scrambler

Lots of religious ideas here. Ideas from Eastern cosmology of multiple creation/destruction cycles, multiple incarnations of world savior. According to Buddhistic and other Eastern beliefs, an individual if virtuous enough has the opportunity to escape uncontrolled existence (liberation from Samsara), afterwards to achieve Nirvana (Sanskrit: without flame).

I'm not categorizing all employers, just acknowledging that there are assholes out there. I don't know all the circumstances with the guy that was fired, maybe he had legitimate reasons for missing the project deadline. My main objection is the method of firing. Isn't it like kicking a man when he's down or a sick woman in Newt's case? The bottom line (company profits) shouldn't be the only criteria of importance in defining the occupational relationship. There should be a certain measure of dignity, not pity, given to the employee.

Yeah, I thought the bit about receiving notice while in the hospital is crappy in any case. Newt is a piece of work but I forget why he fell from favor. Could you imagine what it would be like if your employer didn't approve of your weekend climbing activities? I had a former employer who didn't quite understand the lure of climbing but who fortunately didn't intrude on my recreational life.

Read?? I just like to look at the pictures.

Investors who rely for advice on Forbes, the highly regarded American business magazine, will be tipped off this month about the industry that is now outpacing many others in North America: marijuana growing. The magazine's cover story focuses on "the unstoppable economics of a booming business" and claims marijuana is now Canada's most valuable agricultural product, ahead of wheat, cattle and timber. Marijuana is also a growth industry in terms of jobs, with people earning $15 an hour for trimming the dried flowers and consultants earning $40 an hour to help inexperienced growers get started Note: original article appears in Forbes Here in the US, if State governments promote casino gambling to fill state tax coffers, why not consider other alternatives if examined in a rational manner? Or for that matter, why not allow certain individuals to sell medical marijuana to those who need it? Regulate it and bring it into the revenue stream.

Was that the Newt?

Inmates helped families and homes in Cali fires. Californians Owe Homes, Lives to Inmates "We save million-dollar homes for a dollar an hour," said Ricky Frank, 33, doing a 10-year stretch for theft. "You get to help people. It's better doing this than being locked up." More than half of the state's 3,800 full-time wildland firefighters are prison inmates earning $1 an hour as they work off sentences for nonviolent crimes such as theft and drug possession. About 2,150 offenders — either minimum security wards of the California Youth Authority or adults sentenced to the California Department of Corrections — have been out battling the flames. "We're trying to do something to save taxpayer money, we're trying to do good quality work, we're trying to get these guys to see how good it feels when you're not on the street corner selling drugs," Peck said. Violent criminals, sex offenders and escape risks aren't eligible. Those selected for the program generally have short sentences remaining, so there's an incentive not to flee or cause trouble, which could earn a longer term or a transfer back behind bars.

Seems early but I think we're heading into the winter of our discontent.

A German man who survived five days in the Alps in freezing temperatures by eating snow has been fired because he missed work. The 41-year-old hiker found himself stuck on the 2,962-metre-high Zugspitze, one of the Alps' highest peaks, when a sudden snow storm swept in. Speaking from his hospital bed in Reutte, Tyrol, Milnik said: "I'm a bit of an adventurer and definitely an outdoors man. I hate being indoors. On weekends I usually try to get out and about. Employer Schroeder & Uehlken, who dispatched the dismissal letter to the hospital as soon as they found out what happened, rejected criticism they were being unfair. "We hired him as a consultant for a special one-year project and he is already behind deadline. And all because of his foolhardy exploits. We just can't take the risk of having him on this project anymore." Man fired after being stranded on mountain top

No loose chalk in the gym!

You M1 tank aficionados or distractors might find this news article interesting: ‘Something’ felled an M1A1 Abrams tank in Iraq – but what? "Shortly before dawn on Aug. 28, an M1A1 Abrams tank on routine patrol in Baghdad “was hit by something” that crippled the 69-ton behemoth." "According to an unclassified Army report, the mystery projectile punched through the vehicle’s skirt and drilled a pencil-sized hole through the hull. The hole was so small that “my little finger will not go into it,” the report’s author noted. The “something” continued into the crew compartment, where it passed through the gunner’s seatback, grazed the kidney area of the gunner’s flak jacket and finally came to rest after boring a hole 1½ to 2 inches deep in the hull on the far side of the tank. As it passed through the interior, it hit enough critical components to knock the tank out of action. That made the tank one of only two Abrams disabled by enemy fire during the Iraq war and one of only a handful of “mobility kills” since they first rumbled onto the scene 20 years ago. The other Abrams knocked out this year in Iraq was hit by an RPG-7, a rocket-propelled grenade."

