JosephH

Perfect out, wish it were open.

No, but He said the chick was flapping it's winlots lot and given it was up on the crest doing it I would guess that probably puts it at 'soon' as in 7 - 14 days. Not being able to see into the nest and observe the chicks is a real downside of of the rock crest in front of the nest. It only allows observations of the chicks later in their development once they can climb up onto the crest and that can make it difficult to know how old or developed they are at that point beyond trying to judge their development via things like presence of down, size, color, etc as opposed to being able to see when they hatched. This is where a solar-powered, wifi webcam in the crack above the nest would be real handy. Maybe next winter, given the prices have been coming down.

Contrary to some reports of Beacon chicks fledging, after five hours of monitoring today, three of which had one of the chicks perched on the rock crest in front of the nest and parents feeding chicks down in it, David reports that the chick he got a long look at is still in significant enough down to be able to say its primary wing feathers have not developed enough for flight yet. I'll be going out for another session this weekend and a joint session with David next week and will report the results of both of those as they happen.

Oh, I know where you mean. It's on the original high traverse variation - I never go over there, so out of sight, out of mind. Not sure who considers that p3 rather than p2. Yeah, those old hangers are sometimes dubious which is a shame because by and large the split shank buttonheads they're on will still be around long after Beacon has turned to dust.

Huh? I can't think of any hangers on p2 or p3 of the Corner.

Just what kind of bastards would arm Afghans with shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons to use against a foreign army? And who could ever have predicted such an outlandish idea?

Get the 10.2 if you're going to do any significant amount of trad.

From one Joe to another I gotta say, I'm hoping you'll be holding to a higher standard of truth in advertising than that...

Especially when we do the spending and dying so the Chinese can do the digging... China's thirst for copper could hold key to Afghanistan's future Then again, it's all headed for Walmart anyway.

That should save the Chinese a few months of surveying...

The bugs and the cross-version / cross-browser issues are ridiculous! Who's running this joint anyway? It's definitely a lowest common denominator sort of deal and like death by a million paper cuts.

Last ditch...

Ever put together a fairly complex website and try to get it to render and run the same across a majority of installed browswers? It's an ugly business under the best of circumstances.

Not at all, Hayek and his school simply felt that market signaling is about the future versus the past. That state 'morality' relative to any resulting social injustices and redistribution of wealth to address them was inappropriate and incompatible with what he saw as the way markets function. But Hayak - who spent no small amount of time wandering around epistemology, ethics, and politics underlying economic theory - in the end was an 'optimist' relative to beliefs like: So quite the contrary, he wasn't really theorizing about economies dominated by robber barons, felons of the Enron ilk, or an instance where the entire financial system might one day be gamed by means of pervasive fraud like we've just experienced. He assumed some baseline of 'honesty' in the market and probably implicitly understood the inherent greed underlying much of the conservative tract and the criminality perpetually roiling for escape that goes with it - i.e. they have little 'positive' to offer.

Well, from the sound of things here, this should make for an interesting weekend...

Well, these days we now have Internet forums so that retired climbers can still 'climb' on line. No need to get physical.

I'm guessing off hand Hayek couldn't stomach the undisciplined and insatiable greed, the gravity of which conservatives never seem to escape in [daily] practice. Conservative economic theory always ends up being implemented pretty much the same way Stalin and Mao interpreted socialism, to benefit themselves at the expense of the people all the while mouthing endless rhetorical bullshit. The freedom today's conservatives cherish most - the freedom to privatize profits and socialize losses while gaming the financial, energy, and healthcare systems to extract cash without providing value. Or, as put more succinctly by someone wiser than myself: Today's conservatives are a sham of hypocrisy. Their whole schtick remains putting on a tired Punch & Judy show of social issues while simultaneously doing everything in their power to fuck the average American in every conceivable way. They defend gaming those systems by loop-holing, co-opting, budgetarily strangling, or outright dismantling regulatory oversight under the guise of "smaller government". Nothing stands as a greater monument to the essence of today's conservative 'beliefs' than all the corner Dunkin' Donuts which have been converted to PayDay loan boutiques (with the possible exception of the oil now lapping the shores of gulf red states). So you can spout all the economic philosopy you want, but in in the end the proliferation of the republican-supported and Wall Street-backed PayDay industry is the unarguable and indelible watermark of core conservative values [and economic theories] on American society.

Microsoft has recently appointed a manager who's sole purpose in life is exterminating IE6. All older versions of all browsers suck. For that matter, HTML sucks as a base technology for global communication and interaction. The only thing that sucks harder than HTML is flash and Silverlight. All browsers suck when you get down to it - they just suck less than the current alternatives.

...but just as you start to take a leak you get a bad cramp and piss down your leg.

Alien Hybrids were the only pro they made that was unique, interesting, and had a niche which is why I had two sets of them. The regular aliens, yawn. The Alien hybrids though had attributes that made them good on slick granite pin scars. Metolius Master cams offsets will cover 90 percent of those placements - but that still leaves 10% where Alien Hybrids shine alone because their softer grade of aluminum 'bites' and deforms better. Bottom line is there's nothing special about Aliens for about 98% of what you'd ever run into that you couldn't cover with a Camalot or Master Cam just as well. Ditto for most Alien Hybrid placements covered by a Master Cam offset. BUT if you're up in the air with your ass needs to be hung out over a placement where only an Alien Hybrid will work then it's a bummer not to have one on or about your person. Of course, there's always the 'will it break' factor, but that horse is long dead...

I was trying to dig out my banjo to deliver[ance] an audio response, but then I saw a couple of the dang strings wars busted.

After the fatalities on Hood in recent years where weather played a significant role it seems somewhat amazing that some folks are still oblivious to the impact and realities of prevailing conditions prior to the day they have available to climb and of the forecast for the hours and days immediately following it. The relevent conditions and weather window to be concerned about and study should extend from days prior to a planned ascent on out at least a day or two succeeding it as a buffer in case problems arise. Attempting to 'squeak one in' is risky business that has cost more than a few highly-experienced climbers their lives, let alone weekend warriors. And as common as climbing Mt. Hood is, it's still mountaineering with plenty of objective hazards even with a good weather window; there's no need to turn it into reckless gambling and blind luck that will put others at risk attempting to rescue you in lousy weather and desperate conditions.

The only thing worse than pot smoking liberals is longhair redneck dopers.

Jesus, if there were ever two things I'm going to lose sleep over...

Not at all, it's a federal issue and those element that are effective just need to not be wrapped up in a racist and xenophobic package.