snugtop

OK, it's a long way off, but I'll be hosting Trivia Night at the BoxCar Alehouse on 10/11...which coincidentally is a Tuesday. The Alehouse has $2 PBR pints, cocktails, a pool table, and yes...trivia. CC.com'ers will have a leg up on the rest as there will be some kind of climbing category. I think there might be a charge ($5?) per team which the winning team gets. I will confirm with the bar on this. Hope to see folks there. Oh, can a mod move this to events? http://boxcarale.home.comcast.net/dc.htm

That's what I'm sayin'!

I hear ya Chris...I bit the bullet and signed up to get the Sunday Times delivered. Then you get the "premium content" free.

Hmmm, I take back all those bad things I said about marriage. Sounds like divorce can be very profitable if you're savvy! I thought alimony went the way of the typewriter and the MRS degree but I guess I was wrong. "Temporary maintence" sounds like a paid vacation...

There's a good John Muir story about climbing Shasta solo in winter. He didn't have such a good time though.

:canyoubelieveit:

gecko-footed

I don't know who this imposter is but I am the original Googlebot. Sureamnodder.

I suspected that a topic as rich and sprayastic as gecko nano hairs would have been played out in spray before...I did a search on "gecko" before I posted that but it yielded no results...WTF? Come to think of it, I've never been able to find anything using the Search function.

Gravity-Defying Geckos Teach Scientists a Lesson By DENISE GRADY Published: August 30, 2005 THE NEW YORK TIMES The scientific quest to make artificial gecko feet has taken a leap forward. Geckos, lizards that are notorious for their sticky feet, can run up walls and across ceilings, and hang tauntingly by one toe. They have no suction cups, hooks or glue on their feet, so how do they do it? The soles of geckos' feet are covered by 500,000 minute hairs, and the tip of each hair splits into hundreds more. Top, a lizard's hairs are magnified 595 times. Five years ago, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford; and Lewis and Clark College found the secret: 500,000 minute hairs cover the sole of each foot, and the tip of each hair splits into hundreds more. The hairs are so elastic that they can bend or squish to conform to microscopic nooks and crannies under the creature's feet, even on the glass walls of an aquarium. As a result, the tiny hairs touch so much surface area so closely that weak forces of attraction between molecules in the hairs and in whatever surface the animal is walking on add up and become sufficient to let the gecko hang on. The connection breaks when the gecko shifts its foot enough to change the angle between the hairs and the surface. The discovery intrigued scientists, who immediately realized that if synthetic gecko-foot hairs could be made, they might be a great adhesive - strong, glue-free, dry, reusable and, unlike suction cups, capable of working in a vacuum like outer space. Engineers envisioned robotic instruments that could climb walls or grab objects without dropping them, and rovers that could maneuver rugged terrain on distant planets. Such adhesives could also be used to stick components together in electronic devices. The National Science Foundation takes these ideas so seriously that it gave a $400,000 grant to scientists at the University of Akron and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to try making imitation gecko feet. In a recent issue of the journal Chemical Communications, the team reported that it had indeed produced synthetic hairs, with 200 times the sticking power of the ones made by nature. Although the scientists have tested only minute amounts of the material, they estimate that if its properties hold up on a larger scale, a dime-size patch of it could support 2 to 22 pounds, depending on how densely the hairs were packed. "Think of it almost like nano-Velcro," said Ali Dhinojwala, an associate professor of polymer science at the University of Akron. The synthetic hairs - one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair - are made of highly flexible carbon cylinders, or nanotubes, embedded in a plastic base like bristles in a hairbrush. The tubes are strong and practically unbreakable, Professor Dhinojwala said, adding that other groups had tried making the tubes of plastic, but it turned out to be too weak. He said people had asked him whether the new material could be fashioned into gloves and shoes for rock climbers. "I'm a little hesitant on going too fast," Professor Dhinojwala said. "Nature has had more time than we have had. I would hesitate to extrapolate. But the imagination is there."

What happened to jjd? jjd where are thee?

Oly you have exceeded your PM limit. Who else PMs you besides AlpineK?

Sadly, you are not the first, or the second, cc.com'er to make crude calculations of Dru's spray expenditure. But I think my assumptions were a bit closer. 5 minutes per post is definitely off. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/444909/page/0/fpart/1/vc/1

nice hooter there Squid.

It was most definitely an owl. I looked it up and apparently other owls have done this to runners in St Edwards State Park in Kenmore.

I've been seeing a lot of wildlife while running in Seattle as of late. A few weeks ago I saw a beaver under the 99 bridge, eating blackberries. So that technically means I saw a beaver then a hooter. OhmygodTheNodder! Now return to your regularly scheduled spraying.

Who cares about Layton, there are rabid owls on the loose!

It was just like that picture, sans kids, and I had an iPod. Oh and it had a wingspan of about 8 feet. I forgot to mention that part.

Holy Shit, I got dive bombed by an owl in Discovery Park tonight. I was running at dusk on the loop trail, noticed a big bird swoop by me and perched in a tree about 15-20 feet from me. I stopped to look at it, for about 2 minutes the owl stared me down. Then it flew past me and I figured it was gone and started running. Then in my peripheral vision I see the owl coming back--this time very low so I actually ducked instinctively, and could hear it fly by me. It perched in a tree about 10 feet from me and proceeded to do this for another few hundred feet at which point I hit the road and got off the trail. I thought y'owl otter know.

not cats, but I couldn't resist. A friend just sent me this...

Peterpuget, misinformed

: mine

Pussycats, Mega

I think Mike Layton used up all the PMs. They ran out and will not be replenishing the stock. If you need to reach someone, start a thread.

AlpineK uses his super powers as a Mod to read my PMs. CBS told me so.