Tough Luck
Michigan…
Well, ah-herm I, uh…
I didn’t see it.
Sorry.
I didn’t realize what channel it was on until too late and since I don’t have cable…I ended up watching the Indy cars at Pikes Peak off and on that afternoon.
Must see loud cars go fast!
I know, I’m an addict.
But from everything I hear of the Cup race it was a strange one that came down to fuel mileage forcing most of the cars in the lead to pit a few laps shy of the end, including sadly Dale Jr. who had gotten into the top ten for 110 laps, but finished 18th. Congrats to the team for once again doing a great job in the pits. I was also sorry to miss Dale & Terry Labonte racing hard. Must have been a good show.
Elliott also took a big hit finishing 39th after running in the top ten most of the race and then wrecking (possibly on an oil spill from a blown engine). *Owie!* I like Elliott, he’s a great guy and getting better as a driver every year, but when I did that performance chart and tracked how many spots Elliott had actually gained on the racetrack this year…well, it’s like he was hanging onto the top ten by his fingernails and in the last few weeks is losing his grip. It is still feasible he can make the top ten if he does really well then next couple weeks, he’s only 66 points out, but he has really got to get his head back in the game, or stay on top of himself and the car, or focus or whathaveyou. He can still make it!
Not that I am saying anything he hasn’t already.
Thumbs up on the full goatee tho’. ;) Hubba.
Mark Martin led ten laps of the race, but also got caught up in the fuel issue, finishing right in front of Dale Jr. after fighting his way back from 31st. He remains 5th in the standings.
P.S. I have no problem with someone winning on fuel mileage, as frustrating as it might be for those who did not. It wasn’t planned and they got lucky, but people win by rain delays and leaders who run out of fuel on the last lap or leaders who wreck on the last lap. There’s a lot of luck involved in professional sports, autoracing perhaps more so. Mayfield got lucky. He won. Congrats to him. :)
Gaza Strip
Fox news has been pouring out pity for the people being evacuated from the Gaza strip like broken dike. “Ooh! My friends have lost their entire lives!” one American woman moaned over the news.
“Your friends weren’t supposed to be there in the first place! Your friends have known this day was coming for the last 11 years.”
I sympathize with moderate Israelis caught in the crossfire between extreme factions on either side of the conflict, which like in the U.S. are probably a quiet majority, but not with these people. They knew better.
Rock Jocks
10 Million Dollar Lawsuit Threatens Climbing in Yosemite.
Basically what the jist is that Peter Terbush, an experienced climber, was belying a friend on a single pitch climb on a cliff face that gave way. Pete hung onto the rope, keeping his friend from falling but leaving him unable to run for cover or protect himself. He was struck in the head by a falling rock and killed instantly. Unfortunately, that area was known to be prone to rock slides, possibly due to on overflowing water tank above. Now his parents want to sue the Park Service and the Park Service (having as crappy a budget as they do) are being hyper-protective.
I’ve climbed, nothing major, just single pitch stuff in Joshua Tree, but having that little experience and talking with guys that go full bore carving routes in glaciers (a couple of my instructors), I have to agree with the other climbers in this matter. “Ya pays yer money, ya takes yer chances.” As much as we like to think it so, nature is not immutable and unchanging. Living in a earthquake zone I can tell you it changes a lot, whenever it feels like it. It’s alive and it moves, grows and decays. Most of the time it does so much slower than we, but sometimes much faster, whether mankind is a catalyst to and/or assisting the process or not.
Equipment has to measure up to certain national and/or international standards of durability and strength, but Mother Nature operates with her own set of standards and guidelines. Failing to read those guidelines is the peril of anyone in extreme outdoor sports. Anyone at that level of climbing in Yosemite has a multitude of resources to learn the condition of the rock he or she is about to climb and even if it was their first time in the park, they should have consulted with the park rangers. There had been three slides on the same formation the three years prior, everyone knew that. If they didn’t know that they should have before setting their anchors. I’m not saying that they were stupid, no more stupid than most people who play Spiderman 100 feet up a rock face attached to the world by a single nylon line, but it was their risk. It was his risk. And he took it.
Jim Terbush has good ideas about posting the status of major climbing route in Yosemite in fliers and signs. Such things would be very handy to regulars climbing groups and protect those ambitious neopythes who don’t know quite what they are doing. I think those are great ideas: If people aren’t smart enough to ask, shove it in their face. But that does not mean the park should take responsibility for people who voluntarily engage in a activity that is well known to be dangerous. The fact that Jim Terbush asked for 10 million dollars also gives lie to the statement that “He's not out to kill climbing in the valley. He doesn't want money. He simply wants to make climbing safer.” If that was the case, why then did he not simply sue for his sons funeral costs and make a lot of media noise rather than 71% of the Park's operating budget. That’s right, 71% on a single lawsuit for the parent of a guy who voluntarily engaged in a dangerous activity that his parents introduced him to in the first place. That’s not trying to set things right, that’s simple and destructive vindictiveness. At this rate, he and people like him won’t just kill climbing in Yosemite, they’ll kill the park.
“...Everything alike drenched in gold light, heaven's colors coming down to the meadows and groves, making every leaf a romance, air, earth, and water in peace beyond thought, the great brooding days opening and closing in divine psalms of color." ~ John Muir
Well, ah-herm I, uh…
I didn’t see it.
