catbirdseat

Where is John Brown when you need him? I suppose that what ELF is doing is akin to Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.

Corolary to the above: "If you can't tie a good knot, tie lots of them."

When I go to my job interview next week I'll try to remember not to get in an argument with my prospective employer.

Dru is a psychotrope, whereas lummox is a misanthrope. Use any soap you like, but be thorough in rinsing out all soap residue as it will cause the rope to wet out.

9/16" Climb Spec is a lot stronger than 1/2", webbing. I have no reservations about rapping from new 9/16". I recall Wayne and Colin mentioning that they used the 1/2" on their Picket Range Traverse, however, Colin mentioned that they used it to back up old slings they found and that whenever they built a new anchor, they used two turns of it around a horn or whatever. He kept a bunch of it in a stuff sack with one end sticking out. Whenever he needed some, he'd just pull out what he wanted and cut it off. I'd use it that way too, but I'd want to use a double or triple fisherman's rather than water knots.

Have you heard of modafinil? It is a drug made by Cephalon and sold under the brand name Provigil Approved by the FDA to treat narcolepsy, it appears to be a much safer drug than amphetamines, such as methamphetamine, Ritalin, and Dexedrine. The article mentions "off-label" prescription of drugs. I'm wondering if you went to your doctor and told him that you are fearful of steaksauce off behind the wheel driving home after a big climb and dying, would he prescribe the drug for you? Here's the article from the New York Times: Wakefulness Finds a Powerful Ally By ANAHAD O'CONNOR Published: June 29, 2004 Laurie Coots, a marketing executive who flies to meetings in other countries twice a week, spent years trying to conquer sleepless nights and chronic jet lag. But nothing worked, she says, and every day was a struggle to stay awake. "It was debilitating," said Ms. Coots, 46, who is from Los Angeles. "I couldn't give an effective presentation because I was always shaky and nervous from being amped up on caffeine and stimulants." Then she found modafinil, a small white pill that revs up the central nervous system without the jitteriness of caffeine or the addiction and euphoria of amphetamines. "Without it my life would not be possible," she said. Since 1998, modafinil, made by Cephalon and sold under the brand name Provigil, has quietly altered the lives of millions of people. No one knows exactly how it works, but sales of the drug are skyrocketing. People who take it say it keeps them awake for hours or even days. It has been described as a nap in the form of a pill, making most users feel refreshed and alert but still able to go to bed when they are ready. And because its side effects are rarely worse than a mild headache or slight nausea, experts fear that it has rapidly become a tempting pick-me-up to a nation that battles sleep with more than 100 million cups of coffee a day. Few numbers are available, but experts say that as modafinil grows more widely available, it is becoming a fixture among college students, long-haul truckers, computer programmers and others determined to burn the midnight oil. Some worry that an array of common disorders, like diabetes and sleep apnea, will go undiagnosed if doctors dole out Provigil instead of seeking the underlying diseases that cause fatigue. In a culture of 24-hour stores, graveyard shifts and coffee shops on every corner, modafinil might also pose a more subtle danger: to the countless Americans in search of an extra edge, modafinil could be a cure for sleep. "This drug enables us to be that much more workaholic and that much more obsessed with accomplishments and productivity, and I think our society is already extreme along those lines," said Dr. Martha J. Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. "The natural checks on that tendency, like needing to go to bed, are being rolled back by modafinil." To the extent that modafinil becomes the latest lifestyle drug, as ubiquitous as Viagra, scientists warn that cutting back on sleep, even by one hour a night, can have long-term neurological and cardiovascular effects that are only now being recognized. "It's almost fortuitous that at the same time that this drug has come out, we have increasing mounds of data showing that sleep is a restorative, protective health process," said Dr. Neil B. Kavey, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. "It affects performance, blood pressure, heart rate, insulin, various hormone secretions. No matter what medications come out that make sleep seem like a waste of time, we know that the sleep-deprived state is a bad one to be in." Discovered by French researchers in the late 1970's, modafinil went on the market in the United States in 1998 as a treatment for narcolepsy, a severe sleep disorder. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration broadened its approved uses to include obstructive sleep apnea, a narrowing or blockage of the airways, and sleeping problems caused by shift work. An effort by Cephalon to have the drug approved for a third indication, excessive sleepiness from any cause, was rejected. But the three conditions modafinil is approved to treat make up only a fraction of its total uses. According to Cephalon, based in West Chester, Pa., 90 percent of all prescriptions for the drug are for "off-label" uses, including fatigue, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and sleepiness caused by other prescription medications. Click here if you want to read the entire article.

My uncle died last summer and I attended his funeral at Gig Harbor. As he was a WWII veteran who saw combat in Italy, he was afforded full military honors. There was an honor guard which fired a salute and a bugler who did a fine job with taps. It really was an impressive and meaningful performance, and it it would have pleased my uncle.