This is touchy subject but is interesting in some ways and I doubt my response will be understood correctly. I don’t take exception to Greg’s comments and I tried to approach it seriously. The idea of ‘racial purity’ is today nearly always associated with genocide and eugenics. Personally, I believe ‘racial purity’ is a myth. One way to achieve anything remotely like racial purity is to isolate a population. The closest thing analogous to that in biology is the development of an endemic species through allopatric speciation. Typically, one sees that happen when a population is divided by a rising mountain range or drifting landmasses and this process takes a very long time (geological time). However, geographic phenotypes did develop in response to environmental differences but all humans are the same genotype, i.e., we are one species capable of interbreeding to produce viable offspring. With today’s modern transportation, immigration, breakdown of cultural taboos prohibiting intermarriage, etc., I don’t believe ‘racial purity’ is possible. It’s a myth of the distant past and people uncertain of their future cling to this image of a former golden age. Besides what’s an Aryan? Blue eyes and blond hair? As I understand it, the Aryans originated somewhere near the region of Turkey or the Iranian Plateau then spread in two broad migrations, one eastward into India and the other north and westward into Europe. The Aryans forced the Dravidian inhabitants of India southward and established a caste system. The word, Aryan, itself is derived from the Sanskrit word, Arya, meaning ‘noble’. So you have Aryans in India, Persia (Iran), and other parts of the Near East as groups such as the Kurds. Note that Aryans do not include Semitic peoples. The other group of Aryans migrated northward and displaced the Bronze Age people such as the Celts, the ancestors of the Welsh, Irish, and others such as the Basque, etc. The Greco-Roman civilization is Aryan. According to Nigel Calder, the Aryans had a genetic advantage by having a gene that allowed digestion of cow milk. Many Asians, for instance, are known to be lactose intolerant because they do not have the gene. So this genetically advantageous mutation and their social adaptation to stock animals such as the horse and cattle allowed their rapid population growth, migration, and displacement of other inhabitants. Of course, the Aryans were not the only people to have relied on horses for rapid migration. The Mongols spread over large areas of land through this means. This is somewhat speculative, however, other unknown genetic differences may have accounted for selective advantageous effects, e.g., some people of European background are said to be immune to the AIDS virus. One can also see the genetic differences affecting health in non-advantageous ways such as Tay-Sachs Disease, sickle cell anemia, etc. As far as intelligence, I have read and heard that some differences are due to testosterone levels. That’s about as far as I want to take that. I do know that cultural development, in itself, is not a sign of higher social evolution. Barbarism exists just beneath our thin veneer of civilization and is expressed as massacres, genocide, and oppression. Civilizations rise and fall. What one might call the Western European ideal is no exception. A changeover might come through gradual assimilation of alien influences or by abrupt means. I believe the perceived dominance of the mountaineering arena by Europeans and European-Americans is not genetic but is socio-political. By that, I mean, political and economic developments allowed the establishment and growth of the middle class and the subsequent rise of leisure time. As these developments take place in other parts of the world then you will see these people in increasing numbers strive to replicate or surpass the recent achievements of peoples of European heritage. I believe that Europeans were especially fortunate in a confluence of a number of factors in their cultural development to place them at this point in history. However, it’s amusing to think that the most hubris-minded of these people would believe that God was on their side, i.e., God favors Aryans. Maybe it’s this hubris that impels the true believers, the challenge of the mountains is a higher calling seeking to re-identify yourself with the Godhead. So yeah, I wouldn’t put it into racial terms because there are no pure races (but maybe when cloning is perfected…). I would ascribe the dominance to a mindset of superiority that is not confined to a particular set of body characteristics (phenotype) but rather to the human spirit, which all of us share. Today, it appears to be largely culture-bound but tomorrow, it will be loosened. Disclaimer: These opinions were hastily constructed and are subject to change and misinterpretation. Feel free to modify and develop further synthesis.

Another reason to diss Clear Channel... Clear Channel disc jockies encouraged drivers to harass bicyclists. CLEVELAND - Bicyclists are demanding that the nation's largest radio group be punished because disc jockeys at three stations made on-air comments they say encouraged drivers to throw bottles at bike riders or hit them with open car doors. They say the morning show hosts at Clear Channel Communications stations in Cleveland, Houston and Raleigh, N.C., also suggested motorists blast horns at cyclists, and speed past them and slam on their brakes in front of them. --exerpt from news story Hmm...do ya suppose there's a connection?

I've had more opportunity to ponder about rock fall while belaying rather than climbing. I remember belaying on Sam n' Cams at Sam Hill in Leavenworth. The thought kept going through my head that the large rock flake (hollowing sounding) would break and fall on my feet to chop my toes off.

Yes, these stories of the Administration's disrespect of troops, whether true or not, are most surely incited by partisan politics. As I saw an interview of some of the troops heading over to Iraq with the Stryker force, the reporter asked, "Are you worried?" The soldier with his wife and his child in his arms said, "No." Dude just wants to do his job and get back in one piece to his family. But yeah, like that soldier in the story, he has to wonder.

Apparently, a congressman is outraged enough that he started a program where people could donate their frequent flier mileage to help troops on leave to see their families. Is the Administration trying to take the corporate tact of increasing productivity by putting the squeeze on their workers? I also have read about soldiers, in some cases, having to pay their own medical bills. And what do you think about this? One soldier's story Maybe this guy is an 8-ball or maybe his attitude reflects a deeper problem affecting the troops.

Yeah, I heard that report too. One congressman was outraged enough that he started a program where people could donate their frequent fliers miles to help out the troops on leave. Also, check this story out: One soldier's story Maybe this guy is just an 8-ball but his attitude might be reflective of a deeper problem circulating among the troops.

Oh BTW, Ehmmic Have a good B-day!

I still think that strategists should consider the 'swine' solution that was posted earlier. Disclaimer: Comments neither endorsed or solicited by the Hog Farmers of America (HFA). Eat pork. It’s good for you.

Uh, Ehmmic I liked reading the reviews for that book.

yeah, what the Cpt said.

...are not about politics and religion. They're questions like this: "Where does my poop go?".

I agree wit ya. Unfortunately, politics makes strange bedfellows and I think it's unlikely that we'll stop dealing with unsavory governments. I heard Bush last night saying something about weaning ourselves off of foreign oil. I agree with him 'cept I'd rather that he spent $87 billion on development of alternative energy.