catbirdseat

Iain, you're just pining for the good 'ol days of socks and D-cell batteries, ain't ya?

India used to complain about a "brain drain" because its universities cranked out more highly trained people than they could employ. We may be faced with the same before long. We're looking at continued immigration of unskilled workers and adding on emmigration of skilled workers. Its a race to bottom.

You are speaking of the former Yugoslav Republic.

One could argue that the reason jobs are being exported at such an alarming rate is the rise in political stability and democracy throughout the world. Low wages have always been prevalent overseas, but instability and risk have inhibited US companies from taking advantage of it.

There is a phrase that applies here and that is "necessary but not sufficient". And I would argue about the word necessary too. Not ALL liberations have come through violent means. Look at the Czech and Slovak Republics for example.

New York Times had a photograph from Norway in which two monstrous boulders slid down a mountainside, smashing a garage and coming to rest on either side of a house. Accolades to whoever can come up with the photo.

You didn't say, nor did anyone ask you, what sort of ice climbing you planned to do. Your experience level and involvement in the sport also would influence your choice of tools. Everyone is assuming you are into steep water ice.

Every day this thread continues I am amazed.

Bleaghhhckkkk!

I submit that freedom to own guns and liberty are two entirely separate things. One should not be equated with the other.

Just checking in. Is it a poo thread yet?

Who was it that said that before a digital camera is sold the buyer should be made to present a valid photographer's license? You can do a lot of damage in a hurry with one of those babies!

In Sierra Leone and Liberia guns are everywhere. Everyone has an AK47. Are they a free people?

I agree that the thread should be cleaved after the part where it began to deal with transmissible diseases. Whether to Spray, I don't know. It's off topic, but relevant to climbing and of a serious nature. We're also talking about emotional trauma on the part of the care givers. Having been through something similar I know that it takes a while to get over something like that. It just sort of dominates your thoughts and you can't help thinking about it.

Yep, either give the whole thing to the cops or keep the whole thing. In for a penny, In for a pound.

I have the BD Positron Keylock and I like it. As it is made of antimatter, one must constantly take care to avoid contact with ordinary matter.

No, no, you didn't read it. You heard it on Rush Limbaugh.

It may all be a huge bluff to force the N. Dakota legislature to change the liability laws and thus avoid the planned flooding of the existing facility. It would be best if they could stay right where they are, but the flooding if allowed to proceed will cause (if I recall correctly) $30 million in damage.

CBS has been working since last September. What I know came from listening to the news on the radio. KOMO and NPR.

That would be the dumbest thing you could possibly do. The drug runners know exactly how much is in there. As soon as they find out it isn't all there, guess who they are going to go after?

Indeed I have. It is indeed a beautiful area. I would point out that the geology is totally different in Italy than it is here. Many of the Italian mountains are dolomite and limestone which is like a giant sieve. Of course a tunnel through such mountains would affect the flow of water. Cashmere is a granite batholith. It has no water table. This is validated by the two cascade tunnels which did not result in alterations in water flow.

There is irony in that photo that is lost on the many of you.

I'd say that lately they have been overestimating job creation by about a factor of ten over the last couple of periods.

Brings to mind the phrase "to stick out like a sore thumb".

A buddy of mine tells me that JY is working on a new guide, but at present it consists of a binder he keeps in his RV.