murraysovereign

Actually, they're not mutually exclusive. Albert Einstein, no slouch when it came to matters of logic, was also deeply religious, and saw no conflict between the two. When asked about it, he replied that God was a supremely rational being, and created the physical universe on purely logical grounds, governed by perfectly logical laws. As a physicist, Einstein was merely trying to discern the rules by which God had constructed the Universe. He saw this as a supremely spiritual pursuit, in that he was trying to discern, ultimately, the inner workings of God's mind. And throughout his life, he retained his faith. Funny how the most brilliant scientific mind in human history could be so stupid.

Hey! Get back to wor... Oh, wait, I'm supposed to be working, not you. Never mind

Neither would I, but compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in Kelowna alone, in just two days? Get real. 250 families - probably about 800 people - have lost everything in a weekend, compared to, what, a couple of dozen people who have had a few things taken from their cars over the last few months. And this "seems about on par?" What the Hell kind of golf course are you guys playing on?

Both sides? I dunno 'bout that. Eventually, all of these fires will die; many already have. And in fact, there was a helicopter pilot killed fighting the McLure Creek fire north of Kamloops. It was to be his last weekend working before getting married and moving to Australia.

Just got off the phone with BC Parks and the District of Squamish, looking for updates. The Chief back-side trail is closed, but the front of the park is still open, so climbing is OK as long as it's a route you can rap back down when you finish. No hiking down the trail. The boulders are still open, but will be patrolled regularly, and if there's non-compliance with the smoking ban, they will be closed down. Same goes for Shannon Falls and Murrin - they're open, but will be closed down if smoking ban is ignored. District of Squamish told me the Smoke Bluffs were still open, but just a minute later I got an e-mail from the Director of Operations, informing me that all trails in the District are now closed indefinitely. That means the Bluffs are off-limits as well. We can assume these closures will remain in effect until we get significant rain-fall, and there's nothing in the forecast for the next two weeks at least.

Pat Boone doesn't count. In order to jump the shark, you must first have had some degree of credibility and integrity, so Pat Boone is exempt. Same goes for Celine Dion. Hell, Celine Dion is the shark...

I thought so, too, at first, but that's not quite true. Jumping the Shark refers to that moment when it's clear that things have gone off the rails and are now beyond all hope of redemption - Elton John's reworking of "Candle in the Wind" for Princess Diana's funeral was a classic example of shark-jumping, whereas "Good-Bye Yellow Brick Road" including the original ode to Marylin Monroe was clearly his "London Calling". Just because an artist attained a level of accomplishment at some point, and was subsequently unable to repeat it, doesn't mean they've gone to Hell. Dusty Springfield never quite equalled her "Son of a Preacher Man," and Otis Redding may have peaked with "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" or "House of the Rising Sun," but I don't think either of them ever jumped any sharks. Leonard Nimoy's rendition of "Proud Mary," on the other hand...

I first heard about it from a CBC report. Seems it was selling so well in England it made its way into the top 100 on the POP charts, in amongst the Spice Girls and Britney and Shania and all that lot. I bought it just to see what all the fuss was about - first time I listened to it I understood. The "classical" label is a bit of an anachronism. It seems to refer to any symphonic or choral work, regardless of when it was composed. Although that puts things like Procul Harum's "Conquistador" and "Whiter Shade of Pale" in a bit of a grey area - pop music that was composed to be performed with a full orchestra. My turntable still works

This site seems to be the most up-to-date listing of what's open and what's not. No mention of Murrin or the Chief...yet.

Paul Simon - Graceland, sure, if you only consider his solo output, but the one he'll be most remembered for is one he did with some guy named Garfunkel (no, really, I'm not making this up - that was the guy's name). It was called "Bridge over Troubled Water." and from the same era: Carol King - Tapestry Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Deja Vu Joni Mitchell - Blue more recently: Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball Maria Muldaur's latest - Richland Woman Blues - is one of the best albums I've ever heard. And here's one I'll bet not many have heard of: Henryk Gorecki's Symphony #3 with soprano Dawn Upshaw is unbelievable. Not party music, by any stretch, in fact it's pretty depressing, frankly, but Gawd what an incredible experience.

At current rates, that would come to US$7,142 and change. But if you're American, there'd be something called "countervailing duties" of about 37% (not our idea, by the way, these are an invention of the US Congress), and a Customs Brokerage Fee of usually about $50, so call it US$9835. Plus GST at 7%, comes to ... lessee ... US$10,522.95. If you leave the country within 60 days, you can claim the GST back, but you would be unable to leave the country if you're in jail, so that may not be an option. Hope that helps

On a recent flight I found that my cell wouldn't work even if I tried - "No Service". Once you're at cruising altitude, I think you're out of range of the transmitters. During take-off and landing it's probably better to not take the chance - too much stuff going on already, and a tiny little bit of interference on the wrong circuit at the wrong time could have disastrous consequences.

I've experienced that, back in the college days drinking coffee pretty much non-stop during term paper/ final exam crunch. After you take in enough caffeine, I think your system finally just rebels and shuts down. Maybe a self-defense mechanism so you pass out before you can kill yourself?

your first mistake....overpriced coffee suxx I've always called it "Fivebucks"

state law requires only a written report signed by the on scene trooper and all drivers of the accident. statements by witnesses or passengers are not required. A small point, but in the interests of accuracy, the first post stated this occurred "about 10 miles north of the truck customs." So the investigation would be handled by the RCMP, according to Canadian law, not State law. Not sure how much difference that would make, but from what I've seen they tend to do a pretty thorough investigation of any serious accident, not just those resulting in on-the-scene fatalities.

