Thoughts On The Old Man Of The Mountain
Last month the 700 tons of the various rocks and blocks that made up the Old Man Of The Mountain, the New Hampshire state symbol high up on the cliff of Cannon Mountain, fell, tumbled, and splattered into the talus 1000' below. In the time since, in various venues on the net, many folks have waxed poetic and posted their memories of things Old Man related. Lots have used the terms heartbreaking, tearful, a great loss, etc.
Bullshit!!!
It may be the contrarian view, but I'm not at all sorry to see it go. Having climbed many times on routes next to and under it, I was always pretty nervous about those tons of unstable loose blocks poised hundreds of feet over my head. My first route ever on Cannon, Lakeview, ended by climbing the corner on the left side of the Old Man. I remember thinking as I anchored to one of the turnbuckles "wtf is keeping this thing together?". Instead of trying to glue and bolt it together, the annual volunteers should have been dismantling it piece by gravity-taunted piece.
Good riddance.
Too bad some routes are probably heavily damaged if not outright obliterated.

Finally! Hooray!!! About F-ing Time!!!
VW finally gets it's corporate head out of it's nostalgic ass, wakes up, and smells the coffee. Too bad it took so damn long and that we had to suffer through the heralded "return" of the ugly little shitbox.

THE ICONIC Volkswagen Beetle, the most popular car ever made, will cease production this summer, 69 years and more than 21 million sales after Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich first commissioned the durable, dome-shaped little “People’s Car.”
Volkswagen officials said earlier this month that the last Beetle assembly line in the world, in VW’s massive plant here in central Mexico, will shut in the coming weeks. They said sales had fallen dramatically because the $6,800 workhorse could no longer compete with slick little imported Fords and Chevys that are priced nearly the same but offer four doors, air conditioning and engines that don’t sound like can openers in distress.

20 Years at the Dining Table
Don't you just hate it when this happens?

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A San Jose State University professor who announced just weeks ago that he and a colleague had solved an important math problem now says he goofed. Daniel Goldston had worked on the problem for 20 years.

"Even if I had spent another year very carefully going over everything, I think I still would have missed that error," Goldston said Tuesday.

Goldston's advance in the field of prime numbers was called the most important breakthrough in that area of mathematics in decades.

Other experts say that regardless of the outcome, the work Goldston has done with Cem Yalcin Yildirim of Bogazici University in Istanbul is a success.

Goldston's work involves the twin prime conjecture, or the idea that there are an infinite number of pairs of prime numbers that differ only by two.

Prime numbers can be divided only by themselves or by 1 without leaving a remainder. The smallest twin primes are 3 and 5. The largest discovered so far are numbers with 51,090 digits each.

While no one has proved the twin prime conjecture itself, Goldston and Yikdirim tackled a related question: Can you find an infinite number of primes that may not be twins, but that are much closer together than average?

Their proof, or solution, seemed to say yes. But on April 23, a flaw emerged.

Goldston says he will work to fix the flaw over the next several months - mostly at his dining table, while his wife and three children watch television.

Today's Moment of Zen
Actually, it was in the Friday NPS Morning Report:

Cape Cod National Seashore (MA)
Unexploded Ordnance Found on Marconi Beach

On the morning of April 3rd, ranger David LaMere found what appeared to be an unexploded bomb, partially exposed near the top of a 100-foot-high dune on the outer beach north of Marconi Beach. From 1942 to 1944, this portion of the park, known then at Camp Wellfleet, was used by the military as an anti-aircraft artillery training center, and, through 1961, as a training center for National Guard and Reserve units. As a result, a wide range of munitions, from 50 caliber rounds to 1000-pound dove bombs have been located through exposure and cleanup efforts. A digital photo of the bomb and specific information was sent to the explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) unit at the Otis Air Force Base, located on Cape Cod. A three-person team arrived on scene to remove it. Due to the advanced state of deterioration, they were unable to determine if the bomb was real or a training device. They decided that they needed to "spank" the 750-pound bomb in place rather than risk detonation attempting to move it to another location. The explosive C4 was used to detonate the bomb, which was found to be a training bomb containing plaster. The remains, which were now in small pieces, were removed from the beach. The area had been secured for a mile in each direction along the beach and for 1000 yards behind the dune. Due to the time of year, visitors in the area was not a significant issue. If it had been summer, as many as a thousand or more visitors would have been on the beach within a quarter mile of the location.
[Submitted by Bob Grant, District Ranger]

A Site for Morons
If you know nothing about weather, aviation, or jet engines, and believe that contrails are really poisons or mind control chemicals being sprayed by the government, then this site is for you!

