catbirdseat

Yeah, yeah. You're just in a mood tonight, aren't you?

I certainly hope you have the new 70% cleaner two-stroke engine on your saws for your health's sake. I hear that Honda makes a four-stroke line trimmer.

Not besides sending 5.11 trad & sport, putting up new routes, hanging with the hotties of CC.com, snowboarding, riding singletrack, doing teak and mahogany carpentry on $400k yachts, loving my beautiful, intelligent wife, maintaining 6 bonsai trees and planning trips to BC for ice climbing. MisterE, that was my lame attempt at humor. You know, change one word in the sentence? You don't have to write your autobiography, as interesting as it sounds.

The only way we're going to win is if we can set up a government with its own military post haste and let them duke it out with the remnants of Saddam's regime. Those thugs know that if they keep it up long enough we'll leave. Perhaps if pitted against their own countrymen who can't leave, they'll eventually give up. We'll pull out. Then there will be a civil war before it is all over. There is a good chance that the Baathists will be back. Iraq may end up as two or more countries.

Kurt, where's the love, brother? Where's the love? You are sounding like Fairweather on steroids or somthing. You know where I'm coming from. No one wants to put you out of business. You just want to see me do some backpedaling, don't you? Jetskis, lawnmowers and snowmobiles have ready alternatives to the two stroke. I don't think anyone makes a four stroke for chainsaws that is light enough yet. The other issue is a chainsaw has to operate in any orientation, standard four strokes have problems with oil delivery. There are, however, modified two strokes under development that can vastly reduce emissions. You can read about it: Improved Two-Stroke Chainsaws Four-Stroke Snomobiles Four-Stroke Personal watercraft (aka "jetskis")

Flaming Erik (E-rock)

Okay, a computer geek, dammit!

Groan. BTW, what gremlin does one use for groan? ?

Dude, that's beyond the ability of mere mortals. You don't need an exorcist. You need a geek.

I thought MisterE had no life.

Whether you believe in demons or not, there must be something to exorcism for it to persist as a rite. It must work in a few cases. My admittedly weak understanding of psychiatry has it that there are two sorts of mental illnesses as first described by Freud, neuroses and pychoses. The neuroses are best treated by the "talking" cure, whereas the pychoses are treated by a combination of drug therapy and behavioral modification. It may be that some percentage of apparent demonic possessions are actually an extreme form of neurosis that is nonetheless treatable by a "talking" therapy such as exorcism.

Have you ever looked at some of the non-topical message boards to see what people talk about? I thought I had no life... Sultry Earth Forum

Scrambler, you need to read up on some of the latest theories about Salem. The people of Salem weren't hysterical. They were poisoned by ergot. They were scared about what was happening to them and they thought witchcraft was the cause of their suffering.

I have the Voile bindings with releasable setup, and found that I really had to crank on the tension beyond the suggested setting before I could ski without it releasing. Now, I like it.

They do. The oil goes directly into the lake. Two-stroke engines suck the big green weenie. Ban them now- not in ten years.

Well, Thinker old pal, I hope you get lots and lots of smiles.

That was very smart of them.

So is all this up at Alpental?

I believe Lake Tahoe was one of them. It is really tragic, because it was avoidable. California banned MTBE effective last year, but Gov. Davis delayed the ban until Jan 2004. Nonetheless most refiners have already switched to ethanol.

So then it appears that your objection is that the Assault Weapons Ban is ineffective because it doesn't go far enough in banning high capacity, rapid fire weapons? My take is that is was law enforcement who were behind it. They don't like being outgunned in drug busts, which is where weapons of this sort are most likely to be encountered.

Just for kicks, Fairweather, would you explain to us what is ridiculous about the Assault Weapons Ban?

Hey these are cool lyrics. They should be split out as a separate thread in the Climbing Forum. Here's my weak contribution. When the frost bites When the ice melts When I'm out of shape I simply remember my shiny new gear And then I just feel so rad

Fairweather, the EPA did not mandate MTBE specifically. They mandated oxygenates. It was left to the refiners which oxygenates to use. In 1990, the choice was MTBE, methanol or ethanol. A formulation containing 15% methanol and 85% gasoline was set as the standard for CO emissions. If you could show that your MTBE or other formulation was as good or better, you could use it. Locally, I believe ethanol is what is being used. In LA and other places with a lot of photochemically induced smog, they tend to use MTBE because the emissions contain fewer photochemically reactive species than does ethanol. I was involved in the testing of various alternative formulations in 1990 while at ARCO. My recollection was that MTBE formulations performed as well or better than 15% methanol formulations. I don't recall testing ethanol formulations. Ethanol is more expensive than either MTBE or methanol, because it comes from corn. Ethanol and methanol have the problem that water from the air tends to dissolve in it. When it is mixed with gasoline, the water separates. This problem can be overcome through careful handling.

Beer is quite perishable. I like mine fresh. Micheal, I think it is acceptable to chastise a dumb question, as long as you tell the person all the reasons why you think it is a dumb question. The problem is, the knuckleheads who troll with fake dumb questions. They are the ones who influence people to respond with cynical answers.