I'll see what I can do. I have a hard time believing that meaningful data can be compiled on something like this. No doubt the NRA can cite some "study" they did, or the anti-NRA crowd can counter with a "study" they did that refutes the results of the NRA "study", but I would view both sets of figures with great scepticism. It's pretty speculative stuff, no matter which side you're on. As for its relevance to the original topic - someone getting shot/robbed/beat up is news; someone not getting shot/robbed/beat up isn't news. It's not necessarily a reflection of bias, just the fact that things that didn't happen don't make for very interesting news stories, otherwise we'd be subjected to "live, on-the-scene" updates from reporters breathlessly informing us that "just minutes ago, a school bus rounded this corner and continued on down the street, safely delivering all the children to their homes. It did NOT plunge off into this ravine, and County Medical has confirmed that no-one was killed or injured as a result. Now I understand we're going to Bob at the airport, where yet another passenger plane has landed without incident as is now taxiing to the terminal. Bob, what can you tell us from the scene?" The media's reluctance to report each such non-incident, choosing instead to report on the ones that crash, doesn't mean they're biased against aircraft or school buses. It's just a reflection of what's considered newsworthy.

So far Skaha is OK. There's a large fire just south of there at Vaseux Lake, but it's about 15 miles away, and seems to be heading more east than north so isn't an immediate threat to the Bluffs area. Here's a link to the thermal map of that fire, so you can play along at home: http://alt.pep.sfu.ca/operations/CTL-VaseuxLake_Fire

Here's a link to the BC Forest Service, detailing road closures in each district. This particular site is for Squamish Forest District, but with a little nosing around you should be able to find every district in the province: http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/dsq/Publications/Announcements/RoadClosureBulletin.htm Feels like we could get some thunder/lightning this evening, which is not what we need. Hopefully there'll be about a foot of rain come with it.

Sounds to me like you're making every possible effort to get this rope back to its owner, but at some point the owner has to reciprocate. If he doesn't want it back (and that's certainly the impression I'm getting), then give it to someone who does want it. Obviously most climbers would be reluctant to use it, but old climbing ropes are pretty popular with boat owners for dock line, due to it's dynamic characteristics, and also the equestrian crowd like tying their horses with it for the same reason. So take it down to the local riding club or marina - I'm pretty sure it'll find a good home in either place.

Yeah, there's bad Pine Beetle all through the Interior, including the area of the Kelowna fire. All that standing dead-wood makes for pretty good fuel, it seems. Of course, if the forests were allowed to burn more frequently, we wouldn't get such bad beetle infestations, either. The Okanagan forests historically burned about every 5 to 15 years on average, but since the invention of fire suppression, we've managed to reduce that to about once every 50 - 75 years. So instead of frequent, small, low-intensity fires keeping the fuel supply from accumulating, we now get these massive, once-in-a-lifetime, "Oh My Gawd" conflagrations that consume everything in their path. They call it "forest management" or some such nonsense. As for the beetle-killed trees, the wood acquires a kind of mottled purply-bluish appearance, and some log-home builders are finding that people will pay extra to have their homes built of these logs because they like the effect. I've seen photos of a couple, and they do look pretty cool.

The likelihood of you starting a fire is only part of the reason for the closures. They don't want people in the back-country because it's one more thing for them to have to worry about in the event a fire starts. They'd rather not have to expend limited resources and manpower on searching for and evacuating people.

Here's NASA's view - Kelowna is the biggest fire, in the lower left quadrant. Somewhere left of the active fire front are the Boulder Fields and Kelowna Crags, both completely burnt through the other day. The northern edge of the fire is burning within city limits, taking out subdivisions: http://www.pep.bc.ca/operations/BC_Fires_NASA-3.jpg But just for the record - much of Canada is, in fact, NOT on fire at this time. Squamish, for instance, is bone dry but not yet actively combusting. So you don't need to stay away, just be extremely careful if you come up. And maybe fill all your water bottles before you leave home - we're running low.

Approximately 200 homes destroyed overnight in Kelowna . Couple of pretty nice wineries in that part of the city, also. Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park has been completely burned over, Myra Canyon section of the Kettle Valley Railway cycling trail is next in line - all those beautiful old trestles and bridges don't stand a chance if the winds kick up again this evening .

Your probably better to do as an earlier poster suggested, and fill the bottle with Gatorade or some such and be prepared to drink from it at the security check. If they think it's a fuel bottle, they keep it; if you're seen drinking from it, then it isn't a fuel bottle and they'll let it go. I don't think the airline's concerns about these things has anything to do with 9/11, either. Certainly they've become much less flexible since the attacks, but the whole fuel bottle problem I think goes back to an airliner that crashed in the Florida Everglades a number of years ago (late 80s?). The cause was traced back to some oxygen bottles in the luggage compartment that leaked, causing a fire, causing the plane to lose key control systems, and down they went. It seems someone thought the bottles were empty, when in fact at least one of them wasn't. In order to avoid similar errors or oversights in future, the FAA decided that it was best to "just say no".

A lot of airlines have declared "zero-tolerance" on stoves and fuel bottles. Rather than putting their employees in the position of having to make judgement calls (how much residual fuel smell is "OK"?), they're simply saying "NO", regardless of whether the stove or bottle has ever been used or not. But check with the airline - they may simply ask you to take a series of steps to ensure the stove is completely purged of fumes. Or you could ship the stove separately by ground, and pick it up when you get to your destination - since you're travelling domestically that may be a viable option.