There is an unnamed 5.6 (5.8 if you ask crackbolter) chimney on the third pitch of champagne. It is rather obscure, but pretty cool in my opinion. If the second carries the pack, be sure to speak up and volunteer to lead that sucker. It is a sort of simultaneous climb/45 degree traverse, for want of a better way of describing it. It is like a huge boulder that clove in two with a gap of about 24-36 inches. Your pro is in small cracks on the right side. You finish the pitch by surmounting (what else?) the obligatory chockstone.

Someone built a cabin recently in 76 Gulch. They built a trail that makes it much easier to get in there. The climb out of the gulch is quite a chore, I am told, but you can visit the Comet mine on the way, which is supposed to be pretty cool.

If you look directly across Icicle Canyon from the top of Icicle Buttress, you see what looks to be a long offwidth or chimney. What is it?

Conservatives like to say Moore is a lousy writer and a lousy director. He can't be that bad if he has so many people upset. He can't be that bad if so many people are going to see his movies. I think he must be quite good to have the influence he does. Whether you agree with his views is another matter, but to call him a lousy director is totally disingenuous.

Jon, that has got to be the most annoying thing I've ever seen posted on this board. Congratulations.

It is not easy to arrest with a large pack if you happen to fall on your back, head downhill. If you happen to be lying on the side with the head of the axe, if is a simple matter to arrest. But if you are lying on the opposite side, it is a bitch. I've found you have to sometimes let yourself tumble to get into position. I haven't yet found a satisfactory solution. Regarding use of cramponed feet, I teach people to use both methods, knees or feet, and tell them to use their judgement on which to use based on snow conditions. I know that there are conditions where it is simply impossible to arrest if you don't use your feet. This isn't simply and issue of risking a broken ankle. Catching a crampon can flip you and start a tumble from which you'll never recover. The best solution is to practice enough that that you can arrest very rapidly and don't have any time to pick up speed.

From my Dad, "If a hammer won't fix it, get a bigger hammer." and from my Grandfather, " You have to give a little to get a little".

I am opposed to the commercialization of this wilderness area at the exclusion of those who have explored it for years. What can be done to prevent this? I have time and money I can donate. This plan has been in the works since Slade Gorton was in office. I think it was his idea. I'm not sure it isn't a bad idea. There simply aren't enough car camping areas close to Seattle. There is a huge demand. People are going in there whether there are camp grounds or not and a lot of them have trashed the place for lack of supervision. Paving that road isn't going to limit access to human powered exploration, but it will limit motorized exploration, as they plan to close and berm a lot of the spur roads that people have used to shoot old computer monitors, dump trash and abandon cars. The paved road will cost less to maintain and will make it easier for Sheriff's deputies to get out there when they are needed.

Why not just make a movie?

Sounds like they don't know for sure if satellite cells replace themselves or are regenerated from stem cells. It would be good to know. If it turns out not to be a problem, then mystatin inhibitors may become the new holy grail for the drug industry, behind Viagra.

The weather was gorgeous and it was uncrowded in Leavenworth. What a bunk forecast that was!

