Good Bye Fourth
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

See here.

Trail of A Killer

Interesting question and answer session with Will Haygood who wrote about Randal Lee Smith. Smith killed two hikers on the Appalachian Trail in 1981. Recently he shot two fisherman near the trail.

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Gaspe Cap Chat, originally uploaded by Gene's.

Are they more efficient? It seems not yet,but they could be. I love wind mills they are very pleasing to me.

There’s appeal for them in the marketplace because there’s something so visually appealing about a vertical axis turbine. There are actually studies in Europe showing that people are mesmerized by windmills. It’s called the frequency effect. It’s akin to sitting on a shore and watching waves come in, or a campfire, or wind on prairie grasses. The studies show that people are more fascinated by vertical axis turbines than horizontal, for one reason because you don’t see them as frequently, for another reason because verticals don’t have this tail moving around, which can be distracting, depending on how the wind is moving it around. People are fascinated by the technology because it’s very soothing. There are a number of inventers that take advantage of that.

Of Course, Hiking Is Dangerous

The Grant Davis at Backpacker seem surprised that hiking is listed as the third most dangerous out door sport. If it were just wilderness sports, hiking would certainly pass sledding. As most sledding is not exactly a wilderness sport. It could even pass snowboarding. Most ski resorts now have convenient hospitals. Which would make the injuries not wilderness related but out door recreational injuries.

Also, illnesses, such as diarrhea, acute mountain sickness, and cardiac arrest, have been shown to cause considerable morbidity and mortality in outdoor settings but were not included in the study.^9,11,12 Finally, NEISS-AIP provides only national estimates and cannot be used to obtain state-level estimates.

Despite these limitations, this study's results have important implications for the growing field of wilderness medicine, for which wilderness injury prevention is central to the mission of minimizing the risks of wilderness environments.¹⁵ The definition of a wilderness injury has 3 aspects: locale, activity, and the injury itself.²⁶ Although in this study we could not determine if an injury had occurred in a true wilderness setting—1 to 2 hours from hospital-based care—the study did select cases that occurred in an outdoor, natural, or environmental setting. It also selected activities commonly considered to be outdoor recreation and identified specific injuries.^1,2,15 Although the study calls these injuries “outdoor recreational injuries” instead of “wilderness injuries,” many cases described here are subject to the same risks and complications as “true” wilderness injuries.

So according to this study, Harry Lewis who had a heart attack while backpacking earlier this week, would not have been included.

I think it is amazing that backpacker would be surprised that hiking could be dangerous. After all hikers are some times attacked by bears, mauled by mountain lions, attacked by rabid bobcats, bitten by poisonous snakes, not too mention ticks, scorpions or bees.

Just in the past month several hikers have died. Heat stroke, Hypothermia, Several Falls, Heart attack, this is by no means a complete list.

Mr Davis was probably trying to be funny. But hiking can be deadly serious for both the prepared and unprepared. It can also be a hole lot of fun. Be safe out there.

Funny

From Gristmill.

At the present moment Mattel, the maker of Hot Wheels and Matchbox toy cars, is worth $6.2 billion, putting it at a premium to GM, worth a mere $5.7 billion.

It's The Economy Stupid

Paul Krugman in the New York Times.

But is the public right to be so disgusted with Mr. Bush’s economic leadership? Not exactly. We really do have a lousy economy, a fact of which Mr. Bush seems spectacularly unaware. But that’s not the same thing as saying that the bad economy is Mr. Bush’s fault.

On the other hand, there’s a certain rough justice in the public’s attitude. Other politicians besides Mr. Bush share the blame for the mess we’re in — but most of them are Republicans.[...]

So here’s the bottom line: Mr. Bush deserves some blame for the poor performance of the economy on his watch, but much of the blame lies with other, earlier political figures, who squandered chances for reform. As it happens, however, most though not all of the politicians responsible for our current economic difficulties were Republicans.

And bear in mind that John McCain has gone to great lengths to affirm his support for Republican economic orthodoxy. So he’ll have no reason to complain if, as seems likely, the economy costs him the election.

Toyota To Add Solar Panels To The Prius

It cant hurt.

TOKYO, July 7 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to install solar panels on some Prius hybrids in its next remodelling, responding to growing demand for "green" cars amid record-high oil prices, a source briefed on the matter said on Monday.

The panels, supplied by Kyocera Corp (6971.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), would be able to power part of the air-conditioning on high-end versions of the gasoline-electric Prius, the source said.

Ouch!

Two hikers were hit by lightning.

ASPEN — Two youths were struck by lightning Sunday afternoon while hiking in Pitkin County.

The siblings, a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy, were hiking with family members on the American Lake Trail when they were hit.

According to the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office, the girl needed CPR to revive her. Her brother suffered burns to the bottoms of both feet. They were transported by ambulance to Aspen Valley Hospital.

Sad To Hear

A hiker dies in Arizona.

A Tucson man died while hiking in the Catalina Foothills on Sunday afternoon, a Sheriff's Department spokesman said.

The man died of natural causes, but officials had not released his identity as of Sunday evening, said Sgt. James Ogden of the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

My condolences to his friends and family.

Update: The hiker has been identified.

A Tucson man who died while hiking in the Catalina Foothills Sunday afternoon has been identified as Armen Dermen, an official said Monday.

Natural causes are stil the cause of death.

Flights of Fancy

Lawn Chair Balloonist, originally uploaded by Raford2.