Sorry.
I didn’t realize what channel it was on until too late and since I don’t have cable…I ended up watching the Indy cars at Pikes Peak off and on that afternoon.
Must see loud cars go fast!
I know, I’m an addict.
But from everything I hear of the Cup race it was a strange one that came down to fuel mileage forcing most of the cars in the lead to pit a few laps shy of the end, including sadly Dale Jr. who had gotten into the top ten for 110 laps, but finished 18th. Congrats to the team for once again doing a great job in the pits. I was also sorry to miss Dale & Terry Labonte racing hard. Must have been a good show.
Elliott also took a big hit finishing 39th after running in the top ten most of the race and then wrecking (possibly on an oil spill from a blown engine). *Owie!* I like Elliott, he’s a great guy and getting better as a driver every year, but when I did that performance chart and tracked how many spots Elliott had actually gained on the racetrack this year…well, it’s like he was hanging onto the top ten by his fingernails and in the last few weeks is losing his grip. It is still feasible he can make the top ten if he does really well then next couple weeks, he’s only 66 points out, but he has really got to get his head back in the game, or stay on top of himself and the car, or focus or whathaveyou. He can still make it!
Not that I am saying anything he hasn’t already.
Thumbs up on the full goatee tho’. ;) Hubba.
Mark Martin led ten laps of the race, but also got caught up in the fuel issue, finishing right in front of Dale Jr. after fighting his way back from 31st. He remains 5th in the standings.
P.S. I have no problem with someone winning on fuel mileage, as frustrating as it might be for those who did not. It wasn’t planned and they got lucky, but people win by rain delays and leaders who run out of fuel on the last lap or leaders who wreck on the last lap. There’s a lot of luck involved in professional sports, autoracing perhaps more so. Mayfield got lucky. He won. Congrats to him. :)
Gaza Strip
Fox news has been pouring out pity for the people being evacuated from the Gaza strip like broken dike. “Ooh! My friends have lost their entire lives!” one American woman moaned over the news.
“Your friends weren’t supposed to be there in the first place! Your friends have known this day was coming for the last 11 years.”
I sympathize with moderate Israelis caught in the crossfire between extreme factions on either side of the conflict, which like in the U.S. are probably a quiet majority, but not with these people. They knew better.
Rock Jocks
10 Million Dollar Lawsuit Threatens Climbing in Yosemite.
Basically what the jist is that Peter Terbush, an experienced climber, was belying a friend on a single pitch climb on a cliff face that gave way. Pete hung onto the rope, keeping his friend from falling but leaving him unable to run for cover or protect himself. He was struck in the head by a falling rock and killed instantly. Unfortunately, that area was known to be prone to rock slides, possibly due to on overflowing water tank above. Now his parents want to sue the Park Service and the Park Service (having as crappy a budget as they do) are being hyper-protective.
I’ve climbed, nothing major, just single pitch stuff in Joshua Tree, but having that little experience and talking with guys that go full bore carving routes in glaciers (a couple of my instructors), I have to agree with the other climbers in this matter. “Ya pays yer money, ya takes yer chances.” As much as we like to think it so, nature is not immutable and unchanging. Living in a earthquake zone I can tell you it changes a lot, whenever it feels like it. It’s alive and it moves, grows and decays. Most of the time it does so much slower than we, but sometimes much faster, whether mankind is a catalyst to and/or assisting the process or not.
Equipment has to measure up to certain national and/or international standards of durability and strength, but Mother Nature operates with her own set of standards and guidelines. Failing to read those guidelines is the peril of anyone in extreme outdoor sports. Anyone at that level of climbing in Yosemite has a multitude of resources to learn the condition of the rock he or she is about to climb and even if it was their first time in the park, they should have consulted with the park rangers. There had been three slides on the same formation the three years prior, everyone knew that. If they didn’t know that they should have before setting their anchors. I’m not saying that they were stupid, no more stupid than most people who play Spiderman 100 feet up a rock face attached to the world by a single nylon line, but it was their risk. It was his risk. And he took it.
Jim Terbush has good ideas about posting the status of major climbing route in Yosemite in fliers and signs. Such things would be very handy to regulars climbing groups and protect those ambitious neopythes who don’t know quite what they are doing. I think those are great ideas: If people aren’t smart enough to ask, shove it in their face. But that does not mean the park should take responsibility for people who voluntarily engage in a activity that is well known to be dangerous. The fact that Jim Terbush asked for 10 million dollars also gives lie to the statement that “He's not out to kill climbing in the valley. He doesn't want money. He simply wants to make climbing safer.” If that was the case, why then did he not simply sue for his sons funeral costs and make a lot of media noise rather than 71% of the Park's operating budget. That’s right, 71% on a single lawsuit for the parent of a guy who voluntarily engaged in a dangerous activity that his parents introduced him to in the first place. That’s not trying to set things right, that’s simple and destructive vindictiveness. At this rate, he and people like him won’t just kill climbing in Yosemite, they’ll kill the park.
“...Everything alike drenched in gold light, heaven's colors coming down to the meadows and groves, making every leaf a romance, air, earth, and water in peace beyond thought, the great brooding days opening and closing in divine psalms of color." ~ John Muir
posted by KiplingKat | 8:28 PM
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