catbirdseat

It's my party and I'll pose with whomever I want.

Scrambler, your knowledge of the subject vastly exceeds my own.

The extinction of the dinosaurs 65 Million years ago was the first mass dying that was attributed to an asteroid impact. In this case, the impact was thought to have occurred in Honduras and the theory is supported by the discovery of a layer of the rare precious metal, iridium at the so-called K-T boundary. The much earlier Permian extinction, in which 90% of species were wiped out, is also thought to have been the result of an asteriod impact. For some reason there is no iridium layer at the Permian-Triassic boundary, as one would expect. New evidence in the form of "shocked quartz" lends support to the theory. My guess was that the Cretaceous extinction was caused by an iron metorite, whereas the Permian was caused by a comet impact or less likely a stony metorite, if such a thing exists of sufficient size.

I forgot to mention what I thought was the most interesting theory from the NOVA show. Mars has only 1/100 of the atmosphere of earth and its magnetic field has ceased to exist. Recent measurements by spacecraft orbiting Mars have detected islands of residual magnetism in rocks on the surface that are thought to reflect the former magnetic field of the planet. The theory goes that because Mars is smaller than Earth, its core cooled off faster and the iron core solidified and stopped flowing. This extinguished the magnetic field. Without the magnetic field to direct charged particles towards the poles and away from the atmosphere, the air was eroded and carried away into space bit by bit, resulting in a dead planet. When earth's magnetic field undergoes reversal, the same thing happens to its atmosphere. However the total amount of time over which this state exists is relatively short on a geological scale. Not enough atmosphere is lost in those brief periods to be significant. However if you happened to be around during those periods you would be treated to fantastic aurora displays anywhere on the planet at any season.

I notice that there is quite a lot of logging going on in the area, so it must be in Canada somewhere.

I agree. HB1 sucks. But tell me how can you through legislation prevent software phone support jobs from fleeing overseas?

There are cliffs to watch out for, but if you know the right way to go you can avoid them. The trick is to stay right coming down the west face along a minor ridge (keep on your right). Before you get cliffed out you traverse right and even climb a little until you reach a talus slope that allows you to decend to the glacier.

Sisu, that is not an accurate analogy. In a library, you go searching for books using an index and then go pull down a particular book. This site is more like a news stand where you browse until you see something interesting and then buy it. Everything is out in plain sight- well almost everything. Most news stands hide the nudie magazines so as not to offend those with more delicate sensibilities.

Jon, you may wish to "thumbtack" this post for a while.

The Chevy Nova never sold well in Latin America, I am told, and the reason is that "no va" in Spanish means "no go". Who wants a car that doesn't go?

Nice troll. Why not just cut his rope and give him a shove?

NOVA had a really interesting program on the subject. There is a guy who has been doing computer simulation of the earth's core which show that as the magnetic field is getting ready to reverse polarity it gets weaker, as it is doing now and it also becomes chaotic with as many as four "poles" forming that move rapidly about almost any part of the earth's surface. They visited this place in Oregon called Steen's Mountain where they took a bunch of cores from rocks which had been molten during one of these transistions. They found differences in rocks which had solidified only hours apart. If one had been there at the time with a compass, you could watch the needle rotate at up to 6 degrees per hour.

I don't see any humor in the context of what erik said. It's just plain meanness.

Can't a cat get some privacy these days? Where that freaking towel?

Good grief, that's gross.

Roald Dahl told a story about a time when he was a kid and all the young men were at war. There was a severe shortage of labor on the farm. He and his brother had to fill a large hay crib, which was really hard work. His dad hired one of the local winos to help them. They guy was always disappearing to take a nip or take a nap, so when the guy finally disappeared for good they figured he just lost interest in the job and went back to where he came from. Months later, in the early spring, they were taking apart the hay crib to feed the animals and Roald was using a hay fork. The fork ran into something that didn't feel like hay. It was the old wino. He had been taking a nap in the hay and been buried. He'd had a long nap.

I'm sure there are people out there like Muffy who would like to hire a spelling tutor.

I recall a Richard Pryor bit that went something like this, "If someone pulls a knife on you, you better RUN. If someone pulls a gun on you, you better RUN. You better hope your lady can run too."

I do. 45 hours just for your med. certs. A paid guide ain't the same as a volunteer Mountie leader. It's safe to assume you have been though the training. So how was it? Was it interesting and did you get a lot out of it?

Since the forecast has snow through the 16th, it doesn't appear that Rainier would be in condition on the 17th. My rule of thumb has been to allow at least three of four days of no new snow before considering Rainier in winter. However it might be fun to just go up to Camp Muir and check things out.

Actually chocolate donuts that are totally encased in chocolate, such as those sold by Hostess, have a very long shelf life. The chocolate seals the donut so it doesn't dry out. Somehow, I don't really think Fred cares if his donuts are a little dried out.

I heard a story from a guy who hosted a party for a bunch of climbing friends. Someone knew Beckey and invited him. The host was in the kitchen with Fred when he started filling his pockets with cheeses, breads and crackers. Fred says, "They have some great stuff here, don't they?", not realizing who he was talking to (or not caring). The host decided not to tell him who he was and just smiled and nodded his head.

I am not familiar with the issue. Please elaborate.

I don't believe this is true. Even if it is true at present, what assurances do we have that environmental lawyers will not attempt to twist the language of The Rule and impose more restrictions on recreational uses? What assurances can Mr Inslee give that The Roadless Rules won't be the "first step" in a larger push to decomission existing trailhead access by letting more roads fall into disrepair each year for the sole purpose of expanding roadless forests? Until I can be assured that existing access will be preserved, I do not support the Roadless Rule. Will you be passing my concerns and opinion along to Mr Inslee, Catbird? First of all Fairweather you are not quoting me, you are quoting something I quoted from Inslee's site. Let's make that clear. I don't see a connection between the Roadless Rule and the issue of maintenance of existing roads. I just don't. In fact, if the FS is spending money on new roads, they will have even less money to maintain existing ones. The cost of road building has consistently been greater than the value of the timber sales enabled by their construction. Maintenance of existing roads is a more cost effective way of supplying timber in the long term. It seems your issue is one of distrust. I will tell Mr. Inslee that we support maintenance of FS Roads that we climbers use to access trailheads. An example that comes to mind is the Middlefork Snoqualmie Road beyond Dingford Creek. Although that one is a lost cause, I am afraid. I do think it is unreasonable to think that the FS will not decommission some roads. There are a huge number of them and they are very costly to maintain. Some of them lead into areas that have, since their construction, received protected status. That is there will never be another timber sale in that area. That road becomes a long term drain on FS resources.

What's this world coming to when cc.com is accusing Bill O'Reilly of being too liberal? I thought the guy was a right winger. Al Franken was going after him from the left in his new book, and now they are going after him from the right.