for the backup knot?

I thought that mason bees were a solitary species that reproduce by boring a hole in rotten wood and laying a single egg in each.

The price of oil is going to continue to rise until behavior changes. Adam Smith's invisible hand is going to act upon all the SUV owners. Some will suck it up and pay the higher price of gas, and others will sell off their machines at a poor resale price. Some will drive less, some will park their cars. The oldest SUVs will go to the scrap yard.

To claim that all environmentalists are catastrophists is as absurd as claiming all religious persons believe in imminent armageddon. Whether the ecosystem is teetering on the brink of collapse, or whether it is being degraded in a gradual but relentless fashion, it surely is under assault. Many species have been lost in my lifetime and many more will be lost. When we talk about "ecosystem collapse" there can be multiple meanings. The most extreme meaning I could ascribe to it is that our environment would no longer be able to support any of the humans who live in it. In other words, human extinction. Well, that's pretty absurd, most would agree. But if you change the definition to "no longer able to support all of the humans who live in it", then we have reached that point ready. There are populations in parts of the world who are suffering greatly from environmental degradation.

In the Seattle area there are almost no honey bees. We rely on mason bees, bumble bees and bee flies for pollination of our fruit trees. The latter are not even bees, but they seem to be getting the job done.

Full North Ridge of Stuart was just done this year by Mark Bunker and Colin Haley.

Even if you tie a backup knot in the tails, the EDK is still less prone to hanging up than the double fisherman knot (or any other knot). It is the only knot (that I know of) that rolls away from whatever edge it may be passing over.

Depends on how far you want to drive. I'm assuming you don't want a lot more technical that Mailbox?

Man, a thread resurrected by it's creator rather than Dru. What a novel concept!

As though it isn't already. Har har har.

You've hit the nail on the head. Oil profits now for GWB campaign contributors.