It Really Does Exist
After years of searching, here it is, the very last page.

(Not) Arresting Falls

I'm very surprised at the number of long sliding falls I've seen this season. It happened again last Thursday afternoon at Alta. A guy biffed about 4 turns into Spring Valley, a black diamond that is occasionally groomed and about 2.5 cats wide. On Thursday it was moderate sized, well spaced bumps that were quite soft in the 45F and bright sun. This guy slid almost the entire length of the run, coming to a stop just above the Saddle (aka Tower 10) Traverse. It would be akin to sliding down most of the steep section of Catamount Bowl at MRG (or from one trail intersection to the next at Smuggs ;-) Not a huge distance, but more than I'd want to slide uncontrolled.

What I found surprising is that he went down like a rag doll and did absolutely nothing to arrest his slide. No turning over or around, no attempt to get his skis under him, nothing. He just rode it out uncontrolled - and it wasn't even a high speed fall or slide. I saw the same thing on Sunspot (also Alta) last week and three times I can remember at the Bird this season. At Solitude last Monday this happened to a 5 year old kid on the groomed blue square Sunshine Bowl. His (or her - couldn't tell) parent was at the top of the run and just watched. Someone else skied down in front of the child to arrest the slide. The kid had gone a good 100 yards.

I can understand a child not knowing what to do, but all the others I mentioned were older, obviously more experienced skiers. I just don't get it.

Our Wooly Friends
For some reason this just fractures me! In particular, the quote from our unlucky concertgoer.

Sheep Head Breaks Music Fan's Skull

March 10, 2003 12:23 PM EST


OSLO, Norway - A flying sheep's head hit a concertgoer and fractured his skull at a concert of metal band Mayhem.

The band, part of Norway's death metal music scene, was carving up a dead sheep as part of its stage act when the animal's head flew off lead singer Maniac's knife and struck Per Kristian Hagen, 25.

"My relationship to sheep is a bit ambivalent now. I like them, but not when they come flying through the air," Hagen told The Associated Press Monday from his hospital room. "I have a headache now." He is expected to recover.

Hagen, a Mayhem fan, filed involuntary assault and battery charges against the band. The charges carry a maximum sentence of six months in prison.

Mayhem member Rune Eriksen, whose stage name is Blasphemer, said the incident was unfortunate.

"The whole thing was an accident, but maybe it would be an idea for another show," he said.

Eriksen promised Hagen a free ticket to the group's next performance.

The right name?
I noticed Cigar Aficionado magazine on the rack today, the cover photo personality staring at me with an air of smugness, the hefty cover price, and it struck me.....shouldn't the proper name be Pompous Asshole Magazine? Or how about just coming out and naming it for what it's really saying: "I'm Over-Compensating for My Tiny Dick"?

Duct Tape Zen
Yo quiero duct tape!
But which to buy? There are just so many to choose from! Never fear, the font of knowledge Backpacker Magazine comes to the rescue with a review!

And now you can not only duct tape your home, you can duct tape yourself and look good doing it!

Eating Disorder?
Now here's a sport we can all heartily endorse. According to the International Federation of Competitive Eating, Eric "Badlands" Booker became the "finest competitive eater in America" on 27 Jan 03. On that date he consumed 21 oversized matzo balls in 5 minutes to establish a new world record. Eric is in fine company, having beaten previous record holders such as Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, who consumed 21 cannoli in a mere 6 minutes and Crazy Legs Conti who slurped down 168 oysters in 10 minutes. Check the records page for other notables like Oleg Zhornitskiy, downing four 32-ounce bowls of mayonaise in 8 minutes or former world champ Don Lerman. Don managed to eat seven quarter pound sticks of salted butter in five minutes. We can only assume that these guys were regular for weeks afterward.

But always remember:

Safety is the first consideration in any sport, and the IFOCE insists that all competitive eating matches take place in a controlled environment with the proper safety measures in place. Speed eating is not a sport for the home.

Yeah, It's Been Warm...
...but Alta's forcast for today is lunacy! (check the predicted low temp):

Forecast For Wednesday, January 29th

Sky Cover: Partly sunny
High & Low Temp: High today near 44, and low tonight near 230 degrees
Winds: Light
Expected Snowfall: 0"
Extended Forecast:
The extended forecast calls for this pattern of scattered snow flurries, partly clear skies and mild temperatures to continue though the weekend. More snow is possible on Thursday with a stronger system on Saturday

There She Is

Um, this is a title to strive for?