I have always been fascinated by Larry Walters. Perhaps someday, I too will strap some balloons to a lawn chair.

BEND -- It's hard to keep Kent Couch down, especially when he's sitting in a recliner tethered to 160 helium balloons.

On Saturday, Couch will try again to fly about 300 miles from Bend to Boise in a lawn chair held aloft by a 6-foot wide bouquet of balloons.

On his second attempt a year ago, Couch, 48, made it as far as Union County in northeastern Oregon, about 193 miles from Bend, before bringing an end to his flight.

About Time

Looks like the US may join the rest of the world and build high speed rail.

High-speed rail won the pole position on the November ballot -- it was named Proposition 1 when the secretary of state assigned numbers to the 11 initiatives voters will consider. That's no guarantee of victory, but the momentum is clearly building.

The proposal to build an 800-mile system of 200-mph trains linking Southern and Northern California, by way of the Valley, has made a great deal of sense throughout its two-decade gestation. Proposition 1, the $9.95 billion bond measure, is the necessary first step.

High-speed rail will be an engine of economic development that we badly need in this state, creating tens of thousands of jobs in both its construction and its operation.

It will have a dramatic impact on our environment, removing thousands of cars from California's highways. Less congestion will make the remaining vehicles more efficient for those that remain on the road. Conservative estimates suggest millions of barrels of oil could be saved annually, and as much as 22 billion pounds of carbon dioxide kept out of the atmosphere.

This Site Is

Kansas

Lion King is walking through Kansas in this video of his American Discovery Trail trek.

Sad To Hear

A hiker died in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.

Park spokesperson Bob Miller says rangers were called to the Little River Trail, just above Elkmont, around 3:30 p.m. Friday.

Harry Lewis, 67, of Morristown, had collapsed next to the trail. He was backpacking with a companion when he suffered an apparent heart attack.

Miller says five other hikers tried to revive Lewis, but he died before emergency crews arrived on the scene.

My condolences to his friends and family.

The Same

The media will again try to portray the candidates as the same. Matt thinks they might be different.

Consider such non-obscure points as John McCain is pro-life and has said he wants to appoint judges who will restrict abortion rights, whereas Barack Obama is pro-choice. John McCain favors an amendment to California's constitution that would take back gay and lesbian couples' newfound marriage rights whereas Barack Obama opposes such an amendment. Barack Obama opposes a permanent American military presence in Iraq whereas John McCain favors it. Barack Obama thinks torture is wrong even when the CIA does it, whereas John McCain thinks it's great for the CIA to torture people. Barack Obama favors good-faith high-level negotiations with Iran, whereas John McCain wants to "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." One could go on, but it hardly seems necessary -- the only question is why The Washington Post thinks it's a good idea to publish columns that are designed to mislead its audience rather than to inform its audience, or why they think customers would want to pay money for a publication that behaves that way.

Media Circus

Paul Krugman in the New York Times.

Al Gore never claimed that he invented the Internet. Howard Dean didn’t scream. Hillary Clinton didn’t say she was staying in the race because Barack Obama might be assassinated. And Wesley Clark didn’t impugn John McCain’s military service.

Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, titled his tell-all memoir “What Happened.” But a true account of modern American politics should be titled “What Didn’t Happen.” Again and again we’ve had media firestorms over supposedly revealing incidents that never actually took place.

The latest fake scandal fit the usual pattern as an awkwardly phrased remark, lifted out of context and willfully misinterpreted, exploded across the airwaves.[...]

After all, if this campaign isn’t dominated by faux outrage over fake scandals, it will have to be about things that really did happen, like a failed economic policy and a disastrous war — both of which Mr. McCain promises will continue if he wins.

The media does not want to inform you of the candidates positions.

Green Tea

From Time magazine.

All it took, says Vlachopoulos, was 6 g of green tea, which amounts to 3 to 4 cups. To make sure the dilation effect was not due to the small amounts of caffeine found in green tea, the group compared the arterial sizes in the green-tea drinkers with those consuming a diluted caffeine beverage and found no change in arterial size in the caffeine drinkers. Even more intriguing, the beneficial effect seems to be long-lasting and cumulative. When the doctors measured the green-tea drinkers' arteries two weeks after daily consumption of the beverage, they found that their vessels were more dilated than they had been at the beginning of the study. "It's something that needs to be investigated, but we think that if someone takes green tea for one or two months, the beneficial effect will be even greater," says Vlachopoulos.

Patriotism

Juan Cole has some good patriotic quotes today. I like this one.

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."

-Mark Twain

Non White Guys Arrested By Immigration

The New York Times title is 2 Supervisors Arrested.

The supervisors, Juan Carlos Guerrero Espinoza and Martin De la Rosa Loera, were arrested at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, prosecutors said. They were the first employees who were not rank-and-file workers to be arrested since 389 illegal immigrants were rounded up at the plant on May 12, said Bob Teig, a spokesman for the United States attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

Not the white owners that profit from their labor.

On Thursday in Houston, five senior managers of another company that was recently raided, Action Rags USA, made their initial court appearances. Those arrested on Wednesday included Mabarik Kahlon, 45, the owner of the company, an exporter of used clothing, and his partner Rasheed Ahmed, 58. About 160 workers were arrested on June 25 at the company’s plant in Houston.

More non white guys arrested. If you want the illegals to go you must start putting the rich white dudes that control most employment in this country in jail.

Beer Quote of The Day

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer."
-Abraham Lincoln