I saw this article in Tuesday's New York Times. They mentioned that the sports drinks only have about a tenth as much posassium as a piece of fruit, like a banana. "PERSONAL HEALTH Preserving a Delicate Balance of Potassium By JANE E. BRODY Published: June 22, 2004 Evolution is an excellent teacher when it comes to figuring out what and how much people should eat. For example, primates (including those with two legs and big brains) evolved on foods rich in potassium and very low in sodium. Early humans evolved to conserve sodium, which was hard to obtain, and to excrete excess potassium, abundant in many fruits and vegetables. But Western-style diets these days are the reverse of what those early humans consumed, rich in processed foods, loaded with sodium and relatively poor in potassium. Consequently, according to a report released this year by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, many people now consume diets deficient in potassium and high in acid-generating foods like meats and other animal proteins that further deplete the body's supply of this vital mineral. According to national diet surveys, the average man in this country consumes only about two-thirds the recommended amount of potassium each day, and the average women consumes even less - half of the 4,700 milligrams a day considered to be an adult's adequate daily intake. As the institute report explained, "Humans evolved from ancestors who habitually consumed large amounts of uncultivated plant foods, which provided substantial amounts of potassium. In this setting, the human kidney developed a highly efficient capacity to excrete excess potassium." A Crucial Nutrient Normal healthy kidneys are not effective at conserving potassium and are thus unable to prevent a deficiency when dietary levels of it are low. Potassium and sodium, along with chloride, are electrolytes. They regulate the electrical potential of cell membranes and, thus, the conduction of nerve impulses. Potassium resides primarily in cells, while sodium and chloride are found mainly outside cells. All three have to be in proper balance to assure normal metabolic and neuromuscular functioning. And the imbalance of high sodium and chloride in relation to potassium is believed to be a major factor in several serious chronic ailments. The potential consequences of a chronic potassium deficiency are often unrecognized, even by health professionals. The problems include high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, kidney stones and a loss of bone minerals that can lead to osteoporosis. Low potassium consumption can also cause a sensitivity to salt, further raising the risk of hypertension. That is a common problem among African-Americans, who have a much higher risk than whites of developing hypertension and its lethal consequences. These and other effects of insufficient potassium can occur even when blood levels of the mineral appear to be normal. Furthermore, even small changes in potassium levels can harm nerve transmission, muscle contraction and blood-vessel tone. Most people have little or no warning of potassium deficiencies. They may feel tired, weak and irritable, but unable to pinpoint the cause. To make matters worse, high-protein levels in diets result in acid formation that increases the loss of calcium, the primary bone mineral. Studies have demonstrated an association between higher consumption of fruit and potassium and increased bone mineral density. The more protein in relation to potassium consumed, the greater the risk of bone loss in the hips and spine. In its report, the institute was especially critical of the currently popular low-carbohydrate high-protein diets. Although these diets may contain enough potassium from protein, they lack enough alkali-generating substances from fruits like oranges, bananas and grapes to counter the high acid formation associated with a protein-rich diet. In a six-week study of 10 adults on a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet, calcium loss in urine increased by 50 percent and was not compensated for by an increase in intestinal absorption of dietary calcium. The researchers concluded that the diet overloaded the kidneys with acid, increased the risk of formation of kidney stones, led to a net loss of calcium and might have increased bone loss. The institute noted that there had been "no published studies of the long-term metabolic effects of this kind of diet in any group of individuals." People taking certain diuretics - thiazide and loop diuretics -to lower blood pressure or to counter fluid retention may also incur a potassium deficiency, because those drugs increase urinary loss of both sodium and potassium. Such patients are commonly told to take potassium supplements, typically potassium chloride, although chloride has a counterproductive acidic effect. Advertisement Also at risk of potassium deficiency, even when consuming an adequate diet, are people who sweat excessively as a result of high heat or extreme exercise. Both situations increase the need for potassium, which is best met through increased consumption of potassium-rich fruits, vegetables and juices. ,strong>Dangers of Excess Excessive blood levels of potassium can cause fatal disruptions in heart rhythms. And several common health problems can lead to high blood levels of potassium, even when potassium consumption is not above the recommended level. People at risk include those with chronic kidney disease, heart failure, Type 1 diabetes and adrenal insufficiency, each of which can interfere with the kidneys' ability to excrete potassium. Also, drugs called ACE inhibitors, angiotension receptor blockers and potassium-sparing diuretics, commonly used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure, increase the risk of a harmful excess of potassium in the blood. Also at risk are people suffering dehydration, extensive injuries or a major infection. The institute suggested that people who have those conditions or who are taking such medications should have their potassium levels monitored and should, perhaps, consume somewhat less potassium than that recommended for healthy adults. Experts say no one should take potassium supplements or potassium salt substitutes without medical advice. Improving Intake To achieve a healthy balance of potassium and sodium, people should eat ample amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. When such foods are processed, potassium is commonly lost and sodium substantially increased. Nearly all processed foods are sodium rich and potassium poor. For example, a three-and-a-half-ounce serving of fresh peas has 380 milligrams of potassium and less than one milligram of sodium. The same serving of canned peas, minus the liquid, has 180 milligrams of potassium and 230 milligrams of sodium. Among the foods richest in potassium, in descending order by caloric value, are leafy greens like spinach, romaine and cabbage; vine-grown foods like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, winter squash and pumpkin; root vegetables like carrots, radishes, turnips and onions; dried peas and beans, and green beans; fruits like apples, oranges, bananas, apricots and strawberries; and tubers like potatoes and sweet potatoes, as well as milk and yogurt. Lesser amounts are found in meats, nuts, eggs, cereals and cheese. In physically active people, potassium is important to sustaining good muscle function. But sports drinks, often consumed to restore the nutrients exhausted by vigorous exercise, are close to worthless when it comes to replacing potassium. An eight-ounce serving of a sports drink contains about 30 milligrams of potassium. You would have to drink 12 servings of a sports drink, 600 calories, to consume the amount of potassium in one 65-calorie banana, or consume 375 calories of the drink to get the potassium in 27 calories of a half-cup of cantaloupe. If you consumed 100 calories each of spinach, tomatoes, carrots, chickpeas, oranges and potatoes, you would easily take in a day's recommended amount of potassium and only 600 calories. A potassium-rich diet is also great for weight control. "

While I didn't find it funny, neither did I think it was worth getting all upset about. I do think there it relies entirely on the notion of "violation of the sacrosanct" for its humor. Much of modern art, as well as SNL rely too heavily on the genre.

Little Bridge Creek Rock is top ropeable 5.7 and 5.8, but it is just a little scary walking to the anchors. Have someone belay you if you are not comfortable.

I used flukes this weekend. The only picket I placed was as a deadman (T-Slot). That is the only way I'd trust a picket under the conditions then prevailing. The T-slot was at a place where it was flat and easy to stand there and dig, otherwise I would't have used it at all.

Would you care to explain how using the preview pane in Outlook gives feedback to the spammer? Do they get a "read" confirmation when you preview an e-mail. That doesn't sound like what "preview" is supposed to be about. But then who understands why Microsoft does what they do?